_, I., ii., 133-5.)
No wise man vaunts in the name of patriotism his own nation's
superiority over another. The typical patriot, Henry V., once makes
the common boast that one Englishman is equal to three Frenchmen, but
he apologises for the brag as soon as it is out of his mouth. (He
fears the air of France has demoralised him.)
Elsewhere Shakespeare utters a vivacious warning against the patriot's
exclusive claim for his country of natural advantages, which all the
world shares substantially alike.
Hath Britain all the sun that shines? Day, night,
Are they not but in Britain? I' the world's volume
Our Britain seems as of it, but not in 't;
In a great pool, a swan's nest: prithee, think
There's livers out of Britain.[36]
[Footnote 36: _Cymbeline_, III., iv., 139-43.]
It is not the wild hunger for war, but the stable interests of peace
that are finally subserved in the Shakespearean world by true and
well-regulated patriotism. _Henry V._, the play of Shakespeare which
shows the genuine patriotic instinct in its most energetic guise, ends
with a powerful appeal to France and England, traditional foes, to
cherish "neighbourhood and Christianlike accord," so that never again
should "war advance his bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair
France.
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