Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

This blot, that they object against your house,
Shall be wiped out in the next parliament,
Call’d for the truce of Winchester and Gloster:
And if thou be not then created York,
I will not live to be accounted Warwick.
Meantime, in signal of my love to thee,
Against proud Somerset and William Pole,
Will I upon the party wear this rose;
And here I prophesy,- this brawl to-day,
Grown to this faction, in the Temple-garden,
A thousand souls to death and deadly night.

 

Earl of Warwick

King Henry the Sixth Part I   Act II, Scene iv, Line 116

 

A thousand souls to death and deadly night.

Yes, that’s right, Warwick is predicting the amount of English that will die in what came to be known as The Wars of the Roses. I think we’ve been to this scene before, but it’s a good one, and it’s been a while.

This is the Temple garden scene where all the leaders of the two factions - those of the house of Lancaster (red rose), and those of the house of York (white rose) - align with one house or another and signify as such by plucking either a white or red rose. What follows is a series of civil wars in a battle for the throne. Whilst these wars are documented history, I cannot help but wonder if there is any historical reality to this scene from whence the name The Wars of the Roses arises. But does it really matter?

The reality in this scene of the portrayal of a few elites making decisions that will lead to wars where thousands of almost exclusively non-elites will suffer and die is spot on; as spot on in 1450 as it is in 2026. If that’s not relevance and reason enough to study Shakespeare today then what is? 

I'll tell you what's spot on: it's this treat that Mrs. B. gave me. That's what's spot on.

 

Yes Mojo, I suppose it is. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

Hold, take this letter; early in the morning

See thou deliver it to my lord and father.

Romeo 

Romeo and Juliet   Act V, Scene iii, Line 23

This is Romeo talking to Balthazar. They are in the cemetery and Romeo is about to open Juliet’s tomb. We're near the beginning of the last scene of the play. Paris has already arrived and is watching Romeo from the shadows. Remember Paris? He’s the guy who also loved Juliet and was supposed to marry her per Juliet’s parent’s plans. So whilst Paris watches, Romeo has arrived with Balthazar, and Romeo gives Balthazar a letter which is used later in the scene to verify Friar Knucklehead’s account of what has taken place previously in the play. Curiously, Romeo also talks about taking a ring from Juliet’s finger.

Here's the rest of Romeo’s lines after Today’s Lines above.

Give me the light: upon thy life, I charge thee,
Whate’er thou hear’st or see'st, stand all aloof,
And do not interrupt me in my course.
Why I descend into this bed of death,
Is partly to behold my lady’s face;
But chiefly to take thence from her dead finger
A precious ring,— a ring that I must use
In dear employment: therefore hence, be gone:—
But if thou, jealous, dost return to pry
In what I further shall intend to do,
By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint,
And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs:
The time and my intents are savage-wild;
More fierce and more inexorable far
Than empty tigers or the roaring sea.

Okay, first off, what’s with this ring thing? Do I need to go back and read the whole play. Did he give Juliet his ring? And even if he did, how does he intend to use in dear employment this ring? And further, what’s with all these threats to Balthazar if he comes back to see what Romeo’s doing?  And what makes Romeo’s time and intents more savage-wild than empty tigers or the roaring sea?

It’s all a bit confusing as far as I’m concerned. I guess I don’t know this play perhaps as well as I should. What do you think Mojo?

 

Perhaps if you hadn't been gallivanting all over New Zealand and the Southern Ocean for the past month, leaving me here to fend for myself, you wouldn't be so confused and out of touch with Today's Lines. That's what I think, Mr. Shakespeare-Is-So-Great.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

And then he (Marc Antony) offer’d it (the crown) the third time; he (Julius Caesar) put it the third time by; and still as he refused it, the rabblement shouted, and clapt their chopt hands, and threw up their sweaty nightcaps, and utter’d such a deal of stinking breath because Caesar refused the crown, that it had almost choked Caesar; for he swounded, and fell down at it: and for my own part, I durst not laugh, for fear of opening my lips and receiving the bad air.

 

Casca

Julius Caesar         Act I, Scene ii, Line 242

Casca is telling Cassius and Marus Brutus what just happened with Caesar and the crowds. Cassius and Brutus were busy talking and did not witness it.

Apparently, the crowd, at the suggestion of Marc Antony, three times offered to make Caesar king, and three times he declined. Also apparently, Casca has a pretty low opinion of the crowd and the whole spectacle.

Cassius and Brutus had been busy talking about how they were afraid of Caesar becoming the king, and the fact that this would not be a good thing. Casca will be joining these two when the conspiracy to take out Caesar is formed.

Hmmm, someone making rumblings about becoming king in what was up until then a representative republic, and other people discussing the danger of that. It’s too bad that none of Will’s works have any relevance to our modern- day world (in case you missed it, that was sarcasm).

Program note: We will be leaving early tomorrow for four days in Cally before taking off from there for New Zealand for three weeks. We won’t be back in CT for most of January, and consequently, it’s unlikely I’ll be posting again before the end of January. Just so you know.

They're going where?

Until when?!!?! 

Uh-oh.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

  

Come, come, do you think I do not know you by your excellent wit? Can virtue hide itself? Go to, mum, you are he: graces will appear, and there’s an end.

 

Ursula

Much Ado About Nothing   Act II, Scene vi, Line 117

 

This scene is a masked ball. Ursula, one of Hero’s waiting-women, is dancing with Antonio, Hero’s uncle. Ursula knows that the masked man she is dancing with is Antonio, but Antonio is trying to convince Ursula that it’s not him. To this protestation, Ursula gives us Today’s Line.

A line or two further up, she had told Antonio that she knew it was him by his hands,

Here’s his dry hand up and down: you are he, you are he.

Hands always give away age, don’t they?

He’s right; they do.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Ajax hath ta’en Aeneas: shall it be?

No, by the flame of yonder glorious heaven,

He shall not carry him; I’ll be ta’en too,

Or bring him off:--fate, hear me what I say!

I reck (care) not though I end my life to-day.

 

Troilus 

Troilus and Cressida    Act V, Scene vi, Line 24

 

Note that this is scene six. You might have noticed that when Will has battles in his plays, he tends to have a lot of scenes within those acts, as he switches back and forth between spots on the battlefield. Such is the case here. 

This is the final act of the play, taking place on the battlefield below the walls of Troy, and it has ten scenes. Every one of Will’s plays (as far as I know) is made up of five acts. Usually each act is made up of one to five scenes; with exceptions as I just noted.

I didn’t have anything exciting to say about Today’s Lines, so I thought I'd toss out a little tidbit about Will’s play constructions.

That's the best you could do, huh?

Yes, your highness, that's the best I could do. I'll try harder next time.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

I would I were thy bird.

 

Romeo

Romeo and Juliet    Act II, Scene i, Line 226

 

This is Romeo’s response to Juliet. I think it best if we look at the six lines of hers that he is responding to.

‘Tis almost morning; I would have thee gone,--

And yet no further than a wanton’s bird,

Who lets it hop a little from her hand,

Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves,

And with a silk thread plucks it back again,

So loving-jealous of his liberty.

Wanton, used as a noun, can be one given to self-indulgent flirtation or trifling, a lewd or lascivious person, a pampered person or animal, or a frolicsome child or animal (all per MW online). You decide what Will considers Juliet to be.

Gyves are fetters or shackles (again, per MW online).

So Romeo is saying that he wants to be the bird held by Juliet on a silk thread leash. There’s a lot to unpack there, between her six lines and his one.

But you know, like much of Will’s work, these seven lines need no unpacking. That is to say, they’re not going to get any better by me analyzing them for you. They are best left alone by me, and read by you, and experienced by you in whatever way it is that you will experience them.

You now know the meaning of the two words that might have given you trouble, so please read it again: first Juliet’s six lines, and then Romeo’s one line response.

And have your own experience with them.

‘Tis almost morning; I would have thee gone,--

And yet no further than a wanton’s bird,

Who lets it hop a little from her hand,

Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves,

And with a silk thread plucks it back again,

So loving-jealous of his liberty.

I would I were thy bird.

Beautiful.

 

Agreed: Beautiful.

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Look, what is best, that best I wish in thee:

This wish I have; then ten times happy me!

 

Sonnet  37

 

Yes, it’s sonnet time again! And Today’s Lines are the rhyming couplet that finishes this particular sonnet. Shall we take a look at the first twelve lines? Based on this ending, I’m going to assume that it’s fairly upbeat. Let’s hope it’s understandable as well.

 

As a decrepit father takes delight (okay, maybe it’s a little depressing; let’s not give up hope yet.)

To see his active child do deeds of youth (at the very least, easy to understand what he’s saying so far…)

So I, made lame by Fortune’s dearest spite (Fortune’s dearest spite?)

Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth (hmmmm…).

 

For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit (all good things),

Or any of these all, or all, or more (yes, yes…)

Entitled in their parts do crowned sit (getting a little less clear here)

I make my love engrafted to this store: (getting fuzzier)

 

 

So then I am not lame, poor, nor despised

Whilst that this shadow doth such substance give,

That I in thy abundance am sufficed,

And by a part of all thy glory live.

 

Look, what is best, that best I wish in thee:

This wish I have; then ten times happy me!

 

 

I think he’s saying is:

Q1 I’m happy just watching you, even though I don’t have you.

Q2 I’m happy with whatever good things you/I? have?

Q3 I’m happy living in the shadow of your glory?

Concl.  If you’re happy, I’m happy.

 

Well, if that’s a valid interpretation, then it’s not such an upbeat poem after all, is it?

Here’s the summary of this sonnet from the Katherine Duncan-Jones book.

Extending the notion (from the previous sonnets) that he partakes vicariously of the young man’s good parts, the poet finds consolation, perhaps delusory, for his own unlucky and inferior status in his young friend’s talents and good fortune.

Yeah, that’s pretty much what I said. And yeah, that’s not particularly upbeat, if you ask me. Oh well, what can you do?

 

 What can I do? I can sit here and be a lot happier than that guy, that’s what I can do.