Mojo, The Bard, & Me

You of my household, leave this peevish broil,

And set this unaccustom’d fight aside.

 

-Duke of Gloucester

Setting – The Parliament House

Present – King Henry, Exeter, Gloucester, Warwick, Somerset, Suffolk, Bishop of Winchester, Richard Plantagenet, Mayor, Serving Men, others
 
King Henry The Sixth Part I          Act III, scene i    Line 92

And lets get started with the next hundred posts. First off, can’t seem to shake the Henry’s; day eight without a break from them. Let’s just get at it then.

I think we’ll make this a rather short one. This is more of that War of the Roses thing. The different factions of the royal families not getting along. At this point the squabble has gone beyond the royals and out to the common folk. And the Duke of Gloucester is telling his followers to cut it out. But of course this is Act III of Henry The Sixth Part I. We still have Henry The Sixth Parts II and III, not to mention Richard III to go. So this squabbling’s not going to be stopping for quite some time yet.

Peevish broil! That’s what he wants them to stop. Now that’s an interesting couple of words. We don’t much use either of those words much anymore. Well, we use broil, but it’s a cooking term and wouldn't be used as a word for fighting. And peevish? The online MW site says it’s ‘easily irritated, especially by unimportant things.’ It’s a perfectly acceptable word. I don’t think I’d want to be called peevish. It sounds like another word for thin skinned. But I think I’ll keep this one in my vocabulary arsenal. Peevish. I might find a use for it. It’s one of those words that you can use on someone without them knowing exactly what you’re saying. But with this one I think they’d be pretty sure you’re not giving them a compliment. So use it carefully!

And one last thing, pretty much impeccable iambic pentameter today, eh?

Here’s a red and a white rose. According to the story, one day the principals of the different factions that fought the War of the Roses were in the palace garden and the leaders each picked a different colored rose and then had everyone there pick a rose, red or white, to show which side they were on. But it didn’t become known as the War of the Roses until much later. Why? Because the palace garden scene was fiction. Good fiction, but fiction none the less.  Did I already cover all of this in an earlier post? Apologies if I did.