"
Falstaff himself declares that nothing "pricks him on but honour," and
bragging Pistol admits that "honour is cudgelled" from his weary limbs.
The French, too, when they are beaten by Henry V. all bemoan their shame
and loss of honour, and have no word of sorrow for their ruined
homesteads and outraged women and children. The Dauphin cries:
"Reproach and everlasting shame
Sits mocking in our plumes."
And Bourbon echoes him:
"Shame and eternal shame, nothing but shame."
It is curious that Bourbon falls upon the same thought which animated
Hotspur. Just before the decisive battle Hotspur cries:
"O, gentlemen! the time of life is short;
To spend that shortness basely were too long."
And when the battle turns against the French, Bourbon exclaims:
"The devil take order now! I'll to the throng:
Let life be short; else shame will be too long."
As Jaques in "As You Like It" says of the soldier: they are "jealous in
honour" and all seek "the bubble reputation, even in the cannon's
mouth.
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