The Lord Mortimer of Scotland hath sent word 
That Douglas and the English rebels met
The eleventh of this month at Shrewsbury.

-Sir Walter Blunt

 

King Henry IV Part I                            Act III, scene ii, Line 164

So this bit has to do with fighting within Britain. But don't ask me to get into details as to who's who, because I can never keep track. For one thing, there's too many names to remember, and for another thing, these guys keep changing sides. And if that weren't enough and just to make it a little more confusing, the names of singular guys change. Today's speaker, Henry IV, was initially Bolingbroke. Yesterday's speaker was Gloster, but he would eventually be Richard III.

I've got a library book that I'm reading called Shakespeare's Kings. It gives you the story behind Shakespeare's history plays, giving the detail of who did what and then pointing out where Shakespeare kept his stories in line with actual history and where he took poetic license. But to tell you the truth, that book is hard to follow too, and now that I'm three quarters of the way through with it I'm still not sure who did what. 

Maybe it's just me. I am getting a little old.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQxM5rJ-uiY 

No pic today, just a link to a song about getting old.

...any strange beast there makes a man: when they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to se a dead Indian. 

-Trinculo

The Tempest                            Act II, scene ii, Line 32

This is Trinculo and he's talking about Caliban. As you know, The Tempest is one play that I'm pretty familiar with. Trinculo is about to crawl beneath the strange, playing-dead figure of Caliban for protection from the approaching storm. But before he does, he's standing there trying to figure out exactly what is Caliban. Is he a man, or a fish? Whatever he is, he's strange looking enough so that if Trinculo could bring him back to England he could make money charging admission for people just to see the beast. That's what he's talking about in the lines above. I'm not sure what a 'doit' is, but I believe it's some form of currency. Probably slang for a penny? 

                                    https://www.pursuingwillbooks.com/

Today's picture is not really a picture, it's a link, a link to our website where you can purchase of copy of our retelling of The Tempest. Yes, that's right, we finally got it published. And on page 22 there's actually a great picture of the action described above where Trinculo crawls underneath Caliban for protection. It'll cost you a few doits, but I hope you'll agree that it's worth it.

The weeds that his broad-spreading leaves did shelter,
That seemed in eating him to hold him up,
Are pluckt up root and all by Bolingbroke,-
I mean the Earl of Wiltshire, Bushy, Green.

-Gardener

                                    King Richard II                            Act II, scene iv, Line 50

Okay, so this is the royal gardener talking. He started, a few lines previous to this, telling one of his helpers what to do next in the garden, but he has segued from talking about weeds literally to talking about weeds figuratively. He's talking about how some of the guys in King Richard's circle are nothing better than weeds, and that Bolingbroke (the future King Henry IV) has now taken care of (eliminated) these guys. And the best part of this is that the guys' names really are Wiltshire, Bushy, and Green. Do you see the botanical connection of the name to the imagery being used. Ah, that Will is just too clever.

Now this may look like a jumble, that is to say weedy, but it's not. It only looks that way because the picture was taken close up at ground level. In fact, I can attest to the fact that there are very few weeds because I did the weeding myself. And I can assure you that I did not see the Earl of Wiltshire, or Bushy, or Green while I was in there. But if I did I certainly would have gotten rid of them.