Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Oft have I heard that grief softens the mind,

And makes it fearful and degenerate;

Think therefore on revenge, and cease to weep.

But who can cease to weep and look on this?

Here may his head lie on my throbbing breast:

But where’s the body that I should embrace?

 

Queen Margaret

King Henry the Sixth Part II         Act IV, Scene iv, Line 1

 

The scene opens with Queen Margaret hugging Suffolk's head to her breast. Yes, just the head; no body. Apparently, Suffolk was beheaded by pirates, and somehow his head has found its way back home.

He was always a favorite of Margaret’s and she is not at all happy that he is dead. Can you tell?

Happy Fourth everyone!

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Give me leave. Here lies the water; good: here stands the man; good: if the man go to this water, and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes,--mark you that; but if the water come to him and drown him, he drowns not himself: argal, he that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life.

 

First Clown

Hamlet                            Act V, Scene i, Line 20

 

Okay, at first glance this looks hard, but let’s not dive into it willy nilly, and perhaps we’ll see that it’s not all that difficult. First let’s look at the context. Why they’re listed as First and Second Clown I’ll never know, but the two guys talking are gravediggers digging a grave. They’re in a churchyard cemetery and they’re discussing the fact that they’re digging a grave here for someone who drowned themselves, namely Ophelia. At issue is the fact that someone who committed suicide cannot be buried in hallowed ground. The First Clown/Gravedigger is being a little silly and trying to say that the maybe Ophelia is not guilty of suicide. More importantly though, he’s giving us the idiom willy nilly.

 

And that’s our takeaway: willy nilly. I’ll bet you didn’t see that one coming.

Two Gravediggers

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

I cannot believe that in her; she’s full of  most blest condition.

 

Roderigo

Othello, The Moor of Venice         Act II, Scene i, Line 252

 

Iago has just spent thirty lines or so convincing Roderigo that Desdemona is in love with Michael Cassio (all part of his scheme to get Othello convinced that his wife is cheating on him) and today’s line is Roderigo’s response. Roderigo is right, of course, but what I really like is Iago’s retort to this.

Blest fig’s-end!

Blessed fig’s end. I wonder if… word used with a rude gesture (of the thumb between the first tow fingers of a fist). That’s out of my Shakespeare app’s glossary. So it might have been recognized as a very inappropriate expression in the day, might’ve even been akin to F you. However, no one’s going to recognize that today, so you can use it to your heart’s content.

Blest fig’s-end!

And here are the remnants of last night's project to replace the water shut-off valve on the toilet; a job that started as the task of just turning the water off so that the toilet could be drained to be cleaned better.

Two hours, and a trip to the Deeps later!

Blest figs-end!!

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

‘Tis strange that they should so depart from home,

And not send back my messenger.

  

Lear

King Lear                       Act II, Scene iv, Line 1

 

‘Tis strange.

It seems like lots of stuff appear to Lear as ‘strange’ in this play. He’s going to see his messenger, Kent, in the stocks momentarily, and he’ll think that strange as well. He’ll think it worse than murder.

Sometimes I wonder about Will’s characters and I think to myself that they are beyond reality. Like Lear; how can anyone be that stupid. But then there always seems to be something that shows up in my own reality that proves me wrong. Like Iago in Othello. I’m always thinking that it’s unreal that no one realizes that he’s a rat bastard until the end. But then I see someone in my world who is adored by millions even though to me it’s pathetically obvious that he’s a rat bastard. Then I realize the reality of Will’s characterizations.

So as far as Lear goes… well that’s just the way he goes.

At least he’s not a rat bastard.

I was determined to find a pic for today. I found this one that's a few years old. It's a pretty awesome evening sky out my office window.

Would Lear have found this sky strange? who knows. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou art king, let not us that are squires of the night’s body be call’d thieves of the day’s beauty: let us be Diana’s foresters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the moon; and let men say we be men of good government, being govern’d, as by the sea is, by our noble and chaste mistress the moon, under whose countenance we steal.

 

Sir John Falstaff

King Henry the Fourth Part I       Act I, Scene ii, Line 29

 

And so, for two days in a row, in Totally Random fashion, we have a line (or lines) from Sir John Falstaff. This is Act I, Scene ii of the play and the very first appearance of Sir John in Shakespeare’s works. In fact, Falstaff begins the scene with Prince Harry, whom he calls Hal.

Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?

They go back and forth a bit before Falstaff gives us today’s lines which paint a pretty good picture of what he’s about, or at least part of what he’s about. I’m tempted to type out a bigger section of this scene. It’s quite good, and for the most part easily accessible (understandable). Here’s a link to the scene on-line. This link has a bunch of notes at the bottom to help you with words and references that might be difficult. It’s just over two hundred lines, and it will give you a very good flavor of the character of Sir John Falstaff.

 

Shakespeare's King Henry IV 1.2 - Prince Hal in London with Falstaff (shakespeare-online.com)

 

So there you go; a little homework for you today. Enjoy!

 

No time for a pic today. Get out your reading glasses, and get going!

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Embowell’d! If thou embowel me to-day, I’ll give you leave to powder me and eat me too to-morrow.

 

Sir John Falstaff

King Henry the Fourth Part I       Act V, Scene iv, Line 111

 

Embowell’d means disemboweled, and by that I believe we’re talking about disembowelment as part of the burial process. To be truthful, I’m not completely sure about that.

However, I am sure about this: Hal has just finished fighting and killing Hotspur in the middle of a battle. Immediately after that he comes upon the body of Falstaff. Thinking Falstaff to be dead he makes a few comments over the body, ending with

Embowell’d will I see thee by and by:

Til then in blood by noble Percy lie.

Well it turns out that Falstaff was faking being dead to avoid fighting. He continues the fake until Hal leaves, and then he sits up and begins with Today’s Totally Random Line. He then goes into a discussion with himself, convincing himself that faking his own death was the right and proper thing to do. He proclaims

The better part of valor is discretion; in the which better part I have saved my life.

So if you ever hear someone use the phrase discretion is the better part of valor, you can just reply with Sir John Falstaff, King Henry the Fourth Part I, Act Five, Scene Four.

As usual, no need to thank me. 

And this is a picture of that person's jaw dropping in amazement when you show that you can quote exactly where Discretion is the better part of valor comes from.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

  

A noise within crying ‘Room for the Queen!’

Enter Queen Katherine, usher’d by the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk: she kneels. The king riseth from his state, takes her up, kisses and placeth her by him.

 

Stage Direction
King Henry the Eighth                  Act I, Scene ii

 

It was such a long stage direction, and those are so rare, that I decided to give it to you as today’s line. I think I’ve done that before, haven’t I?

This gives us something to consider about Will’s works especially, but also about drama in general: it’s all about the dialogue. I guess that’s obvious, but I think sometimes we overlook it. It does give me pause to wonder, and I think I’ve voiced this thought before too, what kind of writer Will would have been if he was writing in some other form. Well, we have a taste of this with his few long poems and his sonnets. But I can’t help but wonder what he would have been as a novelist, or even an essayist; or maybe a biographer - perhaps even an autobiographer.

In the meantime, I guess we just have to spend our time marveling at what he was able to do with dialogue. It’s an interesting thing to think about.

I've decided to try my hand at sketching, so that on those days where I can't come up with a picture I'll just torture you with one of my own.