Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

What should we do with these bald tribunes?

 

Coriolanus

Coriolanus                     Act III Scene i, Line 164

Bald is foolish, and tribunes are the peoples' representatives in the senate.  

What should we do with these foolish representatives?

This scene is all about two of the smarmy tribunes confronting Coriolanus and the latter’s response to them, of which Today’s Line is only a small part.

The tribunes are indeed much more than just foolish, and every time I look at this play I am reminded of the many fools we have in D.C. today.

I can’t help it.

PULL UP, Pete! PULL UP, PULL UP!

Still a fine play, though; a very fine play. It should be taught in our schools. Assuming we still have schools going forward.

PULL UP!

This little man isn't concerned about tribunes, or schools, or much of anything else. 

His concern? Sunbeams!

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

When they had sworn to this advised doom,

They did conclude to bear dead Lucrece hence,

To show her bleeding body thorough Rome,

And so to publish Tarquin's foul offense:

Which being done with speedy diligence,

   The Romans plausibly did give consent

   To Tarquin's everlasting banishment.

 

Lucrece                  Lines 1,849 – 1,855

Narrator

These are the last lines of this long poem/story, and they speak of Tarquin being banished for the crime of raping Lucrece. I’m not sure what the typical Roman sentence for rape was, but it seems like Tarquin’s getting off easy here. Lucrece, in case you didn’t know, killed herself in shame a few stanzas back.

It’s a fairly depressing poem, isn’t it. 

 

Fairly depressing?!

I’m ready to kill myself here!

 Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Yet this shall I ne’er know, but live in doubt

Till my bad angel fire my good one out.

 

Sonnet 144                     concluding couplet

Well, since this is the concluding couplet, I had thought that we might as well take a look at the whole sonnet, and to do it one quatrain at a time. But to tell you the truth, as I typed the whole sonnet out, I came across something more interesting: better angel. And since the whole sonnet is fairly difficult - scratch that: damned near impossible - to work with, why don’t we just take a look at better angel. 

Will mentions this angel in the first quatrain.

Two loves I have of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest me still:
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman colour’d ill.

Then he makes reference to this better angel again in the last line of the sonnet. 

Till my bad angel fire my good one out.

My good one in this last line is his better angel, though I’m not sure what it means to have his bad angel fire my good one out.

In any event, the better angels of our nature is a term made very famous by Abraham Lincoln in his first inaugural address. I knew it was Lincoln, but I had to look up to find out exactly where he said it.

The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely as they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

These better angels of our nature have been referred to time and time again by speakers and writers. And the credit has always been given to Abe for creating ‘better angels’.

It’s a fine quote, and Abe was a wonderful writer and speaker, and I would love to give him credit, however…

I would be remiss if I failed to point out that Abe, whilst a great writer and speaker, was also a great lover of, and reader of - you guessed it - William Shakespeare. It’s quite well documented. So, whilst Abe is given credit for better angels, I have to believe that consciously or not, he didn’t quite make the term up.

Yup, it’s Will’s.

 

Am I your better-

Yes Mojo, you are certainly my better angel.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

And, were they attired in grave weeds,

Rome could afford no tribune like to these.

 

Titus

Titus Andronicus                  Act III Scene i, Line 44

Two of Titus’s sons have just been led off to be executed for a crime they did not commit. Titus is pleading for his sons’ lives with the tribunes, who appear to be ignoring him, when Titus’s other son, Lucius, comes in. He tells his father that he is pleading in vain, and that no tribune is listening to them. Here is Titus’s full response to his son.

Why, ‘tis no matter, man: if they did hear,
They would not mark me; or if they did mark,
They would not pity me. Yet plead I must:
And bootless unto them…
Therefore I tell my sorrows to the stones;
Who, though they cannot answer my distress,
Yet in some sort they are better than the tribunes,
For that they will not intercept my tale:
When I do weep, they humbly at my feet
Receive my tears, and seem to weep with me;
And, were they but attired in grave weeds,
Rome could afford no tribune like to these.
A stone is soft as wax, tribunes more hard than stones;
A stone is silent, and offends not,
And tribunes with their tongues doom men to death.—
But wherefore stand’st thou with thy weapon drawn?

That last line refers to the fact that Lucius has decided to go rescue his brothers.

I think it’s a good little speech about the quality of tribunes and of stones and of a man’s desperation. It made me think a little of the Simon and Garfunkel line… and a rock feels no pain, and an island never cries…

It also makes me think, more so, of some of today’s public officials, today’s tribunes, and how they are worth less than stones, for the reasons that Titus gives. Yes, there are days when I feel that many of our current tribunes are as dumb and deaf, and as worthless as rocks or stones.

Well put, Will.

Pull up, Pete, pull up!

Forget about pulling up, Pete… are you as deaf as rocks and stones! 

I’m down here! Let me out of this thing!

HEY!

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

The great Achilles,—whom opinion crowns

The sinew and the forehand of our host,--

Having his ear full of airy fame,

Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent

Lies mocking our designs: with him, Patroclus,

Upon a lazy bed, the livelong day

Breaks scurril jests;

And with ridiculous and awkward action-- 

Which, slanderer, he imitation calls--

He pageants us.

Ulysses

Troilus and Cressida                     Act I Scene iii, Line 143

And there you have it. The Greek leaders are discussing why they aren’t winning this war. In today’s passage Ulysses is saying that one reason for this is that their best fighter,— their sinew and forehand — Achilles, is dogging it: laying around all day in bed with his boy-toy Patroclus, whilst the latter talks smack about the Greek leaders. 

Yes, that is exactly what Ulysses is saying. So, was Achilles gay? Ask Patroclus.

Wait, Achilles was gay? I'll be darned.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

No? What needed, then, that terrible dispatch of it into your pocket? The quality of nothing hath not such need to hide itself. Let’s see: come, if it be nothing, I shall not need my spectacles.

 

Earl of Gloster

King Lear                      Act I Scene ii, Line 33

The Earl is talking to his son, Edmund, about the letter that Edmund is holding and not letting his father see.

Yesterday we were looking at meter, and the question came up concerning the use of meter and prose in Will’s works. Yes, whilst much of his plays are written in the infamous iambic pentameter, there is much that is written in plain old prose, like Today’s Lines and like what you’re reading right now. And, in fact, this scene is a perfect example. It begins with Edmund alone, talking about his illegitimacy and how he’s going to get the upper hand on his half- brother by forging a letter that he will make sure his father will find. All this is in verse (iambic pentameter). Gloster enters, also speaking in verse, until he sees the letter that Edmund is trying to “hide” from him. As soon as the topic goes to the letter, the text leaves verse and goes to prose. And it remains prose for the rest of the scene until Edmund is alone again at the end where it goes back to verse for the last six lines of the scene.

Why does Will flip back and forth twixt verse and prose? I can make all sorts of speculations, but the fact of the matter is, wait for it…

I don’t…………………………knooowwwww.

And I’m not sure anyone really does. 

 

Acckk! I knew he was gonna say that. 

I just…knew!

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

To gratify the good Andronicus,

And gratulate his safe return to Rome,

The people will accept whom he admits.

 

Tribunes

Titus Andronicus          Act I Scene i, Line 275

I think the tribunes (senators) are telling Titus that he can decide who’s going to be the emperor. It looks like Titus can have the job if he wants it, but I don’t think he does. In any event, he nominates Saturninus who readily accepts it.

Yes, you’re right, it’s an opening to relate this somehow to current politics and world leaders, but I’m not going to do that.

So, we’ve got some nice iambic pentameter going on this morning. Do you ever read the lines just to appreciate the meter? I do. 

I know: quirky.

In fact, I was told this past weekend that I come from a whole family of quirky people. We’re all quirky. Hmm, I guess that’s not a bad word. Is it?

Quirky? Quirky?