3 Henry VI: Opening Boasts

So it starts out with boasting by six named characters in the York faction:
(1) the Duke of YORK, aka Richard Plantagenet;
         (a) his eldest* son EDWARD, Earl of March;
         (b) his fourth* son RICHARD;
(2) his wife's brother's two elder sons:
         (a) the Earl of WARWICK, aka Richard Neville;
         (b) the Marquess of MONTAGUE, aka John Neville;
(3) the Duke of NORFOLK, aka John Mowbray (seemingly a Lancastrian by birth).

Edward and Montague show York their bloody swords; Richard one-ups them by showing him the Duke of Somerset's head.  Rough jests and boasting ensue.

But I thought this one was pretty fun – Warwick starts with a hawking/falconry metaphor and then goes straight to ... gardening?

WARWICK:
Neither the King, nor he that loves him best,
The proudest he that holds up Lancaster,
Dares stir a wing if Warwick shake his bells.
I'll plant Plantagenet, root him up who dares.
Resolve thee, Richard; claim the English crown.
(1.1.45-49)

Oh, great – now the Lancasters have come in.  Time for a rematch?  Yes, but not on the crass physical plane, since Henry VI doesn't want to make a shambles of the Parliament House!

KING HENRY:
[...] frowns, words, and threats
Shall be the war that Henry means to use.–
Thou factious Duke of York, descend my throne
And kneel for grace and mercy at my feet!
I am thy sovereign.

YORK:
                                  I am thine.
[...]

KING HENRY:
And shall I stand, and thou sit in my throne?

YORK:
It must and shall be so.  Content thyself.
(1.1.72-76, 84-85)

Hmm.  How's that whole war of words thing workin' out for you, Henry?


* Of his 7 "surviving" children (i.e., those who did not "die young").  Apparently Richard Plantagenet and Cecily Neville produced 13 children, but nearly half died in infancy.  Of the surviving children, the birth order was: Anne, Edward, Edmund, Elizabeth, Margaret, George, and Richard.  Both Edward and Richard became kings (Edward IV and Richard III), George became a duke, while poor Edmund – who died at age 17½  – only ever got to be an earl.

Note for future reference: Duke > Marquess > Earl

Vying for Control by Creating/Completing Rhyming Couplets

This is something I've noticed before, in Richard II.   Here, in 1 Henry VI 4.5, it is a contest of wills between Talbot and his son.

Talbot's first speech (ll. 1-11) is entirely unrhymed.  It ends as follows:

Therefore, dear boy, mount on my swiftest horse,
And I'll direct thee how thou shalt escape
By sudden flight.  Come, dally not, begone. 

John's six-line response (ll. 12-17) plays off this with a rhyming line, and ends with a completed rhyming couplet (giving his father no opening to complete a rhyme):

Is my name Talbot, and I am your son,
And shall I fly? O, if you love my mother,
Dishonor not her honorable name
To make a bastard and a slave of me!
The world will say he is not Talbot's blood
That basely fled when noble Talbot stood.

The next four lines (ll. 18-21) are a back-and-forth where each of Talbot's lines is countered in rhyme by his son:

TALBOT: Fly to revenge my death if I be slain.
JOHN: He that flies so will ne'er return again.
TALBOT: If we both stay, we both are sure to die.
JOHN: Then let me stay, and, Father, do you fly.  

And indeed John's rejoinder in l. 21 is the start of a 13-line speech with six rhyming couplets ll. 22-33.  Thus, John again ends with a rhyming couplet that gives his father no purchase to complete a rhyme ("Here on my knee I beg mortality, / Rather than life preserved with infamy.").

The next ten lines (ll. 34-43) are once again a back-and-forth where John counters each of his father's lines in rhyme:

TALBOT: Shall all thy mother's hopes lie in one tomb?
JOHN: Ay, rather than I'll shame my mother's womb.
TALBOT: Upon my blessing I command thee go.
JOHN: To fight I will, but not to fly the foe.
TALBOT: Part of thy father may be saved in thee.
JOHN: No part of him but will be shame in me.
TALBOT: Thou never hadst renown, nor canst not lose it.
JOHN: Yes, your renownèd name. Shall flight abuse it?
TALBOT: Thy father's charge shall clear thee from that stain.
JOHN: You cannot witness for me, being slain. 

But at this point John's own unrhymed couplet (ll. 43-44) finally gives an opening for his father to complete the rhyme (ll. 45-46) -- the one and only instance in this scene.  Indeed, Talbot immediately wastes his chance for verbal one-upmanship, yet again leaving an opening for his willful son to complete the rhyme (l. 47):

JOHN:
You cannot witness for me, being slain.
If death be so apparent, then both fly.
TALBOT:
And leave my followers here to fight and die?
My age was never tainted with such shame.
JOHN:
And shall my youth be guilty of such blame?

John's last speech in this scene (ll. 47-51) is rhymed, ending with a rhyming couplet (foreclosing any further verbal jiujitsu).  His father's last speech -- likewise in rhyming couplets -- thus bows to the inevitable as he realizes he cannot persuade or overmaster his son (ll. 52-55):

There here I take my leave of thee, fair son,
Born to eclipse thy life this afternoon.
Come, side by side together live and die,
And soul with soul from France to heaven fly.

Exeunt.

Shakespeare 2020 Reading Schedule

My first direct encounter with Shakespeare was probably when I was about 9 or 10 years old.*  I went through Hamlet easily enough since I didn't really sweat comprehension.  My mom was impressed, until she asked me to tell her what the story was about.  My brilliant answer: "Something about a prince?"  But I liked our old pocket-sized Folger General Reader editions of Hamlet and King Lear, and I like to think I came back to them more than once.

When I was in 6th grade, my class did a few scenes from Macbeth.  All the girls had to audition with the sleepwalking scene; I think the boys had the dagger scene.  While everyone else was talking about how mystified they were by Lady Macbeth's speech, I wandered off by myself to solve the puzzle.  And then I got it.  Clearly she was remembering different things, experiencing different moods, from moment to moment! That insight informed my reading of the lines, and I became one of our three Lady Macbeths.  (I got the sleepwalking scene and Banquo's ghost scene, both of which I love to this day.)**

In college, I probably took three courses featuring Shakespeare on the syllabus -- one was an entire semester on Hamlet and its manifestations or influence in later works of literature.  I'm fairly sure my first viewing of Kenneth Branagh's Henry V was at the campus movie theatre.  I also remember schlepping out to the Folger Theatre in D.C. one time to see a dazzling production of Othello.***  There was a lot of serendipity in that evening, which only heightened the effect.

Since moving to NYC, I've rather wantonly indulged my Shakespeare cravings.  I particularly remember a revelatory performance of Romeo and Juliet at the Delacorte in 2007 (with Lauren Ambrose and Oscar Isaac), a really fun production of Henry V in which Governor's Island played the part of France (NY Classical Theatre 2011), and many more.  In 2017, I took a class on Shakespeare and the Middle Ages with Signum/Mythgard and read another 10 plays along with some of the medieval works that informed or underlay them.

So I've read and seen many of the plays over time - but not all.  And I certainly haven't read through all or even most of the poems (just a handful of sonnets, including the one I memorized for a friend's wedding in 1999, and "The Rape of Lucrece" in 2018).

It's time to remedy that, so I'm going to use Ian Doescher's Shakespeare 2020 Project reading schedule as a rough guide, though I'm starting late and will skip the four I've read or re-read since September 2019.

Twelfth Night 📚: January 2-8 ✔ (2/12/20)
Henry VI Part 1: January 10-16 ✔ (2/16/20)
Henry VI Part 2: January 18-25 ✔ (2/23/20)
Henry VI Part 3: January 27-February 2 ✔ (2/26/20)
Comedy of Errors 📚: February 4-8 ✔ (10/19/19)
Taming of the Shrew: February 10-15 ✔ (3/1/20)
Titus Andronicus: February 17-22 ✔ (3/8/20 - first encounter)
Romeo and Juliet 📚: February 24-March 2 ✔ (3/22/20)
Richard III 📚: March 4-12 ✔ (3/28/20)
Julius Caesar 📚: March 14-19 ✔ (3/29/20)
Two Gentlemen of Verona: March 21-25 ✔ (4/1/20 - first encounter)
King John 📚: March 27-April 1 ✔ (4/5/20 - possibly first encounter)
Richard II 📚: April 3-9 ✔ (4/12/20)
Venus and Adonis 📚: April 13-17 ✔ (4/12/20)
Hamlet 📚: April 19-28 ✔ 📚 (4/19/20)
The Rape of Lucrece 📚: April 30-May 4 ✔ (4/22/20)
Sonnets 1-80 📚: May 6-8 ✔ (5/7/20 - first encounter)
Othello 📚: May 11-18  ✔ (5/16/20)
Sonnets 81-154 📚: May 20-22 ✔ (5/24/20)
Love’s Labour’s Lost 📚: May 26-June 2 ✔ (5/31/20)
Pericles 📚: June 4-9 ✔ (6/14/20 - first encounter)
Cymbeline: June 11-18 ✔ (7/3/20)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream 📚: June 19-21 ✔ (7/1/20)
King Lear 📚: June 22-30 ✔ (7/4/20)
A Lover’s Complaint: July 2  ✔ (7/2/20 - first encounter)
The Passionate Pilgrim: July 3 ✔ (7/2/20 - first encounter)
The Merchant of Venice: July 12-16 ✔ (7/21/20)
Much Ado About Nothing 📚: July 20-26 ✔ (7/12/20)
As You Like It: July 28-August 3 ✔ (7/30/20)
Macbeth 📚: August 5-10 ✔ (8/6/20)
Troilus and Cressida 📚: August 12-20 ✔ (8/10/20 - possibly first encounter)
Antony and Cleopatra 📚: August 22-29 ✔ (11/10/19 - first encounter)
Coriolanus: August 31-September 10 ✔ (8/16/20 - first encounter)
All’s Well That Ends Well 📚: September 12-19 ✔ (10/8/19)
Measure for Measure 📚: September 21-27 ✔ (8/30/20)
Henry IV Part 1 📚: September 29-October 5 ✔ (9/23/19)
The Merry Wives of Windsor: October 7-13 ✔ (9/6/20)
Henry IV Part 2 📚: October 15-22 ✔ (9/7/20)
Henry V 📚: October 24-31 ✔ (9/7/20)
Henry VIII 📚: November 2-9 ✔ (9/9/20 - first encounter)
Edward III: November 11-17 ✔ (9/10/20 - first encounter)
Timon of Athens: November 19-24 ✔ (9/15/20 - first encounter)
The Winter’s Tale 📚: December 1-7 ✔ (9/20/20)
The Tempest 📚: December 9-14 ✔ (9/21/20)
The Two Noble Kinsmen 📚: December 16-23 ✔ (9/29/20)
The Phoenix and Turtle 📚: December 27 ✔ (9/6/20 - first encounter)
A Funeral Elegy: December 29-30 ✔ (9/9/20 - first encounter)

UPDATE: As of September 29, 2020, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Essentially a 13-month program, because I gave myself credit for works read in September - November 2019.

FN * At some point, my maternal grandmother gave me a children's book called Tales From Shakespeare, by Charles and Mary Lamb.  I'm not sure the timing of this gift, and I don't remember connecting it to the individual Shakespeare plays in my parents' bookcase when I was a child.  By the time I made the connection, as a teenager, I was dismissive of the mere children's version.

FN **  I think everyone got the parts they most desired; we probably weren't as subtle as we may have imagined.  Tina wanted to be a witch, and deliberately read the sleepwalking scene badly; Emily wanted to be the doctor (appropriately enough, as she's the only one of us with a PhD); Annie more modestly wanted to be the nurse (although in real life she did, in fact, accomplish her ambition of becoming a physician).

FN *** It was probably January 1991, perhaps even the very last night of the production.  The curtains opened on a large, empty bed.  Othello and Desdemona silently entered, cast off their robes in a single moment, and passionately embraced.  Blackout.  Their sudden and complete nudity was shocking and dramatic in such a small theatre; it established in a matter of heartbeats both the connection between those two and the contrast in their skin color.  The rest of the play proceeded as usual, except that both Iago and Emilia were played by Black actors.

Annals of Anthropology

It's always fascinating to learn about exotic, alien cultures.  From "Tolkien's Study" in Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth (Catherin McIlwaine) at 282:

Tolkien always had a study at home.  This was essential when he lived at Northmoor Road and had no rooms in college but even after he moved to Merton College and was given a spacious room, he still needed a study at home to accommodate all his books and papers. [...] His study was not a purely private space but one where he received students, researchers and visitors.  There were numerous desks and writing tables in the Tolkien family home.  Some were in the study and others were in his bedroom, which was really a private extension of his study, with bookcases, a writing desk and tables.