Part 13 (1/2)

”Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow Being so troublesoolden care!

That keep'st the ports of sluht!--Sleep with it now, Yet not so sound and half so deeply sweet As he whose broith hoht”

In the third act we have King Henry talking in precisely the saentle sleep, Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee?

- - - - - - - - - - Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast Seal up the shi+p-boy's eyes, and rock his brains In cradle of the rude ie”

The truth is that in both these passages, as in a hundred si sleep as only those tormented by insomnia can praise it

When his father reproaches hier for his empty chair,” this is how Prince Henry answers:

”O pardon e, but for my tears, The moist impediments unto my speech, I had forestalled this dear and deep rebuke

Ere you with grief had spoke and I had heard The course of it so far”

Itto Lord Salisbury--”thesoldier goes on like this for forty lines

The only 's conte at least in matter:

”I know thee not, old man: fall to thy prayers; How ill white hairs beco dreamed of such a kind ofawake I do despise my dream

- - - - - - - - - - Reply not toI was; - - - - - - - - - - Till then, I banish thee on pain of death, As I have done the rest of my misleaders, Not to come near our person by ten mile”

In the old play, ”The Famous Victories,” the sentence of banishment is pronounced; but this bitter contempt for the surfeit-swelled, profane old ates the severity of the sentence in characteristic generous fashi+on: the King says:

”For competence of life I will allow you That lack of means enforce you not to evil: And as we hear you do reforth and qualities, Give you advancement”

There is no mention in the old play of this ”coht the sentence is painfully severe, and Shakespeare meant every word of it, for immediately afterwards the Chief Justice orders Falstaff and his co Henry V” we are told that the King's condemnation broke Falstaff's heart and made the old jester's banishement than the , so singular a fact, that it cries for explanation I think there can be no doubt that the tradition which tells us that Shakespeare in his youth played pranks in low company finds further corroboration here He seenominy and the conteantly

”Presu I was;”

--is a sentiain in Prince Henry's e in hireat results which must ensue from it It is this distaste for his own loose past and ”his ularly severe towards Falstaff As we have seen, he was the reverse of severe with Angelo in ”Measure for Measure,” though in that case there was better ground for harshness ”Measure for Measure,” it is true, ritten six or seven years later than ”Henry IV,” and the tragedy of Shakespeare's life separates the two plays Shakespeare's ethical judgement was more inclined to severity in youth and early s had deepened his syood pity,” to use his oords, ”by the art of knowing and feeling sorrows” But he would never have treated old Jack Falstaff as harshly as he did had he not regretted the results, at least, of his own youthful errors It looks as if Shakespeare, like other weak men, were filled with a desire to throw the blame on his ”misleaders” He certainly exulted in their punishth about the character of the King in ”Henry V,” and fortunately it is not necessary I have already pointed out the faults in the painting of Prince Henry with such fullness that Ion similar weakness where it is even more obvious than it was in the two parts of ”Henry IV” But soland are agreed that ”'Henry V' arded as Shakespeare's ideal of manhood in the sphere of practical achievement”

Without an exception they have all buttered this draant praise as one of Shakespeare's h in reality it is one of the worst pieces of work he ever did, al of the Shrew” Unfortunately for the would-be judges, Coleridge did not guide their opinions of ”Henry V”; he hardly mentioned the play, and so they all write the absurdest nonsense about it, praising because praise of Shakespeare has come to be the fashi+on, and also no doubt because his bad work is ood work

It can hardly be denied that Shakespeare identified hi appears he is praised extravagantly, as Posthuy befits the poet better than the soldier The Archbishop of Canterbury says:

”When he speaks, The air, a charter'd libertine, is still, And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears To steal his sweet and honey'd sentences”

the Bishop of Ely goes even further in excuse:

”The prince obscured his contemplation Under the veil of wildness”

And this is how the soldier-king himself talks: