Mojo, The Bard, & Me

Well then, Colevile is your name, a knight is

your degree, and your place the dale:

-Falstaff

King Henry the Fourth Part II      Act IV, scene iii  Line 6

So we have managed to randomly progress (or is it digress? Or congress?) over the past three days from Henry VI to Henry V to Henry IV. The only way to improve on this is to come up with Richard II tomorrow (No, Will did not write a play on Henry III, and it was Richard II who was the immediate predecessor to Henry IV). We’ll see.

Anyway. Checking my cheat sheet I see that we visited Henry IV Part I, but not Part II (two separate plays, one Henry), and that on that visit we also heard from Sir John Falstaff. Very interesting (at least I think it is, you can disagree).

So as I mentioned in that post, this Falstaff fellow is a pretty famous character of Will’s. And he’s mostly comic relief. As well (and I’m not actually sure about this, I’ll have to do some research) I believe that Falstaff is a purely fictional character in a pretty much historically accurate play. Falstaff is the drinking buddy of Hal, the son of Henry IV. And Hal becomes Henry V in, well, Henry V. And in Henry V we see the king who leads the English to victory in France. Henry V is pretty famous in English history. The battle of Agincourt where Henry V leads them to victory is sort of like Washington crossing the Delaware for the Brits. However in Henry IV (which is where we’re at today) Henry V is still Prince Hal, and Falstaff is Falstaff. Much of Falstaff’s time in this play is spent in the Boar’s Head Tavern, but in this scene he’s actually out in the forest, near a battle that’s going on (I think he’s hiding from the battle) and he’s just met up with Coleville who is one of the rebels they’ve been facing.

But what about the line, Pete? What about that line? Okay, I’m getting to that. This is the very beginning of the scene. Falstaff meets Colevile in the forest and asks his name, rank, and where he’s from. Colevile answers ‘I am a knight, sir; and my name is Colevile of the dale.’ To which Falstaff replies with today’s Totally Random line. So it’s not a terribly enlightening line. He simply repeated what Colevile just said. Which if he’d done that today there’s a good chance you’d reply ‘Is there an echo in here?’

Okay, so Falstaff is comic relief. That being said, is this line funny? All he did was pretty much repeat what the guy had just said to him. Why is that funny? Well here’s the thing; on paper it’s not. With the right actor delivering the lines properly it might be hilarious. That’s just the way it is. Delivery is everything. Look at Kramer in Seinfeld. He didn’t really have very many funny lines. His humor is his physical movements and delivery. It’s true of almost any comic performer. Some rely more on the words, others less. I’ve never seen any of the Henry plays performed. I’ve listened to some, but not this one. So I don’t know if this line is funny. And I don’t know exactly what Falstaff would do to make his lines funny. I know it could be. I know that because almost any line can be made funny. If you get a chance, check out Billy Crystal and Robin Williams in Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet. Classic examples.