Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

 

Madam, be still, -- with reverence may I say;

For every word you speak in his behalf

Is slander to your royal dignity.

 

-Earl of Warwick

King Henry the Sixth Part II         Act III, Scene ii, Line 208

 

Well, it's Saturday morning, and this line would require a bit of reading. So let’s look at it with zero context and perhaps comment on the words we have here.

Hmmm. Madam be still. Sounds like he's saying shut up, but still trying to express some reverence for her. And trying to shift all of the problem on ‘his’, whoever ‘his’ is.

I think that’s all I've got this morning. You see, this Totally Random thing just doesn’t come out that great every time, does it?

And that’s okay.

This here is a hotdog in a... well I'm not sure what that is, but it's definitely not a hotdog roll. No worries: it was all okay in the end. 

 

 

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

 

Yet sometimes ‘Tarquin’ was pronounced plain,

But through his teeth, as if the name he tore.

 

-Narrator

Lucrece                                          Line 1786

 

Lucrece has just killed herself after having been raped by Tarquin. Her father and husband, Collantine have come upon her and are both, understandably, quite upset. You need a few lines from the preceding stanza that come directly before this to give meaning to today’s line. Collantine has begun to speak...

 

                        But through his lips do throng

Weak words, so thick come in his poor heart’s aid,

That no man could distinguish what he said.

Yet sometimes ‘Tarquin’ was pronounced plain,

But through his teeth, as if the name he tore.

 

So Collantine is muttering something about Tarquin. All bad things I’m guessing, since Collantine knows that the guy raped his wife and was responsible for her suicide.

I think we can safely say that this poem qualifies as a tragedy.

I really couldn't think of any appropriate pic for today. I hope you understand.

 

 

La fin couronne les oeuvres.

Dies

 

-Clifford

King Henry the Sixth Part II         Act V, Scene ii, Line 28

 

So old Clifford gives us his last words, and then dies.

I wonder if I’ll lapse into French, or perhaps German, for my last words. And what will those words be? And for that matter, what the heck did Clifford say? I looked up those two words and they mean crown and works. The end of the crown’s works? I guess, maybe. But I think there’s gotta be a better translation. And I can pretty much assure you that those will not be my last words.

I think about the future a lot, but I don’t spend much time considering what my last words will be. The way I’ve seen people die in real life, they mostly drift off so that there really are no last words.

I think some of us might remember the last thing that someone said to us, even though they were not that person’s last words. The last thing I remember my dad saying to me was ‘I’m glad you’re here, Pete.’ So those are pretty good last words to remember. In fact, I can’t think of any better last words to remember someone by.

 

Here's a pic of my dad at the other end of his life. That's him standing with his mom and little sister around this time of year 91 years ago. 

Time is a bugger, isn't it.

 

That such a slave as this should wear a sword,

Who wears no honesty.

 

 -Kent

 King Lear               Act II, Scene ii, Line 116

 

So, where are we today? Kent’s about to be put in the stocks for being all pissed off. He just can’t stop ranting. Just looking at Oswald has got him all wound up. You can look at a couple of previous posts on this scene here, here, and here to give you a little more background, but the bottom line is that Kent just can’t shut himself up. He continues ranting against Cornwall and the others until they end putting him up in the stocks. 

Talk less. A line from the play Hamilton which might have served Kent well at this point. Talk less. 

I find that to be good advice for myself in many situations, and I try to follow it when I can; not always, but often. I can’t remember the last time I just went off uncontrollably… oh wait, actually I can remember. It was a few years ago with my next-door neighbor about the property line. He had just paid a surveyor to find out that he was wrong about the line, and our discussion quickly devolved into me yelling at him uncontrollably. Yup, I went full Kent on him. Luckily, I didn’t end up in the stocks. Luckily, I have Patrice, who saved me by intervening. Good thing too. Oooof. 

Yes - Talk less. And yell and swear less too. 

This, believe it or not, is a pic of the aforementioned property line. There's a little bit of pink ribbon (See it? It's in the middle of the picture.) attached to the stake that the surveyors placed here. So I knew exactly where the line was, and StickBoy did too. Oh boy, I'm getting riled up just thinking about this. Okay, never mind. Talk less; or just stop talking. 

Goooooosfraba.

 

Arm, gentlemen, to arms! For I have thrown

A brave defiance in King Henry’s teeth,

And Westmoreland, that was engag’d, did bear it,

Which cannot choose but bring him quickly on.

  

-Douglas

 King Henry the Fourth Part I      Act V, Scene ii, Line 44

 

To arms! To arms. King Henry gave these guys (the rebels), including, Douglas the chance for a pardon, but they don’t believe him, so they’re just gonna fight it out.

He threw a brave defiance in King Henry’s teeth. That there is some pretty nice imagery, if you're into that sort of thing.

Anyway, no sense trying to talk it out when you can just fight. Right?(That's sarcasm, in case you missed it.)

I didn't have any pertinent pic for today, so I'm giving you this one which I thought was kind of nice.

This is the spout I wear on weekends to keep my hair out of my eyes. However, I just got a haircut this morning, so now it's not long enough to spout. 

No more spouts for a while. 

 

Were it not better,

Because that I am more than common tall,

That I did suit me all points like a man?

A gallant curtle-axe upon my thigh,

A boar-spear in my hand; and- in my heart

Lie there what a hidden woman’s fear there will-

We’ll have a swashing and a martial outside;

As many other mannish cowards have

That do outface it with their semblances.

 

 

-Rosalind

 

As You Like It                                Act I, Scene iii, Line 119

 

Yup, that’s right, I gave you the whole paragraph instead of a line. But it’s pretty short, and pretty understandable. Rosalind’s just been banished from the court, so she and her cousin are talking about taking off on their own. Celia suggests that they give themselves a dirty appearance so as not to be taken advantage of since they will be two women traveling alone. Rosalind has a better idea:

Wouldn’t it be better, since I’m so tall, that I disguise myself as a man? An axe on my thigh and a spear in my hand, and, regardless of the woman’s fears in my heart, I’ll have a swaggering and valiant appearance; much like many cowardly men who have a manly look to them.

That’s my paraphrasing of today’s lines. It just seemed that whole little speech was better intact. Also, regardless of the fact that I paraphrased it for you, the original text is pretty understandable to me. What do you think?

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a curtle-axe (because I don't know what a curtle-axe is), but it's about the right size to wear upon my thigh. My favorite son-in-law found it for me in a little flea market store outside Nashville. The funny thing is that it's imprinted with the Boy Scout logo and the manufacturer, Bridgeport Howe Mfg Corp, Bridgeport, CT. Since I was a Boy Scout in Bridgeport, CT, Jeff rightly assumed that I would want it. 

Just the same, I probably won't be wearing it on my thigh anytime real soon. 

(postscript: I just looked up curtle-axe in my Shakespeare Glossary and apparently it's a cutlass, a sword. Since I don't have a cutlass, I'm sticking with my Bridgeport made, Jeff discovered, hatchet.)

 

 

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.