Day Sixteen

Henry VI, Part 1

4.1 

SYNOPSIS

Everyone's gathered around H6 in Paris to watch him get crowned and to watch the Governor of France kneel before H6.  Falstaff shows up (which pisses Talbot off, obvs.).  Falstaff delivers a letter from Burgundy.   Before it gets read, Talbot tattles on Falstaff, strips Falstaff of his garter (F was a member of the Garter order or something), and H6 then banishes Falstaff.  Then Gloucester reads Burgundy's letter ("I'm French again"), and H6 sends Talbot after him to figure out why.

H6

Then gather strength and march unto him straight.

Let him perceive how ill we brook his treason,

And what offense it is to flout his friends.

Vernon and Basset then enter and restart their bickering and ask to be allowed to arm themselves and fight.  York and Somerset are there as well and suggest the fight is theirs alone.  H6, Gloucester, and Exeter ask them to just forget about it.  Then H6 says:

H6

I see no reason, if I wear this rose,

     Putting on rose

That any one should therefore be suspicious

I more incline to Somerset than York:

Both are my kinsmen, and I love them both.

Then H6 gives York and Somerset new responsibilities to get them to forget about their disagreement:

H6

Cousin of York, we institute your Grace

To be our regent in these parts of France;

And, good my Lord of Somerset, unite

Your troops of horsemen with his bands of foot

York leaves only thinking of H6 wearing the red rose, Somerset’s color. The scene ends with these observations from Exeter:

Exeter

This factious bandying of their favorites,

But that it doth presage some ill event.

…

But more, when envy breeds unkind division:

There comes the ruin, there begins confusion.

IMPRESSIONS

I find H6 somewhat lame, and it sucks that he banished Falstaff, who was H4's best friend (if I'm remembering correctly, they were best friends until he went from being Hal to H4...and then he disowned F as well...how old is F?). There is also a surprisingly immediate juxtaposition here between how Falstaff is treated and how the bickering losers are treated at the end of the scene.  While Falstaff is dismissed outright, Vernon and Basset, and York and Somerset (V&B's lords) are asked to come together for the sake of appearances.

H6

Henceforth I charge you,as you love our favor,

Quite to forget this quarrel, and the cause.

And you, my lords: remember where we are--

In France, amongst a fickle, wavering nation.

If they perceive dissention in our looks,

...[they will] be provok'd

To willful disobedience, and rebel!

So, if the disagreement between two guys would be enough to send a message to the French about the dissension in H's ranks, why wouldn't the outright banishment of Falstaff send the same message?  In fact, it would seem banishment was far worse a suggestion than a disagreement.  Disagreement shows passion, commitment to a cause for which either party would be willing to fight.  Banishment shows intolerance, frustration, but mostly ineptitude.  Mmm. He is young after all, and Exeter sort of alludes to future problems this will cause in his little soliloquy at the end.

LINE OF THE DAY

Not a line so much as a stage direction.  After the pomp of finally crowing Henry king, the severity and solemnity of the occasion is cut and emitted from me a laugh.

Exeunt Governor and Train.                 Enter Falstaff.

It really does signal a shift, at least temporarily, from drag-y seriousness to a least a little camp.  I particularly appreciate the distance between their exit and his entrance.  There's like a few extra beats in there that add to the levity.