Your honour’s players, hearing your amendment,

Are come to play a pleasant comedy;

 

-Servant

The Taming Of The Shrew              Induction, Scene ii, Line 130

 

We shall ne’er be younger.

That right there is not today’s line, it’s the last line of the scene, and it reflects the way I often feel these days. I liked the line, so there it is.

Anyway, this is Scene Two of the Induction, and today’s lines are, I suppose, as much for the audience in the theater as they are for Christopher Sly, the character that the servant is addressing. Yes, the word for this ‘Pre-Act I’ is Induction. If you’re thinking “Why aren’t they using the word Introduction?” well, you’re probably not alone; that’s a good question.

Regardless, what to say about this line? 

Well, the sun is poking thru to the front lawn right now, through the trees on the eastern hill across the street. It’s leaving a patch of a sunbeam just the other side of the river birch. If Nutsy were out on the front lawn (which she never is), she would probably find that patch of a sunbeam to sit in.

And that’s what I’m thinking about right now, which has absolutely nothing to do with this line from the induction of The Taming Of The Shrew.

Oh well. That kind of off topic thinking happens. Doesn't it.

Here's the view I'm talking about, from the chair where I sit most mornings. But this picture was taken on a different day, so that there's no sunbeam to be seen here. That's the river birch in the middle of the picture, to the right of the mailbox. The back of that house across the street faces due east. 

And that's all I've got to say about that. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

  

But if the first heir of my invention prove deform’d , I shall be sorry it had so  noble  a godfather:

 

-Venus and Adonis

William Shakespeare                                  Dedication

 

Well now I certainly hope you’ll agree with me that we have something a bit different today. We’ve randomly picked the first page after the end of King Henry the Eighth, and that is the last play in my book. The first work to follow is the poem Venus and Adonis, and line 80 on this page (80 being today’s random page line) falls right in the middle of Will’s dedication of the poem to The Right Honourable Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southhampton, and Baron of Titchfield. Apparently, Mr. Wriothesley was a patron of Will. What the exact nature of his patronage was, I don’t know, but based on this dedication Will seems to be intent on buttering the Earl up quite a bit. The first heir of Will’s invention would be the poem that follows this dedication, and of course the godfather is the Earl.

So, you might say that this is not a line from one of Will’s works, but I think we could argue that point. Since I don't care to argue, nor am I inclined to type out the whole dedication, I am going to give you the dedication as today’s pic. 

As usual, no need to thank me.

And there you go.

 

 

He seems to be a stranger; but his present is

A wither’d branch, that’s only green at top;

The motto, ‘In hac spe vivo.’

 

-Thaisa

Pericles                           Act II, Scene ii, Line 45

 

Let’s see, Pericles is traveling, he gets shipwrecked and washed up on the shores of a strange land (with his armor, of course) and immediately decides to take part in a knights tournament, where the winner will get the hand of the King’s daughter. In this scene the knights are parading in front of King Simonides and his daughter Thaisa. She describes each knight in turn as they pass the reviewing stand, and Today’s Totally Random Line is her description of the last knight, who just happens to be Pericles. The motto, ‘In hac spe vivo’ translates to ‘In this hope I live.’ At least, according to G.B. Harrison that’s what it translates to. If I’m correct, the wither’d branch and the motto are seen on Pericle’s shield (which must have washed up on shore with his armor).

So, what’s it all mean Basil? I suppose the hope is in the green leaves that exist on the wither’d, dying branch, green leaves signifying life? That seems to make sense.

Here you go- perfect example. You can see all the dead branches, but there's still live branches in there too. Well, I cleared out all the dead and it turned out that there's two separate rhododendron bushes in there: one mostly live, one all dead. I got rid of the dead one, and now the live one looks like it might do okay. 

How about that!

 

 

If I begin the battery once again,

I will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur

Till in her ashes she lie buried.

 

-Henry

King Henry the Fifth                      Act III, Scene iii, Line 8

 

King Henry is outside the gates of the French town of Harfleur, talking to the governor of the town (you’d think it would be a mayor, but what do I know). He is telling him that if he surrenders his town, the English will show mercy. He is also telling him that if he makes Henry take the town by force, Henry will not attempt to hold back his men from pillaging. Henry goes into significant detail as to what that pillaging will entail.  

         The gates of mercy shall be all shut up;

        And the flesht soldier, -rough and hard of heart,-

        In liberty of bloody hand shall range

        With conscience wide as hell; mowing like grass

        Your fresh-fair virgins and your flowering infants.

 

He goes on, array’d in flames…waste and desolation…heads dasht to walls…infants spitted on spikes for thirty-four more lines, ending of course with a rhyming couplet. By the end of his speech I’m shouting at the governor Surrender the town! Surrender the town! Thankfully, he does. I hope the French were good to their word!

So what do we have here, and how could it possibly be relevant. Well, let me tell you. The relevance is war, and the ravages of war. I think it's safe to say that's a takeaway from today's line. On a similar note, owing to the news of Russians fleeing Putin's new draft (presumably to escape being involved in the ravages of war), I thought it would be interesting to do a little research on the fellow who's name I bear, who supposedly fled Lithuania in the late 1800's, similar to today's Russians, to escape being conscripted into the Russian army (and avoid being involved in the ravages of war). The first thing I needed was a date as to when John Blagys did this fleeing. Luckily my sister has spent the time working on this stuff and I was able to do a screen print from an Ancestry.com page of a 1910 census page. There he is, at the top of the page, and if you zoom in you will see that column 15 is Year of Immigration to the United States. John put in 1891. Now I have to do a little history research and see if the family story makes sense based on what was going on in Lithuania and Russia in that year. 

Wish me luck. 

 

 

What’s the matter,

That in these several places of the city

You cry against the noble senate, who,

Under the gods, keep you in awe, which else

Would feed on one another?

 

-Caius Marcius

Coriolanus                      Act I, Scene i, Line 181

I’m not sure where to go with this. We’ve posted on this scene a few times already, and Coriolanus is a complex character. But then, who of Will’s characters isn’t?

How’s about this: rather than talk about it, why don’t we take a look/listen? I’ve found this scene on YouTube. It’s the Ralph Fiennes version and it’s fabulous. They’ve set the tale in the twenty-first century, but they’ve kept Will’s words, albeit abridged. In fact, this first scene is severely shortened, but Today’s Totally Random Line made the cut. It’s right past the two minute mark in the video.

Check it out and let me know what you think. I think Fiennes is brilliant.

 

(139) The Tragedy of Coriolanus - Act 1, Scene 1 - YouTube

 

 

Hold; get you gone, be strong and prosperous

In this resolve: I’ll send a friar with speed

To Mantua, with my letters to thy lord.

 

-Friar Laurence

Romeo and Juliet            Act IV, Scene i, Line 122

 

Good ol’ Friar Laurence. We’ve talked about him before; a piece of work. He’s setting Juliet up right here with his infamous plot of faking her death so as to be able to get away with Romeo. And we all know how well that works out.

Not.

 

Oh my, two pics in a row of maps! Well, I like maps (if that wasn't already obvious). And this one (cut and pasted from Google Maps)  shows you the distance from Verona (upper center) to Mantua (it's down in the bottom left outlined in red - the word 'Mantua' is not on the map). You can see from the scale in the bottom right of the map that the distance from Verona to Mantua is about fifteen miles. So, do you think that Friar Knucklehead will get the message to Romeo in Mantua? No, of course he won't.

Oyy!

 

 

What, gone, my lord, and bid me not farewell!

 

-Duchess of Gloster

Henry the Sixth Part II           Act II, Scene iv, Line 85

 

And here’s Gloster’s reply to his wife as she is being led away to banishment on the Isle of Man. 

Witness my tears, I cannot stay to speak. 

He doesn’t appear to be all that upset that he’s probably seeing his wife for the last time ever. If I’m not mistaken though, Gloster will be meeting a bad end fairly soon, so don’t waste too much time thinking poorly of him. He’s not worth it.

Just in case you were wondering, the Isle of Man is that little island between the United Kingdom and Ireland. If you look close, you can see it, and right below it you can see 'Man'. 

So, you get your daily Shakespeare and a geography lesson, all in one today. No extra charge.