Ay, forsooth; and then you may come and see the picture, she says, that you wot of;--Master Ford, her husband, will be from home.

-Mistress Quickly

The Merry Wives Of Windsor          Act II, Scene ii, Line 87

Okay, another play I don’t know much of anything about. But I do like the name: Mistress Quickly. And for the record, ‘wot’ means ‘know’. I looked it up. ‘Come and see the picture that you know of’, is what Mistress Quickly is saying. Apparently she’s telling Falstaff that Mistress Ford wants him to come around to see the picture when her husband won’t be around. And of course our good friend Falstaff shows every sign that he’ll do just that. Sounds like it might be an interesting play, doesn’t it? Maybe I should read/listen to it sometime.

You know what this is, don't you? It's a picture of Pete's merry wife at Windsor; Windsor Castle, that is. So I don't really know anything about The Merry Wives Of Windsor, but I do know something about this merry wife at Windsor. How about that.

Oh well done! I commend your pains. 

-Hectate

Macbeth                               Act IV, Scene i, Line 39

Here’s Hectates full speech in this scene:

O well done! I commend your pains;
And every one shall share i' the gains;
And now about the cauldron sing,
Live elves and fairies in a ring,
Enchanting all that you put in.

I thought that since that’s all she says, and since it’s got the rhyming thing going on, and it’s only five lines, that you’d like to read the whole thing.

Hectate comes into this scene, recites the five lines above, and leaves. The scene starts with the three sisters/witches talking and chanting. Then Hectate shows up, I guess tells them what a good job they’re doing with their chants, and then leaves. Very shortly afterward Macbeth shows up.

Say what you will, but it’s always nice to get an ‘atta boy’, isn’t it?

This is my paint and misc shelf in my workshop. I moved it from another part of the cellar and got an 'Atta boy' for moving it. You just never know. Those witches got one for doing some silly chants. Life is so unpredictable.

Sir, he hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book;

-Sir Nathaniel

Love’s Labours Lost                   Act IV, Scene ii, Line 24

Today; no context. I don’t know this play, but it seems pretty easy to see that Sir Nathaniel is saying that whoever they’re talking about has never had the pleasure to read a book. Okay, maybe a little context (though I don’t really think it’s needed; I was just curious). I went back to take a look and it seems that they might be talking about a deer. Which still makes sense because, as far as I know, there aren’t too many deer out there who’ve read a book.

How 'bout this guy? Do you think he's ever read a book? Yeah, probably not. Looks like he's saying 'Who, me?' 

Trust me, sweet,

Out of this silence yet I pickt a welcome;

And in the modesty of fearful duty

I read as much as from the rattling tongue

Of saucy and audacious eloquence.

-Theseus

A Midsummer Night’s Dream    Act V, Scene i, Line 101

Okay, this one’s gonna take a little setup and some explanation, but I think it will be worth the effort. Here goes.

This is towards the end of the play and Theseus, the Duke of Athens has been asked to pick a play to be performed. He’s picked a play that’s to be performed by a bunch of very inept actors. His bride Hippolyta has questioned his choice because of the poor actors and Theseus is explaining why he picked this play, and these actors. He’s comparing these actors to some of the men from whom he’s received formal greetings in places he has visited. With today’s Totally Random line he’s telling his bride to go along with his choice, Trust me, sweet, because he knows that sometimes the people greeting him have been so nervous that they stammer or say nothing at all and that he is able to get as much out of this type of greeting, Out of this silence yet I pickt a welcome; And in the modesty of fearful duty I read as much, as when he gets the proper flowery language of an expected greeting, as from the rattling tongue Of saucy and audacious eloquence. So he's applying that to the inept actors and saying that he'll be able to get as much out of watching them perform as he would get out of watching good actors perform. 

So now read the whole four and a half lines again. Makes sense,  right? Well, hopefully it does.

Since you should be able to get just as much out of a crappy picture as a good one (in line with today's message), I just grabbed the first pic I came across, without any regard for quality or relevance.

Well, what do you think?

So do you.

-Valentine

Two Gentlemen Of Verona            Act II, Scene iv, Line 13

Here is a fabulous line for all you folks that want to be able to quote Shakespeare. And it’s eminently usable. No, we don’t need to look at today’s context, let’s just look at how we can use the line. 

Your wife tells you that you snore in bed. Your reply?

 “To quote Shakespeare, Dear, ‘So do you’.”

Hah! Perfect! There’s gotta be a hundred times you can use this in any given day! And anytime someone comes back with “That’s not Shakespeare!” you can just quote the play, act, scene, and line above. They’ll be too busy trying to process that to argue back "No I do not.” So you’ll be all set.

No need to thank me.

What's that you say? I have a messy office? Well, to quote Shakespeare, 'So do you.' Hah, what do you think of that!

Retire, we have engaged ourselves too far:

-Agrippa

Antony And Cleopatra                 Act IV, Scene vii, Line 1

 

Yes, line one; the first line in the scene. Agrippa (one of Caesar’s guys) is saying to his men ‘Retire’, which in this case means ‘Retreat’. This is a battle between Antony and Caesar’s forces that Antony will win. Unfortunately for him, it is a war he will lose.

I have to say that I feel this way often. I’ll look at some project or situation I’ve gotten myself into and I’ll say to myself (since I have no men to say it to) ‘Retire Pete, you’ve engaged yourself too far.' Actually, my wife is pretty good at saying this to me also. Like the time she asked me to paint the front hall ceiling and I decided to sheetrock over the existing ceiling first. So I took a one or two day project and turned it into a two month project. She said ‘Retire, you’ve engaged yourself too far.’ Actually it was more like ‘For crying out loud, why did you have to turn this into a huge, freaking  project!’ But what she really meant was ‘Retire, you’ve engaged yourself too far.’ At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what she meant.

And this is what it looked like when I was done. Except, I think it looks better than this because you really can't see the taping bumps that show up in this picture. At least I don't think you can. Aw geez, I need to retire, I've engaged myself too far again.

But hear you, hear you!

-Pandarus

Troilus And Cressida                      Act V, Scene x, Line 32

Yes, that’s right; scene ten. I don’t think we’ve had a scene ten previously, but we have one now. And this is the very last scene in Troilus And Cressida. The Trojan hero Hector’s been killed and this scene talks a little about that and then is just a play wrap up. The last part of this scene is a bit of an epilogue, though it’s not delineated as such. I read it this morning. And then I read the scene summary in my PlayShakespeare app. And then I thought, holy cow, how’d they get that out of that? Since it’s pretty short, I’m going to give you a shot at it. Remember, this is the Trojan war and the Trojan hero, Hector, has just been killed. And now the Troilus, another Trojan, is talking about the death of Hector, and finally Pandarus, another Trojan, comes in to have the final say. Here’s the link, all 57 lines of it. C’mon, you can do it. It’s only 57 lines.

Troilus and Cressida Act V, Scene x

Now here’s the PlayShakespeare.com scene summary:

The Trojans too, learn of Hector’s death. Enraged, Troilus swears revenge, Pandarus tries to speak to him, but Troilus pushes him aside as a pimp. Left alone, Pandarus tries to comfort himself, but merely ends up wishing his venereal disease on the audience.

Say what? Venereal disease? I don’t know about you, but I missed a lot of that. Maybe I should go and listen to it. Or maybe read it again.

I'm not sure if I gave you the pitch on Fagles's Iliad translation before, but no matter. It's a really good translation. In here you'll learn all about Hector and Achilles and the others. But I'm not sure Troilus is in the Iliad or not. Guess you'll have to read it to find out.