Sir, you speak nobly.

-Edmund

King Lear                                Act V, scene i, line 28

Okay, couple of things. For starters, yes, he does speak nobly because this is Albany he’s talking about, and Albany’s the one guy of that whole group of n’er-do-wells who retains some nobleness. On the other hand, these eight noble lines that Albany does speak are quite difficult to understand. Shall we take a look?

            Our very loving sister, well be-met.—

            Sir, this I hear,-the king is come to his daughter,

            With others whom the rigor of our state

            Forced to cry out. Where I could not be honest,

            I never yet was valiant: for this business,

            It toucheth us, as France invades our land,

            Not bolds the king, with others, who, I fear,

            Most just and heavy causes make oppose.

Say what? Well there’s a lot to unpack there. Or we could just leave it in the suitcase. Ahh, let’s take a shot.

We’re near the end of the play, and the group convened here is Edmund, Goneril, Regan, and Albany. First it was Edmund and Regan talking, and then Goneril and her husband Albany show up. Edmund is playing the two sisters against each other for his own means, and he’s been talking with Regan (whose husband died a few scenes ago) about what a faithful lover he’s been to her (not). So Goneril and Albany show up, and that’s Albany’s first lines above. When he says loving sister he’s talking to his sister-in-law Regan. The king is come to his daughter is saying that Lear and Cordelia have met up. But from there on in this passage, it gets a little tough. Where’s Shapiro when you really need him?

Perhaps we’ll leave that suitcase intact and stick with the four words that we started with. In fact, when I tell you that we’ll leave that suitcase packed, you might just reply

            Sir, you speak nobly.

 Okay, today's line got me a bit confused. So here's a picture of a fancy N chair. We'll call it the Noble Chair, so that if you sit in this chair you'll speak nobly. How's that?

Belike you slew great number of his people.

-Sebastian

Twelfth Night                           Act III, scene iii, line 29

I’ve got a few things to talk about this morning. To start with, I watched a 1970 production of Twelfth Night two nights ago. It was with Ralph Richardson, Alec Guinness, and Joan Plowright, the latter playing twins Viola and Sebastian. It was pretty entertaining and the first time I’d ever seen any production of this play. So it’s always good to see one for the first time, and it really pulls together all those lines that I’ve looked at over the past four years.

The word ‘belike’ means probably, presumably, or perhaps; just in case you were wondering. Sebastian and Antonio are strangers in town, and Antonio says that he has to be careful because in the past he’s fought in some battles against the Count of this town, and he doesn’t want to be recognized. Today’s Totally Random line is Sebastian responding to that.

But the funniest thing about today’s line comes actually a few lines earlier. These two guys have just arrived in the town, they’re deciding what they should do, and Sebastian wants to go sightseeing. Shall we go see the reliques of this town? And then, 

              I pray you, let us satisfy our eyes

              With the memorials and the things of fame

              That do renown this city. 

I dunno, I just thought that was humorous. I guess I think of sightseeing as a modern thing, but apparently it’s not. I guess I needed Will to remind me of yet another thing that hasn’t changed in the last four hundred years. 

I think I managed to find the perfect pic for today. It's a picture of me at the Gettysburg military cemetery; the same place Abe gave his famous address. Memorial Day, sightseeing; yup, I think I've got all the bases covered.

Go softly on.

-Fortinbras     

Hamlet                                    Act IV, scene iv, line 8

What a nice line. Go softly on.

The speaker, our friend Fortinbras, is the answer to the trivia question ‘who has the last line in the play Hamlet’. This, of course, is not that last line. This is the part in the play where Fortinbras is leading his army through Denmark on his way to a fight in Poland. He’s telling his captain to go and tell the Danish King that he’s just passing through, and he sends the captain off with the phrase Go softly on.

Hamlet is a bystander in this scene, and this leads into one of his soliloquies when he sees that Fortinbras is taking a couple thousand men to a fight to the death over a meaningless patch of land. Even for an eggshell, he says. That is the How all occasions do inform against me soliloquy. But before we can get to that, we go through the brief part of the act where Fortinbras says Go softly on.

So I’ll just say to you, have a good day, and go softly on. 

Well, you can't see it too well, but those guys on the right side of the picture are playing some kind of bocce. This is the Arenes de Lutece in Paris. It's almost 2,000 years old, built by the Romans. I thought the picture was a good representation of Go softly on. A slow game of lawn bowling in a two centuries old arena. Yeah, these guys are going softly on. Or maybe the arena is going softly on.

Either way, Go softly on.

And, in a word, but even now worth this,

And now worth nothing? 


-Salarino         



The Merchant Of Venice                    Act I, scene i, line 35



To re-state that into the way we would probably say it today, ‘One minute worth something, and the next minute worth nothing.’ This is the beginning of the play. Antonio, the titular merchant, starts out with his famous ‘I know not why I am so sad’ bit, and the first thing that his buddies Salarino and Solanio come up with is that he’s sad because he’s worrying too much about the ships he has out at sea. 
Salarino talks about that fact that if he had all his money risked in his ships out at sea then he wouldn’t be able to blow on his hot soup without thinking of the winds blowing up a storm and wrecking his ships. And he goes on. 

Here’s Salarino’s whole passage. It’s worth a read. I mean, really, any day you spend a few minutes with a handful of Will’s lines is a better day for it, n’est pas? I think I need to turn that into a saying, but it’s gotta be worded a little better than that. In  the meantime, here you go.



                                                My wind cooling my broth,

Would blow me to an ague, when I thought

What harm a wind too great might do at sea.

I should not see the sandy hour-glass run,

But I should think of shallows and of flats;

And see my wealthy Andrew dockt in sand,

Vailing her high-top lower than her ribs,

To kiss her burial. Should I go to church,

And see the holy edifice of stone,

And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks,

Which touching but my gentle vessel’s side,

Would scatter all her spices on the stream;

Enrobe the roaring waters with my silks;

And, in a word, but even now worth this,

And now worth nothing? Shall I have the thought

To think on this; and shall I lack the thought,

That such a thing bechanced would make me sad?

But tell me not; I know Antonio

Is sad to think upon his merchandise.

Well that passage was a little longer than I thought, and my typing skills aren’t all that. I think my favorite line is the bit about Enrobing the roaring waters with my silks. Anyway, there it is, so…enjoy.

Here is Nina standing in front of one very famous holy edifice of stone. I couldn't come up with any pictures of my silks enrobing the roaring waters. In fact, I don't think I have any pictures of my silks. In fact, fact I don't have any silks. Quel dommage!

The one I’ll slay, the other slayeth  me.



-Demetrius



A Midsummer Night’s Dreamy                      Act II, scene i, line 190



As I’ve stated too many times, this is not one of my favorites of Will’s works. I do have to say that I’ve been starting to appreciate the parts with Snug the joiner and his friends who put on the play within the play. Today’s line, however, is not from them.


When I first read today’s line and this section of the scene this morning I thought this was taking place after Puck put the love potion in their eyes. But alas, no. Demetrius is madly in love with Hermia who’s run off with Lysander, the latter being the one Demetrius wants to slay and the former the one who slayeth him. And Helena is with Demetrius, who's looking for Hermia and Lysander, telling him how much she loves him regardless of how poorly he treats her. 


Ugh. A comedy.

Yes, it's a pan full of onions and peppers. Relevance? I'm more fond of onions and peppers than I am of this play.

What is this forest call’d?

-Archbishop of York

King Henry The Fourth Part II                Act IV, scene i, line 1

The Gaultree Forest is its name. That’s what Hastings tells him. The name of this forest, or even that’s they’re in a forest, seems somewhat irrelevant to what goes on in the rest of the scene. Although I suppose it does give some idea to the sixteenth century theater-goer where the action of the scene is taking place, assuming that they knew that the Gaultree Forest was in the north of England, around the area of York. 

If we were watching a movie set in NYC and all of a sudden we’re in the woods, I guess it would be good to know whether we were in Catskills or in Central Park. That information could be important to an  understanding of what’s going on. So, okay, yeah, it’s relevant.

Gaultree Forest. Got it?

 

This is my neighbor Dan's house. He lives across that street, and I guess if you asked, those trees behind his house could be referred to as Dan's Woods. However, I think the more important question I have for Dan is what is that Tyrannosaurus Rex doing in your backyard?

Thou still hast been the father of good news.



 -Claudius



Hamlet                                       Act II, scene ii, line 109




This is Claudius responding to gabby Polonius after the latter has told him that the ambassadors to Norway have returned. 


I see no reason to get into a lot of context here. In fact I’m not sure what to do with today’s line. I’m feeling a bit introspective this morning, a so perhaps I should just ramble on about my personal thoughts and feelings? Well I don’t really see that happening. And I don’t think that’s what all you thousands of readers are looking for. Although, now that I think about it, since today's play is Hamlet it would be perfectly appropriate to ramble on and on about my thoughts and feelings, wouldn't it?

How about I just give you a pic and leave it at that.  

This is what we brought back on our return from Norway. It's a box of candies. Of course, we weren't exactly ambassadors, but we did go there. By the way, the white things with the blue lines are supposed to be glaciers. I'm not sure what the brown ones with red represent. I'll ask Patrice and get back to you.