recently one of the regulars in the Pub i work at, Loyd caught wind of my little literature fling with the Bard and brought me his copy of The Complete Works...
Note: This is Loyd...
there isn't much to tell other than he likes cask ale and has written a book about planes....but any way Thank you Loyd!
His copy of the works is very old and smells like a bible.... it makes me wonder how many people have read it? i guess that's the exciting thing about really old books they have so much history to them....(ponders for a second).....so anyway it has a really handy Family Tree of the History play characters and a nice engraved William Shakespeare signature on the front....
This is the front of the book...for such a talented man our Will's hand writing was abit scribbly.
i must get a photocopy of this...very handy indeed, especially because so many of them are called Henry or Richard...must have been popular names like our equivalent of Brittney, Beyonce or any other of those pop culture influenced names.....imaging being called Kesha?! (sorry complete tangent!)
So enough about Loyd and more about Henry IV...
Note: it might be worth mentioning that i am only halfway through the play (I have been busy...excuses! excuses!) but i already have loads to say about this one!
...it was a slow start for me and i wasn't sure i was going to be won over by this one, the first scene is so wordy i got a bit lost at points. Shakespeare so cleverly fills us in with lots of info before he hits us with the real meaty banter of Act1:Scene2. I was completely shocked by the change of direction...we meet 'The Boys' as i will call them in Act 1: Scene 2 and they are so full of quick witted insults they could give any of our contemporary comedians a right good run for their money! i would just loved to see Price Henry receive an award at the 2011 Golden Globes and bring that mean Ricky Gervias down a peg or two.....fancy being mean to Jonny Depp! (second random tangent...sorry!)
Act 1 : Scene 2
(to Falstaff)
Prince Henry: Thou art so fat-witted, with drinking of old sack
and unbuttoning thee after supper and sleeping upon
benches after noon, that thou hast forgotten to
demand that truly which thou wouldst truly know.
What a devil hast thou to do with the time of the
day? Unless hours were cups of sack and minutes
capons and clocks the tongues of bawds and dials the
signs of leaping-houses and the blessed sun himself
a fair hot wench in flame-coloured taffeta, I see no
reason why thou shouldst be so superfluous to demand
the time of the day.
... they all tease each other, almost like a pack of really sinister clowns they pick pocket, steal and drink to much! i have this image of Falstaff as an old, once great clown that has become the but of jokes ...a comically tragic figure a little bit like Buffo the Great the head of the clowns in Nights At the Circus...
Note: Nights at the Circus is a novel by Angela Carter and its my FAVORITE book ever! its defiantly worth a read if you get the chance...
The images of clowns continued to pop up in my head, and because i am a bit of a geek and carry a note book around i drew this picture ....a brain child if you will, of my thoughts on Falstaff....it might be worth mentioning that i really like Falstaff. He has grown on me over the pages and i am happy to learn that he is going to pop up in more of the Bards plays :)
Falstaff by Sam aged....24 (yes i still own pencil crayons but in my defence i was an art student for some years before i trained as an actor...excuses! excuses!)
Favourite Falstaff moment so far: in Act2: Scene 2 when they steal and hide his horse ...
Act 2 : Scene 2
Enter PRINCE HENRY and POINS
POINS
Come, shelter, shelter: I have removed Falstaff's
horse, and he frets like a gummed velvet.
PRINCE HENRY
Stand close.
Enter FALSTAFF
FALSTAFF
Poins! Poins, and be hanged! Poins!
PRINCE HENRY
Peace, ye fat-kidneyed rascal! what a brawling dost
thou keep!
FALSTAFF
Where's Poins, Hal?
PRINCE HENRY
He is walked up to the top of the hill: I'll go seek him.
FALSTAFF
I am accursed to rob in that thief's company: the
rascal hath removed my horse, and tied him I know
not where. If I travel but four foot by the squier
further afoot, I shall break my wind. Well, I doubt
not but to die a fair death for all this, if I
'scape hanging for killing that rogue. I have
forsworn his company hourly any time this two and
twenty years, and yet I am bewitched with the
rogue's company. If the rascal hath not given me
medicines to make me love him, I'll be hanged; it
could not be else: I have drunk medicines. Poins!
Hal! a plague upon you both! Bardolph! Peto!
I'll starve ere I'll rob a foot further. An 'twere
not as good a deed as drink, to turn true man and to
leave these rogues, I am the veriest varlet that
ever chewed with a tooth. Eight yards of uneven
ground is threescore and ten miles afoot with me;
and the stony-hearted villains know it well enough:
a plague upon it when thieves cannot be true one to another!
They whistle
Whew! A plague upon you all! Give me my horse, you
rogues; give me my horse, and be hanged!
PRINCE HENRY
Peace, ye fat-guts! lie down; lay thine ear close
to the ground and list if thou canst hear the tread
of travellers.
FALSTAFF
Have you any levers to lift me up again, being down?
'Sblood, I'll not bear mine own flesh so far afoot
again for all the coin in thy father's exchequer.
What a plague mean ye to colt me thus?
PRINCE HENRY
Thou liest; thou art not colted, thou art uncolted.
FALSTAFF
I prithee, good Prince Hal, help me to my horse,
good king's son.
PRINCE HENRY
Out, ye rogue! shall I be your ostler?
FALSTAFF
Go, hang thyself in thine own heir-apparent
garters! If I be ta'en, I'll peach for this. An I
have not ballads made on you all and sung to filthy
tunes, let a cup of sack be my poison: when a jest
is so forward, and afoot too! I hate it.
POINS
Come, shelter, shelter: I have removed Falstaff's
horse, and he frets like a gummed velvet.
PRINCE HENRY
Stand close.
Enter FALSTAFF
FALSTAFF
Poins! Poins, and be hanged! Poins!
PRINCE HENRY
Peace, ye fat-kidneyed rascal! what a brawling dost
thou keep!
FALSTAFF
Where's Poins, Hal?
PRINCE HENRY
He is walked up to the top of the hill: I'll go seek him.
FALSTAFF
I am accursed to rob in that thief's company: the
rascal hath removed my horse, and tied him I know
not where. If I travel but four foot by the squier
further afoot, I shall break my wind. Well, I doubt
not but to die a fair death for all this, if I
'scape hanging for killing that rogue. I have
forsworn his company hourly any time this two and
twenty years, and yet I am bewitched with the
rogue's company. If the rascal hath not given me
medicines to make me love him, I'll be hanged; it
could not be else: I have drunk medicines. Poins!
Hal! a plague upon you both! Bardolph! Peto!
I'll starve ere I'll rob a foot further. An 'twere
not as good a deed as drink, to turn true man and to
leave these rogues, I am the veriest varlet that
ever chewed with a tooth. Eight yards of uneven
ground is threescore and ten miles afoot with me;
and the stony-hearted villains know it well enough:
a plague upon it when thieves cannot be true one to another!
They whistle
Whew! A plague upon you all! Give me my horse, you
rogues; give me my horse, and be hanged!
PRINCE HENRY
Peace, ye fat-guts! lie down; lay thine ear close
to the ground and list if thou canst hear the tread
of travellers.
FALSTAFF
Have you any levers to lift me up again, being down?
'Sblood, I'll not bear mine own flesh so far afoot
again for all the coin in thy father's exchequer.
What a plague mean ye to colt me thus?
PRINCE HENRY
Thou liest; thou art not colted, thou art uncolted.
FALSTAFF
I prithee, good Prince Hal, help me to my horse,
good king's son.
PRINCE HENRY
Out, ye rogue! shall I be your ostler?
FALSTAFF
Go, hang thyself in thine own heir-apparent
garters! If I be ta'en, I'll peach for this. An I
have not ballads made on you all and sung to filthy
tunes, let a cup of sack be my poison: when a jest
is so forward, and afoot too! I hate it.
...So i think i have gone on quiet enough about Henry IV Part One for one sitting and i shall be back with more once i have read the rest of the play!
Peace Out
Sam
x
P.S Pub Number 2
in Henry IV Part one
The Boars Head Tavern
Act 2 Scene 4
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