The spring, the summer,

The childing autumn, angry winter, change

Their wonted liveries; and the mazed world,

By their increase, now knows not which is which:

-Titania          

                       

A Midsummer Night’s Dream         Act II, Scene i, Line 112

Before we get started let me say one thing that occurred to me this morning whilst reading today’s Totally Random line. Isn’t it amazing that Will never once repeated a line of description verbatim throughout all of his pages of works? Or maybe he did? But I haven’t seen it yet. Let me know if you find one.

Now, on to the lines. Here’s how I read it:

The spring, the summer, the cool autumn and angry winter are changing their appearances and the confused world doesn’t know which season is which.

Okay, let’s look up a few words:

Childing- fertile, fruitful, teeming

Wonted- usual

Liveries- uniform (as in clothing)

Mazed- bewildered, confused, perplexed

Those are the four words that I wasn’t sure of, and in each case the modern definition is the same as the one out of my Shakespeare glossary. And it changes my interpretation, but only a little bit. Childing has nothing to do with chilly, it has to do with fruitful. The rest I got right. He’s talking about the autumn being fruitful, as in harvest time, not chilly. Actually, she’s talking. It’s Titania, Oberon’s wife. I’m not quite sure what the total, contextual gist of this is. As I’ve oft mentioned, Midsummer is not one of my favourite works.

Holy cow; it just occurred to me how prescient these lines are with today’s unpredictable weather what with climate change. To be clear, the context of these lines has nothing to do with today’s weather, but all the same, it’s a great quote to use in talking about climate change. Wow.

 This picture is outside the train station in Paris a few years ago on March 19. So I think it qualifies for an example of slightly unusual weather.

    Swear his thought over

By each particular star in heaven

-Camillo

                       

The Winter’s Tale                             Act I, Scene ii, Line 423

This is near the beginning of the The Winter’s Tale. King Leontes is already completely convinced that his wife is having an affair with his friend King Polixenes (spoiler alert: Leontes is nuts and there is absolutely no affair going on). Leontes tells one of his guys, Camillo, to murder Polixenes. Camillo is convinced there is no affair, and then he runs into Polixenes. The latter realizes something’s amiss, and he gets Camillo to tell him what’s going on. Camillo tells Polixenes that Leontes thinks he has toucht his queen forbiddenly. Below is the exchange that follows:

Polixenes-

                        O, then my best blood turn

To an infected jelly, and my name

Be yoked with his that did betray the Best!

Turn then my freshest reputation to

A savour that may strike the dullest nostril

Where I arrive, and my approach be shunn’d,

Nay, hated too, worse than the great’st infection

That e’er was heard or read!

Camillo-

                        Swear his thoughts over

By each particular star in heaven and

By all their influences, you may as well

Forbid the sea for to obey the moon,

As or by oath remove, or counsel shake

The fabric of his folly, whose foundation

Is piled upon his faith, and will continue

The standing of his body.

I kind of like the best blood turn to infected jelly and also A savour that may strike the dullest nostril parts. I don’t know, but there’s something a little bit funny about that savour thing. Of course, the you may as well forbid the sea for to obey the moon is a pretty good line as well. In fact, that one is pretty usable.

Is congress ever going to stop with the partisanship and get something constructive done?

You may as well forbid the sea for to obey the moon.

One other note here: In today’s line we hear of blood being turned to infected jelly. In Lear when Regan (or was it Goneril?) is gouging out Glouster’s eye’s she refers to them as vile jelly. Vile jelly. Infected jelly. I wonder if Will ever talks about jelly in any good context? Did they even have real jelly for spreading on bread back around 1600? They must have had it!

 

 Now this here is some jelly that is neither vile nor infected. It's just delicious.

They are all couch’d in a pit, hard by Herne’s oak, with obscured lights; which, at the very instant of Falstaff’s and our meeting, they will at once display to the night.

-Mistress Page

                       

The Merry Wives Of Windsor          Act V, Scene iii Line 14

The first thing that struck me in these lines is Herne’s Oak. If you’d like a pretty good explanation of this oak and it’s part in this play, here you go http://theshakespeareblog.com/2012/12/the-legend-of-hernes-oak/

Much better than I could do. In fact, that’s a pretty good Shakespeare blog if you’re looking for one.

By the way, this is the third time we’ve picked a Totally Random line from this short, twenty-four line scene. So that’s kind of interesting. We should know this scene by heart at this point, shouldn’t we? Spoiler alert: We don’t.

 

Here's WP couch'd and looking at his PC. So in today's line they were all sitting on a couch down in a pit by Herne's Oak, in the dark, ready to jump out at Falstaff? A couch in a pit? Well that just doesn't sound right. Does it? I told you we didn't know this scene.