By love, who first did prompt me to inquire;

He lent me counsel, and I lent him eyes.

  

-Romeo

 Romeo and Juliet           Act II, Scene i, Line 122

 

Love lent him counsel. That’s really not much of an answer to Juliet’s very reasonable question,

By whose direction found’st thou out this place? 

This is the very, very famous balcony scene. Juliet was just  talking to herself (the even more famous O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?), and now she has just realized that Romeo is there in the dark, below her window. How the heck does he know where I live?, she's thinking.

Now, if you were to stop ten people randomly on the street and ask them to describe one scene from a Shakespeare play, this is probably the scene that nine of them would describe. Heck, it’s probably the only scene that nine of them would know. Sure, most of them would know the lines ‘To be, or not to be…’, but they wouldn’t know what that scene is. It is this scene that is probably the most famous, well-known scene in Shakespeare, perhaps in all of drama. And what is it a scene of? If written in modern times, this might be called a scene about a peeping tom or a stalker. No, really. He ran into the girl at a dance earlier that evening, became infatuated with her, and now he’s outside her bedroom window in the middle of the night. Right?

Of course, that’s not the way it’s playing out here. She’s as in love with him as he of her, and pretty happy that he’s there. Go figure.

I have found that the plot lines of Will’s plays do, sometimes, seem to stretch the limits credibility. And yet, every time I say that, I end up finding a credible example in real life of the supposedly incredible story that he painted. No, I don’t have one of those examples for you this morning. And yet, I know it will eventually come to me.

Therefore and ergo - Romeo is not a stalker.

Ok, what the heck is that a picture of? Well, this is the spot on the drainpipe next to my desk here in the cellar where I turned to see a pic of Juliet's balcony. Unfortunately, the pic is not there, and I'm not sure where it is. And that's too bad, because it would have been a really appropriate pic. Oh well, if I find it I'll let you know and then I'll give you a better description of it. In the meantime, be a little bit careful about hanging around outside girls' bedroom windows. In most cases, it's probably not a really great idea. 

 

 

Not long before your highness sped to France,

The duke being at the Rose, within the parish

Saint Lawrence Poultney, did of me demand

What was the speech among the Londoners

Concerning the French journey: I replied,

Men fear’d the French would prove perfidious,

To the king’s danger.

 

 -Surveyor

 King Henry the Eighth          Act I, Scene ii, Line 156

 

There’s a pretty long line for you, but only one sentence. We’ve covered this part of this scene before, here, here, and here. So I’m thinking there’s no need to rehash this.

What do you think?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Away, you starveling, you eel-skin, you dried neats-tongue, you bull’s-pizzle, you stock-fish,-- O, for breath to utter what is like thee!—You tailor’s-yard, you sheath, you bow-case, you vile standing-tuck,--

  

-Sir John Falstaff

 King Henry the Fourth Part I       Act II, Scene iv, Line 248

 

And thankfully Prince Henry interrupts Falstaff after ‘standing-tuck’ to set the story straight.

This is the scene where Prince Henry and Poinz meet up with Falstaff and the other three of his group at the inn. Falstaff is relating the tale of what happened to him and the other three. According to Fastaff, they had just finished robbing a group of travelers when they were set upon by a very large group of bandits who took all the loot. The Prince knows that it was he and Poinz wearing masks who were the ‘very large group’ of bandits, and he is calling Falstaff’s bluff. And this is why Falstaff is calling the Prince every name he can think of.

My favorite in this paragraph is bull-pizzle. It just sounds good. I don’t know what most of these insults mean, but I looked up pizzle and apparently it means penis. So that just makes it better. I may have to use this one, though I’m pretty sure that if I do the person will know that I’m not saying anything good about him.

Bull-pizzle.

I found the perfect parking spot this morning.

No bull-pizzle.

 

 

 Your eyes do make no coaches; in your tears

There is no certain princess that appears;

You’ll not be perjured, ‘tis a hateful thing;

Tush, none but minstrels like of sonneting!

 

-Berowne

Love’s Labour’s Lost             Act IV, Scene iii, Line 154

 

What have we here?

I’ve no idear.

 

 

Use it for my love some other way than swearing by it.

 

-Beatrice

Much Ado About Nothing     Act IV, Scene i, Line 327

 

Okay, here’s the deal, and I’ve said this before: although I do know some bits and bobs of this play, I don’t know the whole thing. I’ve never seen, read, or heard the whole thing. So this morning I googled Much Ado About Nothing summary, and I got a pretty good summary on litcharts.com. It’s about twelve paragraphs long, and, well, I still don’t know much about this play.

In the first place, there are too many characters. In the second place, everyone is pretending to be someone else. In the third place, actually I didn’t get to a third place. The play just seems like such a mish mosh.

I guess I’ll have to read, see, or hear it.

In the meantime, here's a pic of today's birthday boy. Phil is 64 today. That's him rockin' the plaid overalls in front of Jean. I think I might have used this pic recently, but it's a good one and the only one I could find of Phil. 

So, Happy Birthday Phil!

 

 

Not that I think you did not love your father;

But that I know love is begun by time;

And that I see, in passages of proof,

Time qualifies the spark and fire of it.

 

-Claudius

Hamlet                                   Act IV, Scene vii, Line 110

 

Today, Claudius and Laertes are plotting about what to do with Hamlet. Claudius is getting Laertes wound up about the fact that Hamlet killed his father. He asks Laertes if he really loved his father and Laertes answers,

Why ask you this?

At which point Claudius goes into his answer gives us Today's Totally Random Lines.
Then he gets in a long thing about the fact that they should act whilst they’re still hot about it.

There lives within the very flame of love
A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it;
And nothing is at a like goodness still;
For goodness, growing to a pleurisy,
Dies in his own too-much: that we would do,
We should do when we would; for this ‘would’ changes,
And hath abatements and delays as many
As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents;
And then this ‘should’ is like a spendthrift sigh,
That hurts by easing.

Claudius is saying a lot of the same stuff that Hamlet was saying about how the desire to act wanes when over time. I really like the that we would do, we should do when we would. Say that ten times fast. 

I gave you a lot of verbiage there, and a lot to digest. So here's a nice, peaceful and simple pic that you can enjoy without any heavy thinking; 

in fact, no need to think at all. 

 

 

Brown, madam: and her forehead

As low as she would wish it.

-Messenger

Antony and Cleopatra            Act III, Scene iii, Line 32

Today’s scene is where Cleopatra is learning some details about Octavia, the new wife that Antony has taken in Rome as part of some political wrangling. The messenger who’s bringing the news is the same guy who had previously brought the initial news that this wife existed, and he got his ears boxed soundly for that. So he’s pretty hesitant to come in front of Cleopatra in this scene.

Now she is asking questions about this new wife's appearance, and the messenger is being very careful and clever with his answers. He is making sure that everything he says about Octavia is not as good as Cleopatra. Ocatavia is shorter, has a deep voice, and a large round face. Her hair? Plain old brown, and with a low forehead no less. 

This guy knows what he’s doing, and he’s not about to get his ears boxed again. 

I'm pretty sure this is more or less what the messenger is trying to tell Cleopatra that Octavia looks like. 

Oh, he's a clever fellow this messenger.