He hath confest: away with him! He’s a
villain and
a traitor.
-All
King Henry the Sixth Part II Act IV, Scene ii,
Line 103
We touched on this scene, but just barely, in a post back in August 2019. So let’s get into it a bit today.
The ‘All’ here is a mob, and the mob leader is a
fellow named Jack Cade. Now on the one hand, this is taking place in the time
of a monarchy, you know, divine rights of kings and all that. So a group of
ordinary folks rising up might seem like a good thing. Right? Well, not
exactly.
In this case we have a group of ordinary folks being
led by a king wanna-be. Cade is a pretender to the throne. His aspirations are
not about the good of the common folk, his aspirations are about the good of
Jack Cade. And right now they have found an educated fellow, a common folk, who
can read and write. They’re going to take this as a sign that he’s part of the
establishment and they’re going to hang him.
And this just shows that there’s a difference
between democracy and mob rule: a big difference, and yet sometimes a fine
line. Consider: A bunch of unhappy guys get together in Philadelphia in 1776, and we're celebrating it almost 250 years later. A bunch of unhappy guys (and gals) get together in Washington on January 6, 2021; no cause for celebration there.
So listen to Will. He has a lot to say about a lot
of things. He won’t give you all the answers, but he’ll get you to ask a lot of
important questions.
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