SHAKESPEARE AND NATIONAL SERVICE.
AS warm supporters of the policy of the National Service League, we note with satisfaction the progress which is being made by the League, and how very much greater and wider is the sympathy extended to it now than when it began its work. And while noting this with satisfac- tion, we note also that the obstacles to the policy prove very different from those which were expected. At the beginning it was very generally believed that the chief diffi- culty would be to convince the working man of the necessity of universal training. It was feared that though there was little doubt as to his essential courage and patriotism, he would be alarmed by the notion of anything approach- ing military training, and that it might be difficult to convince him that he would be asked to undertake no obligation which would not be imposed quite as strictly upon his richer fellow-subjects. These fears are, we believe, turning'out to be groundless. It is the experience of almost all who have addressed popular audiences—it is certainly the experience of the present writer—that the opposition to the notion of universal military training does not come from the working class. The real opponents to the policy are the .well-to-do,—the middle and lower middle class. We do not suggest for a moment that they are as a class physically timid, or that they mean to be unpatriotic ; but unfortunately they seem to show a certain selfishness and a certain prevalence of caste-feeling in regard to letting their sons be trained which are not shown either by the working class or by the aristocratic class. The aristocratic class is not afraid of rubbing shoulders with the demo- cracy on the drill-ground ; but we fear that the class just above the working class—the shopkeeper class—does at present dislike this notion very greatly. The fathers think it will be " lowering " to their sons, and the mothers think that the training would be too rough, for there is no class, taken as a whole, in which the worship of comfort and the dread of roughing it are so great.
Strange as it sounds, this attitude of the well-to-do and of the poor towards national service, and the true solution of the problem, were divined by Shakespeare some three hundred years ago, and were treated by him with astonishing power. Let our readers who are sceptical as to our assertion turn to the second part of Sing Henry IV., and read the immortal scene in which Falstaff and Bardolph, assisted by Justice Shallow, set about pressing men for the Army. In the second scene of the third act Falstaff impresses Mouldy, Feeble, and Bullcalf. Mouldy is a man of property, and so is Bullcalf, who belongs to the class of prosperous yeomen.. Feeble, on the other hand, comes from the lower ranks of the artisans. He is the " woman's tailor " whom Falstaff laughs at so heartily as " courageous Feeble! "- "valiant as the wrathful dove or most magnanimous mouse." As soon as they are impressed, Bullcalf and Mouldy set about getting themselves excused by paying money to Corporal Bardolph. Bullcalf's protestations are the very epitome of the language always used by the men who are patriotic enough in theory, but who wish to shirk all patriotic obligations :- " In very truth, sir, I had as lief be hanged, sir, as go : and yet, for mine own part, sir, I do not care; but rather, because I am unwilling, and, for mine own part, have a desire to stay with my friends; else, sir, I do not care, for mine own part, so much."
That sort of man always says that he has no real objection to serving his country, but that somehow or other, in the special circumstances, he finds he must say he would rather not. Then comes Mouldy, the other prosperous man, who has excellent family reasons for not going, and he accordingly bribes his way out like Bullcalf :- " And, good master corporal captain, for my old dame's sake, stand my friend : she has nobody to do any thing about her when I am gone; and she is old, and cannot help herself: you shall have forty, sir."
Feeble has been standing by meantime, and has heard their excuses. And now comes in that note of passion which Shakespeare knows how to infuse into his art even wheel it is most farcical. He has brought us down to the very depths, to the corrupt officer taking a bribe and betraying his duty to the State, and has shown us the cowardly fat and prosperous men sweating and squealing at the bare idea of discharging their obligations. We e might expect that Feeble, the " woman's tailor," upon whom every sort of contempt has been poured, as the man who would " make as many holes in an enemy's battle as thou hest done in a woman's petticoat," would sweat and squeal too, and worse than any of them. One looks to hear him cry aloud on the injustice which makes him serve merely because he had not enough to pay for an exemption. With Shakespeare, master of the human heart, a very different thing happens. He has taken us, as we have said, down to the very dust, to the social gutter, to what seem like the dregs of humanity, and then suddenly the scene soars aloft into the most poignant expression of patriotism and true nobility of mind that is to be found even in the work of Shakespeare. The wretched Feeble, " the wrathful dove," the " most magnanimous mouse," makes no attempt to bribe or to complain, to lament his cruel fate or to shirk his duty. He shows indeed that in him, at any rate, there lives the true spirit of patriotism, and that he can " stand as firm as Sparta's king because his soul is great."—But there is a kind of sacrilege in attempting to act as showman or interpreter to Shakespeare in such a mood. He must speak for himself. Here is Feeble's comment upon what he has seen, and upon his knowledge that he will go to the wars and serve his country while Mouldy and Bullcalf stay snug and secure at home :- " By my troth, I care not; a man can die but once : we owe God a death : I'll ne'er bear a base mind: an't be my destiny, so.; an't be not, so: no man is too good to serve's prince; and let it go which way it will, he that dies this year is quit for the nezt."
Even the corrupted and hardened Bardolph cannot forbear his word of admiration :- " Well said: thou'rt a good fellow."
And then with the reiterated exclamation of Feeble, mag- nificent in its sturdy and undemonstrative heroism, the scene closes :— "Faith, I'll bear no base mind."
Every Briton has, we suppose, his favourite passage in Shakespeare, lines which thrill him and move him beyond expression. The present writer is bound to confess that nothing in the whole range of Shakespeare affects him like Feeble's apologue, "I'll bear no base mind," coupled with the declaration that no man is too good. to serve his country.
We are as regards patriotism a reticent race, and we may thank God for it, for the great emotions are volatile spirits which evaporate when they are given to the air. They are only potent when they are sealed up. Neverthe- less we are convinced that the majority of the British people are like the poor, underfed "woman's, tailor" in Shake- speare. They do not " bear a base mind," and they realise that no man is too good to serve and defend his native land. Therefore we have every confidence that if the appeal is made to them plainly and directly they will respond, not with shameful evasions like well-to-do Mouldy and Bullcalf, but with the nobility and patriotism of Feeble. But to be true to the genius of our people the appeal must not be made in heroics, with " high-falutin' " words, or with wavings of the flag, but in the spirit which Shakespeare shows us. We need not go beyond reminding our people that they must not bear a base mind, that no man is too good to serve the State, and that in the last resort we owe God a death. If, as we can and must, we make plain to the nation that the peril will become deadly if the inhabitants of this country are not trained to the use of arms for home defence, we shall not need any more rhetoric or sentiment than is to be found in the phrases we have just quoted. Even these will not be needed for the working man, for he, like Feeble, holds them already. He is not drowned in security and smothered in comfort. He is face to face with the realities of life. And Mouldy and Bullcalf, when the matter is put before them properly, will, we are sure, no longer feel that they would " as lief be hanged as go," and that they " desire to stay with [their] friends." or that they must avoid their obligation for their " old dame's sake." If once they are made to realise the true position, they will prove the truth of the poet's words :— " When Duty murmurs low, 'Thou must,' The Youth replies, can.'
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