Today’s Totally Random
Line(s)
But,
my most noble Lord of Westmoreland,
I
take not on me here as a physician;
Nor
do I, as an enemy to peace,
Troop
in the throngs of military men;
But,
rather, show a while like fearful war,
To
diet rank minds sick of happiness,
And
purge th’obstructions which begin to stop
Our
very veins of life.
Archbishop of York
King Henry the Fourth Part II Act IV, Scene i, Line 60
Holy moly, that’s a
mouthful. Let’s see if we can do something, anything, with this.Westmoreland has shown up in the rebel camp as a
representative of Prince John. He has asked the Archbishop why he’s involved in
this insurrection. The Archbishop answers that they are all diseased,
suffering from the same thing that killed King Richard (I believe he’s speaking
figuratively here). But, he says as he gets into today’s lines, I’m not a
doctor and don’t even play one on tv. Then he goes into the lines above that I
can’t quite fathom. He seems to realize that he’s speaking in riddles, though,
because his next line is Hear me more plainly. Absolutely!
Please, be more plain!
Basically he goes on to say that they have a list
of grievances that the king won’t even look at. So apparently the rebels are
pissed off about a bunch of things, and the king doesn’t care.
Why didn’t he just lead with that?