involuntarily expressed the wish that they had with them ten thousand more of their countrymen, Harry cries, “No, not a man more from England": he is certain that their cause is good, and that, with God's help, they can maintain it. We see the good fruit of his old habits of mixing with all sorts and conditions of men as, the night before the battle, he goes through the camp in disguise, talking as a brother-man with everyone; and, even in this hour of extremity, he cannot refrain from passing a practical joke on a bragging fool with whom he meets. At the breaking of the day he leads his troops to one of the most remarkable victories with which the name of England is adorned; and his own cheerfulness and valour supply the inspiration that puts hope into the hearts of his fainting When all is done, however, he knows nothing men. of his own heroism : O God, Thy arm was here, And not to us, but to Thy arm alone, Ascribe we all. If Prince Harry's example is understood to advocate the "wild oats" theory of life, it is false and misleading; but, if it be taken to teach how one who has fallen into error, in the heat of young blood, may retrieve himself and, by the grace of God, rise to a full sense of the dignity of life, it has close affinity with the Gospel. I can never help thinking that in Prince Henry we have a great deal of what Shakspeare himself was, and of what he wished to be. There is no doubt that Shakspeare knew by experience the world of madness and misrule over which he depicted Falstaff as presiding; because the life of actors and playwriters in his day bordered closely on rascaldom. Most of his brother-playwrights lived short and violent lives, and several of them perished in tavern-brawls. May we not take these dramas as indications that, though in this world, Shakspeare never liked it? At all events he rose out of it and quitted it. By incessant labour he clarified his genius and established his fortune; and may we not hope that, when, as the fruit of his toil, he became a prosperous man and, while still in the maturity of his powers, retired to his native Stratford, to spend the rest of his days far from the revelry of London, it was with King Harry's sense of deliverance from the errors of his youth and with his thankful consciousness of owing everything to God? |