Let's kill all the lawyers.

• Author: Bennett, Gerald T.

SHAKESPEARE [MIGHT HAVE] MEANT IT

IN THE ARTICLE, "The First Thing We Do, Let's Get Shakespeare Right!"[1] J.B. Hopkins concludes that Shakespeare's line, "Let's kill all the lawyers;" is, contrary to its facial meaning, a statement in praise of lawyers, not in derogation of them. In so doing, he perpetuates a political, although professionally flattering, deconstructive interpretation, one that, I believe, goes beyond valid inference.

It is with deep trepidation and reluctance that I enter this dispute of literary interpretation as devil's advocate, taking issue with those who would praise lawyers, not bury them.[2] Having drunk a little of Pope's Pierian Spring,[3] and finding only that, the more one drinks, the deeper the spring seems to get, I find only that the more I learn, the less I know. Nonetheless, since, as most of my acquaintances and all of my former students are well aware, I am apparently endowed with the temerity of fools rather than the perspicacious reluctance of angels,[4] let's begin....

The line, "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers," appears in the play, King Henry the Sixth, Part II. In the play, a rebellion has broken out under the leadership of one Jack Cade. The rebels have marched from Canterbury to London, and are encamped in London. Cade's second-in-command, Dick the Butcher, utters the line. Simply stated, the argument that the line is meant to praise lawyers is that the sentence was uttered by a thoroughgoing blackguard, a "riotous anarchist whose intent was to overthrow the lawful government of England." Shakespeare knew that such anarchy could only succeed if lawyers were eliminated. The interpretation was initially advanced in 1985 by Justice John Paul Stevens in his dissenting opinion in Walters v. National Ass'n of Radiation Survivors.[5] Although it is an interpretation that has often been used in recent years to praise lawyers,[6] the evidence supporting the interpretation is unfortunately less than compelling.

First of all, Shakespeare, whoever he was,[7] was a poet and dramatist, not a political philosopher or social critic, however much political philosophy and social criticism are evident in his works. His work embodies various kinds of drama, ranging from the comedies to the tragedies to the histories. Henry VI, Part II is, first, foremost and always, a historical drama, emphasis on the word drama. It was meant to be performed on the stage, captivate an audience, and, not inconsequentially according to some Shakespearean scholars, earn a bit of praise and favor from the reigning monarch.

A Little Revolting History....

In the later Middle Ages, two revolts took place in England within a fairly short span of time: the Jack Cade Revolt during the reign of Henry VI (1421-1471) and another which had taken place 69 years earlier, the Peasants' Revolt under Wat Tyler in June of 1381. Shakespeare combines both rebellions to create the scenes in Henry VI.

The historical Jack Cade's revolt -- the one that actually did take place in the reign of Henry VI -- was not a revolt of peasants, but rather of substantial, involved citizens.[8] The demands they made of the king were primarily monetary, related to the abatement of taxes and the dismissal of corrupt public officials.[9] In the actual Cade's revolt, there were no complaints or demands from the rebels regarding lawyers, laws, or unjust oppression.[10] The revolt began in Kent, swept through the countryside to London where it was eventually repressed with the rebels then retreating back toward the Kentish coast.

The earlier Peasants' Revolt under Wat Tyler actually took place during the reign of Richard II. Unlike the Cade revolt, this rebellion was directed against lawyers and against what the revolutionaries considered unjust laws and oppressively harsh legal enforcement of those laws. The peasants revolted against the legal slavery imposed on them by law and their consequent lack of political and legal rights. The peasants viewed lawyers not as defenders of liberty...