Sir,

For holy offices I have a time; a time

To think upon the part of business which

I bear i’the state; and nature does require

Her times of preservation, which perforce

I, her frail son, amongst my brethren mortal,

Must give my tendance to.

-Cardinal Wolsey

King Henry The Eighth                Act III, scene ii, line 144

Without getting into context and, instead, simply dwelling on the lines given; Wolsey is telling the king that he spends some of his time on his job as a religious leader, some of his time on serving the king in business of state, and some of his time eating, sleeping and taking care of other physical needs. He has stated these three in the order God, country, self; using seven words for God, fourteen for country, and twenty-three for self. The order is certainly not coincidence, but I wonder if the number of words is indicative of anything?

What do you think?

 

Well, I'm not sure it's very relevant, but I decided to put in a pic of myself out in nature. This was back in the day when I gave more tendance to nature. Of course, by 'nature', I mean the natural world, the outdoors. That's not exactly how Will is using 'nature' in today's Totally Random line, but, oh well.

A kind of conquest

Caesar made here; but made not here his brag

Of ‘Came, and saw, and overcame’:

-Queen

Cymbeline                               Act III, scene i, line 73

I like this line, but there’s an even better one a few lines back. But first, just so you know what’s going on here: This play is taking place in England way back before it was really even England; back when the Romans were there. It’s a date not too long after the time that Caesar was in England, and a Roman general is back, and he's telling Cymbeline and his Queen that Rome is expecting them to start paying an annual tribute like they used to. And Cymbeline and his queen are telling the general to go pound sand. The queen goes into a long bit about how they kicked Caesar out, and that it wasn’t in England that Caesar made his famous ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’ line. She mangles the line a bit.

But the better line is from a few lines back and it’s Cymbeline’s.

                                    There be many Caesars,

            Ere such another Julius. Britain is

            A world by itself; and we will nothing pay

            For wearing our own noses.

For wearing our own noses! Oh my goodness, that’s great! I don’t know if that’s some common expression from the 1600’s, but I love it. I’ve got to find a way to get that into the vernacular. 

 

No worries, I'm just checking to make sure I'm still wearing my own nose.

I say the earth did shake when I was born.

-Owen Glendower

King Henry The Fourth Part I               Act III, scene i, line 21

Glendower here is going to insist that the earth literally shook when he was born, and Hotspur’s going to argue with him. And in this scene it’s hard to tell which is the bigger fool.

I’ve learned that there are a lot of people out there like Glendower. They are convinced that they are right and they’re not going to back down NO MATTER WHAT. And do you want to know how I deal with this kind of person? I don’t. I walk away. I will not waste my time with this sort. 

 

Can you think of anyone who reminds you of Glendower? I can.

Ah, my sweet Moor, sweeter to me than life!



-Tamora



Titus Andronicus                                 Act II, scene iii, line 51



Okay, now before you start thinking that we’ve got a nice sweet line here, remember what play we're looking at. Yes, Titus. So even though the word sweet is used twice in this line, beware; it is not a sweet line. You don’t believe me? Okay, here’s the context.


Tamora, who’s married to Saturninus, has just run into Aaron the Moor, her old buddy. She tries to get Aaron to make love to her, but he’s too busy. Busy doing what? Well he’s plotting the murder of Bassianus, Saturninus’s brother. And he’s going to see that two of Titus’s sons will get blamed for it. And just to make it a little more interesting, he’s going to set up the rape of Lavina by Tamora’s two sons. And of course after the rape they’ll cut out her tongue and cut off her hands.

And when Aaron explains to Tamora what he’s up to, what does she say?



Ah, my sweet Moor, sweeter to me than life!



So, still think it’s a sweet line?

Okay, no tricks here. This really is a sweet picture. We need one after that unsweet line. That's Nina sitting in a clothes basket banging down some milk, and that's her cousin Laura with what appears to be an empty glass, perhaps wondering how she can get a little of cuz's beverage. I'm not sure exactly how this scene ended, but I'm pretty sure it turned out okay for all involved.