Popular Culture Review Vol. 27, No. 2, Summer 2016 | Page 158

past into the present . In this scene , the rebels against King Henry are planning to divide England in three parts : the west goes to the Welsh , the north to the Scots , and the rest to the Percys . This can be very well regarded as the continuance of the centrifugal forces that had been threatening to partition the realm at least since the coming of the Angevins to power in England . By extension , it can also be applied to the time of Elizabeth , when England was still struggling with not only the Welsh and the Scots but also with the Irish , and as such constitute a warning to Elizabeth .
Back to King Henry ’ s camp , we see King Henry likening his prodigal son , Henry , the Prince of Wales , to King Richard . Reprimanding his son for the dissolute lifestyle he has chosen for himself and the company he mingles with , King Henry enumerates the virtues that brought him the crown and contrasts them with the vices that took it away from Richard , concluding that he sees in his son not himself but Richard . It is an irony that can affect the whole realm in a bad way : when the prodigal king returns , the realm will fall into ruin once more ; which could also constitute a message to Elizabeth whose “ Golden Age ” has come after a century of civil war and bloodshed . Even worse , King Henry sees himself in Hotspur , i . e . the enemy , and not in his son : “ For all the world / As thou art to this hour was Richard then / When I from France set foot at Ravenspurgh , / And even as I was then is Percy now ” ( Act 3 , Scene 2 ).
Shakespeare concentrates on a different aspect of the residual in Henry IV , Part 2 , as this play mostly recounts a story of “ malaise .” In this play , the person of King Henry is sick from the beginning to the end , and his sickness can be and certainly is meant to be extended to the whole
156