Day 181: What I (Eventually) Learned From Henry IV, Part 2

Falstaff and his comically tiny companion, from Henry IV, Part 2 (from wsu.edu)

I learned quite a lot actually. First of all, I think Falstaff talks about narcolepsy at one point! That's particularly exciting for me because I have narcolepsy, as does my sister and our late father (and also Jimmy Kimmell, apparently). I don't see it mentioned much in popular culture, so that was pretty cool. Plus it makes Gus Van Sant's choice to have River Phoenix fall into a "narcoleptic fit" in My Own Private Idaho make more sense, even if that part of the movie was RI-DIC-U-LOUS. But I'm not sure if the character of Falstaff actually has narcolepsy or if it's just one of his many, many excuses to avoid facing charges by the Chief Justice for crimes he definitely did commit. But he describes it as "apoplexy, a lethargy disease, a kind of sleepiness in the blood" which definitely sounds like narcolepsy!

I also found it interesting that the character of Northumberland, upon hearing about the death of his son, has a shit-fit, and appropriately so. One thing Shakespeare knew how to write was the agony of a parent losing a child, especially a father losing a son (sadly, he had personal experience). But it's the specific thing that Northumberland says that strikes me. He says:

 "And let this world no longer be a stage 

To feed contention in a lingering act"

That reminds me of a twisting of the famous line, "All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players" (from As You Like It). Shakespeare has his actors say a lot of things that reference the stage they're on and the play they're in, a sort of self-awareness that breaks the fourth wall, if you will. Northumberland's line both does this and rejects it at the same time. His agony over the loss of his son makes him want to reject both his life as a soldier in a war AND his life as a character in a play. Interesting.

And speaking of Northumberland, how PISSED is his wife going to be when he gets home? The only reason their son is dead is because HE failed to back the right side. The Duchess of York from Richard II would NOT have put up with that shit AT ALL.