Mojo, The Bard, & Me

‘Tis positive ‘gainst all exceptions, lords,

That our superfluous lackeys and our peasants,--

Who in unnecessary action swarm

About our squares of battle,-- were enow

To purge this field of such a hilding foe.

The Constable of France              

 

King Henry The Fifth                     Act IV, scene ii  Line 28

Okay, first off; 'enow' means enough, and 'hilding' means good for nothing, worthless. So knowing that you can see that this is a pretty interesting couple of lines. This is the Frenchies looking down on the battlefield of the battle that is about to take place. They are commenting on what a sorry bunch the English are and how the French are going to so easily kick the English butts. Now of course this is the battle of Agincourt, a pretty famous battle. And in that battle the French are the ones who get their butts kicked. And not just a little. They get spanked very severely. This Agincourt thing is to the Brits what Bunker Hill, or Iwo Jima or one of those deals is to us; very famous. Even though it happened over 500 years ago.

So the Constable of France is saying that the French lackeys and peasants would be enough to beat the Brits. Actually, not just any old lackey or peasant, but the superfluous ones. Now, did any Frenchman in the lead up to Agincourt actually say anything like this? Well we don’t really know the answer to that. But we do know that Will loved to write drama and the he was marvelously gifted at it. And because of that he gets to make some stuff up occasionally.

I was looking high and low for a picture for today's line (and I have to tell you- finding a decent picture for these posts is really the most time consuming part of the task), and lo and behold, I was lucky enough to come across this re-enactment of the Battle of Agincourt! I think these are the Brits that the Constable was looking down on when he made his overconfident comment. I'm not sure what he was thinking because I think they look like a fairly formidable bunch, especially the guy leading the charge with the helmet and green visor. Although I have to wonder about that guy in the upper right hand corner with the monkey on his head. I'm not sure what's up with that.