King John Men and Masculinity Quotes

Like we've said before, if you think something is a dirty pun, it probably is. When Robert complains that his father's "will" is being dishonored, he is referring, of course, to the legal document expressing the desires of a dead person. But when the Bastard uses the word "will," however, he's saying that Robert Falconbridge Sr. wasn't much of a man, and that he couldn't use his, ahem, "willy" to get it on with Lady Falconbridge.

By the way, in his sonnets, Shakespeare is always punning on the word "will." It can be mean a lot of things: 1) a legal document; 2) a wish or desire; 3) the genitals; and 4) his own name, Will Shakespeare. Check out Sonnet 135 if you don't believe us.

These lines give us more of the Bastard's macho posturing. Not only does he insult his brother Robert for his supposedly bad physique, but he also says that he got this physique from his father, Robert Falconbridge, Sr., and so he insults father and son at the same time. The real doozy comes at the end of this passage, though. In Shakespeare's day, "Knob" was a nickname for "Robert" the same way "Bob" is now. Also, "in any case" was used to mean "under any circumstances." Thus, when the Bastard says he would not be "Sir Knob in any case," he is saying (a) that he doesn't want to be the son of Sir Robert, and (b) he wouldn't want to be a... well... knob.

These words may seem a bit sexist to modern ears, as they portray it as a manly activity to sneak around in the night and climb in windows, just for a chance for some private time with a lady. Sexism aside, of course, the activities the Bastard is describing would have been thoroughly disreputable in Elizabethan times, as well. But the Bastard is completely unashamed, because such an illicit sexual act has given rise to him—and he is very fond of himself, in typical macho fashion.

The Bastard really won't let it rest, will he? Here, he makes the same joke he's been making in the previous quotations. It goes something like this: (a) Sir Robert wasn't much of a man; (a) I am much of a man; (b) therefore, Sir Robert isn't my father, and good riddance to him.

Louis the Dauphin presents us with another macho stereotype: the macho man as narcissist. When Louis looks in the eyes of Blanche, the woman he has been given an opportunity to marry, he is struck by a beauty he can at first only call a "wonder, or a wondrous miracle." What is it that has so attracted his attention? Why, his own reflection, of course. If this isn't Shakespeare's ultimate joke on excessive macho posturing, we don't know what is. We suspect this line must have gotten a big laugh from its original audience—and it probably still does today.

Here we see another interesting side of the masculine ideal of toughness: it always defines itself in terms of its opposite, womanliness. Because crying is associated with being feminine, or (in his words) "womanish," Hubert feels like less of a man when tears start flowing from his eyes. Of course, this is probably a good thing—if being a man means following through on his orders and heartlessly blinding and murdering an innocent child.

Can you say "phallic symbolism"? Seriously. Let's let these macho hotheads have their fun playing swords. Still, before we go, we do think it's interesting that, when push comes to shove and machismo confronts machismo, artificial questions about social hierarchy don't matter so much anymore. It all comes down to who's top dog… or, it would, anyway, if these two guys actually ended up fighting. In the end, though, Salisbury walks away.

Louis's reaction to Salisbury's tears here is interesting. Given the emphasis his medieval culture places on machismo, you might expect Louis to think less of Salisbury as a man. Instead, though, he claims that Salisbury's tears make him respect him all the more. His reasoning is that women cry all the time, so if Salisbury is crying, something really big must be wrong. Okay, so maybe Louis is still stuck within his cultural mindset, after all. And, in any case, we probably can't read too much into this speech as a sign of Louis's thoughts; after all, we learn later on that he's secretly planning to have Salisbury killed. We're guessing Louis doesn't plan to be moved by Salisbury's tears when he's begging for his life. (Of course, this never happens in the play, because Salisbury learns about Louis's plot and defects to King John's side again.)

Even the biggest macho man has a soft spot for his mother. And this is the weak spot that the Bastard tries to exploit in talking to the rebels Salisbury, Pembroke, and Lord Bigot. In this case, of course, the Bastard is referring to their metaphorical mother, England. By calling them "Neroes," the Bastard is talking about the infamous Roman emperor who killed his own mother. "You don't want to be like Nero," he seems to be telling them, "so stop killing your own mother, England." Then he tries to make them feel like lesser men by pointing out that even the women of the land (presumably less interested in war than men) have been transforming their sewing supplies into weapons to fight for England's cause. We're not sure how seriously to take this (you never can tell with the Bastard); it might mainly be designed to needle the rebels (so to speak) into taking a good hard look at what they're doing.

P.S. In King John, warfare is mostly a (manly) man's game. But a few years before Shakespeare wrote this play, Queen Elizabeth I's troops defeated the Spanish Armada. At one point in the conflict, she went into the field and delivered a kick-butt speech to her troops. Check it out here.

In keeping with his macho attitude in the play so far, at the very end of the play, the Bastard talks about his determination as if it's a characteristically manly thing: because he is a man, not a woman, he feels confident that he can endure any fright.