The Self in Early Modern Literature: For the Common Good

TWO

TWO Shakespeare’s Henriad ❖ Calling the Heir Apparent Shakespeare’s Henriad chronicles the experience of Henry V of England, first as the ambivalent heir apparent to his usurper father, Henry IV, then as the kingly victor over the French monarchy . The problematic Falstaff, his summary rejection by the newly crowned king, the relationships between the plays, the dimensions of legitimate rule, the theatricality of power — debate on all these critical subjects keep the public and private dimensions of Henry’s experience in the mind’s eye. The notion of self that governs Shakespeare’s characterization of Henry, the perspectives shifting from one play to the next, and the protean evasiveness of Hal’s behavior have preoccupied students of the work. Quite reasonably, some critics have invoked the help of applicable modern idioms, but the imperatives of Shakespeare’s own historical context still offer basic guides to Henry’s nature. One imperative is the Reformation doctrine of vocation or calling. 103 Royal Vocations The matter of vocation is introduced early in 1 Henry IV. The king’s complaint that “riot and dishonour stain the brow / Of my young Harry” (1.1.84–85)1 confesses his nagging uneasiness about his successor. Immediately following in scene 2, Prince Hal volleys Falstaff’s opening query about the time of day by half seriously calling to account his inversion of redeemed time. Falstaff’s return volley shifts to the nighttime working hours of thieves and to Hal’s future reign as king. Soon follows a comic exchange on Falstaff’s vocational role in that reign, either as a judge or, as Hal would have it, a hangman. When the repartee circles back on thieving , Falstaff’s self-defensive debunking of established values makes explicit what remains at the play’s thematic heart: “Why, Hal, ’tis my vocation, Hal. ’Tis no sin for a man to labour in his vocation ” (1.2.92–93). The timely entrance of Ned Poins wrenches attention to that evening’s robbery. First Falstaff departs, then Poins, after he and Hal plan the anti-robbery at Gadshill. Hal is left alone to tell the audience, in a much debated soliloquy, that his rebellious tavern life is only an interlude until he will “throw off” his “loose behaviour” and “pay the debt I never promisèd” (1.2.186–87). Falstaff’s “vocation” of thieving, more generally his misrule, by performing a necessary service in Hal’s growth, is thus a comically ironic, contrapuntal variation on the primary theme of Hal’s vocation. Another explicit signal in 1 Henry IV that vocation or calling is a primary concern occurs at the Eastcheap tavern when Hal interrogates the thin-witted young drawer Francis. Hal’s stage directions to Poins include the pretext for the interrogation: “But, Ned, to drive away the time till Falstaff come, I prithee do thou stand in some by-room, while I question my puny drawer to what end he gave me the sugar, and do thou never leave calling ‘Francis!’, that his tale to me may be nothing but ‘Anon!’ Step aside, and I’ll show thee a precedent” (2.5.24–29). The pretext is only half true since Poins like Francis, in obeying Hal’s command without fully comprehending his intention, participates in a playwithin -the-play that examines implications of calling. While 104 The Self in Early Modern Literature Hal questions Francis about his “indenture” (43) — how long he has to “serve” (37), whether he wishes to “run from it” (44) — Poins obeys Hal by competitively “calling” Francis to serve him. The young drawer is soon frozen by this competition until his impatient master, the innkeeper, brusquely sends him to serve others in the inn. Hal’s carefully staged miniature reflects back on his own vocational experience. Invited to flee, like Francis, he also hears competing calls to duty. The subtler contours in this miniature are available to Hal, but not, ironically, to the ignorant Francis, who serves more than one master at the same time. Most obviously , he serves his legal master, the innkeeper; but as a subject of the crown, he also serves the heir apparent. But he is also being called to serve the prince’s agent, Poins, who like Hal claims his service as a drinking patron of the inn. Thin wits can comprehend only the bare thrust of a calling, but the implications of Francis’s...