The weeds that his broad-spreading leaves did shelter,
That seemed in eating him to hold him up,
Are pluckt up root and all by Bolingbroke,-
I mean the Earl of Wiltshire, Bushy, Green.

-Gardener

                                    King Richard II                            Act II, scene iv, Line 50

Okay, so this is the royal gardener talking. He started, a few lines previous to this, telling one of his helpers what to do next in the garden, but he has segued from talking about weeds literally to talking about weeds figuratively. He's talking about how some of the guys in King Richard's circle are nothing better than weeds, and that Bolingbroke (the future King Henry IV) has now taken care of (eliminated) these guys. And the best part of this is that the guys' names really are Wiltshire, Bushy, and Green. Do you see the botanical connection of the name to the imagery being used. Ah, that Will is just too clever.

Now this may look like a jumble, that is to say weedy, but it's not. It only looks that way because the picture was taken close up at ground level. In fact, I can attest to the fact that there are very few weeds because I did the weeding myself. And I can assure you that I did not see the Earl of Wiltshire, or Bushy, or Green while I was in there. But if I did I certainly would have gotten rid of them.

                                           I must to  him too,
Before he go to bed. I'll take my leave.

-Sir Thomas Lovell

                                    

King Henry the Eighth                            Act V, scene i, Line 9

Sir Thomas Lovell. Do you suppose that he was an ancestor of James Lovell the astronaut? I suppose I'll never know. 
In any event, it's a fairly innocuous little line. Thomas has just found out that King Henry is still up so he's going to go see him before going to bed. I don't know what he needs to see him about. Whilst I'm familiar, to some extent, with the life of Henry VIII, I've not much familiarity with this play. It's the last play in my compilation, and certainly one of the last plays he wrote, if not the last. So this writing is at the end of the career of Will. Remember that Henry VIII is the father of Elizabeth I and that she was the queen when Will started  his writing career. By now she has passed on and James I is on the throne. Nonetheless, Will has to be a little more careful writing about Henry VIII than he did when writing about all those other monarchs who were a little bit more historic than current. 

This is page 242 of volume 16 of my Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. Now this is a 1980's edition (not sure of the exact year). So Jim Lovell should be here, but instead we skip from Loveland to Seth Low. No Jim Lovell, a guy who travelled to the moon twice (albeit never landing on it), and yet Seth Low? Who the heck is Seth Low?

For God's sake, take away this captive scold.

-Richard

                                   

King Henry the Sixth Part III                                Act V, scene v, Line 29

A 'scold', according to the glossary I'm using is an abusive woman, but I think in this situation it's a bit more acerbic than that. In fact, Richard is pretty much calling Margaret, the queen, a hag. 

However, consider the source. The Richard that's speaking is soon to be King Richard III. And while that may be the title of one of Shakespeare's better works, it's not the name of one of England's better kings. He's the guy who's responsible for two of his nephews disappearing, among other things.

So in this time four centuries prior to the #METOO era, you can pretty much bet that Richard is going to get away with calling Margaret whatever he wants to call her. Just the same, considering his behavior, and that his name is Richard, I guess it will be okay if we just refer to him as #DICK. 

Here you go. The indomitable Laurence Olivier showing just how Richardish the Third he can be. 

You shall, Marc Antony.

 

-Brutus

                                   

Julius Caesar                                      Act III, scene i, Line 231

This is Brutus telling Antony that he, Antony, can speak at Caesar's funeral. Big mistake. Brutus and his crew have just killed Caesar, presumably because they felt that Caesar was getting too big for his britches and was about to become a threat to the republic of Rome. And they want the people to know this and to accept this. However, Marc Antony is going to have something slightly different to say at the funeral and it's all going to turn very bad for Brutus and his buddies. But Brutus doesn't realize this at the time. If he did he would take a page from that great current statesman and go back to Antony and say, 
"Okay, hold up, I made a slight misstatement. I said 'shall' and I should have said 'shan't'. That's what I meant to say, 'shan't'. So the sentence that I misspoke should have been 'You shan't, Mark Antony'. So, there, that's good, right? We've got that settled?" 

But of course Brutus didn't do this and well, you know what happened. Too bad.

And might I note (this is the part where you say, "You shall, Pete."), as I've noted many times before, just how relevant Shakespeare's stuff is to our modern times. I can't help but marvel at this, and it just never ceases to amaze me.

A goodly city is this Antium. City,
'Tis I that made thy widows: many an heir
Of these fair edifices 'fore my wars
Have I heard groan and drop: then know me not,
Lest that thy wives with spits and boys with stones
In puny battle slay me.

-Coriolanus

                                   

 Coriolanus                                               Act IV, Scene iv, Line 1 - 6

And a goodly six lines is this. It's Coriolanus about to enter the city of his enemies and talking about how he's killed a lot of guys from this city. He hopes they don't recognize him or else the woman and kids will go after him. 
I'm not sure what I find so captivating about these few lines, but for whatever reason, I thought them to be pretty good. I mean, basically all he's saying is "Here's Antium. I killed a bunch of guys from here in the wars. I hope no one recognizes me." But of course Will does it with a lot more flair than that and with meaningful flair. 
He didn't just kill guys, he 'made thy widows'. And they weren't just guys, they were 'heirs of these fair edifices'. And if the wives and kids find him out they won't just go after him, they will 'In puny battle slay me'. Honestly, who's better than Will?

This is the edifice I see from my office window. I don't know who the heir of this edifice is, or if there is one at all. And I'm not sure you would consider this edifice fair. It is, nonetheless, an edifice.

                                                               Now I want 

Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,

And my ending is despair,

Unless I be relieved by prayer,

Which pierces so that it assaults

Mercy itself and frees all faults.

-Prospero

                                   

The Tempest                                                Epilogue, Line 15

This is Prospero talking at the end of The Tempest. It's the epilogue where he comes out to directly address the audience. There's an epilogue at the end of a half dozen or so of Will's plays. The only other one I'm familiar with is Rosalind talking at the end of As You Like It. And she and Prospero are saying pretty much the same thing: I hope you liked the show!

 

And then I will her charmed eye release

From monster's view, and all things shall be peace

-Oberon

                                   

A Midsummer Night's Dream          Act III, Scene ii, Line 377

This is Oberon talking to Puck about the fact that he's going to take the spell off of his wife so that she's no longer in love with Bottom who currently has a donkey head. That sounds a bit weird, doesn't it. Well, I've always maintained that this play is a bit goofy and that's the main reason I never really liked it that much. And you'd think that for a goofy guy like me that I'd just love this goofy play. So go figure.

 I was going to post a picture of Goofy and me from my recent Disney trip, but I couldn't get access to that pic, so instead you get a pic of my peeps at Disney on the teacup ride. No Goofy, but a slightly goofy pic.