How we cite our quotes: (Act.Scene.Line)
Quote #10
BASTARD
I'll tell thee, Hubert, half my power this night,
Passing these flats, are taken by the tide.
These Lincoln Washes have devourèd them.
Myself, well mounted, hardly have escaped. (5.6.43-46)
These lines reinforce the exact same message as the previous quotation, but they show the flipside of that lesson. Sometimes chance works with you, and sometimes it works against you. In this case, chance is against King John's men: it results in the Bastard losing half of his men in a flood. Then again—maybe chance isn't everything here. Shouldn't the Bastard have done a better job of scouting out the territory? Shouldn't he have known there was this risk? Questions like these—about the interaction between personal responsibility and chance—have preoccupied military historians for millennia. Shakespeare's King John certainly doesn't have the answers, but it reminds us of these key questions.