Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

           

To prove you a cipher.

  

-Moth

Love’s Labour’s Lost             Act I, Scene ii, Line 53

                       

A cipher, in this context is a zero, a nonentity, a nothing. Moth says today’s random line as an aside, presumably to get a laugh.

An aside is a dramatic device in which a character speaks to the audience. By convention, the audience is to realize that the character’s speech is unheard by the other characters on stage. There, that’s Wikipedia’s words, not mine.

Will makes great use of the aside. To my knowledge he didn’t invent the aside, but he certainly used it to great effect. His works are peppered with them, especially the comedies. The aside is sort of a verbalization of what a character is thinking since it’s assumed that no one else on stage hears it. It’s really a rather clever device, actually. Without it the audience would have to rely on facial expressions to get an idea of what a character is thinking. In movies and tv shows this is exactly what we do. And of course, with close-ups and great actors, we usually have a pretty good idea, or at least can make some pretty good guesses, as to what the character is thinking.

A lot of Will’s asides, particularly in the comedies, are lines expected to get a laugh. So, they do more than just give the audience a clue as to what a character on stage is thinking.

Whilst you don’t often see the aside used in TV or movies, there is a sit-com currently, Call Me Kat, where the lead character uses asides quite frequently; always to comic effect. She turns to the camera, which zooms in on her face, and she makes her comment. Any other characters on stage at that point act oblivious to her comment. Come to think of it, if you might be wondering whether or not they realize that this is a Shakespearean (or at the very least, an Elizabethan) convention, consider this: they also do something else that hails from Shakespeare’s time. In Will’s day, the performance would end with all the actors coming on stage and doing a bit of jig (supposedly they did this with all shows, even the tragedies. Can you imagine that?). Every episode of Call Me Kat ends with the entire ensemble coming out on stage and waving to the audience whilst they do a bit of improvised dancing. I never thought of Call Me Kat as Shakespearean, but maybe…

No, no, no. That's not the Kat I'm talking about. In fact, that's a hyena and I'm not sure if that's in the cat family or dog family, or something in between. 

However, whatever it is, it's giving us a prime example of working without an aside. Of course, in this case it's not using an aside because Hyenas can't talk. But, in the same way that most modern actors count on us to get an idea of what they're thinking without saying anything, so too is this Hyena doing that. 

Care to guess what he's thinking. Here, let me show you what he was looking at.

He was looking at this pride of lions chowing down on a water buffalo. 

Now I don't know for sure, but my guess is that he was thinking something along the lines of "When are those guys going to be through eating so that I can get in there for some leftovers?"

 That's my guess. What's yours?

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

           

The one, to save the money that he spends in tiring; the other that at dinner they should not drop in his porridge.

  

-Dromio of Syracuse

 The Comedy of Errors           Act II, Scene ii, Line 97

                 

Okay, I’m going to confess that I’m having a hard time understanding what Antipholus and Dromio are talking about here. Today's Totally Random Line is Dromio's answer to the question of what are the reasons that the plainer- dealer, the sooner lost; yet he loseth it in a kind of jollity. 

I believe his statement about the plainer-dealer is that the more honest the man, the sooner he loses his hair, and he’s happy about losing it and in not getting wig. And the two reasons he’s happy about this is what Today's Totally Random Lines are talking about. He's happy because he he saves the money he would spend on haircuts or wigs, and he also doesn’t have to worry about his wig or hair falling in his porridge. 

Or something like that. 

Yeah, I admit it: Wills stuff can be hard to understand at times; and in particular his comedies because it’s there that he gets into the wordplay of puns and double-entendres.

Oh well.. Or should I say Oh Will!  

 Hey, that's not porridge; that's peppers and eggs (or eggs and peppers, depending on how you look at it). But that's arguably better than porridge, and as far as I can tell, it's got no hair in it. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

           

Love is merely a madness.

 

-Rosalind

As You Like It                                Act III, Scene ii, Line 399

                     

Love is merely a madness; and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do: and the reason they are not so punisht and cured is, that the lunacy is so ordinary, that the whippers are in love too. Yet I profess curing it by counsel.

That’s the whole response by Rosalind to Orlando’s telling her that he is in love. To be sure, the first five words (Today’s Totally Random Line) make for an interesting line. Don’t you think? It seems like something that you would hear quoted, and I probably have though I can’t recall it for sure.

Love is merely a madness. Albeit, a very common madness.

It’s lines as simple and complex as this one that keep me coming back to Will’s works again, and again, and again.

 Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

           

My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now.—

My lord, we must entreat the time alone.

 

-Friar Laurence

Romeo and Juliet                   Act IV, Scene i, Line 40

                     

Okay, this morning we have Friar Knucklehead. His first line is directed at Juliet who’s asked if he has time to talk. With the second line he turns to Paris, telling him to beat it so that he can talk to Juliet alone.

Now here’s something interesting: If you look at today’s two lines, they don’t necessarily make much sense if just read them. Without knowing that the friar is speaking the first line to Juliet and then turning to Paris, the lines are a bit confusing. Which leads to the appropriate conclusion that although these words can be appreciated when read, they are meant to be heard when performed. And there’s no getting around that fact. I bring this up because I was reading a discussion group thread recently and one of the questions was about how to best read Shakespeare. I guess the answer is to not read it, but rather see and hear it.

In any event, once Paris is gone Juliet tells the friar that she’ll kill herself if she can’t marry Romeo, and that’s when Friar Einstein comes up with his brilliant scheme for Juliet to fake her own death. I just had a thought of Harry Potter and Ron Weasley hiding nearby and eavesdropping on this conversation. Harry would hear the plan about the potion that makes Juliet appear dead, and then he would turn to Ron and say, “That’s brilliant Ron!”

Now that I’ve had that thought, it’s got me to wondering what it would be like to write a story combining Harry Potter with Romeo and Juliet. Hmmm, that might be interesting. That would be another way of introducing the stories of Will. Or just write anyone into the story who’s there as all the action of the story takes place, either in the story, or just as an observer. Like Harry and Ron. Or as an observer who sees the story take place and then relates it to someone else.

Sure, great idea Pete. 

Or this; something like this might be a good way to introduce someone to one of Will's works. 

Another of Pete's brilliant ideas.

 Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

           

Cleopatra,--

 

-Antony

Antony and Cleopatra            Act I, Scene iii, Line 26

                      

That's it. Just Cleopatra. Antony is trying to interrupt Cleopatra’s rant here and get a word in edgewise, but he’s not doing too well so far. He’ll get to speak, eventually. 

It seems to me that Will paints the picture of Cleopatra as quite the flighty woman. But is she really? That’s the thing: everything and everyone that Will gives us, just like all the things and people we deal with in the real world, are multi-faceted and anything but simple. Really, nothing is simple; people and things just fool us into thinking they are sometimes. And can’t that be problematic? That was a rhetorical question. Oh yes it can.
 

Ahh, what do we have here? I'll tell you. It's a pencil that Nina and Jeff brought me back from the Maldives. It has sand in the plastic jug attached to the top.

Now I'm pretty sure that this pencil wasn't made in the Maldives. However, I do wonder if the sand in the little jug at the top is real Maldivian sand or not. I must conclude that it appears to have Maldivian sand. After all, it says Maldives on the jug. 

What do you think?

 Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

           

Signior Baptist, my business asketh haste,

And every day I cannot come to woo.

You knew my father well; and in him me,

Left solely heir to all his lands and goods,

Which I have better’d rather than decreased:

Then tell me,— if I get your daughter’s love,

What dowry shall I have with her to wife?

  

-Petruchio

The Taming of the Shrew              Act II, Scene i, Line 120

                    

And Baptista assures Petruchio a satisfactory dowry, so it’s pretty much a done deal; all over but the crying. And the taming, of course. 

We’re at the beginning of Act II. It’s an odd little play, and I think it requires a bit of work to figure out. If you go into it looking for a play about nothing more than chauvinism and women being mistreated, then that’s probably what you’ll find. But if you go into it with an open mind, well there might be a little, or perhaps a lot, more for you to encounter. Perhaps.

But doesn’t that apply to so many things in life?

Well, I wanted to use a pic today that was representative of the question I ended today's post with. But I just couldn't come up with any ideas. 

So... no pic for today. 

Sorry.

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

           

How goes the world, sir, now?

-Ross

Macbeth                         Act II, Scene iv, Line 20

                   

This is a scene on the morning after Duncan’s murder. Ross, a nobleman, is outside Macbeth’s castle talking about the murder to an old man. Macduff, another nobleman shows up and Ross greets him with today’s line. It seems, at first, a rather an odd line given that both men know that the king has just been found murdered in his bed. But the ‘now’ on the end of the question gives it that added meaning of knowing that things are messed up, but has anything new happened since the murder? Well, yes it has: the assumed murderers were killed by Macbeth, whilst Duncan’s two sons have fled. Meanwhile Macbeth has left for Scone where he will be crowned the new king. So actually, a lot has happened.

And what about Duncan’s body?

   Carried to the Colme-kill,
   The sacred storehouse of his predecessors,
   And guardian of their bones.

And it’s this last bit that is yet another bit of Will’s writings that makes me think of Tolkien’s work. In this case it brings to mind Theoden’s burial.

Yes, I am convinced that Will influenced the writing of JRR. Don’t get me going on that one. And yes, I know that JRR professed a general dislike for Will’s works, but that doesn’t mean that he wasn’t schooled in them at an early age, and that they could not have subconsciously affected him. I am absolutely convinced of it, as I suppose, I am absolutely convinced of many things; most assuredly some of them right and true, and some of them less so.
So, let’s just leave it at that.

This is a close-up of a pine tree branch in our backyard. Those little things that look like berries are actually very small pine cones. 

I looked all over for something related but came up empty. Anyway, I thought this was a nice pic, so there you go.