A whoreson dog, that shall palter with us!

Would he were a Trojan!

-Ajax

Troilus and Cressida      Act II, Scene iii, Line 231

For clarity’s sake, palter means to quibble or deal evasively with. For further clarity, Ajax is talking about Achilles, and the whole group of Greeks present is discussing the fact that Achilles has decided not to do any more fighting in the battle against the Trojans. Do we think that Ajax would be saying these things to Achilles’s face? Good question. I’m afraid I don’t know Ajax well enough to answer that. He does seem to be pretty willing to speak his mind in Achilles’s absence though, doesn’t he? And that, in and of itself, can be rather telling.

BTW, the meaning of whoreson is a little different if you look it up in a modern dictionary versus a Shakespearean glossary, but neither is particularly complimentary. I think you can figure out on you own the general meaning. It's a pretty good expression to use about someone that you really feel is a very rotten person, but it's not a very nice thing to say. And my mom always told me, if you have nothing nice to say, better to say nothing at all. So, yeah, you're bound to run into a whoreson dog or two, but better to take the high road and say nothing at all.    

And here you go, a pic of nothing at all. Remember a few days ago I said that I was going to put the emphasis on posting everyday, even it meant posting with no pic? Well, here you go. I couldn't think of any pic to go with a whoreson dog, so that's what I'm posting: no pic. Rather than saying nothing at all, I'm posting a pic of nothing at all.

 Bardolf, look to our horses.

-Sir John Falstaff

King Henry the Fourth Part II      Act V, Scene i, Line 9

Well this is a pretty darn simple line, and one that should need little explanation as to what it means. In fact, I won’t insult you by even pretending to offer an explanation. Are we good?

Here you go: a pretty darn simple picture that should need no explanation. You can see who it is, and you can tell where we are. Are we good?

 

 

I took no more pains for those thanks than you take pains to thank me: if it had been painful, I would not have come.

-Beatrice

Much Ado About Nothing             Act II, Scene iii, Line 251

The main experience I have with this play, other than through picking lines occasionally for this blog, is watching Helen Hunt talk about it on a television program. I forget the name of the show but it’s one of the cable networks and the show did one-hour episodes where they’d get into the nuts a bolts of one play for an hour, and they had a different famous actor do each hour show. Helen did this play, and she talked about playing Beatrice. I don’t remember much, other than that she was very keen on the role.

I suppose that’s not much help with today’s line though, is it? But just to give you some sense of what it means: Benedick is alone onstage, and Beatrice enters to say that, against her will, she’s been bid to come and invite him for dinner. I don’t know who sent her, but Benedick replies Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains. Today’s Totally Random line is Beatrice’s response to Benedick.

I can tell you that these two spar throughout the play, but that they end up together in the end. 

I think I should probably see this play, or at least read and listen to it. What do you think?

If you look real close you can see my Harry Potter scar, except mine is a Y, not a lightning bolt. It's a faint, white Y almost directly above the eye, halfway between the eyebrow and the hairline. Trust me; it's there. Anyway, I took some pains in getting that scar. It involved falling and cracking my noggin on the corner of the low cabinet that the tv sits on. Yes, there was definitely pain involved. 

 

God, the best maker of all marriages,

Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one!

-Queen Isabel

King Henry the Fifth     Act V, Scene ii, Line 356

We’re very near the end of the play with this one. There are about fourteen lines left in the play proper, and then another dozen or so in the epilogue spoken by the chorus.

Everybody’s relatively happy at this point. Henry has reached an agreement with the French king, and he’s going to marry the king’s daughter. That’s the marriage being mentioned by the queen, the bride’s mother. And there you go; a nice happy ending for once.

Uh oh, what's going on here? Ernie doesn't look happy at all. Didn't anyone tell him about the happy ending, because he looks like he's ready to bite someone's head off. It's a happy ending, Ernie. Honest!

 

That which upholdeth him that thee upholds,

His honour: O, thine honour, Lewis, thine honour!  

-Constance

King John               Act III, Scene i, Line 315

Whilst this line looks a little bit convoluted and hard to understand when taken by itself, let’s put it in context and see if it doesn’t make a bit more sense.

In this scene we have pretty much all the principles including the kings of England and France and also the Dauphin, the son of the king of France. The two women present are Blanch (king John’s niece who’s just been married off to the Dauphin as part of a political deal), and Constance (King John’s sister-in-law, a widow, and mother to a prospective heir to the throne of England). Everyone was getting along until John decides to defy the Pope, at which point he gets excommunicated. So now all the French are ready to storm out and get ready to go back to war against the English. That means that Blanch’s new husband (a Frenchie) will be fighting on the other side; not a pleasant prospect for her. Constance, on the other hand, is pretty sure that her son is going to get screwed out of his rightful title to the throne, and she doesn’t really care who kills who. Blanch gives a ten-line plea to her husband not to go to war. Constance tells him to do what he needs to do (go to war). Blanch responds with the question

Now shall I see my love: what motive may

Be stronger with thee than the name of wife?

In other words, what motive for going to war can be greater than your own wife’s plea not to. And Constance answers

That which upholdeth him that thee upholds,

His honour: O, thine honour, Lewis, thine honour!  

Honour. Constance says that his honour must compel him to go to war irrespective of his wife’s wishes. In fact, she manages to use the word  honour three times in one line, just to be sure that no one misses it. I guess it's an important word, or concept. By the way, the Dauphin’s first name is Lewis. I guess Constance and he are on a first name basis. Don’t ask me why.

Anyway, I think a lot of us nowadays might be better served by being upheld by our honour. Actually, all of us would.

Okay, I know that I said that I would post every day with, or without a pic, and then I didn't post yesterday and now I'm posting today with a silly pic. Well, old habits die hard. 

Anyway, this is my pants label. I'm trying to find these pants because I want another pair or two. And when I get them I can assure they will not be upheld with honour. they will be upheld with my belt. That's a pretty bad dad joke, huh? Sorry.

 

By the white hand of my lady, he’s a gallant prince.

-Duke of Orleans

King Henry the Fifth              Act III, Scene i, Line 3

 

My initial reaction to this line was that it’s basically meaningless, overconfident prattle. It’s the French leaders talking on the eve of the Battle of Angicourt, and of course we know that they are going to have their butts kicked by the Brits at that battle. So, yeah, meaningless, overconfident prattle.

 

Sidebar (and speaking of meaningless): It was my idea from the beginning of this blog that it needed to have a picture included in the posts because no one would look at it unless it had a picture. Well, after more than five years of posting almost six hundred posts I’ve come to a couple conclusions. One is that almost no one looks at this post, so that whether or not the posts have pictures appears to be meaningless. Second is that the hardest part about creating posts is finding a pic for the post, so that if I didn’t include a pic I could post a whole lot more.

Now, those two conclusions might appear to be at odds with each other. You might say, ‘Well Pete, if practically no one is reading the post, then why should you care about increasing the number of posts?’ That’s a good question. That’s a really good question. I think the answer is twofold. For one thing, the number one person I’m trying to satisfy by posting is me. Me, myself, and I. So, if I like posting, then by posting more, well I’ll be making my number one writer/reader happy. And what’s more important than that. And B, I started this out as a Daily posting exercise. So I’d like to get back to that. And I still can’t but help to think that if I ever do get around to working on cultivating an audience, the fact that it’s daily will be helpful.

 

Ergo and henceforth, I’m going to try to go back to daily for a while. If I can come up with a pic or two along that well I’ll be sure to include them, but at the risk of those pics being meaningless I won’t limit myself to requiring them for my posts.

Comments?

And after all that meaningless prattle, what do I do? That's right, I include a picture. I don't know what's wrong with me, so don't ask. In any event, this is the new pair of shoes I bought yesterday. I guess I could say that I wanted to look like a 'gallant prince' to make the pic relevant to today's line, but that'd be a bit of a stretch, wouldn't it? Oh well.

 

 

Nay, I would have you go before me thither.

-Queen Elinor

King John                       Act I, Scene i, Line 155

 

Well now you just gotta like that word thither. It’s in the modern dictionary (albeit noted as archaic) with the same meaning being used here: to or toward that place. And if it’s in the modern dictionary, well then, it’s fair game. Use it at will. So no matter where you go today, as you head thither, be sure to use this word whenever possible. 

Now here's a perfect example of using the word thither. I was at a used bookstore with my two associates and young Walker has just said to his mom, "I saw this exact volume in the library the last time I went thither." The look on her face says it all. 'Thither? Is this young fellow using the word thither. What on earth...' That's the look you need to go for in someone by using the word thither. Good luck.