Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Nay; good my fellows, do not please sharp fate

To grace it with your sorrows.

 

Antony

Antony and Cleopatra    Act IV, Scene xiv,  Line 135

Well, day three of retirement. Another day, and another line in a long list of Shakesperar’s characters’ last words. Perhaps we should look at the whole passage since it’s Antony’s last. And let’s face it, we have time now. Don’t worry, it’s only six lines.

Nay, good my fellows, do not please sharp fate
To grace it with your sorrows: bid that welcome
Which comes to punish us, and we punish it
Seeming to bear it lightly. Take me up:
I have led you oft: carry me now good friends,
And have my thanks for all.

I think it’s a pretty easy passage. At first I got lost on the first line because somehow I missed the fact that ‘please’ is the verb there. Don’t make fate happy with your sorrow: Welcome cruel fate, and you will punish fate by taking its punishments lightly. Or something like that. 

Now the more I look at it, the more I like that first line.

Nay, good my fellows, do not please sharp fate

To grace it with your sorrows.

Wow, that is classic. The whole thing. This is exactly why they refer to Will as the Poet Playwright. Those two lines are poetry. Nay, good my fellows. I love that – good my fellows.

And do not please sharp fate. Isn’t that about the best one word description of fate – sharp! The twists and turns of fate can be as sharp as anything there is.

What a great line. I think I found the opening line of my own elegy. I love it.

Okay, but just a sec. I made a mistake. Antony doesn’t die here; it just sounds like he does. He fell on his sword several lines back, but apparently he temporarily survives his suicide attempt. They carry him, dying, to Cleopatra and he dies in the next scene. For the record, his last word, in the next scene, are, 

Now my spirit is going; I can no more.

I felt I had to give you that since I opened telling you that we had Antony’s last lines. And now we did.

But one more time..

Nay, good my fellows, do not please sharp fate

To grace it with your sorrows.

Fabulous!

"Mojo! Sleepyhead! Wake up! You're gonna miss a really good line."

"What?"

 Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

 Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.

 Prince of Morocco

The Merchant of Venice        Act II, Scene vi,  Line 7

 

This is the inscription on the second box, the silver one, and the Prince is reading it. He reads the inscriptions on all the boxes and, of course, chooses the wrong one. Portia’s picture is in the lead box which has the inscription ‘Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.’ The gold box, the one the prince chooseth says ‘Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.’

These inscriptions are supposed to test a man’s logic and, more importantly betray his true character. At least that’s the theory.
The three inscriptions can be pretty thought provoking, if you’re so inclined. Of course, I can at times be so inclined; probably more so today than ever.

Why so today, you ask? Today is the first day of my retirement. The proverbial first day of the rest of my life. It’s got me being very philosophical. And as you know, I am a philosopher.

But getting back to the inscriptions, supposedly dear old dad set them up so that the person who chose the lead box would be deserving of his daughter, and the estate that went with her. Certainly, of the three, the lead box, and its inscription make it the hardest, or at least, most unlikely choice of most men. But there’s got to be more to dad’s theory than just that.

Well, this is something that you can think on; or even better, find someone to discuss it with. What, you’re thinking that I should discuss it with Mojo? I’m up early this morning (first day of retirement; remember?) and that little guy is still in bed. Perchance I’ll bring up the subject of Portia’s boxes with him later on.

The little guy is under there somewhere. It's not his first day of retirement, so he feels no need to get up early.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Escalus,--

 

Duke

Measure For Measure       Act I, Scene i,  Line 1

That’s right, it’s the first line/word of the play.

                                     ACT I. SCENE I.

An apartment in the Duke’s palace.

Enter Duke, Escalus, Lords, & Attendants.

Duke               Escalus,--

Escalus            My Lord?

 

And it goes on from there.

This could pretty much be the first two lines of any of Will’s plays (assuming you substitute Escalus for other names depending on which play you’re talking about). These lines/words don’t really tell us anything, do they. Well, other than the fact that the first speaker is probably the superior to the second speaker, based on the way he answered. And of course we know that the second speaker is named Escalus. Okay, that’s two things. Anything else? We don’t even know yet that the first speaker is the Duke. We do if we’re reading the play, but not if we’re seeing it performed.

Right then; three words, and we know two things. 

Wait, we know that the first speaker is going to be asking something of the second speaker. We don’t yet know what it is, but based on the way he said the name, and the way Escalus answered, it’s a pretty safe bet that he’s going to be looking for something from Escalus.

Well it’s a short scene, so I just listened to it. Six minutes, eighty-three lines.

What does the Duke want from Escalus? Advice. He’s leaving town on a trip and he wants to know if it’s a good idea to put Angelo in charge whilst he’s gone. Escalus says, sure, so they call in Angelo and give him the reins.

And that’s about it. On to scene two.

But hold on a minute. There’s something interesting here. That’s right… something interesting in Shakespeare.

So the Duke, in answer to My Lord?, gives an interesting, perhaps over-wordy speech to Escalus. And this speech is anything but easy to follow. And to make it a little more confusing, right in the middle of it is this cryptic little section

Since I am put to know that your own science

Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice

My strength can give you: then no more remains

But that to your sufficiency…………..

……………………… as your worth is able,

And let them work.

 

I looked at that and thought, what that heck are all those periods about. Naturally I went to my First Folio, and that had no such thing. Rather it had a comma between sufficiency and as your worth. Not satisfied, I went to my G.B. Harrison compilation. That had just the comma as well, but it also had a very interesting footnote. The note said A sentence seems to have been omitted between “sufficiency” and “able”.

Huh!

I went back, read it again, and sure enough – it does sound like something is missing there.

So my compilation, the one that I use every day, has no footnotes, but apparently to represent that something is missing, it has all these dots.

Huh!

Yes, that’s right: Huh!

That's right - fast asleep. Talk about not interested? He made it as far as My Lord?,

and that was about it. 

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..."