Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

                 

The more degenerate and base art thou,

To make such means for her as thou hast done,

And leave her on such slight conditions.

-Duke

Two Gentlemen of Verona    Act V, Scene iv, Line 136

From what I can tell, he left her because she didn’t want him and wanted Valentine more. So how is that a slight condition, and how does that make him degenerate and base? I dunno, maybe I misunderstood it. I don’t know this play very well. I’ve only posted on it twelve times in the past six and a half years, and never on Act V. It’s not really high on my list of plays to see either.

The enclosed bridge in the background of this pic (taken in Manhattan this past weekend) made me think of the Bridge of Sighs in Venice. I've only seen pictures of that bridge, because I've never been to Venice. But Venice is very high on my list of places to see; much higher than Two Gentlemen of Verona.

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

                 

You know me well; an herein spend but time

To wind about my love with circumstance;

-Antonio

The Merchant of Venice                Act I, Scene i, Line 153

This is the first two lines of an eight-line reply that Antonio makes to Bassanio. I’m afraid that the entire eight lines in one sentence, so I’m going to have to give you the whole thing.

You know me well; and herein spend but time
To wind about my love with circumstance;
And out of doubt you do me now more wrong
In making question of my uttermost
Than if you had made waste of all I have:
Then do but say to me what I should do,
That in your knowledge may be me be done,
And I am prest unto it: therefore, speak.

Yup, there’s a period at the end, there, Yup, there is.

So Bassanio preceded this eight lines of Antonio’s with his little bit about shooting one arrow to find the first. Antonio realizes that Bassanio wants to ask something of him, and he takes the eight lines above to say Alright, already: just tell me what you need!
Bassanio’s reply begins with
In Belmont is a lady richly left.
And we all know where this is going.

Today’s lines, therefore, are eight lines of Antonio essentially telling Bassanio that he would do anything for him. This, among other lines, is the reason that many believe that the relationship between these two guys was more than just friends.

Isn’t it interesting, though, how careful Will is with this. Look at line four above,
In making question of my uttermost,
Uttermost what? Presumably uttermost love. Uttermost by itself can be anything: uttermost contempt, uttermost ambivalence. Did Will leave out the word love for the sake of not having it too obvious to Elizabethan audiences, or did Will have Antoino leave it out for some other reason?

See, that’s what I mean when I say that Will’s works are a treasure trove. They’re full of little nuggets like this that you can marvel over and look at from all sorts of angles.

Uttermost.

This young lady has my uttermost.

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

                 

Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares,

And think, perchance, they’ll sell; if not,

The lustre of the better yet to show,

Shall show the better.

 

-Ulysses

Troilus and Cressida                         Act I, Scene iii, Line 360

Obviously, Ulysses is not talking about wares, he’s talking about warriors. The Trojans have just issued a challenge for the best of the Greeks to face off against Hector, the Trojan champion. Ulysses is alone with Nestor, arguing that they shouldn’t send Achilles, their best champion, but rather one of their lesser warriors. Why? There are two reasons, he says. Achilles is already overly proud and if he beats Hector he’ll be that much more unbearable to live with. And if Achilles loses, well then the Greeks have lost their best man. It’s a lose, lose.

Does Achilles go to face Hector? If so, does he win or lose? Stay tuned to find out. Actually, staying tuned won’t help because, as you know, tomorrow I’ll most likely be in another play. Oh well, check the Will’s Works, Pete’s Posts section of this blog. Maybe there’s a post there about the fight and its outcome. Maybe not.

 

Okay, so what do you suppose this is a picture of? Well, I'll tell you. I was sitting in my chair this morning and I looked down at my hand and noticed that the sun was glinting off one of the hairs on my hand in an odd way. So I took a pic and blew it up. Yup, that bright vertical line is the sun shining on a hair on the back of my hand. 

Relevance? 

I'm going to say that it's an example of lustre. What do you think of that?

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

                 

Will you set your wit to a fool’s?

 

-Achilles

Troilus and Cressida                         Act II, Scene i, Line 88

Thersites is the lackey here, Ajax is the guy beating on Thersites, and Achilles is the person who has shown up and is trying to intervene. Achilles has asked Thersites what’s going on. The latter starts ranting about what a fool Ajax is, and the former calls for peace. At which point Thersites responds,

Thersites

I would have peace and quietness, but the fool will not: he there; that he; look you there.

Ajax

        O thou damn’d cur! I shall—

 Achilles (addressing Ajax)

        Will you set your wit to a fools? 

Thersites

        No, I warrant you; for a fools will shame it.

 

So, you tell me: who’s the fool, and who has any wits about him?

How about this guy? Has he got any wits about him? 

Doubtful.

 Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

                 

My heart’s deep languor and my soul’s sad tears.

 

-Titus

Titus Andronicus                     Act III, Scene i, Line 13

Well, you might have known that this was from Titus with a line like that. Let me give you the context. Titus has just watched his two sons get led by off to be executed for a crime they did not commit. He’s pleading with the judges and tribunes for his sons’ lives.

Be pitiful to my condemned sons,

Whose souls are not corrupted as ‘tis thought.

For two-and-twenty sons I never wept,

Because they died in honour’s lofty bed.

For these, these, tribunes, in the dust I write      

[Lieth down, and the Judges pass by him, and exeunt]

My heart’s deep languor and my soul’s sad tears:

Let my tears stanch the earth’s dry appetite;

My sons’ sweet blood will make it shame and blush.

This poor guy lost twenty-two of his sons in the wars. Twenty-two! But that was in honour’s lofty bed, so it was okay. Now he’s about to lose two more, and this time for no good reason (wait, am I saying that war is a good reason to lose sons? No, that’s not right). Oh, and did I mention that his daughter’s about to show up with her hands cut off and her tongue cut out by the guys who raped her? Sucks to be Titus.

Honour’s lofty bed. That’s an interesting image, isn’t it. I’m thinking that in reality, no parent would ever really consider that their son or daughter who was killed in a war died in honour’s lofty bed. It seems to me that they would just consider that they lost their child in some damned war; nothing lofty or honorable about it!

I just can’t imagine trying to put a pic to any of this, but I will leave you with this thought. I little earlier in the day I got an email from a group that was spawned by the Sandy Hook school massacre. I watched the video that was sent, and it was one of the brave mothers talking about the loss of her son. I cannot help but think that these words belong to her. 

        Let my tears stanch the earth's dry appetite; 

        My sons’ sweet blood will make it shame and blush.

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

                 

There’s no more to be said, but he is banisht,

As enemy to the people and his country:

It shall be so.

-Sicinius Veletus

Coriolanus                         Act III, Scene iii, Line 118

It shall be so! didn’t I come across that line recently? I’ll have to take a look (Okay, I just looked it up: it was 12/20/22, and it was It shall be done. That’s close.). 

Well, they’ve cooked their own goose now; they’ve banisht the guy that they should’ve not banisht. Coriolanus gives a good speech in reply to them, ending with

                                        Despising,
For you, the city, thus I turn my back:
There is a world elsewhere.

There is a world elsewhere, and I don’t need you worms. That’s what Coriolanus is saying.

What a great play. I’d love to see this produced live somewhere. This is not one of Will’s early pieces where he was still honing his skills. Coriolanus was written at the height of his career, when he was writing all of his famous tragedies. It eludes me as to why it is not as famous as Macbeth, King Lear and the others. As I’ve said previously, it should be especially appreciated in today’s highly partisan, highly politicized society. Honestly, how can it not be?!

Yup, I'm cheating and using the same pic I used in December.

And this will be called the Baobab tree.

It shall be so.

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

               

                  O, sir, pardon me!

 

-Eros

Antony and Cleopatra                     Act IV, Scene xiv, Line 80

Antony just asked Eros to kill him, and this is Eros’s reply. This pardon me is not like what we say when we’re trying to push by someone. This pardon me is like what the convict says to the governor when he’s about to be executed. Eros wants to be pardoned from the task of killing his commander. Since Antony refuses to pardon him, Eros kills himself to get out of having to kill Antony. Crazy stuff!

I guess Antony, and also Cleopatra, decided that they had a choice about living or dying and chose the latter. I guess everyone has a choice about ending it, whereas none of us has a choice about it not ending when it’s about to end without our say so. Most people, no matter how old or young, don’t want to die. Eros, on the other hand, chose dying over ending the life of Antony. So, did he do that out of love for Antony? Or, if he had really loved Antony should he have killed him?

This end-of-life stuff that Will is dealing with here, with both Antony and Cleopatra choosing to end their own lives, is heady stuff. And it’s germane to our time of the world. This very week Jimmy Carter is in the news for his decision to go home to die. Sure, he’s a lot older than Antony, but who’s to say that age is the determinant in who gets to make this choice.

Like I said, heady stuff.  

See that group of lions in the background? Well, they're feasting on a cape buffalo. You can see a little of the buffalo; it's black and pink. Now, do you want to bet that this buffalo was not planning on dying this day. I'm pretty sure he wasn't. But there he is. And if he knew this was going to be his fate (as Antony knew what lay in store for him) would the buffalo have chosen death at his own hands? I guess I'm giving a little bit too much credit to the thought process of a cape buffalo, but you get the idea of what I'm talking about. ]