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LECTURE VII.*

The Character and Reign of Henry the Fifth.

Sorrowful but vigorous reign of the fourth Henry-His successor Shakspeare's favourite-His reign of conquest-His career as Prince of Wales-Not profligate but popular-A prince and a gentleman-His honour to Richard's memory-Veneration for his father-Relations of heirs-apparent-Statute against heresy-The Proto martyr-Contrast of the prince and his brother, Prince John -Macbeth's want of children-Henry the Fifth a genial character -His associates of early life-The character of Falstaff considered -Morgann's essay-Friendship--Hamlet and Horatio-Henry and Falstaff-Falstaff's cowardice-Mr. Senior's criticism-Henry's accession to the throne-The war with France-Battle of AgincourtHenry's relations to his soldiers-Sir Thomas Erpingham-Death of York and Suffolk-The tragedy a triumphal song.

I HAVE endeavoured, with the help of Shakspeare's matchless historical illustrations, to recall to your minds the character of the first of the Lancastrian reigns, and to show how Henry Bolingbroke, after having climbed up the proud and royal eminence of his ambition, held the throne by strong statesmanship against the aggression of the nobles. The moral aspect of the reign, which we learn better from the page of poetry than of history, was simply this, that Henry the Fourth wore the crown of England an anxious and melancholy man; and, while m

*February 8th, 1847.

his accession, there was more of craft and less of atrocity than in the Scottish usurper, there were, doubtless, times when, in the still hours of his sleepless nights, and in the silent chambers of his palace, and in the more secret and silent chambers of his conscience, he felt the guilty sinking of the heart—

"Better be with the dead

Whom we to gain our place have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie

In restless ecstasy."

The cares which saddened the royal years of the life of Henry the Fourth, did not, however, engender that sorrow which saps the strength. The strong, though sadhearted, man held the throne until his dying day; and held it so firmly, that it passed, in due course of law, to his son, Henry of Monmouth; to whose reign, as Henry the Fifth, the regular progression of our subject has now brought-us.

Of the many English sovereigns whom Shakspeare has placed in imperishable individuality before us, Henry the Fifth was manifestly the favourite of the poet's heart; and, in the multitude of the characters of all kinds whom he has portrayed or created, probably no subject was more congenial to him than the whole career of Henry the Fifth from his first introduction as Prince of Wales. Indeed, it could hardly be otherwise; for, of the nine kings who appear in Shakspeare's historical plays, there is but one-and that one, Henry the Fifth-whose character is fairly entitled to the praise of greatness, in the large sense of that term, which comprehends genuine glory and virtue. He was the only one of those crowned

heads in whom royalty was united to a fine and lofty humanity. Therefore it is that, without forsaking the path of that admirable historical impartiality, in which the genius of the poet-historian forever moved, he found in the character of Henry the Fifth, and in him alone, scope for the richest panegyric which the soul of a great poet could, out of its abundant affluence, shower upon the memory of a fellow-man. I have already adverted to the variety displayed in the composition of these "ChroniclePlays;" and, as the reign of Henry the Fifth was greatly distinguished from the other reigns, so is the drama, which is devoted to it, altogether peculiar. The reign was a short and splendid career of foreign conquest, achieved by one who was at once king, hero, and conqueror; and the play is a kind of lyrical commemoration of the victory and the victor.

Henry the Fifth had a brief reign of nine years; but this was preceded by a period of his life, the memory of which is closely connected with the estimate of his character, the thirteen years of his father's reign, during which he was Prince of Wales. There came down to Shakspeare not only a very distinct tradition, but also complete historical consent, that Henry's career as Prince of Wales was one of unwonted levity and unworthy companionship; and, upon such tradition and such historical account, the poet has so worked as to give a most vivid impression of the life of the heir-apparent during his father's reign. The dramatic skill with which this has been done, is unquestioned; but it may also, I believe, be shown that there is equal historical fidelity; and, passing into a still higher region of thought, I think it may be shown that the poet has herein displayed that

moral wisdom which is one great element of all his dramas; and, indeed, without which, poetry of the highest order cannot exist.

Respecting the career of the Prince of Wales, there appear to be two opposite and conflicting opinions. On the one hand he is represented as a low profligate, reckless, heartless, and dissolute, the perpetual inmate of taverns, and a licentious brawler. On the other side, the effort is made, and with considerable historical research, to prove that the traditional accounts of the prince's early life are altogether unfounded; that Shakspeare's representation of him, as an historical portrait, is misleading and unjust, and that the prince's life was blameless and irreproachable. Indeed, it might well be said, that a career of excessive profligacy, continued through the years of youth and into the years of manhood, could not in nature be the prelude to a kingly course so sagacious and so heroic. I do not believe that Henry of Monmouth, when Prince of Wales, lived such a life of dissoluteness and profligacy; and more confident am I that Shakspeare has not so represented it. At the same time the tradition respecting the prince was too general and too well fortified to be wholly discredited. It cannot reasonably be cast aside as a fiction by which men for a long while-and nobody can tell why-deluded themselves and others. Shakspeare is faithful to the tradition, which he has so informed with the life-giving power of the imagination as to corroborate the truth of it; and at the same time he has so portrayed Henry's princely days, as to reconcile them with his royal days, and thus to represent them in moral harmony. He does not resort to the marvel of a sudden conversion and an instantaneous

growth of virtue-a monstrous and unnatural changewhich would effectually hinder us from feeling the identity of the Prince Henry of one drama with the King Henry of another. With Shakspeare's guidance, therefore, we can, I am inclined to think, learn what the one, but varied, life of Henry really was; for the poet drew the history of that life from tradition, and also from the deep philosophy of human nature in his own soul.

When Prince Henry is first introduced into the drama, it is in the palace, but in the company of two of his gay companions, who visit him there. Whatever contaminating influences there were in such companionship, it was, at least, free from the vice of destroying his moral health by the poison of flattery. So far from any thing like this adulation, the conventional restraints of rank are cast aside-even the decorous formalities of society are relaxed—and there is an equality of intercourse and almost unbounded freedom in it. But all this is on the surface, and does not reach down to the real nature of the prince; for, the moment he is left alone, the first words he utters, disclose his knowledge of himself and of his companions, and his consciousness of what is due from himself to himself. We see that he has a moral self-possession-whether it will be impaired by such companionship and self-indulgence remains to be considered; but the first soliloquy shows us that, at least, he was not reckless, but that he was thoughtful; and that, whatever might be the outward show, silently and secretly he was cherishing lofty and pure aspirations:

"I know you all, and will awhile uphold
The unyoked humour of your idleness;
Yet herein will I imitate the sun,

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