#that and 'like quills upon the fretful porpentine'

[yeah-thats-probably-it]

say what you like about having your vocabulary ruined by bertie wooster but at least whenever I'm indecisive from now on I'll always be able to say that I'm letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would' and make everyone think I'm cultured

[lilapplesheadcannons]

"Lan Qiren hates demonic cultivators" factoid actualy just statistical error. On average Lan Qiren spares zero thoughts on local demonic cultivators. His nephew-in-law, who lives right across a thin wall & makes enough noise at night to cause his knotted and combined locks to part, and each particular hair to stand on end like quills upon the fretful porpentine is an outlier adn should not have been counted

[tnbc-thoughtsandheadcanons]

Conversations with Jack Skellington

From Disney Dreamlight Valley

"How's the Halloween business going?"

JS: I've been ruminating on our traditional Halloween themes...scary skeletons, jack o' lanterns, tell me -- do you have a favorite?

"Skeletons."

JS: How delightful! Or are you flattering me? You don't need to do that, you know. But I do love a good bone rattle. And no one can grin like a skeleton can.

"What are you up to?"

JS: I am practicing my Shakespeare. Would you like to hear a bit?

'Sure!"

JS: 'I recite chilling lines from various plays. Ahem -- let me begin... 'I could a tale unfold whose lightest word, Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres Thy knotted and combined locks to part, And each particular hair to stand an end, Like quills upon the fretful porpentine!"

"Keep going!"

JS: 'Double, double toil and trouble, Fire burn and cauldron bubble, Fillet of a fenny snake, In the cauldron boil and bake. Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog, Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting, Lizard leg and owlet's wing!"

"More!"

JS: 'Deep night, dark night, and the silent of the night, the time when screech-owls cry and ban-dogs howl, and spirits walk and ghosts break up their graves!"

"I love it"

JS: And now I shall customize one for our dear Valley... 'Alas, poor Mickey! I knew him: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar? Alas! Alas!

'That was wonderful!"

JS: Thank you! You were a lovely audience.

JS: Would you like to join me in some screaming practice?

"Let's do it."

JS: Marvelous! Now we'll start easy. A basic yelp.

"Yip!"

JS: Close! But that's a yip, not a yelp. Try another scream, but longer this time.

"AhhhhHHHHHH"

JS: Oh, I like the ululation - a terrifying touch! Now higher! A proper curdling scream!

JS: That sent shivers down my spine - exquisitely done!

JS: Have you ever felt stuck wearily in the same routine? Where everything seems dull and repetitive? What do you do?

"I change things up!"

JS: Of course! Sometimes you need something new, don't you? To give you novel ideas and a fresh perspective! Though.. Ah... it is good to be prudent about what new things you take on.

"You seem preoccupied."

JS: Friend, I'm sure you've heard that I once tried my hand at running Christmas. Alas, it was quite the disaster. I made so many mistakes, but I'm wondering if there was one fundamental flaw...A central confusion. A core to all the calamity.

"Maybe you let your excitement run away from you."

JS: I certainly did. Enthusiasm is quite powerful. And usually it's good! It animates my frights! Keeps me inspired. But it can sometimes... have a life of its own.

"Does that mean you've learned your lesson?"

JS: Of course. Hmm... but say I hadn't learned my lesson. Would that SCARE you?

"Yes!"

JS: Well then, perhaps...I've learned nothing at all. Ha-ha-ha!

"What are you up to, Jack?"

JS: I've been considering recruiting new fright-makers for Halloween. Do any of our Valley friends strike you as particularly scary?

"Definitely Ursula."

JS: A witch? That's perfect! And she had such a majestic presence. Oh... she'll likely want something in exchange for working with us.

"True, I guess you'd want someone who's in it for the joy of scaring people."

JS: Exactly!

"What's going on?"

JS: My search for new Halloween fright-makers continues! Do you have any suggestions for me?"

"Scar would be great."

"Penny for thoughts, Jack?"

JS: Now that has real potential to be terrifying! If only he weren't so cruel about it... Halloween is about scaring people, not hurting their feelings!

JS: I need your help thinking up some new ideas for Halloween. You know, fresh insights. Topical terrors. Contemporary creepiness.

"Vampires."

JS: You're right! Vampires have been experiencing a sort of renaissance. Which is charming, as many of them were around for the renaissance! But I do have colleagues back in Halloween Town who are vampires. SO I feel that territory is well-covered.

[teachingmycattoread]

Things We’ve Yelled About This Episode #3.6

Hamlet, William Shakespeare

The Silmarillion, J. R. R. Tolkien

Hamlet (1996) - Kenneth Branagh

Kenneth Branagh (imdb)

Hamlet (2009) - David Tennant

David Tennant (imdb)

Hamlet (2016) - RSC, Paapa Essiedu

Paapa Essiedu (imdb)

Othello, William Shakespeare

The Lion King (1994)

Withnail and I (1987)

Rosencrantz and Guilderstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard

Rosencrantz and Guilderstern Are Dead (1990)

Gary Oldman (imdb)

Lewis (2006-2015)

Hamlet (2018) - Andrew Scott (youtube)

Andrew Scott (imdb)

Minecraft

Sparknotes

The Trolley Problem (wiki)

Much Ado About Nothing, William Shakespeare

Much Ado About Nothing (2011) -  David Tennant and Catherine Tate

Catherine Tate (imdb)

Illyria (wiki)

Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare

Kronborg castle (wiki)

The Minack Theatre (website)

Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir

Gesta Danorum, Saxo Grammaticus (wiki)

The Castle of Otranto, Horace Walpole

Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand

Peredur (wiki)

Richard III (wiki)

The Princes in the Tower (wiki)

This tumblr post about confession

To Be Or Not To Be, Ryan North

O, that this too too solid flesh would melt Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! Hamlet, Act I Scene 2

Parks and Rec (2009-2015)

Leonardo Dicaprio (imdb)

But that I am forbid

To tell the secrets of my prison-house,

I could a tale unfold whose lightest word

Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,

Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,

Thy knotted and combined locks to part

And each particular hair to stand on end,

Like quills upon the fretful porpentine - Hamlet, Act I Scene 5

I have of late, but

wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth - Hamlet, Act II Scene 2

This post

To thine own self be true - Hamlet, Act I Scene 3

Malvolio - Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare

Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them. - Twelfth Night, Act II Scene 5

The difference between comedy and tragedy is listening to the women - this post

King Lear, William Shakespeare

The Muppets

Statler and Waldorf

Gonzo and Rizzo

Ian McKellen (imdb)

Patrick Stewart (imdb)

Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince:

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest! - Hamlet, Act V Scene 2

House of Finwe (wiki)

Metaverse

The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet, Becky Chambers

Would that be fucked up or what? (meme)

Manic pixie dream girl (trope)

Queer Lit, Manchester (website)

The Mandalorian (2019 -)

The Cat Rating

5/10

What Else Are We Reading?

The Silmarillion, J. R. R. Tolkien

Snowcrash, (1992)

Notes From A Crocodile,

Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir

Nona the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir

What Abigail Did Last Summer, Ben Aaronvitch

The Last of Us (2023 -)

Next Time On Teaching My Cat To Read

The Raven Tower, Ann Leckie

[none-ofthisnonsense]

creepy (I, v)

I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, Thy knotted and combined locks to part And each particular hair to stand on end, Like quills upon the fretful porpentine

[mywingsareonwheels]

Another day of just wanting Morse and Fred Thursday to hug. They clearly both need and want it, if they could just trust each other and themselves enough, Morse especially.

[doctorcurdlejr]

Jughead: Where wilt thou lead me? Speak. I'll go no further.

Ghost: Mark me.

Jughead: I will.

Ghost: My hour is almost come When I to sulfurous and tormenting flames Must render up myself.

Jughead: Alas, poor ghost!

Ghost: Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing To what I shall unfold.

Jughead: Speak; I am bound to hear.

Ghost: So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.

Jughead: What?

Ghost: I am thy second cousin twice-removed, Big Bubbagum's spirit, Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night, And for the day confined to fast in fires, Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid To tell the secrets of my prison-house, I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, Thy knotted and combined locks to part And each particular hair to stand on end, Like quills upon the fretful porpentine: But this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list! If thou didst ever thy dear second cousin twice-removed, Big Bubbagum love--

Archie: Jughead! Dude, you're having a prophetic vision about mothmen victims again. Maybe you should go to the school nurse

[vlkphoto]

Like quills upon the fretful porpentine

Tree on the verge of recovery from winter. La Tenuta dei Ciclamini, AU.

[ithinkwehitametaphor]

I like how in Joy in the Morning Bertie is continuously made to appear a bit stupid because he doesn’t realize porpentine is the now obsolete term Shakespeare used instead of the modern porcupine. (p. 185 ff.) (”I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, Thy knotted and combined locks to part And each particular hair to stand on end, Like quills upon the fretful porpentine ” Hamlet) At the same time, though, Bertie is the one who brings the quote from Hamlet up in the first place, even if, as usual, somewhat incompletely. He also clearly remembers the plot of Macbeth when he says “And I must say it did strike me as a passing thought that the sort of setting a job like this really needed was a blasted heath at midnight, with a cold wind whistling in the bushes and three witches doing their stuff at the cauldron.” (p.195) Later Bertram also quotes from The Merchant of Venice referring to a dog’s character as “fit for treason, stratagems and spoils.” (p. 207) Bertie is not stupid. Just a very decent human being. A good egg. With simple tastes. I don’t blame him.

PS: Yes, of course Jeeves can up him one by explaining a quote from Julius Caesar... (p.194)

[ophthalmotropy]

Shostakovich's Symphony No. 11 literally makes me shiver, and I don't just throw around that adverb if I don't mean it.

I can talk about the hauntingly bleak beauty of the first and third movements, or the apparent triumph we can hear in the fourth movement, but the second movement is what actually makes each particular hair to stand an end, like quills upon the fretful porpentine—and I'm being very literal here too. It's terrifying, and it's powerful, and it shakes me to the core.

[whatareyoureallyafraidof]

Shakespeare Sunday

“I am thy father's spirit, Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night, And for the day confined to fast in fires, Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid To tell the secrets of my prison-house, I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, Thy knotted and combined locks to part And each particular hair to stand on end, Like quills upon the fretful porpentine: But this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood.” - William Shakespeare, Hamlet

[whileiamdying]

Enter GHOST and HAMLET

HAMLET

Where wilt thou lead me? speak; I'll go no further.

Ghost

Mark me.

HAMLET

I will.

Ghost

My hour is almost come, When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames Must render up myself.

HAMLET

Alas, poor ghost!

Ghost

Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing To what I shall unfold.

HAMLET

Speak; I am bound to hear.

Ghost

So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.

HAMLET

What?

Ghost

I am thy father's spirit, Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night, And for the day confined to fast in fires, Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid To tell the secrets of my prison-house, I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, Thy knotted and combined locks to part And each particular hair to stand on end, Like quills upon the fretful porpentine: But this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list! If thou didst ever thy dear father love--

HAMLET

O God!

Ghost

Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.

HAMLET

Murder!

Ghost

Murder most foul, as in the best it is; But this most foul, strange and unnatural.

HAMLET

Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift As meditation or the thoughts of love, May sweep to my revenge.

Ghost

I find thee apt; And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf, Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear: 'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard, A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forged process of my death Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth, The serpent that did sting thy father's life Now wears his crown.

HAMLET

O my prophetic soul! My uncle!

Ghost

Exit

HAMLET

Writing

MARCELLUS

HORATIO

[Within] My lord, my lord,--

MARCELLUS

[Within] Lord Hamlet,--

HORATIO

[Within] Heaven secure him!

HAMLET

So be it!

HORATIO

[Within] Hillo, ho, ho, my lord!

HAMLET

Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS

MARCELLUS

How is't, my noble lord?

HORATIO

What news, my lord?

HAMLET

O, wonderful!

HORATIO

Good my lord, tell it.

HAMLET

No; you'll reveal it.

HORATIO

Not I, my lord, by heaven.

MARCELLUS

Nor I, my lord.

HAMLET

How say you, then; would heart of man once think it? But you'll be secret?

HORATIO

MARCELLUS

Ay, by heaven, my lord.

HAMLET

There's ne'er a villain dwelling in all Denmark But he's an arrant knave.

HORATIO

There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave To tell us this.

HAMLET

Why, right; you are i' the right; And so, without more circumstance at all, I hold it fit that we shake hands and part: You, as your business and desire shall point you; For every man has business and desire, Such as it is; and for mine own poor part, Look you, I'll go pray.

HORATIO

These are but wild and whirling words, my lord.

HAMLET

I'm sorry they offend you, heartily; Yes, 'faith heartily.

HORATIO

There's no offence, my lord.

HAMLET

Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio, And much offence too. Touching this vision here, It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you: For your desire to know what is between us, O'ermaster 't as you may. And now, good friends, As you are friends, scholars and soldiers, Give me one poor request.

HORATIO

What is't, my lord? we will.

HAMLET

Never make known what you have seen to-night.

HORATIO

MARCELLUS

My lord, we will not.

HAMLET

Nay, but swear't.

HORATIO

In faith, My lord, not I.

MARCELLUS

Nor I, my lord, in faith.

HAMLET

Upon my sword.

MARCELLUS

We have sworn, my lord, already.

HAMLET

Indeed, upon my sword, indeed.

Ghost

[Beneath] Swear.

HAMLET

Ah, ha, boy! say'st thou so? art thou there, truepenny? Come on--you hear this fellow in the cellarage-- Consent to swear.

HORATIO

Propose the oath, my lord.

HAMLET

Never to speak of this that you have seen, Swear by my sword.

Ghost

[Beneath] Swear.

HAMLET

Hic et ubique? then we'll shift our ground. Come hither, gentlemen, And lay your hands again upon my sword: Never to speak of this that you have heard, Swear by my sword.

Ghost

[Beneath] Swear.

HAMLET

Well said, old mole! canst work i' the earth so fast? A worthy pioner! Once more remove, good friends.

HORATIO

O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!

HAMLET

And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. But come; Here, as before, never, so help you mercy, How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself, As I perchance hereafter shall think meet To put an antic disposition on, That you, at such times seeing me, never shall, With arms encumber'd thus, or this headshake, Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase, As 'Well, well, we know,' or 'We could, an if we would,' Or 'If we list to speak,' or 'There be, an if they might,' Or such ambiguous giving out, to note That you know aught of me: this not to do, So grace and mercy at your most need help you, Swear.

Ghost

[Beneath] Swear.

HAMLET

They swear

Exeunt

[quote-homines]

"I'm sorely beset, Jeeves. Do you recall telling me once about someone who told somebody he could tell him something which would make him think a bit? Knitted socks and porcupines entered into it, I remember." "I think you may be referring to the ghost of the father of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, sir. Addressing his son, he said 'I could a tale unfold whose lightest word would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, thy knotted and combined locks to part and each particular hair to stand on end like quills upon the fretful porpentine." "That's right. Locks, of course, not socks. Odd that he should have said porpentine when he meant porcupine. Slip of the tongue, no doubt, as so often happens with ghosts. Well, he had nothing on me, Jeeves. It's a tale of that precise nature that I am about to unfold. Are you listening?"

Jeeves in the Offing, P. G. Wodehouse