Henry IV, Part One: Language of the Upper and Lower Class
Roxanne Holowienka, 2009
In Early modern England, there were many differences between the upper and lower class in society. The upper class was royalty and noblemen, while the lower class consisted of the laborers and commoners. This resulted in countless differences between the people of each class, including wealth, education, housing, language, etc. Language is one of particular interest in various sections of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1. With the upper class being able to achieve a higher and better education their speech was more eloquent; while the lower class were mostly educated in their trade and not further. Shakespeare shows the diversity between upper and lower class by using various forms of speech, address and relationships.
At the very beginning of Henry IV, Part 1 it can be seen how the King converses with Westmoreland in verse. The King starts off the play saying:
So shaken as we are, so wan with care,
Find we a time for frighted peace to pant,
And breathe short-winded accents of new broils
To be commenced in strands afar remote.
No more the thirsty entrance of this soil
Shall daub her lips with her own children’s blood; (1.1.1-6)This passage is written in blank verse. Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter. It is similar to prose because the final words of the lines do not rhyme in any regular pattern. There are hard returns visible in the middle of sentences, leading to the capitalization of every line when writing verse (Schwartz). All of these characteristics can be seen in this excerpt of the King’s opening speech. The words “Find”, “And” and “To” are capitalized when they appear in the middle of the sentence. The first sentence is spanned across four lines instead of typing it all out across the page completely from left to right. The hard returns are present to keep the rhythm of the iambic pentameter; which is five iambic feet or five pairs of unstressed/stressed syllables (Shaw, 15).
In Act 1, Scene 2 the reader is introduced to Prince Henry and Falstaff. Prince Henry is the heir to the throne, who goes out carousing with Falstaff. Falstaff socializes with the lower class and is said to give “the general impression of a prattling coward trying to amuse others by falsely reasoning away matters that are quite obviously against him” (Small, 114). By reading their exchanges it is easily seen that Shakespeare has them talking in prose.
Falstaff: Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou art king, let not us that are squires of
the night’s body be called thieves of the day’s beauty. Let us be Diana’s foresters …
Prince: Thou sayest well, and it holds well too, for the fortune of us that are the
moon’s men doth ebb and flow like the sea, being governed, as the sea is, by our
moon. As, for proof, now: a purse of gold most resolutely snatched on Monday night…(1.2.23-26, 30-34)A reader can tell this is prose because of the way the lines are left and right justified and continue onto the next line. Capitals are in their proper position, at the start of the sentence and with a proper noun (Tucker, 197).
In Act 2, Scene 3 Hotspur is arguing with Lady Percy about whether or not she is staying home. Throughout the scene Shakespeare has them using you and thou/thee when addressing each other.
Hotspur: What say’st thou, my lady?
Lady Percy: What is it carries you away?
Hotspur: Why, my horse, my love, my horse.
Lady Percy: Out, you mad-headed ape!...
Lady Percy: But hear you, my lord.(2.3.73-77)Hotspur: Away,
Away, you trifler! Love? I love thee not;
I care not for thee, Kate. …
What say’st thou, Kate? What wouldst thou have with me?
Lady Percy: Do you not love me? Do you not, indeed?
Well, do not, then, for since you love me not
I will not love myself. Do you not love me?
Nay, tell me if you speak in jest or no.(2.3.89-99)From these two excerpts it is clear that they go back and forth between addressing each other formally and then informally. When using “you” to address each other it is a formal address, while thou/thee are informal addresses. Lady Percy starts off addressing Hotspur, her husband, formally by using “you” and “my lord.” She uses the formal address most often during the scene, when speaking calmly and when she gets frustrated. In her monologue of the scene, lines 37 – 64, Lady Percy starts off by addressing Hotspur with “you”, but when she continues on with her concern for what troubles her husband she uses “thou/thee”. Meanwhile, Hotspur uses thou/thee when addressing Lady Percy, except when insulting her or showing authority that she will stay at home. By having Hotspur use the formal address for authoritative moments and Lady Percy constantly using it, it shows him as being the superior individual and Lady Percy being inferior to him (Tucker, 203-204, 206).
Prince Henry is the most interesting character to view when it comes to how Shakespeare has him speak in numerous situations. Prince Henry is associated with being versatile and living two lives. He can hang out with Falstaff and the lower class and fit in perfectly. While hanging out with Falstaff at the tavern with the commoners he speaks in prose. This can be seen in Act 2, Scene 4:
Prince:…I am no proud Jack like Falstaff, but a Corinthian, a lad of mettle, a good
boy – by the Lord, so they call me! – and when I am King of England I shall command
all the good lads in Eastcheap. They call drinking deep “dyeing scarlet”; and when you
breathe in your watering they cry “hem!” and bid you “play it off.” To conclude, I am
so good a proficient in one quarter of an hour that I can drink with any tinker in his own
language during my life…(2.4.11-19)In this speech Prince Henry tells us of how he has been accepted as a “sworn brother” to the drawers of the tavern. He is greatly pleased with this and mentions how he can now mingle with them and belong because they now have taken him in as one of their own. The use of prose by Shakespeare for Prince Henry at this point establishes even more that he assimilates well with the lower class, despite his upper class upbringing (Zitner, 66).
At the end of Act 2, Scene 4 the reader observes how Prince Henry morphs from lower class partier to upper class responsible prince. This section of the scene not only shows how he can switch between prose and verse but also how he is changing as a person.
Prince: Go hide thee behind the arras. The rest walk up above. Now, my
masters, for a true face and good conscience….
Sheriff: I will, my lord. There are two gentlemen
Have in this robbery lost three hundred marks.
Prince: It may be so. If he have robbed these men,
He shall be answerable; and so farewell…(2.4.495-497, 514-517)Prince: …I’ll to court in the morning. We must all to the wars, and they place
shall be honorable. I’ll procure this fat rogue a charge of foot, and I know his
death will be a march of twelve score. The money shall be paid back again with
advantage. Be with me betimes in the morning; and so, good morrow, Peto.(2.4.538-544)In the last section quoted “a nobler and more complex Hal” is witnessed as “emerging from both the plebian and the royal mummings that divide” him. This is shown by him “dealing skillfully with the sheriff and passing summary judgment on Falstaff,” while speaking in verse during the scene. At this point in the play Prince Henry is seen taking on his responsibilities and becoming the Prince everyone expects him to be (Zitner, 69-70).
The fact that Prince Henry could be friends with the lower class and still belong to the upper class is a key factor in the play. By hanging out in the taverns and mingling with the lower class he was able to pick up on their language and become friends with them. This allowed people, he would one day rule, know him and him to know what his people’s needs are. The relationship could potentially set-up protection from a rebellion of the people when he became king. The lower class of the time were not living in the greatest conditions, and by residing amongst them and being one of them occasionally he would know what would need to be done to better the lives of his friends. However by him consorting with the lower class it puts him in a positon where his upper class associates start to look down upon him and question his abilities. Even his father is ashamed to be connected to him, which is close to an insult being children were supposed to respect their parents’ wishes.
The dissimilarities between the upper and lower class in Early Modern England were abundant. One of distinction was their individual languages. The lower class spoke in a slang or informal speech, which Shakespeare showed by having them communicate in prose. The upper class spoke more formally to each other, which Shakespeare demonstrated by having them converse in verse. Shakespeare also played on how people address each other formally and informally through Hotspur and Lady Percy’s argument. Thanks to Prince Henry’s relations with both classes, readers are able to see both worlds’ languages and how the two classes interact with one another.
Works Cited
Schwartz, Dr. Debora B. "Shakespearean Verse and Prose." ENGL 204 / ENGL 339. 1996-2005. California Polytechnic State University. 5 Nov. 2008 <http://cla.calpoly.edu/~dschwart/engl339/verseprose.html>.
Shakespeare, William. The First Part of King Henry The Fourth. The Necessary Shakespeare. Ed. David Bevington. 2nd Ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005. 373-411.
Shaw, Robert B. Blank Verse : A Guide to Its History and Use. New York: Ohio UP, 2007.
Small, S. Asa. "The Structure of Falstaff's Humor." The Shakespeare Association 7 (1932): 114-122.
Tucker, Patrick. Secrets of Acting Shakespeare : The Original Approach. New York: Routledge, 2001.
Zitner, S.P. "Anon, Anon: or, a Mirror for a Magistrate." Shakespeare Quarterly 19 (1968): 63-70.
Works Consulted
Bucholz, R. O., and Newton Key. Early Modern England, 1485-1714 : A Narrative History. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2008.
Gillett, Peter J. "Me, U, and Non-U: Class Connotations of Two Shakespearean Idioms." Shakespeare Quarterly 25 (1974): 297-309.