Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

 

But if your father had been victor there,

He ne’er had borne it out of Coventry.

 

Westmoreland

Henry the Fourth Part II               Act IV, Scene i, Line 135

 

Well how about a little context today? Or maybe quite a bit of context today.

Mowbray, who I believe is the son of Thomas Mowbray the guy who got banished at the beginning of Richard II, is one of the leaders of the rebellion against Henry IV. Westmorland is one of Henry’s generals and he’s come to talk to the rebels to see if he can understand exactly why they are rebelling. Mowbray says that Henry IV is an illegitimate king and that if his father, Thomas Mowbray, had been allowed to go through with his fight with Henry he would have killed Henry and become king. Apparently that fight was to take place in Coventry and Westmoreland is saying that if Thomas Mowbray won it, that he never would have been able to go any further. Why?

For all the country, in a general voice,
Cried hate upon him (Thomas Mowbray); and all their prayers and love
Were set on Hereford (Henry IV), whom they doted on,
And blest and graced indeed, more than the king (Richard II).

I added the names in parentheses there so that it might be clear who's who and to whom Westmoreland was referring.

So, what do you think of today’s context? Too much? Too little? You stopped reading many lines ago?
Ah well, I tried.

And what, you are asking yourself, is this a picture of. Well I'll tell you. That little black hole right of center is a varmint hole, and I am convinced that this varmint is the culprit in our recent electrical problems. I can't attack him from the crawlspace above, so I'm going to be attacking from the room below. And yes, I plan on being the victor. All the varmints up there can cry hate upon me in a general voice if they want. I don't care. I plan on being the victor.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

 

I know it well.

 

Antonio

Two Gentlemen of Verona            Act I, Scene ii, Line 28

 

Are we going to get into context? No. How about the meaning? It’s self-explanatory: you know it well. They know it well. I know it well. We all know it well.

But what do we know? Well, we know that we don’t know what Antonio’s talking about. We have no idea what Antonio knows well. We know that well. What else do we know? Many things, I suppose. I know that it wouldn’t make sense to try and list all the things that we know well. I know that well. How about the things that we don’t know well? Should I try to list those. No, those would be way too numerous to list. I know that well.

Okay, so there’s two more things that we know: that we’re not going to try to list the things we know well or the things that we don’t know well. Apparently we’re not going to try to list anything.

Well, I think I’ve gone as far as I want to with today’s line. In fact, I’m sure I have. I know it well.

I'll bet you're wondering, 'Why haven't you posted anything in a week, Pete?' Good question! And here's the answer. I was away at the Minnesota State Fair, as you can plainly see from these pictures. Did we have a good time? We sure did. I know it well!

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

 

Fie, fie upon her! She’s able to freeze the god Priapus, and undo a whole generation.

 

Bawd

Pericles                           Act IV, Scene v, Line 3

 

Bawd is talking about Marina. Bawd runs a whorehouse to which Marina’s recently been sold. Unfortunately, Marina’s not very good for business. She converts all her customers into better people, convincing them that prostitution is a very bad thing. Naturally, Bawd’s not happy with this, making reference to Priapus, the god of fertility, or in this case just plain sex.

Fie seems like a good word, or exclamation. I wonder if it was the F word of the day. For sure, no one knows it these days, so it can’t offend anyone. I think I’ll start using it. It goes well with Oy. That’s my new word for Hey. I’ve made almost the full transition to Oy. Now I’ll see if I can’t transition from one F word to another. It’s for sure that I use an F word too much. And this new one starts with the f sound; it would be a lot harder to transition to a word that started with a different letter. Let’s see if I can change to a word that doesn’t offend, and one that I can use around the grandkids. Will it work?
Fie me!
Fie that!
Are you fie’ng kidding me!
No, that last one’s not going to work. You can’t put an ing on fie. I’ll stick to the non-ing uses for now. And I’ll have to add a to or on in some cases, like Fie to you, or is it fie on you, the most common usage. But I think I can do it, particularly for the simple, straight up one word usage, like when you hit your thumb with the hammer: FIE!

Yes, I think I can switch to a better F word. Fie yes, I can! And to the doubters that think I can’t do it? Fie on them!

Fie!!

 Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

 

Sometime he runs among a flock of sheep,

To make the cunning hounds mistake their smell,

And sometime where earth-delving conies keep,

To stop the loud pursuers in their yell;

And sometime sorteth with a herd of deer:

Danger deviseth shifts; wit waits on fear.

 

Venus

Venus and Adonis                         Line 681

Venus has a premonition that Adonis will get killed if he goes boar hunting, so she’s telling him to hunt for rabbits instead. Then she goes on to describe how skillful the rabbits are at not getting killed or caught. I guess she's telling Adonis that he should be clever like the rabbit.

I’d like to focus on that last line because I haven’t made full sense of it yet. She’s talking about all the ways that the rabbit eludes danger, and then summarizes with

Danger deviseth shifts; wit waits on fear.

First part first. Danger deviseth shifts. I believe shifts is a noun here, and my glossary advises me to use strategies. Danger devises strategies.

Wit waits on fear. So the person or thing evading the danger uses wit because wit waits on fear. How do we read ‘waits on’ here. Wit serves fear like a waiter? Wit waits for fear, like waiting for a bus.
Okay, here’s my simple answer. When you’re overpowered with fear you won’t be thinking straight - scared out of your wits. Wow, once I saw scared out of your wits it became crystal clear. So simply put, danger is going to be clever, and wits have to wait for the fear to subside before they can work, and therefore don’t let fear overpower you. How simple is that? Should I have seen that from the giddy up?

And that brings me to a very pertinent story. My associate is obsessing about a speeding ticket he got. He’s afraid it’s going to affect his driving record. Afraid. And this fear is, at least a little bit, clouding his ability to think straight. Or, I should say, he’s having a hard time thinking about anything else. Wit waits on fear.
And I’ve been doing the same thing with some work stuff that I’ve been having a hard time getting done properly. I’ve been worrying about it a lot. My associate and I are a lot alike and, we’re both falling prey to wit waits on fear. 

And there are your words for today: Wit waits on fear.

 

Wit Waits on Fear

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

 

I’ll startle you

Worse than the sacring bell, when the brown wench

Lay kissing in your arms, lord Cardinal.

 

Earl of Surrey

King Henry the Eighth         Act III, Scene ii, Line 295

 

Well that’s an interesting line! What’s this sacring bell, and who’s the brown wench? Time to look for some notes.

But first off, let me tell you that this is a scene where a bunch of noblemen, all who hate Cardinal Wolsey, are reveling in the fact that the Cardinal’s improprieties have come to the attention of the king, and now the Cardinal’s goose is cooked. The Cardinal is still denying any wrong-doing, and now the Earl of Surrey has told him that he’s going to show the Cardinal the grand sum of his sins, the articles collected from his life. It’s with this that the Earl will startle the Cardinal worse than the scaring bell…

So, here’s part of it: the sacring bell is bell the altar boy rings when the priest lifts the host during mass, the most solemn part of mass. I can’t seem to find anything on the brown wench. Is Surrey suggesting that Cardinal Wolsey has been lying with a wench while mass was going on, and a brown wench at that? He’s certainly not painting a very good picture of the Cardinal, is he?

Speaking of pictures,

this is an interesting sticker book that I found at Blick's Art Supplies yesterday. It's full of stickers of all sorts of things. I had thought that I would be able to use it for my blog illustrations. I haven't been able to figure out exactly how I'm going to do that. If I find a relevant sticker, where do I stick it in order to take a picture of it. Or do I just take a picture of it in the book without using the sticker. And of course, this assumes that I'll be able to find a relevant sticker. Alas, today, no relevant sticker. I'd hoped for a bell, (the brown wench was a real long shot), but no such luck. So I guess that gives me at least another day to figure out how to use the relevant sticker when I find it. Right?

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

 

‘Tis true, fair daughter; and this blessed day

Ever in France shall be kept festival;

 

King Philip

King John                       Act III, Scene i, Line 75

 

Well I know that’s not the end of the sentence, but it goes on for eight more lines without a period, and I have no idea what he’s talking about.  The glorious sun turns the earth to gold and this day will always be a holiday, etc, etc. Why? No idea. I went to the Shakespeare app for the play summary and that didn’t tell me either. And right after this line Constance starts in moaning what a miserable day it is, rather turn this day out of the week. Wow, it’s such a miserable day it needs to be kicked out of the week. Is that even possible? And like King Philip’s praise of the day, I’ve no idea why Constance is sick of the day.

One of these days I’m really going to have to listen/read these plays that I’ve never read/seen/heard in their entirety. One of these days; probably one of them that’s not been kicked out of the week, eh?

What a gorgeous day here on the back deck. 

You can bet I'm not kicking this day out of the week!

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

At the good queen’s entreaty.

 

Camillo

The Winter’s Tale             Act I, Scene ii, Line 219

 

This is Camillo’s answer to King Leontes when the latter asks why has his friend Polixenes, the King of Bohemia, decided to extend his visit to Sicilia. We are at the beginning of Leontes thinking that his wife and Polixenes are having an affair. Check out Leontes’s ramblings in response to Camilo.

At the queen’s be’t: ‘good’ should be pertinent;
But, so it is, it is not. Was this taken
By any understanding pate but thine?
For thy conceit is soaking, will draw in
More than the common blocks:- not noted, is’t,
But of the finer natures? By some severals
Of head-piece extraordinary? Lower messes
Perchance are to this business purblind? Say.

Let’s take a shot at Pete’s Version of Leontes’s response.

Polixenes is staying because the good queen asked him to? “Good” should be the operative word here. But though it is, in this case she is not good. Do you think anyone but yourself picked up on this? Because your thoughts can influence people other than the common folk, Camillo.  I suppose it’s just noted by the finer folk, the upper crust of society. The common folk are still blind to this, right? Well?

Yup, Leontes is bonkers. Jealousy, righteous or misplaced, can do that to a guy.

How about this? Is this a head-piece extraordinary? 

It's got camo, and a pink pom pom. 

You just can't get much more extraordinary than that. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

 

Dispute it like a man.

 

Malcolm

Macbeth         Act IV, Scene iii, Line 220

 

Well, here we go. We’ve actually happened upon a pretty famous line. What is Malcolm talking about when he tells Macduff to dispute it like a man? Oh nothing really, just the slaughter of his wife and children, that’s all.

Just previous to today’s line Macduff has been told that his wife and children have all been murdered. Then Malcolm counsels him to ‘Let’s make us medicines of our great revenge.’ But that’s not what Macduff wants to hear right now. He responds,

He has no children.(referring to the fact that Malcolm has no children, so he doesn’t know how it feels to lose them)— All my pretty ones?
Did you say all? — Oh hell-kite!— All?
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop?

And that’s when Malcolm says Dispute it like a man. Easy for him to say. It wasn’t his wife and kids that got massacred.
Macduff’s reply to Malcolm is worth noting as well.

But I must also feel it as a man:
I cannot but remember such things were,
That were most precious to me. - Did heaven look on?
And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff,
They were all struck for thee! Naught that I am,
Not for their own demerits, but for mine,
Fell slaughter on their souls: heaven rest them now.

There’s that word fell again. Yah, fell slaughter, and one fell swoop. So remember, the next time you’re thinking about using the phrase ‘in one fell swoop’ that ‘fell’ in this phrase means evil, very evil. That’s the true meaning of that phrase. Macduff’s whole family was massacred in one evil swoop.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

 

And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,

 

Armado

Love’s Labour’s Lost            Act V, Scene ii, Line 892

Blows his nail is an idiom that means twiddles his thumbs. This is in the middle of a song that ends the play. I’m not quite sure who’s singing, even though I put Amado as the speaker, because the final two lines of the play, after the song ends, are credited to Armado.

Nevertheless, I like the song. Here it is.

 

SPRING

When daisies pied and violets blue

And lady-smocks all silver-white

And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue

Do paint the meadows with delight,

The cuckoo then, on every tree,

Mocks married men; for thus sings he, Cuckoo;

Cuckoo, cuckoo: O word of fear,

Unpleasing to a married ear!

When shepherds pipe on oaten straws

And merry larks are ploughmen’s clocks,

When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws,

And maidens bleach their summer smocks

The cuckoo then, on every tree,

Mocks married men; for thus sings he, Cuckoo;

Cuckoo, cuckoo: O word of fear,

Unpleasing to a married ear!

 

WINTER

When icicles hang by the wall

And Dick the shepherd blows his nail

And Tom bears logs into the hall

And milk comes frozen home in pail,

When blood is nipp’d and ways be foul,

Then nightly sings the staring owl, Tu-whit;

Tu-who, a merry note,

While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

When all aloud the wind doth blow

And coughing drowns the parson’s saw

And birds sit brooding in the snow

And Marian’s nose looks red and raw

When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,

Then nightly sings the staring owl, Tu-whit;

Tu-who, a merry note,

While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

 

I’m not sure what makes Joan greasy, but keeling the pot means cooling it. Maybe it’s a hot, greasy pot, and that’s how Joan got greasy. Who knows?

Okay, I was behind this car this morning. So, look at his taillights, which are also his blinkers. The one on the right points left and the one on the left points right. So when he's signaling to go right, the arrow points left, and visa versa. The heck with the greasy pot, I want to know who the idiot is who designed these taillights. 

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

  

God’s arm strike with us! ‘tis a fearful odds.

 

Salisbury

King Henry the Fifth     Act IV, Scene iii, Line 5

Salisbury is talking about the Battle of Agincourt which the English are about to go fight. They are outnumbered roughly two to one by the French (yes, I had to Google that number) but they’re going to win, nonetheless. In fact, even with those odds, there will be approximately ten times as many French casualties as English; something to do with the use of the longbow. It's still considered by the English as one of their greatest military victories ever. No wonder Will made a play out of it.

So there's your expression for the day, to be used any time you're going into battle, figuratively or otherwise. God's arm strike with us!

So, God’s arm really did strike with them. God’s arm. Interesting.

 

Okay, it's not God's arm; but it is an arm. And a dirty keyboard, and a lamp, and a telephone, and a window, and a blue post-it note, and a this, that, and the other thing.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Whereto my finger, like a dial’s point,

Richard

King Richard the Second       Act V, Scene v, Line 52

So you’re thinking, ‘Ah, great- a nice short line.’ No such luck.

We’ve come to one of my favourite soliloquies. ‘Oh oh,’ you’re saying to yourself, ‘here he goes.’ Well, you’re right.

Okay, we have Richard sitting in his prison cell, contemplating life. He’s been deposed by Bolingbroke. This speech is broken into five or six parts. Let me first give you the start of the speech. I’m sure you’ll like it.

I have been studying how I may compare

This prison where I live unto the world:

And, for because the world is populous,

And here is not a creature but myself,

I cannot do it; -- yet I’ll hammer it out.

And then he goes on to talk about peopling his world with all the thoughts he can create. And he talks about himself playing different parts, before interrupting himself to talk about the music that he’s hearing in the distance. He connects the thought of the time being kept, or miskept, by the music to time in general, and gets into the section of the speech on time, and that’s where today’s line falls. Here’s that full section of his speech on time.

I wasted time, and now doth time waste me;

For now hath time made me his numbering clock;

My thoughts are minutes; and with sighs they jar

Their watches to mine eyes, the outward watch,

Whereto my finger, like a dial’s point,

Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears;

Now sir, the sound that tells what hour it is,

Are clamorous groans, which strike upon my heart,

Which is the bell: so sighs and tears and groans

Show minutes, times, and hours:-- but my time

Runs posting on in Bolingbroke’s proud joy,

While I stand fooling here, his Jack o’th’clock.

Then he gets back to the music which he now finds maddening, for he sees it as a sign of love in this all-hating world.

One definition: posting means speeding. 

And that’s your lesson for today in King Richard the Second.

Time; twenty-first century time. 

No dial's point.

No bell.

And yet, it runs posting, posting on.