Part 11 (2/2)
And yet this Hotspur who talks interminably when he would do much better to keep quiet, assures us a little later that he has not well ”the gift of tongue,” and again declares he's glad a ”
The truth is the real Hotspur did not talk ab, if ever athat though the draradually, Hotspur is best presented in the earlier scenes: Shakespeare began the ith the Hotspur of history and tradition clear in his rew interested in Hotspur and identified himself too much with his hero, and so almost spoiled the portrait This is well seen in Hotspur's end; Prince Henry has said he'd crop his budding honours and arland for hi Hotspur answers him:
”O Harry, thou hast robbed me of my youth!
I better brook the loss of brittle life Than those proud titles thou hast won of hts worse than thy sword ht's the slave of life, and life time's fool, And time, that takes survey of all the world, Must have a stop O, I could prophesy, But that the earthy and cold hand of death Lies on ue:--no, Percy, thou art dust, And food for ----”
Of course, Prince Henry concludes the phrase, and continues the Hamlet-like philosophic soliloquy:
”_P Henry_ For worreat heart!-- Ill-weaved ambition, how much art thou shrunk!
When that this body did contain a spirit, A kingdom for it was too small a bound; But noo paces of the vilest earth Is rooh: ”
I have tried to do justice to this portrait of Hotspur, for Shakespeare never did a better picture of a man of action, indeed, as we shall soon see, he never did as well again But take away froiven to him by history and tradition, the hasty te speech, and contempt of women, and it will be seen how little Shakespeare added Hepoetic descriptions in his ue” and forces him to talk historic and poetic slush in and out of season; hewith his associates for iven hiht; he frae, and then allows him to talk faint-heartedly, and finally, when Hotspur should dieto the last, Shakespeare's Hotspur loses himself in mistimed philosophic reflection and poetic prediction Yet such is Shakespeare'sthe qualities which Hotspur really did possess, he makes him live for us with such intensity of life that no number of false strokes can obliterate the i _sine ira et studio_ ill find this portrait blurred by the intrusion of the poet's personality
It is the colass Shakespeare's poverty of conception when he is dealing with the distinctively e the matter fairly we must remember that Shakespeare did not create Prince Henry any more than he created Hotspur In the old play entitled ”The Famous Victories of Henry V,” and in the popularPrince Hal The madcap Prince, like Harry Percy, was a creature of popular syorous way in which he had sown his wild oats, had taken the English fancy, the historic personage had been warmed to vivid life by the popular emotion
Shakespeare was personally interested in this princely hero As we have seen, he dims Hotspur's portrait by intrusion of his own peculiarities; and in the case of Harry Percy, this teer
The subject of the play, a young ifts led astray by loose companions, was a favourite subject with Shakespeare at this time; he had treated it already in ”Richard II”; and he handled it here again with such zest that we are almost forced to believe in the tradition that Shakespeare himself in early youth had soild oats in unworthy company Helped by a superb ht be expected to paint a reat portrait; he is at first hardly , and later a feeble and colourless replica of Hotspur It is very curious that even in the comedy scenes with Falstaff Shakespeare has never taken the trouble to realize the Prince: he often lends hience, but he never for a moment discovers to us the soul of his hero He does not even tell us what pleasure Henry finds in living and carousing with Falstaff Did the Prince choose his co in the Eastcheap tavern a court where he ht throne it? Or was it the infinite humour of Falstaff which attracted hih spirits, when bored by the foolish formalities of the palace?
Shakespeare, one would have thought, would have given us the key to the mystery in the very first scene But this scene, which paints Falstaff to the soul, tells us nothing of the Prince; but rather blurs a figure which everyone iines he knows at least in outline Prince Henry's first speech is excellent as description; Falstaff asks him the time of day; he replies:
”Thou art so fat-witted, with drinking of old sack, and unbuttoning thee after supper, and sleeping upon benches after noon, that thou hast forgotten to demand that truly which thou wouldst truly know”
This helps to depict Falstaff, but does not show us the Prince, for good-hu individual and peculiar in it
Then comes the speech in which the Prince talks of himself in Falstaff's strain as one of ”the old on Monday night,” and ”” A little later he plays with Falstaff by asking: ”Where shall we take a purse to-morrow, Jack?” It looks as if the Prince were ripe for worse than mischief But when Falstaff wants to know if he will make one of the band to rob on Gadshi+ll, he cries out, as if indignant and surprised:
_P Hen_ Who, I rob? la thief? Not I, by ood fellowshi+p in thee, nor thou earnest not of the blood royal, if thou darest not stand for ten shi+llings
_P Hen_ Well then, once in my days I'll be a madcap
_Fal_ Why, that's well said
_P Hen_ Well, come ill, I'll tarry at hoth by Poins's proposal to rob the robbers
It es of the Prince are natural in the situation: but they are too sudden and un of the ; and surely, after the Prince talks of himself as one of ”the moon's men,” it would be more natural of hinant surprise, which see a previous folly The scene, in so far as the Prince is concerned, is badly conducted When he yields to Poins and agrees to rob Falstaff, his words are: ”Yea, but I doubt they will be too hard for us,”--a phrase which hardly shoild spirits or high courage, or even the faculty of judging h is not the Prince's, but Shakespeare's, and unfortunately Shakespeare the poet, and not Shakespeare the dramatist:
”_P Hen_ I know you all and will awhile uphold The unyoked humour of your idleness
Yet herein will I iious clouds To sain to be hi through the foul and ugly le him ”
If we could accept this stuff we should take Prince Henry for the prince of prigs; but it is i our shoulders with the regret that the madcap Prince of history is not illuenius In this ”First Part of Henry IV,” when the Prince is not calling na, he either shows us a quality of Harry Percy or of Shakespeare hi Percy's corpse, meets the Princes, and tells theest tale that e'er I heard
_P Hen_ This is the strangest fellow, brother John-- Coe nobly on your back: For ild it with the happiest terms I have”
Both in manner and in matter these last two lines are pure Shakespeare, and Shakespeare speaks to us, too, when Prince Henry gives up Douglas to his pleasure ”ransomless and free” But not only does the poet lend the soldier his own sentiments and lilt of phrase, he also presents hi Hotspur's lifetime We have already noticed Hotspur's ads that he can call spirits from the vasty deep: