I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze,

But this folly douts it.



-Laertes



Hamlet                                    Act IV, scene vii, line 190



This folly that Laertes is talking about is the drowning of his sister Ophelia. Douts, in case you didn't know, means to douse. The speech of fire, that's getting doused? Well I’m not so sure what that would have been, but I can tell you that right before the Queen came in to tell them about Ophelia's drowning, Laertes and Claudius were talking about how they were going to kill Hamlet. And Laertes was all in on this because he’d found out that Hamlet had killed Polonius, Laertes’s father. So, yeah, murdered father, drowned sister; Laertes has got a lot of emotions going right now. Too many emotions. He is definitely ablaze. 

The sky is ablaze in this picture that I took from my office window in New Haven, Not quite the same thing as Laertes being ablaze, but ablaze nonetheless.

First, kiss me, Kate, and we will.



-Petruchio



The Taming Of The Shrew               Act V, scene ii, line 24





Fabulous line! It’s a Broadway musical! Kiss Me, Kate. Wow, one of our better lines. I’m not sure what to say. I’m flabbergasted. 


So, Kiss Me, Kate is a Cole Porter musical. It’s the story of a stage production of The Taming Of The Shrew. The record album of the songs of this musical is one of the many musicals that I was brought up on. To be honest, I don’t remember the songs from this album that well, but I can still picture the album in my mind.  

Well, I guess I don’t have to picture it in my mind. Thanks, Wikipedia. 

This silent war of lilies and of roses,

Which Tarquin view’d in her fair face’s field,

In their pure ranks his traitor eye encloses;

Where, lest between them both it should be kill’d,

The coward captive vanquished doth yield

To those two armies that would let him go,

Rather than triumph in so false a foe.

-Narrator



Lucrece                                   line 73





We’re near the beginning of this poem, line 73 out of 1,855, and we’re talking about the first meeting of Tarquin (the rapist) and Lucrece (the victim). The previous three stanzas are about the beauty and virtue that can be seen in Lucrece’s face. The lilies and the roses in the first line above are representations of this beauty and virtue. So you can take it from there. It would appear that Lucrece wins the first round. 

It occurred to me that I just happen to have a lily and a rose in the other room. What're the odds? I  believe the rose in Will's lines is red, but oh well. At least it's a lily and a rose.

Dost thou love me? I know thou wilt say ‘Ay’;

And I will take thy word: yet, if thou swear’st,

Thou mayst prove false; at lovers’ perjuries,

They say, Jove laughs.



-Juliet



Romeo And Juliet                    Act II, scene i, line 133



Okay, not only are we in the play Romeo and Juliet, we are in the balcony scene, the Romeo, O Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo scene. And not only that, but we’ve picked a line which, though a bit obscure, is perfectly understandable. So we’ve got a play, a scene, and a line that, no matter how little your Shakespeare knowledge is, you should be pretty good with. Right? Well I hope so.



Jove laughs. Just to be clear, Jove is Jupiter, and Jupiter is the chief of the gods in Roman mythology. I expect Jove laughs at a lot of things. Now, I could easily get back into the endemic thing again, since we are going to bed with it and waking up to it. And it would be easy to talk about Jove’s perspective on it. But let’s try to go somewhere else with today's Totally Random line. Let’s go back to the rest of Juliet’s words for today.



She wants Romeo to promise her that he loves her, and she’s going to believe him. But she’s also being realistic and saying that he wouldn’t be the first to go back on his word about loving someone. Well that’s for sure. But we do know that in this case Romeo will be true to his word. Though that doesn’t end up doing either of them much good, does it? No, it doesn’t. 

This is a page from our Tempest retelling. I'm using this pic because in this scene it's Miranda asking the question of Ferdinand, 'Do you love me?' He answers yes and she doesn't question his answer one bit. And they end up living happily ever after. So maybe Juliet shouldn't have doubted? I'm just sayin'.

For this description of thine honesty? A pox upon him for me, he’s more and more a cat.

-Bertram

All’s Well That Ends Well                 Act IV, scene iii, line 263

This is a pretty obscure bit of a line. I guess we don’t really need to know what the description of thine honesty was. Suffice it to say that the description was not flattering. Today’s Totally Random line is Betram’s comment about Parolles, the fellow who gave this unflattering description. A pox upon him, whilst a bit of an antiquated expression is pretty easy to understand.

But now wait a tic, let’s think about this for a minute. It's an old saying, A pox upon him, and yet how topical! We are in the middle of a pandemic. Not that I would ever use this line, but it would certainly be topical. A pox indeed!

Now consider how bad it would be to say to someone, I hope you catch Corona Virus! They'd probably arrest you just for saying it. So this old a pox upon you line is maybe worse than we had ever realized. 

Good ol' relevant Will. 

 

Well, believe it or not, these are the instructions for a board game called Pandemic. It's true: we have a game called Pandemic. The object of the game is to work together to stop a Pandemic. We're going to be playing this in the next day or so. I'll let you know how we make out.

This was a way to thrive, and he was blest:

-Shylock

The Merchant Of Venice                          Act I, scene iii, line 88

Well this is early on in the play and we have Shylock talking about being blessed. Grateful? Almost. Now, it’s not exactly a continuation of yesterday’s discussion, but it’s sort of related. And yes, this is Shylock talking about being blessed. Yes, Shylock. The guy who has been painted by history as the miserly villain. Perhaps he’s neither. 

Which brings me to the theme of our new book, which has yet to be titled. The working title is Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice Retold. That will probably be part of the title, or actually the subtitle. But in any event, a main theme of our retelling will be that things aren’t always what they seem. Like Shylock. At first blush, and certainly based on how he’s been treated by history, he’s the villain of this story. He’s irredeemable. But he’s really not. He’s got a good and human side, and today’s line is just one small sign of that. 

And now, just because you’ve taken the time to read this blog, I’m going to give you a real treat. No picture today, but instead I’m giving you a peek at the intro to our new book: the aforementioned Merchant retelling. You saw it here first. 

And, again, this is in lieu of a picture.

Introduction to The Merchant Of Venice Retelling

Many summers ago, back when I was still young,

On a warm August day, just to have me some fun,

I was out and about on my Schwinn ten-speed bike,

Not a care in the world, just as free as you like.

I had stopped for some traffic, and catching my breath.

I was wiping my brow, got a handful of sweat.

I was straddling my bike with my feet on the ground,

At Jackson and Park in the north end of town,

Where Park Ave is busy, and folks don’t slow down.

 

A car soon pulled up and, well, just like me,

They were waiting for traffic and looking to see.

And I turned and I looked, and I couldn’t help say

(To myself, not out loud) ‘don’t see that every day!’

A Volkswagen beetle, a bright yellow car,

Those beetles were small, well I guess they still are.

But this one was holding a guy who was big,

Hunched over the steering wheel, squashed like a fig.

And he had a big nose, and a big black mustache

He seemed all cramped up with his chin on the dash.

And the dog riding shotgun, well he was large too.

Out the window he hung, with a tongue dripping goo.

Then the guy turned and looked, saw me starin’ at him.

Said, ‘You look like you’re looking for trouble there, Jim.’

‘Well Jim’s not my name,’ I replied, ‘And what’s more,

Looks are sometimes deceiving, I know that for sure.’

He wasn’t expecting that answer, I guess

And it shut him down quick, not a word, no big mess,

Then he gunned it and left, nothing more, nothing less.

Now why have I told you this really old story,

‘Bout days of my youth, yes the days of my glory.

The thing is, a theme of this story herein,

The one that we’re almost about to begin,

It’s quite tricky, and easily missed and, well, so

I wanted to tell you and thought you should know.

Here it is, pay attention, I’ll say it real slow:

Appearance and truth, I guess that’s what I mean,

And that things aren’t always the way that they seem.

Who’s the good guy, who’s bad, whose intentions are high

Villain or victim, which one is that guy?

And is anyone happy or sad, if so, why?

Who loves who, who don’t care, who cares maybe too much?

Who is deserving of love and the such

And who is the friend that you’d want in the clutch?

These are some of the questions I hope you’ll consider

And maybe the answer will simply be neither,

Or both. I don’t know; That’s for you to find out,

But I think you can do it, in fact I’ve no doubt.

Just proceed with some care, don’t speed hastily through it

the story needs thought as you slowly review it.

Look at each situation, and see every side.

Try not to assume, keep your eyes open wide.

Be careful, consider; once, twice, three times even.

I’ll say it once more, one more time, then I’m leaving:

Remember that looks can sometimes be deceiving.

In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril!



-Lear



King Lear                                Act III, scene iv, line 19



This is part of a longer piece, but today I’m just giving you this one line. It’s the cry of  a father who’s been turned out into the stormy night by his two daughters. If you stop to imagine it, this is a pretty rotten thing to have to endure. I can only imagine.

I guess my inclination is to be grateful for all that I have, especially with all that’s going on right now outside the four walls I call home. Very grateful.

They say it’s always good to stop and be thankful for what you have, because if you’re busy being grateful it’s harder to be mad, hurt, worried, whatever. So for now I’m grateful that I have a roof over my head; a comfortable home with people who love me. And I have two Cordelias; no Regans or Gonerils. I’m very grateful. Poor Lear.

My home. See what I mean? Very grateful.