Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Acquaint her with the danger of my state;

Implore her, in my voice, that she make friends

To the strict deputy; bid herself assay him.

 

Claudio

Measure For Measure          Act I, Scene ii, Line 119

 

Claudio has been sentenced to death for adultery. He’s talking to his friend Lucio and asking him to talk to Claudio’s sister. He wants his sister to try to talk to Angelo (the deputy who’s been put in charge by the Duke in his absence) to see if she can put in a good word for him.

So, assay, which is still a very common word, in today’s use means to try to win him over. I don’t think you’ll see it used that much like that anymore. I’m not even sure if it’s defined as such anymore.

I’ve been used to seeing the word assay frequently used as a noun over the past seven years. An assay, in the biotech world is any test which analyzes a substance to determine its properties: the presence or absence of one or more components. I won’t be hearing assay much anymore for two reasons. One is that I am going to be retiring in a few months, and the other is that the company is shutting down anyway. So, we’re not going to be analyzing any substances for my last few months of work, we’re just going to be talking about how to take care of shutting down a business. There might still be a few assays of investors (in the sense of Claudio's use of the word), but I think that's pretty much done with. 

 

Here is my electric biked parked at the office last summer. I' not sure if I'm going to be working there long enough to be riding to the office and parking it here again, but we'll see.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Ay, so I fear, the more is my unrest.

 

Romeo

Romeo and Juliet         Act I, Scene v, Line 112

 

Quick context: We’re near the beginning of the play, and this is the scene where Romeo and some friends have crashed a party at the Capulets. They’ve managed to do this because it’s a masked party. Romeo has met Juliet for the first time, they’ve had a brief encounter, shared a kiss, and, of course, fallen madly and irretrievably, in love. At this point Romeo’s friend Benvolio realizes that they’ve been recognized and comes up and tells Romeo they need to get out of there.

Away, be gone, the sport is at the best, he says. In other words, let’s get out of here, the jig is up.

And that’s what Romeo is responding to with Today’s Totally Random Line.

It’s as simple as that. Comments?

I can say with no fear or unrest that, whilst I'm not certain that this guy is the most interesting biotech analyst in the world, this is definitely one of the most interesting coffee cups in the cabinet. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Rumble thy bellyful. Spit, fire! Spout, rain!
Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire are my daughters.
I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness;
I never gave you kingdom, call’d you children;
You owe me no subscription. Then let fall,
Your horrible pleasure. Here I stand your slave,
A poor, infirm, weak, and despis’d old man;
But yet I call you servile ministers,
That will with two pernicious daughters join
Your high-engender’d battles ‘gainst a head
So old and white as this. O, ho! ‘Tis foul.

 

Lear

King Lear              Act III, Scene ii, Line 16

 

Classic scene. We’re well into the play and Lear is now aware that his two older daughters are rotten bitches. He’s wandering on the heath at night in a thunderstorm, alone except for his fool, howling at the heavens. Classic!

I’m sitting at my granddaughter’s house in Minnesota drinking my morning coffee before anyone else is up. I’m listening to Zac Brown’s Knee Deep and feeling pretty good about things.

I have no doubt that there are people who get driven as mad as Lear by life’s problems. I’m thankful that I’m not one of them. At least, today I’m not. And all we really ever have is today, n’est pas?

 

No rain, wind, thunder, or fire; just a peaceful sunset over frozen Forest Lake.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

 

Look you, if you take the matter others than is meant, Captain MacMorris, peradventure I shall think you do not use me with that affability as in discretion you ought to use me, look you; being as goot a man as yourself, both in the disciplines of war, and in the derivation of my birth, and in other particularities.

 

Fluellen

King Henry the Fifth            Act III, Scene ii, Line 128

 

 

Today we have more of the adventures of the Welshman Fluellen. I had to look up the word peradventure and it means perhaps or possibly. That’s per MW online. Also, the MW word of the day is MacGuffin, and per MW a MacGuffin is an object, event, or character in a film or story that serves to set and keep the plot in motion despite usually lacking intrinsic importance.

So, peradventure is Fluellen, and this conversation, a MacGuffin? More importantly, doe a writer of Will’s caliber use MacGuffins? 

Both great questions, eh? Unfortunately, I’m not going to give you any great answers. I’ll leave it up to you. But at least we’ve added the word peradventure to our vocabulary. 

Good luck!

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

  

I am sorry to give breathing to my purpose,--

 

Marc Antony

Antony and Cleopatra           Act I, Scene iii, Line 14

I’m not sure, but I think Antony is about to tell Cleopatra that he’s got to head back to Rome. Cleopatra’s been talking about him, and he just entered the scene. The script reads Enter Antony and then he speaks Today’s Line. After that Cleopatra keeps interrupting him. It’s not until the next page that Antony gets around to telling her about going back to Rome, but I think that’s what he’s referring to when he starts with Today’s Totally Random Line.

So when he says give breathing to my purpose is he talking about being sorry that he has to tell her what he’s gonna do, or sorry about what he has to do? Maybe both. It’s an interesting line.

I am sorry to give breathing to my purpose. I think he’s talking about being sorry about what he has to tell her. Yeah, I’m going with that.

Mojo doesn't care if Antony's sorry about what he has to tell or sorry about what he has to do. Mojo's just sorry (more like pissed off) that someone put all his toys up on the chair where he can't reach them. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

  

I warrant you, with pure love and troubled brain, he hath ta’en his bow and arrows, and is gone forth-to sleep. Look, who comes here.

 

Celia

As You Like It               Act IV, Scene iii,  Line 5

This is Celia making excuses to Rosalind for Orlando. It’s past the time that the lad promised to show up, and there’s no sign of him. The who comes here is not Orlando, it’s Silvius. Now the conversation quickly turns from Orlando to Silvius and the latter’s unrequited love with Phebe.

So now, if I were going to key in on anything here, and I guess I am, I think it would be the phrase with pure love and troubled brain. What do you think? Celia’s trying to give Orlando the benefit of the doubt for standing up Rosalind, and so describes him to be with pure love and troubled brain. Pure and troubled. Not just pure. And not just troubled. Pure and troubled. Both are an indication of a young man in love, almost any young man in love. I guess maybe some old one’s too, but particularly the young ones. Both are a defense of Orlando. That is to say, he’s got a lot on his mind and that’s why he’s forgotten about his date with Rosalind, but it’s not because he doesn’t love her.

Yeah, let’s leave with that one. Pure love and troubled brain.

I think my little friend Mojo might be an example of pure love and un-troubled brain. 

What do you think?