Today’s Totally Random
Lines
But,
before God, Kate, I cannot look greenly, nor gasp out my eloquence, nor I have
no cunning in protestation; only downright oaths, which I never use till urged,
nor never break for urging.
Henry
King Henry the Fifth Act V, Scene ii, Line 143
Well
if you think that’s long, I’ve only taken a few lines out of Henry’s speech to Katherine. He goes on and on. He’s trying to talk her into marrying
him, whilst struggling with a language barrier. Neither his French nor her
English is very good, so it’s a difficult conversation in which he’s doing most
of the talking. Somehow or another he succeeds.
Historically, this is an attempt to unite the
leadership of England and France. Henry V has conquered most of France and now has made
a treaty with French King Charles by which Charles gets to remain king of
France for his lifetime, but upon his death the rule passes to Henry. Henry indeed succeeds in marrying Katherine, but then will die fairly young, and the plan
to unite the countries falls apart with Henry VI who assumes the kingship as a
child and never really grows into the job.
Bottom line: if Henry had lived a full long life,
and if his son were a bit more capable of a leader, France and England might be
one nation today. And if wishes were horses beggars would ride. Hey, is that a
Shakespeare line? Nah, just looked it up. It’s an old Scottish nursery rhyme.
See, not everything is Shakespeare! BTW, no extra
charge for the history lesson today.
Okay, I spent a good ten minutes or so looking for a pic for today. I give up.
I guess I don't have as much perseverance as Henry had.
4 comments:
Is this an actual historical event? That's crazy!
If you're asking about this scene and the conversation between Katherine and Henry: I don't know, but I'm guessing that's all made up for the play. But the overall history that I outlined, yes, that's what happened. More or less.
I wonder if they covered it in my history classes and I just never paid attention.
This is British history. Even the world history classes in school don't go into that much detail history of any countries.
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