Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

            My sons, I must,

From mine own part, unfold a dangerous speech,

Though, haply, well for you.

 

Belarius

Cymbeline                      Act V, Scene v, Line 313

Haply, though it sounds a bit like a shortened version of happily, means perhaps. Haply: Perhaps. No further help should be needed to understand what’s being said in today’s line.
Context? Well, that’s another story; haply a long one. We’ll try to keep it as short as possible.

As you can see, we’re in Act V, Scene v, so this is the end of the play; the last scene. Will used a lot of different number of scenes in the acts of his play, but all his plays have exactly five acts. In this particular play act five has five scenes, making this the last scene of the play. There are only about 170 lines left in the play after Today’s Totally Random Line.

So, what’s going on? Do you really want to know? Well I guess I’m going to tell you whether you do or not.

I forget why, but for some reason Belarius ended up in a cave, raising the king’s two sons as his own. Now, after many years, he’s about to reveal to the king who he and the boys (now young men) really are, and he’s not sure how that’s going to go over.

That was pretty short, eh? Haply it leaves you with a few questions, but that’s okay too.

Haply, Schmaply.

I could be chasing those birds out there, but no, I get stuck reading Shakespeare with this nut.

 

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.