Quote:
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Originally Posted by SanDiegoSteve
"The first thing we do is kill all the lawyers."
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SDS,
Please don't take this personal...
A lot of people are quick to quote the line "the first thing we do is kill all the lawyers," from Shakespeares' Henry VI. These persons often quote this line thinking that Shakespeare despised lawyers and thought the world would be better off without them. They are wrong. Shakespeare was paying homage to our profession.
To quote another internet site:
"Even a cursory reading of the context in which the lawyer killing statement is made in King Henry VI, Part II, (Act IV), Scene 2, reveals that Shakespeare was paying great and deserved homage to our venerable profession as the frontline defenders of democracy.
"The accolade is spoken by Dick the Butcher, a follower of anarchist Jack Cade, whom Shakespeare depicts as 'the head of an army of rabble and a dema-gogue pandering to the ignorant,' who sought to overthrow the government.
Shakespeare’s acknowledgment that the first thing any potential tyrant must do to eliminate freedom is to “kill all the lawyers” is, indeed, a classic and well-deserved compliment to our distinguished profession."
These characters wanted to overthrow the government by force. They knew the lawyers would oppose them and stand up for democracy. Thus, they decided that they must kill all the lawyers first in order to be successful in their "revolution".