Part 11 (1/2)

”Sick now! droop now! this sickness doth infect The very life-blood of our enterprise; 'Tis catching hither, even to our caet into Hotspur's character again by representing to himself the circumstance:

”He writes me here, that inward sickness-- And that his friends by deputation could not So soon be drawn; nor did he think it meet--”

and so forth to the question: ”What say you to it?”

”_Wor_ Your father's sickness is a ash, a very lio on exaggerating the injury--that is not Hotspur's line, is indeed utterly false to Hotspur's nature; and so he tries to stop himself and think of Hotspur:

”And yet, in faith, it's not; his present want Seeood To set the exact wealth of all our states All at one cast? to set so rich a main On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?

It were not good; for therein should we read The very bottom and the soul of hope, The very list, the very utmost bound Of all our fortunes”

After the first two lines, which Hotspur ht have spoken, we have the sophistry of the thinker poetically expressed, and not one word froed soldier Indeed, in the last four lines froentle poet in love with desperate extree must be compared with Othello's--

”Here is my journey's end, here is my butt, And very sea-th when Worcester adds fear to danger Hotspur half finds himself:

”_Hot_, You strain too far

I rather of his absence reat opinion, A larger dare to our great enterprise, Than if the earl were here; for men ainst the kingdom; with his help We shall o'erturn it topsy-turvy down-- Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole”

And this is all The scene is designed, the situation constructed to show us Hotspur's courage: here, if anywhere, the hot blood should surprise us andhardihood But this is the best Shakespeare can reach--this fainting, palefaced ”Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole” The inadequacy, the feebleness of the whole thing is astounding Milton had not the courage of the soldier, but he had more than this: he found better words for his Satan after defeat than Shakespeare found for Hotspur before the battle:

”What though the field be lost?

All is not lost; the unconquerable will, And study of revenge, ie never to sublory never shall his wrath or ht Extort from me”

When Shakespeare has to render Hotspur's impatience he does it superbly, when he has to render Hotspur's courage he fails lamentably

In the third scene of this fourth act we have another striking instance of Shakespeare's shortcoracious offers froh forty lines; this is the kind of stuff: ”My father and ive him that sa, Sick in the world's regard, wretched and low, A poor unave him welcome to the shore; ”

and so on and on, like Hamlet, he unpacks his heart ords, till Blount cries:

”Tut, I came not to hear this”

Hotspur adain:

”_Hot_ Then to the point

In short ti; Soon after that, deprived him of his life,”

and so forth for twenty lines ain with the shrewd question:

”Shall I return this answer to the king?”

Hotspur replies:

”Not so, Sir Walter; we'll withdrahile

Go to the king

And in thehim our purposes; and so farewell”