Madam, an hour before the worshipt sun

Peer’d forth the golden window of the east,

A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad;

 

-Benvolio

 

Romeo And Juliet                   Act I Scene i, Line 117

 

What a lovely couple of lines. Benvolio is talking about an hour before dawn. Does he say ‘an hour before dawn?’ Of course not. He says ‘an hour before the worshipt sun peer’d forth the golden window of the east.’ 

Ah Will, you never cease to amaze, and I hope you never do.  

I'm not sure whether this sun is peering forth the golden window of the east, west, north, or south. My associate and I were in a very northern clime in August and the sun was shining almost twenty-four hours a day, so I'm just not sure what time of day this is, or what direction the camera is facing. But it's a nice pic, eh?

 

O father, what a hell of witchcraft lies

In the small orb of one particular tear!

  

A Lover’s Complaint                      Line 288

 

No play today, but a pretty good pair of lines, nonetheless. A Lover’s Complaint is a long poem Will wrote about a maid telling her tale to an old man about how she was seduced by ‘one by nature’s outwards so commended/That maidens’ eyes stuck over all his face:’ That’s right, a pretty boy. I’m not sure if she ever caught his name. Anyway, it was apparently the lad’s tears that convinced her of his sincerity, and won her over in the end. Now she’s lamenting that.

That should clarify what today’s Totally Random line is about. Now, don’t you agree that it’s a good line? I think it’s a really good line.

 O father, what a hell of witchcraft lies

In the small orb of one particular tear!

One tear!

No pic needed, eh?

 

--bear your body more seeming, Audrey:--

 -Touchstone

 As You Like It                 Act V Scene iv, Line 70

 

In today’s line we have a situation where Touchstone is talking to Duke Senior and Jaques, and he interrupts himself very briefly to tell Audrey to straighten up, then immediately goes back to his main conversation. Let me show you what the line, in total, looks like (and I’m not quite sure what the main conversation is all about: something about a seventh cause).

 Jaques:           But for the seventh cause: how did you find the quarrel on the seventh cause?

Touchstone:   Upon a lie seven times removed:-- bear your body more seeming, Audrey:--as thus, sir. I did dislike the cut of a certain courtier’s beard. He sent me word, if I said his beard was not cut well…

 And Touchstone goes on and on about the beard and the courtier and cutting the beard and so on, and so on. But the point is that today’s line is a sort of random six words in the middle of a fifteen line rant about something that has nothing to do with Audrey or how Audrey is composing herself. It’s a funny little convention that we probably all have experienced. Perhaps the best example would be when you’re talking to your friend about dinner last night whilst at the same time taking care of a small child.

Well we had just been seated when the waiter showed up to take our order:-- Johnny, get your finger out of your nose!-- and I said to him, well we just got here and I haven’t even seen the menu yet…..

Get the picture?

So, you can put the front windshield down on this vehicle:--yeah, that's a lion, he won't bother you:-- and just as easily put it back up. It's handy sometime to drive with it down as I think you'll see.

Get the picture?

 

That's a brave fellow; but he’s vengeance proud, and loves not the common people.

 

-First Officer

 

Coriolanus                      Act II Scene ii, Line 5

 

This is the beginning of a short conversation between two men talking about Coriolanus. It’s really good, and once again highlights what a great play this is for generating discussions about twenty-first century politics. The whole conversation is only thirty-five lines long, and it cuts right to the heart of what this play is all about, and to some extent what politics is all about. I had a little bit of a hard time completely understanding what they were saying, so I decided to go through the exercise of summarizing each line in my own words.

 

First, here’s a link to the text. You should read it; again, only thirty-five lines.

 

And then here’s my summary of it.

First Officer:         He’s a brave fellow, but he’s proud with a vengeance and has no love for the common man.

Second Officer:     A lot of great men have flattered the people without loving them, and there have been many great men that the people have loved without knowing why they loved them. Therefore, if they love a leader for no known reason, they can hate for no known reason. Therefore, if Coriolanus doesn’t care whether they love or hate him, it shows that he’s aware of their fickle tastes, and since he’s a noble guy he lets them see that he knows they’re fickle.

First Officer:         If he didn’t care whether they love or hate him, he should appear to be indifferent, but he seems more determined to get their hate and leaves nothing undone to let them know how he is superior to them. Now, to appear to dislike the people is as bad as that which he will not do, which is to appear to like them, i.e., flatter them for their love.

Second Officer:     Listen, he has earned his country’s respect, and worked hard to rise to his position, unlike the other politicians who have gotten where they are with no work but simply by telling the people what they want to hear. He has shown them his worth through actions, such that for them to be silent and not give him credit for this is an insult. In other words, anyone else hearing about this would be quick to rebuke the people who were silent.

First Officer:        No more then; he is a worthy fellow.

And that’s it. It kind of makes me want to only vote for people who have worked for the benefit of the country outside of politics, like Coriolanus did serving in the military.

It's just a thought.

No pic today, just the thought.

 

 

All things we ordained festival

Turn from their office to black funeral:

Our instruments to melancholy bells;

Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast;

Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change;

Our bridal flowers serve for a burial corse;

And all things change them to the contrary.

 

-Capulet

 

Romeo and Juliet            Act IV Scene v, Line 87

 

As I was saying, it’s good to spend some time reflecting on well wrought verse: sometimes concentrating on the form, sometimes the content, and sometimes just on where the lines take you in your personal reflections. I find that the latter is almost always where I end up.

        For the gift of the art, whether live, drawn, or written,

Is not how it looks in the book where it’s sittin’,

It’s whether or not it gets up off the page,

Or the screen, or the easel, or down from the stage,

And reaches right up, and jumps into your life,

And affects how you look at your friend, dad, or wife.

That’s a couple of lines that are not Will’s. Believe it or not, I do read stuff besides Shakespeare (but don’t ask my wife; she doesn’t believe that to be true).

See? Not a Shakespeare on the shelf! I am just so diversified!

 

Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury?

-Henry

King Henry the Fifth              Act I Scene ii, Line 1

 

This is the opening line of the scene, and also the early part of the play. Henry is looking for Canterbury to ask him if he, Henry, has a just claim to the throne of France. Canterbury will give him a very long-winded, sixty-three line answer. He could have just said ‘yes’. Another classic example of Long Story Short-Tony (see yesterday’s post).

Since we're talking about Long Story Short-Tony for two days in a row, I'll give you a pic of my socks for two days in a row. No need to thank me.

 

My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou remember’st

Since once I sat upon a promontory,

And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin’s back,

Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,

That the rude sea grew civil at her song,

And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,

To hear the sea maid’s music.

 

-Oberon

 

A Midsummer Night’s Dream         Act II Scene i, Line 149

 

This is part of a larger thought that Oberon is having about how he wants Puck to fetch him a certain flower so that he can cast a love spell on Titania. In fact, these seven lines are a bit ‘long story, short-Tony’ in that they are really superfluous to what Oberon is talking about. However, unlike Tony’s rambling of unneeded detail, I rarely find Will’s extra detail to be rambling or unneeded. I think the language, and the picture that he paints with these seven lines is well worth the time spent reading/hearing them. 

How about you?

Do you like these socks? Well, I think I've brought up long story, short-Tony before, but here goes again. Tony would tell stories about something that he experienced, and he'd sprinkle in the most mind-numbing level of detail that had nothing to do with the story; like these socks. His story could be about a speeding ticket he'd received, and he would add in a very detailed description of the socks he was wearing at the time. It would make his story really long, and all the while he'd be repeating the phrase 'long story short'. Of course, I'd be saying to myself 'There's nothing short about this story, Tony!'

Come to think of it, long story short, maybe I spend too much time talking about Tony?