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.