Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Dare you presume to harbour wanton lines?

 

 Julia

 The Two Gentelemen of Verona   Act I Scene ii, Line 42

 

Well, there’s an interesting word, wanton. It’s a word we’ve all run into, but what’s it mean? Honestly, I can’t give you a definition. Let’s go to the online MW: merciless (wanton cruelty), without check or limitation (wanton imagination). I think that latter is the one I'm used to seeing.

Hmmm, let’s double-check in the Shakespeare glossary. Okay, the Shakespeare glossary has a total of twelve different possible meanings for wanton used as an adjective. There’s naughty, carefree, casual, cruelly irresponsible, ambiguous, feminine, gay, lascivious, luxuriant, merciless, sexually hot, and unrestrained. So basically the Shakespeare glossary is saying that wanton can mean whatever you want it to mean. Well that narrows it down, doesn’t it. (Sarcasm)

So now, I guess that means we need context. Okay, here we go.

Julia is talking with her waiting-woman (servant) named Lucetta about the different men who are suitors to Julia. Lucetta is holding a letter and Julia asks her where she got it.

        Sir Valentine’s page; and sent, I think, from Proteus.

        He would have given it you; but I, being in the way,

        Did in your name receive it: pardon the fault, I pray.

Proteus is one of the suitors that the two women had been discussing. Julie responds,

        Now, by my modesty, a goodly broker!

        Dare you  presume to harbour wanton lines?

        To whisper and conspire against my youth?

So she’s obviously talking about the lines in the letter from Proteus. Now you tell me, is she saying that the lines in Proteus’s letter are cruelly irresponsible? How about sexually hot? Perhaps naughty? Need I go on?

Basically, in today's line wanton means whatever the heck you want it to mean. How's that?

  

No, I don't know what wanton means, and I don't care. Can't you see that we're watching a movie?

 

Mojo has wanton disregard for the question of what wanton means.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

                            Ay, that’s the theme.

To her in haste; give her this jewel; say,

My love can give no place, bide no denay.

 

Duke of Illyria

Twelfth Night         Act II Scene iv, Line 124

 

Apparently denay is not a typo for delay (which I thought it was): denay means denial.

Anyway, this is the last line of the scene. The scene has been the duke pining over his unrequited love for Olivia. Now he’s talking to Viola (not to be confused with Olivia) who is in the duke’s service. However, Viola is disguised as a young man named Cessario. The duke has been sending Viola/Cessario to Olivia’s home with messages of the duke’s love, but Olivia’s not interested. Now he wants him/her to go back to Olivia again.

It’s an interesting conversation between the duke and Viola/Cessario. It seems that Viola has a crush on the duke, but since the duke thinks she’s a young man, he has no idea. They are discussing love and the roles of men and women. Viola is sorting of letting on that she has feelings for the duke, but he’s not picking up on it. Finally he just tells him/her to go back and take another stab at Olivia. And so it goes. 

 

 

Speaking of stabs, I'd like to take another stab at those bunnies out back... 

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

                             ‘Tis he.

Third Murderer

Macbeth                  Act III Scene ii, Line 13

 

This is the short scene where Banquo is murdered. It’s Banquo that the Third Murderer is speaking of when he says 

‘Tis he.

It’s a very short scene, less than twenty lines, so I read it through just now and I came up with something interesting. A few scenes earlier Macbeth hires two murderers for this job, but this scene has three murderers. The first line of the scene, spoken by Murderer One to Murderer Three, is

But who did bid thee join with us?

Third Murderer responds,

Macbeth.

Murderers One and Two question this a bit, but then just proceed.
Why do I give you this detail? I give it because it seems interesting that Murderer Three is added. Wherefore (remember, that means why)? Murderer Three is the first to point out that Banquo's son,  Fleance, got away. He seems to be the one of the three that’s paying attention to detail and knows the most about what’s going on. But is he needed? One of the first two murderers couldn’t have noticed that Fleance got away? Murderers One and Two are shadowy enough on their own: they show up in one scene and are assigned the task, they have their own short scenes (this one for the murder), and then Murderer One shows up very briefly in a subsequent scene to report to Macbeth. So, we needed a third guy to beef these guys up? Again, why?

Ah, so it turns out that I’ve stumbled onto a mystery that’s well known. I used the Google and found out that the Third Murderer, and his true identity, has been the topic of many a discussion, scholarly and otherwise, on this play. I guess we shouldn't be surprised. There is much belief that Murderer Three is Macbeth, following up on the two guys he hired to make sure they get the job done.

Needless to say, there is no conclusive evidence to tell us who the third murderer is or why he’s been put into this scene. I guess we’ll have to add this to the list of questions we have for Will when we have him over to dinner. 

Again with the list of questions for when Will comes to dinner.

This guy is a piece of work, no question about that.