Fay DeWitt

            On Wednesday morning there was still no sign of any more bedbugs after finding the one three days ago. 

            I translated the seventh verse of "Arthur, où t'as mis le corps" (Arthur, Where'd You Put The Corpse?) by Boris Vian: "You're gonna answer / Arthur where'd you put the corpse? / Every day it's what we asked him / Arthur died from our force / and as soon as he did he vanished / Heck, we don't know how that was managed." 

            I finished transcribing the lyrics to “Cuti – réaction” (Skin Prick Reaction) by Serge Gainsbourg and did most of an initial translation. 

            I weighed 90 kilos before breakfast. 

            I logged onto my Shakespeare lecture, which was the last lecture on Henry IV. 

            There is a close relationship between content and form in Henry IV part 1. A way to think of the play and to apply to Shakespeare and literature in general. Content gives rise to form and shapes content. Form pushes content to change its shape to cause new representation and so on. 

            The content of Henry IV is political usurpation, rebellion and succession. It cycles from one to the other. Disruptive action, putative imaginary movement to Henry V. The movement between political cycles, no smooth unexpected reversals. There is a new king at the begin not feeling like a king. It ends with power consolidated but with more work to be done. 

            Did Shakespeare intend to write part 2 after part 1? No one knows, but intuition says he started Richard II thinking about a series containing all of them. When he started Henry IV he probably thought it would be one play but that's informed speculation. In the middle of Henry IV he thought maybe that he needed another play. Maybe he did not finish it but just stopped. Shakespeare was not conclusive in any play. He ends in a finished unfinished way. That suits the formal character suited to political content. 

            There is a jagged, messy overlapping between political cycles. Henry IV was still not done making his dynasty legitimate. One could move to Henry V from Henry IV part 1. Henry IV 2 is not performed very much but it's important. Narrow point of political continuity has to do with messy political cycles. 

            Nothing that is received can't be demanded back. That's the quality of political process. Just because one is supported doesn't mean supporters won't turn precarious. This thematic that rises of giving, getting, taking, losing, receiving and demanding contradiction is redefined by the play's form.

            At the level of content the play dramatizes things taken away and returned in new forms. It starts with Hotspur and Bollingbrook when Hotspur is refusing to give up his prisoners. On the form level of giving and taking Shakespeare gives ideas about characters that he takes away and gives back. Hal is a good time guy but then calculating and he changes back and forth. Falstaff demonstrates the festive principle but then becomes complicit with violence conscripting the poor to sacrifice them on the battlefield. Two Falstaffs are replaced by a different Falstaff. 

            The play begins with Henry IV talking as if there is peace but the value of domestic peace allows for foreign war. The panting of private peace becomes new broils. One kind of breathing becomes another. This idea of peace supplanting and supplanted by war . But there really is no domestic peace so the play gives the idea at the beginning of political cycles that it takes away. Confusing action is performed on the spectator characteristic of the method of the play. Domestic on larger level but then on a smaller level between Henry and his son. Henry thinks Hotspur is great. 1.1.78-07. Starting with the domestic configuration in England and then the domestic situation of a house divided. 

           It echoes The Comedy of Errors. Both Hotspur and Hal have the same name but the emphasis is on differences. There is the polarity of twinning and opposition. One thing is given for another. Hal for Hotspur. The thematic difference between Harry, Hotspur and Hal. Hotspur the son the king wants is not behaving well, while the son he has is still not behaving. Hotspur keeping the prisoners is a challenge. Hotspur is first presented as better and that is taken away and so he is another kind of wayward son. 

           Conflict bet Henry and Hotspur's family metastasises. Mortimer is captured in 1.3.77-92. The king refuses to redeem Mortimer. "Redeem" is an important word. Hotspur talks about Richard II declaring Mortimer his heir. Mortimer is presented as loyal to Henry but that is taken away. Hotspur says they need to get out from under the thumb of Henry. They must take back what they gave Henry. 1.3.180-185. Redeem vanished honours. The world thinks we're patsies so redeem our reputations. Bollingbrook will come for us so we must redeem ourselves to protect from him. Worcester advises Hotspur to deliver the prisoners. Hotspur now gives up the prisoners to the Scots for nothing but alliance. In giving to the Scots he is taking from Henry. "Redeem" is a pervasive word both literal and economic but also a metaphor. Redeeming time. says Hal. Redeem as payback in a cosmic sense. Redeem is used to pay ransom but also take back power. Redeeming is a key word for Hal's promise. At the end he seems to have done it. In the Last scene 5.5.1-5 Henry and Hal are united. Henry is upbraiding Worcester for deceiving Hotspur. 

           The play begins in mid rebellion with Henry at odds with Hal. Rebellion at the end is gone and Hal's behaviour is distinguished from that of Worcester. The end shows redemption. Yet the first thing Hal does as the reunited heir is deliver the Scottish prisoner Douglas ransomless and free. In 5.5.26-7. Hal says let me ransom Douglas, but he lets him free. But it's exactly what Hotspur did at the beginning. It's a new Hal but the first thing he does is take away our certainty by doing what Hotspur did. At the end Henry gets what he wants but also less. He asked for a son that acts like Hotspur and gets it but ends up at odds when Hal releases the Scottish prisoner. It is a characteristic way of wrapping up for Shakespeare like in Comedy of Errors. Everyone seems less satisfied than expected. There is more resolution than hoped but less articulation in a satisfying way. Giving and taking simultaneously.

            Read the first two acts of Winter Tale we start with that Monday. 

            How laconic is Henry's reaction to Hal's action. The king says nothing. We divide power. The king doesn't say it is a good idea. This is lacuna non response to an imperial gesture. What does it mean for the future Henry V? This question is supposed to run through the audience. 

            The character of Hal declares himself a thief in the beginning and we see him stealing. But he steals from robbers. The point of the prank is to encourage fellowship. The release of the trick is done in festivity. Hal and his lower class associates are happy together at the end of 2.4. Hal promises to make the robber answerable but also says the money will be paid with interest. Hal is now a thief who gives more than he stole. This tries to dramatize his movemeint to redemption. In 3.2.140-160 Hal promises to take back the glory Hotspur took or die. 100,000 lives I will give if I don't redeem this one. Redemption to give more than he has. Shakespeare is creating a parallel with the comic part of the play. Henry stole the throne from Richard and Hotspur is trying to steal it from Henry. Stealing from thieves is a comic parallel echo of what Hotspur is doing. Hal's promise to give back generously is the flip side of his prodigality. But the problem with redemptive Hal and the relation between the thieves and rebels is that it is hard to see Hotspur as a thief. The dividing of the map is meant to be a parallel. The play is sympathetic to Hotspur because it is so hard to say he is a thief. He gives himself. He's credulous. He believes what he is told. He is more like Falstaff in that he speaks what he thinks. Hotspur is a prodigal of words. Hal takes what he needs and gives back in a calculated way. 

            Hotspur would deserve to be king more than anyone because he is committed to honour and truth in action. At the end Hotspur reminds us that Hal is a thief. "Oh Harry you have robbed me of youth." At the moment of theft he said he's a thief. He is still taking a ransom from dad while giving Douglas freedom. Hal speaks Hotspur's final words. This is rare for Shakespeare. It is a moment of theft when he even takes a man's last words. Hal looks at Hotspur and Falstaff and speaks with a lack of generosity. Parsimony is not generous. He speaks about the limitedness of Hotspur in deliberate misrepresentation. Falstaff is great in size but Hal says he's fat. He promises to take his guts out. Falstaff rises to redeem his self. 

            We'll pick up the end of Henry IV part 1 on Monday and segue into A Winter's Tale. 

            The essay assignment is posted. 

            I weighed 88.8 kilos before lunch. I had saltines and five year old cheddar. 

            I finished reading the assigned Emily Dickinson poems and letters. 

            I worked on editing my Shakespeare lecture notes. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Yonge and Bloor. I weighed 88.1 kilos when I got home.

            I finished editing my Shakespeare lecture notes at around 1915. 

            I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sanswich bread with Toscanese sauce, the rest of my ham cut up and some extra old cheddar. I ate it with a beer while watching an episode of Gomer Pyle. 

            This story was more unique than usual and somewhat complicated. A large package is delivered to Gomer at Camp Henderson from a big department store. Inside is a baby carriage which he obviously didn't order. Gomer tries to call the store but his call keeps being passed off to so many different departmeets that he finally gives up and decides to return it to the store. The first person he speaks with doesn't understand that Gomer was sent the buggy by mistake and didn't pay for it. He doesn't want an exchange or a refund. She passes him over to the assistant manager who says they can't accept the buggy because it's now been used. He suggests that Gomer just keep the buggy but Gomer considers that stealing. The floor manager comes and tells Gomer to take the buggy to Adjustments on the fifth floor. Gomer tells them he wants the person that ordered the carriage to receive it but the person at that desk says they aren't set up for people getting what they ordered there. Gomer decides to take the buggy back to the base but he is stopped at the exit by the store detective who asks for a sales receipt. Since Gomer doesn't have one he is taken into custody. After a frustratingly futile line of questioning the answers to which the store officials won't accept, Sergeant Carter is called. Carter helps Gomer out of a locked office and tells him to leave with him but Gomer still wants to find the rightful owner of the buggy so he takes it. Now Gomer and Carter are taken into custody. Finally Miss Beckett, the first salesperson Gomer met arrives to confess to a mistake she made. She's sent a buggy meant for a Mrs G Peale to Mr G Pyle. The store manager apologizes but Carter still threatens to sue until he is given a minature television as a gift. Mrs Peale at the end comes to Gomer to thank him for returning the buggy because it was the only one she wanted and there was no other like it at the store. 

            The person in charge of Adjustments was played by Fay DeWitt, who played small supporting roles in several movies, TV shows, theatre and she played Mrs Ditkiss in the video game Red Dead Redemption. She started on Broadway singing in "Alive And Kicking" in 1949 at the age of 16. She sang my favourite song from a musical, the Rogers and Hammerstein song "I Caint Say No" in the 1960 studio recording of Oklahoma. She played Mrs Haskell, a neighbour of the Bunkers on All In The Family. She killed her ex husband, playwright Ray Allen with a letter opener in self defense when he broke into her place drunk and attacked her.