I cannot help it now,

Unless, by using means, I lame the foot

Of our design.

-Tullus Aufidius

Coriolanus                      Act IV, Scene vii, Line 6

This is the short scene where Tullus Aufidius and one of his lieutenants are discussing the fact that Coriolanus is doing a really good job of leading the Volscians in battle; maybe a little too good. The lieutenant has remarked that

  Your soldiers use him as the grace ‘fore meat,

  Their talk at table, and their thanks at end.

And that’s what Tullus is referencing in Today’s Totally Random Line.

BTW, I’ve blogged on the Your soldiers use him lines earlier. If you want, you can see that post here

Totally Random Daily Shakespeare

Meantime, let’s just say that lame the foot of our design is a good phrase. And, as I’ve noted regarding previous lines, one that we can easily adopt. 

        Well sure Hank, I could easily trash my opponent in tomorrow night’s debate, but if we’re trying to run on a platform of a kinder, gentler campaign, wouldn’t that just lame the foot of our design?

There, how about that?

And, here's a pic of...wait a minute, that's not a foot! Well, there are some feet of the legs of the table. Maybe? 

Anyway, earlier this morning I was noticing the way the early sun was highlighting some of the wood in the kitchen table and chairs, and I thought it was somewhat striking, so I took a picture of it. Then, just now I took a picture of my foot for this post. Trust me, this is a much nicer picture. And if my goal is to get readers for this blog, posting that pic of my foot would just lame the foot of my design.

Oooh, good one!

 

I’ll bear him no more sticks, I’ll follow thee,

Thou wondrous man.

 

-Caliban

The Tempest                            Act II, Scene ii, Line 169

Caliban has just met Trinculo and Stefano. He’s feeling the effects of some liquor that he’s just drank, the first that he has ever tasted, and he’s decided that he'll bear no more sticks for Prospero. He has chosen the wondrous man Stefano as his new master.

This, of course, is a page from The Rarer Action, our retelling of the The Tempest. Every time I pull this book out and look at it I'm greatly pleased with how well it came out, and quite displeased with how poorly we worked at selling it. Perhaps I need to follow a new master if I want to get anywhere with the second book? On the other hand, how well did following a new master work out for Caliban? No, really: how well did it work out? It's a fair question. Think about it. 

 

Proportionable to the enemy

-Bushy

King Richard II                       Act II, Scene ii, Line 124

Proportionable gets the red underline from Word, but if you look it up, it’s there. It’s the archaic term for proportional, which doesn’t get the red underline.

Now, today’s line is part of a longer sentence, but I thought it an odd little line, so I wanted to present it alone. And note, it’s perfect iambic pentameter:

pro POR, tion A, ble TO, the EN, e MY.

Perfect.

Anyway, here’s the full thought from Bushy.

        The wind rains fair for news to go to Ireland,

But none returns. For us to levy power

Proportionable to the enemy

Is all unpossible.

Bushy, Bagot, and Green are Richard’s boys. He left them in London whilst he went to Ireland to quell the rebellion. Now Bolingbroke – the future Henry IV – has returned from exile and it looks like mostly everyone is going over to his side. Consequently, these three fellows are trying to decide what to do. Bushy’s observations are quite accurate: they have no news from Richard in Ireland, and there’s no way they’re going to be able to raise a power to hold back Bolingbroke.

What to do? What to do?   

Bushy, Bagot, and Green: sounds like names you'd find being used by another English writer, eh? 

Perhaps one who claimed to not care much for Shakespeare.

 

 

                                                     At this time
We sweat and bleed: the friend hath lost his

 friend;

And the best quarrels, in the heat, are cursed

By those that feel their sharpness:--

 

-Edmund

King Lear                        Act V, Scene iii, Line 56

 

Edmund is talking about the situation that exists after a battle is done, and a battle has indeed just been fought. It really is a very fine couple of lines, and it is an apt description, except for the fact that Edmund has no friends and is probably not experiencing any of this sharpness that he speaks of. He’s just saying this to put off Albany when the latter tells Edmund to present the prisoners, Lear and Cordelia. Edmund doesn’t want to present them, because he’s just sent them off to be surreptitiously murdered. 

 

Look you now, he’s out of his guard already; unless you laugh and minister occasion to him, he is gagged.

 

-Malvolio

Twelfth Night                  Act I, Scene v, Line 85

 

Okay, this is a hard one, I’ll give you that. Here’s Malvolio’s whole reply: three sentences. Wait – ‘reply to what’, you ask? Well, Olivia and Feste the fool are talking. Then the fool says to Malvolio that whilst Sir Toby (a character in the play who’s not present in this scene) knows that he, the fool, is no genius, neither would Sir Toby bet that you, Malvolio, are not a fool. Olivia asks Malvolio what he thinks about that, and that is what Malvolio is replying to. 

Now, here’s his full reply.

 

I marvel your ladyship takes delight in such a barren rascal: I saw him put down the other day with an ordinary fool that has no more brain than a stone.

Look you now, he’s out of his guard already; unless you laugh and minister occasion to him, he is gagged.

I protest, I take these wise men, that crow so at these set kind of fools, no better than the fools’ zanies.

 

Well the first sentence is easy. Malvolio is just saying that he’s surprised that Oliva gets so much enjoyment out of the fool, a fellow who’s not as bright as a real fool.

The second sentence, today’s Totally Random Line, is a little tougher. Malvolio is saying ‘Look at him, he’s caught off his guard already; if you don’t pay attention to him and laugh at him, he’ll have nothing at all to say.’

Malvolio concludes with the thought that those people who enjoy and speak highly of fools are no better than fools themselves. This would seem to be a bit insulting to Olivia, who is Malvolio’s boss. But who am I to say.

No more brain than a stone.

Well, this stone is obviously quite smart; it's reading Shakespeare.

 

I pray thee, give it to me.

 

-Oberon

A Midsummer Night’s Dream         Act II, Scene i, Line 248

 

Oberon talking to Puck, asking him to give him the flower that he sent him to find. It’s the flower that can make people fall in love with the first person they see. Oberon’s going to have Puck use it on Demetrius, but Puck uses it on Lysander in error (or do I have that backwards?), and Oberon’s going to use it himself on Titania.

There’s some really nice verse following this line where Oberon describes how he will find Titania. I know I always dis this play, but I like the twenty or so lines that Oberon and Puck finish this scene with.

Today is Walker P.'s birthday. I almost forgot.  He is twenty years old today. The last time that I was not parenting a child in the teens or younger was March 25, 1982. And yet today I feel the strains of parenting as sharply as any day. Isn’t that…something. March, 1982. It was a different world then, inside of me and outside of me. When I dwell on it it’s overwhelming.

I pray thee, give it me. Give me what? Strength. Peace? Of course, I have both of these; I just need to find them within, not in some magic flower. Or perhaps remember that all flowers, and so much more in the world, are magic - and dwell on that. 

And hence, Calvin. 

Be Calvin.

  

When there is nothing living but thee, thou shalt be welcome. I had rather be a beggar’s dog than Apemantus.

 

-Timon

Timon of Athens                      Act IV, Scene iii, Line 355

 

Not a particularly welcoming statement, is it? FYI, Timon is speaking to Apemantus, addressing him as the third person.

This is a good conversation. It’s a pretty long scene (as you see, we’re on line 355) and in it Timon talks to several different people who show up at his cave. Right now it’s Apemantus. Will comes up with interesting ideas to play with. This is a guy that went from loving everyone to realizing that most of his friends were not friends at all. Now he hates all mankind, and Will is exploring the different facets of this state, mostly through Timon’s interactions with different types of people. This line is part of a fairly long conversation with Apemantus, a guy who’s been pretty much fed up with mankind from the start.

I wanted to listen to/read this scene, or if not the whole scene, at least this part where he’s talking to Apemantus. I think I would need to listen to/read this whole conversation to appreciate this line. But I’m afraid I just don’t have time for that this morning.

Ah, I’m no better than a beggar’s dog.

I think today's line would make an interesting Welcome mat. What do you think?