CALLING MEN UP FOR WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 16, 13 October 1917, Page 2

CALLING MEN UP FOR WAR

HOW SHAKESPEARE DID IT SIR JOHN FALSTAFP HEARS EaEMPTION CLAIMS The exemption boards, which are to determine who is best fitted to serve America at the front ami who is best fitted to serve at home, will have a diilicultand honour-able task (says the "Outlook"). It is interesting to compare the present situation, wherein a democracy sets about the work of selecting her sons who are best fitted for service in the cause of liberty, with the manner of determining exemptions from military service (as Shakespeare describes the scene) in tho timo of Henry IV. Justice Shallow and Sir John Falstaff would not be welcomed on an American exemption board, but it. is perhaps a uirious fact to, recall that they did hear claims for exemptions on tho grounds of dependent relatives and physical infirmity—claims which did not always hold water. 'Where's tho roll?" isks Justice Shallow. "... Let them appear as I call; let them do so. lot them <lo so. Let me see; where is Mouldy:-" Mouldy: Here, au't please you. . . Shallow; What tnink. you, bir John? A good-limbed fellow; young, strong, and of good friends. Falstaff: Is tny name Mouldy ? Mouldy: Yea, an't please you. , , i'alstail': Prick him. Mouldy: . .. . My old dame will be undone now for ono to do her husbandry and her drudgery: you need not to have pricked me; there are other men fitter to go out than I. It wa6i Bullealf.who presented to the exemption board a plea for exemption on the ground of pkvsical disability. Shallow: . Peter Bullealf o' the green! Falstaff: Yea, marry, let*s see Bullealf. Bullealf: Here, sir. Falstaff: 'Foro God, o likely fellow! Come, prick me Bullealf till he roar again. Bullealf; 0 Lord! Good my lord captain— Falstaff: What does thou roar before thou art pricked? Bullealf: 0 Lord, sir! I am a diseased man. Falstaff: What disease hast thou? Bullealf: A cold, sir, a cough, sir, • which I caught with ringing in the king's affairs, upon, his coronation day, sir. Nor was Bullealf satisfied with this attempt to secure exemption. Those who remember their "Henry IV" will recall tho fact that both Mouldy and Bullealf also. attempted to escape service by bribery. It was this final straw which led Falstaff to a disagreement with Justice Shallow. When the time came for deciding; who should go soldiering, Falstaff asks Justice Shallow to state his choice, and amoi>£ tho four chosen the Justice selects botn Mouldy and Bullealf. Falstaff abruptly breaks in: Falstaff: Mouldy and Bullealf: for you, Mouldy, stay at home till you are past service; an for your part, Bullealf, grow till you come unto it: i will none of you. Shallow: Sir John, Sir John, do yoursof wrong; they are your likeliest men, and I would have you. gerv-. cd with tho best. Falstaff.: Will you tell me. Master Shallow, how to choose a man? Care I for the limb, the thewes, the stature, bulk, and big assemblancn of a man! Give mo the spirit, Master Shallow. "Ajnong those who will present, themselves before our exemption boards the percentage of Mouldys and Bullcalfs will, wo belicvo and hope" (remarks Ihc "Outlook"), "bo very low, There aro many men who not only have the rijjht, but whose duty it is to claim exemption, Such- men must-never bo confused with the slackers' who felt tho force of Shakespeare's satire. Yet in guarding agn.inst.suoh, a confusion wo will do well also to. accept the burden of Falstaff's final advice: Giro us the spirit! This is sounder advice than that which we are accustomed to expect from the fat knight."