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.
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