Monday, January 24, 2011

2 Henry 6: Act 1, Scene 4 and Act 2, Scene 1

342.

here we go:
a witch and 2 priests arrive at Eleanor's to raise a spirit for her. they ask the spirit what will happen to Henry, Suffolk, and Somerset and receive answers for all 3. (i will go into this more when it comes up later.) in the middle of all this, Richard and Buckingham storm in and arrest them all for practicing witchcraft. they do, however, decide they can use the information they've gained to their advantage. and off Buckingham goes to deliver word to Gloucester and Henry.
act 2 begins with Henry, Margaret, the Cardinal, Suffolk, and Gloucester off in St. Albans hawking. Suffolk makes this snipey comment about Gloucester. (see quote below.) everyone starts picking at Gloucester, accusing him of being power-hungry. then there's this super weird and random tangent about this guy who is pretending to be blind and lame, and Gloucester figures him out. i'm not sure, but i don't think it's relevant. after that whole weirdy weird, Buckingham comes in and tells everyone what Gloucester's wife, Eleanor, has done. everyone but Henry is mean to him of course. he tells them that he is loyal to Henry and will drop Eleanor flat. oh snap.

it's interesting to me that these plays so far are less about Henry than they are about Gloucester and the various other jerks that revolve around that world. i wonder if that was a concern at all. like, would royalty be mad about that? maybe Susan has some thoughts on this considering the comments she provided earlier on?

Shakespeare uses the word 'drab' to describe some lying hag. apparently 'drab' means 'slut'. hahaha. Will is getting racy.

i'm out of time for today, i will try to be more in depth tomorrow. stick with me!

quote of the day:
'no marvel, an it like Your Majesty,
my Lord Protector's hawks do tower so well;
they know their master loves to be aloft
and bears his thoughts above his falcon's pitch.'
-Suffolk; act 2, scene 1

for tomorrow: act 2, scenes 2-4

-queen rebecca may

4 comments:

  1. Maybe the presumption is that Henry is young and innocent and all of the intrigue revolves around the plots orchestrated by those who surround him?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Concerning royal figures responding to the portrayal of royals in Shakespeare's plays: There is a famous quote from Queen Elizabeth I about how she recognized one of the characters (Richard II? Richard III? ?) was a veiled representation of herself. (I can't find it now.)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I hope the reference wasn't to Mad Margaret in Richard III. LOL. I am not familiar with Richaard II but have performed Richard III and studied it in class many times. I cannot think of a character that could be compared to Elizabeth I, so maybe it was RII. If you find the quote or reference Susan, I would be much interested in it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'll have to keep looking for it from time to time when I have the chance. I think she said one of the Richards, as in the title character of the play, the monarch himself, instead of a female supporting role.

    ReplyDelete