Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

                                      I have trusted thee, Camilo,
With all the nearest things to my heart, as well
My chamber-councils; wherein, priest-like, thou
Hast cleansed my bosom,- I from thee departed
The pentinent reform’d: but we have been
Deceived in thy integrity, deceived
In that which seems so.

 

Leontes

 

The Winter’s Tale      Act I, Scene ii, Line 240

 

This is where Leontes first goes off the rails. He has decided just now not only that his wife is cheating on him, but also that his true and trusted advisor Camillo is at fault for not realizing it as well.

The truth of the matter is that Leontes’s wife is not cheating on him, Camillo is true and wise, and Leontes is an idiot.  I was going to say chowderhead, but that’s way too nice a term. I need something quite a bit stronger than that, and idiot seems pretty good.

So that’s today’s conclusion: Leontes is an idiot.

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

 

Accursed be the tongue that tells me so,

For it hath cow’d my better part of man!

And be these juggling fiends no more believed,

That palter with us in a double sense;

That keep the word of promise in our ear,

And break it to our hope!—I’ll not fight with thee.

 

Macbeth

 

Macbeth                Act V, Scene viii, Line 20

 

Well now, these are close to Macbeth’s last words. We only have seven and a half more lines out of him before he exits fighting Macduff. And those lines will be his last as the next time we see him after that is with his head severed from his body. At that point he won’t be saying much at all.
Macduff’s response to Macbeth is to tell him to yield to him if he’s not going to fight, and Macbeth replies with his last lines.

                      I will not yield,
To kiss the ground before young Malcom’s feet,
And to be baited with the rabble’s curse.
Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunisane,
And though opposed, being of no woman born,
Yet I will try the last:— before my body
I throw my warlike shield: lay on, Macduff;
And damn’d be him that first cries, ‘Hold, enough!’

And they exit fighting. Again, the last we see of Macbeth alive.

If you’ve any familiarity with this play you won’t need much help with any of today’s lines. If you don’t, well, it would take a page and a half to bring you up to speed considering we’re in the final lines of the play. I think that I won’t do that this morning.
So I guess I’ll just be giving you a whole bunch of Shakespeare lines, with a little explanation, this morning.

Today’s exchange about Macbeth being unkillable starts with him saying this to Macduff,

I bear a charmed life, which must not yield
To one of woman born.

This is what the witches had told Macbeth, that no man of woman born would be able to kill him. Of course, Macduff gives his famous reply,

               Despair thy charm:
And let the angel whom thou still hast served
Tell thee: Macduff was from his mother’s womb
Untimely ript.

In other words, since he was brought into the world through some sort of caesarian section, he was not technically of woman born. Or at least not born like most men were.

And then this exchange is immediately followed by Today’s Totally Random Daily Lines given by Macbeth.

There, now it should make sense.

 

 Here's an excerpt from the book above, from the chapter The Battle of the Pelennor Fields (yes, that's right: I only have the cover left of this particular copy).

“Hinder me? Thou fool. No living man may hinder me!”

Then Merry heard of all sounds in that hour the strangest. It seemed that Dernhelm laughed, and the clear voice was like the ring of steel. "But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Eowyn I am, Eomund’s daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Begone, if you be not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you, if you touch him.”

Of course, in the movie she says simply, “I am no man!” Hollywood likes to get to the point.

Still think JRR didn't read Shakespeare?

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

By heaven, I will not do thee so much ease.

Clarence

King Henry the Sixth Part III      Act V, Scene v, Line 72

 

Margaret, having just witnessed her son murdered, has asked Clarence to kill her. Today’s line is his reply to her.

What on earth are we going to say about this? Well, I suppose we could note that it’s two days in a row of a woman requesting help in dying. Cleopatra got the guy to bring her the asp/worm, whilst Margaret will have no such help. Clarence wants nothing to do with her. Remember also Antony requested the help of one of his soldiers in killing himself, and that soldier took his own life rather than help Antony take his.

So we’ve seen three very different answers to the request for help in ending it all. Very interesting. Also interesting that none of the responses had anything to do with helping the person cope with whatever was driving them to suicide. I guess though, that sort of response would not really fit into the Shakespearean drama, would it? It's hard to imagine Clarence responding, Well Margaret (or Cleopatra, or Antony), you know there are people you can talk to when you're having these urges. In fact, I have the address of someone who's been terribly helpful to me when I've been going through bad times. Why don't you look him up. Honestly, things are bound to get better.

Whilst that may be an appropriate and good thing to say nowadays, I really can't see Will writing that into his script. Can you?

 To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury, and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire, and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.

Just in case you think I'm not taking suicide seriously enough, the link above is to the site of  TWLOHA, a group that I've donated to in the past. They seem like good folks. 

I don't think Will could have written his words without suicide in them, but we can live out our lives without suicide. The world is full of goodness and beauty, even though sometimes that's hard to see or believe.  

Don't be thinking that you're in the sixteenth century where no one cares. 

People do care, and everyone matters.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

I wish you all joy of the worm.

Clown

Antony and Cleopatra                  Act V, Scene ii, Line 260

 

Well that’s an odd little line, eh? Now, given that this is almost the end of the play, can you guess what the worm is? Yes, that’s right, it’s the asp that Cleopatra’s going to use to end her life. The clown (whoever that is) has just brought a basket with the asp/worm in it. He and Cleopatra have a little bit of back and forth about the asp/worm, and then the clown leaves.

Twice he wishes her the joy of the worm; an interesting little turn of phrase. What exactly does he mean? What is the joy of the worm? Death? Hmmm. I don’t know. It’s a bit odd.

How about a worm like this guy; do you think you could get much joy out of him?

Not me!

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

In my stars I am above thee; but be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em.

Malvolio

Twelfth Night                Act II, Scene v, Line 144

It’s pretty funny that this quote about greatness has been used over and over again with such gravitas; funny because it’s original context above is in a letter playing a cruel practical joke on Malvolio. The letter he is reading has been written by Maria and Sir Toby. They designed it to be found by Malvolio and for him to believe it is a letter written by his Mistress Olivia professing that she is secretly in love with him. Of course, she is not, and it leads to Malvolio acting so ridiculous in her presence that she has him locked up.

And now here we are; for once we have randomly picked a line from Shakespeare’s works that we’ve actually heard before - only to find that its original meaning has nothing to do with the meaning people have when they use it today.

How ironic. How perfectly Shakespearean. It almost feels as though Will put it there to play a joke on us! What a clever fellow. I told you he had a good sense of humor.

Yes, that's right: some people are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em. 

But most, like yours truly here, simply live to be used and abused by the Sir Toby's of the world. I say that with a smile in my heart and laugh on my lips. Sort of.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

 

By this, lamenting Philomel had ended

The well-tuned warble of her nightly sorrow,

And solemn night with slow sad gait descended

To ugly hell; when, lo, the blushing morrow

Lends light to all fair eyes that light will borrow:

    But cloudy Lucrece shames herself to see,

    And therefore still in night would cloister’d be.

 

Narrator

Lucrece                          Line 1083

 

It’s a little bit cryptic, but basically it’s saying that though night is ending, Lucrece wants no part of the day, and would rather stay in the dark.

Yup, that’s what it’s saying.

Sunrise, or sunset? 

Actually, it's sunset, so not the right pic for these lines. But I couldn't find a pic of sunrise. Not to mention the fact that it's the same pic I used three days ago.

Sorry.

 

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.