Shakespeare's comedic influence crept deep into the bones of British comedy, making up its skeleton. This is especially obvious in his word play, including puns and metaphors, and his quick, laugh inducing wit. From Oscar Wilde to Monty Python to Eddie Izzard, British comedy can take its hat off to Shakespeare. In Henry IV, Prince Harry is the perfect vessel for Shakespeare's harsh tongued back handed comments. While it is amusing, the sexual innuendos still entertaining after hundreds of years, there is an unparalleled genius in his turns of phrase. This is especially apparent in Prince Harry's conversations with Falstaff and Poins. Falstaff notes on Prince Harry's character in saying, "Thou hast the most unsavory similes, and art indeed the most comparaive, rascalliest sweet young Prince" (1.2.70-71). Prince Harry's clever speeches seem to be a branch from the fool and a branch from a newly developing evil villian- one who relishes in bad deeds where before bad men did bad deeds in order to obtain a desire.
Prince Harry's speech about the nature of men, and how they view properties of the natural world in one another is a brilliant use of metaphor. He compares himself to the sun (which he has done before in Romeo and Juliet), for future imitation, and then to the routines and vacations of life. He says, "If all the year were playing holidays, to sport would be as tedious as to work; but when they seldom come, they wished-for to come, and nothing pleaseth but rare accidents" (1.2.182-5). He is referring to the dichotomy of good and bad, or evil, to create balance in the world. Psychological balance, if everything is good then nothing would be because there is nothing by which to measure it in comparison. He is talking about himself, if he is always good it's little appreciated, as his cousin Harry Percy, but if he is good for a moment in his wickedness, it is all the more noticed.
In this speech, Prince Harry moves from the jokester, a bit of the fool who, as Falstaff cleverly says, "Camest not of the blood royal, if thou darest stand for ten shillings" (1.2.125), to a less humorous, more sage character. He is the unlikely prophet.
The English have certainly perfected Shakespeare's humor into all aspects of media and moving into nearly all western culture. As Falstaff misuses the Bible, "Tis no sin for a man to labour in his vocation" (1.2.91-92).
3 comments:
I had the same thought about timeless English humor while reading Ben Jonson's Volpone. The scene when Volpone is faking death and Mosca assures their guest that he can't hear a thing and proceeds to shout insults at him to prove it is absolutely classic. In terms of wordplay, English humor was completely shaped by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. I've seen the British shows they play on adukt swim (The Office, Look Around You, The Mighty Boosh) and while there is a lot of absurdist humor in them, Shakespearean humor and wordplay is prevelant. I think some people don't understand British humor because it is so rich with banter and wordplay and that's just not for everyone.
Nice attention to Prince Hal's humor, Ashley, which is sometimes difficult to pick up off the page. Both you and Sarah are absolutely right that there is a great thread of British comedy that runs from Shakespeare to today.
I liked your interpretation of Prince Harry and his humor. He seems like such a different character than we are used to compared to the other plays we have read.
I also liked what you said about Harry relishing in bad deeds-- it really does seem this way to me, and once again, is vastly different than other villains in the works we read. I think this can possibly show us that he is a much different type of person than others, which I think is important.
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