Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

 What must the king do now? Must he submit?

The king shall do it: must he be deposed?

The king shall be contented: must he lose

The name of king? O’ God’s name, let it go:

I’ll give my jewels for a set of beads,

My gorgeous palace for a hermitage,

My gay apparel for an almsman’s gown,

My figured goblets for a dish of wood,

My scepter for a palmer’s walking-staff,

My subjects for a pair of carved saints,

A little little grave, an obscure grave;--

 

-Richard

King Richard the Second       Act III, Scene iii, Line 146

 

Yeah, that’s a little bit long, but I could have gone further. He goes on to talk more about the grave, and then he gets into the tears; so I stopped here.

Context: Bolingbroke (soon to be Henry IV) has come to demand his land and inheritance back, along with the repeal of his banishment. He claims that he will be a faithful subject to King Richard. Richard knows full well that he does not have the power to resist Bolingbroke’s demands, and he also knows that once he gives into these demands he is signaling his weakness He knows that by giving in to these demands he is basically giving up the kingship, because irrespective of what Bolingbroke says, everyone knows that he intends to usurp Richard’s crown. Today’s lines are Richard’s reflection on this inevitable outcome.

Richard does a fair bit of reflection in this play. This speech strikes me as similar to the one near the end of the play, just before he dies in prison

        I have been studying how I may compare

        This prison where I live unto the world:

        And, for because the world is populous,

        And here is not a creature but myself,

        I cannot do it; -- yet I’ll hammer it out.

I really love yet I’ll hammer it out. I’ve covered that prison soliloquy twice before: here and here if you’re interested.

Anyway, they are both very similar speeches, very resigned to accepting what’s to come, very fatalistic. Perhaps I relate to these lines because I feel this type of resignation myself quite a bit. And yet, I’ll hammer it out.

In a very literal sense, this is what I've been hammering stuff out with for the past nearly fifty years. I'm not talking about a hammer, I'm talking about this specific hammer. Yes, this specific 16 oz, steel shaft, Stanely hammer. At least, that's what I think it is, but I looked really, really, closely at it just now and I can't find even a trace of manufacturer's markings on it. It's too worn. Anyway, I worked with a carpenter/housebuilder named Lou Forsell for a summer back in 1979. I started the summer with a wood handled hammer, but Lou told me to get a steel shaft because it would hold up to much more pounding and abuse than the wood handled one would. Well, I got this guy, and I've used it ever since. And I've used it A LOT. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I own anything today that I've owned as long as this guy, or gotten as much use out of. What an interesting thought. 

So, thanks for the good advice, Lou.

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

A villain kills my father; and for that,

I, his sole son, do this same villain send

To Heaven.

 

-Hamlet

Hamlet                    Act III, Scene iii, Line 77

 

And we start the new year with two guys; one trying to figure out how he’s going to get to heaven after all the crimes he’s committed, and the other trying to figure out how to best kill the first to ensure that he doesn’t go to heaven. Ha!

Whilst it sounds a bit, ummm, what’s the word? It’s not evil, but it’s something with a strong negative connotation. The word escapes me, but my thought is that whilst this description of the scene makes it sound a bit evil, this is a very good scene for a number of reasons. In it, we find Claudius alone, lamenting his situation with his ‘O, my offence is rank…’ soliloquy, followed by Hamlet coming upon him unobserved. Hamlet sees Claudius on his knees and wants to kill him but talks himself out of it, telling himself that if he does it now, whilst Claudius is praying, the latter might go to heaven. Hamlet wants to send him straight to hell, so he walks away.

Of course, Hamlet (the play and the person) is filled with thought preventing action. And there’s a lot of talk about this throughout the play. At one point Claudius says ‘That we would do, we should do when we would.’ We had this on a recent Random Line. Remember? And of course there’s that part of Hamlet’s most famous soliloquy about the will to act being ‘sicklied o’er with the pale cast of Thought’.

Yeah, Will has a lot to say about taking or, more often, not taking action when perhaps we should. It’s a pretty interesting thought to start the new year with, don’t you think?

I think I might have used this pic before, but it's an appropriate one for today. Why Because it's a pic of me around the time I would have been reciting my memorized, aforementioned 'O my offence is rank...' speech in Jay Riedy's British Lit class in 1974. 

Yup, that's right, 1974. That was a few old years ago.

Happy New Year.

 

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

Why, what an intricate impeach this is!

I think you have all drunk of Circe’s cup.

If here you housed him, here he would have been;

If he were mad, he would not plead so coldly:-

You say he dined at home; the goldsmith here

Denies that saying. - Sirrah, what say you?

 

-Duke of Ephesus

 The Comedy of Errors          Act V, Scene i, Line 272

  

And we end the year with a bunch of confused people in the last scene of Comedy. Everyone is making different claims, and the Duke is trying to sort it all out.

An impeach is a charge or accusation.

Circe’s cup refers to the cup of potion she tried to give Odysseus to bring him under her spell.

The Duke is talking about Antipholus of Ephesus here, and he ends by turning to Dromio of Ephesus for his input: Sirrah, what say you? Dromio contradicts everything, declaring that Antipholus dined at the Porpentine Inn.

And that pretty much sums up The Comedy Of Errors. No worries though, everything’s going to be cleared up about thirty lines down when the other Ephesus and Dromio show up, finally in the same spot with the first Dromio and Ephesus. Phew!

And my takeaway today? The Porpentine Inn. That’s an old spelling of porcupine, and I love it. Porpentine! Yes, that’s right: My takeaway is Porpentine. Go figure.

And today's pic is brother Dave and his beautiful wife Kathleen. Why this pic? Well, it's because Dave brought us the unforgettable line, 'Rise and shine, Porpentine!'

Actually, Dave used Porcupine, but I'm sure he won't mind the transposition.

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

 It shall be done.

  

-All

 King Henry the Sixth Part II         Act IV, Scene vii, Line 112

 

 Well that’s fairly declarative. It shall be done. No ifs, ands, or buts. It shall be done. Wow. Context aside, that’s a pretty good Totally Random Line. Don’t you agree?

Simple as that.

It shall be done.

And this will be called the Baobab Tree. 

It shall be done.

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

 What! Shall we have incision? Shall we imbrue?

[Snatching up his sword]

Then death rock me asleep, abridge my doleful days!

Why, then, let grievous, ghastly, gaping wounds

Untwine the Sisters Three! Come, Atropos, I say!

 

-Pistol

 King Henry the Fourth Part II      Act II, Scene iv, Line 195

 

Pistol is a bit of a loose cannon here. He’s drunk in a scene at the Inn with Pistol, Bardolph, and Falstaff, among others. But enough of that.

To think, I started this blog in August 2016, and today is December 29, 2022. That’s over six years. I’m thinking that this blog has become my Watts Tower. That’s funny, I never thought of that before. My Watts Tower. LOL.

Oh world, thy slippery turns. I wonder if anyone will come to see my Tower. It doesn’t stick out like the ones in Watts, so it could easily go undiscovered. But did Mr Watts make his tower for anyone other than himself? I don’t know. Why should I care? Rounded with a sleep.

So, why am I building this tower? Well, it’s just that some of Will’s stuff is just, um, effable. He’s managed to make the ineffable effable. More people should see that, among other things.

Mr Rodia saw things that no one else saw in pieces of trash, and he used it to create Towers. If I were to say that I saw in Will’s stuff something that no one else sees, that would certainly not be true. I do see what many see, and have seen, but it is something that the vast majority of humanity has not seen; is not even fully aware that it exists. 

Hmmmmm. 

Watts Towers?

The Official Watts Towers Arts Center Campus

In case you don't know what I'm talking about

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

 Why, what a wasp-stung and impatient fool

Art thou to break into this woman’s mood,

Tying thine ear to no tongue but thiue own.

  

-Northumberland

 King Henry the Fourth Part I       Act I, Scene iii, Line 235

 

So Hotspur is on a rant against King Henry. Worcester keeps trying to interrupt to get his two cents in, but finally he gives up and says,

Farewell, kinsman: I’ll talk to you

When you are better temper’d to attend.

And that’s when Northumberland pipes up with Today’s Totally Random Line, which is basically saying to Worcester

Stop being an impatient old lady, and listen to someone besides yourself.

And Worcester does. He doesn’t leave and he waits until Hotspur is done, and then he lays out his plan for their plot against the King. Everyone likes the plan, and away we go.

I'm using this pic because it has the word Scottish in it, in homage to the Scottish prisoners that are the focal point of today's scene. Exactly what this thing in the picture is - the DEAS, the CATH, and all that - well, that's anybody's guess. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

Prospero-
    Dost thou hear?

Miranda-
                       Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.

The Tempest                   Act I, Scene ii, Line 105

 

So that is today’s line(s).

Now, I think that you’re probably not going to be having anyone say to you ‘Dost thou hear?’ But you might have someone say, ‘Do you hear what I’m saying to you?’ Or something of that ilk. And if they do, here’s your perfect reply.
‘Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.’

Perfect! Now don’t forget it, because that reply will really frost ‘em.

Speaking of frost --- I can't get these guys out of my sauna. I figured they would either get tired of it or melt. But no, they just love it. Guess I better turn up the heat. That'll de-frost 'em.