Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

My lord, for your many courtesies I thank you: I must discontinue your company: your brother the bastard is fled from Messina: you have among you kill’d a sweet and innocent lady.

 

Benedick

Much Ado About Nothing     Act V Scene i, Line 187

 

Well that’s a mouthful, and for the most part easy to grasp: Thanks, gotta go, your brother already left, (okay, got it, got it,)

You have among you killed a sweet and innocent lady, (don’t got it). What the heck. Who killed who? Sweet and innocent? What’s going on here. Okay, I guess I’ll have to take a closer look. 

 

 

As you can see, I called in my consultant. We spent a bit of time going over the text together. 

Conclusion?

 

Enough already, enough! I've had enough of this Shakespeare nonsense! Somebody get me out of here!

Help!

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

My lady’s a Cataian, we are politicians, Malvolio’s a Peg-a-Ramsey, and ‘Three merry men be we.’ 

 

Sir Toby Welch

Twelfth Night         Act II Scene iii, Line 73

 

Cataian is Chinaman, politicians are schemers, and Peg-a-Ramsey I have no idea what that is.

Okay then, Sir Toby Welch, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and Feste are up drinking, carousing and making a lot of noise. Maria, the servant woman of Olivia (this scene is taking place in Olivia’s house where Sirs Toby and Andrew are guests) comes in to tell them to quiet down.

What a caterwauling do you keep here! If my lady have not called up her steward Malvolio, and bid him turn you out of doors, never trust me.

To which Sir Toby replies by calling her a Chinaman, themselves schemers, Malvolio a Peg-a-Ramsey (whatever that is), and declaring himself, Sir Andrew, and Feste ‘three merry men’.

Basically, Sir Toby is saying “Turn down for what?”

 

 

Ahhhhh! Turn down for what!!

 

 

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.