Monday, February 7, 2011

3 Henry 6: Act 2, Scene 1

328.

okay. here it goes. some honesty: i'm stinky from dance class, tired from rehearsal, have too much homework left to do, and want nothing more than to go to bed. right NOW. my wonderful friend alexis told me that i should be honest with how i feel when i approach my blog, so that is what i'm doing. i'm frustrated that people rarely comment and feel like maybe my blog is just too boring to read? so basically i'm a little BLAHHH coming into this. (which helps, right? lol) it has nothing to do with Shakespeare and everything to do with me. i will do my best to overcome and come up with solutions instead of making more problems. yes. yes. yes.

i can do this. here goes:
   (Edward and Richard several days after the last battle.)
Edward: I wonder what happened to our dad. what's wrong, Richard?
Richard: i can't be happy until i know what happened to our fierce, brave father.
Edward: 'dazzle mine eyes, or do i see three suns?' (more later on this.) (and see quote below.)
   (Messenger enters.)
Messenger: your father was killed!
Richard: how?
Messenger: he was surrounded. many subdued him, but Clifford and Margaret killed him.
Edward: Clifford, you killed my father in a treacherous way. if you had fought him fairly, he would've won.
Richard: tears do nothing. i will show our father my love by avenging his death.
   (Warwick, Montague, and their army enter.)
Richard: our father is dead!
Warwick: i'm sorry to add even more problems to your plate, but i must. after i heard of your father's death, i tried to intercept Margaret and his army, but our soldiers were so scared that they had no heart to fight. we had to flee.
Richard: let us show our love for our father by avenging his death!
Warwick: that's why i came! i think they have 30,000 men. we have about 25,000. let's go to London!
Edward: i will lean on you, Warwick, and let you guide me.
Warwick: and soon you will be King of England, Edward.
Richard: we're coming Clifford, and either i will kill you or you will kill me.
   (Messenger enters.)
Messenger: Queen Margaret is coming and wants to meet with you.
Warwick: perfect. let's go.


so, this sun thing is cool. my footnotes tell me that Edward thought he saw three suns that day, and thought it was a good omen. why did he have this vision? no clue. tired? dehydrated? he then used an image of a sun as his emblem in battle. that is SUPER random, but i kind of love it. i don't know what other significance might be there. anyone have some input?

i don't have anything really exciting to say this time. i do feel like the play really slowed down today. maybe we needed a rest because things will be picking up in the next scenes? we shall see! but for now, I MUST SLEEP!

quote of the day:
'tis wondrous strange, the like yet never heard of.
i think it cites us, brother, to the field,
that we, the sons of brave Planatagenet,
each one already blazing by our meeds,
should notwithstanding join our lights together
and overshine the earth as this the world.
whate'er it bodes, henceforward will i bear
upon my target three fair-shining suns.'
   -Edward; act 2, scene 1

for tomorrow: act 2, scenes 2 and 3

-rebecca may

2 comments:

  1. Hi from the Midwest! I am reading daily without commenting. Just read the Henry VI trilogy myself in January and am enjoying reading about your trip through it.

    Have you seen the Shakespeare Reading Challenge blog? It's a blog with occasional places for people reading Shakespeare in 2011 to post links to their writing about it.

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  2. "...either i will kill you or you will kill me." I love the simplicity and finality of that statement. "If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come..."

    I wonder if Edward saw some planets beside the sun. Ranney, who has studied Shamanism the past several years, was recently telling me how some people can see certain stars in the daytime, because they have not trained their eyes to ignore the sky in favor of the many distractions of modern life that surround us. Also, throughout history, people have read astronomical events like eclipses as prophetic signs.

    Of course, "Schoolhouse Rock" taught me:

    "Somewhere in the ancient, mystic trinity
    You get three as a magic number.

    The past and the present and the future.
    Faith and Hope and Charity,
    The heart and the brain and the body
    Give you three as a magic number."

    And we know that Christianity exerted a powerful influence over the English royalty in those days.

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