Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Look, who comes here:

Will you be chid?

Timon

Timon of Athens           Act I, Scene i,  Line 177

That is to say, will you be scolded. Timon sees Apemantus coming and he’s warning the people that he’s talking to that Apemantus is going to be scolding them all. Though I’m not sure scolding is the right word to describe it. Timon addresses him as gentle Apemantus and the latter responds with

Till I be gentle, stay thou for thy good morrow;
When thou art Timon’s dog, and these knaves honest.

So he’s not scolding so much as he just being rude and insulting. Or perhaps we should say he’s speaking out in angry or displeased rebuke. That the MW definition of chide/chid. Yeah, that works better.

In any event, Apemantus is the anti-social, anti-people character that Timon will become by the end of the play. His favorite line is probably one that I heard my friend Uwe say once: I hate people.

Unhealthy as that is, I know I feel that way more than just a little bit. Have you ever heard yourself thinking that? I hate people. It’s kind of tough not to, at least occasionally.  Uwe and I were driving to dinner once when someone cut us off. I was driving and Uwe was in the passenger seat. He watched the other car drive away and stated very simply, very matter-of-fairly, I hate people. Of course he was really referring to the person that had cut us off, not all people, but it came out a little bit funny. To be clear, Uwe was not an Apemantus. In fact, Uwe was a pretty decent fellow.

Here's a pic of Mojo from when he was just a few months old.

This little polar bear has always been the polar opposite of a people hater. In fact, I don't think he's ever met a people that he didn't like. He loves people! 

 Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

O, no, my reasons are too deep and dead;--

Too deep and dead, poor infants, in their graves.

 

Queen Elizabeth

King Richard the Third       Act IV, Scene iv,  Line 363

 

Well, we’ve been to this scene before. It’s a fairly long scene, and in this part of it Richard is trying to talk Elizabeth into helping him woo her daughter. But Elizabeth knows that Richard has killed half her family, including her young sons, so she wants no part of this. For every reason that Richard gives her to help him, she has an equally good reason as to why she shouldn’t. Finally Richard says,

Your reasons are too shallow and too quick.

And that’s what Elizabeth is replying to with today’s line.
The guy is responsible for the deaths of her two young sons, the princes in the tower.

I think she gives a pretty reasonable response; To say the very least.

Speaking of little princes, our own little Prince Mojo has declined to join us today. No, he didn't give a reason, but apparently he had something more important to do. 

I wonder what that could have been.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

That approaches apace: I would gladly have him see his company anatomized, that he might take a measure of his own judgments, wherein so curiously he had set this counterfeit.

 

First Lord

All’s Well That Ends Well            Act IV, Scene iii,  Line 31

 

This is All’s Well That Ends Well and you know what that means: that’s right - I have no idea what’s going on because I don’t know anything about this play. Well, I know a little, a very little. Nonetheless, I have no idea who the speaker is, what he’s talking about, or what’s taking place in this scene. So, now what do we do?
I suppose we could read the play. No, that’s not going to happen this morning.

As you can see, Mojo was all excited about getting started this morning.

Two minutes later, when he found out that today’s line was from All’s Well, he was pretty much done.

I felt pretty much the same way.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

This is strange: your father’s in some passion

That works him strongly.

 

Ferdinand

The Tempest                   Act IV, Scene i,  Line 144

 

This is at the end of the masque that Prospero is presenting for Ferdinand and Miranda. Prospero has suddenly remembered that he has to deal with Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo.

This got me to thinking if I ever had to deal with the father of a girlfriend who was in a passion that worked him strongly, and I don’t think that I ever did. Lucky me, I guess. On the other hand, I never had the father of a girlfriend throw a masque for her and me either.

No, I’m not going to ask Mojo if he's ever had this experience. I know for a fact that he hasn’t. 

"Well, have you, Mojo?"

"Thinking, thinking..."

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Mome, malt-horse, capon, coxcomb, idiot, patch!

 

Dromio of Syracuse

The Comedy of Errors    Act III, Scene i,  Line 32

 

Yes Mojo, I believe these are all insults that Dromio of Syracuse is yelling at Dromio of Ephesus. No Mojo, I would never call you a coxcomb. 

Merriam Webster online:

Mome: blockhead, fool (archaic)

Capon: a castrated male chicken

Coxcomb: jester’s cap (archaic), fool (obsolete)

Patch: noun (2) fool, dolt

Nothing for Malt-horse.

So, other than malt-horse, these insults are all available in Merriam Webster online. How about that?

He's such a sensitive little guy.

I would never call him a coxcomb, or a mome, or malt-horse, or any of these things.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Who? Sylvia?

 

Thurio

Two Gentlemen of Verona     Act IV, Scene ii,  Line 23

 

“Who’s Sylvia?”

“No, Mojo, Who? Sylvia?”

“No, who is Sylvia?”

“Oh. I’m not sure.”

“You’re not sure?”

“Yes, I’m not sure. I don’t know this play very well.”

“So, you’ve been doing this for over seven years, and you still don’t know the plays?”

“Well, I know them, but I don’t know all of them really well, and this is one of the ones that I don’t know well at all.”

“Ugfff. Can we play throw the chipmunk now?”

Some days we don't get too far with this new format.

I don't know where your stuffed Chipmunk is, Mojo.

I don't know who Sylvia is, and I don't know where the stuffed chipmunk is, and I'm beginning to seriously question why I decided to include you in this blog.

Ooof!

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Why, thou full dish of fool, Troy.

 

Thersites

Troilus and Cressida                      Act V, Scene i,  Line 9

 

So, we're at it again, Mojo and me, taking our morning foray into the world of Elizabethan drama.

“I don’t get it.”

“It’s pretty simple Mojo: Thersites is delivering a letter to Achilles who is hanging out with his buddy Patroclus. The latter asks Thersites where the letter is from, and Thersites answers that it’s from Troy, calling Patroclus a full dish of fool in the process.”

“So, he’s calling the guy a full dish of fool?” My little man looked up at me, obviously confused.

“Yes, you’ve got it.”

“A full dish of fool: that’s an insult?”

“Yes, obviously. Would you like me to call you a full dish of fool?”

“No, I’d like you to get me a full dish of food.”

“Okay, well now you’re changing the subject.”

“No I’m not. I’d like a full dish of food, please.”

“It’s hard to stay on topic with you.”

“I think we’re on the topic of a full dish of food. What’s so hard about that?”

“Okay.”

1. It didn't stay full very long.

2. Why do I feel like some little guy with a tail just made a full dish of fool out of me?