Today’s Totally Random
Lines
Embowell’d!
If thou embowel me to-day, I’ll give you leave to powder me and eat me too
to-morrow.
Sir John Falstaff
King Henry the Fourth Part I Act V, Scene iv, Line 111
Embowell’d means
disemboweled, and by that I believe we’re talking about disembowelment as part
of the burial process. To be truthful, I’m not completely sure about that.
However, I am sure about
this: Hal has just finished fighting and killing Hotspur in the middle of a
battle. Immediately after that he comes upon the body of Falstaff. Thinking
Falstaff to be dead he makes a few comments over the body, ending with
Embowell’d will I see thee by and by:
Til then in blood by noble Percy lie.
Well it turns out that Falstaff was faking being dead to avoid fighting. He continues the fake until Hal leaves, and then he sits up and begins with Today’s Totally Random Line. He then goes into a discussion with himself, convincing himself that faking his own death was the right and proper thing to do. He proclaims
The better part of valor is discretion; in the which
better part I have saved my life.
So if you ever hear someone use the phrase discretion is the better part of valor, you can just reply with Sir John Falstaff, King Henry the Fourth Part I, Act Five, Scene Four.
As usual, no need to thank me.
2 comments:
I wasn't sure how I felt about yesterday's sketch, but I love today's.
Falstaff seems kind of like a weasel.
He's a huge weasel, a comic relief character, and believe it or not, one of the most written about characters in all of Shakespearean literature. He also has the distinction of having the most lines of any Shakespearean character, mostly because he appears in three plays.
Hamlet has the most lines of any Shakespearean character in a single play.
What else can I tell you about Falstaff. I had no idea before this morning that DISCRETION IS THE BETTER PART OF VALOR is a line that comes from Falstaff. But that is typical Falstaffian thinking.
Yes, weasel.
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