NPPF Comm3: Handsome Hal

[Jasper Fidget]

p. 128
"a rather handsome but incredibly stupid Extremist", "Hal (if that was his
name)" (128), "the solemn and corpulent guard" (129), "handsome Hal" (131),
"The fat guard led the King back to his room and turned him over to handsome
Hal" (131).

A Bizarro Prince Hal, Henry V of England, accompanied by his friend Sir John
Falstaff from Shakespeare's Henry plays.  Bizarro because Hal, while
charismatic, was not a particularly handsome man (he was scarred in the face
by an arrow at the Battle of Shrewsbury at the age of 16) (Kinbote must be
thinking of Lawrence Olivier), and was anything but stupid; and Falstaff,
while corpulent, is not even slightly solemn.  (Zembla, land of
reflections.)  Hal must be disguised as a soldier here, as he does in
Shakespeare's Henry V.

For more evidence, see p. 132 where Hal wants to go join his companions and
Charles says, "Good night, bad boy" -- in Henry IV, Hal is a bit of a
delinquent who spends too much time hanging out at the Boar's Head tavern to
the displeasure of his father the king).  

That Charles is Hal's prisoner is perhaps interesting given the number of
prisoners Shakespeare's Henry V orders executed.  Also perhaps interesting
is the contrast between what we know about King Charles and the way
Shakespeare presents King Henry V (a kind of model for a great king).

http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_V_of_England
http://www.shakespeare.com/FirstFolio/1_KING_HENRY_IV/index.html
http://www.shakespeare.com/FirstFolio/2_KING_HENRY_IV/index.html

Jasper Fidget