Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Nay, he reserved a blanket, else we had been all shamed.

 

Fool

King Lear               Act III, Scene iv, Line 64

We’ve got a scene with Lear, who’s going mad, Edgar, who’s pretending to be mad, Kent, who’s fully sane and acting so, and Fool, who’s the sanest one there, though playing the role of the fool.
They’ve just come across Edgar who’s pretending to be poor Tom the beggar/madman. 

Lear assumes that since he, Lear, is going mad because he has been mistreated by his daughters that it must be poor Tom’s daughters that drove him mad. He asks Tom if he gave everything to his daughters like he, Lear, did. Fool answers that question with today’s line, which I think is meaning that Tom gave everything but a blanket which he is using to cover his nakedness with.

This scene is a really good commentary on the world, then, now, or whenever. Who’s really mad, and who really knows what they’re talking about? Sometimes that is really, really, hard to figure out, isn’t it.

And sometimes I guess it just doesn't matter. Right, Mojo?

Mojo knows.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

In sooth, good friend, your father might have kept

This calf, bred from his cow, from all the world;

In sooth, he might: then, if he were my brother’s,

My brother might not claim him; nor your father,

Being none of his, refuse him: this concludes,--

My mother’s son did get your father’s heir;

Your father’s heir must have your father’s land.

 

King John

King John               Act I, Scene i, Line 123

Oh boy! So here’s what we have. Two brothers have come before the king to have him arbitrate a dispute between them. The younger brother, Robert, claims that the older one, known throughout this play as Bastard, is not only a bastard, but the son of King John’s deceased brother King Richard. Further, he claims that his father knew this and left all his estate to him, the younger brother.

Today’s lines is King John’s ruling. He’s talking to Robert and saying that it’s possible that the father knew that Bastard was a bastard, but kept it a secret. Therefore, since King Richard wasn’t going to claim Bastard as his own son, the father wasn’t about to disown Bastard. Conclusion: Though King Richard may have begotten the father’s heir, Bastard is still that heir and therefore must inherit the father’s estate.

In the end though, even though the ruling went against the younger son Robert, everyone one turns out happy. Why? Because King John, realizing that Bastard probably is the son of his brother Richard, offers Bastard a knighthood if he will disown his father’s estate. Bastard is thrilled to get the knighthood and younger brother Robert gets what he came for. Like I said, everybody’s happy.

Got it?

I got it up to the part where you said, "So here's what we have".

 

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

All is well yet.--

 

Posthumus Leontanus

Cymbeline              Act II, Scene iv, Line 39

I guess that the word yet means that Posthumus is waiting for something to happen. What could it be?

All is well yet for the bug that's between the sunshade and the window. However, all will not be well for the sunshade if our hero keeps this up. 

I got up and raised the shade after taking these pics.

I'm not sure if all is still well for that bug.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

More direful hap betide that hated wretch,

That makes us wretched by the death of thee,

Than I can wish to adders, spiders, toads,

Or any creeping venom’d thing that lives!

 

Lady Anne

King Richard the Third                 Act I, Scene ii, Line 20

Here we have Lady Anne, the daughter-in-law of Henry VI, mourning over the former’s dead body. Henry, and Henry’s son Edward, who was Lady Anne’s husband, were both killed by Richard, and that’s the hated wretch she’s referring to.

Let me give you Pete’s version of the first two lines.

I hope the most terrible fortunes befall the hated wretch that killed thee, Henry;
More terrible than I could wish on adders…

Anne is just one more in the long line of Richard haters. The funny thing is that she ends up marrying Richard before things are done. Yup; believe it or not.

Wait, what? She marries the guy that killed her husband and her father-in-law?

That’s right Gilligan. What do you think about that?

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Stay, father! For that noble hand of thine,

That hath thrown down so many enemies,

Shall not be sent: my hand will serve the turn:

 

Lucius

Titus Andronicus   Act III, Scene i, Line 110

Lucius is trying to give his father a hand here. Sorry, I couldn’t resist that one.

Okay, so Aaron the Moor has come in and told the folks at Titus’s house that Titus’s other two sons are about to be executed for a crime they didn’t commit. But, says Aaron, the emperor has decided to spare them if Titus will send his severed hand in their stead. This, of course, is a complete lie, but they all fall for it.

In Today’s Line, Titus’s son Lucius is trying to convince his father to let him, Lucius, be the one to lose a hand. Ultimately, it will be Titus who loses a hand, and his other two sons lose their heads anyway.

Yes, this is Titus Andronicus. Quite the uplifting piece, isn’t it?

He's going to cut off his hand, and then his two sons' heads get cut off??

This is SOME Bullsh-

MOJO, stop!

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

The crown o’the earth doth melt.—My lord!

O, wither’d is the garland of the war,

The soldiers’ pole is faln: young boys and girls

Are level now with men; the odds is gone,

And there is nothing left remarkable

Beneath the visiting moon.

 

Cleopatra

Antony and Cleopatra    Act IV, Scene iv, Line 67

These are the first words out of the mouth of Cleopatra after Antony dies, admittedly a little hard to understand. Let’s take a shot at a Pete’s version this morning. I’ll enlist the help of G.B. Harrison’s footnotes. 

The crown of the earth melts.

Withered are the glories of war.

The guiding star has fallen.

Children are on the same level as grown men,

and there is nothing left remarkable beneath the visiting moon.

That's a little better, eh? I really like that last part, there is nothing left remarkable beneath the visiting moon. That really drives home the desperate tone of the whole thing, doesn't it?

Mr. Ham-it-Up decided that he wasn't interested in Cleopatra's words this morning, he just wanted to play the part of Antony. 

Yes Mojo, that's a very creditable dead Antony. Bravo. 

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

One score ‘twixt sun and sun,

Madam’s, enough for you , and too much too.

Pisanio

Cymbeline              Act III, Scene ii, Line 70

Today’s Lines are the answer to Imogen’s question

How many score of miles may we ride

Twixt hour and hour?

So Imogen wants to know how many miles they can go per hour, but Pisanio answers how many miles they can go per day. One score; that’s twenty miles. Remember? Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth… Eighty-seven years between 1776 and the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. Simple math. A score is twenty. And how far away is Milford-Haven? That’s where Imogen wants to go because she believes her husband is there. I don’t think we know. And in fact, I don’t think her husband is actually there. As usual, a bit confusing.

So rather than spend any more time on this line, let’s take a look at another truly brilliant piece of writing. Yes, there are other brilliant writers out there other than Will.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But in a larger sense, we can not dedicate - we can not consecrate - we can not hallow - this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.   

There: if I can type the whole thing (took about ten minutes), you can read it (should take two or three minutes). Perhaps I should say a few words about it.

As noted within this speech, it was read at the dedication of a cemetery at Gettysburg for the soldiers who died in that battle. Lincoln and another gentlemen, Edward Everett – a noted orater, spoke at that ceremony. The latter spoke at length, great length: about two hours worth. Lincoln got up afterwards and gave this ten sentence speech which lasted only a few minutes. As I said, Lincoln’s short speech is a masterpiece.

This speech was given on November 19, 1863, but the battle of Gettysburg began 161 years ago today, and lasted three long days. So it is altogether fitting that we take a look at the speech today.  

One final note: Abraham Lincoln was known to be a learned man and one of the things he was quite learned about was the works of William Shakespeare. What do you think about that?

Wait a sec, Lincoln was a Shakespearean? Like you?

Well, not exactly like me, Mojo; but yes, Lincoln was a Shakespearean.

And please don't talk with food in your mouth.