The second property of your excellent sherris is, the warming of the blood; which, before cold and settled, left the liver white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity and cowardice; but the sherris warms it, and makes it course from the inwards to the parts extreme: it illumineth the face, which , as a beacon, gives warning to all the rest of this little kingdom, man, to arm; and then the vital commoners and inland petty spirits muster me all their captain, the heart, who, great and puft up with this retinue, doth any deed of courage: and this valour comes of sherris.                                             

-Sir John Falstaff

King Henry The Fourth Part II          Act IV, scene iii, line 107

I have heard liquor referred to as ‘liquid courage,’ and that seems to be nothing more than a paraphrasing of these lines from Sir John Falstaff. His treatise on drinking is a pretty good read, which is why I gave you a fairly large segment of it here. Sir John ends his ode to sack (remember, ‘sack’ is sherry) with the following claim:

If I had a thousand sons, the first humane principle I would teach them should be,--to forswear thin potations, and to addict themselves to sack. 

Much as I enjoyed the soliloquy, I can't say that I buy into this closing sentiment. Sorry, Sir John.

 

Okay, so it might look like my little friend here is enjoying a blue footed boobie with me, but I'm pretty sure that his was a non-alcoholic version. Yes, I'm pretty sure, Sir John, but I guess you can take some solace since I can't say that I'm positive about that.

                        but know, thou noble youth,

The serpent that did sting thy father’s life

Now wears his crown.



-Ghost



Hamlet                                          Act I, scene v, line 93





“You should write a book and call it How To Do Everything Not Now.” That’s what Patrice told me earlier today. I can’t remember what it was exactly that I hadn’t done that she was referring to, but I wrote it down because I didn’t want to forget it. How To Do Everything Not Now. That’s a great title, isn’t it? I do, in fact, tend to procrastinate, so maybe I should write that book. 
But for now it’s a perfect segue into today’s Totally Random line. Here is Hamlet finding out from the ghost of his father exactly what happened. Hamlet learns that Uncle Claudius murdered his father, stole the crown, and quickly married the queen, Hamlet’s mother. And what does Hamlet do with this news? Confront his mother and Claudius? Challenge Claudius to a duel? Plot a scheme to overthrow Claudius? How about.......nothing? Yes, nothing. Oh he thinks about it, and moans about it, and soliloquizes about it. But basically Hamlet could’ve written the book How To Do Everything Not Now. So I guess Hamlet and I are more alike than I ever could have dreamed. Who knew? 

Is it Pete, or is it Hamlet? I guess we'll never know.

I knew you must be edified by the margent ere you had done.



-Horatio [aside to Hamlet]



Hamlet                              Act V, scene ii, line 154





This is the last scene of Hamlet, so you probably know that the rest of the main characters will be dead shortly. But right now Hamlet is having some fun with Osric the messenger. He’s giving him a hard time, pretending not to understand what Osric is talking about. Apparently margent refers to the margins of the book where extra notes and information can be written. I believe Horatio is using the term figuratively as he refers to the extra information that Hamlet is dragging out of Osric through their back and forth. 

I gave a couple of the Snow Village folks a shot at today's line. We got Biff to play some guy reading a book (so in this case the margent actually refers to the margin) and Franklin the Good Humor guy and Percy the cop both gave it their best shot. Biff did okay with both of them (of course, he didn't have any lines to screw up), but I think Franklin handled Horatio's line better than Percy. Being a cop seemed to keep Percy from really immersing himself in the part, but Franklin was a natural. I guess you had to be there.

Go to, go to; peace, peace; we must deal gently with him: let me alone.

-Sir Toby Belch

Twelfth Night; Or, What You Will        Act III, scene iv, line 96

I’m pretty sure that I’ve said this before, but Sir Toby reminds me a lot of Sir John Falstaff. He's a conniving character who's usually up to finding ways to get by on someone else's dime. Having said that, right here he's talking with his friends about Malvolio whom they’ve been given leave to deal with as they see fit. Well, sort of. It seems that they’ve been playing a joke on Malvolio and now they’ve got him to the point where he’s a bit confused and they’re getting ready to throw him into a dark room. If that sounds like it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, well, I guess it doesn't. 

On the other hand, the name of this play is Twelfth Night, which is a Christmas themed title and this play's got nothing whatsoever to do with Christmas or Christmas time. So what do you say to that?

 

Since Will didn't give us anything in the play that's Christmas themed, and since it's called Twelfth Night, and since today is December 13, I thought we needed some Christmas in today's pic. So here you go.

But old folks, many feign as they were dead;

Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead.--



-Juliet



Romeo And Juliet                            Act II, scene iv, line 16




I’m sixty-two years old. So what’s this old folks crap?



Well apparently Juliet’s nurse is no spring chicken. This is the beginning of the scene and Juliet is talking to herself in the Capulet orchard. She’s sent her nurse with a message to Romeo, and now she’s waiting for the nurse's return and the expected reply from Romeo. The nurse promised to be back in a half hour and now three hours have passed. Juliet is growing understandably very impatient and remarking that if the nurse were young she’d be moving a lot faster. But the nurse is not young. She’s unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead. 

Then right after this line Nurse does show up and Juliet spends a half a page trying to drag Romeo’s message out of her while Nurse spends the same half page trying to catch her breath. 
Well, okay, I guess the nurse does remind me a little bit of myself. But just a little bit.

Unwieldy?

Slow?

Heavy and pale as lead?

Or maybe just a little bit discombobulated. 

The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,

And you are stay’d for.

-Polonius

Hamlet                                              Act I, scene iii, line 55

Believe it or not, this is the second line of Polonius’s speech where he’s sending his son, Laertes, off to college, and in it he gives him all sorts of advice, some of which you will be very familiar with, and probably a little surprised to realize that these little pearls are from Will. Amongst the most familiar there’s Neither a borrower or a lender be, and of course that great one This above all,-- to thine own self be true.

I’m sure you’ve heard these before, but were you aware that these are Will’s lines? Yeah, actually I was.

 

He's got his hotdog, fries, and lemonade and the best seat on the ship. I think it's safe to say The wind sits in the shoulder of his sail.