Sits mocking in our plumes."
And Bourbon echoes him:
"Shame and eternal shame, nothing but shame."
It is curious that Bourbon falls upon the same thought which animated
Hotspur. Just before the decisive battle Hotspur cries:
"O, gentlemen! the time of life is short;
To spend that shortness basely were too long."
And when the battle turns against the French, Bourbon exclaims:
"The devil take order now! I'll to the throng:
Let life be short; else shame will be too long."
As Jaques in "As You Like It" says of the soldier: they are "jealous in
honour" and all seek "the bubble reputation, even in the cannon's
mouth."
It is only in Shakespeare that men have no other motive for brave deeds
but love of honour, no other fear but that of shame with which to
overcome the dread of death. We shall see later that the desire of fame
was the inspiring motive of his own youth.
In the "Second Part of King Henry IV." there is very little told us of
Prince Henry; he only appears in the second act, and in the fourth and
fifth; and in all he is the mouthpiece of Shakespeare and not the
roistering Prince: yet on his first appearance there are traces of
characterization, as when he declares that his "appetite is not
princely," for he remembers "the poor creature, small beer," whereas in
the last act he is merely the poetic prig. Let us give the best scene
first:
"P. Hen. Shall I tell thee one thing, Poins?
* * * * *
P. Hen. Marry, I tell thee,--it is not meet that I should
be sad, now my father is sick: albeit I could tell to thee--as
to one it pleases me, for fault of a better, to call my
friend--I could be sad, and sad, indeed, too.
Poins. Very hardly upon such a subject.
P. Hen. By this hand, thou think'st me as far in the
devil's book as thou and Falstaff for obduracy and persistency:
let the end try the man. But I tell thee, my
heart bleeds inwardly that my father is so sick; and keeping
such vile company as thou art hath in reason taken
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