Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

 

The raging rocks

And shivering shocks

Shall break the locks

Of prison-gates;

And Phibbus’ car

Shall shine from far,

And make and mar

The foolish Fates.

 

Bottom

A Midsummer Night’s Dream       Act I, Scene ii, Line 32

My favorite parts of this play are the parts that have Bottom and his buddies in them. Today’s lines are Bottom reciting a piece. I think it is a few lines from another play that he is reciting to show all what a great actor he is. Since we only have the words, and not- please hold…

I was going to say we only have the printed word here, but of course we have more than the printed word. We have the Arkangel recording of the play. So, I just listened to act one, scene two. It was only six minutes long, and yes, it was as I said. This scene is Peter Quince (there aren’t all that many Peters in Will’s plays, are there?) meeting with all his buddies to tell them about a play they’ll be performing for the duke and duchess on their wedding night. Quince is assigning all the parts and Nick Bottom has something to say about everything. So his little burst of theatrical recital, to show all the others what a great actor he is, is not at all unexpected. In fact, in the Arkangel version it draws an applause from the other members of the group. Quince assigns all the parts and then tells them to learn their lines and meet in the forest tomorrow night to begin rehearsals. At the duke’s oak we meet, he says. Bottom replies with the last line of the scene, Enough; hold, or cut bowstrings.

 

Hold, or cut bowstrings. That’s an interesting phrase. At first I thought it might be more or less the same as fish, or cut bait. The Google tells me that it comes from a battle decision: hold your position, or retreat. In the case of the latter, they would cut their bowstrings so that their bows (presumably left behind) could not be used by the enemy. And, according to the Google, this does indeed roughly translate to the modern expression fish or cut bait. I think in today’s instance it’s just something for Bottom to say, because he’s got something to say about everything. Here’s the Google link if you want to read it.

Act 1, Scene 2: Popup Note Index Item: “Hold or cut bowstrings” | myShakespeare

Now when I read this explanation, the first thing that came to mind was, why wouldn’t they just take their bows with them? Why would they leave them when they retreat, cut bowstrings or not?

Yes, I guess that’s my takeaway. Don’t ask me why; it just is.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

 

Stand sir, and throw us what you have about ye:

If not, we’ll make you sit and rifle ye.

 

Third Outlaw

Two Gentlemen of Verona             Act IV, Scene i, Line 4

Valentine, one of the two gents, is being robbed by highwaymen. A few comments.

First, they’re fairly polite robbers, calling Valentine ‘sir’. I’ve been getting called ‘sir’ a lot of late. Thankfully not by robbers, and mostly just because I’m old and I look old. Sometimes I like it, but most of the time I see it as a recognition that I’m old and then it bugs me a little bit.

The other thing I took note of was the word rifle, used as a verb. I use that word (I rifled through the drawer looking for my keys) but I don’t hear it used much as a verb; just a noun, an ever present noun. I kind of like the verb; it’s very descriptive. If I rifled through the drawer, I didn’t look in an orderly fashion; I just pushed things around, usually in a rush, and probably left the drawer in a mess. So it’s a pretty good word as far as verbs go. 

As a noun, in 2023 America: not so much.

Here you have the famous Underpants Incident picture of 1985. That's Emily in the front row deciding, for some inexplicable reason, to show everyone her Wonder Woman underpants. Aren't these underpants great!, she's thinking. That's Jessica, to her left with the red bow, aghast because she realizes that Emily stole her underpants. Did she rifle through my underpants drawer?, she's thinking. That's cousin Matt, the younger fellow observing the Underpants Incident with his hand on his head. WTF, he's thinking. That's Aunt Marie, in the blue dress, the only adult who realizes in real time that the Underpants Incident is taking place. Ummm...., she's thinking. 

And what are the rest of this blissfully ignorant group thinking? That was almost forty years ago; who the heck knows!

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

 

O, these I lack,

To make you garlands of; and my sweet friend,

To strew him o’er and o’er!

 

Perdita
The Winter’s Tale                          Act IV, Scene iv, Line 129

 

Perdita is talking to Florizel. The lead-in to today’s line is a list of all the different flowers that Perdita does not have. The list is kind of nice. I should give you that.

                                                        Daffodils,
That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty; violets dim,
But sweeter than the lids of Juno’s eyes
Or Cytherea’s breath; pale primroses,
That die unmarried, ere they can behold
Bright Phoebus in his strength,- a malady
Most incident to maids; bold oxlips and
The crown-imperial; lilies of all kinds,
The flower-de-luce being one! O, these I lack,
To make you garlands of; and my sweet friend,
To strew him o’er and o’er.

Lots of flowers, and also some allusions to people that we’re not too familiar with. Let’s see… daffodils we know. Juno we know, but Cytherea? I dunno who that is. Bright Phoebus who is a malady to maids? Oxlip I guess is a flower? And the flower-de-Luce is a type of lily? Yes, lots of flowers. 

It's a flower day.

Yes, it's a flower day.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

 

But if your father had been victor there,

He ne’er had borne it out of Coventry.

 

Westmoreland

Henry the Fourth Part II               Act IV, Scene i, Line 135

 

Well how about a little context today? Or maybe quite a bit of context today.

Mowbray, who I believe is the son of Thomas Mowbray the guy who got banished at the beginning of Richard II, is one of the leaders of the rebellion against Henry IV. Westmorland is one of Henry’s generals and he’s come to talk to the rebels to see if he can understand exactly why they are rebelling. Mowbray says that Henry IV is an illegitimate king and that if his father, Thomas Mowbray, had been allowed to go through with his fight with Henry he would have killed Henry and become king. Apparently that fight was to take place in Coventry and Westmoreland is saying that if Thomas Mowbray won it, that he never would have been able to go any further. Why?

For all the country, in a general voice,
Cried hate upon him (Thomas Mowbray); and all their prayers and love
Were set on Hereford (Henry IV), whom they doted on,
And blest and graced indeed, more than the king (Richard II).

I added the names in parentheses there so that it might be clear who's who and to whom Westmoreland was referring.

So, what do you think of today’s context? Too much? Too little? You stopped reading many lines ago?
Ah well, I tried.

And what, you are asking yourself, is this a picture of. Well I'll tell you. That little black hole right of center is a varmint hole, and I am convinced that this varmint is the culprit in our recent electrical problems. I can't attack him from the crawlspace above, so I'm going to be attacking from the room below. And yes, I plan on being the victor. All the varmints up there can cry hate upon me in a general voice if they want. I don't care. I plan on being the victor.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

 

I know it well.

 

Antonio

Two Gentlemen of Verona            Act I, Scene ii, Line 28

 

Are we going to get into context? No. How about the meaning? It’s self-explanatory: you know it well. They know it well. I know it well. We all know it well.

But what do we know? Well, we know that we don’t know what Antonio’s talking about. We have no idea what Antonio knows well. We know that well. What else do we know? Many things, I suppose. I know that it wouldn’t make sense to try and list all the things that we know well. I know that well. How about the things that we don’t know well? Should I try to list those. No, those would be way too numerous to list. I know that well.

Okay, so there’s two more things that we know: that we’re not going to try to list the things we know well or the things that we don’t know well. Apparently we’re not going to try to list anything.

Well, I think I’ve gone as far as I want to with today’s line. In fact, I’m sure I have. I know it well.

I'll bet you're wondering, 'Why haven't you posted anything in a week, Pete?' Good question! And here's the answer. I was away at the Minnesota State Fair, as you can plainly see from these pictures. Did we have a good time? We sure did. I know it well!

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

 

Fie, fie upon her! She’s able to freeze the god Priapus, and undo a whole generation.

 

Bawd

Pericles                           Act IV, Scene v, Line 3

 

Bawd is talking about Marina. Bawd runs a whorehouse to which Marina’s recently been sold. Unfortunately, Marina’s not very good for business. She converts all her customers into better people, convincing them that prostitution is a very bad thing. Naturally, Bawd’s not happy with this, making reference to Priapus, the god of fertility, or in this case just plain sex.

Fie seems like a good word, or exclamation. I wonder if it was the F word of the day. For sure, no one knows it these days, so it can’t offend anyone. I think I’ll start using it. It goes well with Oy. That’s my new word for Hey. I’ve made almost the full transition to Oy. Now I’ll see if I can’t transition from one F word to another. It’s for sure that I use an F word too much. And this new one starts with the f sound; it would be a lot harder to transition to a word that started with a different letter. Let’s see if I can change to a word that doesn’t offend, and one that I can use around the grandkids. Will it work?
Fie me!
Fie that!
Are you fie’ng kidding me!
No, that last one’s not going to work. You can’t put an ing on fie. I’ll stick to the non-ing uses for now. And I’ll have to add a to or on in some cases, like Fie to you, or is it fie on you, the most common usage. But I think I can do it, particularly for the simple, straight up one word usage, like when you hit your thumb with the hammer: FIE!

Yes, I think I can switch to a better F word. Fie yes, I can! And to the doubters that think I can’t do it? Fie on them!

Fie!!

 Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

 

Sometime he runs among a flock of sheep,

To make the cunning hounds mistake their smell,

And sometime where earth-delving conies keep,

To stop the loud pursuers in their yell;

And sometime sorteth with a herd of deer:

Danger deviseth shifts; wit waits on fear.

 

Venus

Venus and Adonis                         Line 681

Venus has a premonition that Adonis will get killed if he goes boar hunting, so she’s telling him to hunt for rabbits instead. Then she goes on to describe how skillful the rabbits are at not getting killed or caught. I guess she's telling Adonis that he should be clever like the rabbit.

I’d like to focus on that last line because I haven’t made full sense of it yet. She’s talking about all the ways that the rabbit eludes danger, and then summarizes with

Danger deviseth shifts; wit waits on fear.

First part first. Danger deviseth shifts. I believe shifts is a noun here, and my glossary advises me to use strategies. Danger devises strategies.

Wit waits on fear. So the person or thing evading the danger uses wit because wit waits on fear. How do we read ‘waits on’ here. Wit serves fear like a waiter? Wit waits for fear, like waiting for a bus.
Okay, here’s my simple answer. When you’re overpowered with fear you won’t be thinking straight - scared out of your wits. Wow, once I saw scared out of your wits it became crystal clear. So simply put, danger is going to be clever, and wits have to wait for the fear to subside before they can work, and therefore don’t let fear overpower you. How simple is that? Should I have seen that from the giddy up?

And that brings me to a very pertinent story. My associate is obsessing about a speeding ticket he got. He’s afraid it’s going to affect his driving record. Afraid. And this fear is, at least a little bit, clouding his ability to think straight. Or, I should say, he’s having a hard time thinking about anything else. Wit waits on fear.
And I’ve been doing the same thing with some work stuff that I’ve been having a hard time getting done properly. I’ve been worrying about it a lot. My associate and I are a lot alike and, we’re both falling prey to wit waits on fear. 

And there are your words for today: Wit waits on fear.

 

Wit Waits on Fear