The Play's the Thing - A Visit to the Past

My set of DVD’s of the BBC’s “An Age of Kings” series arrived in Friday’s mail. While my plan is to watch the whole series in regnal order (the order in which the events take place), I decided to watch a few selected scenes among other things to test my memory of something I saw almost 50 years ago. I chose somewhat by random three scenes – the great tavern scene in Henry IV, Part I, the band of brothers speech in Henry V, and the scene at the end of Richard III when Richard is visited by the ghosts of those he had killed on the way to the throne.

My memory of the great tavern scene was that I didn’t like it, primarily because I didn’t like Falstaff. While I still see his shortcomings very clearly, I can also now see how attractive he is as a character and just how funny he really is. Seeing the scene for the first time at the age of 15, I don’t think I was old or mature enough to appreciate it. Now I recognize the brilliance of the scene, just how funny and enjoyable it really is – perhaps one of the greatest scenes Shakespeare ever wrote. Hal is played by Robert Hardy who has had a long and distinguished acting career and certainly plays the part well. I didn’t know the actor, who played Falstaff, but he was good and the scene was as good as any other versions that I have watched.

Interestingly I had no memory at all of the band of brothers speech in the Age of Kings version. What I did remember was how disappointed I was at how short the actual battle scene is in this version. Now having seen Robert Hardy give the speech, I have to say I was disappointed, part of that is probably because to me every other version I have ever seen pales in comparison to Kenneth Branagh’s version in his movie of the play. My memory of the fight scene was exactly on target, the scene of the fighting at Agincourt lasted probably less than a minute and takes place primarily in Henry’s imagination. I think one of the reasons I was so disappointed all those years ago was that the battle scenes in Henry IV, Part I were so effective. Of course, I realize now that in the latter play the fight between Hal and Hotspur is crucial to the play while in Henry V the issue is not Henry’s valor, but how he inspires others to fight for him.

Finally I watched the ghost scene in Richard III primarily because I remember it as the most effective version of that scene that I have ever watched. My memory was accurate and it didn’t disappoint all these years later. While he tries to sleep the night before the battle of Bosworth Field, Richard is visited by the ghosts of his victims. Each of them tells Richard to “Despair and Die,” it is a lot easier to work in the ghosts in a film version, but even Olivier’s movie (which I hated) doesn’t come any near as close in its haunting realism.

As I watched these three scenes and thought about them, I started comparing them in my mind to other versions I have seen over the years – some as recently as last fall. At first I was disappointed to think that in some ways I have seen them done better at other times. But then I realized the importance to me of “An Age of Kings” is not that they were necessarily the best Shakespeare I have ever seen, but rather it was my first experience with Shakespeare. Regardless of whether they were the best, they were the first and they were good enough to keep me interested for almost five decades. That is more than sufficient reason to honor them and to watch them again – something I look forward to a great deal.