His
insolence is more intolerable
Than all
the princes in the land beside:
-Duke of Somerset
King Henry VI Part II Act
I, scene i Line 176
A lot of King Henrys in the past week, eh? Other than
Macbeth’s phony toast to Banquo a few days ago it’s been all Henrys. So I’ve gotta
talk about the Henry’s for a minute. Please try to bear with me; this might get
a little tedious (right now you’re saying “going to get?”)
So Will covered eight British monarchs in his history plays,
and five of them were successive (historically successive, not successive in
order of the plays being written); Edward III, Richard II, and Henrys IV, V,
and VI. And we can take Edward III off this list since it’s not in The First
Folio and not in my compilation, so we won’t be covering it. Edward III is on
some lists but not universally accepted as being written by Will. Pretty
confusing, isn’t it? And the other three (not part of the successive ones) he did, King John, Richard III, and
Henry VIII, were all one-offs. But of this successive group Will
started with Henry VI, the last one, and he needed three separate plays to get
through this one Henry. Also, these three Henry VI plays are arguably the first
plays that Will wrote. I say arguably because we don’t really know for sure and
it depends on whose list you look at. In any event, they were most assuredly
written quite early in his career. But the main point here (if you’re still
with me) is that Richard II through Henry VI Part III, a total of seven plays,
is one long successive story. Now I’ve read Richard II through Henry V (though
not recently), and I’ve even seen some of Richard II performed, but I’ve not
read nor seen any of Henry VI. Anyway, since it’s all one long story, and
basically historically accurate, it’s easier to follow if you’ve read/seen all seven
of these plays, or alternatively you know some of the details of that seventy
year period, roughly 1400 to 1470, give or take. Unfortunately I can’t lay
claim to either of those and so I keep going back to play summaries and/or
historical references. But since these seven plays take up almost 16% of the
pages that I’m randomly sampling, you’d think that it might be in my best
interest to cover them. Well, maybes I will. Eventually, not today.
So, if you’re still awake, today’s Totally Random Daily
Shakespeare (I’ve been thinking of using the acronym TRDS, but that can come
out sounding like turds, so maybe not) is His insolence is more intolerable than all
the princes in the land beside. It doesn’t say much for all the princes
in the land, does it? On the other hand, we don’t really need to go into much
context if we don’t want to. And considering I just bored you to tears with the
previous paragraph, I think I’ll stay away from context today. And besides,
this context gets into the whole politics and who’s who of the play/period,
which I’ve just confessed I don’t know enough about. But on a completely
non-contextual note, this can still be a good line and perfect for a young
male. I can see using it in reference to a particular thirteen year old I know
who can certainly, at times, be insolent. And by using it then I guess I would
be calling him a prince and not in a complimentary fashion. So it’s a good line
today. Good, and usable. Totally Random Daily Shakespeare strikes again.
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