Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

It is a damned and a bloody work;

The graceless action of a heavy hand,--

If that it be the work of any hand.

-Bastard

King John                       Act IV, scene iii, line 57

Well you certainly must be interested in knowing what this bloody work is, so I’ll tell you. Bastard, Bigot, Salisbury, and Pembroke (that sounds like an interesting group, doesn't it?) have just come upon the dead body of Arthur. This is the son of King John’s older brother. Arthur, therefore, had a right to the throne, and Bastard and the rest of these guys believe that John has had the boy killed because of that. In fact, though, this scene begins with the boy falling from the wall trying to escape. So, whilst John did have him imprisoned, and probably intended to have him killed, no one actually killed the boy, and it was, in fact, not the work of any hand. So, what do you think of that?

This is the type of wall I picture Arthur falling to his death from. Though in the play he appears to have fallen on rocks, not a nice, soft lawn like you see here. Perhaps he would have survived a fall from this wall. Then again, this wall is in France, not England. I suppose England's walls don't have nice lawns around them?