HOTSPUR IN THE COMMONS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 44, 1 December 1938, Page 4

HOTSPUR IN THE COMMONS.

Effective play with Mr Chamberlain’s quotation- from Shakespeare when he embarked for Munich was made by Mr Arthur Greenwood, deputyLeader of the Labour Party, speaking in the House of Commons. “I wish to refer to the Prime Minister’s excursion into Shakespearean literature,” said Mr Greenwood. “We had better have a. little more of this famous quotation from ‘King Henry IV.’ I forebear to explain what Hotspur was In Act 11., Scene 3, where there is another passage I will not quote, the passage which opens ‘What ho! chamberlain!’ Hotspur is reading a letter. There is the sentence: ‘The purpose you undertake is dangerous,’ and this is Hotspur’s comment—l will read all of it: ‘Why, that’s certain; ’tis dangerous to take a cold, to sleep, to drink; but I tell you, my lord fool, out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.’ And then: ‘The purpose you undertake is dangerous; the friends you have named uncertain; the time itself unsorted; and your whole plot too light ior the counterpoise of so great an opposition.’ This is a good book to keep by one. I will not quote some rather harsh terms which Mr Chamberlain might take as personal to himself. Hotspur continues: ‘By the Lord, our plot is a good plot as ever was laid; our friends true and constant; a good plot, good friends, and full of expectation; an excellent plot, very good friends. What a frostyspirited rogue is this.’ I make no further comment. I will let this moral stand by itself.”