Look, the world’s comforter, with weary gait,

His day’s hot task hath ended in the west;

Narrator

Venus and Adonis                                                           Line 530

This is a pretty cool line. He’s talking about the sun. The world’s comforter is the sun. The sun’s got a weary gait (well he travels a long way, doesn’t he?). And the sun’s hot task ends in the west. All he’s saying is that the day is over. But this sounds so much cooler than ‘the day is over,’ or ‘the sun has set’. Don’t you agree? ‘Look, the world’s comforter, with weary gait, his day’s hot task hath ended in the west.’ There’s really no need to go into context, or explain why Adonis is saying this in the poem. We can simply enjoy this line. And you can certainly use it next time you need to say to someone that the day is drawing to a close.

Imagine that you’re working out in the yard on a summer’s late day or early evening and you notice that the sun is going down. You turn to the person with you – friend, spouse, kid, whatever- and you say ‘Look, the world’s comforter, with weary gait, his day’s hot task hath ended in the west.’ And then point towards the setting sun as you say it. Oh my goodness wouldn’t that be great. The person with you will either look at you like you’re nuts, or they’ll look at you and appreciate the heck out of what you just said. Hopefully the latter.

Look, the world's comforter, with weary gait, his day's hot task hath ended in the west.

‘Tis positive ‘gainst all exceptions, lords,

That our superfluous lackeys and our peasants,--

Who in unnecessary action swarm

About our squares of battle,-- were enow

To purge this field of such a hilding foe.

The Constable of France              

 

King Henry The Fifth                     Act IV, scene ii  Line 28

Okay, first off; 'enow' means enough, and 'hilding' means good for nothing, worthless. So knowing that you can see that this is a pretty interesting couple of lines. This is the Frenchies looking down on the battlefield of the battle that is about to take place. They are commenting on what a sorry bunch the English are and how the French are going to so easily kick the English butts. Now of course this is the battle of Agincourt, a pretty famous battle. And in that battle the French are the ones who get their butts kicked. And not just a little. They get spanked very severely. This Agincourt thing is to the Brits what Bunker Hill, or Iwo Jima or one of those deals is to us; very famous. Even though it happened over 500 years ago.

So the Constable of France is saying that the French lackeys and peasants would be enough to beat the Brits. Actually, not just any old lackey or peasant, but the superfluous ones. Now, did any Frenchman in the lead up to Agincourt actually say anything like this? Well we don’t really know the answer to that. But we do know that Will loved to write drama and the he was marvelously gifted at it. And because of that he gets to make some stuff up occasionally.

I was looking high and low for a picture for today's line (and I have to tell you- finding a decent picture for these posts is really the most time consuming part of the task), and lo and behold, I was lucky enough to come across this re-enactment of the Battle of Agincourt! I think these are the Brits that the Constable was looking down on when he made his overconfident comment. I'm not sure what he was thinking because I think they look like a fairly formidable bunch, especially the guy leading the charge with the helmet and green visor. Although I have to wonder about that guy in the upper right hand corner with the monkey on his head. I'm not sure what's up with that.

What touches us ourself, shall be last served.

Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar                     Act III, scene i    Line 8

So this is Act III, scene I, the famous scene where Caesar gets killed and utters his famous ‘Et tu, Brute?’ (followed much less famously by his last three words 'Then fall Caesar!' There, now you've got a great little bit of trivia.) But that’s about seventy lines down the road. At this point he’s talking to some people outside, in a few minutes he’ll be heading inside to get slain. Just the same, I can’t help but wonder if today's line is a reference, a little bit of foreshadowing if you will, to the bunch of knives that are very shortly going to be touching ‘ourself’.

What do you think?

This is what was last served to me tonight. Actually, it was served by me. Well, by me and to me. It's the last thing I ate this evening. But I think Julius was talking about something else when he talked about 'last served.'

Lay hands on the villain: I believe a' means to cozen somebody in this city under my countenance.

 

Pedant

The Taming of the Shrew                 Act V, scene I                Line 35

So here is yet another post about hands; new hands this time. ‘Lay hands on the villain.’

The previous two days’ lines were about hands, although the word ‘hands’ never appeared in either one. And now, in a way to confirm and solidify the hands subject, we have a line with that very word and thought as part of it. No, I can’t say I understand all of the discussion of the importance of hands that Othello and Desdemona were having. This one, though, is a bit simpler. Lay hands on him – Grab this guy! He’s gonna do some mischief and get me blamed for it!

So let’s recapitulate. Two days ago we had a scene from Titus Andronicus and they were sitting there having a meal and Titus spent a bit of time talking about himself lacking one of his hands and his daughter lacking both of her hands. Then yesterday we had Othello talking drawing conclusions about his wife based on feeling how soft and moist her hand was. And now tonight we have the Pendant talking about getting his hands on someone. All about the hand. The first one about a very literal lack of hands, the second one drawing conclusions based on a literal hand, and the third one a bit more figurative.

Lots and lots of hands.

Here's a guy who wishes he had some real hands and not just a couple of candles at the end of his arms.

It yet hath felt no age nor known no sorrow.

 

Desdemona

 

Othello                                                 Act III, scene iv                  Line 37

This is part of an exchange that’s all about hands, and specifically Desdemona’s hand.  Just to give you a little more context, at the end of the previous scene Iago has managed to completely convince Othello that Desdemona’s having an affair with Michael Cassio, and Othello has decided that he’s going to be killing Desdemona. Now in this scene he greets Desdemona and right after that says ‘Give me your hand.  This hand is moist, my lady.’ To which Desdemona replies with today’s Totally Random line, ‘It yet hath felt no age nor known no sorrow.’ Well just wait, the sorrow is coming fast. But before that Othello goes on at length about the hand in reply to Desdemona’s reply.

This argues fruitfulness and liberal heart;

Hot, hot, and moist. This hand of yours requires

A sequester from liberty: fasting and prayer,

Much castigation(self discipline, self correction, self denial), exercise devout,

For here’s a young and sweating devil here

That commonly rebels. ‘Tis a good hand,

A frank one.

And Desdemona replies:

You may, indeed, say so;

 For ‘twas that hand that gave away my heart.

And Othello answers: 

A liberal hand. The hearts of old gave hands;

But our new heraldry is hands, not hearts.

And very shortly after this the scene devolves quickly into the ‘Thehandkerchief!’ issue.  In the meantime, though, it's all about hands. Spend some time with the hand back and forth and see what you can come up with. Perhaps we'll follow up on it tomorrow.

Well this hand is not very moist; it's pretty dried out. And it's felt some age, and known a bit of sorrow, but lots of happiness as well.

So, so; now sit: and look you eat no more

Than will preserve just so much strength in us

As will revenge these bitter woes of ours.

 Titus Andronicus

 Titus Andronicus                              Act III, scene ii                   Line 1

This Titus play really keeps me on my toes. I’ve been complaining since last August that every time we visit Titus they’re either committing, or talking about committing, unspeakable acts. Well finally, in this scene, they seem to be taking it a bit easy (well, they get a little crazy going after that fly later in the scene, but we’ll give them that one). ‘Sit and eat no more than will preserve just so much strength in us as will revenge these bitter woes of ours.’ 

So what exactly is he saying here? Eat just enough to give ourselves (and this is not the royal ‘ourselves’ that we hear in the history plays) strength to revenge our bitter woes. The first few times I read this I thought he was talking about dealing just with their woes, not the people who brought about their woes. But now, I’m not so sure. Which is it? I think that in order to understand it fully, we need to read the whole scene. Oh I know what you’re going to say; “Not the whole scene, Pete! This is supposed to be a line or two.” Well, to be fair, it’s only eighty-six lines, and God knows we all need to practice our ability to concentrate on something longer that a thirty second YouTube video. And add to that that one of the lines is ‘O, O, O,’, and three of the lines are the three lines that are today’s Totally Random Daily lines that you’ve already read. So we’re done to eighty-two lines already. But I’m not going to beg you to read the lines. It’s your loss if you don’t. I read them a few times already today. It’s really good stuff. There is just a ton packed into this short scene. 

Here, I’ll give you a super short recap/context in case you want to read it. Brothers Titus and Marcus are sitting down to dinner with daughter Lavinia and grandson Lucius. Two of Titus’s sons have already been murdered and his daughter Lavinia (present at this dinner) has had her hands chopped off and her tongue cut out. As well, Titus was tricked into chopping off one of his own hands. There, that’s enough to get you going without getting into too much of the gory details. So it’s up to you. I’ll be giving you a picture here one way or the other today, since I short-changed you on that part yesterday. But first, here’s the link in the hopes that I’ve peaked your interest enough to read it

Yes, that’s Tarzan. Even he was intrigued by today’s scene and the fact that it didn’t contain any blood, gore, or guts. He actually came down from the rafters to read it! Surely that should be enough to guilt you into reading it too.

                          Here I clip

The anvil of my sword; and do contest

As hotly and as nobly with thy love

As ever in ambitious strength I did

Contend against thy valour.

Tullus Aufidius

Coriolanus                              Act IV, scene v                  Line 110

My goodness, we end up spending a lot of time in Coriolanus, don’t we? This is the second time that we’ve been on this very page. The last time was on 12/17 when one of the servants was talking about hitting Coriolanus with a cudgel. Remember that?

But this is a pretty interesting line too. This time we have Tullus Aufidius responding to Coriolanus’s offer to join him to fight the Romans. The response? ‘Yes, I love you!’ Well, that’s sort of the response. One way or the other Aufidius makes it clear that he’s pretty fond of Coriolanus and he’s pretty excited about having him join the Volscian army. And why wouldn’t he be? Coriolanus is a kick-ass warrior. Now the part that follows, the part where Aufidius talks about being more excited by the prospect of Coriolanus fighting on his side than he was on his wedding night looking at his bride, well that just gets a little weird if you ask me. But it’s Shakespeare, so who am I to judge. Hear, have a read of Aufidius’s whole speech and see what you think. It’s about thirty four lines starting on line 98 of Act IV, scene v.

This is my Presto Heat Dish. It does a pretty good job of keeping me heated down here in my cellar office in the winter. I'm not sure whether or not it makes me as hot as Aufidius gets with Coriolanus's love, but it's hot enough for me.