Wednesday, June 26, 2019



These griefs and losses have so bated me,
That I shall hardly spare a pound of flesh
To-morrow to my bloody creditor.--

-Antonio

The Merchant Of Venice                                Act III scene iii, line 33

Today’s line has in it a mention of the famous ‘pound of flesh’. Of course, this is Shylock’s payment for Antonio having forfeited on the loan. It’s such a well-known term that it can be used today to refer to anything that is considered extreme in payment. I’m trying to think of an example, but I’m coming up blank. Maybe you can think of one?

By the way, in this context ‘bated’ means diminished and ‘spare’ to be stingy about. Antonio is saying that he’s so overcome at this point that he won’t care about giving up the pound of flesh. He says that now. Wait until tomorrow when Shylock shows up with the knife.

 Do you suppose Shylock's knife looked anything like this?

Monday, June 24, 2019


To thee I do commend my watchful soul,
Ere I let fall the windows of mine eyes:
Sleeping and waking, O, defend me still [sleeps].

-Earl of Richmond

King Richard The Third                    ct V, scene iii, line 116


Richmond is saying a little bit of a bedtime prayer here, and a prayer for success in the battle that’s going to take place tomorrow.
This is an interesting scene because within this one scene we keep flitting back and forth between two tents. One tent has King Richard and his people, and the other tent has the Earl of Richmond (who’s going to become Henry VII) and his people. These are the two leaders of the opposing forces in the Battle of Bosworth Fields that's going to be taking place in the morning. 

Right after Richmond falls asleep ghosts begin to appear. Each ghost comes and to Richard’s tent first, and talks to him. Then comes over to Richmond’s tent and talks to him. I can’t help but wonder how this play was staged in 1590. I suppose they had two tents back to back and somehow represented that they were far apart from each other. 

I’ve never seen this play, but I’ve heard it referred to as the play that brought Shakespeare into the limelight. It was written fairly early in his career and apparently it was his first big hit. After this Will was a star. What do you think of that?

Sam considers himself a bit of a thespian, so I let him take a crack at today's Totally Random line. I have to admit that he mumbled a bit with the lines, so it was a little hard to understand him. But when he got to the 'sleeps' stage direction he absolutely nailed it.

Thursday, June 20, 2019


Ere I could make a prologue to my brains,

-Hamlet



Hamlet                                          Act V scene ii, line 30



First things first; let me give you the whole piece that today’s Totally Random line is a part of –



Being thus be-netted round with villainies,-

Ere I could make a prologue to my brains,

They had begun the play,-I sat me down;

Devised a new commission; wrote it fair:-

I once did hold it, as our statists do,

A baseness to write fair, and  labour’d much

How to forget that learning; but, sir, now

It did me yeoman’s service:-wilt thou know

The effect of what I wrote?



This is the final scene of Hamlet, a pretty famous scene as far as Will’s scenes go. But it’s a long scene and there’s a lot to take place yet before we get to the end where everyone dies. This little piece of the scene has some pretty interesting stuff in it. This is where Hamlet is explaining to Horatio what happened on the ship on the way to England. He’s told Horatio that one night on the boat he couldn’t sleep so he crept into the cabin of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. In their possessions he found a letter, so he took it back to his cabin to read it. The letter was to the king of England instructing him to execute Hamlet immediately upon arrival in England. Today’s Totally Random lines are Hamlet telling Horatio what he did next. Of course, we all know that what he did next was to replace the letter, devised a new commission, with one that he wrote instructing the king to kill Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Ha!


But let’s take a closer look at a few of the lines above.

The only word I found a little puzzling was statist. It just means statesman. You might have derived that from the context.

How about, be-netted round with villainies. That’s a pretty cool phrase. What about be-netted. It sounds like a made up word. Perhaps it is, but it’s easy to understand.


Now the next line, today’s Totally Random line is, at least at first, a little harder to figure out. Ere I could make a prologue to my brains. What exactly is he saying here? Just by context it seems like he’s saying before I knew what was happening. But a prologue to my brains? A prologue to my brains. I guess he’s literally saying before I could explain to my brain, to myself, what was going on. In other words, before I knew what was happening. Yah, the more I look at that line, the clearer it becomes. That’s a good line, isn’t it. Yup, it’s usable.

Ere I could make a prologue to my brains, the cop was handing me a speeding ticket.


Oh that’s a fabulous phrase. I don’t think we need to go any further. We can just stop right there and enjoy today’s line.

Imagine that; Ere I could make a prologue to my brains, I had figured out what today’s line meant!

Ere I could make a prologue to my brains,
I found myself in a grass skirt dancing with Ernie!

  Today’s Totally Random Lines   What fashion, madam, shall I make your breeches?   Lucetta The Two Gentlemen of Verona      ...