Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

         But in short space

It rained down fortune on your head;

And such a flood of greatness fell on you,-

What with our help, what with the absent king,

What with the injuries of a wanton time,

The seeming sufferances that you had borne,

And the contrarious winds that held the king

So long in his unlucky Irish wars

That all in England did repute him dead,-

And from this swarm of fair advantages

You took occasion to be quickly woo’d

To gripe the general sway into your hand;

Forgot your oath to us at Doncaster;

And being fed by us, you used us so

As that ungentle gull, the cuckoo bird,

Useth the sparrow,- did oppress our nest;

Grew by our feeding to so great a bulk,

That even our love durst not come near your sight

For fear of swallowing: but with nimble wing

We were enforced, for safety sake, to fly

Out of your sight, and raise this present head:

Whereby we stand opposed by such means

As you yourself have forged against yourself,

By unkind usage, dangerous countenance,

And violation of all faith and troth

Sworn to us in your younger enterprise.

 

Earl of Worcester

King Henry the Fourth Part I       Act V, Scene i, Line 50

 

Well that sentence just goes on forever! I decided to type the whole sentence that Today’s Totally Random Line was in, but I didn’t look closely enough to realize just how long that sentence was! Oooof!

Anyway, this is Worcester explaining to Henry why they are rebelling. In short, he says, they agreed to help Henry to get his father’s lands and title back, and Henry swore an oath to them at Doncaster that was all he wanted. But in short space….

I went back to the play King Richard the Second to see if I could find the oath that Henry IV made at Doncaster, mentioned by Worcester above. I couldn’t find it. I do remember from somewhere that Bolingbroke (the future Henry IV) did say that he (Bolingbroke) was only out to regain his father’s (John of Lancaster) legacy, not planning to go after the crown as he ultimately did. So that’s the cause of all this ruckus.

But again, long sentence! Could you just give us long-story-short, Worcester?

This is what I'm thinking Worcester looks like with this song and dance that he's giving us today. 

Flood of greatness...contrarious...ungentle gull...forged against yourself...

Blah, blah-blah, blah-blah.