portant goal is to perform a moral reformation. He reveals to us in his soliloquy in Act I, scene 2, that he is merely feigning wantonness and depravity; he intends on staging a spectacular reformation of character that will make him look even more remarkable to the eyes of the unsuspecting court:
             Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
             Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
             To smother up his beauty from the world,
             That when he please again to be himself,
             Being wanted, he may be more wondered at
             By breaking through the foul ugly mists
             Of vapors that did seem to strangle him...
             My reformation, glitt'ring o'er my fault,
             Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes
             Than that with hath no foil to set it off (14).
             The choice of words Hal employs in his soliloquy are severe, especially when describing the tavern life and his friends, and it makes him seem cold and calculating. He uses the royal image of the sun to describe himself, while he describes his tavern friends as "base contagious clouds" and "foul ugly mists". It may be that Hal doesn't really value his friendships all that much. Mack claims that Hal "has practiced...politics as well as friendship." Hal, however, only practices friendship when it will serve his purpose; essentially he only practices politics. He condescends to squander away his time with his tavern friends so that his reformation will be even more dazzling. He agrees
             ...