Why, how now, captain! What do you in this wise company?—How dost thou, Apemantus?

-Page

Timon of Athens                    Act II, scene ii, line 74

Interestingly enough, we’ve been in scene six times before. It would seem that we should be quite familiar with it, and in truth, we are. It’s the scene where the servants of several of Timon’s debtors come looking for money, and where Timon finds out for the first time, from his servant Flavius, just how poor his financial situation is.

Today’s line is from a section of the scene where the debtors’ servants are talking to Apemantus whilst they wait for Timon to show up. Today’s Totally Random lines are the first words of a Page who shows up. He’s addressing the Fool as Captain. The Fool and he appear to be acquaintances. Apemantus’s reply in the next line is

Would I had a rod in my mouth, that I might answer thee profitably.

I couldn’t figure that out until I found a note that said answer thee profitably means chastise thee. So a rod is his mouth would be a stick to beat the page with?  I guess. It’s a little bit weird, but I’m guessing the vernacular made more sense to a sixteenth century group than it makes to us.

And here's the part where you jump in and say See! Shakepseare’s stuff is written in Old English (it’s not) and nobody in 2022 can be expected to understand this stuff (they can and do)!

But, okay. I’m not in a mood to argue with you. So, just okay.

Speaking of wise company, how about these two? This is my niece and my nephew. The former lives in Australia now, and the latter in Japan, but Laura is up visiting from down under, and I'm going to see her later today at a family picnic. So I'm looking forward to that. Truth be known, I don't know what her feelings about Will's works are, but I'm not sure it matters.

 

9/3/22

 

It is the devil.

-Antipholus of Syracuse

The Comedy of Errors                   Act IV, scene iii, line 49

This play is a little bit crazy; okay, maybe a lot crazy. I think the main problem, well, to be clear there are a lot of problems and a lot of common sense that must be suspended in order to deal with this play. But as I was saying, one of the biggest of these is that Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse are out in search of their twins, and they arrive in a town where they are constantly being mistaken for someone else. Why don’t they realize that their twins are in this town! Oy! I mean honestly, this one plot fault could have been overcome by having these two guys traveling without the express purpose of looking for their twins; or perhaps not even knowing they have twins. We, the audience, would have known about the twin situation from Aegeon’s story in the first scene of the play.

Okay, there I go questioning Will again. When will I learn? Perhap’s it’s the devil in me. Yes, that’s it. It is the devil.

How about this guy, the guy with the horns. Is he the devil? 

To tell you the truth, I'm not sure what that guy is.

 

Welcome is peace, if he on peace consist;

If wars, we are unable to resist.

-Cleon

Pericles                           Act I, scene iv, line 84

Cleon is the king of Tarsus and he’s just spent the first part of this scene lamenting about how his kingdom is suffering through a famine. Now a messenger has come in to tell him that there’s a fleet of ships approaching. Cleon is afraid that they’ve come to conquer, but the messenger says they’re flying the white flag of peace. Today’s lines are Cleon’s conclusions, as he tells the messenger to bring the general of the ships to him. 

I guess this qualifies as a rhyming couplet because it’s two lines that rhyme. These are not, though, the last lines of the scene, and that’s where Will famously has his rhyming couplets. Also, this scene is full of rhyming lines, but inconsistently so. I’m not quite sure what’s up with that. But I’m pretty sure that any two lines that randomly rhyme can be considered a rhyming couplet. 

Now it just occurred to me that most people, perhaps the vast, vast majority of people, would look at my rhyming couplet comments with a resounding ‘Who gives a flying rat’s ass?’ Hmm. I guess there’s a grain of reasonableness to that response. But that’s not the point. The point is that we’re trying to spend a little quality time away from all the important questions of life. I suppose if you are like the people of Tarsus and in the throes of a famine, or worrying about being invaded (and Lord knows there are plenty of people in the world in such a situation today), then the topic of rhyming couplets is pretty stupid. But if you’re like another large swath of the population who are getting by okay, but spending an awful lot of time worrying about the business of living, then perhaps you could benefit by leaving that business alone for a few minutes and thinking about rhyming couplets. Why not? It can't hurt.

Apparently, there's some competition in New Haven amongst drain cleaners. There's Nate, and there's Jake. If you choose not to dwell on rhyming couplets, perhaps you'd care to consider this? On the other hand, if you are thinking about rhyming couplets, perhaps you'd care to consider this?

 

Is that lead slow which is fired from a gun?,

-Moth

Love’s Labour’s Lost            Act III, scene i, line 61

No need to get into a whole lot of context here. Moth says as swift as lead, Armado says lead is slow, and Moth replies with today’s Totally Random Line.

Makes sense, n’est pas?

And why, you are asking yourself, are we being treated to a picture of your favorite blogger this morning. What could possibly be the relevance? He doesn't own a gun. He's not particularly swift. What could it be? 

Well, I'll tell you. A subject of today's line is lead, the chemical abbreviation for lead is Pb, and PB just happens to be the initials of whom? 

That's right: the guy in the picture. 

Ahhh, relevance.

 

 

 

The time hath been

Would you have been so brief with him, he would

Have been so brief with you, to shorten you,

For taking so the head, your whole head’s length.

-Duke of York

King Richard II              Act III, scene iii, line 11

Bolingbroke is back in England and marching with an army to reclaim what is his. They’ve come to the castle where King Richard is sequestered. The Duke of York is with Bolingbroke, but he is faithful to Richard. Remember now, that York is the brother to Bolingbroke’s father and to Richard’s father. So whilst he has an equally familial allegiance to both of them, he is on the side of Richard as being the rightful King of England, since Richard is the son of the oldest brother of all the sons of Edward III. 

With today’s lines York is letting Northumberland know that he’d better be more respectful and refer to King Richard as King Richard, not just Richard, as he did in a previous line. Northumberland claims that he was just being ‘brief’, not disrespectful, when referring to the king as simply Richard. This is what York is responding to with today’s lines, and he’s picking up on the word ‘brief’ that Northumberland used.   

Perhaps I could have been more brief with that explanation?

Here is a pic of four of my nephews (there's a couple of other ones, but I couldn't find a pic of all of them). Now, since Micael is the son of the oldest of my siblings, he would be the king. But what if Caleb, or Will, or John decided that they wanted the job. Well now, they're all sons of my brothers, so which one do I stand with? Would it be Michael because he's the son of the oldest brother? Then do I throw these other guys under the bus? I wouldn't want to be in the Duke of York's shoes.

 

 

In winter’s tedious nights sit by the fire

With good old folks and let them tell thee tales

Of woeful ages long ago betid;

-Richard

King Richard II              Act V, scene i, line 41

Betid: that's a funny word, isn't it? It just means 'happened', past tense of betide. Tell them tales of woeful ages that happened long ago. 

This is part of a longer response that Richard gives to his queen when she asks Richard if he is both in shape and mind transform’d and weaken’d? Bolingbroke has deposed him, and Richard is on the way to the Tower. ‘Aren’t you at least going to go down roaring like the lion that you are?’, she asks him.

Here is his full response to that:

        A king of beasts, indeed; if aught but beasts,

        I had been still a happy king of men.

        Good sometime queen, prepare thee hence for France:

        Think I am dead and that even here thou takest,

        As from my death-bed, they last living leave.

        In winter’s tedious nights sit by the fire

With good old folks and let them tell thee tales

Of woeful ages long ago betid;

And ere thou bid good night, to quit their griefs,

Tell thou the lamentable tale of me

And send the hearers weeping to their beds:

        For why, the senseless brands will sympathize

        The heavy accent of thy moving tongue

        And in compassion weep the fire out;

        And some will mourn in ashes, some coal-black,

        For the deposing of a rightful king.

 

Yah, stick a fork in him; he’s pretty much done.

Going with the State Fair theme one more day, I can tell you that these foot-longs are pretty much done too. No need for a fork, though. 

 

Bootless is flight,--they follow us with wings;

And weak are we, and  cannot shun pursuit.

-Edward

King Henry the Sixth Part III       Act II, scene iii, line 18

A few program notes: First off, we took a break for a quick trip out to MN for the State Fair. So I haven’t been looking at any of Will’s words since Wednesday. No, I couldn’t find much trace of Will at the Minnesota State Fair. Secondly, I’ve decided, for today at least, to take a break from Merchant. I’ll probably get back to that one soon, but for today, here we are in the thick of battle with the players of Henry VI, Part III.

Okay then. Bootless: this word is in the current MW online. I’m familiar with it mostly from The Tempest where Miranda talks about a ‘bootless inquisition’, so that I know it means useless. It’s a good word and I use it; though I’m not sure people know what I mean when I do. Flight is useless.  

Anyway, I skipped forward to do some reading in the next scene this morning, where we’re still in the middle of the same battle. In the next scene we have Henry, alone, talking about the how miserable it is to be king and what a good life the homely swain (country youth) has.

        And to conclude,--the shepherd’s homely curds,

His cold thin drink out of his leather bottle,

His wonted sleep under a fresh tree’s shade,

All which secure and sweetly he enjoys,

Is far beyond a prince’s delicates,

His viands sparkling in a golden cup,

His body crouched in a curious bed,

When care, mistrust, and reason waits on him.

Can you believe it? What does Will bring up first when he wants to compare the good, simple life of a shepherd with the misery of being king? Curds! Will is talking about curds, and the fact that they're better than anything a king gets! Curds!

These two Minnesotans live for their annual taste of Cheese Curds! I didn't think I'd found much trace of Will at the Fair, but apparently I did; without knowing it.

Curds!