Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

I had forgot, --three months, you told me so.

Well, then, your bond; and let me see,--but hear you;

Methought you said you neither lend nor borrow upon advantage

 

Shylock

The Merchant of Venice                Act I, Scene iii, Line 68

Today we have the scene where Bassanio has gone to Shylock seeking a loan with Antonio’s credit. And now Antonio has shown up, and he and Shylock are negotiating the terms of the loan (the bond). Shylock is pointing out that Antonio just said that he makes it a habit to neither lend nor borrow upon advantage (with interest), and this leads to further talk.

They get into a fairly complicated discussion about the interest, and if interest will be charged or not. It’s an important part of the play, because it lends insight into both Antonio’s and Shylock’s true motives. Unfortunately though, it would take years and cost millions of lives to do a proper analysis of the next hundred or so lines, and I’m not willing to pay that price this morning. Perhaps another time.

If you’re truly interested, here’s a link. The whole scene’s only about 175 lines, so it won’t kill you to read it. Let me know what you think.

Shakespeare's Comedy The Merchant of Venice - Shylock's Pound of Flesh from Antonio (shakespeare-online.com)

 

Millions of lives?!?

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Love’s counselor should fill the bores of hearing,

To the smothering of the sense -

 

Imogen

Cymbeline              Act III, Scene ii, Line 58

This short bit is part of a really long sentence, but it sort of stands on its own, so we’ll take it that way. It’s a pretty understandable line, isn’t it? Okay then, what’s it mean?

When loves counselor is talking, you shouldn’t be able to hear anything else? But who or what is love’s counselor? Well, Imogen is talking to Pisanio and asking for his input. So, I guess Pisanio is love’s counselor, at least in this case.

Irrespective of what she’s trying to say, it’s some pretty nice phraseology. Fill the bores of hearing, to the smothering of the sense. 

Now that I think about it, you could use this anytime you want to tell someone to listen to you. For example,

"Marty, Marty…I’m gonna take it slow and easy, and I’m going to make this just as simple as I can. If you’re smart, you’ll let my words fill the bores of your hearing to the smothering of the sense!"

The first part of that example is something the plant controller used to say to one of his minions on an audit job I did many years ago. The controller was a caustic old guy, but adding the bores of hearing part would have really added a little je ne sais quois to what is otherwise a really demeaning little rant. 

See - a little Shakespeare can make just about anything better.

Who's Marty?

 Today’s Totally Random Lines

Pale trembling coward, there I throw my gage,

Disclaiming here the kindred of the king;

And lay aside my high blood's royalty,

Which fear, not reverence, makes thee to except.

 

Henry Bolingbroke

King Richard the Second               Act I, Scene i, Line 12

Okay - first scene of the play: The speaker is Henry Bolingbroke (later to become Henry IV - he’s first cousin to Richard II). The guy he’s talking to is Thomas Mowbray, the Duke of Norfolk (I think he’s got some royal blood too, but nothing nearly as close to the king as Henry). They’ve come before King Richard so that he can settle a dispute between themselves, and they end up challenging each other to a duel. A gage is an old-fashioned word for glove, and throwing down your glove was a way of challenging and/or accepting a duel.

So Henry, here, has some words for Thomas as he challenges him to a duel, in the process telling Mowbray not to let Henry’s royal blood stand in the way of accepting.

And there’s your context. Was it worth reading that paragraph to know what’s happening in Today's Line?

I know what this guy's answer to that question would be. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Not know my voice! O time’s extremity,

Hast thou so crack’d and splitted my poor tongue

In seven short years, that here my only son,

Knows not my feeble key of untuned cares?

 

Aegeon

The Comedy of Errors                   Act V, Scene i, Line 308

There is only one scene in Act Five of this play, so we’re at the end of it where all the confusion and mistaken identity stuff gets resolved. This line is pretty easy but for the last part. Here’s GB Harrison’s take on the fourth line above:

Knows not my voice made feeble by my sorrows.

Better? So if you read the first three lines and use that for the fourth it should make sense. At least I hope so.

Aegeon is speaking to Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus who are claiming not to know him. Aegeon, of course, thinks they’re the guys from Syracuse whom he raised from infants up until seven years ago when they went off in search of their brothers. These guys from Ephesus, that Aegeon is talking to, last saw him when they were infants and getting separated in the shipwreck. So of course they don’t recognize him. Don’t worry though; this is all going to be resolved in the next hundred or so lines.

One thing about the comedies is that they do usually have a pretty happy ending, albeit contrived and often unbelievable; not just a bunch of dead bodies like the tragedies.  

Dead bodies? What dead bodies?

Ugghh. 

 

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".