Mojo, The Bard, & Me

I had rather be a country servant-maid

Than a great queen, with this condition,---

-Queen Elizabeth

King Richard the Third   Act I, scene iii     Line 107

For starters, and to be clear, this is not Queen Elizabeth I (who was in power in Shakespeare’s time) and it is certainly not Queen Elizabeth II (who is currently reigning and does not figure into any of Will’s works). This Queen Elizabeth is the wife of Edward IV. I believe that makes her the sister-in-law of Richard III. But again, I’m only up to Henry IV in my Shakespeare’s Kings book, and I don’t have a lot of familiarity with Will’s Richard III.

But what of the line? Without having to do much work I can tell you that the ‘condition’ the queen refers to is the ‘blunt upbraidings’ and ‘bitter scoffs’ of the Duke of Gloster. Apparently she’s not too happy with the way the Duke is talking to her. And she is, after all, a queen. Or at least she’s married to the king. There appears to be some difference between being a queen in your own right (like Queens Elizabeth I and II) and being a queen by virtue of being married to the king (note that this Queen Elizabeth doesn’t rate a number). Either way, she doesn’t feel that she’s got to put up with any lip from the duke.

So about this number thing; Not too many of us get a number. My brother, my father, and my grandfather are all Williams. But my dad and my grandfather had different middle names, so no junior there, and then my dad gave my brother the same middle name so that Billy became Bill jr, and not Bill the third. But now Bill jr.’s son is the fourth William, but with a new and different middle name. So is my nephew William IV??? Heck if I know. All I know is I’m Peter. Not Peter I or anything. Just Peter. And I guess I’d rather be a country servant that put up with the duke’s crap as well. I really don’t like putting up with anyone’s crap if I can help it. Who does?

But moving on from this number stuff, just noticed that the page I am on in my compilation today is 104, and page 105 has the Totally Random line for blog post #5, way back a month and a half ago. Remember, that line about ‘the foulest deed to slay that babe’, that babe that we never quite figured out who it was? Well apparently that babe was 17 year old Edward of Westminster, son of Henry VI. Apparently Richard III is being held responsible for killing this kid (hardly a babe). It gets all the more confusing because Will manages to conflate a lot of the historical facts in the process of his history plays. If I ever get to the end of Shakespeare’s Kings I’m pretty sure I'll have it all figured out, but right now I'm still more than a bit confused. But I’ll certainly keep you posted.