00:15The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.
00:19That's what Shakespeare said nearly 500 years ago.
00:22Now, if Shakespeare wanted all the lawyers dead, then surely he must have hated them, right?
00:27It's an open-and-shut case, in the court of public opinion, anyway.
00:31But in a court of law, we'd require slightly more evidence.
00:35So, let's dig a little deeper.
00:37First things first, Shakespeare didn't actually say it.
00:40He wrote it, and then got one of his characters, the very literally named Dick the Butcher, to say it.
00:47The line comes from a scene in Henry VI in which Jack Cade, a revolutionary rebelling against the Crown,
00:53is promising a host of utopian dreams to his followers.
00:56He would make small beer illegal, so that everyone could drink the strong stuff instead.
01:02He would get rid of all the money everywhere, and finally, he would make people wear identical clothes.
01:08As Jack shouts out these promises to his followers, Dick is undermining him in various asides,
01:14eventually calling to kill all the lawyers.
01:17A perfectly reasonable thing to say if you're drunk, penniless, and sartorially challenged,
01:22or at least want to be.
01:24So, is Dick's line a real indication of Shakespeare's beliefs?
01:28A throwaway joke?
01:29Or maybe something more?
01:31It's easy to take it as a joke.
01:33A crowd-pleaser designed to get an easy laugh.
01:36It takes Jack's calls to a logical extreme, all the while playing to the audience's prejudices
01:41and inviting them into the play.
01:44But it isn't just a throwaway joke.
01:46After all, one of Shakespeare's greatest skills was packing different layers of meaning into the same line of dialogue.
01:53On another level, Shakespeare is undermining the cause of the revolutionaries,
01:57satirizing their populist calls for simple answers to complex problems.
02:02Very clever.
02:03We could argue that Shakespeare actually recognizes lawyers as protectors.
02:09They are the vessels of law who prevent demagogues from using the uninformed,
02:14who just don't know any better, to hijack society.
02:17Of course, others argue that the quote should be taken on face value,
02:21that a cigar is just a cigar, a lawyer is just a lawyer,
02:24and that they should all be summarily extinct.
02:28Actually, there are good reasons for this line of thinking, too.
02:31It's a little-known fact that Shakespeare's father,
02:35a successful businessman and public servant,
02:37had his career cut short by a series of court cases,
02:41which his son would certainly remember well.
02:45Now, lawyers tend to appear in one's life at times of hardship,
02:49promising to perhaps, maybe, possibly save you.
02:52If you're lucky, you walk away bankrupt but free.
02:55Unlucky, and you end up in Jack Cage's utopia.
02:59Penniless, dressed in a uniform, hopefully drunk, and definitely not free.
03:04Arguably, writers are just predisposed to hate lawyers by their very nature.
03:09Lawyers try to control and contain reality with their rules and regulations,
03:14while writers do the very opposite.
03:16They try to escape reality.
03:18They invent worlds, play with words,
03:21test arguments through dramatic action,
03:24and try to plumb the depths of the human soul.
03:29The only thing a lawyer plumbs the depths of is your wallet,
03:32and they're exceedingly good at it, too.
03:35However, some say that Shakespeare actually worked as a lawyer before becoming a playwright.
03:41After all, it's the profession he refers to the most in his plays,
03:44and he invariably gets the details correct.
03:48Ultimately, it seems as if Shakespeare didn't really hate lawyers at all.
03:52He might not have respected them,
03:54but he certainly realised that they are a necessary evil for any functioning society.
03:59The tragedy is that people only encounter lawyers when they're in trouble,
04:03and it's easy to subconsciously associate lawyers with that trouble.
04:07They think, kill the lawyer, kill the problem.
04:10But, as with many things, a simple answer to a complex problem is rarely the right one.
04:16It's a bit like trying to give a unicorn the power of flight by giving it wings.
04:20It doesn't fly, and inevitably lands badly.
04:24Well, my friends, I hope you've been enlightened on Shakespeare's opinions,
04:29and if you were, you can enlighten yourselves even further by subscribing and sharing this video.
04:36So, thank you wholeheartedly for watching it,
04:39and see you next time for the next exciting episode of SideQuest.
04:44Close the curtain!
04:46Huzzah!
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