Recently I have been reading the Shakespearean plays of Henry IV, Parts I & II.  They form the middle of a collection of four plays (Richard II, Henry IV, Part I, Henry IV, Part II, and Henry V), which chronicled events and dramatic that occurred in Britain during the 1400-1500s; these events were the precursors to The War of the Roses, where two distinctive families vied for the right to the throne of England.

Richard II is my favourite of these four but Henry IV (Parts I & II) have a very interesting tale to tell of what it means to be a king – and to live like one.  In these plays, Britain’s reigning king, Henry IV of Bolingbroke, has a son named Henry (or Hal) who causes his father unknown grief owing to the fact that he spends all his time with an obese and gluttonous drunkard named Falstaff, as well as prostitutes and social degenerates.  This relationship between Hal and Falstaff are so pronounced that almost half of the plays’ scenes are devoted to their association.

Yet at the end of Part II, Hal becomes King Henry V when his father dies.  This leads to a momentous change for Hal, for when he becomes king, he dramatically decides to leave behind the follies of his youth.  He does this because he is now a king, like the prodigal son who returned.   When Falstaff hears that Henry is monarch, he giddily assumes that he is about to get a high place in society, that he will make millions, and be an influential politician now that his friend has become king; he even ‘gatecrashes’ the coronation by asking the new king to give him high ranking.  Yet his hopes are dashed when King Hal openly disowns him.  The new king’s words are powerful when he denounces his former associate (Act V: Scene 5, 47-65, emphasis added):

I know thee not, old man.  Fall to thy prayers.

How will white hairs becomes a fool and jester!

I have long dreamt of such a kind of man, 

So surfeit-swelled, so old, and so profane,

But, being awakened, I do despise my dream … 

Presume not that I am the thing I was,

For God doth know, so shall the world perceive, 

That I have turned away from my former self. 

So will I those that kept me company.  

When thou dost hear am I as I have been,

Approach me, and thou shalt be as thou wast,

The tutor and the feeder of my riots.

Till then, I banish thee on pain of death,

As I have done the rest of my misleaders,

Not to come near our person by ten mile.

From a Christian perspective, this really resonates.  For those of us who are Christian, we are sons of the living God, heirs of Christ.  We will be judging creation with Jesus Christ at His return and since this is who we will be, we are to live in that way in the here and now.  For Hal in Henry IV, being king meant that his indulgent youth as Prince of Wales was a painful memory (But, being awakened, I do despise my dream) – the dream became a nightmare.  The ‘old man’, as much, of sin no longer has its way (For God doth know, so shall the world perceive/ That I have turned away from my former self).  Hal amputates these ties to the past publicly and not merely privately – and he did so so dramatically that his former associates are banned from coming 10 within miles near the king, lest their forfeit their lives in the attempt.

Christians are empowered by the Holy Spirit to say, like Prince Hal, “Go away and never come back!” to their old man of sin.  Titus 2:11-14 explicitly tells us so: In 1 Peter 4:1-4 we read (ESV): Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.  For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.  May we want to do this, by God’s grace and strength.

God bless, Nahum.