My second favorite Whackadoodle riddle

What did Shakespeare mean when he wrote, "The first thing we do is, let’s kill all the lawyers?"

Okay, it’s not really a riddle, but a lot of people quote Shakespeare’s words without placing his words into context, and this particular quote has been getting a lot of play lately. What with all the threats being sent to attorney generals and election workers.

People seem to believe that Shakespeare thought is was a good idea to kill all the lawyers without reading the play.

The quote is said by a character called Dick the Butcher in Act IV, Scene II of William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part II, which was (we think) written between 1596 and 1599. Dick the Butcher is, as him name suggests, a villain. He is a fictional character working with Jack Cade, a real man, who led a major rebellion (1450) against the government of King Henry VI of England; although the uprising was suppressed, it contributed to the breakdown of royal authority that led to the Wars of the Roses (1455–85) between the houses of York and Lancaster. (Thirty years of fighting and death).

So why did our fictional character Dick want to kill all the lawyers?

Because the lawyers, and the rule of law that they stood for, stood between him and his goal to take over the kingdom.

Sound familiar?