The Lines I Love Part 3

In Henry IV Part I, “honour” is held up as a virtue that makes people do valiant and courageous deeds. While opinions vary among nobles in the play, the general consensus is that honour is earned on the battlefield, fighting in the name of a righteous leader.

But when everyone’s backs are turned, a lowly barfly named Falstaff undercuts their bombast. And it’s this short, powerful speech that Emily Edwards adores.

“It feels very contemporary because Falstaff is questioning the reasons people go to war,” says Emily. “After all the nobility’s posturing, Falstaff turns to the audience and gives us a reality check. He offers the perspective of the common man during warfare. In just a few lines, he pulls off the trick of being funny, poignant and cynical.

“It’s amazing that William Shakespeare got away with this, because the play was performed in front of Queen Elizabeth I,” continues Emily. “Elizabeth expected her subjects to fight and, if necessary, to die to defend her honour. But Falstaff’s wit and charm must have won her over because there’s no evidence that Shakespeare got into any hot water over this. In fact, it's rumoured that Elizabeth personally requested Falstaff be revived in a subsequent play.”

Here is an excerpt from Falstaff’s speech, which appears in Act 5 Scene 1:

…honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on, how then? Can honour set to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound? No. Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? No. What is honour? A word. What is in that word “honour”? Air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? He that died a-Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. ’Tis insensible, then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? No. Why? Detraction will not suffer it. Therefore, I’ll none of it…