Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

                                             I saw you lately,

When you caught hurt in parting two that fought:

 

Marina

Pericles, Prince of Tyre        Act IV, Scene i, Line 88

Leonine has told Marina that that he’s going to have to kill her by order of his boss, the governor’s wife. Marina’s trying to talk him out of it by telling him what a good guy he is. Here’s what she says to him in full.

You will not do’t for all the world, I hope,
You are well-favour’d, and your looks foreshow
You have a gentle heart. I saw you lately,
When you caught hurt in parting two that fought:
Good sooth, it show’s well in you: do so now;
Your lady seeks my life; come you between,
And save poor me, the weaker.

Marina’s pleas are in vain and do nothing to change Leonine’s mind. However, luckily for Marina (depending on how you look at it), just as Leonine is about to kill her, a bunch of pirates show up and kidnap her. I suppose that’s what’s called out of the frying pan, into the fire?

System Note:

For reasons unbeknownst to this luddite, it is not possible this morning to upload a picture to blogger.com. That's a shame, because I had a really good shot of Mojo peeking out from under the blankets with a surprised look on his face. The caption was 

Frying pan? who said frying pan? Eggs? Maybe some scrambled eggs?

I'll be looking into this technical problem with the hopes of getting it resolved as quickly as possible.

 Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

‘Item, She hath a sweet mouth.’

 

Speed

The Two Gentlemen of Verona     Act III Scene i, Line 320

This is an odd little scene with Speed and Launce. These guys are listed in the cast of characters as clownish servants, so that should give you a heads up.

Launce has made a list of the virtues and vices of a maid that he is in love with. Now Speed is reading through that list. This item about a sweet mouth is listed in the vices section, so at first that seems a little puzzling. But the first vice is bad breath, and the second is a sweet mouth, to which Launce comments

That makes amends for her sour breath.

So, bad breath is a vice, and the sweet mouth is listed here to explain that there is an offset to it. The next one is that she talks in her sleep, but the one after that is that she is slow in her words, so I guess the sleep talking is not too bad. The list goes on, but you get the idea.

Item, she can’t sit in the passenger seat without telling me how to drive.
Item, she knows it bugs the heck out of me, so she tries really hard not to do it.

You should talk, Mr. Blagys. You’re constantly criticizing my driving.

Cut the chatter, and concentrate on the road, Mario. 

Who’s Mario?

Just drive, Mojo, just drive.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Come, where’s the chain? I pray you, let me see it.

Antipholus of Ephesus

The Comedy of Errors          Act IV Scene i, Line 58

It’s more shenanigans in Comedy of Errors this morning. I’m not sure what the specifics are regarding the chain, but I’m pretty sure it has to do with the fact that Antipholus of Syracuse was given it because he was mistaken for Antipholus of Ephesus. Those crazy Antipholuses!

Antiph-a-who, now?

 Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

I cry you mercy, then:

I took you for that cunning whore of Venice

That married with Othello. –You, mistress

That have the office opposite to Saint Peter,

And keep the gate of Hell!

  

Othello

Othello                    Act IV, Scene ii, Line 90

We’ve arrived at a point in the play where Othello has now been completely convinced by Iago’s machinations that Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio. She is not. He’s confronting her in this scene and has just asked her if she’s not a whore. Of course she denies it, and Today's Lines is his retort to her denial.

You can see by his rant, that Othello’s pretty much beyond reason at this point. I don’t think there’s anything Desdemona, or anyone else, can say that’s going to make him see the light. Poor guy. Poor girl! It’s a sorry, sorry situation, and it’s all the doing of that rat fink bastard Iago. It’s amazing to consider what some single human beings are capable of all on their own, isn’t it? Particularly scary in today's day and age. Try not to think about it, Pete. Try not to think about it. 

By the way, it never occurred to me that the offices of the gatekeepers of heaven and hell would be right across the hall from each other. I always pictured those offices as being right outside their respective realms and therefore nowhere near each other. But, oh well.

And that’s your takeaway, Pete? 

Well, it's better than thinking about that other thing.

This post reminded me of the time we went riding on the Linear Trail. All of a sudden Mojo starts belting out “Highway to Hell, we’re on the Highway to Hell!” at the top of his lungs. Boy, did we get some funny looks from people.

Come to think of it, I’m not sure if it was the choice of song or a singing dog that got the stares. I've told him time and again that he's got to watch the talking bit in public. Sometimes he just can't help himself.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

I know I love in vain, strive against hope;

Yet in this captious and intenible sieve

I still pour in the waters of my love,

And lack not to lose still: thus Indian-like,

Religious in mine error, I adore

The sun, that looks upon his worshipper

But knows of him no more

Helena

All’s Well That Ends Well             Act I, Scene iii, Line 207

Helena is describing to the Countess how she loves the Countess’s son, even though she knows that she can never have him and he will never love her. In fact, the son is completely unaware of Helen and her love for him, and when he finds out about it he wants absolutely nothing to do with her. So it turns out that she’s right about the hopelessness of her love. Well at least they’re all on the same page.

I tried to look up captious and intenible. I got that captious is spacious, and I think intenible is just a different way of spelling untenable. But you pretty much get the idea of pouring anything into a sieve: the sieve’s not going to hold anything - it just goes right on through. We get a pretty good idea of what she’s talking about without the two modifiers of the word sieve.

Anyway, I like the seven lines. They are a good exercise in reading something that’s worth reading. I say that because so much of what we devote our attention to is not worth our attention. And so much of it does not even require the much needed mental exercise of reading and having to think about what we’re reading. Yes, it’s a good seven lines.

Don't give me that look Mojo, I've seen you scrolling endlessly on your iPhone. You could use to spend a little time reading some meaningful lines just as much as the rest of us. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Twice did he turn his back, and purposed so;

But kindness, nobler ever than revenge,

And nature, stronger than his just occasion,

Made him give battle to the lioness,

Who quickly fell before him: in which hurtling

From miserable slumber I awaked.

Oliver

As You Like It                Act IV, Scene iii, Line 132

Oliver is telling the story about how he was sleeping under a tree and a lion was about to attack him, but his brother Orlando happened to be walking by, and even though he thought about not doing anything, his kindness and good nature forced him to fight off the lion, at which point the slumbering Oliver woke up.

Now this rather fantastic story (which is accepted without any questioning) raises a number of questions (other than why it would be accepted without questioning). First and foremost, where the heck does a lion come from? But, I guess in the name of theatrics we can just let that one slide. And if we’re going to accept that a lion is possible, I guess we can also accept that Orlando can subdue the lion with his bare hands. Sure.

Fantastic or not though, this story reminds me of a personal experience with lions laying in wait to attack. We were on safari in Botswana (no, really, we were. I know that sounds almost as fantastical as Oliver’s story, but we were actually on safari in Africa), and it was an observational safari, not a hunting safari. One day we were out with our guide driving around and we came across a herd (I think herd is the right word) of zebras (pronounced zeb-ra, not zee-bra) on the airstrip. We were sitting still watching them and the guide pointed out a lion in the brush on the opposite side of the runway. Then we drove around the herd to the other end of the runway, to the other side, and we saw three or four lions. So we pulled up on the other side, at the other end, and we weren’t too far from one of the lions crouching in wait. We stopped and parked, just waiting to see what happened next. The lion near us, not too near but not too far, looked over at us and I swear he gave us this look that said, “you guys better not screw us out of our dinner here.” Well, we didn’t but then something else did. I forget what it was, but some other animal got wind of the lions and spooked the herd, and they all took off. We learned from our guide that lions don’t chase, they wait and pounce when their prey is very close. The zebras never got close enough.

So I thought about that when I read Will’s words about the lion

Lay crouching, head on ground, with catlike watch.

That line was a few lines up from Today’s Totally Random Line.

Now I don’t mean to sound like a know it all, but that’s a really good description of the lion that we were watching, which raises the question, how the heck did Will know what a crouching lion would look like.

So, that’s the thought I’m leaving you with today (assuming you haven’t already left me, seeing how long and rambling this post has been): How the heck would Will know what a crouching lion looked like?

I couldn’t find a pic of that crouching lion, but this is the herd on the runway that I was talking about.

Yes Mojo, I see: you’re crouching and waiting for rabbits. Yes, yes, you are just like a lion. I almost thought you were one for a minute.

Oh yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. Uh huh. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Here is the number of the slaughter’d French.

                                           [Delivers a paper]

Herald

King Henry the Fifth             Act IV, Scene viii, Line 75

Okay, so we’re at the battle of Agincourt, or rather the aftermath of it. The rest of this scene is a detailing of how the Brits absolutely slaughtered the Frenchies at this battle, over ten thousand of them killed. That’s what’s on the paper that the herald is delivering to King Henry. Oh, I think Will might be exaggerating the numbers a little bit for dramatic effect, but it was a really one-sided victory for the Brits, and one that they like to remember to this day, six hundred years later.

I can’t help wonder, especially as I get older, at the sheer…I’m trying to think of the right word here, but it’s hard… the sheer stupidity of war. Stupidity is not nearly as strong a word as I’m looking for. No matter which way I think about it, I can’t make any sense of it. None. Take this battle: a handful of leaders got killed, and over ten thousand ordinary guys - ten thousand! Those are guys who’d rather be tending their fields, or repairing shoes, or bouncing a baby or their knee, or whatever. They didn’t want the war. And it’s always the same. The horrors of war are played out on them, on us: not on the people who lead us into wars. It’s just a really, really, really messed up concept, and yet one that is still perfectly accepted after all these millennia.

What a piece of work is man. Hamlet says that in a different play, and then goes on to talk about the greatness of man: in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, and so on. And yet, he says finally, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me, no.

Hamlet's not talking about the contradiction of war within the framework of man, but just the same, this is exactly how I feel when I think about it. Man has such divine make-up and capabilities, and yet... Agincourt, Vietnam, Gaza, etc., etc., etc., etc. The list goes on and on - never ending. The contradiction just does not make sense.

You’re right, Mr. Blagys, you’re right. I wish I had an explanation for you, but I don’t. 

Thanks, Mojo. Thanks for understanding.