Is the Law of Our Side?: Part Three

"When valour preys on reason, it eats the sword it fights with."

November 12th

The validity of Contessa Capulet's will was expected to dominate the second day of the trial. Goneril had concluded the first day with a cautious switch of tactics, and she had begun the second convinced that the will was invalid and thus could not be contested or consulted. She believed a favorable resolution would come more quickly if her mother's will was set aside. Afterward, Goneril would be generous enough to return her portion of the profits, that the estate might be divided up legally (which, in her view, would be just as it had been) by the Court. She had no concerns there, not when all that was due Lady Capulet would finally be hers. 

Naturally, the opposing side was against invalidating the will. Though she believed a fair hearing from Lady Iden was possible, Juliette was not so green as to not see how the court's discretion could be bent to serve other considerations. Fitzwilliam expressed all the indignation of a scholar, packed to bursting as he was with information he believed must contradict such an abuse of law. Of course, there would have been no call for indignation if he did not know that facts could be overcome. Facts were the cornerstones of their argument. If facts were overlooked in this trial, Juliette's cause was doomed.

Do You Know the Cause?

"If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches and poor men’s cottages princes' palaces." 

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August 5th

"No! Henry, I am not sharing grandchildren with that idiot!"

A Stranger in the World

"Thou know’st the first time that we smell the air we wawl and cry."

June 15th

Sitting in the Governors' Chamber for the first time gave Mercutio all the feelings he had expected: anticipation, satisfaction, nausea. Of course, his nausea was nothing to the gut-emptying plague his uncle was currently enjoying. Mercutio felt no remorse. If Antonio didn't drink to the point of hallucinating most nights, slipping in a soured batch wouldn't have been so easy. If he had spent less time reveling in his newly found majesty, Antonio would have had the time to decide on a loyal proxy rather than be forced by sheer necessity to send Mercutio in his place to today's session.

What Say You to My Suit?

"Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie."

January 28th

Anne drummed her fingers against her thigh. It had been snowing in Verona for nearly two days, trapping everyone inside her uncle's house. She wasn't a lover of the outdoors by any means, and she couldn't find any fault with the house itself. It was much finer to Anne's eye than her cousin's house, where they had stayed from summer until Christmas. If she had to admit to it, the real trouble was being trapped in the house with her mother. Lady Catherine de Bourgh was not in the habit of brooking disappointment, and their journey to the capital was in danger of being an immense one. The original plan had been to return home after her cousin's wedding, which was now only a week away. Time was running out. Being snowbound at Fitzwilliam House would be a dream to her back in lonely, dreary Varainsee. 

There was really only one thing to do. She needed a husband to anchor her here. Anne didn't think she should have to do it, but it was the only plan she had. Either she lowered herself or she went home with her mother. 

Marry is the Very Theme

"I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright."

December 18th

All was not right in Fitzwilliam Darcy's world. He ought to be in Juliette's company; instead, he was waiting on his aunt's pleasure at his uncle's table without her. Her family had been invited to last week's gathering, but they were quite conspicuously absent this time. The table was less crowded without the Capulets but so much less enjoyable. The only thing her absence offered him was freedom. It wasn't freedom from Juliette, and it wasn't freedom to enjoy himself, though.

It was the freedom to glower while he decided who he despised the most.

High Fortune

"And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges."

November 29th

It was a quiet evening in Andrew Fitzwilliam's study. He was entertaining his father-in-law, Orsino Nowell, who was also the Senior Governor of Verona. While a frequent occurrence, these evenings were not quite what he had hoped for. Before his marriage, Andrew had envisioned a strong alliance which would elevate them above everyone else in the duchy. Reality was somewhat different. While Lords Nowell and Fitzwilliam were often politically aligned, the personal relationship was far less balanced. Nothing delighted Orsino more than to antagonize Andrew - mostly for amusement but also as revenge for marrying his favorite child. Andrew endured the torment to keep the alliance strong, which only encouraged his father-in-law more.