Today’s Totally Random
Lines
Here
is the number of the slaughter’d French.
[Delivers
a paper]
Herald
King Henry the Fifth Act
IV, Scene viii, Line 75
Okay, so we’re at the battle of Agincourt, or rather the aftermath of it. The rest of this scene is a detailing of how the Brits absolutely slaughtered the Frenchies at this battle, over ten thousand of them killed. That’s what’s on the paper that the herald is delivering to King Henry. Oh, I think Will might be exaggerating the numbers a little bit for dramatic effect, but it was a really one-sided victory for the Brits, and one that they like to remember to this day, six hundred years later.
I can’t help wonder, especially as I get older, at the sheer…I’m trying to think of the right word here, but it’s hard… the sheer stupidity of war. Stupidity is not nearly as strong a word as I’m looking for. No matter which way I think about it, I can’t make any sense of it. None. Take this battle: a handful of leaders got killed, and over ten thousand ordinary guys - ten thousand! Those are guys who’d rather be tending their fields, or repairing shoes, or bouncing a baby or their knee, or whatever. They didn’t want the war. And it’s always the same. The horrors of war are played out on them, on us: not on the people who lead us into wars. It’s just a really, really, really messed up concept, and yet one that is still perfectly accepted after all these millennia.
What a piece of work is man. Hamlet says that in a different play, and then goes on to talk about the greatness of man: in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, and so on. And yet, he says finally, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me, no.
Hamlet's not talking about the contradiction of war within the framework of man, but just the same, this is exactly how I feel when I think about it. Man has such divine make-up and capabilities, and yet... Agincourt, Vietnam, Gaza, etc., etc., etc., etc. The list goes on and on - never ending. The contradiction just does not make sense.
You’re right, Mr. Blagys, you’re right. I wish
I had an explanation for you, but I don’t.
Thanks, Mojo. Thanks for understanding.
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