Today’s Totally Random Lines

  

                        Stay, my lord,

And let your reason your choler question

What ‘tis you go about: to climb steep hills

Requires slow pace at first: anger is like

A full-hot horse, who being allowed his way,

Self-mettle tires him. Not a man in England

Can advise me like you: be to yourself

As you would to your friend.  

  

Duke of Norfolk
King Henry the Eighth          Act I, Scene i, Line 133

 

Well, here we are again, two days in a row in King Henry the Eighth, and two days in a row dealing with Cardinal Wolsey fallout. Today we’re at the very beginning of the play. This fellow in red seems to have everybody seeing red. How about that pun, eh?

The Duke of Norfolk is talking to Buckingham, trying to calm him down. The latter is fuming because who just left the room? Of course, Cardinal Wolsey.

I think today’s lines are a little hard, so I’ll give you Pete’s Version. Keep in mind that Wolsey just left the room and  Buckingham, really pissed off, is about to go chase after him because he’s sure the Wolsey is up to no good (spoiler alert: Buckingham is right). Norfolk wants Buckingham to calm down and slow down.

Slow down buddy, let your good sense prevail over your anger in what you’re about to do. If you’re going to climb a steep hill you need to start slow; anger is like a wild horse, who if you let him loose will quickly be tired out and not make it to the top of the steep hill. There’s no one in England who’s ever given me better advice than you. Advise yourself as well as you would advise me, and listen to that advice.

Questions?

No, that's not a horse that the mother of my child is sitting on; it's Tex, the mascot of the University of Texas. I'm guessing that Tex is a longhorn steer?

 Thankfully, Tex didn't go full-hot on her, because that wouldn't be a very good thing, and any self-mettling would have done a lot more than just tire Tex.  

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

  

If we live thus tamely,

To be thus jaded by a piece of scarlet,

Farewell nobility; let his Grace go forward,

And dare us with his cap like larks.

 

 Earl of Surrey

King Henry the Eighth          Act III, Scene ii, Line 281

 

Well, we were just in this scene, when was it? Let me check. Jeez, it was August 20th. It seems like yesterday. Do you remember? It was the line with the sacring bell, where we learned that the sacring bell is the little bell they ring on the altar at mass. 

That line was also the Earl of Surrey and it’s just a few lines further down from today’s. In today’s line, like that one, the Earl is berating the Cardinal, referring to him as a piece of scarlet. I get the feeling that he really doesn’t care much for Cardinal Wolsey, don’t you?

There's a scarlet stain on this old pocket knife. I'm pretty sure it's just paint, not the Cardinal's blood. Unless of course this knife once belonged to the Earl of Surrey. 

But I'm pretty sure it didn't. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

The conclusion is victory: on whose side? The kings. The captive is enricht: on whose side? The beggars.

Boyet
Love’s Labour’s Lost             Act IV, Scene i, Line 75

Boyet is reading Don Armando’s love letter to Jaquinita. The letter is almost thirty lines long and it doesn’t make much sense. I think it’s supposed to be funny, but I have to admit that the humour is lost on me.

Yes, that’s right, Mr. Shakespeare-Lover here is admitting that the humour is lost on him. Nobody’s perfect: not Will, not Boyet or Don Armando, and certainly not Mr. Shakespeare-Lover me.

Well, these pics got nothin to do with nothin, but that never stopped me before.

This plant sat on top of my bookcase completely ignored for a few years. 

 The other day I decided to water it. 

The conclusion? Couldn't kill the darn thing if I tried.

 

Such as she says my lord did say I was.

 

Desdemona
Othello                            Act IV, Scene ii, Line 130

 

I have to admit that this line looks confusing. But it’s not. And you don’t need Pete’s Version; you just need a little context. So here you go.

Othello is now completely convinced that Desdemona is cheating on him with Cassio. He’s just had it out with Desdemona, called her a whore, and stormed out on her. Emilia overheard the whole thing, and now Iago has come in and he and Emilia are trying to console Desdemona. Emilia tells Iago what Othello said, and Desdemona asks Iago, Am I that name, Iago? He answers with, What name, fair Lady? She replies, Such as she says my lord did say I was. In other words, The name that Emilia says Othello called me. Oops, I ended up giving you Pete’s Version.

Well I hope you realize, with the context and the Pete’s Version, that it’s a pretty simple line after all. N’est pas? And perfect iambic pentameter: ten one syllable words. And look how each pair of words, each foot of the pentameter, is a set, a pair, by itself.

Such as

She says

My lord

Did say

I was

It’s pretty neat, if you think about it; perhaps e’en if to think ‘bout it you don’t.

Perhaps

E’en if

To think

‘Bout it

You don’t. 

Oh no, not again!

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

He professes to have received no sinister measure from his judge, but most willingly humbles himself to the determination of justice: yet had he framed to himself, by the instruction of his frailty, many deceiving promises of life; which I, by my good leisure, have discredited to him, and now is he resolved to die.

Duke/Friar
Measure For Measure                   Act III, Scene ii, Line 251

The duke, disguised as a friar, is talking to Escalus and Provost about Claudio. The latter is a prisoner of the state and has been sentenced to death. I’ll give you the straight up Pete’s Version of today’s paragraph.

He (Claudio) believes he got a fair judgment and wants only what is just. However, being the weak man that he his, he’s convinced himself that there must be a way out. I (duke/friar), in my good time, have convinced him otherwise, and now he is ready to accept his fate.

Pretty straightforward, eh?

Now, since we’ve landed, today, only a dozen or so lines up from one of my favorite lines, I’ll end with it. It’s the Duke, now alone, speaking indirectly about Angelo, the guy he left in charge and the guy who sentenced Claudio to death.

How may likeness wade in crimes,

Making practice on the times,

To draw with idle spiders' strings

Most ponderous and substantial things.

To draw with idle spiders' strings

Most ponderous and substantial things.

 

Hear me speak:--

As I do know the counsel’s worthiness,

So can I name his faults,-

 

Menenius Agrippa

Coriolanus                      Act III, Scene i, Line 276

But Menenius doesn’t get to finish his sentence, as he gets interrupted by one of the congressmen (I think it might be Matt Goetz) yelling,

Consul!- what consul?

Menenius wants to try to mediate, but they don’t even want to recognize the fact that Coriolanus was properly appointed as consul/leader even though he was (sound familiar?)

Again, this is a great play, but it’s a complicated one. The congressmen (the tribunes) are painted by Will as pretty weaselly (yes, that’s a word, and it means suggestive of a weasel – not the animal, the person). On the other hand, Coriolanus, albeit a great warrior, is not necessarily cut out for politics.

Shall I say it for the umpteenth time? Why don’t they teach this play in school? It’s fabulous, and relevant, and it’s got the fairly recent Ralph Fiennes version to watch. It’s a shame. Then again, I suppose the twenty-first century tribunes would have none of it.  

No pic needed today.

 

Why looks your grace so heavily to-day?

 

Sir Robert Brakenbury

Richard the Third          Act I, Scene iv, Line 1

 

Well, let’s see, his grace is imprisoned in the Tower of London, and he’s going to be dead by the end of the scene: not a lot to be happy about, is there?