Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

There is a river in Macedon; and there is also moreover a river at Monmouth:  it is called Wye at Monmouth; but it is out of my prains what is the name of the other river; but ‘tis all one, ‘tis alike as my fingers is to my fingers, and there is salmons in both.

 

 

Fluellen

King Henry the Fifth                     Act IV, Scene vii, Line 32

  

This is Fluellen, the Welsh guy, and Gower. They are two soldiers in Henry’s army, and they are shooting the breeze during a respite in the battle. Prains is Will’s way of making fun of Fluellen’s Welsh accent. He means brains. Then Fluellen starts mixing up Macedon with Macedonia, and it goes on from there. I guess it’s a little comic relief added into this history play.

These guys are hanging out in a small tributary of the Moanachira River. 

I wonder if Fluellen could mix up Moanachira with Monmouth or Macedon?

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Hail!

 

Second Witch

Macbeth                  Act I, Scene iii, Line 107

 

Hail to you all. That’s our line of the day and our word of the day. Hail! It doesn’t get much shorter than that.

I really enjoy finding little gems all the time in Will's works even though I know that his works have been pored over and examined ad infinitum, so that I'm certainly never the first to discover these gems. This morning I noticed that the witches start this play, and they end their brief opening with

Fair is foul and foul is fair:

Hover through the fog and filthy air.

And then here in scene three Macbeth shows up for the first time in the play, and his first line is

So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

Obviously Will is keying in on foul and fair. I wonder how many more times it shows up in the play. I’m going to check the end.
Well, there’s Siward referring to his son who died in battle

Had I as many sons as I have hairs,

I would not wish them to a fairer death.

So he’s got fair and death in the same sentence. Yes, that’s a continuation of the same thought, right to the end. Let’s take it as a way of knowing that a (the?) main theme of this work is the juxtaposition of foul and fair.

And we’ll leave it at that.

It occurs to me that just about everything has a foul and fair side to it. And if that's the case, than I can give you a picture of anything to illustrate that. 

So I took the most recent pic off my phone, and this is it.

 I don't know why I took this picture, but I'm sure there must be something foul and something fair about it. N'est pas?

 

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly; a quarrel, but nothing wherefore. - O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! That we should with joy, pleasance, revel, and applause, transform ourselves into beasts.

 

Cassio

Othello                   Act II, Scene iii, Line 287

These are the lamentations of a man who got drunk and did something stupid. Of course, he got set up by good ol’ honest Iago, but nonetheless, he did get drunk, and he did do something stupid.

I wonder what percentage of us human beings have done that: Gotten drunk and done something stupid? I guess I could take a poll, but I probably won’t. I can tell you that nowadays I just do stupid things without getting drunk.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Then hast thou all again.

 

Helena

All’s Well That Ends Well     Act III, Scene ii, Line 108

  

This is one of those days where I can’t quite figure out what the line of the day is. I know, you’re saying ‘What are you talking about Pete?’ Well, it’s not one of those nice clean lines that’s a complete thought and sentence. In fact, the words previous to the line above end with a semicolon, so that this is not really the beginning of a sentence. And then another sentence starts on this same line in the book, but that line goes on for quite a bit.

So I took a shortcut and gave you five words. And I’m not sure whether you should feel cheated or grateful. It seems to me that if you’re actually interested in Will’s works you would feel cheated, but if you’re someone reading this for some other reason you might be thankful that you only got five words. If that’s the case, you’re welcome.

I see that I haven't posted in a few days, and I know that's because I've been having trouble finding a pic. I wrote a few posts this week that didn't get posted. So I'm definitely posting today even though I still don't have a pic. 

Wait a tic...of course I have a pic: it's Nina's birthday! That's the little scooch, bottom left, with her sister and cousins. 

Happy Birthday Scooch!

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

But, before God, Kate, I cannot look greenly, nor gasp out my eloquence, nor I have no cunning in protestation; only downright oaths, which I never use till urged, nor never break for urging.

  

Henry

King Henry the Fifth            Act V, Scene ii, Line 143

  

Well if you think that’s long, I’ve only taken a few lines out of Henry’s speech to Katherine. He goes on and on. He’s trying to talk her into marrying him, whilst struggling with a language barrier. Neither his French nor her English is very good, so it’s a difficult conversation in which he’s doing most of the talking. Somehow or another he succeeds.

Historically, this is an attempt to unite the leadership of England and France. Henry V has conquered most of France and now has made a treaty with French King Charles by which Charles gets to remain king of France for his lifetime, but upon his death the rule passes to Henry. Henry indeed succeeds in marrying Katherine, but then will  die fairly young, and the plan to unite the countries falls apart with Henry VI who assumes the kingship as a child and never really grows into the job.

Bottom line: if Henry had lived a full long life, and if his son were a bit more capable of a leader, France and England might be one nation today. And if wishes were horses beggars would ride. Hey, is that a Shakespeare line? Nah, just looked it up. It’s an old Scottish nursery rhyme.

See, not everything is Shakespeare! BTW, no extra charge for the history lesson today.

Okay, I spent a good ten minutes or so looking for a pic for today. I give up. 

I guess I don't have as much perseverance as Henry had.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

Come, where is this young gallant that is so desirous to lie with his Mother Earth?

Charles
As You Like It   Act I, Scene ii, Line 191

Charles is the professional wrestler who’s come to town and is ready to challenge anyone who wants to wrestle him. Orlando, the protagonist of our story, is going to wrestle him. Charles is boasting that whoever wrestles with him will end up losing. As you know, Orlando wrestles him and wins. It just goes to show you that it doesn’t pay to be a braggart.

I don’t care for braggarts. It’s funny, but it seems that many people do, and I’ve never quite understood that. It would seem that Will didn’t care for braggarts too much since he has this guy lose the match. So perhaps Will and I have that one thing in common?

Buster Mojo seems to be pretty comfortable with me, and since I'm not a braggart, I'm going to assume that he doesn't care for braggarts either. 

So that makes three of us, so far: Will, me, and Mojo.

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

So foul a sky clears not without a storm.

 

King John

King John               Act IV, Scene ii, Line 109

 

I haven’t been able to make time for Will much this week, due mostly to the presence of Mojo and the absence of Patrice. But today I felt I just had to get back to it, so I’m taking care of it here at work. I’m picking today from an online source, not the hardcopy book I usually use. And what an appropriate line! The skies in these parts have been very clogged with Canadian forest fire smoke this week. They are clearer today, and there has not been a storm to clear them, but I’m thinking that a storm would be the best way to really clear them up.

It occurs to me that King John was probably not talking about Canadian forest fire smoke when he mentioned foul skies.  As I read through this scene, I find that it’s a tough one. I’m not sure what his foul sky refers to. I’m pretty sure it’s figurative as opposed to the literal one we’ve been dealing with here in the northeast.

Ah well, let’s just leave it at that and move on.

 I took this pic of the parking lot at the height of the smokey skies the other day. If you look closely, you can see the yellow spot on most of the windshields. That was the reflection of the sun through the haze. It was rather strange. It reminded me a little bit of the description of the Dead Marshes from Tolkien.

Foul sky indeed.