Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

He was; I Heard the proclamation:

And then it was when the unhappy king-

Whose wrongs in us God pardon!- did set forth

Upon his Irish expedition;

From whence he intercepted did return

To be deposed, and shortly murdered.

 

Earl of Northumberland

King Henry the Fourth Part I       Act I Scene iii, Line 148

So, what to do with this? Context? Well, I can tell you exactly what’s going on if you’d like me to, but I think I’d lose you or put you to sleep in the process. Oh what the heck…

Back in the time that this took place (England in the 1400’s) it was customary in battles to take prisoners of the high-ranking guys of the opposition. Then, at a later date these guys would be ransomed back to the other side. It was a way to make some money. It seems that in today’s scene Hotspur does not want to give his prisoners to King Henry. More to the point of today’s line though, King Henry has insisted that one of the guys lost in the battle, Mortimer, will not be ransomed, and that is what Hotspur is getting upset about. Mortimer is Hotspurs brother-in-law, but Mortimer is also the fellow that Richard II (the king that current King Henry IV deposed and stole the crown from) named as his rightful heir; Richard had no kids of his own. So that makes Mortimer a claimant to the throne and threat to Henry who took the throne by force. When Northumberland says ‘He was’, the ‘He’ is Mortimer: Mortimer was proclaimed heir. The ‘unhappy king’ he speaks of in Today’s Lines is Richard. Got it?
 
See, I warned you. Still awake? The sad part is that I actually know all this stuff. English history is pretty interesting. Heck, history is interesting, particularly when you get to the human side of it. And it’s all got many human sides to it; without the humans there would be no history. And of course, Will is all about the human side of it. He’s telling his stories (his history plays) about stuff that happened about one hundred years previous. So the theater goers of his day are at least familiar with what the story is about. It would be like me writing a play set in World War I. Most (some?) of the people seeing the play would have some idea of the setting. But I wouldn’t write a play about the historical facts, I’d write it about the humans involved, and how it affected them. Like Will did.

I guess that’s one reason that people struggle with a lot of Will’s stuff. The language is one thing, but the historical setting and lack of knowledge about it is also a factor (that’s one good reason that Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare is such a great book). I guess the bottom line is that people in general need to be better educated. Wow, that’s not a comment that’s going to be well received by anyone, is it? But it gets back to the crux of that article I was reading a few days ago about the need for people to be getting educated for the sake of becoming better educated, more well-rounded humans, as opposed to getting educated to get a job. But that’s a whole ’nother rabbit hole, isn’t it? We’ll leave that one for another day.

My little buddy made it as far as "Back in the time...", and that was enough for him.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

And so I was; which plainly signified

That I should snarl, and bite, and play the dog.

 

Duke of Gloster (soon to be Richard III)

King Henry the Sixth Part III       Act V Scene vi, Line 77

This is part of Richard’s longer, scene ending speech. He’s just stabbed Henry to death in the Tower of London. I’ll give you a bit of the speech he’s making as he stands over the dead body of the king. Keep in mind that Henry is quite dead, as he’s already received the stage direction [Dies], but not before telling Richard what a schmuck he is.

If any spark of life be yet remaining,
Down, down to hell; and say I sent thee thither, [Stabs him again]
I that have neither pity, love, nor fear.
Indeed, ‘tis true that Henry told me of;
For I have often heard my mother say
I came into the world with my legs forward:
Had I not reason, think ye, to make haste,
And seek their ruin that usurps our right?
The midwife wonder’d; and the women cried,
‘O, Jesus bless us, he is born with teeth!’
And so I was; which plainly signified
That I should snarl, and bite, and play the dog.

And then he goes on for a bit, about who’s the next person in his way that he’ll have to kill.

The play after this one in Will’s history saga is Richard the Third, in which Richard (who’s just getting started here at the end of this Henry play) really takes off and becomes the dastardly deed doer that we all remember him as. Of course, historians question the portrait of Richard that Will, with dramatic license, paints so vividly black. But for the sake of drama, I guess that doesn’t really matter, does it?

So, what, if anything, is today’s takeaway?
Richard was a creep, a really bad guy? Something more? Or less? I guess the takeaway is whatever you want it to be, but just remember: no matter how many jerks you have to put up with in life, you can count your blessings that you don’t have this particular jerk to deal with.
There you go: consider it a glass half full of silver linings.

You gotta be kidding me: a glass half full of silver linings?  What a piece of work.

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Item, she can knit.

 

Speed

Two Gentlemen of Verona                     Act II Scene i, Line 304

I’m not going to go into an explanation of the scene and what’s happening, because I did that when we were in this scene just a bit ago. Here’s the link to that post. Mojo, The Bard, & Me
Apparently the fact that she can knit is just one more point in this woman’s favor.

I suppose knitting was a much more important four hundred years ago when it could account for some much needed, and much harder to come by, clothing. Now, of course, knitting is more of a hobby.

I like the first item that Speed mentions the best. Item, she brews good ale. Now that is a wench to be valued in any time.

Wench? Really? Wench?

Easy there, Mr. Mojo; that's how she was referred to in the text.

Oh, so that makes it okay? So I can call Mrs. Blagys a wench?

If you want her to open up a can of Whupass you can.