Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

                       

Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;

To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot;

This sensible warm motion to become

A kneaded clod; and the delightful spirit

To battle in fiery floods, or to reside

In the thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice:

 

Claudio

Measure For Measure          Act III, Scene i, Line 118

 

Claudio, who’s going to be executed tomorrow unless his sister sleeps with the magistrate, is talking about the finality of death. He goes on here talking about death, and ends with

The weariest and most loathed worldly life

That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment

Can lay on nature, is a paradise

To what we fear of death.

This is spoken by a guy who doesn’t want to die and is trying to talk his sister into sleeping with someone to save his life. So it probably seems like a good argument to Claudio.

Is it true. I don’t know. I do know that Will does spend a fair amount of time throughout his works on the subject of death. From the lines above, to Hamlet’s undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveler returns to many others, Will gives us different ideas about death. 

Today’s idea, delivered from Claudio, doesn’t really leave much doubt. No matter how bad your life is, it’s a paradise compared to death. At least that’s the way it appears to someone about to die.

So it seems like we’ve spent the week talking about old age and impending death. Interesting.

Enough of this death and old age talk. 

Here's a picture of a life well spent.

 

 

 

 Today’s Totally Random Lines

                        

O Lord, I could have stay’d here all the night

To hear good counsel: O, what learning is! –

My lord, I’ll tell my lady you will come.

 

Nurse
Romeo and Juliet           Act III, Scene iii, Line 158

 

Nurse is talking to Friar Laurence in the first two lines, and Romeo in the last one. They’re are at the Friar’s place where Romeo’s been whining about being banished for killing Tybalt. The friar tells him to get a grip, and that he should be happy he’s still alive. Then he tells him to go see Juliet before he leaves Verona, and Nurse responds with Today’s Totally Random Line.

Actually, the friar is making sense here. I guess even a broken clock is right twice a day. Unless it’s telling military time; then it’s only right once a day.

Funny thing, if I can go back to yesterday’s line for a moment. I was saying then, in not so many words, that I’m not old just because I have grey locks. Well I might have been wrong about that, and I'll tell you why.

We were taking Mojo for a walk yesterday when I got home from work, and he got away and ran into the street. I started to run after him and quickly found myself lying in the street. What happened? My mind said "run after him," and my body said, “I don’t think so, Fatso.” I didn’t actually trip, and I certainly didn’t pass out. My body just said "no, this isn't working for me." So down I went. On the fall I banged my elbow and knee, and now I’m walking pretty slow.

Just call me Edmund Mortimer.

 

Apparently this is what qualifies as a suitable activity for Mojo and me.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

          

I would his troubles likewise were expired,

That so he might recover what is lost.

 

Edmund Mortimer

King Henry the Sixth, Part I         Act II, Scene v, Line 31

 

Need more coffee. Feel a little like old Edmund Mortimer right now. He starts this act, addressing his jailers, talking about himself and how old he is.

Kind keepers of my weak decaying age,
Let dying Mortimer here rest himself.

And then he goes on for the next fourteen lines describing how decrepit he is: grey locks, the pursuivants of death…weak shoulders…pithless arms…etc, etc.

Honestly though, manys a morning before I get properly caffienated I feel like old Edmund. This morning being one of those mornings.

Pursuivant is listed in MW as archaic and meaning follower or attendant. Grey hair, the attendants of death. Fie on that!

Grey locks, the pursuivants of death?

Fie, fie, fie on that!

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

                        Behold this  man;

Commend unto his lips thy favoring hand:

Kiss it, my warrior: he hath fought to-day

As if a god, in hate of mankind, had

Destroy’d in such a shape.

 

Antony

Antony and Cleopatra                    Act IV, Scene viii, Line 25

 

It’s one of those odd days where, in totally random fashion, we have managed to move forward just a few scenes in the same play. Antony has won the battle that he thought he was going to lose in yesterday’s scene (don’t worry – he still loses the war). Now he’s reunited with Cleopatra. Here’s the first part of the little speech he’s giving to her.

My nightingale,

We have beat them to their beds. What, girl! Though gray
Do something mingle with our younger brown, yet ha’we
A brain that nourishes our nerves, and can
Get goal for goal of youth. Behold this man…

I would have given you that in order, but I didn’t want to scare you away with too long of a Totally Random Daily Line.

Anyway, I like the beginning of his speech (the second part here) with the bit about gray mingling with the younger brown, a brain that nourishes our nerves and getting goal for goal of youth. In other words, (Pete’s version), ‘yeah, I’ve got a lot of gray hairs in there mixed with the brown, but I’m older and wiser too, I can keep myself steady and beat these young whippersnappers at their own game.’

Now, as far as the next section, the part that is Today’s Totally Random Lines: it sounds like Antony is asking Cleopatra to give him her hand so she can kiss it. But I can’t understand how the words ‘Kiss it, my warrior:’ can possibly be Antony’s. That’s got to be Cleopatra talking, n’est pas? The rest of those four and a half lines can be Antony talking in the third person, but not ‘Kiss it, my warrior:’

I looked at four different online versions of the text and none of them vary. I’ll have to look at my First Folio tonight. But even if that is the same, I’m going to posit that it’s a mistake made when printing the First Folio.

That’s my thought and I’m sticking with it.

Well, I was going to go into another little tidbit I found in this short scene, but I’ve gone on long enough, so I’ll save it for another day.

Another exhibit from my sticker book: 

a printing press, the likes of which would have been used to print the First Folio. 

Amazing Sticker Book.

 

 

 Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

                                 Tend me to-night;

May be it is the period of your duty:

Haply you shall not see me more; or if,

A mangled shadow: perchance to-morrow

You'll serve another master. I look on you

As one that takes his leave.

 

Antony

Antony and Cleopatra                    Act IV, Scene ii, Line 28

 

Two vocabulary notes:

Period = End

Haply = Perhaps (NOT Happily)

Antony is convinced that he’s going to be defeated tomorrow in battle, so he’s saying goodbye to his servants.

If you’re as old as me, or if you have a good sense of American 1970’s history, this scene might make you think of Richard Nixon saying goodbye to the White House staff. This latter scene was immortalized in song.

Both Antony’s and Nixon’s scene are pretty sad. It’s a rainy day today, haply reflecting the mood of today’s line.

Line 'Em Up - Bing video

The aforementioned song

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Pray you, sir, how much carnation ribbon may a man buy for a remuneration?

 

Costard

Love’s Labour’s Lost   Act III, Scene i, Line 143

 

It’s a comedy, isn’t it. 

Costard here is a bit of a buffoon. So it’s a rather silly part of the scene where he doesn’t know what remuneration actually means. Armado says he’ll give him remuneration for delivering a letter, and so gives him three farthings. Now Costard, unfamiliar with the word remuneration, thinks it means three farthings, and he’s asking Berowne how much carnation ribbon he can buy with a remuneration, meaning how much can he buy with three farthings. It makes sense to Costard of course, but not to Berowne.

Again, it’s comedy.  

Three farthings? Eh, probably not. 

Three Farthing Stone? Yes indeed!

See, I told you Will's works and JRR's works were related. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

If the great gods be just, they shall assist

The deeds of justest men.

 

Pompey

Antony and Cleopatra    Act II, Scene i, Line 1

 

Well that’s a big if, isn’t it. This also kind of flies right in the face of life’s not fair, kid (one of my favorite, non-Will lines).

 And, justest? C’mon now, that’s not even a word. I know that Will likes to make up words, but justest. He couldn’t just go with most just? Arguably that works even a little better with the iambic pentameter flow than justest.

Well now there I go again, trying to improve on Will. Silly me. Silly me.

 

Silly me.