Folly in fools bears not so strong a note

As foolery in the wise, when wit doth dote;

Since all the power thereof it doth apply

To prove, by wit, worth in simplicity.

-Maria

Love’s Labour’s Lost                          Act V scene ii, line 78

I think I’ve got it. The first two lines are easy; the second two a little tougher: Folly seen in fools does not strike us as anything significant, but folly in wise men, when they’re not using the brains that they have, is significant. Further, seeing the folly in wise men reminds us that there’s something to be said for the simplicity of the fool, who’s not wasting any wisdom. Sort version: Dummies acting stupid is ok, but smart folk acting stupid isn’t.

And the light bulb just went on. My God, I cannot believe how relevant Will is!

Okay, I searched high and low, but I could not find a relevant picture. I was going to get into the issue of smart and dumb people getting behind really, really bad leaders and/or ideas, and the fact that it's easy to understand the dumb ones doing that and hard to understand the smart ones. But I couldn't find anything, so you'll just have to settle for this picture of an apple pie. It looks really good though, doesnt' it?

If he could right himself with quarreling,

Some of us would lie low.

-Antonio

Much Ado About Nothing                 Act V scene i, line 51

This one’s a little tough; short but tough. I believe ‘lie low’ can be understood as ‘be killed’. But what about ‘right himself with quarreling’. I don’t think there’s any hidden meaning in those words, but I’m guessing it would help to have a little bit of context. Which I don’t have.

Okay, I did a little reading, and I think I’ve got it. Ready? Pay attention now; context is everything on this one: Leonato and Antonio, who are brothers, are talking about Leonato’s grief over the death of his daughter, Hero (yes, funny name for a girl, and spoiler alert, she’s not really dead). Antonio advises Leonato to take some of his grief out on the people responsible for her death, of whom Claudio and Don Pedro are two. Just then Claudio and Don Pedro show up and Leonato tries to talk to them but they say they’re too busy to talk right now. Leonato gets testy, and Don Pedro says ‘don’t quarrel old man’, to which Leonato’s brother Antonio replies with today’s Totally Random line. There! It makes perfect sense. ‘If my brother, Leonato, could make himself feel better by quarreling, then someone here (like you Don Pedro, and your buddy Claudio) might just end up dead.’ That’s my re-write of today’s line. Got it? Perfect sense. Context!

 Do you know who lies low here? That's right, this is on the grounds of the Hermitage outside Nashville, Tennessee and it's Andrew Jackson. If you zoom in on that black plaque you can see his name. In this case though, 'lying low' refers to a resting place, not getting killed. But I guess the two meanings are related.

We will have, if this fadge not, an antick. I beseech you, follow.

-Armado

Love’s Labour’s Lost                      Act V scene i, line 140

Well, fadge is an interesting word, don’t you think? I had to look it up, and it doesn’t show up in contemporary dictionaries or google. I had to go to the glossary in my Shakespeare app. Fadge means succeed. So he’s saying that if this doesn’t work we’ll have an antick. And an antick has something to do with modern antic, so it’s a bit non-specific. Armado appears to be saying, If this doesn’t work, we’ll do something fun and a little bit wacky. If what doesn’t work? I don’t know. I didn’t do any reading on this. I just wrote down the line.

Rather than have an antick, or do any more reading on this line, I went for a walk. Whilst walking I came upon this bench. Needless to say, I stopped to rest with Edith for a little while. Again, no anticks!  But I did fadge in getting a little exercise on a beautiful day.

You do him wrong, surely.


-Duke



Measure For Measure                 Act III scene ii, line 131



Now I don’t know the full context here, but I do know that this is the Duke responding to Lucio. The Duke is disguised as a friar and Lucio does not know he’s talking to the Duke. Lucio is saying some very uncomplimentary things (to say the least) about the Duke to the friar/Duke. To which the friar/Duke calmly responds, You do him wrong, surely. And then Lucio just doubles down on the slander. Oh my.

Well you may not believe this, but apparently Will's works have gone intergalactic. No, it's true. My associate and I were walking along, minding our own business. And then he said something about Darth Vader being an oversized asthmatic robot. All of a sudden these two guys appeared out of nowhere. They shoved me aside and you can see the surprise on my buddy's face as the one on the right pokes his finger into my buddy's chest and says 'You do him wrong, surely.' We were absolutely flabbergasted.