General Reflections. In respect of proper dramatic interest and effect, this play is far inferior to King Henry the Fourth; nor does it rank very high in the list of Shakespeare's achievements: but in respect of wisdom and poetry and eloquence it is among his very best. The Choruses are replete with the finest lyrical inspiration; and I know of nothing that surpasses them in vividness of imagery, or in potency to kindle and electrify the reader's imaginative forces. The King's speeches to his soldiers at Harfleur and to the Governor and citizens of that town, in Act iii. ; his reflections on ceremony, and his speech to Westmoreland just before the battle of Agincourt, and Exeter's account of the deaths of York and Suffolk, all in Act iv.; and Burgundy's speech in favour of peace, in Act v. ; all these may be cited as perfect models in their kind, at once eloquent and poetical in the highest degree. Campbell the poet aptly remarks of them, "It was said of Eschylus, that he composed his Seven Chiefs against Thebes under the inspiration of Mars himself. If Shakespeare's Henry the Fifth had been written for the Greeks, they would have paid him the same compliment." Nor must I omit to mention the Archbishop's illustration from the commonwealth of bees in Act i.; which has been justly noted as "full of the most exquisite imagery and music. The art employed in transforming the whole scene of the hive into a resemblance of humanity is a perfect study; every successive object, as it is brought forward, being invested with its characteristic attributes." I have to confess that in one material respect, at least, this play is not altogether such as I could wish. The French are palpably caricatured, and the caricature is not in a spirit of perfect fairness and candour: it savours too much of running an enemy down. The Poet's English prejudices, honest as they were, are something too strongly pronounced. Frederick Schlegel well observes that "the feeling by which Shakespeare seems to have been most connected with ordinary men is that of nationality"; but in this case his nationality is not so tolerant and generous as his other plays would lead us to expect; which imparts to the workmanship some want of the right artistic calmness and equipoise. It is true that in the hero's time the French people and government were in a most deplorable condition; the King insane, the Dauphin frivolous and vain, the nobility split into reckless and tearing factions, and the whole nation bordering upon a state of anarchy; insomuch that they may have well deserved the rough discipline Henry gave them; and perhaps nothing less would have sufficed to exorcise the evil spirit out of them, and put them in training for better days: but all this does not justify the braggart, mouth-stretching persiflage and insolence which the Poet ascribes to them. It is also true that in these points he renders them very much as he found them described in the Chronicles; but the regards of Art as well as of cool justice should have softened away those satirical, distorting, and vituperative lines of description: Shakespeare ought to have seen the French with his own eyes, and not with those of the old chroniclers. Gervinus suggests that a jealous patriotic feeling may have influenced the Poet in this matter. The great Henry the Fourth, probably the most accomplished statesman and wisest ruler of his time, was then on the throne of France. And the German critic thinks that Shakespeare may have had it in mind to dash the enthusiasm of his French contemporaries about their king, by showing an English Henry who was his equal in greatness and originality: but he rightly notes that the Poet's hero would have appeared still more noble, if his antagonists had been made to seem less despicable. THOMAS BEAUFORT, Duke of Exeter, A Boy, Servant to them. A Herald. Lords, Ladies, Officers, French and English Soldiers, Messengers, and Attendants. SCENE. At the beginning of the play, in England; afterwards, in France. --- PROLOGUE. Enter Chorus. Chor. O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention, A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, " And monarchs to behold the swelling scene ! Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels, Leash'd-in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire, Suppose within the girdle of these walls 1 Readers may like to be told that the image is of three eager hounds held back with a leash or strap, till the huntsman sees the time has come for letting them fly at the game. The Poet has repeated allusions to this old warlike trio. So in Julius Cæsar, iii. 1: “And Cæsar's spirit, ranging for revenge, shall in these confines with a monarch's voice cry Havoc! and let slip the dogs of war." 2 A cockpit was a small area enclosed for cocks to fight in. The pit of a theatre was the space immediately in front of the stage. The occupants of it had nothing between their feet and the ground; hence were sometimes called "groundlings." In the text, however, cockpit seems to be put for the stage itself. 3 The Wooden O was the Globe Theatre on the Bankside, which was circular within. "The very casques" is, so much as the casques," or merely the casques." So in The Taming of the Shrew: "Thou false deluding slave, that feed'st me with the very name of meat." 4 Imaginary for imaginative; the passive form with the active sense. An usage occurring continually in these plays. |