#h6p1

[flappyfluellen]

I read the first scene of Henry vi pt 1 today!! - it was really cool to see Exeter again - I loved how it started with Henry v's funeral - looked it up and apparently the falstaff they mention is a completely different character from the henriad falstaff?? - anyway it's quite good and I'm excited to read more

[flappyfluellen]

just read a few awesome scenes of h6p1!

talbot is so fucking extra (honestly? that speech over salisbury’s dying body? please Stop)

i kind of love him though

they fly, leaving their clothes behind

joan of arc is so badass

that scene with the countess was ICONIC

she called him A WRITHLED SHRIMP

headcanon: talbot is Short and Angery

she’s pretty badass too

and then talbot just lowkey calls up a shit ton of soldiers

ICONIC I TELL YOU

YOU KNOW WHAT’S ALSO FUCKING ICONIC??? THE ROSE PICKING

that was 10/10 as well

the imagery with the roses!! so extra but also awesome! aaaahhhh so that’s how it all starts....

i also love how they’re just lowkey ripping roses off the bushes

and then richard plantagenet is all like “this brawl to-day ... / Shall send between the red rose and the white / A thousand souls to death and deadly night.” PREMONITIONS...

MORTIMER

his speech about death is so beautiful

i feel really sorry for him aahhh

i loved how he talked about richard ii and henry iv... it’s just backstory but it’s so exciting to see that in an entirely different play

AND THEN HE DIES... FAREWELL MORTIMER YOU HAVE BEEN THROUGH IT ALL.....

[flappyfluellen]

so far henry vi seems like a Pure Bean who must be protected from all the hatred and fighting

also i loved that exeter got a soliloquy at the end of 3.1!! it was a great speech too!

[flappyfluellen]

forgot to mention this but i finished henry vi pt 1 yesterday!!!

overall, it was very good

act v was a little weird though. felt very disjointed

the whole thing with joan talking to demons was very odd? and the part where she’s like “hey i’m pregnant you can’t kill me” but is like?? joking about it?? i feel like if i were directing this play i’d cut a lot of that

but the fact that she dies is super sad

margaret and suffolk—what?

suffolk is a little creepy

the whole thing with margaret marrying henry vi is a bit uncomfortable to me, especially since 1. suffolk is wooing her for him, 2. he was supposed to marry this other woman? 3. they’ve never even met each other, 4. aren’t they both like,,, 12

and then suffolk goes “HEHEHEH I WILL TAKE CONTROL” and the play just ENDS that was kinda great

anyway i’m excited for part ii, which i’ll start sometime later this week!!

[flappyfluellen]

H6P1 ACT FOUR

TALBOT IS DEAD AND I AM SAD

those last few scenes with his son were immensely heartbreaking (despite being pretty melodramatic)

there’s some seriously good writing in this play

exeter got another soliloquy!! i like how he plays a chorus-like role in this almost

i LOVE henry vi and how he’s such a pacifist

(it might have been a bad idea for him to take somerset’s side though...)

dammit somerset and york can’t you just call off your feud for two seconds to help talbot,,,

i also noticed some interesting parallels with the henriad!

henry vi banishing falstaff “on pain of death”

talbot’s speech before bordeaux was quite like a shortened-down and much less intense version of the speech that henry v gives to the governor of harfleur! the difference, though, is that the french general answers with a super intense and actually pretty awesome and defiant speech

“O, were mine eyeballs into bullets turn'd, / That I in rage might shoot them at your faces!” seems like an earlier (and a bit more unintentionally funny) version of “And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his / Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones” (which is also funny but more witty)

[myfellpurpose]

Me: joan of arc

Shakespeare, an intellectual: joan la pucelle

[flappyfluellen]

just watched (part of) the hollow crown production of Henry vi pt 1!! or rather... h6p1 + parts of p2. I actually didn't watch the last 20 or so minutes because I didn't want to spoil p2 for myself... what I saw was pretty good though! I wish they had turned h6 into 3 movies instead of 2 -- that way, they could've left it more uncut. for the most part, the cuts made sense (and they switched some scenes around that actually made it easier to follow), but I still wish they'd left more in. especially talbot and joan, who suffered pretty heavy cuts.... but other than that, it was great! I especially liked Henry and Exeter :D

[flappyfluellen]

Submission, Dauphin! 'tis a mere French word; We English warriors wot not what it means.

Sir William Lucy, Henry VI pt 1

the funniest thing about this is that “submission” is actually, etymologically, a word from french