O, fellow, come, the song we had last night.

-Duke of Illyria

Twelfth Night                            Act II, scene iv, line 42

Very interesting. Yesterday’s line was ‘Fore God, an excellent song. We didn’t have a post yesterday, so we didn’t talk about that line. But nonetheless, it is the line that I randomly picked and read yesterday. It was Cassio speaking in Othello. So, two days in a row now, we have someone talking about songs. I suppose I need to find a picture of myself singing. Umm, I’m not sure that picture exists.

I do like the four lines that immediately proceed today’s Totally Random line. This is a scene where Viola is disguised as a guy named Cesario, she’s part of the Duke’s court, and she’s got a crush on the duke. The duke, having no idea about the crush and thinking that Viola is a young man, is advising him/her that he/she must find a younger woman since,

            For women are as roses, whose fair flower

            Being once display’d, doth fall that very hour.

To which Cesario/Viola responds,

            And so they are: alas, that they are so,--

            To die, even when they to perfection grow.

And this is immediately followed by the duke getting distracted and asking for last night’s song. What do you think? Them’s is some pretty good lines. I think there’s a lot we could talk about in those four lines. If we wanted to…

 Ramble On Rose

Well I couldn't decide whether to give you a picture of a flower, or a link to a song. So I gave you a link to a song about a flower.

How from the finny subject of the sea

These fishers tell the infirmities of men;

And from their watery empire recollect

All that may men approve or men detect!

-Pericles

Pericles                                        Act II, scene i, line 52

This is Pericles's response, to himself, after listening to the fishermen talk about the situation of man in the world, and relating it to the fish in the sea. They haven’t taken notice of Pericles yet. Pericles is standing on the seashore after having been washed ashore following a shipwreck. If you want to read a discussion of what the fishermen are saying, look to my post from 2017 here.

As far as Pericles's response in today’s Totally Random lines? Well the first thing that came to my mind upon reading it was poet/playwright. I don’t think there are too many playwrights who fall into this category, certainly none on Will's level, and it’s a consideration that can get easily overlooked when reading/hearing/seeing Will’s works. But sometimes there are lines in his work which really make it impossible to miss, and these are four such lines. At least, in my opinion they are.

 

Finny Fun.

 

It occurred to me that I've heard the word 'finny' used before, believe it or not. So here you go. Today's pic is a song. 

You have received many wounds for your country.

-Third Citizen

Coriolanus                                   Act II, scene iii, line 106

Wounds. This is the scene where Caius Marcius Coriolanus goes amongst the commoners to ask them for their consent for him to be their leader. Apparently, one of the things he’s supposed to do is to literally show them his war wounds. Today’s Totally Random line is one citizen mentioning these wounds and expecting Caius Marcius to show them. He does not. Other than that, though, he appears to have appeased them. Or so we think.

I have to say, almost every time I look at a piece of this play, I’m brought back to the future. 2020 politics is so much like what we see in this play. This guy, Coriolanus, does what they tell him to do, irrespective of his disdain for the common man. The commoners accept what he’s done, and it looks like we’re all set to swear him in as the leader. And then a few of the commoners’ leaders give a little push in the opposite direction and the commoners take away their blessing. I’m not painting either side of the today’s political spectrum in one particular light or another, but I am saying that all of us are so susceptible to manipulation. I wonder how much of the real truth any of us are dealing with. And then you can start asking ‘what is truth’. 

Oh boy.

Wounds.

And what about the political system that this is a vestige of, to say nothing of the current political system of this place? These are the terra cotta warriors of Xian, China. They're an army of life sized statues that were built for the grave of a Chinese emperor. Did he have wounds to show his people? He must have had something to show his people in order to get all this for his burial.

We live in a crazy world.