(no subject)

[a_t_rain]

If you see this, post some Shakespeare.

How nice! I don't mind if I do.

Incidentally, you know you're a PhD candidate when somebody asks you who your favorite Shakespeare character is, and you say "Michael Williams" and then you can't figure out why people are looking at you funny.



KING HENRY.

By my troth, I will speak my conscience of the King: I
think he would not wish himself anywhere but where he is.

BATES.

Then I would he were here alone; so should he be sure to be
ransomed, and a many poor men's lives saved.

KING HENRY.

I dare say you love him not so ill to wish him here
alone, howsoever you speak this, to feel other men's minds;
methinks I could not die anywhere so contented as in the King's
company, his cause being just and his quarrel honourable.

WILLIAMS.

That's more than we know.

BATES.

Ay, or more than we should seek after; for we know enough if
we know we are the King's subjects. If his cause be wrong, our
obedience to the King wipes the crime of it out of us.

WILLIAMS.

But if the cause be not good, the King himself hath a
heavy reckoning to make when all those legs and arms and heads,
chopp'd off in a battle, shall join together at the latter day
and cry all 'We died at such a place'- some swearing, some crying
for a surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind them, some
upon the debts they owe, some upon their children rawly left. I
am afeard there are few die well that die in a battle; for how
can they charitably dispose of anything when blood is their
argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black
matter for the King that led them to it; who to disobey were
against all proportion of subjection.

...

KING HENRY.

I myself heard the King say he would not be ransom'd.

WILLIAMS.

Ay, he said so, to make us fight cheerfully; but when our
throats are cut he may be ransom'd, and we ne'er the wiser.

KING HENRY.

If I live to see it, I will never trust his word
after.

WILLIAMS.

You pay him then! That's a perilous shot out of an
elder-gun, that a poor and a private displeasure can do against a
monarch! You may as well go about to turn the sun to ice with
fanning in his face with a peacock's feather. You'll never trust
his word after! Come, 'tis a foolish saying.

Comments

[gioiamia.livejournal.com]

I confess, Henry V is one I never had the opportunity to study. And much as I love Kenneth Branagh, it's been too long since I've seen this one. ;-) Would you mind giving us the setup for this scene?

[a-t-rain.livejournal.com]

The setup, in brief: King Henry invades France, either for a Just and Righteous Cause or a land-grab, depending on what you think of the king and his advisors. On the night before the battle, Henry puts on a disguise and wanders around talking to common soldiers, among them the Bates and Williams of this scene. Having no idea who their interlocutor is, and in any case being reasonably certain they're about to die, they speak their minds.

[gioiamia.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I felt terribly foolish to admit how unfamiliar I am with this one, knowing how popular it is. ;-) Your backdrop adds so much to the scene to know Henry is speaking of himself and probably hearing some blunt, honest truths for the first time! I love Shakespeare's sense of dark, dark comedy, and this scene seems to be a great example of it.

[angevin2.livejournal.com]

<3 Michael Williams.

That is all. :)

[(Anonymous)]

Would it be too rude and crude to ask whether if your favourite character were not Master Williams, then might it be Master Bates?

Easleyweasley

[a-t-rain.livejournal.com]

Nah, that would be my favorite character from Oliver Twist.