Joseph Melanson
Shakespeare
Prof. Tryon
16 August 2012
The Motif of Robbery and Rebellion in William Shakespeare’s Henry IV
Part 1.
Motifs are an important part of
most narratives, acting as a literary device to help tell the story, and some narratives can contain several
different motifs. A motif, according to is a “recurrent thematic element in an artistic or
literary work or a dominant theme or central idea” (Dictionary.com). Within William Shakespeare’s
Henry IV Part 1 we find several motifs occurring in the play through the words and
deeds of its various characters. One particular motif that we find in Henry IV Part 1 is the motif of robbery and rebellion. The definition of “robbery” and “rebellion” according to
Neufeldt, is respectively “1) to take money, etc. from unlawfully by force; steal from” or
“2) to deprive of something unjustly or injuriously” and “1) armed resistance to one’s
government” or “2) a defiance of any authority” (509, 491). In William Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part 1 we see the motif of robbery and rebellion through the actions and words of
its various characters.
Robbery and rebellion as a motif is
featured through King Henry’s plan to invade the Holy Land and take it
from the Muslims which would also rid himself of potential threats by sending his armies to Jerusalem, stealing glory for himself through
these men’s deaths. “Therefore friends, / As far as to the sepulcher of
Christ – / Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross / We are impressed and engaged to
fight – / Forthwith a power of English shall we levy, / Whose arms were molded in their
mothers’ womb / To chase these pagans in those holy fields / Over whose
acres walked those blessed feet / Which fourteen hundred years ago were nailed / For our
advantage on the bitter cross.” (King 1.1.18-27). King Henry amasses his power by stealing
it, while occupying those who may become a threat to him with the accrual of the Holy
City.
The motif of robbery and rebellion
is also demonstrated in how King Henry feels robbed of a proper heir and important ally in the rebellious
activities of his son Prince Hal. He voices his discontentment with the prince to
Westmoreland of Hotspur’s numerous victories on the battlefield, and his own son’s
seeming lack of promise. “Yea, there thou mak’st me sad, and mak’st me sin / In envy that
my Lord Northumberland / Should be the father to so blest a son, / A son who is the
theme of Honor’s tongue” (King 1.1.77-80).
King Henry even goes so far as to
wonder whether their sons were switched at birth. “Whilst I, by looking on the praise of him, / See
riot and dishonor stain the brow / Of my young Harry. O, that it could be proved / That some
night-tripping fairy had exchanged / In cradle-clothes our children where they lay,” (King
1.1.83-87).
King Henry continues this motif
when he admonishes his rebellious son Prince Hal for his behavior. “I know not whether God will have it
so / For some displeasing service I have done, / That, in His secret doom, out of my
blood / He’ll breed revengement and a scourge for me. / But thou dost in thy
passages of life / Make me believe that thou art only marked / For the hot vengeance
and the rod of heaven / To punish my mistreadings. Tell me else, / Could such
inordinate and low desires, / Such poor, such bare, such lewd, such mean / Attempts, Such
barren pleasures, rude society, / As thou art matched withal, and grafted to, / Accompany thy
greatness of thy blood, / And hold their level with thy princely heart?” (King
3.2.1-19). King Henry, in his remarks, continues this idea several times throughout the
play how he is robbed of a virtuous heir in his rebellious son, Prince Hal.
Robbery and rebellion as a motif
reoccurs in how King Henry robbed his throne from the previous King Richard II, according to the leaders
of the rebellion against his majesty. Hotspur remarks to this effect in one conversation
between Hotspur and his uncle Worcester. “He will forsooth have all my prisoners, /
And when I urged the ransom once again / Of my wife’s brother, then his cheek looked
pale, / And on my face he turned an eye of death, / Trembling even at the name of
Mortimer.” (Hotspur 1.3.143-147). Worcester
responds, “I cannot blame him. Was not he proclaimed / By Richard, that dead is, the next of blood?” (Worcester 1.3. 148-149). Hotspur again
reiterates the claim that King Henry has wrongfully gained his crown. “Nay
then, I cannot blame his cousin king / That wished him on the barren mountains
starve. / But shall it be that you that set the crown / Upon the head of this forgetful man”
(Hotspur 1.3.162-165).
Hotspur again restates his and his
company’s belief that King Henry was wrongly installed upon the throne when the king’s own envoy, Sir
Blunt, comes to them to find out the reasons behind their revolt.
“The King hath sent to know / The
nature of your griefs, and whereupon / You conjure from the breast of civil peace / Such bold
hostility, teaching his duteous land / audacious cruelty.” (Blunt 4.3.47-51). Hotspur responds,
“The King is kind, and well we know the King / knows at what time to promise, when to pay.
/ my father and my uncle and myself / did give him that same royalty he wears.”
(Hotspur 4.3.58-61). Hotspur
elaborates upon the reasons behind the rebellion. “Broke
oath on oath, committed wrong on wrong, / and in conclusion drove us to seek out / this
head of safety, and withal to pry / into his title, the which we find / too indirect for long
continuance.” (Hotspur 4.3.108-112). The leaders of the rebellion against King Henry
believe that the king has wrongly obtained the throne.
Robbery and rebellion also features
as a motif in how the rich profit off the poor, and how they plunder the country for their own gain.
Shakespeare uses characters unnamed, using their professions to designate them as common
workers, and thus everyday, common people. The characters designated as
“carriers” converse about the conditions for their kind.
“Peas and beans are as dank here as
a / dog, and that is the next way to give poor jades the / bots.” (Second Carrier 2.1.9-11). His reference
to “jades” is a term for a horse, or a common work animal, much like the common workers like
them, can easily end up with some kind of intestinal illness by having to eat such
low quality of food due to their inability to afford anything else.
A second everyman that Shakespeare
designates as only “second carrier” remarks concerning another destitute
ostler, or a person who tends to traveler’s horses. “Poor fellow never joyed
since the price / of oats rose. It was the death of him.” (First Carrier
2.1.13-14)
The
character of Gadshill remarks to them how he is no common thief but operates with impunity as an ally of such powerful people
like Prince Hal and Sir Falstaff. “I am joined with no / Foot-land-rakers, no
long-staff sixpenny strikers, / None of these mad mustachio purple-hued malt- / Worms, but with nobility and tranquility, burgo- / masters and great oneyers, such as can hold in,
such / As will strike sooner than speak, and speak sooner / Than drink, and drink sooner than
pray, and yet, / Zounds, I lie, for they pray continually to their saint / the commonwealth,
or rather not pray to her but / Prey on her, for they ride up and down on her and / Make her
their boots.” (Gadshill 2.1.78-88). Those in power rob the country with impunity,
perhaps in some form sowing the seeds of a future rebellion against them. √
Other characters have the power to
add strength, or to rob it from the rebellion. Northumberland robs from his comrades some of their strength
in their rebellion against King Henry. Hotspur remarks to his uncle Worcester about his
father’s sudden mysterious illness. “Zounds, how has he the leisure to be
sick / in such a jostling time? Who heads his power? / Under whose government come they
along?” (Hotspur 4.1.19-21). “Sick now? Droop now? This sickness doth infect / the
very lifeblood of our enterprise.” (Hotspur 4.1.30-31). Worcester affirms Hotspur’s chagrin at his
father’s pulling himself out of the battle. “Your fathers sickness is
a maim to us.” (Worcester 4.1.45). Hotspur relates how serious his father’s sudden
illness will become a blow to their rebellion. “A perilous gash, a very limb lopped off!”
(Hotspur 4.1.46). Worcester again relates how much damage to their cause that
Northumberland has wrought, his actions will certainly create doubt in their success in the
allies of the rebellion. “And think how such an apprehension / may turn the tide of
fearful faction / and breed a kind of question in our cause.” (Worcester 4.1.69-71). The character of
Northumberland steals a majority of the force of the rebellion, and lending doubt to
its success by the remaining characters in choosing not to participate.
Robbery and Rebellion features as a
motif in how an irresponsible and opportunist Hal steals Hotspurs glory and valor in the service of his
king and country. Prince Hal remarks to Sir Falstaff about Hotspur’s exploits upon the
battlefield in the service of his father King Henry. “I am not yet of Percy’s / mind, the
Hotspur of the north, he that kills me / some six or seven dozens of Scots at a breakfast, /
washes his hands, and says to his wife “Fie / upon this quiet life! I want work” (Hal
2.4.104-108).
Later in Act 5, Scene 4, the two
men meet and converse before their inevitable duel to the death. “Why then I see / a very valiant rebel of
the name. / I am the Prince of Wales; and think not, Percy, / to share with me in glory any more. / two
stars keep not their motion in one sphere, / nor can one England
brook a double reign / of Harry Percy and the Prince of Wales” (Hal 5.4.62-68). Hotspur responds,
“Nor shall it, Harry for the hour is come / to end the one of us, and would to God / thy
name in arms were now as great as mine.” (Hotspur 5.4.69-71). Hal boasts to Hotspur
that he will make himself glorious in the eyes of others when he kills the valiant
Hotspur. “I’ll make it greater ere I part from thee, / and all the budding honors on thy crest /
I’ll crop to make a garland for my head” (Hal 5.4.72-74). After the men fight and Hotspur
lays dying, he tells Prince Hal that he has stolen his life, and the honor he bestows upon
himself, from him. “O Harry, thou hast robbed me of my youth. / I better brook the loss
of brittle life / than those proud titles thou hast won of me.” (Hotspur 5.4.78-80)
Robbery and rebellion as a motif,
is also represented in the character of Falstaff who is the type of person who allies himself with powerful
people but only serves his own selfish purposes.
Falstaff boasts about his
duplicitous nature. “I was as virtuously given as a / gentleman needs to be, virtuous enough: swore little; diced
not above seven times – a week; went to / a bawdy house not above once in a quarter –
of an / hour; paid money that I borrowed – three or four / times; lived well and in
good compass; and now I / live out of all order, out of all compass. (Falstaff
3.3.15-21).
Falstaff again reiterates the motif
of robbery in speaking with Prince Hal, remarking how they take advantage of their positions. “Marry
then, sweet wag, when thou art king, / let not us that are squires of the night’s
body be / called thieves of the day’s beauty. Let us be Diana’s / foresters, gentlemen of
the shade, minions of the / moon and let men say we be men of good govern- / ment, being
governed, as the sea is, by our noble / and chaste mistress the moon, under whose
countenance we steal” (Falstaff 1.2.24-31).
Lastly Falstaff presents his
predacious nature, in how he takes advantage of the rebellion. “Well, God be thanked for these / rebels. They
offend none but the virtuous. I laud / them; I praise them” (Falstaff 3.3.201-203). Falstaff
represents the type of person that only takes advantage of whatever opportunity that
arises, pursuing his acts of robbery, perhaps including himself in any rebellion that
would put himself in a better position.
The motif
of robbery and rebellion occurs in many different ways during the play Henry IV, Part 1 by William Shakespeare. King Henry attempts
to steal the holy land from the Muslims, and rob men of their lives in the pursuit
of attaining his glory. King Henry believes that he has had stolen from him a true heir
in his rebellious son Prince Hal. King Henry himself has stolen his throne, a rebel
himself against the previous king, Richard II. The motif of robbery and rebellion also occurs
in how those in authority profit off of those without wealth or power. Another form of the
robbery and rebellion motif occurs in how other powerful characters can rob their allies
of their strength to properly ensure the success of the rebellion against King Henry.
Prince Hal robs the glory from the rebel Hotspur. The motif of robbery and rebellion is also
represented in characters like Falstaff, who has no true allies or enemies, but puts
himself in whatever advantageous position that presents itself, stealing for himself whatever
he can gain, even glory in fighting against the rebel Hotspur, when he did not
participate at all.
Nice exploration of the themes of
robbery and rebellion in this play, especially in your discussion of Falstaff
and his role in playing out this motif.
Kudos. 94%.
Works Cited:
Neufeldt, Victoria.
Sparks, Andrew N. Sparks. Webster’s New
World Dictionary, Pocket Books Paperback Edition. Simon & Schuster Inc.
1990. (509, 491). Print.
Shakespeare, William. Henry
IV, Part 1. Eds. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. Washington Square
Press. New York.
1994. Print
Dictionary.com “Motif”
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