MISERIES OF ROYALTY O, how it yearned my heart when I beheld 155 -Richard II., v. 5. Again, with all his reverence for royalty, no preacher has proclaimed the emptiness of earthly greatness more strongly than Shakespeare, or the miseries weighing upon kings by reason of their greatness. Henry IV. complains how the mere cares of royalty drive sleep away. "Perfumed chambers," "canopies of state," "sweetest melodies" cannot obtain for the monarch the rest found by the meanest of his subjects on "uneasy pallets," "loathsome beds," "amidst buzzing night-flies." Henry VI., ever fearful of some traitorous attack, envies the shepherd. "Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade To shepherds, looking on their silly sheep, Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy To kings, that fear their subjects' treachery?" -3 Henry VI., ii. 5. And Richard II. lives expecting the death which mocks his greatness. "Within the hollow crown, That rounds the mortal temples of a king, Death keeps his court; and there the antic sits, To monarchise, be fear'd, and kill with looks; Infusing him with self and vain conceit,— Bores through his castle wall, and-farewell, king!" Naturally, then, the same Richard longs to exchange his royal pomp for religious retirement and peace, but in what a Catholic tone he speaks! "I'll give my jewels, for a set of beads: A little little grave, an obscure grave.”—Ibid., iii. 3. We will now consider Shakespeare's view of the nobility. A single thread of history, such as the subject before us, "manifests conspicuously," says Simpson, "the philosophic unity running through the chronicle plays. With the exception of 'Edward III.' and Marlowe's 'Edward II.,' both often attributed in part to Shakespeare, the numerous historical plays by other authors, for instance Heywood's Edward IV.' or 'Elizabeth,' would add nothing to the completeness of the picture of the nobility presented in the Shakespearian series." The constitutional origin and status of the nobles, their power and greatness, and the causes of their decay are alike clearly set forth. In "King John," the nobles appear as deriving EVILS OF REBELLION 157 their rights, not from the great Charter, which the poet ignores, but from common law and immemorial custom. The Barons are the King's Peers; his judges when he breaks the laws of Church or State, and the executors of their judgments, as far as they have the power. Thus they are represented in King John" as resisting the encroachments of the crown, and their rebellion, in alliance with the French king, is dictated by motives of religion, duty, and patriotism. But the poet is careful to point out in the speech of Salisbury the evils entailed by even justifiable rebellion. The uncertainty of conscience as to what is lawful or not in rebellion, the "healing one wound only by making many," the necessity of fighting with one's own countrymen and forming alliances with their enemies, these are some of the evils of insurrection. "But such is the infection of the time, That, for the health and physic of our right, Of stern injustice and confusèd wrong." -King John, v. 2. Hence Salisbury readily profits by the opportunity afforded by the French king's intended treachery to rejoin John. (We will) "like a bated and retired flood, Even to our ocean, to our great King John." -Ibid., v. 4. The "ocean," though a strong expression, is the natural term of the metaphor of an overflowing river, and John was now reconciled to the Church, and had given the pledges demanded. Again, the poet represents the suspicion which always attaches to the rebel, or even to those who were regarded as disaffected, however just their cause of complaint may have been. This is why the Dauphin in "King John" had determined to murder all his English allies. "Paying the fine of rated treachery Even with the treacherous fine of all your lives." -Ibid., v. 3. For the same reason the deposed Richard warns "Shall think that thou, which know'st the way To pluck him headlong from the usurped throne. Worcester speaks in the same strain: "Bear ourselves as even as we can, The king will always think him in our debt; And afterwards : —1 Henry IV., i. 3. "Look how we can, or sad, or merrily, —Ibid., v. 2. WARNINGS REPEATED 159 This makes Mowbray and the Archbishop of York say: "Were our royal faiths martyrs in love, We shall be winnow'd with so rough a wind, -2 Henry IV., iv. 1. Henry IV. warns his son to the same effect- My gain of it (the crown) by their assistances; Their merits were too great to be rewarded as they deserved. Unrewarded, they would be as faithless to their new master as to their old. Nothing was left than that they should experience the truth of Commines' saying, "Il perd souvent d'avoir trop servi." The circumstances of Shakespeare's time explain why these warnings should be so often repeated. The English Catholics in exile found that foreign countries offered them no secure asylum against the suspicion which had dogged them at home. According to Camden, the Earl of Westmoreland and the other English resident in the Netherlands were compelled, in 1575, by the Governor Requesens, at the request of Wilson, the British ambassador, to quit the country. Three years later, on March 22, 1578, the seminary of Douay was dissolved, all English capable of bearing arms being forced, by order of the magistrate, to leave the town within two days. The Rector of the University and the Governor alike |