I have, sir, as I was commanded from you, Spoke with the king and have procured his leave For present parting;

Helena

 All's Well That Ends Well                         Act II, Scene v    Line 57

My husband will not rejoice so much at the abuse of Falstaff as he will chafe at the doctor's marrying my daughter:

Mistress Page

The Merry Wives Of Windsor              Act V, Scene iii   Line 7

Okay, today we're going to try the two Totally Random lines in one post thing again. I know we've done this at least one time before and it was a big hit, so we'll take another shot at it.

The first line is from a scene that has Lafeu, just like Beauty and the Beast. I wonder if Beauty and the Beast took anything else from All’s Well That Ends Well. After thinking about it, and taking a look at the play a little more, I think no. Bertram is a bit of a beast in this play, and in the end he appears to come around to loving Helena, but that’s about it. I think the Disney folks just borrowed the name of Lafeu, and that’s about it. 

Anyway, this is Helena talking to Bertram her husband. If you remember from one of our earlier posts back in December, she won her husband as a reward and he wasn’t too interested in becoming her husband. Now she addresses him as ‘sir’, and talks about what he commanded her to do. So that’s a little interesting, don’t you think?

Our second line is from the Merry Wives Of Windsor and it's interesting on a few notes. For one thing it’s only one line away from our only other post on The Merry Wives. That was the doctor saying

I know vat I have to do. Adieu.

And Mistress Page answers

Fare you well, sir. 

Then after the doc leaves she says today's Totally Random line

So we’ve hit this play but twice, and we’ve struck it on the same page only two lines apart.

So this is two days in a row that we have lines that have something to say about marriages. And really, neither one of them appears to be saying anything particularly good about this fine institution.

Come to think of it, Beauty And The Beast didn't say too much good stuff about marriage either, did it?

Our thunder from the south

Shall rain their drift of bullets on this town.

King Phillip

King John                                            Act III, Scene i    Line 411

Yes, that’s right, line 411. And the scene goes to line 598, so that’s a pretty long scene.

Now it’s Interesting that there was only one John among the English kings. It seems like a pretty common name. A bunch of Henrys, and Georges, and Edwards, and more. But only one John. Interesting. 

Anyway, this is King Phillip talking, but he’s the king of France, not England. Though King John (of England) is here as well. In this scene they’re together with their people outside the gates of Angiers, a town in France. I find this scene a bit confusing because what it boils down to is that John and Phillip have decided to join forces to level the town. And they’re just talking now about the specifics of the attack. Apparently Phillip’s going to take care of attacking from the south, though I’m still not sure why Phillip, the king of France, is going to join forces with John, the king of England, to level a French town. Can you see why I might be confused? And the ‘drift of bullets’ that he’s talking about is apparently cannon balls. I’m not sure if this might not be another of Will’s anachronisms or not, but I guess we’ll just let that one slide. 

This is an old walled town in France that I was visiting with the girls a few years back. I remember mentioning to them at the time that it made me think of this scene in King John at the gate of Angiers, and they said 'Geez Dad, you're absolutely right, we were thinking the same thing.' And then they went into a laughing fit for the next ten minutes, so I'm not so sure they actually meant what they said. 

Being at Greenwich,

After your highness had reproved the duke

About Sir William Blomer,--

Surveyor

King Henry The Eighth                                   Act I, Scene ii     Line 191

And then the surveyor gets interrupted by King Henry. The eighth. King Henry the Eighth. That is to say, the eighth Henry. We’ve spent quite a bit of time on Henrys IV, V, and VI because between them Will wrote six plays. He skipped over number seven, and wrote just one on the eighth Henry, and it was to be one of Will’s last plays. Remember now the Henry the Eighth was the father of Queen Elizabeth and that Elizabeth was alive when Will did about half of his writing (she was dead and buried when he wrote Henry the Eighth). So Will had to be careful and probably would not have used her father as a subject for one of his plays while she was still alive. All those other Hanks were a few generations back, and thus a little safer as play fodder. Not that he didn’t have to be a little careful about them as well.

So today’s line is from the Surveyor who is being questioned by Henry about the Duke of Buckingham. Now I’m not sure what politics are going on here, but I believe the Surveyor is the guy who takes care of Buckingham’s estate. So he’s got some info for the king about what Buckingham’s been up to. And I don’t think the king’s particularly happy with old Buck. In fact, I think that Buck might be making an early exit from this play. But I’m not sure. I guess you could up and read the play yourself if you want to find out.

This, believe it or not, is the top of the brick wall that surrounds the back yard of Buckingham Palace. And while the palace is not named after the Buckingham referred to in today's line, I'm going to nonetheless consider it relevant for today's pic. And I'm also going to say that the surveyor of this Buckingham estate has got quite a job on his hands.

a knave very voluble;

Iago

Othello                                 Act II, Scene i     Line 241

And just like that, back to Othello. It’s like a roller coaster ride, isn’t it? Just getting whipped around from one place to another. 

Anyway, this time it’s Iago talking and I had some thoughts on this guy. Iago never once seems to say anything particularly truthful and yet constantly he’s being referred to as ‘honest Iago.’ It’s almost to the point where it’s incredulous. Like, what was Will doing here, and why have people bought into this play? Are we to assume the he had been something different prior to the time of the play, something good that grew a good reputation, and that just now he’s turned rotten (talking about Iago here, not Will). That doesn’t seem plausible because he’s just too rotten and too good at being rotten for that to make sense. 

In today’s Totally Random line Mr. Rat-Fink Iago is talking about Good Michael Cassio. He’s talking to Roderigo, who’s no angel  (and apparently no Einstein) either, and of course Iago is bad mouthing Good Michael. He’s calling him a voluble knave, which is an insincere, simplistic scoundrel or rascal. Pot, kettle, black!!! 

I couldn't think of anything particularly clever, so I'm giving you a picture of Edwin Booth (yes, John Wilkes's brother) portraying Iago. It's from my A.L. Rowse Annotated Shakespeare book. Apparently Edwin was quite the Shakespearean actor.

From all such devils, good lord, deliver us!

Hortensio        

The Taming of the Shrew                  Act I, Scene i      Line 66

Well it’s a good stand-alone line, and perfectly usable, and eminently understandable, in today’s world. In fact, all too usable in today’s world. But in the play I believe that Hortensio is alluding to the Katharina, the titular shrew. So we’re only 66 lines into the play (not counting the two scene induction – another story for another day) and we’re already seeing Katharina (I like to refer to her as Kate, as in Kiss Me Kate) being referred to as the devil. Well we could talk about the stand-alone line, or we could talk about the play. Yeah, you guessed it, I don't know too much about this play.

Well, that's not exactly true. I've read and listened to this one. I just haven't done it recently. But it's a good one, and it's a comedy. So if you're going to start getting upset that we're referring to a woman as a shrew (or the devil), well maybe you should at least try to take a look at more of the play before you pass judgement.

In the meantime, well, you can use this line as a stand-alone for any situation you find appropriate. Even Will if you're so inclined.

Agreed, not the devil. Just the same, someone that I might want to be delivered from. How about you?

He had two sons: if this be worth your hearing,
Mark it: the eldest of them at three years old,
I' the swathing-clothes the other, from their nursery
Were stol'n, and to this hour no guess in knowledge
Which way they went.

First Gentleman

 Cymbeline                                          Act I, Scene i      Line 58

This line is sort of interesting to talk about. This is two gentleman talking, and this is the very beginning of the play. They’re the first two guys to show up on stage, in the garden of the palace of Cymbeline, and they’re here to give an introduction to the audience. Oh they’re speaking to each other, one asking questions, and the other giving up the facts, but their only purpose is to give the audience a heads up as to what’s going on. It’s interesting because Will uses this feature in some of his plays to one extent or another, and in some plays he just skips it all together and assumes that you, the viewer of the play, know what’s going on and what the back story is. This particular line is telling us about the king’s two sons who went missing as a baby and a toddler over twenty years ago. As I said, in some of Will’s works we just skip any kind of intro, and in some we get a pretty extensive one like we have here. In fact, this is definitely one of the most extensive that I can think of. And one of the only ones where the introduction is done by two no-names who have no other part in the play. So what do you think about that?

I was thinking about going through all Will’s plays, or maybe just the comedies, and making note of which ones had this sort of intro and which ones didn’t. But I thought better of that exercise.

In the meantime, do you want to read the whole conversation between these two gentlemen? Here it is. This pretty much gives you the set up for the whole play. Which, I suppose is only going to be relevant to you if you plan on reading and/or seeing the play. So, on second thought, never mind.

Boy, we’re just not getting anywhere with this line today. Let’s cut our losses.

What do you suppose would be the intro by the two gentleman for this scene of Tarzan holding up a Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency pencil while the snow piles up outside?

   Second Gentleman-

                  So what's with the guy with no shirt and the big pencil?

    First Gentleman-

                  Oh that's just Tarzan. I believe MEMA hired him as their new spokesperson.

    Second Gentleman-

                  Ay, sooth!

            

Ay, and greater wonders than that.

Orlando

As You Like It                                     Act V, Scene ii    Line 27

And greater wonders than that. Greater than what? Do we need to know? This is from Act V, Scene ii of As You Like It and it’s an exchange between Orlando and Rosalind. I know this play, but not really well, and I don’t remember exactly what’s going on in this scene. I can tell you that the preceding line is Rosalind saying

Did your brother tell you how I counterfeited to swoon when he showed me your handkerchief? 

So apparently Orlando is referring to her pretending to swoon when he talks about greater wonders.  But beyond that I’m really not sure what he’s referring to. And do I care? No, not really. And if you asked me why, what would I say. I’d probably say that I’m not that interested in this line today. It’s true, I care about other things besides Shakespeare. To which you might ask, ‘You, Pete, what could you possibly spend your time on besides Shakespeare? Maybe watching television?’ And of course I’d reply, ‘Ay, and greater wonders than that.’

                                                                   Ay, and greater wonders than that.