HOTSPUR IN THE COMMONS

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 66, 10 December 1938, Page 7

HOTSPUR IN THE COMMONS

Effective play with Mr. Chamberlain’s quotation from Shakespeaie when he embarked for Munich was made by Mr. Arthur Greenwood, Deputy Leader of the Labour Parly, speaking in the House of Commons. "I wish to refer to the Prime Minister's excursion into Shakespearean literature.” said .Mr. Greenwood. "AA'e 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 t will not quote, the passage which opens‘AA'hat ho! chamberlain !’ Hotspur is reading a letter. Tliei'e is the sentence: ‘The purpose you undertake is dangerous’: and this is Hotspur’s comment— I will read ail of it: 'iVliy, that’s certain; ’tis dangerous to take a cold, to sleep, to drink: but 1 teli you. my lord fool, out of (his nettle, danger, wtpluck this flower, safety.’ And then: ‘Tlie purpose you undertake is dangerous; tlie friends you have named uncertain; the time itself iinsorled; and your whole plot too light for 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. AVhat a frostyspirited rogue is this.’ I make no further comment. I will let this moral stand by itself.”