Hie thee to hell for shame, and leave the world,
Thou Cacodemon! There thy kingdom is.
-Queen Margaret
King Richard The Third Act
I, Scene iii, Line 143
Well isn’t that a fine ‘how do you do?’ Yes, Queen Margaret
(actually the former Queen Margaret; she was Henry the Sixth’s wife and mother
to Edward Prince of Wales who would have been King Edward the Fourth.) has no
need to hide her hatred for Gloucester (the future Richard III) and she has
nothing to lose. And her hate is well founded since Gloucester (again, future
Richard III) took part in the downfall of her husband and the death of her son.
What’s not to hate?
This scene is just one big slugfest. There’s this whole
group of n’er do wells fighting amongst themselves when Margaret shows up. For
several minutes she stays hidden to the side of the scene making remarks to
herself and the audience (asides), until she finally steps forward and engages,
mostly with Richard. Today’s totally random line is one of her asides and it’s
in response to Richard (Gloucester) saying that he’s ‘too childish-foolish for
this world’. And for the record, ‘hie’ is hasten, and ‘cacodemon’ is some kind
of evil spirit. Hurry up and get yourself to hell you devil; that’s where you
belong, not here!
And really, Richard is pretty much deserving of this. If you
don’t believe me you can read the end of the scene, the part where he sends the
two murderers off to kill his own brother Clarence. Yeah, not a very nice guy,
and a perfectly suitable comment by Margaret. And really folks, even though we
may feel like doing it from time to time, let’s try not to use this line in our
everyday life.
Okay, I tried to explain to these guys what this scene is
about, but they refused to take it seriously. I told them that it was supposed
to be a group of people having a big argument, but they insisted that they could be arguing while they’re
dancing. And what’s up with that skinny guy with the goatee thinking he could
pull of the role of Queen Margaret. It’s just really hard to
get people to work with you.
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