Today’s Totally Random Lines

  

Well, lords, we have not got that which we have:

‘Tis not enough our foes are this time fled,

Being opposites of such repairing nature.

 

 Earl of Salisbury

King Henry the Sixth Part II     Act V, Scene iii,  Line 21

 

Well, it’s only three lines; at least we can say that. But I’ll admit that they are a little confusing. First, context: Salisbury is one of the elder statesmen of the York faction and they’ve just defeated King Henry & Co. at the battle of St. Albans. The King’s forces are in retreat. Okay, now the three lines.

We have not got that which we have. Hmmm. We have not got that which we have. This is the beginning of the thought, so we’re not missing something from the previous line. Hmmm, a bit confusing, eh?

Let’s move to the next line and see if that brings us any clarity. These two are pretty clear – Pete’s version: It’s not enough that we’ve got them on the run, because retreating is not in their nature. And then the thought that is not stated, but implied: if retreat is not in their nature, than this ‘retreat’ is simply the prelude to their next action.

Okay, does that give clarity to we have not got that which we have. I think it does. I think Salisbury is saying that we’ve won the battle but not the war. We’ve not got (complete) victory yet, even though we have victory (in this battle).

How’s that? I think it’s pretty good. And since it’s a nice short scene, and it’s Saturday morning, I think I’ll listen to the scene. Good day to you.

Here, from my sticker book, is a V for victory. But since it stands for a victory that they have, but don't have, it's a V with a very squirrelly little guy in it. 

Also, in keeping with the have but don't have theme, it's a sticker, but it's not been taken out of the book. So it a sticker that's not been stuck. Therefore, is it really a sticker?

Did you get that? Or did you not get that? Perhaps you got it, but didn't get it?

Should I stop now?

 Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

 

'The rugged Pyrrhus, like th’Hyracanian beast,’ — ‘tis not so:—it begins with Pyrrhus;
‘The rugged Pyrrhus, — he whose sable arms,
Black as his purpose, did the night resemble
When he lay couched in the ominous horse,—
Hath now this dread and black complexion smear’d
With heraldry more dismal; head to foot
Now is he total gules; horridly trickt
With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,
Baked and impasted with the parching streets,
That lend a tyrannous and damned light
To their vile murders: roasted in wrath and fire,
And thus o’er-sized with coagulate gore,
With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
Old grandsire Priam seeks.’—
So proceed you.

  

Hamlet

Hamlet                         Act II, Scene ii,  Line 465

 

This is Hamlet reciting some lines for the players from a play that he once saw. Yes, he’s talking about the siege of Troy, couched in the ominous horse. Pyrrhus was one of the Greeks and he did some slaughtering in Troy, including killing King Priam. Gules, by the way, means red.

Hamlet prefaces today’s lines with
One speech in it I chiefly loved: ‘twas Aeneas’ tale to Dido; and there about of it especially where he speaks of Priam’s slaughter:

Then he gets into today’s lines. 

Hamlet starts the speech, then realizes he’s got it wrong, ‘tis not so, then starts again.

It’s an interesting few lines; okay, maybe not so few. Does one look at the lines themselves, ostensibly part of another, nonexistent play? Or does one look at what Hamlet is doing, and saying, and what the lines mean in relation to his situation in this play? You could do either, couldn’t you? This play, Hamlet, is full of these kinds of choices. All of Will’s works are, but none more than Hamlet.

 

 Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Work, work your thoughts, and therein see a siege;

Behold the ordnance on their carriages,

With fatal mouths gaping on girded Harfleur.

  

Chorus

King Henry the Fifth       Act III, Prologue, Line 27

 

This is the chorus setting the scene and asking the audience to imagine what the siege of Harfleur would look like. This is the same siege that we were in yesterday with the boy who didn’t want to be there, as we have managed to randomly pick one page previous in my book from yesterday.

Particularly in the plays that have battles, Will uses the chorus to tell the audience what the setting is. Remember, there were significant limitations as to what they could present on a stage back then.

So we’re asked to picture the canon, with fatal mouths gaping on girded Harfleur. Get the picture?

It’s a nice little passage, thirty-five lines long. It describes the ships leaving England and arriving at Harfleur and then the siege beginning. It includes the stage direction [Alarum and chambers go off, within]. So perhaps they did fire a cannon off stage.

Remember, that’s how they burned down the Globe Theater some years later: firing off a cannon during a production of King Henry the Eighth. But that’s a story for another day. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Would I were in an ale house in London! I would give all my fame for a pot of ale and safety.

Boy

King Henry the Fifth       Act III, Scene ii,  Line 12

The scene is the British assault of Harfleur. I think the Brits win this one, and the boy speaking is a Brit, so he’s on the right side of the battle. He just doesn’t want to be in any battle.

Just imagine all the people, young and old, who are stuck in the middle of battles right now all over the world. I imagine most of them would prefer an ale house in London too.

The Brits on a whole, mankind on the whole, are a decent lot. I think if you took someone from Gaza, or a bombed out building in Eastern Ukraine, or from one of a couple dozen other places in the world, and magically transported them to a London ale house that the people in that ale house would take care of them.

I dunno, is that a crazy thought?

This is an ale that I had whilst traveling in January. It wasn't a London ale house, but the people there were generally nice. I suppose the Boy from today's scene would have been comfortable here. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

  

Lord Talbot, do not so dishonour me:

Here will I sit before the walls of Rouen,

And will be partner of your weal or woe.

 

Duke of Bedford

King Henry the Sixth Part I       Act III, Scene ii,  Line 92

 

Okay, weal.  A red swollen mark left by a blow. That’s the MW modern meaning of weal.
Welfare, well being, prosperity, or state community or commonwealth. Those are the two archaic meanings, the former of which is what we are looking at today. The Duke is telling Talbot that he will be with him for better or for worse; in prosperity or in woe. Sounds like he’s going to marry the guy.

 

Well these two are clearly partners in weal or woe. 

Luckily, on this day it was all weal. 

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

O Corin, that thou know’st how I do love her!

 

Silvius

As You Like It                  Act II, Scene iv,  Line 22

 

Our friend Silvius is in love with Phebe. What’s to say about that?

Here's my Phebe. How could I not fall in love with her?

 Today’s Totally Random Lines

  

               No, that were pity:

I would entreat you rather to put on

Your boldest suit of mirth, for we have friends

That purpose merriment. But fare ye well:

I have some business.

Bassanio

The Merchant of Venice          Act II, Scene ii,  Line 202

 

That purpose merriment; he has friends that purpose merriment.

First of all, have we ever seen purpose as a verb. I will make it my purpose. I have a purpose. But, I purpose? I dunno; sounds pretty Willish to me.

Second, to purpose merriment. They make it, or will make it, their purpose to have fun. That doesn’t sound all that bad, does it. 

Dracula here looks like he purposes merriment.