Good den, good den.

-Don Pedro

Measure For Measure                            Act V scene i, line 46

Apparently this is ‘good evening’. Don’t ask me what or where it comes from, because I don’t know.

This is a nice evening picture. 

Good den, good den.

Come, go we, then, together. [Exeunt]

-Troilus

Troilus And Cressida                        Act I scene i, line 117

There are only five words in this line, and there are four punctuation marks; three commas and a period. How is that even possible?

Come

Go we

Then

Together

I think it’s the ‘then’ being set apart that really throws me. But, well, I’m not sure. And don’t get wrong; I’m a big fan of the comma. A comma can go an awful long way in terms of adding clarity to a sentence, and I personally use a lot of commas. But three commas with five words?

 

This is the famous cat and the rat, caught and mummified in the Christ Church Cathedral organ in Dublin, Ireland. I doubt that either one of these two said 'Come, go we, then, together' before getting stuck in the organ. Nonetheless, they certainly went together.

Hortensio, peace! Thou knowest not gold’s effect:



-Petruchio



The Taming Of The Shrew                 Act I scene ii, line 92



They are talking about Kathatina Minola and her availability and Hortensio says I would not wed  her for a mine of gold. To which Petruchio replies with today’s Totally Random line.



At issue is Katharina and her suitability, of lack thereof, to be a wife. Petruchio seems to think that she’ll be worth a look. I thought this line was a little confusing until I looked back at Petruchio’s lines previous to Hortensio’s. He makes it pretty clear that he’s come to Padua to marry rich and that he’s not the least concerned with the looks or temperament of the woman as long as she’s got money. Today’s line would be slightly clearer if it was ‘Thou knowest not gold’s effect on me.’ As far as Petruchio is concerned, it’s all about the Benjamins. Or in this case ducats, or something like that.

We ran into a little restaurant in Merida, Spain where everything on the menu was 1 Euro. It was kind of like the dollar store of restaurants. WP held up the menu and exclaimed 'Dad, peace: I knew not gold's effect on thee.' It was a pretty good use of the quote until I realized that he was calling me a cheapskate. 

And let us swear our resolution.

-Cassius

Julius Caesar                          Act II scene i, line 113

This is the guys talking about killing Julius because they’re afraid he’s going to proclaim himself king and ruin the republic. Do I have the right word? Republic? I’m not sure. Feel free to correct me if you’d like.

Anyway, Cassius says ‘let us swear’ and Brutus replies with a big old ‘Swear!? Schmotz to that!’  Why Schmotz? Here’s why:

No, not an oath: if not the face of men,
The sufferance of our souls, the time's abuse,--
If these be motives weak, break off betimes,
And every man hence to his idle bed;
So let high-sighted tyranny range on,
Till each man drop by lottery. But if these,
As I am sure they do, bear fire enough
To kindle cowards and to steel with valour
The melting spirits of women, then, countrymen,
What need we any spur but our own cause,
To prick us to redress? what other bond
Than secret Romans, that have spoke the word,
And will not palter? and what other oath
Than honesty to honesty engaged,
That this shall be, or we will fall for it?
Swear priests and cowards and men cautelous,
Old feeble carrions and such suffering souls
That welcome wrongs; unto bad causes swear
Such creatures as men doubt; but do not stain
The even virtue of our enterprise,
Nor the insuppressive mettle of our spirits,
To think that or our cause or our performance
Did need an oath; when every drop of blood
That every Roman bears, and nobly bears,
Is guilty of a several bastardy,
If he do break the smallest particle
Of any promise that hath pass'd from him.

Yes, that’s why. Who needs an oath when we are righteous people doing a righteous thing? We would be bastards if we don’t do this; so to hell with your stinking oath.

It’s a pretty cool speech, and it’s got a lot of interesting stuff in it. Well of course it is and does; Will wrote it! And we found it today through Total Randomness. (By the way, is this a famous speech?)

There's a lot of different things I could focus on from that speech, but I'm gonna talk about the following line.

                                                So let high-sighted tyranny range on,
                                                Till each man drop by lottery.

Here's a pic of a bunch of men and women from the greatest generation. They were not about to let tyranny range on, nor were they about to watch each man drop by lottery. No they were not. And I don't think they all got together to take an oath. They just up and did what was right. 

BTW, that's my dad standing all the way on the left with the light shirt and big ears.

Happy Fourth everybody.