Fwd: Re: Bob Hope's 100th birthday

["Laurence Glavin" <lglavin@lycos.com>]

>DATE: Sat, 31 May 2003 12:27:44
>From: "Laurence Glavin" <lglavin@lycos.com>
>To: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
>Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2003 12:02 PM
>Subject: Fwd: Bob Hope's 100th birthday


> "First, let's kill all the lawyers"
> Shakespeare:  "Henry VI"

>You should not forget the context where the >Shakespearean character said,
>"first, let's kill all the lawyers." He said it while >he was plotting how to
>set up a dictatorship over England. What the line >really means (and what
>almost nobody understands when they parrot it by >rote) is that lawyers are
>necessary to preserve our civil liberties. >Shakespeare wasn't making fun of
>lawyers at all.

I was making a little joke that was occasioned by
Joe Ross's bad pun.   Some comedians have used the catch phrase
"I knew that" when receiving a come-uppance, but the
fact is I did know that.  The line "First, let's kill all the lawyers"
is stated by a member of a mob to Jack Cade, a George 
Wallace-style demagogue who speaks on behalf of those who
work with their hands as laborers, rather than clerks,
magistrates, lawyers etc who wreak mischief with a pen.
The S-man comments negatively about lawyers elsewhere, most
famously in the "To be or not to be" speech when Hamlet

cites  "the law's delay" as an evil that people shouldn't have to endure.
Something tells me that one of the first things a law student learns 
is the context of that line from "Henry VI, Ver 2.0"
even when spoken in jest!

Laurence Glavin



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