Lecture 23
1) The Rhetoric of War
o Elizabeth 1: speech to the troops at Tilbury
Ethos based argument
King’s two bodies
Relates to Saint Crispin speech
o Line 24 Harry talks about self and talking to entire army
He says the only thing he covets is honour
Harry makes a case for honour here
He wants the most honour he can possibly get
Value system is based on honour
Saint Cripin veterans are rewarded with a sense of pride
Nobles will be remembered
“Brand of brothers” suggests equality amongst everyone who fights
no division of class reward of being raised to rank of gentleman not
literally but because of participation in war Harry suggests that the
actual gentlemen at home lounging around won’t be able to claim
gentlemanly status
Rhetoric strategy false because gentlemen will always have
more benefits but Harry says it’s an imagined shift of class
This speech was made by Shakespeare but fashioned by Queen Elizabeth’s
speech
o English more ragged than French soldiers possessing this abstract sense of
honour
o Insults and threatens French
This scene distinguishes between outward show and inward principle
(honour) Harry goes against Falstaff’s idea of honour as useless not
sure if Harry is sincere or using honour as a rhetoric to get what he wants
o Harry mingles with lower people sees what common people think affects
how he talks to them in 4.3
2) Just war and royal responsibility
o 4.1 Harry goes into disguise and mingles with commoners
Line 24 takes cloak of Irpingham easier to be in disguise because no
one really knew what the king looked like
o He sees Pistol, his old friend, to see what he thinks of the king
o Pistol loves the king in what seems a personal way expresses love in casual
terms loyalty is intact this is not what Harry is looking for
o Harry calls himself a Welshman sets himself and Fluellen’s relationship up
o Fluellen is eccentric and strange but with really good values
o William… complicated topic of war justifiable war? How responsible is
Harry for the deaths? begins with Harry saying that king is still mortal person
King’s two bodies mortal body king is but a man like I am
Harry says king is also afraid
Harry contradicts himself first equals self with soldiers them backtracks
and says that he doesn’t want to back out of the war like the soldiers do