Article #100-2 | Gutenberg Articles

Excerpt

Excerpt from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, by William Shakespeare

KING.
I would I had that corporal soundness now,
As when thy father and myself in friendship
First tried our soldiership. He did look far
Into the service of the time, and was
Discipled of the bravest. He lasted long,
But on us both did haggish age steal on,
And wore us out of act. It much repairs me
To talk of your good father; in his youth
He had the wit which I can well observe
Today in our young lords; but they may jest
Till their own scorn return to them unnoted
Ere they can hide their levity in honour
So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness
Were in his pride or sharpness; if they were,
His equal had awak’d them, and his honour,
Clock to itself, knew the true minute when
Exception bid him speak, and at this time
His tongue obey’d his hand. Who were below him
He us’d as creatures of another place,
And bow’d his eminent top to their low ranks,
Making them proud of his humility,
In their poor praise he humbled. Such a man
Might be a copy to these younger times;
Which, followed well, would demonstrate them now
But goers backward.

BERTRAM.
His good remembrance, sir,
Lies richer in your thoughts than on his tomb;
So in approof lives not his epitaph
As in your royal speech.

KING.
Would I were with him! He would always say,—
Methinks I hear him now; his plausive words
He scatter’d not in ears, but grafted them
To grow there and to bear,—“Let me not live,”
This his good melancholy oft began
On the catastrophe and heel of pastime,
When it was out,—“Let me not live” quoth he,
“After my flame lacks oil, to be the snuff
Of younger spirits, whose apprehensive senses
All but new things disdain; whose judgments are
Mere fathers of their garments; whose constancies
Expire before their fashions.” This he wish’d.
I, after him, do after him wish too,
Since I nor wax nor honey can bring home,
I quickly were dissolved from my hive
To give some labourers room.

Explanation

**Detailed Analysis of the Excerpt from All’s Well That Ends Well (Act 1, Scene 2)**

Source & Context: This passage is from William Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well (likely written between 1601–1608), a play often classified as a "problem comedy" due to its ambiguous tone and morally complex resolutions. The scene features a dialogue between the King of France (suffering from a terminal illness) and Bertram, the son of the recently deceased Count of Rousillon, a nobleman the King deeply admired.

The King’s speech is a nostalgic eulogy for Bertram’s father, contrasting the virtues of the older generation with the perceived frivolity of the youth (including Bertram himself). The play explores themes of honor, generational decline, merit vs. inheritance, and the corrupting influence of courtly life, which are all reflected in this exchange.

Key Themes

Generational Decline & Nostalgia for the Past
- The King idealizes Bertram’s father as a paragon of wisdom, humility, and martial virtue, while implying that the younger generation (like Bertram) lacks these qualities.
- The phrase "goers backward" suggests moral and social regression—modern youth are inferior to their predecessors.
- This reflects a Renaissance anxiety about the decay of chivalric values in favor of courtly superficiality.
Honor & Nobility
- The Count of Rousillon is praised for his balanced pride: he was assertive with equals but humble to inferiors, making them "proud of his humility."
- His honor was self-regulating ("Clock to itself"), knowing precisely when to act or speak—a contrast to the reckless youth who "jest till their own scorn return to them unnoted."
- The King’s admiration highlights the Shakespearean ideal of nobility: true greatness combines strength with grace.
Mortality & Legacy
- The King, facing death, envies the Count’s timely exit before age diminished him ("After my flame lacks oil").
- His metaphor of the beehive ("I nor wax nor honey can bring home") suggests he feels useless and ready to die to make way for the next generation—yet he despairs that the youth are unworthy successors.
- Bertram’s response—that the King’s memory of the Count is richer than his tomb—reinforces the theme that legacy lives in speech and action, not mere monuments.
Courtly Corruption vs. Martial Virtue
- The King critiques the fickleness of courtly youth, whose "constancies expire before their fashions."
- The Count’s military discipline ("first tried our soldiership") is contrasted with the frivolity of courtiers, who value "new things" over substance.
- This mirrors Shakespeare’s broader skepticism about courtly life (seen also in Hamlet or Twelfth Night), where appearance often trumps reality.

Literary Devices & Stylistic Features

Metaphor & Imagery
- "Haggish age steal on": Age is personified as a witch-like thief that robs vitality.
- "Clock to itself": The Count’s honor is compared to a self-regulating clock, emphasizing precision and self-control.
- "Flame lacks oil" / "snuff of younger spirits": Life is a candle that burns out, with youth as the snuff (waste) left behind—a bitter metaphor for being superseded.
- "Beehive": The King sees himself as a drone bee, no longer productive, ready to die for the hive’s (society’s) renewal.
Contrast & Juxtaposition
- Past vs. Present: The Count’s discipline vs. the youth’s levity.
- Humility vs. Pride: The Count’s ability to elevate others ("making them proud of his humility") vs. the courtiers’ empty pride.
- Action vs. Words: The Count’s words were "grafted" (planted to grow), unlike the youth’s scatter’d (empty) speech.
Irony & Foreshadowing
- The King’s praise for the Count ironically highlights Bertram’s flaws—he will later prove unworthy of his father’s legacy (abandoning his wife, Helena, and chasing superficial honors).
- The King’s wish to die "to give some labourers room" is ironic because the "labourers" (younger generation) are unprepared for the responsibility.
Rhetorical Devices
- Anaphora: Repetition of "Let me not live" emphasizes the Count’s stoic acceptance of mortality.
- Parallelism: "Whose judgments are / Mere fathers of their garments; whose constancies / Expire before their fashions"—critiques the youth’s superficiality through structured repetition.

Significance in the Play & Broader Shakespearean Context

Characterization
- The King’s speech establishes Bertram’s moral deficit before his actions prove it. His hollow response ("His good remembrance... lies richer in your thoughts") suggests he lacks his father’s depth.
- The Count’s ghostly presence haunts the play, serving as a moral benchmark against which Bertram is measured.
Social Commentary
- Shakespeare critiques aristocratic decay, where inherited title (Bertram’s countship) doesn’t guarantee inherited virtue.
- The play questions whether merit (like Helena’s) or birth (like Bertram’s) should define worth—a recurring Shakespearean theme (Henry IV, King Lear).
Tragicomedy & Ambiguity
- The King’s melancholy and desire for death introduce a tragic tone, unusual for a comedy.
- The problematic ending (Bertram is "rewarded" despite his flaws) makes this speech prophetic—the older generation’s ideals are doomed.
Connection to Shakespeare’s Other Works
- Generational conflict: Similar to Hamlet (Old Hamlet vs. Claudius) or Henry IV (Hotspur vs. Hal).
- Military nostalgia: Echoes Henry V’s praise for the "band of brothers" vs. the corrupt peace of court.
- Beehive metaphor: Recalls Henry V’s ("the bee doth leave her comb") and Coriolanus’s body politic imagery.

Conclusion: Why This Passage Matters

This exchange is a microcosm of All’s Well That Ends Well’s central tensions:

The gap between idealized past and flawed present.
The hollow nature of courtly honor vs. true nobility.
The inevitability of change, even when the successors are unworthy.

Shakespeare uses the King’s elegiac tone to critique his own society, where traditional values were eroding under the pressures of courtly politics and social mobility. The passage also foreshadows Bertram’s failures, making the play’s "happy ending" feel unearned and ironic—a hallmark of Shakespeare’s "problem plays."

In broader terms, the speech reflects Renaissance humanist concerns about virtue, legacy, and the passage of time, themes that resonate in Shakespeare’s histories and tragedies alike.

Questions

Question 1

The King’s characterization of Bertram’s father as one who “bow’d his eminent top to their low ranks, / Making them proud of his humility” primarily serves to:

A. illustrate the Count’s strategic manipulation of social hierarchies to secure loyalty from inferiors.
B. emphasize the performative nature of nobility, where humility is a calculated affectation rather than genuine virtue.
C. contrast the Count’s military discipline with the effete manners of the court, implying that true honor is earned in battle.
D. present an ideal of aristocratic conduct in which magnanimity toward subordinates elevates both the noble and the common.
E. underscore the futility of humility in a courtly system where power dynamics render such gestures meaningless.

Question 2

When the King states, “I nor wax nor honey can bring home, / I quickly were dissolved from my hive / To give some labourers room,” the metaphor of the beehive most strongly evokes:

A. a Stoic acceptance of mortality as a natural cycle, devoid of bitterness or regret.
B. a paradoxical blend of self-loathing and altruism, where the King’s despair is framed as a sacrificial act.
C. the inefficacy of aging rulers, who, like drones, are expendable once their productive years have passed.
D. the organic interdependence of society, where each member’s role is fixed and transition is seamless.
E. a critique of feudalism, in which the laborers are implicitly more valuable than the nobility they serve.

Question 3

The King’s repetition of “Let me not live” in his recollection of the Count’s words functions primarily as:

A. a rhetorical device to amplify the Count’s rejection of a life diminished by irrelevance, aligning his death with his principles.
B. an example of dramatic irony, since the King, unlike the Count, lacks the courage to embrace death on his own terms.
C. a melancholic refrain that underscores the King’s own desire for escape, rather than a direct quotation of the Count.
D. a structural parallel to Bertram’s later abandonment of Helena, suggesting inherited moral failure.
E. a subversion of Christian resignation, replacing divine acceptance with a secular defiance of aging.

Question 4

Bertram’s response—“His good remembrance, sir, / Lies richer in your thoughts than on his tomb”—is most accurately described as:

A. a hollow compliment that exposes his disingenuous engagement with the King’s grief.
B. a subtle rebuke to the King for idealizing the past at the expense of the present generation.
C. a diplomatically phrased acknowledgment that legacy is sustained through active remembrance rather than passive monument.
D. an unintentional revelation of his own shallowness, as he reduces the Count’s virtue to a matter of rhetoric.
E. a cynical observation that the King’s nostalgia is a form of self-aggrandizement, not genuine mourning.

Question 5

The passage as a whole is most concerned with exploring the tension between:

A. the inevitability of physical decline and the human desire for transcendence through legacy.
B. the idealized virtues of a martial past and the corrupting influence of peacetime courtly values.
C. the King’s personal mortality and his political obligation to ensure a stable succession.
D. Bertram’s inherited nobility and his failure to embody the qualities that justified his father’s status.
E. the performative nature of honor in a hierarchical society and the private integrity that underpins it.

Solutions and Explanations

1) Correct answer: D

Why D is most correct: The King’s description of the Count’s humility toward subordinates is not merely strategic (A), performative (B), or a contrast with courtly manners (C). Nor is it a commentary on the futility of such gestures (E). Instead, it presents an idealized model of aristocratic conduct where true nobility elevates others without diminishing itself—a mutual enrichment. The phrase “making them proud of his humility” suggests a symbiotic relationship between the noble and the common, where the Count’s magnanimity confers dignity on those below him while reinforcing his own virtue. This aligns with Renaissance humanist ideals of noblesse oblige and the civilizing role of the elite.