High and Low Dialectics

Shakespeare again shows his love of wordplay in the first two acts of Henry IV--and I think it’s some of his best. A fairly obvious instance that I’ll start off with is his use of cousin and its homonym cozen (cheat). Early on Henry refers to Westmorland as “coz” meaning kinsman (1.1.90), which resonates in the next scene with “cozening” as used by Prince Harry (1.2.109). The overt play on “cousin” comes from Hotspur in 1.3.156. All of this wordplay works under the surface of the drama to enforce the dialectic movement between high and low culture, between royal knaves and knavish royals. I think this is the most subtle and difficult text that we’ve looked at so far. I have so many things to say about how the play’s working thematically but at the same time it’s harder to articulate it and get a sure grasp on the text as a whole. I guess I’ll focus on this dialectic between high and low by talking about Prince Harry who will “imitate the sun” (1.2.175). Later we know he also imitates his father while Falstaff takes the son’s role. It’s really striking to see this comic scene at the inn in Eastcheap where a fat, thieving drunkard pretends to be the king of England scolding the actual Prince! And then to see him deposed and made Prince while Harry imitates his father--it’s hysterical and ridiculous. The most intriguing aspect of the acts, though, are the layers of meaning that weave so elusively through the play. Another instance of this is the use of majesty versus grace. Falstaff says that Harry will be called “majesty” and not “grace” when he becomes king because he lacks grace--in terms of the divine right, he lacks the grace of God because his father is a usurper. The only time anyone refers to the king as “grace” and not majesty is when Falstaff calls Prince Harry “your grace” when he is imitating his father. Again, I find this play very hard to talk about, but here are some other words and phrases I picked up on: Henry wants to “child swap” while Falstaff and Harry swap roles later on; “fat”; purse (euphemism for vagina); clock/watch and the sun and moon imagery--moonlight thievery; “tongue”; Queen (prostitute); heir-apparent; merit/holy works (used by Falstaff to justify thievery); lion (Richard); ‘Sblood, zounds, Ecce Signum/Homo--in general a lot of allusions to Christ.