What mean these masterless and gory swords

To lie discolour’d by this place of peace?

-Friar Laurence

Romeo And Juliet                Act V, Scene iii, Line 142

 

The swords mean that Paris and Romeo have been fighting, that Paris got killed in the fight, and that Romeo subsequently poisoned himself and is also dead. That’s what they mean. And, to be clear, the good friar is exactly correct by calling the swords masterless; and gory too, I suppose. Quel dommage!

And here's Pete strolling down a similar place of peace: a necropolis. There won't be any Amazon deliveries to these doors. And what's that? Pete's on his phone? Oh, quel dommage!

 

If thou wert the wolf, thy greediness would afflict thee, and oft thou shouldst hazard thy life for thy dinner: wert thou the unicorn, pride and wrath would confound thee, and make thine own self the conquest of thy fury:

 

-Timon

Timon Of Athens                   Act IV, Scene iii, Line 335

 

And he goes on. If thou wert the bear, the horse, the leopard, and so on. Timon is talking to Apemantus. The latter has come to Timon’s cave, mostly to harass him, and the two are trading insults. When Timon asks him what he would do with the world if he had the power, Apemantus says that he would give it back to the beasts. Timon replies that then Apemantus would have to be one of the beasts and he goes through a list of beasts that Apemantus might be. Timon ends the litany with a question:

 

What beast couldst thou be, that were not subject to a beast? And what a beast art thou already, that seest not thy loss in transformation?

 

There’s a lot to unpack there, and we could spend the day talking about just those two lines alone. But as enjoyable, and perhaps enlightening, as that would be, alas we won’t. Suffice it to say that these are a couple of really bitter old men. I guess there’s a lot of old people who are bitter like this. And that’s a pity. Not that I’m bitter like this, because I’m not, but I wonder if the beasts of this world will get to live without man again. In truth, looking at what mankind has done to the world, I think they might just be a little better off. Ahh, good ol’ Timon.

I bet that these guys wouldn't miss us.

 

And his gasht stabs lookt like a breach in nature

For ruin’s wasteful entrance: there, the murderers,

Steept in the colours of their trade, their daggers

Unmannerly breecht with gore:

 

-Macbeth

 Macbeth                                              Act II, Scene iii, Line 116

 This is a portion of what Macbeth is saying when asked why he was so quick in killing the murderers of Duncan. Of course, the real answer is that Macbeth is the murderer of Duncan and he wanted to make sure that these alleged murderers had no way of telling anyone anything. But he’s certainly not going to tell everyone that. Here’s the entirety of his answer when Mcduff asked why did he kill Duncan’s murderers.

 

Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious,

Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man:

The expedition of my violent love

Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,

His silver skin laced with his golden blood;

And his gasht stabs lookt like a breach in nature

For ruin’s wasteful entrance: there, the murderers,

Steept in the colours of their trade, their daggers

Unmannerly breecht with gore: who could refrain,

That had a heart to love, and in that heart

Courage to make’s love known?

I find the imagery of Duncan beyond interesting. His silver skin laced with his golden blood;/And his gasht stabs lookt like a breach in nature/For ruin’s wasteful entrance: Wow. What do you make of that? Read those three lines again. That’s um, that’s pure Will. I love that use of language. I guess some might say it’s over the top, but I don’t think so. I think it’s absolutely extraordinary.

Mr. Strongbow here is, I believe, a dead king. I found him in Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin. So he's not a Scottish king like Duncan, he's an Irish king. That's the best I could do.

 

I say, a devil. Think’st thou, Hortensio, though her father be very rich, any man is so very a fool to be married to hell?

  

-Gremio

The Taming Of The Shrew                              Act I, Scene i, Line 125

So being married to Katharina, the titular shrew, would be akin to being married to hell. That’s a pretty strong statement, isn’t it? Gremio is not calling Katarina a devil. He’s saying that they don’t need to find a husband for her; they need to find a devil for her, because she is pure hell, and only a devil wants to be married to hell. So that’s nice. At least they’re not calling her the devil. They’re only calling her hell. Ahh lighten up; it’s a comedy.

 

 

 

This is my sock. I took it off and tossed it and it landed just like this and I thought it kind of looked like a little guy, maybe Spiderman, wearing a gray and striped ski hat. As usual, I couldn't think of anything for a pertinent pic for today's line, so I'm using this instead. I've been really wanting to use this pic because I like it a lot, and I'm not sure it would ever be pertinent. But it's still a good pic. What do you think?

 

‘This deed will make thee only loved for fear;’

 -Lucrece

 Lucrece                                   Line 610

 

Today we have Lucrece trying to talk Tarquin out of raping her. Well, since this poem is sometimes titled The Rape of Lucrece we can pretty much assume that she's not going to be talking him out of anything.

So,what can we do with today’s line, 'This deed will make thee only loved for fear'? It’s in the middle of a few stanzas of her argument (it’s a pretty long argument) where she’s trying to appeal to him with the fact that he’s going to be the king and this is not the way a king should be acting. I like the last two lines of this stanza:

         For princes are the glass, the school, the book,

            Where subjects' eyes do learn, do read, do look.

           I think that’s a good couple of lines for our times. When she mentions ‘glass’ she’s talking about a mirror. We don’t have princes these days, but we do have leaders, and it is so refreshing to know that we will soon have one that we can look up to. Sorry, I didn’t mean to get political, but that’s all I could come up with today.  

 

 

Okay, forget about politics. Here's a pic of someone I was lucky enough to have that I was able to use as the glass, the school, the book. 

 

Not for that neither: Here’s the pang that             pinches:-

 

-Anne Bullen

King Henry The Eighth                     Act II, Scene iii, Line 1

 

For the second day in a row we’ve got the first line in a scene. It’s interesting, too, that this line appears to be the continuation of a conversation. We don’t know what was said previously so we’ve no idea what ‘that neither’ Anne is referring to. Unless we can assume that Anne is saying Not for nothin’, in which case she’s not really referring to anything in particular, and she’s just introducing her next thought. We can, however, find out specifically what is the ‘pang that pinches.’ Here’s the next lines.

             His highness having lived so long with her, and she

            So good a lady that no tongue could ever

            Pronounce dishonour of her, -by my life,

            She never knew harm-doing; -O, now, after

            So many courses of the sun enthroned,

            Still growing in a majesty and pomp,- the which

            To leave a thousand-fold more bitter than

            ‘Tis sweet at first t’acquire,-after this process,

            To give her the avaunt! It is a pity

            Would move a monster.

 So, what’s the pang that pinches? The 'she' being referred to is the King's current wife, Queen Katherine of Aaragon. And the pinch is that it is going to be very difficult for Anne to get Queen Katherine out of the picture. That’s the pang that pinches.

 Regardless of what’s going on here, I have to say that I like that little expression: the pang that pinches. I wonder if that was a common saying back then. I might have to work that into my vernacular. I can pretty much use that anywhere. Right?

How do you like today's picture. It's a picture of the pang that pinches me this morning. That's right, it's a picture of nothing. What could be better than that?

 A largess universal, like the sun,

His liberal eye doth give to everyone,

Thawing cold fear. Then, mean and gentle all,

Behold, as may unworthiness define,

A little touch of Harry in the night:

  

-Chorus

King Henry The Fifth            Act IV, Prologue, Line 45

 

We're talking about Henry V, referred to here as Harry, going amongst the troops on the night before the battle of Agincourt. This is a very major battle in this play and in British history. The Brits, led by Harry, are in France outside the town of Agincourt. They are about to face the French in battle, and the French outnumber the Brits somewhere around two to one. And whilst the Brits are going to win, they don’t know that now. They just now that they are outnumbered. The play paints the picture of everyone being scared except Harry, and he in turn going around and revving everyone up. Harry is the hero of the battle of Agincourt. He’s the sun that thaws cold fear, and everyone feels a little touch of Harry. That’s an interesting bit there. It’s not the encouragement of the King. It’s a little touch of Harry. That’s funny, isn’t it?  

 

  A little bit of Jessica

A song today instead of a picture. I couldn't find a song about a little touch of Harry, but I hope you'll enjoy this one instead.