Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Now with the drops of this most balmy time

My love looks fresh, and Death to me subscribes,

Since, spite of him, I’ll live in this poor rhyme,

While he insults o’er dull and speechless tribes.

Sonnet 107

Lines 9-12

Here we have the third quatrain of Sonnet 107. As I’ve pointed out many times in the past (but it’s been a while since we looked at a sonnet) the sonnets are made up of three quatrains (lines of four) and one final couplet (two lines). Each quatrain is best understood taken as a whole (as opposed to looking at one single line), and further, it’s easier to understand this quatrain if we look at the two that precede it, and/or the sonnet as a whole. So here we go…

Not mine own fears, nor the prophet’s soul

Of the wide, world, dreaming on things to come,

Can yet the lease of my true love control,

Supposed as forfeit to a confined doom.

Nothing (Not mine own fears, nor the prophet’s soul/Of the wide, world, dreaming on things to come,) can control my true love (for you).

The mortal moon hath her eclipse endured,

And the sad augers mock their own presage;

Uncertainties now crown themselves assured,

And peace proclaims olives of endless age.

Things have come and gone (The mortal moon hath her eclipse endured, And the sad augers mock their own presage) but now we can be assured that we’ve come to a peaceful age.

 

Now with the drops of this most balmy time

My love looks fresh, and Death to me subscribes,

Since, spite of him, I’ll live in this poor rhyme,

While he insults o’er dull and speechless tribes.

And in this peaceful time my love looks fresh, and death submits to me, since in spite of him I’ll live on in this sonnet while he just goes on killing.

 

And thou in this shalt find thy monument,

When tyrants’ crests and tombs of brass are spent.

And this sonnet will be my monument to you long after tyrants, and the monuments they create, have crumbled to dust.

 

Well there, taken as a whole it’s pretty darn easy to understand Today’s Lines and the whole sonnet, isn’t it?

 

Yessiree Mr. B., easy peasy. Just about as easy as it will be for you to put those covers back, eh? I wasn't quite ready to get up yet, comprendez?

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

                                        [to the TRIBUNES]

Masters of the people,

We do request your kindest ears; and, after,

Your loving motion toward the common body,

To yield what passes here.

 

First Senator

Coriolanus             Act II, Scene ii, Line 55

This is a relatively short scene which Mojo and I took the opportunity to listen to. It’s early in the play. Coriolanus has returned to the city after leading his troops to victory over the Volscens at Corioli. Now, the senate has convened to appoint Coriolanus as the leader of Rome. With Today’s Line, the First Senator is asking the tribunes (the representatives of the common folk) to listen to the one of the generals describe what Coriolanus did, and then to vote with them on approving him as the leader.

Of course, it’s not going to be that simple. Is it ever?

 

No, you’re right Mr. B., nothing is simple. Look at me for example; I hopped up here expecting some treats and attention, but all Mrs. B. wants to do is look at those stupid birds. Simple? I think not.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Out of their saddles into the dirt; and thereby hangs a tale.

 

Grumio

The Taming of the Shrew   Act IV, Scene i, Line 55

Okay, I did a little reading and listening, so here’s what’s going on.

Petruchiuo has married Kate and is traveling back to his home with her. Grumio was with them, but he has gone ahead to make sure the servants are preparing the house for the newlyweds’ arrival. So now Grumio is at the house talking with Curtis (apparently one of the servants of the house). Curtis wants to hear some news, so Grumio tells him,

First, know my horse is tired; my master and mistress fallen out.

How?

Out of their saddles into the dirt; and thereby hangs a tale.

Now, I suppose you want to hear the tale? Okay, here it is.

…we came down a foul hill, my master riding behind my mistress…

…her horse fell, and she under her horse; thou shouldst have heard, in how miry a place; how she was bemoiled; how he left her with the horse upon her; how he beat me because her horse stumbled; how she waded through the dirt to pluck him off me; how he swore; how she pray’d-that never pray’d before; how I cried; how the horses ran away; how her bridle was burst; how I lost my crupper;

By the way, bemoiled is soiled or encumbered with mud and dirt (MW online, and it is considered obsolete, so I'll give you that one), and crupper is a leather loop passing under a  horse's tail and buckled to the saddle (also MW online, and NOT obsolete).

And that’s the crux of the tale. Not a bad tale, eh? 

That’s an interesting tale, Mr. Blagys, and I think it’s adds to the humor of this comedy which can at times get easily lost with the tendency to view it, mistakenly in my opinion, as a tale of misogyny.

I couldn’t agree more, Mojo. I think you've hit the nail on the head.

Yes, I'm a good nail hitter, opposable thumbs notwithstanding. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Nay, but I bar to-night: you shall not gauge me

By what we do tonight.

Gratiano

The Merchant of Venice             Act II, Scene ii, Line 198

Gratiano has requested to join Bassanio on his trip to Belmont. Bassanio says yes, but with the proviso that Gratiano behaves himself. Gratiano replies,

                                Signior Bassanio, hear me:

If I do not put on a sober habit,

Talk with respect, and swear but now and then,

Wear prayer-books in my pocket, look demurely;

Nay, more, while grace is saying, hood mine eyes

Thus with my hat, and sigh, and say amen;

Use all the observance of civility,

Like one well studied in a sad ostent

To please his grandam,--never trust me more.

 

And then one line later he follows this up with Today’s Line, essentially saying, Except for tonight, not tonight. So,  Gratiano's going to be an angel - except for tonight, not tonight.

Ostent, by the way, is appearance: Like one well studied in a sad or solemn appearance. And that is from MW online with no note of this word being old or out of use.

So there you have it. Gratiano has promised to behave himself; after tonight.

 

What’s Gratiano going to do tonight, Mr. Blagys?

I have no idea, Mojo, but I wouldn't worry about it. I'm pretty sure it's safe to come out of there.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Oui, vraiment, sauf votre grace, ainsi dit-il.

 

Alice

King Henry the Fifth           Act V, Scene ii, Line 112

Alice is the waiting woman of Katherine, the daughter of the King of France. The fighting in France is over, the English have won, and now Henry wants to take Katherine as his bride, as part of the peace settlement. He’s trying to tell her that he will love her, but Henry’s French is not good, and Katherine’s English is no better. Alice is acting as a bit of an interpreter.

Henry has just told Katherine that she is like an angel. Katherine says to Alice, Did he just call me an Angel?, and Alice replies in French with Today’s Line. It translates as, Yes, truly, save your grace, that’s what he said.

And that is Today’s Totally Random Line. Yes, it’s in French. Yes, it’s Shakespeare’s original text. Did Will speak good enough French to write this, or did he have some Frenchman help him write this scene? 

Je ne sais pas. 

I do not know.

Very clever Frenchie, How about this:  

Ou est mon treat?

Where is my treat?

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

If music be the food of love, play on;

Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,

The appetite may sicken, and so die.

 

Duke of Illyria

Twelfth Night; Or, What You Will  Act I, Scene i, Line 1

I had thought to give you just that one first line, since it's a pretty famous line on it's own, but the next two lines finish the sentence and, more importantly, the thought. And the thought of the first line is terribly incomplete without those two additional lines.

So, just to be sure we’re all on the same page, surfeit is excess, or overindulgence, or even a disgust caused by excess. I believe what the Duke is referring to when he talks about the appetite sickening and dying, is the appetite for love, not for music. Much of this play is based around the duke’s unrequited love for Olivia, and so Will is getting right to that point in the first line of the play: the duke is tired of getting nowhere with his love for Olivia and would just as soon that his love sicken, and so die.

For all you who have heard that one line, If music be the food of love, play on; and thought that it was a positive sentiment about music and/or love, well, it’s not. And doesn’t that just show you how easily you can pluck a few words out of a sentence, or paragraph, or whatever, and with a lack of context completely misrepresent what’s being said.

Now it's one thing when this is done unintentionally (as with most of the people who might chance to quote this line), and an altogether different thing when done with full intent (as with modern day reporting on people or events). So let this line be a lesson to you.

  

What’s the lesson?

I feel like that's the exact some position you were in yesterday, Mojo.

                                        That’s the lesson?

No that's not...    

                            ...Oh never mind!

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

I kist thee, ere I killed thee: no way but this,

[falling upon DESDEMONA]

Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.         [Dies]

 

Othello

Othello                     Act V, Scene ii, Line 360

 

 

There you have Othello’s last words, and nearly the last words of the play, as he stabs himself and dies upon Desdemona's body. 

Cassio and Lodovico have a few more words to say, but nothing as final as Othello’s utterances. Here, why don’t I give you the rest, to the end of the play. 

 

Cassio

This did I fear, but thought he had no weapon;

For he was great of heart.

 

Lodovico [to Iago]

More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea!

Look on the tragic loading of this bed;

This is thy work: the object poisons sight;

Let it be hid. Gratiano, keep the house,

And seize upon the fortunes of the Moor,

For they succeed on you. To you, lord governor,

Remains the censure of this hellish villain;

The time, the place, the torture. O, enforce it!

Myself will straight aboard, and to the state

This heavy act with heavy heart relate. [Exeunt]

 

It almost seems like Will should have ended with Othello’s words, don't you think? Oops, there I go again, trying to improve upon Will’s work.

 

You can’t edit the words of William Shakespeare, Mr. Blagys.

 

I know Mojo, I know. I just get a little carried away sometimes.