Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

These are kind creatures. Gods, what lies I have heard!

Our courtiers say all’s savage but at court:

Experience, O, thou disprovest report!

Th’imperious seas breed monsters; for the dish

Poor tributary rivers as sweet fish.

 

Imogen

Cymbeline               Act IV, Scene ii, Line 35

 

Imogen, the daughter of the king, has run away. She had a really bad situation at home having to do with a scheming stepmother and stepbrother. She disguises herself as a young man (there’s a shocker, eh?) and ends up in the wilderness where she is befriended by an old man, Belarius, and his two adult sons, Guiderius and Arviragus. In today’s lines she’s saying that she was lied to at court where they told her that all the commoners were savages. The key lines are the last two. She’s saying that in fact the imperious seas, the ruling class, breeds monstrous fish, whilst the towns and countryside breed sweet fish, sweet enough for the dinner plate. Ain’t that the truth.

Today’s line has implications for comparison to my world, especially today, Wednesday 11/6/24. The news of the morning is that one of the most imperious and monstrous of the big fishes is going to be put in charge soon. As distressing as that is (and it is VERY distressing) Patrice has pointed out to me that there is a way forward: spend all your time and attention on the Belariuses, the Guideriuses, and the Arviraguses, (we all have them) and give no attention at all to the imperious monsters. In other words, turn off and ignore completely the world and national news, and focus on my own corner of the world. And that is what I will do.

 

Whilst I have many, this is one very small Belarius that I can always count on to bring me comfort.

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Thou shalt be as free

As mountain winds: but then exactly do

All points of my command.

 

Prospero

The Tempest    Act I, Scene ii, Line 500

Prospero is telling Ariel that he’s going to set him free, but that for right now he still needs him to follow his commands. And, (spoiler alert) Prospero is true to his word as he does set Ariel free at the end of the play.

I always like it when a writer, not just Will, adds a modifier to an expression that really adds something substantial. Ariel won’t just be as free as the wind, he’ll be as free as mountain winds. The wind outside my window is not nearly as free as the winds up in the mountains. Up there no one is around to do anything to impede it, and it’s higher up in the atmosphere where the air is thinner and the winds can blow more easily. Those winds are significantly more free than the ones around here.

A modern line that’s a good example of this is Sweet as an apple on Christmas day. It’s a Paul Simon song lyric that’s always stuck with me because… well, just because. It’s not just sweet as an apple, but it’s an apple being eaten on Christmas day, when everything is a little sweeter.

 

Here's one more pretty good example. 

Don't just say sleepy; say sleepy as Mojo on Pete's shoulder when he's spouting on about Shakespeare. 

Now that's sleepy!

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Shall we go throw away our coats of steel,

And wrap our bodies in black mourning-gowns,

Numbering our Ave-Maries with our beads?

 

Richard

King Henry the Sixth Part III        Act II, Scene i, Line 160

 

The next three lines offers the alternative choice,

        Or shall we on the helmets of our foes

        Tell our devotion with revengeful arms?

Would you like to guess what the right choice is?

 

 

My friend has found a place on my shoulder to roost this morning and left instructions not to be disturbed. So I won't be bothering him for an answer to today's question. However, if I were to venture a guess as to what his inclination would be, I think it would have something to do with the Ave-Maries and rosary beads. 

 

Mojo is a lover, not a fighter.