What Is in That Word, "Honour"?: October 30, 2017

Focus: What does Act 5 of King Henry IV suggest about honor?

1. Warming up with three good things

2. Performing a close reading of Falstaff's speech about honor

• Use the Concordance to find patterns among the use of "honour" across the Henry plays.

• Who gets to use the word "honour" at the beginning of Henry IV, Part I? Who gets the final say? What about in Henry IV, Part 2? What about Henry V?

• How do these characters define "honour"?

• Use the OED to look up words we don't know and how they were used in the 16th century.

• View the Orson Welles performance of it and his thoughts on Falstaff as a nostalgic representation of an earlier, more innocent England.

3. Enjoying a highly symbolic activity involving hands and viewing the rest of Act 4

4. Preparing for Act 5 and mental jousting:

• Quickly read through the scene summaries for Act 5, and for each one, jot down how the scene supports or challenges one or more of the statements above.

• Henry IV is an honorable king.
• Honor pertains only to the dead, not to the living.
• Henry IV is essentially an anti-war play.

• As you view The Hollow Crown's version of Act 5, scenes 1 and 2, consider what symbolic/directorial choices the film makes in responding to the statements above. Jot these down in your composition notebook.

• After viewing, you will be assigned "agree" and "disagreer" roles, and you will be verbally jousting each other regarding the three statements above.

(Note to self: Act 5 is 24 minutes long and begins at 1:36:05

A heads-up: We will have a "Tuesday writing" on Wednesday, but it will not be Question 3; instead, it will be a poetry prompt that (as you could probably guess), focuses on a Shakespearean speech. Also, it won't be a full writing; it will be a focused activity on close reading.

HW:
1. Please make sure your sonnet essay draft is complete and in www.turnitin.com.

2. We will finish the play tomorrow in class and (hopefully) begin your big question blogs. Please finish your big question blogs on Henry IV by next Monday.

3. If you own your own copy of Beloved or wish to purchase one, you will need it starting Thursday night.