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Thoughts on King Henry the Sixth Part II Act V

Updating two days in a row? Talk about commitment. 

Act V, it’s time for the grand climax. All the threads will come together and be tied up with a nice little bow. Does that happen? Well… not quite.

We begin with the Duke of York and his army of the Irish. The jokes practically write themselves. What follows is an interaction between the Duke of York and the Duke of Buckingham, sent on behalf of the King. In an interesting turn of events, we find out what the characters in-universe see when someone has their little Fleabag moment and talks to the audience. “Buckingham, I prithee, pardon me, That I have given no answer all this while; My mind was troubled with melancholy.” He said seconds after describing his plot to us.

If I understood correctly. York did not expect his warning about Somerset to truly be taken seriously, because… Somerset was not the traitor. Upon learning that Somerset was indeed arrested, he dispersed his own men. Though I get the feeling something more may be going on here.

We then cut to the King, meeting with Buckingham and York. It’s a very eventful meeting, where not much of the actual meeting get’s done. Instead, a esquire runs in carrying a head. It’s not even the strangest thing that happened to these people that day. The esquire is Alexander Iden and the head is the traitor Jack Cade. Having accidentally put a rebellion down, Iden is promoted to Sir Iden and he does indeed get his bag. What a nice way to wrap up that weird character cul-da-sac that happened.

York meanwhile, rolls a Nat 1 on intelligence. Instead of just shutting up he blurts out “That head of thine doth not become a crown; Thy hand is made to grasp a palmer’s staff (giggity)”. Therefore revealing his true intentions and leading to the prisoner, the Duke of Somerset, being allowed to arrest the Duke of York. 

You think this is over yet, well you thought wrong. Old Clifford is here and he has quite the innuendo up his sleeve: “Are these thy bears? We’ll bait thy bears to death,”. I swear to god there are gay bars less gay than that single line. 

I had to ask myself, throughout this whole scene. Why isn’t King Henry just ordering all of these people executed. It would be a lot easier then literally letting them plot his own downfall in front of them. Either way, Richard, not the King, get’s the closing tag of “If not in heaven, you’ll surely sup in hell.” And honestly, he slayed that line.

Are you ready for action, because this scene is the action scene. Stage directions flash by revealing that two people enter and only one leaves. In the battle of the Duke of York and Old Clifford, O.C. is slayed. In the battle of Richard and the Duke of Somerset, the Duke is put down like Old Yeller. It’s not looking good as King Henry’s allies continue to fall. Their only hope is Young Clifford, who upon seeing his father’s dead body declares “Meet I an infant of the house of York, Into as many gobbets will I cut it,”. Oh boy, that sounds exciting, wait, the next play starts on the next page? How will Young Clifford get revenge and save the King in only one scene? Well, I told you not everything gets tied up. It’s the darkest hour y’all. The King is forced to flee in shame with his dwindling entourage in tow. To London he must run, to get Parliament on his side. Pursued by the rebels: the Duke of York, Richard (still not the King), the Duke of Warwick, and the Earl of Salisbury. Shakespeare had an honest-to-God cliffhanger. You’re welcome Infinity War.

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Thoughts on King Henry the Sixth Part II Act IV

Okay so it’s been a while. I got addicted to Dimension 20 and forgot how to read. But it’s the first of March, almost the Ides, so I’m back on my Shakespeare kick.

So Act IV opens with a sea battle. It happens almost entirely just off-screen, if only there was a camera panning left or right, you could see the battle, but alas this is a stage. Where we are introduced to… The Captain. No not the guy from How I Met Your Mother, though picturing him as Kyle MacLachlan is fun. He also has this wonderful line:

“The gaudy, blabbing, and remorseful day

Is crept into the bosom of the sea;

And now the loud-howling wolves arouse the jades

That drag the tragic melancholy night”

Which has left all of tumblr poetry shook, scared, and panicking. He’s coming for your gig.

There’s a new(?) character called Walter Whitmore, I kept reading Walter White at first. I ultimately do not care for him.

This whole scene can be summarized really easily: Everyone wants to execute the Duke of Suffolk and the Duke of Suffolk responds “Noooooo.” And then they actually fucking kill him. Legitemately so suprised. 

The best line though, because it will be the perfect band name: “And wedded be you to the hags of hell,” So… teenagers everywhere, feel free to use something from there for your garage band.

Also at some point Julius Caesar is referenced, and that just feels like Shakespeare foreshadowing his career. 

The next scene introduces a ton of characters including: George Bevis (no Butthead), John Holland, Jack Cade (his name just feels villanous), and Dick (Willy Shakespeare I see what you did there). I thought Smith and Dick were like throwing shade towards Jack Cade as he talks. He would say a line, and then the two would turn towards the camera and say some snarky one liner like “A must needs; for beggary is valiant.” But I think, based on later developments, they were actually hyping him up to the audience. 

Later on, while arguing, someone yells out “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” And it feels so nice to know that Shakespeare is a big fan of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

A clerk gets introduced, it’s established that he knows how to write his name, and immediately is ordered to be executed. I think Jack Cade might be an anti-intellectual. 

Despite that, he at one point pulls out an epic moment of pownage. This one guy, Sir Humphrey Stafford, wanders in. He seems to hate Cade because Cade is claiming to be heir to the throne despite being a plasterer. And when Humphrey points that out, Cade responds to “And Adam was a gardener.” Sometimes a good biblical reference is all you need.

What follows is basically a montage. Scene after scene, almost all are sparse in lines and stage directions. In one scene both Stafford’s (there were two!?) die, but in the stage directions introducing the scene. Jace Cade casually tells Dick “You shalt have a license to kill.” Thus revealing that he is James Bond to the audience. 

The Queen wanders in cradling the Duke of Suffolk heads and the King, in his only scene, notices how the Queen is mourning Suffolk more than she will ever morun him. She denies it, I don’t believe her. Also a Messanger says “They call false caterpillars.” I have no idea what it means, but it felt notable.

This random guy Lord Scales appears and says he will send Matthew Gough, Who dies two scene later without saying a line.

In another scene, I hope it was meant to be comedic because I found it hilarious, Jack Cade claims that he should only be called Lord Mortimer, and immediately kills one of his own soilder’s when they run in calling him Jack Cade. 

Finally the Duke of Buckingham comes in, with this guy Clifford. Together they are the ambassador to the King. They offer a pardon if the rebels agree to leave. What follows is this fickleness of the masses, where they will cheer for whoever just spoke, even if it immediately contradicts what they just cheered for. Cade berates them, but Clifford seems to win out by getting the masses to part, with many abandoning Cade. Leading to him fleeing.

The King receives a message from the Duke of York, claiming that the Duke of Somerset is a traitor. It would be a dramatic moment… if it wasn’t read right in front of the Duke of Somerset. Maybe take a quick peak around the room before you speak Mr. Messenger.

The last scene. I kid you not. Is a random character named Alexander Iden killing Jack Cade. This guy, introduced (I think), in this Act, literally leads a massive rebellion that could be its own story, and is killed by a character introduced in this very scene. All because Cade hid on this guy's land. And then, like an idiot, Cade reveals his identity when he was stabbed. Instead of denying this guy the reward for his head. Because Cade is an idiot. The anti-intellectual little fuck. 

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Thoughts on King Henry the Sixth Part II Act III

Going back to high school for a moment. I remember my junior year english teacher breaking down the five act structure, with Act I and Act II being rising action, the climax in Act III, and then Act IV and V being the fallout from the climax. It seems a bit confusing, because Act V also has the climax, but it stuck with me. So I was looking for the climax of this story to happen here… And it kind of did.

Margaret, Queen, comes into the scene swinging. She hates, hates, hates, that Duke of Gloster. Absolutely despises him. So much that she goes fully anachronistic with the following line: “I will subscribe and say I wrong’d the Duke”. She will never subscribe, nor click the bell for those annoying ass notifications. No siree. Margaret hates this man and thinks he’s a traitor. Suffolk and York back her up on that claim. And yet for some reason the King still doesn’t suspect that they might be colluding. 

One thing I noticed during this scene, these people love an animal metaphor. Raven’s are the most frequent target, for example, “For he’s disposed as the hateful raven:”, said by Margaret. But these guys start pulling them out left and right. Foxes, serpents, scorpions, lizards, owls, and many others start to appear during this Act. I don’t know if it was like this before, but it finally jumped out at me here.

Everyone in this scene is a shady little bitches. I had the shade rattle playing after almost every line, you know, the one from Drag Race? The Cardinal, Suffolk, Margaret, York, Somerset, even the King get’s in on it at one point - everyone was pulling out all the stops because these people hate eachother so damn much. The best one, by far, was the Duke of York’s little dig at the Duke of Somerset: “Show me one scar character’d on thy skin: Men’s flesh preserved so whole do seldom win.” Just had to throw a little dig at Somerset’s complete failure in France.

Which also happens in this scene. Everything Talbot did in the last play, yeah, Somerset fucked it up.

At one point the Duke of Gloster walks in, as everyone else just finished calling him a traitor. Absolutely iconic reality tv moment. I could picture the sudden zoom to close up as everyone sips their drink while giving sideye. Except instead they immediately declare him a traitor, much to the King’s disappointment.

There are two other quotes I wrote down. I just like them, I didn’t have a further explanation for either. “Thus are my blossoms blasted in the bud,” said by the Duke of York. And “But I can give the loser leave to chide.” said by Queen Margaret. Great quotes. 

After all this shade is throw. A new character arrives to push the plot even further along. We just got done with France, so now we have to go to Ireland. This is when the Duke of York steps up and takes centerstage as a villain. He has a whole monologue and it kind of slays. Here’s just one part: “I will stir up in England some black storm, Shall blow ten thousand souls to heaven or hell; And this fell tempest shall not cease to rage”. Iconique.

Scene II opens with two to three randoms coming in and killing the Duke of Gloster. After all this, after a whole scene of scheming, it’s randoms who get the job done. They are, of course, randoms hired by the Duke of Suffolk. Who proceeds to use every acting skill when the King arrives and he has to pretend he totally didn’t know Gloster was dead. And Margaret has to pretend to be suprised as well.

She plays it up quite a bit though. Henry faints, sorry, swoons, at one point, because the bitch is distraught. In response Margaret get’s so offended that Henry would dare be sad that his friend is dead that she decides to channel the gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss mantra. “Why, then, Dame Margaret was ne’er thy joy: Erect his statue, and worship it, And make my image but an alehouse sign.” Feels just a bit like emotional manipulation Margaret, might want to reconsider that one.

This isn’t helped by her next long monologue where she threatens to pull a Rose and toss a necklace that may or may not symbolize her heart into the unforgiving ocean. I honestly got lost a little at this part.

I am saved though, by the arrival of the Duke of Warwick. The only time something from Warwick has ever helped me. Warwick immediately knows whats up. He calls out Suffolk for being behind the whole thing the moment he steps into the room. Margaret immediately comes to the Duke of Suffolk’s defense. 

At this point, I should reveal something, the Cardinal has been in on this the whole time. He plotted with Margaret and Suffolk. He defends Suffolk earlier. He is identified by Warwick as being apart of the crime. But I didn’t mention him. You know why? No one actually cares. He literally walks off in the middle of this scene, doesn’t have to defend himself, because everyone forgets about him. He is the Silence from Doctor Who. If you’re not looking at him he is irrelevant.

The Duke of Warwick and Salisbury (who is also irrelevant) eventually rally the commoners against Suffolk. It’s like a whole thing. They get in a fight. The King sides with Warwick and has Suffolk being put to death in three days to pacify the commoners. It just goes by so quickly for what could have been a climatic moment.

And then… twist. Suffolk and Margaret are like all over eachother. It’s like Littlefinger and Sansa but like actually reciprocated, so actually nothing like Littlefinger and Sansa. Margaret tries to empower Suffolk with the line: “Hast thou not spirit to curse thine enemies?” and the answer seems to be no. But they go back and forth for a bit before finally winding down with Suffolk saying “Live thou to joy thy life;” which feels like a confession of love. 

At the closing of Scene II, we find out that the Cardinal is dying. In Scene III, the Cardinal dies. That’s it. It’s mercifully short. Also, he may or may not be haunted by the ghost of Gloster. Karma do be a bitch like that. Hey didn’t that also happen in Mac-

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Thoughts on King Henry the Sixth Part II Act II

With actual knowledge, I began Act II of Part II. Immediately - what jumped out at me: Falconers. Yes, the guys with the Falcon’s on their gloves. They enter the scene with everyone else and, unfortunately, are merely set dressing. This is something that should be rectified. Where is the Falconer’s spinoff Shakespeare, give it to me. 

Seven years’ day. Anyone know what that mean? I saw it. I like the phrasing, it’s very evocative. I have no idea what it means.

It wasn’t until this scene that it truly hit me that all these characters were releated, and just wait, it hit me now because it is very important later. 

I do have a line of the day, but it’s actually two:

“Why, Suffolk, England knows thine insolence.”

“And thy ambition, Gloster.”

Love it. The Duke of Gloster tries to roast the Duke of Suffolk, and Queen Margaret shows why she has that title. Perfect little interaction. Except it also made me realise that no one in this story has a bloody name except Margaret, everyone else is almost exclusively referred to by their title.

Another line pops up a moment later:

“Come with thy two-hand sword.”

I could not tell you the context or the reason. I just had to write it down. It feels like symbolism but I could be completely wrong because it does actually make sense in the conversation that it occurs in.

The next half of this scene, is absolutely bonkers. What follows these interactions of noblemen, is a strange story in which a blind man sees, because his wife made her blind husband climb a plum tree, the miracle is revealed to be a lie because the blind man can recognize colors, and then someone gets chased around with a whip. I can’t tell if this is meant to be a farce but it feels on the border of it. Also, the man is named but his wife isn’t. The Wife is called Wife. The man is called Simpcox. Can you see why I think this scene is a farce?

My last note for the scene just says “Buckingham is a snitch”. No elaboration is needed.

Due to reading the TV Tropes page, I now know that the next scene is about a gathering of the White Rose faction, which I have to refer that way because the white faction has a terrible connotation with it. They are York, Warwick, and Salisbury. I can now begin to orient myself in this story.

The bulk of this scene proves only one thing to me: succession crisises would be solved if everyone was less misogynistic. If the nobility just treated women as people, this wouldn’t be an issue. Seriously.

Due to some snipes thrown at the competition, I was able to suss out the Red Rose facation, the Lancasters, hmm… that’s suspisiouly close to Lanisters… Oh wait! 

So the Red Rose facation is Suffolk, Beaufort, Somerset, and Buckingham. Leaving just Gloster and King Henry as technically unclaimed, though York thinks he is firmly with the Red. I think.

Either way, York starts making a bunch of promises that I don’t think he’s going to be able to keep. Oh boy.

The third scene is basically the Henryian courthouse drama. Henryian, not a word, but if we refer to other eras as Elizabethian, Victorian, and Edwardian, I’m suprised Henryian never took off. 

Anyways, this scene has the judgement of the Duchess of Gloster and her coherts and the trial by combat both go unexpectedly.

The Duchess gets exiled to gasp the Isle of Man. Oh the horror. 

The Witch is burned to death. Not to be nitpicky, but I thought that only happened on the mainland. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.

The Duke of Gloster is dismissed. Not really surprising considering what his wife was up to. But Margaret of all people seemed particularly invested in it. Maybe Suffolk payed her off or something.

“Give up your staff, sir, and the king his realm.”

Very well spoken, that Queen over there.

The trial by combat goes suprisingly well for Peter, he beats his master and thus seems to prove that his master indeed did claim that Henry was a usurper, not helping is his own confession as he dies. And sure, that was dramatic and all, but you know what was important to me? This line:

“And a fig for Peter!”

There are two important things I took away from the last scene of the act. One is that the Duchess rips into everyone as she goes through her Cersie shame bell moment. And two is the opening line from the Duke of Gloster:

“Thus sometimes hath the brightest day a cloud;

And after summer evermore succeeds

Barren winter, with his wrathful nipping cold:

So cares and joys abound, as seasons fleet.”

I don’t know if it’s poetry, but it feels like poetry. It paints such a picture in my mind. I like it.

Remember when I said I pictured everyone speaking on a darkened stage with one toplight to illuminate them. This is the first section where that wasn’t true. I pictured them outside, quite often on a busy street. That happened during the last chapter which coincidently was set in that kind of location. Maybe my imagination is finally expanding.

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Thoughts on King Henry the Sixth Part I Cntd

So… I shouldn’t have read the TV Tropes page, I wouldn’t have known how much I missed. My goal was to read these plays without the stain of outsider knowledge and interpretation to boast my ability to read critically, but it appears I lacked a lot of knowledge and therefore missed a lot of context. 

Talbot, dear Talbot. I ignored you. I didn’t know you were meant to be the shining example of chivalry in a world where it was fastly growning extinct. If I had known, maybe I would have read your sections differently. Or at least liked you more. 

If I had been able to understand more clearly, I would have known how fucking creepy the Duke of Suffolk is. I mean, he still is creepy, but he’s like creepy. His interactions with Maragaret are so much darker. Also, I now know she wasn’t just a person from France, she is a full on prisoner of the King. That makes that interaction… ick.

And now, with the benefit of external analysis, I now know what we are fighting for. In France, the Hundred Year War is wrapping up, while in England, the War of the Roses is just beginning. With York leading the White and Somerset leading the Red. That puts a lot of their interactions into a very different context. It’s probably important that I have it.

Maybe going on TV Tropes wasn’t a mistake…

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Thoughts on King Henry the Sixth Part II Act I

Okay, King Henry the Sixth, we’re doing this again. You really couldn’t have given us the Eighth? Guess he knew the musical Six was coming and he didn’t want to steal the spotlight, how kind of Shakespeare.

Each play begins with the Dramatis Personae, it’s a lot of names. Supposedly everyone who would be appearing in the play. Imagine my delight when one word jumped out to me: Witch. Oh yeah, I’m getting a Witch in this play. She better “Double, Double, Toil-and-Trouble” All over these pretentious British royals.

The first scene opens and one word immediately jumped out at me: Hautboys. I don’t know what Hautboys are, I just know that I agree. Unless it means something completely different then what I was thinking, then I don’t agree. Get back to me when Google exists. 

To sumamrize the first scene: Henry and Margared get married, France and England are at peace, the Duke of Gloster is unhappy about something (I think it may be because the Duke of Suffolk (aka Littlefinger) is Regent, and the Duke of York is also going to scheme for the crown, because there aren’t enough people playing this game of throne! (...wait a second)

The opening line of scene two is: “Why droops my lord, like over-ripen’d corn?” I don’t actually know what that means, I rarely see corn as it is, but it feels bad, and I love the image, even if I can’t conjure it. Speaking of conjuring, the Duchess of Gloster is here. She’s the Duke’s wife, and she is named Nell. Nell, if you see a ghost with a bent neck, run like hell please. I don’t need trauma like that again.

I don’t think I’ll need to worry though, Dame Eleanor as she is known to her friends, may be summoning ghosts, but they don’t appear to be the bent necked kind. More on ghost’s later. Instead she and her husband discuss dreams. They seem to be in sync, they both dream of power and ambition. But proto-Macbeth does what Macbeth would do and blames his wife for having the same ambition he has! Making our dear Duchess of Gloster a proto-Lady Macbeth. 

As all good Lady Macbeth’s do, she schemes anyways. Her ambition’s won’t die, and quite frankly, I support women’s rights and women’s wrongs. You go girl.

I think if the Duchess of Gloster was alive today she would be a swiftie. Or she would at least like that one song. In fact, she already has her verse ready for the the remix:

“Were I a man, a duke, and next of blood,

I would remove these tedious stumbling-blocks,

And smooth my way upon their headless necks;”

If the next play isn’t Queen Eleanor the First Part I, followed by Part II and Part III, I will rage.

There’s also this one seedy fellow named John Hume, I have no idea who he is. If he was in Part I, I do not remember him. I don’t care for him, nor his playing of the Duchess of Gloster. For he is in the pocket of Big Cardinal and Big Duke of Suffolk. 

The third scene continues our slight bit of girl power, not something I was actually expecting from a Shakespear play, even though part of the reason I liked Macbeth was because of Lady Macbeth. The Queen, aided by the devilish Duke of Suffolk, accepts petitions on behalf of the King. And in the process learns of folks who view her beloved husband of like, six days, as a usurper to the throne. To the Duke of York’s throne to be exact. You can practically hear the DUN! Dun! Duhhhhhhnnnnnnnn! Playing over the revelation.

Shakespeare’s Littlefinger turns Queen Margaret into his own personal Sansa as he gives her a lesson on realpolitik, a word I heard my social studies teacher use a lot in junior year of high school and therefore I totally know what it means. 

Many Duke’s barge in, as they do with a surprising frequency, just so the Duke of Buckingham can deliver this sick burn: “All in this presence are thy betters, Warwick.” If you are from Rhode Island, this joke is fucking hilarious, and I’m allowed to say that, both my dad and my husband grew up there, and I went to school there.

At some point during this whole brigade of Duke’s conversation, the Queen smacks the Duchess. Girl on girl crime, not cool. Especially because the Duchess will remember that. Margaret, maybe consider rewinding time and trying that interaction again, no? Damn.

The conversation climaxes, not with a slap, but with chaos. The Duke of Suffolk accuses York of being a traitor, bringing the petitioner Peter as his evidence, and Thomas Horner, who is Peter’s master that made the alleged claim that King Henry is a usurper, is there for some reason to deny Peter’s claim. 

As chaos erupts it if the Duke of Gloster who steps in, he provides wisdom that is actually genuinely good. He suggests the Duke of Somerset should be regent in France, and that Peter and Thomas’s dispute can only be solved in a trial by combat. The King agrees. 

I genuinelly cannot believe this is all only in Act I of this story, and it’s still not over yet. There’s still a spirit to summon. The Witch and the Conjurer meet with the Duchess of Gloster, and together they conduct a dark ritual. They ask the Spirit questions are it gives them answers for the future. The Duke of Suffolk will die by water. The Duke of Somerset should shun castles. And the Duke of York, well, I had to write it down. “The Duke yet lives that Henry shall depose; But him outlive, and die a violent death.” I think it’s saying that Henry will defeat York, but I may be misreading that. And you know who else is going to misread it: the Duke of York! 

Yup, he barges in like the Kool-Aid man, thank’s Hume. Ruins the fun. Arrests all the cool characters. He even reads the bloody messages the Spirit gave, and then promptly ignores them. Idiot. I hope he gets what he deserves. My overall thoughts: I am definitely a lot more invested already. The characters seem to have more motivation and I’m beginning to tell the mass of testosterone-poisoned dukes apart as they all begin scheming in different ways to subvert King Henry. King Henry is still useless. But the inclusion of the Duchess of Gloster and some more appearances by Queen Margaret can only be good. As I mentioned previously, there is a lot of proto-A Song of Ice and Fire to this story, I can see it probably had a lot of influence on that story. I can’t wait to read more.

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Thoughts on King Henry the Sixth Part I

Usually I will break these down further into the Acts, but for now, I wanted to talk about this one in one big chunk. Mainly because I didn’t start taking notes in the beginning. 

Each night I curled up in my reading chair that wouldn’t be out of place in my grandfather’s home, and read with my reading lamp and usually my dog curled up between my legs being his adorable self. I had this big thick volume cracked open on the left armrest because that was closest to the light and cast the least amount of shadows. I usually tried to have a mug, coffee, hot cocoa, or tea, in that order (sorry everyone, I like coffee better). 

To begin with: I had no idea what was being said almost the entire time. Shocker, I know. I tried my best to avoid glazing over but ocasnaionaly it happened and when I tried to find the spot where my eyes just started scanning instead of processing, I couldn’t. So if I missed something, I’m sorry, I’ll catch it on the reread.

Something that jumped out to me immediately, is I don’t think King Henry, the titular character, even showed up until Act III of V. For the most part, especially early in the story, the cast was made up of Earl’s all named after town’s that are in New England, I assume they’re probably in actual England as well but it is way funnier to imagine the Earl of Warwick going home to Warwick, Rhode Island and having to say “Wicked” constantly. 

Joan of Arc - is a character!? She is almost the antagonist but also I find her extremely sympathetic because, well, it’s Joan of Arc. Also, I pictured her as Vanessa Hudgeson’s the whole time, thanks Drunk History, she was one of two characters that stood out to me. 

As I was reading, I noticed two things about how I read these lines in my head. Without fail, I would read one line as speeding up and the one after as slowing down, and repeated this almost the entire time. I don’t think this was the actual rhythm that it’s meant to be read in but it’s what I defaulted to. The other, is that if I tried to picture someone reading the line, it was usually a man in his mid 30s, set against a black backdrop on a wooden proscenium stage, with like an angle of looking up at him from a slight bit left of house center. The man was lit from a top light, and his face was always blurred, and he always yelled his lines very angrily, still in that fast then slow rhythm. If anyone knows why my brain uncreatively placed these characters, please let me know.

Midway through Act IV, Talbot and his son begin speaking in rhyming couplets. I was looking for it before, I may have missed it, but this was the iambic pentameter I was expecting would be their the whole time, I think. Iambic pentameter was one of the things I remember my high school teacher from junior year telling me about, and it stood out as a cool writing technique, but also very stressful, I can never tell what syllable is supposed to be stressed. 

I’d like to talk about John Talbot, I feel like he very suddenly appeared, all of a sudden got really emotional, spoke in rhyme, and then died. Who was he? Why did he die so suddenly? When will he get his own spin off prequel?

France is a very important part of this story about a King of England. More than half the story is set there. The France part was vastly more interesting, why did we need any of this story set in England.

The War of the Roses was important, in some way. At one point many of the Earl’s and noble fellows pick between the red and the white rose. There’s a line about picking a white rose but pricking their thumb and turning the rose blood red. It’s interesting, but I’m going to need more historical context in the future when I do a reread. Most of my knowledge for the War of the Roses is due to A Song of Ice and Fire using it for inspiration (No, I did not watch The Tudors so no, none of my knowledge comes from there).

There’s a scene in Act V, maybe it wasn’t supposed to be funny, but I found it funny. Where Earl of Suffolk and Lady Margaret are talking, and after every line the other says to them, they have, like, a snarky one liner they say in an aside to the audience.

If you don’t know what the aside is, anytime Fleabag said something directly to the camera or made eyecontact, that’s an aside. It’s a breaking of the forth wall to explain info to the audience. It happens a lot in these plays. 

“Prehaps I need to be rescued by the French; And then I need not crave his courtesy.” Said by Margaret to the audience, line of the play for me. I too would love to be rescued from the British by the French. 

The sequence of Joan of Arc (she’s not called “of Arc” but it’s what I know about her so I’m going to keep using it for convenience sakes) being potentially gaslite by Shepherd, where he claims to be her father. I don’t know if he actually is, I don’t think he is, because he told them to burn her because she refused to recognize him. I don’t know if that’s sexism or an admission that he lied, either way, really uncomfortable scene.

This is followed by Joan of Arc claiming to be pregnant and then going through multiple potential baby daddies. If there is a historical basis for this, I will take back my complaint, but this felt like an attempt to villainize someone else’s hero, not cool Shakespeare.

Now, nearing the end of the story, I need to mention the Earl of Suffolk, the only Earl that stood out. And it really only happened in the final Act. He goes to France to “woo” Margaret and then gets her to agree to come back to England to marry King Henry. At first, I thought he was just that cool of a guy. Put’s on the riz and gets the girl for his homie. Nope. He does give an impassioned speech to convince others to let the King marry for love, but it’s a trap! In the last line of the play, Suffolk is revealed to be a secret villain. He is the Littlefinger! Yes, that’s right, there are two sequels to this play, we are getting MCUed way back in 1591! Picture it:

The Earl of Suffolk will return in King Henry the Sixth Part II

[theshakespeareproject]

The Shakespeare Project: An Introduction

I have always had trouble reading the Bard. It started in high school, each year I was assigned one Shakespeare play to read and analyze and write reports on. Starting from freshman year they were: Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and Othello. As with all high school students… I read the sparknotes version, with one exception: Macbeth. The magic, the intrigue, the political turmoil, or maybe it was just my teacher being particular excited about that story, either way, it was the only one I actually read. 

Not a single word of it made sense to me except “Double, Double, Toil and Trouble” and that was because of a certain movie that shall not be named. 

After finishing Othello and watching “O” before Febuary vacation during my senior year, I did not think about anything related to Shakespeare or even reading for many years.

I went to college and “earned” (we’re being very generous with that word) a degree in Film Media and a minor in Writing. Which only occurred because I dropped out of all my ComSci classes during junior year when I realized programing was just not sticking. 

Thanks to bookTube I got back into reading, but mainly fantasy novels (thank you Sanderson, please stop filling your books with literary crack because it’s a little too addicting), occasionally horror courtesy of the King, some absurdesism from the likes of Pratchett and Adams, a journey to regency era England with Pride and Prejudice thanks to a sudden addiction to the show Bridgerton and needing something similar. And, of course, reading all of the Sherlock Holmes stories last year thanks to the Dracula Daily inspired Letters from Watson. 

Having completed my dive into the world of Holmes, paired with the ending of The Crown and the return of Doctor Who, it felt right to my anglophile self to take on the big one. I grabbed my copy of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare that I had bought from Barnes and Nobles many years ago and cracked it open. 

I am terrified of this journey. I was originally going to pair each play with a filmed version as LadyKnightTheBrave suggested in her video essay “Love & Mend: Much Ado About Nothing”, I even found a copy of The Age of Kings, a 1960s black and white miniseries that adapted most of Shakespeare’s historicals on british King’s into one series, but I really just want the experience of reading these. I want to try to piece together whatever words don’t make sense. Or maybe it’s because I watch every show with subtitles, and this is just like subtitles, without the show playing behind it. 

Well, either way, I started this journey. Hopefully, I’ll finish it. See y’all soon.