Commend
these waters to those baby eyes
That
never saw the giant world enraged;
-Louis
King John Act
V, scene ii Line 56-57
Don’t cry. Or perhaps, don’t be a cry baby. That’s the
shortened version of these two lines. Of course, would our favourite playwright
ever say something so direct (well, maybe) and miss an opportunity to use words
in such a way as to frame and enlighten and entertain and enrich? Probably not.
What then is Will trying to tell us with this elongated version of ‘don’t cry?’
Well admittedly, we would need to have some context in order to know that. This
is the second time we’ve hit King John in a week and interestingly enough, it’s
the same character speaking that we had five days ago. I’ll give you just a
little context here to see if that helps you draw some conclusions.
Louis, the son of the King of France, has enlisted several
British noblemen to betray the British crown and come to fight for him against
King John. One of these guys, the Earl of Salisbury, has just finished talking
about what a sad day it is that he is going to be fighting against his own
country; so sad that it’s making him cry. We know (if we’ve read/seen the play
or if we’ve read some good notes) that Louis is a conniving bastard and the he
plans to kill all the British noblemen who are helping him once he defeats King
John, but that for now he needs these guys on his side. And this ‘don’t cry’
line is in the middle of a pep talk telling them all how they’ll all share in
the prosperity once they’ve won the fight (which of course, they won’t).
Now, you tell me; what are the two lines telling you that
you wouldn’t get out of a simple ‘don’t cry’. Is he taking a ‘don’t be a cry
baby’ tone? Or is it something else? Go back and read the whole response of
Louis. It’s less than thirty lines and with the background I just gave you,
pretty easy to understand. Maybe even read Salisbury’s talk that Louis is
responding to. That one is just over thirty lines. There, about sixty lines of
Shakespeare. Do you think you can do it? Here’s the link
The first seven lines is Louis (in this online text it’s
Lewis, in my hardcopy book it’s Louis) talking to the Brits about the pact they
are making with him to go against John. Then it gets right into Salisbury’s
regrets and Louis’s response to that. Louis spends a lot of time talking about the tears and praising Salisbury. He doesn't seem to be calling him a cry baby. He is honoring him (or maybe buttering him up); referring to the tears as ‘honourable dew,/ that silvery doth progress thy cheeks:’ It’s really beautiful imagery. An ‘effusion of such manly drops’. Almost hyperbole? Not sure. Spend some time with it and see what you
come up with. Don't expect me to do all the work!
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