Ere I could make a prologue to my brains,

-Hamlet

Hamlet                                          Act V scene ii, line 30

First things first; let me give you the whole piece that today’s Totally Random line is a part of –

Being thus be-netted round with villainies,-

Ere I could make a prologue to my brains,

They had begun the play,-I sat me down;

Devised a new commission; wrote it fair:-

I once did hold it, as our statists do,

A baseness to write fair, and  labour’d much

How to forget that learning; but, sir, now

It did me yeoman’s service:-wilt thou know

The effect of what I wrote?

This is the final scene of Hamlet, a pretty famous scene as far as Will’s scenes go. But it’s a long scene and there’s a lot to take place yet before we get to the end where everyone dies. This little piece of the scene has some pretty interesting stuff in it. This is where Hamlet is explaining to Horatio what happened on the ship on the way to England. He’s told Horatio that one night on the boat he couldn’t sleep so he crept into the cabin of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. In their possessions he found a letter, so he took it back to his cabin to read it. The letter was to the king of England instructing him to execute Hamlet immediately upon arrival in England. Today’s Totally Random lines are Hamlet telling Horatio what he did next. Of course, we all know that what he did next was to replace the letter, devised a new commission, with one that he wrote instructing the king to kill Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Ha!

But let’s take a closer look at a few of the lines above.

The only word I found a little puzzling was statist. It just means statesman. You might have derived that from the context.

How about, be-netted round with villainies. That’s a pretty cool phrase. What about be-netted. It sounds like a made up word. Perhaps it is, but it’s easy to understand.

Now the next line, today’s Totally Random line is, at least at first, a little harder to figure out. Ere I could make a prologue to my brains. What exactly is he saying here? Just by context it seems like he’s saying before I knew what was happening. But a prologue to my brains? A prologue to my brains. I guess he’s literally saying before I could explain to my brain, to myself, what was going on. In other words, before I knew what was happening. Yah, the more I look at that line, the clearer it becomes. That’s a good line, isn’t it. Yup, it’s usable.

Ere I could make a prologue to my brains, the cop was handing me a speeding ticket.

Oh that’s a fabulous phrase. I don’t think we need to go any further. We can just stop right there and enjoy today’s line.

Imagine that; Ere I could make a prologue to my brains, I had figured out what today’s line meant!

Ere I could make a prologue to my brains,

I found myself in a grass skirt dancing with Ernie!

By my troth, and in good earnest, and so God mend me, and by all pretty oaths that are not dangerous, if you break one jot of your promise, or come one minute behind your hour, I will think you the most pathetical break-promise, and the most hollow lover, and the most unworthy of her you call Rosalind, that may be chosen out of the gross band of the unfaithful: therefore beware my censure, and keep your promise.

-Rosalind

As You Like It                      Act IV scene i, line 185

Well that’s a bit of a mouthful. Talk about run-on sentences!

Without going into context, there are a couple of things to note. One is ‘jot’. That’s a interesting little word. It means a tiny bit, an iota. If you break one tiny little piece of your promise... Interestingly, you can find this word in MW online, and yet it’s not in my Shakespeare glossary. Perhaps it’s not in the glossary because it’s in MW. But certainly it got more usage in Will’s works than it does these days. Nonetheless, a great little word. And I don’t really care one jot whether you agree or not. 

And how about break-promise? This is apparently a word, a noun, for someone who is a promise breaker. You don’t see this type of word construction too much. So if I make a lot of noise, I’m not a noisemaker, I am a make-noise. If I write books I’m not a book writer, I’m a write-book. And if I keep the books (accounting), I’m a keep-books instead of a bookkeeper. Well we could go on and on with this one, but you get the picture. It’s interesting. Perhaps I’ll be a trendsetter and start using this particular construction. Wait, then I’d be a set-trend. Yes, that’s right; a set-trend. Well, to be fair, I’ve always considered myself a bit of a set-trend anyway.

Here I am demonstrating the proper way to wear a pirate bandana. Oh what a set-trend am I!

Come o’er the bourn, Bessy to me.

 Her boat hath a leak,

And she must not speak

Why she dares not come over to thee.

-Edgar/Fool

King Lear                            Act III, scene vi, line 25

The first line above is Edgar’s and the next three belong to the Fool. So, to be clear, Edgar is playing a bit of a madman right now, and the Fool is supposedly a fool, but in truth neither is mad or a fool. Both are quite sane and know exactly what they're saying.

This is the scene where Lear and the others are in a farmhouse and they are holding a mock trial of Goneril and Regan. These latter two are not present, and there’s a lot of ramblings of the Fool, of Edgar, and of Lear.

I wasn’t sure what ‘bourn’ was, so I googled it and found it to be a stream or brook. But I also used my Shakespeare glossary which told me that it’s a frontier, destination, or boundary. But given that the fool talks about a leaky boat, the water definition seems to make more sense. 

 

Come o'er the bourn, Bessy to me. Wait a tic, neither one of those is Bessy, and they're already on my side of the bourn. Not to mention that's a pretty big bourn. But you get the idea.