Berowne's 12/9 Quiz

Here’s the answer to this week’s quiz.
I always had the feeling that of all the kings Will Shakespeare wrote about and thought about – and he thought about quite a number of them - Henry the Fifth was the one he admired the most. He was Will’s idea of the ideal English king.
But when he was young, the future King Henry – then known as Prince Hal – left the Royal Court to waste his time in taverns with low companions.
Hal's chief friend in living the low life was Sir John Falstaff. Fat, old, drunk and corrupt as he was, he had a charisma and a zest for life that captivated the Prince, born into the hypocritical world of the Court.

So the wild kid who turned into a decent young man was Prince Hal, the answer to our quiz for this week.

Laurence Olivier as Henry V.

Congratulations to Lyn and Other Mary for the right answer. I can now publish their original comments.

Here's the original post.
(For Three-Word Wednesday and ABC Wednesday: "V" is for "Victor")

All those tattoos made me think of today’s younger, wilder generation. And that got me to thinking of another Berownial quiz.
Folks seem to like them so here’s another one. I wrote the following scene, basing it loosely on one of the best-known Shakespeare characters (speaking of younger, wilder generations). Your assignment – should you choose to accept it – is, which character?

“You do understand that this is all top secret. If Mr. Axtell knew I had a private detective following his son around he’d be a bit upset.”
“Of course. I’m a professional. I report only to you. No one else knows this is going on.”
“Okay. What’s the bad news this time? What abnormal thing has Victor been up to?”
“Well, I don’t know how bad this news is, but he bought a motorcyle.”
“I suppose that had to happen, sooner or later. But even a used motorbike is – what? A thousand dollars or so? He’s a kid; he can't afford a lavish lifestyle. Where’d he get the money?
“Oh, he had money. Quite a lot of it. He took it from his trust fund.”
“That’s impossible. He can’t touch that trust fund till he’s 21 years old.”
“Young Victor is a bit more clever than you might think. He hacked his way into his fund on the internet. And you won’t believe what he paid for a new Harley-Davidson. Sixty thousand dollars.”
“Good God! I didn’t even know they made motorbikes for that kind of money.”
“Well, he had a lot of custom work done on it. You should see it; it’s kind of unbelievable. But it has made him king of the hill with that gang he hangs out with.”
“Mr. Axtell is going to have a heart attack. So Victor is still with that same gang?”
“Yep. And the real bad news is that they get involved in some nefarious activities from time to time.”
“And you mean to say he takes part?”
“No. He just likes to watch, from a distance. He gets a kick out of such goings-on.”
“I don’t know how I’m going to report this to Mr. Axtell. Here he is, CEO of a Fortune 500 company, Axtell Industries, and he’s got a teenage son who’s running wild. He’ll say Victor should be grounded, but that doesn’t seem to mean much. By the way, who’s – let me check this name here – who’s Fat Ferdy?”
“Oh, that’s one of the gang Victor especially likes to hang out with. They go everywhere together. He makes Victor laugh.”
“I’m glad someone has something to laugh about. Mr Axtell had great plans for his son. He always dangled the possibility before the boy that he would have a top position some day. That would seem to be out of the question now.”
“Well, you know, there’s an angle to this that’s – well, interesting.”
“More bad news?”
“No, not really. When I interviewed him, Victor told me that he knows just what he’s doing. He’s a kid having fun, screwing around, living it up, but he also knows very well who he is and what’s expected of him. I may be mistaken but I got the feeling that when he grows up he’s going to turn out all right.”

(Submitted also to Sunday Scribblings)