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Setting
Definition of Soliloquy
A soliloquy is a literary device, most often found in dramas, in which a character speaks to him or herself, relating his or her innermost thoughts and feelings as if... read full definition
A soliloquy is a literary device, most often found in dramas, in which a character speaks to him or herself, relating his or her innermost... read full definition
A soliloquy is a literary device, most often found in dramas, in which a character speaks to him or herself... read full definition
Act 3, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Sleep:
At the beginning of Act 3, King Henry IV is troubled by the ongoing rebellion, led now by the Archbishop of York. Unable to sleep due to his worries, the King personifies the concept of sleep, imagining sleep as a godlike or human figure in a short soliloquy:
O sleep, O gentle sleep,
Nature’s soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down
And steep my senses in forgetfulness?
Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,
Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,
And hushed with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,
Than in the perfumed chambers of the great,
Under the canopies of costly state,
And lulled with sound of sweetest melody?
O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile
In loathsome beds and leavest the kingly couch
A watch-case or a common ’larum bell?
Here, he addresses sleep directly, calling to her and describing her as “Nature’s soft nurse.” He feels that he must have frightened sleep if she will not come to visit him, and implores her to “steep [his] senses in forgetfulness” and allow him a brief reprieve from his many anxieties and sorrows. Further, he suggests that sleep prefers to lie in bed with poor, everyday people but is uninterested in visiting “the perfumed chambers of the great” who lie beneath “the canopies of costly state.” Through this act of personification, the King suggests that great power and privilege such as his own come at the cost of peace of mind.
Act 3, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Old Men:
After speaking with Justice Shallow and Justice Silence, Falstaff has a rare moment of private reflection. In a soliloquy, he states:
Lord, Lord, how subject we old men are to this vice of lying. This same starved justice hath done nothing but prate to me of the wildness of his youth and the feats he hath done about Turnbull Street, and every third word a lie [...]
When he was naked, he was, for all the world, like a forked radish with a head fantastically carved upon it with a knife. He was so forlorn that his dimensions to any thick sight were invincible. He was the very genius of famine, yet lecherous as a monkey [...]
Despite earlier insisting upon being a young man, here Falstaff acknowledges his advanced age as he describes himself and his peers as “we old men” who are subject “to this vice of lying.” Summarizing his conversation with the wealthy but boring Justice Shallow, who serves as a foil for the charismatic Falstaff throughout the play, he notes that his old friend has “done nothing but prate to / me of the wildness of his youth” though “every third word” has been a lie. He looks back upon the time they spent together as young men, and concludes that Justice Shallow was never the brave, attractive, and wild young man he now claims to be, but rather was physically and sexually unimpressive, as well as “lecherous.” In this soliloquy, Falstaff reflects upon the foolishness of the elderly, who, he suggests, idealize their youth beyond all reason.
Related Themes:
Act 4, Scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—The Crown:
In a soliloquy, Prince Harry reflects upon the burden of kingship. He has rushed back to the royal court after hearing that his father has fallen ill and returned to London. Kneeling besides his sleeping father, Harry states:
Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow,
Being so troublesome a bedfellow?
O polished perturbation, golden care,
That keep’st the ports of slumber open wide
To many a watchful night! Sleep with it now;
Yet not so sound and half so deeply sweet
As he whose brow with homely biggen bound
Snores out the watch of night. O majesty,
When thou dost pinch thy bearer, thou dost sit
Like a rich armor worn in heat of day,
That scald’st with safety.
In this private setting he reveals his hesitancy to assume the role of king, characterizing the crown not as a great treasure to be fought for but rather a “troublesome [...] bedfellow." In a metaphor, then, Harry imagines the crown as an irritating roommate who keeps the King from sleeping. He further describes the crown as a “polished perturbation” or a “golden care,” language which contrasts the great value of the crown with the negative effects it has on its wearer. In this soliloquy, then, Harry reveals to the audience his own reluctance to take on his father's kingly burdens.
Related Themes:
