Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

                O you are well  tuned now!

But I’ll set down the pegs that make this music,

As honest as I am.

Iago

Othello                    Act II, Scene i, Line 200

 

Iago is saying this line in an aside after watching Othello and Desdemona express their love and affection for each other. He’s letting the audience know that he’ll be making sure that this love and affection does not last.

I like that he ends his thought with as honest as I am. I’m familiar with the fact that honest Iago is a phrase oft repeated in this play, but I didn’t realize that even dishonest Iago says it. That’s kind of funny. 

I caught Mojo in a sunbeam this morning.

Now here's a guy who is always honest and straightforward with me. Yes sir, with Mojo it's what you see is what you get.

 Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Anointed, I implore so much expense of thy royal sweet breath as will utter a brace of words.

Armado

Love’s Labour’s Lost             Act V, Scene ii, Line 519

Okay, no context today, mostly form. Well, a little context.

Today’s lines are preceded in the text by the stage direction Enter Armado, and immediately followed by the further stage direction Converses apart with the King, and delivers him a paper. So that whatever is going on, Armado enters and interrupts with Today’s Totally Random Line.

Having said that, it’s a pretty solid interruption. Honestly, he starts off with addressing the King as anointed. That’s pretty good. It seems appropriate when addressing a king, but it’s not one I’ve run into before, as far as I can remember. And then he implores the king. He doesn’t just ask, he implores. And what does he implore: the expense of thy royal sweet breath. Well as far as interruptions go, this is one sweet interruption.

We should all get this sort of treatment when being interrupted. I know that I would be much more willing to listen to anyone interrupting me if they started with anointed, I implore so much expense of thy sweet breath as will utter a brace of words. See, I took out the word royal (since I’m not a king) and it still sounds really great. This is one of those lines that I wish I could remember, but I know I never will.

Anointed, I implore so much expense of thy sweet breath as will utter a brace of words.

Zzzzzzz.

When this guy gets comfortable it doesn't matter how sweetly you put it. He's simply not going to have his nap interrupted. Period.

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Edward the Duke of York, the Earl of Suffolk,

Sir Richard Kelly, Davy Gam, esquire;

None else of name, and of all other men

But five and twenty.

 

Henry

King Henry the Fifth                    Act IV, Scene viii,  Line 104

 

The battle having been fought and won, Henry is here listing the English killed. Wikipedia tells me that the English dead were around six hundred, not just five and twenty. And whilst that’s a far cry from France’s six thousand, and still a great victory, it shows that Will liked to exercise his dramatic license in the retelling of the Battle of Agincourt. And why not; like they say, history is written by the victors. Actually, that was a Brit too: Winston Churchill (according to Google).  

Wait, Winston who?

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

You are welcome: but my uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived.

 

Hamlet

Hamlet                   Act II, Scene ii,  Line 381

 

Why are they deceived? Because, says Hamlet, I am but mad north northwest: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.

He’s speaking in riddles more or less. Hamlet knows that the king has sent Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to find out what’s going on with him, and why he’s been acting so strange, so he’s just toying with the pair.

A hawk from a handsaw. I wonder why Will picked that pair of items.  Random? Oh, I doubt it. See, here’s another discussion opportunity. Why a hawk and a handsaw. Why not a rake from a rocking chair?

Well?

Or how about a chihuahua and a jigsaw puzzle, eh? 

What, you think a chihuahua can't do a jigsaw puzzle? 

Now you're just being chihuahuaist.

 Today’s Totally Random Line 

 

First, the fair reverence of your highness curbs me

From giving reins and spur to my free speech;

Which else would post until it had return’d

These terms of treason doubled down his throat.

 

Thomas Mowbray

King Richard the Second        Act I, Scene i,  Line 54

 

This is a pretty familiar scene to me. Surprised? Anyway, it’s the first scene of King Richard the Second, the one where Bolingbroke and Mowbray are brought before the king to settle their dispute with each other.  Richard asks them to state their cases, Bolingbroke calls Mowbray a traitor and miscreant, and Mowbray starts his long winded response. Apparently this response is going to be a bit diluted because Mowbray is afraid to speak frankly in the king’s presence. Though, to be fair, talking about shoving the words back down Bolingbroke’s throat is not in the most polite terms possible.

One thing I find a little odd about this scene is the fact that Bolingbroke calls Mowbray a traitor, and yet it is Bolingbroke who’s going to come back and overthrow King Richard.
So…. Who’s the traitor?

And now for something completely different.

In the most stupendous scenes you will see delicate and fragile features, as slight wreathes of vapor, dew-lines, feathery sprays, which suggest a high refinement, a noble blood and breeding, as it were. It is not hard to account for elves and fairies; they represent this light grace, this ethereal gentility. Bring a spray from the wood, or a crystal from the brook, and place it on your mantel, and your household ornaments will seem plebeian beside its nobler fashion and bearing. It will wave superior there, as if used to a more refined and polished circle. It has a salute and a response to all your enthusiasm and heroism.

There you go. I’ve tossed a little Thoreau at you this morning. Why? It’s because I was reading a bit of him just now, and I ran into the passage assigning royal status to wreaths of vapor, dew-lines, and feathery sprays. I couldn’t help but think of Mowbray’s comments about curbing his speech because of the fair reverence of your highness.
What terribly different examples of how to look at, or treat, the symbols of royalty.

That aside, I thought Thoreau’s passage was really quite nice, and I wanted to share it with you. I just started reading him recently, having never spent any time with him before. I find his writing (at least so far) very soothing. So far it’s all about nature, pretty much appreciating nature above all else.
Seems like a pretty good attitude. 

Sometimes the little guy actually does listen to me. When I finished reading the Thoreau passage about nature, he decided he needed to look outside to check out nature for himself. 

What did he see? Well, you'll have to ask him yourself. He didn't tell me. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Property was thus appalled,

That the self was not the same;

Single natures double name,

Neither two nor one was called.

 

Narrator

The Phoenix and the Turtle   Lines 37 - 40

 

Well, let’s see. I believe this is the last time we’re going to visit this poem. It’s my fourth visit, and the poem is only sixty-seven lines long, and it’s not just that. This poem is confusing and convoluted, and nobody knows what Will's talking about. Even G.B. Harrison thinks so. In reference to this poem he says it is difficult and enigmatical, and no one has yet offered any satisfactory interpretation of its inner meaning.

So there!

Why are we messing with it? Not sure, but we won’t be in the future.

 Finito.

You heard him: Finito!

 

 Today’s Totally Random Lines

                                            I am much sorry , sir,

You put me to forget a lady’s manners,

By being so verbal: and learn now, for all,

That I, which know my heart, do here pronounce,

By the very truth of it, I care not for you.

 

Imogen

Cymbeline              Act II, Scene iii, Line 108

 

This started out by Imogen answering Cloten’s question of whether she had called him a fool. She answers yes, and then begins apologizing for it, then lets him know what she really thinks of him, finally taking it further, saying,

And I am so near the lack of charity,-
To accuse myself,- I hate you; which I had rather
You felt than make’t my boast.

So she’s trying to qualify it the whole way, rather than just say it outright, but all she really wants to say is that she thinks he’s a fool and she hates him. No unnecessary words! Of course, that’s Strunk and White’s advice and this is Shakespeare. And never the twain shall meet. Really though, I think she could have been a little more straight forward. And Colten really is a creep, so he deserves it.
Oh well.

Funny, isn’t it, how sometimes we try so hard to hedge what we’re really feeling. And yet there are some people who don’t do that. Some people who have no filter. And that’s really not so good either.

I’m telling you, so many of these random lines can take you down nearly endless, and usually interesting, discussion paths.
Again, oh well.

Day four of retirement. Today actually is Saturday. No, really, it’s Saturday. Tomorrow is Sunday. Which brings up the question: if every day of retirement is Saturday, then there’s no Sunday? I’ll ask Buck.

Either way, I think I can get used to this.

This mornings writing spot and view.

Yes, I can get used to this, and no, I don't know where Mojo is.