Henry VI part III, act II
In Act I, I wondered about how Richard might respond to the loss of the father he seems so close to, and explored the ongoing death of chivalry and nobility.
It doesn’t take long to see both of these ideas addressed in Act II …
Continue reading “PTS 03/016: Young Skywalker is in pain …”
So. I owe the inspiration for this post – wanting to do something to celebrate the birthday – to ohforamuseofire, who herself got the questions from Folger Shakespeare Library project. I wonder how, if at all, my answers might change over the next few years, as the PonyTail Shakespeare project progresses …
What does Shakespeare mean to you?
HENRY VI part II: Act IV
‘death, a necessary end, will come when it will come’ (JULIUS CAESAR: Act II, sc ii)
subtitled: ‘The not very tragic or lamentable death of the serial rotter, Suffolk, and the deservedly doomed distraction caused by Cade.’
It’s not quite acts three or four of Antony and Cleopatra, but this act does get into double-figures in terms of scenes – something I find irritating as a reader, in a way that I don’t find when listening to or watching the plays. Still, basically, Act IV boils down into two episodes, as the subtitle suggests.
Henry VI part II: Act III
‘Small curs are not regarded when they grin’ (QUEEN MARGARET III.i.18)
Act III starts where Act II left off: the smell of blood in the water; fins thrashing as a pack of ruthless hunters circle our hapless king; bites being taken from the already-doomed Gloucester.
Continue reading “PTS 02/011: Small curs are not regarded when they grin”
And so it is, no fooling …
Coincidentally, WordPress informs me that it’s my 50th post at the Tavern, too. Double cause for celebration then!
Continue reading “This is my birth-day; as this very day Was Cassius born”
Henry VI II: Act II
Sorrow on thee and all the pack of you
That triumph thus upon my misery!
(KATHERINA, The Taming of the Shrew: IV.iii.33-34)
When the nobility goes hunting; it seems they do it in packs …
Continue reading “PTS 02/010 The Early Modern Period Hunger Games?”
What mightst thou do, that honour would thee do,
Were all thy children kind and natural!
But see,thy fault France hath in thee found out,
A nest of hollow bosoms. (CHORUS, Henry V: II.0.18-21)
Henry VI II: Act I
It’s a strange thing, patriotism.
I’ll try to make this the final time I mention how I don’t feel especially patriotic towards England as opposed to Britain, but the beginning of the play causes me to examine my attitudes again. It probably says something about my pedantic nature that I can’t simply conflate the two. Or maybe it’s simply the fact that my Welsh girlfriend would probably dump me! Either way, I suddenly became acutely aware of an inchoate fear for the country. Ye-e-es, there was some fear for Henry, about to be eaten alive by his Queen like a hapless spider, but the sympathy I felt for Henry as a child effectively evaporated in the white heat of his ineffectuality. It facilitated of the betrayal of my new Shakespearean heroes, the Talbots, and so isn’t easily forgiven or forgotten. So it wasn’t what Margaret might or might not do to Henry that worried me. It was how she might treat England …
Continue reading “PTS 02/009: England – A Nest of Hollow Bosoms”
O, that it could be proved
That some night-tripping fair had exchanged
In cradle-clothes our children where they lay,
(KING HENRY IV: Henry IV 1, I.i.85-87)
Henry VI 1: Act IV
Talk about someone having ‘greatness thrust upon them’!
O, Henry, Henry, Henry … Continue reading “PTS01/005: Where’s a night-tripping fairy when you need one?”
Henry VI 1: Act III
Writing about this act has been an almost painful task.
It would have been too too easy to continue with the ‘Carry On Up the Dolphin’ theme I’d adopted for Act II, but I didn’t feel up to it, aside from referencing the incorrigible overfamiliarity of Charles:
Ay marry, sweeting, if we could do that,
France were no place for Henry’s warriors. (III.iii.21-2)
Continue reading “PTS 01/004: We need Talbots, not bastards …”
Henry VI 1: Act 2 the act with that scene …
No, not the one in the garden. Surely, there’s only one thing worth talking about … in the words of Joe Jackson:
Is she really going out with him?
Is she really gonna take him home tonight?
Is she really going out with him?
Cause if my eyes don’t deceive me,
There’s something going wrong around here.
… are the Dolphin and La Pucelle an item or not?
The Boar's Head, Eastcheap 