A SHAKESPEAREAN HALLOWEEN

FIRST WE KILL -- Celebrating the Ghostly Presence of Citizen Richard the Brilliant from Henry VI

In English literature, "Let's kill all the lawyers" is a phrase from a line of dialogue spoken by a henchman in the history play Henry VI, Part 2 (1591), by William Shakespeare.

Although the truncated form is the usual quotation,[1] the full line of dialogue is: "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers", spoken in conversation between the rebel leader Jack Cade and his henchman, Dick the Butcher, in scene 2 of Act IV (4.2.76–77).[2]

Popular usage of the phrase "Let's kill all the lawyers" usually is negative: as criticism of how lawyers use the law to maintain the privileges and perquisites of the rich and of the ruling class; as criticism of the bureaucratic nature of legal process and legal procedure; as criticism of the easy corruption and perversion of the rule of law;

Occasionally the phrase is intrepreted as back-hand praise of how lawyers confront the tribalism, partisanship and herd mentality to thwart mob violence in the public sphere of society;[3] and acknowledges that eliminating lawyers as the guardians of the rule of law removes a major impediment to the path to more power, and a step in the direction of a totalitarian form of government.[4]