Hear me speak:--

As I do know the counsel’s worthiness,

So can I name his faults,-

 

Menenius Agrippa

Coriolanus                      Act III, Scene i, Line 276

But Menenius doesn’t get to finish his sentence, as he gets interrupted by one of the congressmen (I think it might be Matt Goetz) yelling,

Consul!- what consul?

Menenius wants to try to mediate, but they don’t even want to recognize the fact that Coriolanus was properly appointed as consul/leader even though he was (sound familiar?)

Again, this is a great play, but it’s a complicated one. The congressmen (the tribunes) are painted by Will as pretty weaselly (yes, that’s a word, and it means suggestive of a weasel – not the animal, the person). On the other hand, Coriolanus, albeit a great warrior, is not necessarily cut out for politics.

Shall I say it for the umpteenth time? Why don’t they teach this play in school? It’s fabulous, and relevant, and it’s got the fairly recent Ralph Fiennes version to watch. It’s a shame. Then again, I suppose the twenty-first century tribunes would have none of it.  

No pic needed today.

 

Why looks your grace so heavily to-day?

 

Sir Robert Brakenbury

Richard the Third          Act I, Scene iv, Line 1

 

Well, let’s see, his grace is imprisoned in the Tower of London, and he’s going to be dead by the end of the scene: not a lot to be happy about, is there?

 

 

I am near to the place where they should meet; if Pisanio have mapt it truly.

  

Colten

Cymbeline              Act IV, Scene i, Line 1

This is the first line of a twenty-seven line paragraph that is the totality of this scene. It is Colten talking to himself about how he’s going to kill Posthumus and get Imogen. Though this first line, Today’s Totally Random Line, is pretty easily understood, the rest of the paragraph…eh, not so much. This is the kind of stuff that people who don’t know or care about Will’s works would look at and say “What the heck is this!?” Myself, on the other hand, looks at this and says, “Hmmm, this looks interesting. Let’s see what I can do with it.”

So there’s a few ways I go about understanding a challenging piece of Will's text. First, of course, I read it over a few times. That’s what I would do with any text, Shakespeare or otherwise; and read it out loud. Second, I use the Shakespeare online glossary or M-W to get the meaning of any words I don’t know. Some of those words are archaic, and some of them mean something different in 1600 than they do now. Some of them, though, are simply words I don't know the proper meaning of. It's surprising how many words I run into that I can find the proper contextual meaning of in the Merrian Webster online dictionary. Next, if I’m down at the pc in my home office (I’m not right now) and have the time, I might listen to the Arkangel recording of the scene. That’s usually really helpful. And lastly (sometimes firstly) I’ll read the scene summary in my online Shakespeare app. Oh, and one other option that I might go to is to look at the footnotes that some of my other compilations might have. The compilation that I use on a daily basis to pick my lines has no footnotes. That’s about it, I think.

So if that sounds like a lot, well, the thing is – I want to figure it out. I guess it would be safe to say that most people wouldn’t. And that makes all the difference, doesn’t it.

Here's the whole paragraph/scene, if you want to take a crack at it. A couple of other things that I didn't mention above: It helps to have a decent understanding of what's going on in the play, and in some cases (especially the history plays) it helps to have an understanding of what was going on in England at the time. But you can't really pick that knowledge up too easily in just a few minutes. Finally, it helps to see the play performed, as opposed to just hearing it, but you can't do that in a few minutes either.

Good luck!

 

Put up your sword. If this young gentleman

Have done offence, I take the fault on me:

If you offend him, I for him defy you.

 

 

Antonio

Twelfth Night                 Act III, Scene iv, Line 315

 

Here we go again. The young gentleman being referred to in the line above is actually a woman, Viola, pretending to be a man (again, the actor is a man- so that we have a man pretending to be a woman pretending to be a man). At this point I’m not sure if Antonio has mistaken Viola for her twin brother Sebastian who, presumably she looks like when she’s dressed as a man. Sebastian is Antonio’s friend so it would make sense that he would be trying to defend him.

In any event, there are people all over the place here with their swords drawn, but none of them is actually interested in fighting. They’re all bluffing. But Antonio doesn’t know that.

Does any of this matter and does any of what I’ve written so far make any sense to anyone reading this? Good question.

The thing is, there’s a lot going on here. We’re well into the play, and there are a lot of players. There’s Viola, who’s shipwrecked in a strange land, pretending to be a man because she’s afraid of being taken advantage of as a woman. There’s Antonio who was separately shipwrecked with Viola’s brother Sebastian. There’s Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Sir Toby Belch. These two are living on the estate of Olivia, who is Sir Toby’s niece and with whom Sir Andrew is infatuated. Olivia, in the meantime, is infatuated with Viola because she’s thinks he/she is a young man. Viola is infatuated with the Duke of Illyria, who in turn wants to get his arms around Olivia.

Essentially, by this time in the play we realize that almost everyone wants someone who has no interest in them, and that half the people aren’t who/what the other people think they are.

Confused? I guess you should be but, on the other hand, this sort of sounds like the real world. Sort of. 

Well now, I've been aching to use this sticker, and it seems perfect for today:

 a sticker of I'm not sure who or what it is!

 

 

Come, come, no longer will I be a fool,

To put the finger in the eye and weep,

Whilst man and master laugh my woes to scorn.

Adriana
The Comedy of Errors. 2,  2. 202

This is the first meeting of Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse with the wife and sister-in-law of Antipholus of Ephesus. As to be expected, it is meeting full of confusion since the two women think they are talking to Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus. Today’s line is Adriana expressing her frustration with the confusion that’s going on.

Since I know the story here, and what’s going on, it’s not confusing to me. However, there is something here that is confusing to me. The first half of the scene is just Antipholus and Dromio, and there is no rhyming whatsoever in the lines. When Adriana and Luciana show up the non-rhyming continues for about eighty more lines and then suddenly, hey presto, they’re all talking in rhyme. Mostly. Even then, though they finish the scene (another half page) talking in rhyme, even then, they still manage to slip in and out of rhyme. As you can see, today’s three lines are not written in rhyme.

So, why the inconsistency? I find that confusing. It’s not stick my finger in my eye and weep confusing, but it is confusing nonetheless.

 

I thought a picture of an eye might be appropriate, so naturally I turned to my sticker book. Well, I found three stickers of eyes: one really big, one really weird, and this one. Perhaps you'll get to see the other two on another day, or days.

Confused? I hope not. 

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

                       

Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;

To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot;

This sensible warm motion to become

A kneaded clod; and the delightful spirit

To battle in fiery floods, or to reside

In the thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice:

 

Claudio

Measure For Measure          Act III, Scene i, Line 118

 

Claudio, who’s going to be executed tomorrow unless his sister sleeps with the magistrate, is talking about the finality of death. He goes on here talking about death, and ends with

The weariest and most loathed worldly life

That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment

Can lay on nature, is a paradise

To what we fear of death.

This is spoken by a guy who doesn’t want to die and is trying to talk his sister into sleeping with someone to save his life. So it probably seems like a good argument to Claudio.

Is it true. I don’t know. I do know that Will does spend a fair amount of time throughout his works on the subject of death. From the lines above, to Hamlet’s undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveler returns to many others, Will gives us different ideas about death. 

Today’s idea, delivered from Claudio, doesn’t really leave much doubt. No matter how bad your life is, it’s a paradise compared to death. At least that’s the way it appears to someone about to die.

So it seems like we’ve spent the week talking about old age and impending death. Interesting.

Enough of this death and old age talk. 

Here's a picture of a life well spent.

 

 

 

 Today’s Totally Random Lines

                        

O Lord, I could have stay’d here all the night

To hear good counsel: O, what learning is! –

My lord, I’ll tell my lady you will come.

 

Nurse
Romeo and Juliet           Act III, Scene iii, Line 158

 

Nurse is talking to Friar Laurence in the first two lines, and Romeo in the last one. They’re are at the Friar’s place where Romeo’s been whining about being banished for killing Tybalt. The friar tells him to get a grip, and that he should be happy he’s still alive. Then he tells him to go see Juliet before he leaves Verona, and Nurse responds with Today’s Totally Random Line.

Actually, the friar is making sense here. I guess even a broken clock is right twice a day. Unless it’s telling military time; then it’s only right once a day.

Funny thing, if I can go back to yesterday’s line for a moment. I was saying then, in not so many words, that I’m not old just because I have grey locks. Well I might have been wrong about that, and I'll tell you why.

We were taking Mojo for a walk yesterday when I got home from work, and he got away and ran into the street. I started to run after him and quickly found myself lying in the street. What happened? My mind said "run after him," and my body said, “I don’t think so, Fatso.” I didn’t actually trip, and I certainly didn’t pass out. My body just said "no, this isn't working for me." So down I went. On the fall I banged my elbow and knee, and now I’m walking pretty slow.

Just call me Edmund Mortimer.

 

Apparently this is what qualifies as a suitable activity for Mojo and me.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

          

I would his troubles likewise were expired,

That so he might recover what is lost.

 

Edmund Mortimer

King Henry the Sixth, Part I         Act II, Scene v, Line 31

 

Need more coffee. Feel a little like old Edmund Mortimer right now. He starts this act, addressing his jailers, talking about himself and how old he is.

Kind keepers of my weak decaying age,
Let dying Mortimer here rest himself.

And then he goes on for the next fourteen lines describing how decrepit he is: grey locks, the pursuivants of death…weak shoulders…pithless arms…etc, etc.

Honestly though, manys a morning before I get properly caffienated I feel like old Edmund. This morning being one of those mornings.

Pursuivant is listed in MW as archaic and meaning follower or attendant. Grey hair, the attendants of death. Fie on that!

Grey locks, the pursuivants of death?

Fie, fie, fie on that!

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

                        Behold this  man;

Commend unto his lips thy favoring hand:

Kiss it, my warrior: he hath fought to-day

As if a god, in hate of mankind, had

Destroy’d in such a shape.

 

Antony

Antony and Cleopatra                    Act IV, Scene viii, Line 25

 

It’s one of those odd days where, in totally random fashion, we have managed to move forward just a few scenes in the same play. Antony has won the battle that he thought he was going to lose in yesterday’s scene (don’t worry – he still loses the war). Now he’s reunited with Cleopatra. Here’s the first part of the little speech he’s giving to her.

My nightingale,

We have beat them to their beds. What, girl! Though gray
Do something mingle with our younger brown, yet ha’we
A brain that nourishes our nerves, and can
Get goal for goal of youth. Behold this man…

I would have given you that in order, but I didn’t want to scare you away with too long of a Totally Random Daily Line.

Anyway, I like the beginning of his speech (the second part here) with the bit about gray mingling with the younger brown, a brain that nourishes our nerves and getting goal for goal of youth. In other words, (Pete’s version), ‘yeah, I’ve got a lot of gray hairs in there mixed with the brown, but I’m older and wiser too, I can keep myself steady and beat these young whippersnappers at their own game.’

Now, as far as the next section, the part that is Today’s Totally Random Lines: it sounds like Antony is asking Cleopatra to give him her hand so she can kiss it. But I can’t understand how the words ‘Kiss it, my warrior:’ can possibly be Antony’s. That’s got to be Cleopatra talking, n’est pas? The rest of those four and a half lines can be Antony talking in the third person, but not ‘Kiss it, my warrior:’

I looked at four different online versions of the text and none of them vary. I’ll have to look at my First Folio tonight. But even if that is the same, I’m going to posit that it’s a mistake made when printing the First Folio.

That’s my thought and I’m sticking with it.

Well, I was going to go into another little tidbit I found in this short scene, but I’ve gone on long enough, so I’ll save it for another day.

Another exhibit from my sticker book: 

a printing press, the likes of which would have been used to print the First Folio. 

Amazing Sticker Book.

 

 

 Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

                                 Tend me to-night;

May be it is the period of your duty:

Haply you shall not see me more; or if,

A mangled shadow: perchance to-morrow

You'll serve another master. I look on you

As one that takes his leave.

 

Antony

Antony and Cleopatra                    Act IV, Scene ii, Line 28

 

Two vocabulary notes:

Period = End

Haply = Perhaps (NOT Happily)

Antony is convinced that he’s going to be defeated tomorrow in battle, so he’s saying goodbye to his servants.

If you’re as old as me, or if you have a good sense of American 1970’s history, this scene might make you think of Richard Nixon saying goodbye to the White House staff. This latter scene was immortalized in song.

Both Antony’s and Nixon’s scene are pretty sad. It’s a rainy day today, haply reflecting the mood of today’s line.

Line 'Em Up - Bing video

The aforementioned song

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Pray you, sir, how much carnation ribbon may a man buy for a remuneration?

 

Costard

Love’s Labour’s Lost   Act III, Scene i, Line 143

 

It’s a comedy, isn’t it. 

Costard here is a bit of a buffoon. So it’s a rather silly part of the scene where he doesn’t know what remuneration actually means. Armado says he’ll give him remuneration for delivering a letter, and so gives him three farthings. Now Costard, unfamiliar with the word remuneration, thinks it means three farthings, and he’s asking Berowne how much carnation ribbon he can buy with a remuneration, meaning how much can he buy with three farthings. It makes sense to Costard of course, but not to Berowne.

Again, it’s comedy.  

Three farthings? Eh, probably not. 

Three Farthing Stone? Yes indeed!

See, I told you Will's works and JRR's works were related. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

If the great gods be just, they shall assist

The deeds of justest men.

 

Pompey

Antony and Cleopatra    Act II, Scene i, Line 1

 

Well that’s a big if, isn’t it. This also kind of flies right in the face of life’s not fair, kid (one of my favorite, non-Will lines).

 And, justest? C’mon now, that’s not even a word. I know that Will likes to make up words, but justest. He couldn’t just go with most just? Arguably that works even a little better with the iambic pentameter flow than justest.

Well now there I go again, trying to improve on Will. Silly me. Silly me.

 

Silly me.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

  

The senators of Rome are this good belly,

And you the mutinous members: for examine

Their counsels and their cares; digest things rightly

Touching the weal o’the common; you shall find,

No public benefit which you receive

But it proceeds or comes from them to you,

And no way from yourselves. – What do you think,-

You, the great toe of this assembly?

 

Menenius Agrippa

Coriolanus      Act I, Scene i, Line 147

 

Another long, you might say run-on, sentence. Well, what’s happening here? 

The peasants are revolting because they say that the government is sitting on a storehouse of wheat whilst they, the peasants, starve. Menenius, a friend of Coriolanus and a part of the ruling class, comes out to calm them down. He talks about the body’s parts rebelling against the belly, accusing it of getting all the food. But, of course, the belly answered that, yes, he was the storehouse and processor of the food, but that it was then his job to distribute the proteins to all the parts of the body. And that’s where Menenius segues into today’s lines. When he mentions the weal o’the common, he is, more or less, talking about the welfare of the state. And he finishes by addressing the citizen who he’s talking to as the great toe, because he is out in front of the body of the crowd. 

A lot of body references.  

Well, I took a picture of my belly, and I was gonna post it. 

But it's too discouraging,

too embarrassing, 

TOO BIG!

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

Have I not tarried?

 

Troilus

Troilus and Cressida      Act I, Scene i, Line 17

 

Yes, the very beginning of the play, seventeen lines in. Troilus is taking off his armor and telling Pandarus that he doesn’t have the heart for fighting. Pandarus knows that Troilus’s distraction is his unrequited love for Cressida and tells him,

He that will have a cake out of the wheat must needs tarry the grinding.

Tarry, if you didn’t know, means to wait for.

Have I not tarried? he replies.

Has he waited? And if so what has he done whilst waiting? I suppose if I wanted to know that, I’d have to read or listen to the whole play. But it’s Monday morning and I’m not retired yet, so I have to get to work, and I don’t have time for that right now.

And you could reply, 'yes, you can’t do that right now. He that will have a cake out of the wheat (or the time to listen to the whole play on a Monday morning) must needs tarry the grinding.'

I’ve been working for most of the last forty-five years.
Have I not tarried?

Here's a guy who looks like he's waiting, or tarrying, for something. 

What's he waiting for? I think he's waiting to see where I'm gonna stick him.

(Great sticker book, eh?)

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

         But in short space

It rained down fortune on your head;

And such a flood of greatness fell on you,-

What with our help, what with the absent king,

What with the injuries of a wanton time,

The seeming sufferances that you had borne,

And the contrarious winds that held the king

So long in his unlucky Irish wars

That all in England did repute him dead,-

And from this swarm of fair advantages

You took occasion to be quickly woo’d

To gripe the general sway into your hand;

Forgot your oath to us at Doncaster;

And being fed by us, you used us so

As that ungentle gull, the cuckoo bird,

Useth the sparrow,- did oppress our nest;

Grew by our feeding to so great a bulk,

That even our love durst not come near your sight

For fear of swallowing: but with nimble wing

We were enforced, for safety sake, to fly

Out of your sight, and raise this present head:

Whereby we stand opposed by such means

As you yourself have forged against yourself,

By unkind usage, dangerous countenance,

And violation of all faith and troth

Sworn to us in your younger enterprise.

 

Earl of Worcester

King Henry the Fourth Part I       Act V, Scene i, Line 50

 

Well that sentence just goes on forever! I decided to type the whole sentence that Today’s Totally Random Line was in, but I didn’t look closely enough to realize just how long that sentence was! Oooof!

Anyway, this is Worcester explaining to Henry why they are rebelling. In short, he says, they agreed to help Henry to get his father’s lands and title back, and Henry swore an oath to them at Doncaster that was all he wanted. But in short space….

I went back to the play King Richard the Second to see if I could find the oath that Henry IV made at Doncaster, mentioned by Worcester above. I couldn’t find it. I do remember from somewhere that Bolingbroke (the future Henry IV) did say that he (Bolingbroke) was only out to regain his father’s (John of Lancaster) legacy, not planning to go after the crown as he ultimately did. So that’s the cause of all this ruckus.

But again, long sentence! Could you just give us long-story-short, Worcester?

This is what I'm thinking Worcester looks like with this song and dance that he's giving us today. 

Flood of greatness...contrarious...ungentle gull...forged against yourself...

Blah, blah-blah, blah-blah.