Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

The Dauphin crowned king! All fly to him!

-Duke of Exeter

King Henry the Sixth Part I      Act I, Scene i, Line 97

 

The Duke seems pretty alarmed, doesn’t he? Exclamation points at the end of everything he says. And who's the Dauphin? Okay, I’ll tell you. The Dauphin is the name for the prince of France who’s next in line to be king, usually the king’s son. Why Dauphin? I don’t know. I guess you could ask the Google. 

Okay, here’s the answer, or at least as much as I could get from a five minute cruise down Wikipedia lane: The heirs to the throne of France were given title to the county of Viennois, sort of like the heir to the English throne is always the Prince of Wales. That county was at one point ruled by a guy who’s nickname was Dauphin (which is French for dolphin), and so that nickname passed to the place, and then on to the Prince of France and it stuck. Now, exactly how that original guy got the nickname of Dolphin/Dauphin is unclear. It seems a fairly unlikely nickname for a guy in France if you ask me. Anyway, if you’d like to do some research on it, be my guest.

And here's the Dauphin ready to go look for some dolphins. Well, not exactly. If I were King of France, he would be the Dauphin. And there weren't actually any dolphins around when these two jumped off the boat. But if there were, and if I were King of France, well.... you get the picture.