Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Brother, the king hath made your nephew mad.

 

Earl of Northumberland

King Henry the Fourth Part I       Act I Scene iii, Line 138

 

Well here we are, the day before Thanksgiving. And we’ve got a nice clear line. Nothing difficult to understand here. I guess we can be thankful for that.

Of course, we don’t know what the king has done to make Northumberland’s brother’s nephew mad. I’m not even sure who Northumberland’s brother or his nephew are . These are things I usually refer to as context, and often I’ll go about dutifully researching and reporting on this to you. Context.

Will I do that today? Hmmm, good question. I have to admit, I’m a little curious.

         Uncle, adieu:--O, let the hours be short,

        Till fields and blows and groans applaud our sport!

There then, what’s that? Well it’s a rhyming couplet, isn’t it. And where do we almost always find rhyming couplets? As the last two lines of the scene, that’s where. So what’s that mean? Yes, that’s right, I read/listened to the whole scene just now. I guess I was more curious than I realized.

Anyway (yes, like it or not, here comes some context), as noted, Northumberland’s brother is Worcester, and his nephew is the infamous Henry Percy, aka Hotspur. So it’s Hotspur who has been made mad by the king. I don’t think it’s worth going into a lengthy explanation of what made Hotspur so mad. Considering his name, Hotspur, one might conclude (and rightly so) that it doesn’t take all that much to set Hotspur off:

Good morning Hotspur.   

What do you mean by that! Why, I’ll give you a good morning! Take it back, take it back!

Anyway, Hotspur goes on and on about what dirty rotten SOB the king is, and by the end of the scene he, his uncle, and his father are plotting a revolt. That’s what he’s talking about with the fields and blows and groans applauding our sport in the rhyming couplet

And there you have it. Today’s line with context. No need to thank me. 

Somehow, thanking me for context does not seem to be the first thing on the minds of these two today. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Dare you presume to harbour wanton lines?

 

 Julia

 The Two Gentelemen of Verona   Act I Scene ii, Line 42

 

Well, there’s an interesting word, wanton. It’s a word we’ve all run into, but what’s it mean? Honestly, I can’t give you a definition. Let’s go to the online MW: merciless (wanton cruelty), without check or limitation (wanton imagination). I think that latter is the one I'm used to seeing.

Hmmm, let’s double-check in the Shakespeare glossary. Okay, the Shakespeare glossary has a total of twelve different possible meanings for wanton used as an adjective. There’s naughty, carefree, casual, cruelly irresponsible, ambiguous, feminine, gay, lascivious, luxuriant, merciless, sexually hot, and unrestrained. So basically the Shakespeare glossary is saying that wanton can mean whatever you want it to mean. Well that narrows it down, doesn’t it. (Sarcasm)

So now, I guess that means we need context. Okay, here we go.

Julia is talking with her waiting-woman (servant) named Lucetta about the different men who are suitors to Julia. Lucetta is holding a letter and Julia asks her where she got it.

        Sir Valentine’s page; and sent, I think, from Proteus.

        He would have given it you; but I, being in the way,

        Did in your name receive it: pardon the fault, I pray.

Proteus is one of the suitors that the two women had been discussing. Julie responds,

        Now, by my modesty, a goodly broker!

        Dare you  presume to harbour wanton lines?

        To whisper and conspire against my youth?

So she’s obviously talking about the lines in the letter from Proteus. Now you tell me, is she saying that the lines in Proteus’s letter are cruelly irresponsible? How about sexually hot? Perhaps naughty? Need I go on?

Basically, in today's line wanton means whatever the heck you want it to mean. How's that?

  

No, I don't know what wanton means, and I don't care. Can't you see that we're watching a movie?

 

Mojo has wanton disregard for the question of what wanton means.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

                            Ay, that’s the theme.

To her in haste; give her this jewel; say,

My love can give no place, bide no denay.

 

Duke of Illyria

Twelfth Night         Act II Scene iv, Line 124

 

Apparently denay is not a typo for delay (which I thought it was): denay means denial.

Anyway, this is the last line of the scene. The scene has been the duke pining over his unrequited love for Olivia. Now he’s talking to Viola (not to be confused with Olivia) who is in the duke’s service. However, Viola is disguised as a young man named Cessario. The duke has been sending Viola/Cessario to Olivia’s home with messages of the duke’s love, but Olivia’s not interested. Now he wants him/her to go back to Olivia again.

It’s an interesting conversation between the duke and Viola/Cessario. It seems that Viola has a crush on the duke, but since the duke thinks she’s a young man, he has no idea. They are discussing love and the roles of men and women. Viola is sorting of letting on that she has feelings for the duke, but he’s not picking up on it. Finally he just tells him/her to go back and take another stab at Olivia. And so it goes. 

 

 

Speaking of stabs, I'd like to take another stab at those bunnies out back...