Today’s Totally Random
Lines
But
if your father had been victor there,
He
ne’er had borne it out of Coventry.
Westmoreland
Henry the Fourth Part II Act IV, Scene i, Line 135
Well how about a little context today? Or maybe quite a bit of context today.
Mowbray, who I believe is the son of Thomas
Mowbray the guy who got banished at the beginning of Richard II, is one of the
leaders of the rebellion against Henry IV. Westmorland is one of Henry’s
generals and he’s come to talk to the rebels to see if he can understand
exactly why they are rebelling. Mowbray says that Henry IV is an illegitimate
king and that if his father, Thomas Mowbray, had been allowed to go through
with his fight with Henry he would have killed Henry and become king.
Apparently that fight was to take place in Coventry and Westmoreland is saying
that if Thomas Mowbray won it, that he never would have been able to go any
further. Why?
For all the country, in a general voice,
Cried hate upon him (Thomas Mowbray); and all
their prayers and love
Were set on Hereford (Henry IV), whom they doted
on,
And blest and graced indeed, more than the king (Richard
II).
I added the names in parentheses there so that it
might be clear who's who and to whom Westmoreland was referring.
So, what do you think of today’s context? Too
much? Too little? You stopped reading many lines ago?
Ah well, I tried.
2 comments:
Oh no, I didn't find the context too much. I actually found it quite interesting. I also found the parentheses quite helpful indeed. Several questions:
1. Well this isn't a question but an observation - How interesting that the general is actually meeting with someone from the rebellion to find out the why's - That kind of diplomacy and conversation is sometimes lacking from today's discord I find.
2. In these days, does killing a monarch mean you get to become monarch? Is it not a...by birth type of situation?
I suppose I didn't have several questions. I suppose I just had an observation and a question.
1. the 'diplomacy' here was anything but. They got the rebels to agree to disband their armies then arrested the leaders and executed them.
2. The thing is, there was a whole crew of first cousins who had claims to the throne. And the generation between Edward III and these first cousins had no kings because Edward III's first born died in his twenties whilst Edward III was still alive. So that the son of the first born (one of the many first cousins) became king when Edward died. So now, all the cousins are thinking 'well, Richard is not the son of a king, he's just the grandson of a king, and we all have the same grandfather, so...'
And the result is about 100 years of fighting over the throne. It was called the Wars of the Roses, and it is the subject of 8 of Will's history plays.
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