It is worth observing that in all these plays, which give an admirable picture of the spirit of the good old times, the moral inference does not at all depend upon the nature of the actions, but on the dignity or meanness of the persons committing them. "The eagle England" has a right "to be in prey," but "the weasel Scot " has none "to come sneaking to her nest," which she has left to pounce upon others. Might was right, without equivocation or disguise, in that heroic and chivalrous age. The substitution of right for might, even in theory, is among the refinements and abuses of modern philosophy. A more beautiful rhetorical delineation of the effects of subordination in a commonwealth can hardly be conceived than the following: "For government, though high, and low, and lower, Congreeing in a full and natural close, Like music. Therefore doth heaven divide Who, busied in his majesty, surveys The lazy yawning drone. I this infer, That many things, having full reference As many several streets meet in one town; 'Henry V.' is but one of Shakespear's second-rate plays. Yet by quoting passages, like this, from his second-rate plays alone, we might make a volume "rich with his praise:" "As is the oozy bottom of the sea With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries." Of this sort are the king's remonstrance to Scroop, Grey, and Cambridge, on the detection of their treason, his address to the soldiers at the siege of Harfleur, and the still finer one before the battle of Agincourt, the description of the night before the battle, and the reflections on ceremony put into the mouth of the king: "O hard condition, Twin-born with greatness, subject to the breath But his own wringing! What infinite heart's ease must kings neglect, That private men enjoy! And what have kings, that privates have not too, Save ceremony-save general ceremony? And what art thou, thou idol ceremony? What kind of god art thou, that suffer'st more Of mortal griefs, than do thy worshippers? What is thy soul, O adoration? Art thou aught else but place, degree, and form, Wherein thou art less happy, being feared, [1 Act i., sc. 2.] Than they in fearing. What drink'st thou oft, instead of homage sweet, Think'st thou, the fiery fever will go out With titles blown from adulation? Will it give place to flexure and low bending? Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep, The slave, a member of the country's peace, Enjoys it; but in gross brain little wots, What watch the king keeps to maintain the peace, Most of these passages are well known: there is one, which we do not remember to have seen noticed, and yet it is no whit inferior to the rest in heroic beauty. It is the account of the deaths of York and Suffolk: "Exeter. The duke of York commends him to your majesty. K. Henry. Lives he, good uncle? thrice within this hour I saw him down; thrice up again, and fighting; Exeter. In which array (brave soldier) doth he lie, Suffolk first died: and York, all haggled o'er, Upon these words I came, and cheer'd him up: So did he turn, and over Suffolk's neck He threw his wounded arm, and kiss'd his lips; But we must have done with splendid quotations. The behaviour of the king, in the difficult and doubtful circumstances in which he is placed, is as patient and modest as it is spirited and lofty in his prosperous fortune. The character of the French nobles is also very admirably depicted; and the Dauphin's praise of his horse shows the vanity of that class of persons in a very striking point of view. Shakespear always accompanies a foolish prince with a satirical courtier, as we see in this instance. The comic parts of 'Henry V.' are very inferior to those of 'Henry IV.' Falstaff is dead, and without him, Pistol, Nym, and Bardolph are satellites without a sun. Fluellen the Welchman is the most entertaining character in the piece. He is goodnatured, brave, choleric, and pedantic. His parallel between Alexander and Harry of Monmouth, and his [1 Act iv., sc. 6.] desire to have "some disputations" with Captain Macmorris on the discipline of the Roman wars, in the heat of the battle, are never to be forgotten. His treatment of Pistol is as good as Pistol's treatment of his French prisoner. There are two other remarkable prose passages in this play: the conversation of Henry in disguise with the three sentinels on the duties of a soldier, and his courtship of Katherine in broken French. We like them both exceedingly, though the first savours perhaps too much of the king, and the last too little of the lover. HENRY VI. IN THREE PARTS.1 DURING the time of the civil wars of York and Lancaster, England was a perfect bear-garden, and Shakespear has given us a very lively picture of the scene. The three parts of Henry VI.' convey a picture of very little else; and are inferior to the other historical plays. They have brilliant passages; but the general ground-work is comparatively poor and meagre, the style "flat and unraised.” There are few lines like the following: 66 'Glory is like a circle in the water; Till, by broad spreading, it disperse to naught." 2 The first part relates to the wars in France after the death of Henry V. and the story of the Maid of Orleans. She is here almost as scurvily treated as in Voltaire's Pucelle. Talbot is a very magnificent sketch: there is 1 First printed in the folio of 1623. It seems to be extremely difficult to arrive at any conclusion as to Shakespear's amount of participation in the authorship of this tripartite drama, founded on older plays, which are likewise unidentified with the writers.-ED. Part I., act i., sc. 2.] |