The Dauphin crowned king! All fly to him!

-Duke of Exeter

King Henry the Sixth Part I      Act I, Scene i, Line 97

 

The Duke seems pretty alarmed, doesn’t he? Exclamation points at the end of everything he says. And who's the Dauphin? Okay, I’ll tell you. The Dauphin is the name for the prince of France who’s next in line to be king, usually the king’s son. Why Dauphin? I don’t know. I guess you could ask the Google. 

Okay, here’s the answer, or at least as much as I could get from a five minute cruise down Wikipedia lane: The heirs to the throne of France were given title to the county of Viennois, sort of like the heir to the English throne is always the Prince of Wales. That county was at one point ruled by a guy who’s nickname was Dauphin (which is French for dolphin), and so that nickname passed to the place, and then on to the Prince of France and it stuck. Now, exactly how that original guy got the nickname of Dolphin/Dauphin is unclear. It seems a fairly unlikely nickname for a guy in France if you ask me. Anyway, if you’d like to do some research on it, be my guest.

And here's the Dauphin ready to go look for some dolphins. Well, not exactly. If I were King of France, he would be the Dauphin. And there weren't actually any dolphins around when these two jumped off the boat. But if there were, and if I were King of France, well.... you get the picture.

 

 

The more my fault

To scape his hands where I was like to die.

- Marina

Pericles                    Act IV, Scene ii, Line 74

This is a Marina’s response to the pimp, a woman, who has just said to Marina you have come into my hands where you are going to live well. Marina’s response is basically I’d be better off dead, which is a pretty strong statement. I would guess, though I obviously don’t know from experience, that there are many people in the world who are in this type of situation who may feel the same way. I count myself blessed that I’m not one of them.

Here's a pic taken in Ushuaia, Argentina. There's an old prison there, no longer in use, where they used to send people. It's pretty much at the end of the world. If you look at it on a map you'll see what I mean, and you might agree with me that some of those prisoners might have said 'I'd be better off dead.'

 

 

But Mistress Page would desire you to send her your little page, of all loves: her husband has a marvelous infection to the little page; and, truly, Master Page is an honest man.

 

-Mistress Quickly

The Merry Wives of Windsor         Act II, Scene ii, Line 114

 

I thought, when first reading this, that Mistress Quickly was talking about something that Falstaff wrote when she mentions the little page; but it becomes apparent that she’s talking about Falstaff’s little assistant/page named Robin. And of all loves is just a figure of speech meaning beyond everything else. It’s got nothing to do with actual, specific loves of anyone. The full passage certainly makes it sound like Mister Page has a thing for boys, but I don’t think that’s what the deal here is. I guess you’d have to see/read the whole play to find out. Anyway, I can’t very well tell you exactly what’s going on here as I’m not quite sure who’s doing what at this point in the play (I’ve never read or seen the whole thing). 

This play is a farce where everyone’s got their own agenda, and I’m not sure what Mistress Quickly’s is. Perhaps some day I’ll go beyond random lines and read or see the whole thing. I certainly hope to. It looks like it could be a pretty good tale if done well. So much to read and see; so little time (especially when you sleep ‘til ten on your day off!).

Here's a picture of me and my little page. Actually, this is an old pic, and that little page is quite a bit bigger than that now. And he probably doesn't consider himself my page either. But other than that...well, it's the best I could do for a pic today. I'll try to do better tomorrow, when I most certainly won't be sleeping in 'til ten. 

 

Care keeps his watch in every old man’s eye.

 

-Friar Laurence

 Romeo and Juliet            Act II, Scene ii, Line 35

 

Now that’s a really nice line. There’s some context to it that we could delve into, but I’m not going to. I’m just going to enjoy that nine word line, all by itself. I suggest that you do too.

Here's an old man's eye. Do you see care keeping watch in it?

 

Charges she moe than me?

 -Angelo

 Measure For Measure            Act V, Scene i, Line 198

Moe?

No, really, Moe?

I certainly have moe pencils than I could ever need. No, really I do.

 

The king is almost wounded to the death;

And, in the fortune of my lord your son,

Prince Harry slain outright; and both the Blunts

Kill’d by the hand of Douglas; young Prince John

And Westmoreland and Stafford fled the field;

And Harry Monmouth’s brawn, the hulk Sir John,

Is prisoner to your son:

 

-Lord Bardolph

King Henry the Fourth Part II        Act I, Scene i, Line 18

 

Okay, today we have the eighteenth line of the play…sort of. This play has a forty line Induction (prologue) given by Rumour. I should tell you that Rumour comes out in the Induction and tells the audience what he’s all about and that he’s going to play a part by having untrue reports being spread. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing in today’s Totally Random line.

Bardolph is reporting to Northumberland how the battle has gone. Northumberland, Hotspur’s father, is on the side of the rebellion against the king, so that all the news appears to be very good indeed…except it’s not. It’s not good, because it’s not true. It becomes apparent that Bardolph was not at the battle and is giving a second, or perhaps third or fourth, hand account. In other words, his account is based on rumour; false rumour. Very shortly Morton is going to show up. Morton was actually at the battle and informs Northumberland that his son, Hotspur, has fallen, and the battle was lost.

See, you can’t trust Rumour. He can be a real bugger at times.  

Now here is a perfect example of how a false rumour can get started. Jeff took this pic of Nina whilst they were in Amsterdam. He took it because from the back that guy standing next to Nina looks just like me. So they could've started the rumour that I went with them on the trip to Amsterdam, which of course I didn't. 

Rumour!

 

Has he disciplined Aufidius soundly?

 -Menenius

 Coriolanus                          Act II, Scene iv, Line 137

 

Okay, in this context Aufidius is a foe in battle. Knowing that, it is easy to construe that the intended meaning of the word disciplined in this sentence is beat or defeated. Not knowing that, and not having any sense of what’s going on, you might assume that Menenius is asking whether or not Coriolanus made Aufidius sit in the corner of the classroom with a dunce cap on. But if you were attending this play, and you’d paid attention up to this point in Act Two, you should certainly have a sense of what’s going on. If you don’t know what going on at this point, perhaps it’s you who should be sitting in the corner wearing the dunce cap. 

Talking about sitting in the corner of the class with a dunce cap made me think of this pencil, and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because if the teacher handed you this pencil while you're sitting in the corner it would be funny in a very mean sort of way. Maybe it's because I know that most (all?) teachers nowadays would give you this pencil and NOT make you wear a dunce cap. Or maybe (this is the best maybe) I'm thinking of Coriolanus sending this pencil to Aufidius to let him know that he plans to 'school' him. Yeah, let's go with that last one.