Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

           

Good Grandam, tell us, is our father dead?

Son

King Richard the Third     Act II, Scene ii, Line 1

 

And Grandam answers, ‘No, boy.’ Which, of course is a bald-faced lie. She knows darn well her son Clarence, the boy's father, is dead as a doornail, and she admits as such a few lines down. Or perhaps you could say she wasn’t lying, because perhaps she was saying, ‘No, boy. I’m not going to tell you if your father is dead.’ After all, who would want to tell a kid that?

But here’s something even more interesting. A few lines further, the Queen shows up with her hair about her ears. That’s the stage direction: Enter the Queen, with her hair about her ears. And I thought, well, where else is your hair going to be? I mean, my hair, albeit a little long, is always about my ears. Isn’t that where it belongs? I don’t want it about my nose or chin, or something else.

Just then Patrice breezes in, all dressed and ready to go (she’s usually in her pj’s at this point in the morning). So I asked her what she thought that stage direction meant, and she said it probably means the queen didn’t have time to put her hair up, so it means she’s a bit disheveled. 

And since her first lines (the queen’s first lines, not Patrice’s) are
O, who shall hinder me to wail and weep,
To chide my fortune, and torment myself?
the fact that she might be disheveled seems to make pretty good sense.

Now this is fairly momentous on two counts (I’m talking about Patrice’s comment, not on the queen’s dishevelment): one, it’s momentous that Patrice did such a good job interpreting Will’s writing, and two, it’s even more momentous that she did ANY job of interpreting Will’s writing, rather than just mumbling ‘stupid Shakespeare’ under her breath, as she walked away.

So, kudos to Patrice this morning. 

And here's my indefatigable Shakespeare expert being an intrepid explorer on safari in Botswana. We felt like the royal family at this point, but for some reason she decided to do her Winston Churchill impression instead. I guess she felt she didn't have a good Queen Elizabeth ready to go. 

You will notice, though, that she does not have her hair about her ears. So, be it Winston or Elizabeth (we're not sure), you can call her what you will; but just don't call her disheveled. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

           

I will debate this matter at more leisure,

And teach your ears to list me with more heed.

Antipholus of Ephesus

The Comedy of Errors             Act IV, Scene i, Line 102

I believe that list in today’s line, is just a shortening of listen to, thereby making today’s lines quite easily understandable, n’est pas? He’s going to teach the ears of whomever he’s talking to, that’s what he’s going to do. Teach his ears.

What else is there to say this morning? Do you want to know what Antipholus is going to debate and/or teach to the ears? Do you want to know whose ears he’s going to teach? I’ve no idea who or what Antipholus is talking about. I’m afraid you’ll have to read Act IV, Scene i, or at least part of it, if you want to know. As you can see, today we have line 102, so the most that you’d have to read to get context is 101 lines. I’m sure you could do it if you set your mind to it. Don’t have the book? Simple: here’s a link to the scene.

Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors - Antipholus of Ephesus is arrested for to pay for the chain (shakespeare-online.com)

Isn’t modern technology wonderful! Now you’ve no excuse at all. And whilst you’re at it, you might as well read the whole scene since it’s just 11 lines more, ending on line 113.

No need to thank me. 

I'm not going to waste your time with a pic today since you're going to be busy reading.

 Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

           

Sweet health and fair desires consort your Grace!

 

-Princess

Love’s Labour’s Lost             Act II, Scene i, Line 178

                       

Well that’s a nice thing to say to someone. That would be a nice thing to say to someone at any time. I’m not sure people today would understand it completely. Actually, why wouldn’t they? I guess consort and Grace might through them off. How about if we switch it to Sweet health and fair desires be with you, or maybe be yours. For sure it doesn’t have the cachet of your Grace. I think you should really try the original line. If they just look completely baffled, then you could repeat it with the substitution of be yours. Yeah, that should work.

Okay, my Patrice just texted me. I responded to her question, and then I added And may sweet health and fair desires consort your Grace.
It doesn’t look like I’m getting any response. How disappointing is that!

To be fair, she sent me the Walmart message from bed when she was barely awake. 

So we'll give her a pass on the non-response. 

This time.

 

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.