Pilgrims of Grace: Henry IV Historicized | Rebuke
REBUKE
Prince John foregrounds the play's censorious mode. 'Monsieur Remorse', the play's mock-Puritan, points to its theological matrix with pious remarks on 'the spirit of persuasion', the 'ears of profiting' (1:1.2.106, 143-4), and the need for 'the fire of grace' if one is to be properly 'moved' (2.4.370-1). What one should be moved to by rebuke is confession, contrition (asking pardon), and 'a good amendment of life' (1.2.97). But as Calvin acknowledged in his discussion of rebuke and grace (Institutes, II.V.5), and as Falstaff habitually demonstrates, evasion is a common response. It is characteristic of the endemic dishonesty of Henry's unregenerate world that almost everyone responds to rebuke by denial, obfuscation, and retaliation in kind. The dialogue of the play, both comic and serious, is substantially built on rebuke, evasion, and counterrebuke.
Rebuke and evasion explode in the third scene of Part 1 when Henry berates all the...
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