Prince Hal defeats his rival, Hotspur, at the conclusion of the bloody Battle of Shrewsbury, which sees heavy losses on both sides. During the battle, Prince Hal taunted Hotspur mercilessly as they fought, even threatening to rip the “honors,” or chivalric tokens, off of his opponent’s helmet to create a “garland” for his own. After he defeats and kills Hotspur, however, Hal reflects somberly on this violent act, meditating on the ironies of human ambition:
Fare thee well, great heart.
Ill-weaved ambition, how much art thou shrunk!
When that this body did contain a spirit,
A kingdom for it was too small a bound,
But now two paces of the vilest earth
Is room enough. This earth that bears thee dead
Bears not alive so stout a gentleman.
When Hotspur was alive, Hal claims, his spirit was so large and forceful that a “kingdom for it was too small a bound.” Here, he references Hotspur’s ambitious desire to take possession of the Kingdom of England and to sit on its throne as unquestioned ruler. In death, however, Hotspur requires nothing more than “two paces of the vilest earth,” just enough space to be buried in. In this speech, he accords a surprising amount of respect to his vanquished foe while nevertheless commenting ironically on the self-defeating nature of the desire for power. In his goal to gain control of the kingdom, Hotspur has lost what he already had and now possesses no more than the small space of a grave.
