The first thing we do, let's get Shakespeare right! (Florida)

• Author: Hopkins, J.B.

The letter in the Pensacola News Journal was very surprising to me, because I had the opinion that the author, a frequent letter-writer to the News Journal, was an intelligent man and would not deliberately try to mislead anybody or state part of a fact.

Part of his letter attacked lawyers, the popular thing to do, and used the famous quotation of William Shakespeare: "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."

It's time we set the record straight on that quotation.

This marks the 407th anniversary of the year (1591) when Shakespeare used those words, which the letterwriter uses out of context.

Lawyers have become the brunt of many stupid jokes. There is some justification, I suppose, or excuse for misquoting history by our citizenry, but there's really no excuse for an intelligent man like the letter-writer misquoting history.

William Shakespeare has often been used, in his greatness, to provide credence for whatever argument is desired. To set the record straight, though, Shakespeare, in the use of the phrase "kill all the lawyers," intended it as anything but criticism.

In Act IV, Scene 2, line 86 of the second part of Henry VI, a play written by Shakespeare in 1591, Dick the Butcher says: "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."

This play was set in England in the mid-15th century. Young Henry VI was thought to be a weakling, and England was involved in an unsuccessful war with France and was going through some economic depression.

Now, in this background, the Duke of York attempted to incite a rebellion in the laboring class in order to fulfill his own ambitions for obtaining the throne. He did not want to call attention to himself, so he did the planning and orchestration of this rebellion through Jack Cade, who was a warmonger and headstrong Kentishman. Jack Cade ultimately led his riotous followers through the streets of London, damaging and wrecking property, killing noblemen, and attempting to establish the duke as the rightful heir to the throne.

Before the plan was executed, Cade and his followers, among whom was Dick the Butcher, met to discuss the plan of attack...