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Similes
Act 5, Scene 4
Explanation and Analysis—Two Paces of Earth:
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.
