Nine Worthies

Abstract: el d Eight years later, being then aged 68 and spelling his name Trevilyan, he finished another folio of more than a thousand pages, describing it as "my Spectrum", and as a "Miscelane" designed to give pleasure to his friends and to himself. In this second copy, which was formerly in the Leconfield collection and is now in that of Mr. Boies Penrose, the illustrations in their original complicated order range from the labors of the months through Biblical and British History, Scripture, and Allegory to designs for "joyners", gardeners, and embroiderers. In both folios, nine pages are devoted to the Nine Worthies; there is a general similarity between the two, but there are certain significant variations in text and illustrations. The Nine Worthies belong to that province of learning which lies between the Exempla of the Middle Ages and the Imprese of the Renaissance. Their early history in France as "Les neuf Preux" is traced and illustrated in the monograph by Mr. James J. Rorimer and Miss Margaret Freeman on the famous tapestries now at the Cloisters of the Metropolitan Museum, New York. For England, if one follows the list in Caxton's foreword to the Morte Darthur (1485), the Worthies should consist of three Pagans, three Jews, and three Christians-Hector of Troy (or Jason), Alexander of Macedon, and Julius Caesar; Joshua, David, and Judas Maccabaeus; Charlemagne, King Arthur, and usually Godfrey of Boulogne, for whom local preference could substitute Guy of Warwick or another. As the mythical element tended to outweigh the historical, the representation of these personages taxed the artists' skill severely. All the nine Worthies were soldiers, and in ages when knowledge of historic dress and armor was but slight, their bearded portraits were apt to look alike; only the Kings could be distinguished by their crowns. The heralds soon tried to come to the rescue, and just as saints could be picked out by their attributes, so the Worthies can often be identified solely by their coats of arms. But the heralds disagreed with one another, and it is not easy to reconcile the English arms in Gerard Legh's Accedens of Armoury with those, say, in A. Favyn's Theater of Honour published in translation by Jaggard in i623. Hector of Troy had a device of two lions confronted (Jason had the golden fleece); Alexander the Great, a lion sitting rather oddly in an upright armchair and holding a battle-axe; Julius Caesar, a Roman eagle. Joshua's emblem was the Sun, standing still upon Gibeon; for David there was his harp; and

Abstract: Dieser eingängige Merkvers) enthält die bekannten \"Nine Worthies'' (NW) oder \"Neuf Preux\", die vom 14. bis 17. Jh. in Literatur, bildender Kunst und Volksdramatik äußerst beliebt waren. Bisher haben nur Gollancz) und R. S. Loomis) einige Texte gedruckt, um ihre Verbreitung zu zeigen. Hier soll anhand weiteren Belegmaterials Ursprung und Überlieferung der NW dargestellt und vor allem untersucht werden, welche Absichten die jeweiligen Autoren mit ihrer Verwendung verfolgen. Vorgreifend könnte man ihre Funktion exemplarisch nennen. Doch während man unter exemplum im allgemeinen nur die drei bei Owst aufgeführten homiletischen Typen versteht), stellen die NW ein historisches Exemplum von universaler Anwendbarkeit dar, das religiösen und didaktischen Dichtungen, Chroniken, Romanzen, Allegorien mit ihren andersartigen, z.T. entgegengesetzten Ge-

Abstract: 1 5 ;?tN his Marginalia Gabriel Harvey asked who would not rather be one of the Nine Worthies than one of the Seven Wise Masters.' Harvey's rhetorical question emphasizes for us the Renaissance heroic ideal and celebrates the life of action. If we may believe Barnaby Rich, however, this heroic ideal meant nothing to contemporary "carpet knights"; for, said Rich in I578: "in our warres we be now come to this passe, that fraud and deceit is reputed for policie, and treason and treacherie are called gravitie and wisedome, and he is holden the noblest champion, that by any of these meanes can best deceive."2 In his portrayal of King Henry V as embodying ideal valor, Shakespeare also delineated valor's obverse and foil, discretion. I propose to examine the Henry IV plays-and most particularly 2 Henry IV-as plays about heroism, and as plays wherein the groundwork is carefully laid for Prince Hal ultimately to assume the stature of England's hero. To my mind, in the Henry IV plays an ideal of soldiership and action is established, broken, and then re-established-as it were in a statement, variation, and then restatement of theme-and my chief emphasis will be upon 2 Henry IV because it is in that play that the variations on the theme, the anti-heroics, are chiefly played. By the end of i Henry IV, Hal is established as the complete soldier-prince. Nothing is lacking in his right to the throne and to the status of hero. The play began with questions and doubts: King Henry wistfully musing about whether it might be shown that Hal is not his son-whether "it could be proved/ That some night-tripping fairy had exchang'd/ In cradle-clothes our children where they lay/ And call'd mine Percy, his Plantagent" (I. i. 85-88)3and Falstaff in his first exchanges with the Prince making play with the "apparent" in Hal's title of Heir-Apparent. The other question of course involved Hal's bravery. At Holmedon, Hotspur showed himself to be "A son who is the theme of honour's tongue," in whose "conquest for a prince to boast of" prowess in battle is correlated with true royalty. But Hal clears up the doubts about his birth by assuring his father that he will ". . . In the closing of some glorious day/ Be bold to tell you that I am your son" (III. ii. I33-34); and when that day finally comes he faces Hotspur, on a battlefield which is a turmoil of pretender-kings, and asserts "I am the Prince