New show uncovers a long tradition for princes of Wales to excuse their own behaviour by comparing it to Prince Hal’s
From Frederick in the early 18th century to Charles in our own, a series of princes of Wales have associated themselves with Shakespeare’s Prince Hal as a way to excuse youthful excesses and promise strong future leadership, according to a new exhibition exploring the relationship between Shakespeare’s works and the royal family.
Prince Hal is the boon companion of the dissolute Falstaff in Shakespeare’s plays Henry IV Parts I and II, but goes on to win military victory in Henry V. His own profligate behaviour, Hal reveals, was a trick to make his eventual character reveal more dramatic: “Herein will I imitate the sun, / Who doth permit the base contagious clouds / To smother up his beauty from the world, / That, when he please again to be himself, / Being wanted, he may be more wonder’d at.”
Continue reading...
0 comments:
Post a Comment