In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril!



-Lear



King Lear                                Act III, scene iv, line 19



This is part of a longer piece, but today I’m just giving you this one line. It’s the cry of  a father who’s been turned out into the stormy night by his two daughters. If you stop to imagine it, this is a pretty rotten thing to have to endure. I can only imagine.

I guess my inclination is to be grateful for all that I have, especially with all that’s going on right now outside the four walls I call home. Very grateful.

They say it’s always good to stop and be thankful for what you have, because if you’re busy being grateful it’s harder to be mad, hurt, worried, whatever. So for now I’m grateful that I have a roof over my head; a comfortable home with people who love me. And I have two Cordelias; no Regans or Gonerils. I’m very grateful. Poor Lear.

My home. See what I mean? Very grateful.

You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear,

The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor,

May now perchance both quake and tremble here,

When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar.

Then know that I one Snug the joiner am,

No lion fell, nor else no lion’s dam;

For, if I should as lion come in strife

Into this place, ‘twere pity on my life.



-Lion (Snug the joiner)



A Midsummer Night’s Dream                  Act V, scene i, line 216



Well, a few things have occurred to me this morning:

One: I enjoy reading a random piece of Shakespeare, and usually a bit of what precedes and follows it and reflecting on it every morning. In fact, I look forward to it.

Two: I like writing about it because writing is always good. Writing is reflective. Also, if I don’t do it first thing in the day I probably won’t do it. And double-also, the writing doesn’t necessarily have to be about the line because sometimes the line (or just the mood I’m in) sends my reflections far afield.

Three: too often I don’t write, or don’t write enough.

Four: I’ve not published in my Blog post much of what I’ve written because I can’t find a pic to go with it, and I’ve insisted on pics because I’ve felt that a Blog without a pic will not be looked at or read.

Five: (and this is VERY important) almost no one looks at my Blog anyway, so why should I worry about the pic. Shall I repeat that?


Conclusion: I should write more in the morning, and if what I write is interesting and even slightly relevant to the random line (or even not very relevant, like this) I should publish it. If I can find a pic, good, and if I can’t, oh well.



Now, re today’s line: It’s Midsummer Night’s Dream which I’ve gone on record as saying I really don’t like. Well I’m starting to come around, and this line is one that I really know what the deal is. How about that? I know what the deal is! Ack, maybe I’m smarter than I think I am.


Anyway, this is the play within the play. Snug the joiner is coming on stage as the lion but he wants to make sure that he doesn’t scare anyone, so he’s letting everyone know that it’s him, and not a real lion. Remember, this is a comedy so that this is a piece that can really be funny. Oh, and he uses the word ‘fell’ as an adjective, meaning bad or evil, or something like that. Remember ‘one fell swoop’ from Macbeth?

This is not Snug the joiner playing the lion; this is Nutsy the pup playing the lion. I think she does a pretty convincing job.

I’ll be your foil, Laertes: in mine ignorance

Your  skill shall, like a star i’th’darkest night,

Stick fiery off indeed.



-Hamlet



Hamlet                                    Act V, scene ii, line 256





Stick fiery off indeed.  Indeed!

This is the end of the play, Hamlet and Laertes are about to duel, and Hamlet is telling Laertes that the latter’s skill will shine. But he doesn’t say ‘shine’, he says that Laertes’s skill is going to like a star i’th’darkest night, stick fiery off indeed. It’s that last part that gets me. Stick fiery off indeed. I wasn’t expecting that. Like a star in the darkest night, shine brightly. Something like that was what I was expecting. But stick fiery off indeed. That’s interesting. What’s Will going for here? Why not just shine brightly? Clearly, stick fiery off indeed has got Will written all over it. Clearly shine brightly is way too simple. I suppose anything can shine brightly, but Laertes will stick out in the darkness and be fiery. He’ll blaze. Hmmm. Yes of course. 


Will does it again. Will sticks fiery off himself, doesn’t he. 

This is the backyard of my daughter’s place in Tennessee. That tiny white dot in the middle of the picture is me. On a warm summer night this whole field blazes with fireflies. They don’t stick fiery off, because it’s not one firefly. Instead the air is thick with their little twinkles. It’s much different than Will’s star, but the passage made me think of this nonetheless.

What potions have I drunk of Siren tears,

Distill’d from limbecks foul as hell within,

Applying fears to hopes, and hopes to fears,

Still losing when I saw myself to win!

What wretched errors hath my heart committed,

Whilst it hath thought itself so blessed never!

How have mine eyes out of their spheres been fitted

In the distraction of this madding fever!

O benefit of ill! now I find true

That better is by evil still made better;

And ruin’d love, when it is built anew,

Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater.

So I return rebuked to my content,

And gain by ill thrice more than I have spent.

Sonnet 119                             



And there you go! Yeah, I don’t see the sense in giving you one line from a sonnet, so you get all fourteen. The one word here that might throw you is ‘limbeck’, so I’ll tell you that a limbeck is gourd shaped vessel used to distill spirits. Other than that it’s pretty straight forward, so I'll let you work through this one on your own.

This is Patrick Stewart on Instagram. He's posting a sonnet a day to help us all get through this Coronavirus thing. 

               Sir,

For holy offices I have a time; a time

To think upon the part of business which

I bear i’the state; and nature does require

Her times of preservation, which perforce

I, her frail son, amongst my brethren mortal,

Must give my tendance to.

-Cardinal Wolsey

King Henry The Eighth                Act III, scene ii, line 144

Without getting into context and, instead, simply dwelling on the lines given; Wolsey is telling the king that he spends some of his time on his job as a religious leader, some of his time on serving the king in business of state, and some of his time eating, sleeping and taking care of other physical needs. He has stated these three in the order God, country, self; using seven words for God, fourteen for country, and twenty-three for self. The order is certainly not coincidence, but I wonder if the number of words is indicative of anything?

What do you think?

 

Well, I'm not sure it's very relevant, but I decided to put in a pic of myself out in nature. This was back in the day when I gave more tendance to nature. Of course, by 'nature', I mean the natural world, the outdoors. That's not exactly how Will is using 'nature' in today's Totally Random line, but, oh well.

A kind of conquest

Caesar made here; but made not here his brag

Of ‘Came, and saw, and overcame’:

-Queen

Cymbeline                               Act III, scene i, line 73

I like this line, but there’s an even better one a few lines back. But first, just so you know what’s going on here: This play is taking place in England way back before it was really even England; back when the Romans were there. It’s a date not too long after the time that Caesar was in England, and a Roman general is back, and he's telling Cymbeline and his Queen that Rome is expecting them to start paying an annual tribute like they used to. And Cymbeline and his queen are telling the general to go pound sand. The queen goes into a long bit about how they kicked Caesar out, and that it wasn’t in England that Caesar made his famous ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’ line. She mangles the line a bit.

But the better line is from a few lines back and it’s Cymbeline’s.

                                    There be many Caesars,

            Ere such another Julius. Britain is

            A world by itself; and we will nothing pay

            For wearing our own noses.

For wearing our own noses! Oh my goodness, that’s great! I don’t know if that’s some common expression from the 1600’s, but I love it. I’ve got to find a way to get that into the vernacular. 

 

No worries, I'm just checking to make sure I'm still wearing my own nose.

I say the earth did shake when I was born.

-Owen Glendower

King Henry The Fourth Part I               Act III, scene i, line 21

Glendower here is going to insist that the earth literally shook when he was born, and Hotspur’s going to argue with him. And in this scene it’s hard to tell which is the bigger fool.

I’ve learned that there are a lot of people out there like Glendower. They are convinced that they are right and they’re not going to back down NO MATTER WHAT. And do you want to know how I deal with this kind of person? I don’t. I walk away. I will not waste my time with this sort. 

 

Can you think of anyone who reminds you of Glendower? I can.