ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by all the king's men.

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They've really been down on themselves since

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that whole Humpty Dumpty situation.

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Well, check out the following passage.

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[ mumbles ]

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[ mumbling continues ] Ugh, that was a mouthful. All right.

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In context, which of the following is the best interpretation of

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the word "condescension" in line ten?

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Here are the potential answers.

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[ mumbles ] Sounds like how we feel when we get our grades.

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All right, so what's this question asking?

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Well, it starts out with "in context,"

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so, yeah, we can't just look up "condescension" in the dictionary.

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Meaning we gotta check out the context in which we read the word, right?

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So we're gonna need to figure out how it applies specifically to this passage.

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All right, well, let's check out the lines in question.

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"...two houses, assuming a tone of conscious superiority,

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replied that they could receive no message from a prince

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who had raised his standard against his parliament,

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and had pronounced their general a traitor.

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Charles (and his condescension may be taken as proof

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of his wish to avoid hostilities)

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offered to withdraw his proclamation, provided they on their part

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would rescind their votes against his adherents." [ chuckles ]

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Good thing we didn't go with the first dictionary definition,

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because it really doesn't fit here.

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No one is condescending to anyone else.

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Not in the way we usually think of it, anyway.

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If someone were being all snooty and talking down to a person

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as if they were dirt on their shoe, well then, A - disdain

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or E - haughtiness might work.

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But it looks like we're dealing with a different version of the word here.

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In this passage, the king is showing condescension because

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he wants to avoid hostilities.

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Okay, so, he's not a super fan of confrontation,

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and he's acting in such a way that he doesn't have to

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whip out the big guns if you know what we mean.

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Then is he degrading people?

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Well, in our experience, degradation isn't the best way to make nice with somebody.

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Is he being humble?

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Well, yeah, sorta. But the key here is that the king is yielding to the houses,

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which takes a certain degree of humility,

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but it's more of an example of acquiescence.

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So, yeah, in this instance, "condescension" implies that someone is

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acquiescing, or giving into another's wishes

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or commands, answer D.

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The king may be bummed that we're calling him out so badly,

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but at least "doormat" wasn't one of the answer choices.

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