I keep saying this, but I cannot begin to explain how glad I am that the whiplash effect works. Mostly because Richard's tragedy does infect everything -- it's why the 'gage scene' is so hysterical and so bloody painful at the same time -- and everything that should be Chaucer's 'game' is imperceptibly darkened until it can't be a romance any longer, not of any variation on the definition.

Everyone playacts, and all wine does is remove the veneer (exactly as it does with actual varnish!).

Hotspur and Catullus. I really COULDN'T imagine anything worse....