Hal tells his father that:
Percy is but my factor, good lord,
To engross up glorious deeds on my behalf.
And I will call him to so strict account
That he shall render every glory up
(III. ii. 147-50).
The language of commerce here suggests "a world in which practical cunning is the key to every triumph," but even this attitude of Hal's is seen to be a front when he allows the credit for his victory to be taken (Rubinstein 294). Through all of Hal's prticipation in robbery and symbolic language implying te same in others, both sides of a true rebellion seem to have honor on their side.
Perhaps this is why Hal must eventually turn his back on Falstaff completely. For all of his friends lightheartedness and lack of a truly evil spirit, there is simply no honor in the way the knight conducts himself. It is not merely the fact that he robs, but that he is even unprincipled...
Henry IV is a fifteenth century play set in England. The political condition in England is edgy: King Henry IV is dead, his son, the youthful King Henry the V, assumes throne. More than a few harsh civil conflicts leave people of England agitated and disgruntled. In addition, gaining the English peoples respect, Henry has to live his wild adolescent past. The peak of war finds the English less prepared
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