Mojo, The Bard, & Me

May be he will not touch young Arthur’s life,

But hold himself safe in prisonment.

-Louis 

King John            Act III, scene iv  Line 160

Another of the history plays and, if I don’t mind saying so, it looks like my random system is doing a pretty good job so far as we have sampled 11 different plays/poems in as many days. So kudos to me (might as well, no one else is gonna give them). Anyway, of the 65 or so British Monarchs, Shakespeare covered eight of them in his plays (Of course 19 of the 65 lived after Shakespeare so it would have been fairly difficult for him to cover them). John is the earliest one he covered. Remember, even though he covered other historical figures (Julius Caesar, etc) only the plays about the British monarchs are considered Shakespeare’s histories. The rest fall under his tragedies. I’m not sure what the rationale there is.

So John, is that guy who’s pretty much always portrayed as the bad guy. He’s the King who’s trying to get Kevin Costner in Robin Hood before Sean Connery (King Richard the Lionhearted) comes back from the crusades in the end. He’s also the guy who’s such a bad ruler that the English people come up with the Magna Carta and force him to accept that. You all know what the Magna Carta is, right? That’s the document that gave power to the people and took it away from the King. Pretty important document that became 800 years old last year. But let’s get to today’s Totally Random Daily Shakespeare.

This is Louis, the son of the French King, talking to Cardinal Pandulph. They are discussing John’s nephew Arthur who is the rightful heir to the British throne and whether or not his Uncle John (clearly not the Uncle John with the band that Jerry sang about) is going to kill him. Louis thinks maybe he won’t. Actually, the scene following this one is pretty touching, Act IV, Scene i. In that scene Hubert De Burgh has Arthur in the dungeon and he’s been charged with burning the lad’s eye’s out, and there’s a really good back and forth between Hubert and Arthur. In the end Arthur makes out a lot better than Gloucester in King Lear (remember ‘Out vile jelly!’ when he’s getting his eyes gouged out? Now that is some serious Shakespeare!). Louis is at least half right in that Hubert decides to spare Arthur’s life and try to help him. Unfortunately the kid dies later trying to escape; remember history, not comedy.

So it’s a pretty easy to understand line for once. And with a little context it makes perfect sense. It’s not necessarily a line you’re going to get any current use out of. Not like ‘Well met!’ or ‘Pink for flower’, but then this is Totally Random Daily Shakespeare, not Perfect Shakespeare Lines for Daily Use. I’m not sure where that latter Blog is, but it’s probably pretty boring.