Now, all the plagues that in the pendulous air

Hang fated o'er men’s faults light on thy daughters!

 

-Lear

King Lear                     Act III Scene iv, Line 67

Lear is transposing the ill feelings he has for his own daughters, and the troubles they have caused him, onto Edgar. The latter has just shown up, and Lear assumes that a man so wretched must have been driven to that state by miserable daughters.

         Death, traitor! Nothing could have subdued nature

        To such a lowness but his unkind daughters.—

Never mind that Edgar doesn’t have any daughters.

So, how about pendulous air? He's calling forth all the plagues, but it’s not enough to just say plagues. They are the plagues that in the pendulous air hang fated o’er men’s faults. I tell you, there’s a reason this guy is considered the greatest writer in the English language, and this is one small example of it. I’m sorry if you can’t see what I see in these lines. I wish you could.

 

 

Who shall ask it?

The tribunes cannot do’t for shame; the people

Deserve such pity of him as the wolf

Does of the shepherds: for his best friends, if they

Should say, ‘Be good to Rome,’ they charged him even

As those should do that had deserved his hate,

And therein show’d like enemies.

 

-Cominius

Coriolanus                             Act IV Scene vi, Line 115

There is certainly no more prescient play of Will, or anyone else for that matter, in respect to our current political times than Coriolanus. I’ve said this before and I’ll probably be saying it again.

This is late in the play, and at this point word has reached Rome that Coriolanus has joined forces with the Volscians and they are on their way to sack Rome. Meninius and Cominius, and advisor and a general, respectively, are two who tried to keep from having Coriolanus banished. Brutus and Sicinius are two politicians who whipped up the crowds to get Coriolanus banished. The four are here talking about ‘what now?’

Meninius has just said,

        We are all undone, unless

        The noble man have mercy.

Obviously, the noble man to whom he refers is Coriolanus. Today’s Totally Random lines are Cominius’s reply to Meninius. 'Who shall ask for his mercy?', he is saying. The tribunes Cominius refers to are the politicians. 

I am just flabbergasted every time I read this play at how accurately Will describes the useless politicians and the fickle, ignorant, and easily led crowds. I suppose this is not entirely apparent from today’s lines. However, I listened to the whole of scene six this morning, and I can tell you that Brutus and Sicicnius are the picture of useless politicians whipping up ignorant crowds and then dodging all responsibility when things go sour. You would think Will was writing this about our twenty-first century world. 

Flabbergasted.

Today's twenty-first century world, outside my window. 

Flabbergasted.

 

Go seek the traitor Gloster,

Pinion him like a thief, bring him before us.

 

-Duke of Cornwall

King Lear                             Act III Scene vii, Line 24

Pinion: To disable or restrain by binding the arms. That’s from MW online. You could kind of tell what it meant by the context, but I thought it would be good to give a proper definition. It’s not a word that’s in my vocabulary.

Alrightee then; I’ve just listened to the scene, and I must say that it’s really not the best thing to be listening to first thing Sunday morning. Yes, they do pinion Gloster like a thief, and then they gouge his eyes out. I don’t even like listening to it, let alone seeing it.

I think it's fair to say that we often take our eyes for granted. Without them we'd not be able to enjoy the simple pleasure of a backyard sunset.

 

Please your highness, note

His dangerous conception in this point.

 

-Cardinal Wolsey

King Henry the Eighth           Act I Scene ii, Line 140

This is Wolsey talking to the king. Note: Wolsey is a complete weasel. They are discussing the Duke of Buckingham who is not present. Wolsey is convincing the king that Buckingham is a traitor. Again, Wolsey is a weasel, so I don’t know whether there’s any merit to the claims being made against Buckingham, but regardless, the Duke is doomed.

As I said, Wolsey is made out to be a real weasel in this play, but to be clear, I’m not sure what the true nature of his weaselhood was. We have to remember that Will was a dramatist so that all of his history plays, whilst certainly based on history, have a certain element of drama added to them. Hence, they make for good entertainment, which is what they were written for.

And where is our lovely lady standing today? Well that's Buckingham Palace, of course. I'm guessing that it's not named after the Duke of Buckingham in today's Totally Random line, but it shares his name nonetheless.

I like the big royal seals on the gate. Very impressive.

 

I’ll tell him yet of Angelo’s request,

And fit his mind to death, for his souls rest.

 

-Isabella

Measure For Measure            Act II Scene iv, Line 186

What do we have here? That’s right, it’s a rhyming couplet. And what does that mean? Right again, it’s the last two lines of the scene. We should go through, sometime, and see just how many of Will’s scenes end with a rhyming couplet. Surely it can’t be all of them. But that’s a task for another day.

I had the opportunity this morning to listen to the scene, and that’s always a fun thing to do. When you’re just listening, and not watching, a scene it gives you the opportunity to follow the written text at the same time; one of the better ways to fully appreciate Will’s words. 

So, what of the words. This is the scene where Angelo tells Isabella that he will spare her brother Claudio’s life (Isabella’s brother is under arrest and sentenced to die for his crime: Angelo is the guy in charge) if she consents to have sex with him, Angelo. Isabella has decided that she’s going to tell Claudio what Angelo requested and that Claudio’s going to have to prepare to die.

This reminds me of a joke. These two fellows are out hiking and one gets bit in the butt by a rattlesnake. He starts to get faint, so the other guy gets on his cell phone and dials 911. They put a doctor on the line, and he tells the guy ‘you’re going to have to pull his pants down, make a small slice in his butt, and then suck out the blood and spit it out before the venom spreads. Otherwise it could be fatal.’ The fellow who’s been bit looks at him and says ‘what’d he say, what’d he say!’ The other guy looks back at him, ‘He says you’re gonna die.’

I guess we all have certain things we’re not gonna do, no matter what.

No pic today. Hey, I gave you a joke, isn't that enough?

 

You are amazed, my liege, at her exclaim:

Go in, and cheer the town: we’ll forth and fight;

Do deeds worth praise, and tell you them at night.

 

-Hector

Troilus and Cressida              Act V Scene iii, Line 91

Okay, here’s the deal. Hector is getting ready to go out and do battle with the Greeks. Everyone – his wife, his sister, his father, his mother – is trying to talk him out of it. They’ve all had bad dreams or premonitions that tell them Hector is going to die if he goes. Will he listen to them? Of course not: stubborn fool. Are they all justified in their pleas? Of course they are. Achilles is going to kill Hector and then famously drag his body around behind his chariot.

So, what’s the moral of the story? I’m not sure. Listen to your family’s advice? Don’t go fighting guys like Achilles? Don’t be stubborn and proud? I guess you can take your pick.

 

I don't have a pic of my wife and sister and mother and father all together. So this is a pic of the family I spend the most time with now: my son, my wife (aka Rafhiki) and...wait a minute, that guy's not part of my family. That's King, our guide. Well, anyway, I always listen to my family's advice. I may not always follow it, but I listen and consider. And what about King? I listened to him and did everything he told me. He was in charge, and he had the gun.

 

MESSALA

Believe it not so.

CASSIUS

I but believe it partly;

For I am fresh of spirit, and resolved

To meet all perils very constantly.

 

-Messala and Cassius

Julius Caesar                  Act V Scene i, Line 90

The army of Brutus and Cassius is about to face off against the army of Octavius Caesar and Marc Antony. In the lines previous to today’s Totally Random lines Cassius talks of seeing eagles the day previous but

        This morning are they fled away and gone;

And in their steads do ravens, crows, and kites,

Fly o’er our heads, and downward look on us,

As we were sickly prey: their shadows seem

A canopy most fatal, under which

Our army lies, ready to give up the ghost.

In today’s lines Messala is saying not to believe this omen, and based on Cassius’s response it sounds like maybe he won’t. So that’s good. You can’t go letting a bunch of stupid birds determine your future for you. You’ve got to make your own way. Right? Atta boy, Cassius.

Though, speaking of birds – spoiler alert –, the omen is actually correct: Cassius’s goose is cooked (pun intended). This is a Shakespearean tragedy after all. You should have known it. 

This colorful little guy is a malachite kingfisher. What do you suppose Cassius would have done if he saw these guys circling? Perhaps he would've said, "What the heck are those malachite kingfishers doing here. We're not in southern Africa."