…face to
face
And
frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear
Th’accuser
and the accused freely speak:--
King Richard
King Richard The Second Act
I, scene i Line 16
Richard’s not talking about a group here, he’s referring to himself
as ourelves in the plural. Oh sure, there’s other people there, but Richard is
just talking about himself when he refers to ourselves. It’s that royal ‘we’
thing. I guess a reference to themselves as the state and as such, not just
themselves, but representing all.
Anyway, this is the very beginning of the play, the sixteenth
line of the first act. Bolingbroke (the future Henry IV) and Thomas Mowbray are
being brought before Richard. Each of them’s going to be accusing the other of
some sort of treason or other and in the end Richard will exile them both. But
for now he’s just talking about having them face each other, ‘face to face and
frowning brow to brow’. That gives a pretty good mental picture, doesn’t it?
There not just going to be in the same place looking at each other, it sounds like
they’re going to be on top of each other. Brow to brow. Will their faces be
touching each other? It sort of sounds like it, doesn’t it? I can’t remember the
last time I was frowning brow to brow with someone. Can you?
We got face to face, and very nearly brow to brow with these critters. But I couldn't quite tell if they were frowning or not. Can you?
No comments:
Post a Comment