I took one for humanity

Ignorance is bliss. I'll be the first to admit that I am lacking somewhat in certain areas of cultural refinement and knowledge. I did take Humanities 101 in college and we read Julius Cæsar and Romeo & Juliet in 10th grade English class, but other than that my exposure to Shakespeare has been zilch, nada, a big fat zero.

I'll admit I've used, upon occasion, a few casual Shakespearean catch phrases once or twice (and whom amongst us hasn't?): Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. Beware the Ides of March…and my personal favorite…Eh tu, Brut?

But I have never, never been exposed to King Henry V. I'm very familiar with Henry the VIII by way of Herman's Hermits. They sang about him in the sixties.

I'm Henry the eighth I am
Henry the eighth I am, I am
I got married to the widow next door
She's been married seven times before
And every one was an Henry (Henry)
She wouldn't have a Willy or a Sam (no Sam)
I'm her eighth old man, I'm Henry
Henry the eighth I am

Second verse same as the first

I'm Henry the eighth I am
Henry the eighth I am, I am
I got married to the widow next door
She's been married seven times before
And every one was an Henry (Henry)
She wouldn't have a Willy or a Sam (no Sam)
I'm her eighth old man, I'm Henry
Henry the eighth I am

I'm Henry the eighth I am
Henry the eighth I am, I am
I got married to the widow next door
She's been married seven times before
And every one was an Henry (Henry)
She wouldn't have a Willy or a Sam (no Sam)
I'm her eighth old man, I'm Henry
Henry the eighth I am

H-E-N-R-Y
Henry (Henry)
Henry (Henry)
Henry the eighth I am, I am
Henry the eighth I am

Yeah

Back to the tale. cs' birthday was yesterday so I conceded to go to Cedar City and view a play — King Henry the V.

cs: You'll like it. It's about war and stuff.

ld: Okay. If it'll make you happy. It's your birthday.

We go down a day early and spend some time in St George shopping and then head to the play. It starts at 8:00 p.m. cs is so excited that we get there at 7:15, but that's okay because they have troubadours and minstrels (that's the Shakespearean way of saying: Thespians) performing on a stage to entertain the crowd before the doors open up.

We get in our seats. It's an outdoor theater reminiscent of The Globe theater. We're seating on the lower level in the second to the last row — not bad seats. If it starts to rain, we've got the roof over our heads.

The play starts. cs is elated. For the first hour this is what I hear: Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Whoa, what is going on here? I quickly grab the program and read the synopsis of the play. Now I have an idea of what it is about. Then my English ear gets attuned and this is what I hear throughout the soliloquies: Blah, blah, Harry, blah, blah, war, blah. I must confess that I had more understanding of what was going on during the scene between the French princess and her handmaiden…and most of that was in French.

After 90 minutes, they have an intermission. I lean over to cs and ask, Just exactly how long is this play?

cs: 3 hours

Needless to say, I've got enough Henry the V to last me a lifetime.

But cs was and is elated and if she's happy, then that makes me happy.

I told cs that next year we're going to bring Megs, FSIL II, Bird & FSIL I. At halftime, I'm going to ask FSIL I & FSIL II, Who's for heading back to the hotel and turning on ESPN?