Know of your youth, examine well your blood,

Whether, if you yield not to your father’s choice,

You can endure the livery of a nun,

For aye to be in shady cloister mew’d,

To live a barren sister all your life,

Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.

-Theseus

A Midsummer Night’s Dream                        Act I, Scene i, Line 69

This is Thesus’s answer to Hermia when she asks what her fate will be if she disobeys her father by not marrying Demetrius. She’ll be sent to the convent. Well that’s a real boot in the seat of the pants, isn’t it?

But just for the record, ‘ol Thesus here is painting a pretty glum picture of the convent with phrases like ‘barren sister’ and ‘cold fruitless moon.’ I don’t know about you, but there are definitely times when I’ve daydreamed about the life of a cloistered monk where I’d be removed from all the worries of the world and just have to worry about my meditations and my little string bean garden. Sometimes that doesn’t seem half bad. I would probably use phrases like ‘restful life’, ‘beautiful, beckoning moon’, and ‘wonderful little string beans’. But that’s just me. 

 

And maybe I’d have friends like this little guy who was in our garden last year. Yeah, I can definitely see an upside to this.

 

6/6/17

This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.

-Benvolio

Romeo And Juliet                               Act III, Scene i, Line 171

This is Benvolio talking. The Prince has just arrived on the scene and both Mercutio and Tybalt are lying there dead. So he asks Benvolio what happened. Here’s Benvolio's reply

Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo's hand did slay;
Romeo that spoke him fair, bade him bethink
How nice the quarrel was, and urged withal
Your high displeasure: all this uttered
With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bow'd,
Could not take truce with the unruly spleen
Of Tybalt deaf to peace, but that he tilts
With piercing steel at bold Mercutio's breast,
Who all as hot, turns deadly point to point,
And, with a martial scorn, with one hand beats
Cold death aside, and with the other sends
It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity,
Retorts it: Romeo he cries aloud,
'Hold, friends! friends, part!' and, swifter than
his tongue,
His agile arm beats down their fatal points,
And 'twixt them rushes; underneath whose arm
An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life
Of stout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled;
But by and by comes back to Romeo,
Who had but newly entertain'd revenge,
And to 't they go like lightning, for, ere I
Could draw to part them, was stout Tybalt slain.
And, as he fell, did Romeo turn and fly.
This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.

That's right, he's ending his story by speaking of himself in the third person, and declaring that he just spoke the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And was it the truth? I'm not sure, I didn't read the whole scene. But here's the link

http://shakespeare.mit.edu/romeo_juliet/romeo_juliet.3.1.html

So I'll let you read it and then you can tell me whether or not it's the whole truth (or whether Benvolio should die).

Now, regarding last night's pic and it's relevance. That was a Greek stamp. I didn't have a Greek urn, so I gave you a Greek stamp. The last line of last night's blog was lifted from the John Keats poem Ode On A Grecian Urn. 

That is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

Here's how we express that we're telling the truth these days, not "Or let Pete die."

You are come to see my daughter Anne?

-Mistress Page

The Merry Wives Of Windsor                        Act II, Scene i, Line 157

Well, what should we do with this line? There’s nothing difficult in the language, that’s for sure. On the other hand, it’s not anything really interesting either. It’s just Mistress Page asking someone, apparently Mistress Quickly, if she’s come to see her daughter. But the problem is we really don’t know much of anything about this play other than the fact that it was written as a vehicle for one of Shakespeare’s most popular characters from another play. But as long as we don't care too much, for now, that is all we know about this, and all we need to know.

Okay, so what is the possible relevance of this picture? I think I'll give you a chance to figure it out on your own. I'll tell you tomorrow.

The god forbid, that made me first your slave,

I should in thought control your times of pleasure,

Or at your hand th’account of hours to crave,

Being your vassal bound to stay your leisure.

-Narrator

Sonnet 58                                  Lines 1 – 4

I’ll say it again, the sonnets are tough. I much prefer the plays. They’re just so hard to figure out. At least, most of them are. And this one is no exception.

And just to be clear, if you're a true Brit, pleasure does indeed rhyme with leisure.

Yes, this is me taking pleasure at my leisure.

With whispering and most guilty diligence,

In action all of precept, he did show me

The way twice o’er.

-Isabella

Measure For Measure                        Act IV, Scene i, Line 39

Precept means detailed direction. I had to look that one up. It’s not a really uncommon word, but it’s one of those words that though I’ve heard it, I’m not really sure what it means. So it means detailed direction. Isabella is talking to the Duke (disguised as a friar), and she’s referring to Angelo. She’s saying that Angelo showed her the way into his private garden where they are scheduled to have a clandestine meeting. She is obviously emphasizing Angelo’s guilt. And rightfully so. Also, the fact that Angelo made sure to show her twice over shows us that Angelo wanted to be sure that she found her way to the rendezvous.

Yes, Angelo is guilty as sin.

Here is the detailed directions (the precept) for preparing this box of macaroni and cheese. Honestly though, I'd have to say that my taste buds didn't quite reach a state of disbelief.

So, thanks to all at once and to each one,

Whom we invite to see us crown’d at Scone.

-Malcolm

Macbeth                               Act IV, Scene viii, Line 75

And these are the last two lines of the play Macbeth. Traitorous, treacherous Macbeth is dead (see this post from last August) and Malcolm has the last words in this play. And of course, he ends it with a rhyming couplet. Well, it sort of rhymes. Maybe Scone does rhyme with one. I’m not familiar with this place, Scone. I know that the pastry doesn’t really rhyme with one, but maybe the place does.

In any event, it’s a pretty upbeat two lines for a very much downbeat play. They don’t call it a tragedy for nothing. But really, these lines seem like they could be from Mary Poppins, don't they? I guess Will wanted to send the theater goers home in a little bit better spirits than they otherwise might have been after watching two hours of murder and mayhem. Pretty thoughtful of him, eh?

And speaking of Mary Poppins, here's me with Mary and Bert. Well, okay, maybe not the real Mary and Bert, but the closest I'm gonna get. And no, they didn't say anything about any scones. Nice kids though.

If your honour judge it meet, I will place you 

Where you shall hear us confer of this, and by an 

Auricular assurance have your satisfaction; and 

That without further delay than this very evening. 

-Edmund 

King Lear                               Act I, Scene ii, Line 95 

So today we're looking at language; in particular, auricular assurance. Whoa, who says things like that? Seeing is believing, but in this case, hearing is believing. Do you think you would ever use this? Have you ever said, 'I need to hear it with my own ears.'? If you did, would you consider replacing that phrase with 'I need auricular assurance.'? For sure, it's a mouthful.

  

But what about context? Edmund is one of the Rat-Finks in this play, and he's in the process of tricking his father, Gloucester, into turning on his brother Edgar. Now the interesting thing here, and probably the reason Will used such a phrase that would draw attention to it, is that Gloucester is going to have his eyes gouged out a few scenes down the road. At that point he will only have the opportunity for auricular assurance, as opposed to optical assurance (seeing is believing). So Will seems to be doing a bit of foreshadowing here. Ahh, that clever Will.    

This is my personal apparatus for auricular assurance.