General Estimation of Shakespeare’s History Plays: Analyzing Henry IV of Second Tetralogy (Richard II, Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2, and Henry V)
"PRINCE
HENRY If all the year were playing holidays, To sport would be as tedious
as to work.
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
For all practical purposes there are four main plays in
this group, the so-called ‘second tetralogy’: Richard II, Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2, and Henry V. Read More Drama
Earlier chapters have suggested how
vital the role of the monarch was in Elizabethan and Jacobean society, and the
second tetralogy sets out to examine some of the more vexed issues of kingship,
as well as illustrating some conventional points about It. The sequence opens
with Richard II, a play that was apparently very popular in Shakespeare’s own
time Richard Is the rightful king; he has inherited the crown through his
father, and his claim to it, legally and morally, is beyond question. He is
also in some respects an attractive figure. He is a fluent and imaginative
speaker, and clearly has reserves of courage and determination. Read More William Shakespeare He is not,
however, a good king. He is unpredictable, has favourites, and be mishandles people,
and in general fails on many of the counts against which he would be judged as
an effective king. In particular he alienates one of his cousins, Bolingbroke,
whom he banishes. Bolingbroke returns to England to claim back his position and
his lands, and in the process of so doing and himself deposing Richard and
becoming king himself, almost without his wishing it. Read More Elizabethan Literature Bolingbroke, who
is now Henry IV, is undoubtedly better suited to be King than Richard. He is
shrewder, politically more skilful, and has far more in the way of authority
and personal power than Richard— but Bolingbroke Is not and never can be the
rightful king, having taken the crown by force Richard ii ends with Henry in a
fit of temper ordering the death of Richard, dies bravely. The play illustrates the
problems that arise when the rightful king does not have the necessary
qualities to exercise his kingship effectively.
The two parts of Henry
IV examine the other side of the coin. Read More Elizabethan Literature Henry IV has
the personal qualities, but not the right. Read More Drama
He has sinned in the eyes of God by
taking the power of election to kingship into his human hands, whereas it
should be left to God alone to make kings through the hereditary principle. As
a result of Henry’s illegal seizure of the throne, his reign is doomed from the
start, his usurpation having let a cancer of rebellion into his kingdom. Henry
is driven to his death by rebellion after rebellion, and the plays suggest
that, however good the man, his reign cannot succeed if he does not have a
right to the throne. There is a complex moral issue here in addition to the
central one posed by Henry IV. He is in the wrong by having usurped and taken
over the throne, but those who rebel against him during his reign are also
wrong, and as guilty as Henry himself. Read More William Shakespeare This might seem
odd when all the rebels are doing is trying to remove from the throne a man who
should not be there in the first place, but the Issue is the same. Man is not
allowed to decide who shall be king under any circumstances, this task being
God’s and God’s alone, and so even in attempting to remove a usurper rebels are
at fault. This is a simple philosophy, and it does not always bear up under
close scrutiny, but it was never intended for such scrutiny. In the first place
the broad view is sufficient.
William Shakespeare |
Broadly speaking, therefore, the second tetralogy plays
discuss the questions of kingship and power, and specifically the requirement
of and for the Ideal king. Read
More William Shakespeare However, the
issue of what has to be sacrificed in order to achieve perfect kingship is also
scrutinized, and this is where Falstaff enters the action. Read More Elizabethan Literature The young
Prince Hal, who will eventually become Henry V, becomes friendly with Sir John
Falstaff, a huge fat man based loosely on the Vice figure in the old Morality
plays. Vice is dangerous, but also very attractive, and this is true of
Falstaff. He is the last person on earth with whom the heir to the throne
should be consorting, but he is amusing, witty, and free from any feelings of
responsibility save towards himself and the satisfaction of his physical needs.
Hal gives plenty of hints he will reject Falstaff when the time is ripe, and
Shakespeare progressively blackens Falstaff’s character as hi rejection comes
nearer, presumably in order to soften the blow and avoid the audience’s blaming
Hal for doing what he has to do: Falstaff is anarchy, and the ideal king (or
for that matter any king at all) cannot have anarchy at his elbow as he tries to
govern. There has been, however, a persistent feeling amongst some critics and
theatre audiences that the price Hal has to pay in order to become the ideal
king is too great, and that in scarifying and rejecting Falstaff he is turning
himself into an automaton, a machine like being who does everything right except
retaining his warmth and humanity—In other words, that the price for perfect
kingship is too high in human terms. Read More William Shakespeare This is a view
that is easy to hold in a country for which economic, political, and social
survival does not depend on the good offices of the monarch; but, as we have seen,
the Elizabethan would have bad a very different view of these issues. The
student must from his own understanding of the situation and its outcome; but
for Shakespeare to have suggested that Hal should retain Falstaff and so ruin a
kingdom would have been remarkable indeed. Much depends on the extent to which
Henry V is shown to suffer and display human emotions whilst he is undertaking
the duties of the King. Whereas marriage is the final symbol in a comedy, and
rebellion the symbol of a diseased kingdom, so military success is used as the
symbol of a successful reign in Henry V with Henry’s victory over the French
at Agincourt the climax of the play.
Ardhendu De
Ardhendu De
Reference: E. K. Chambers's Shakespearean Criticism
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