![Book Cover of Henry V](/image/book/henry-v.webp)
Henry V
'Henry V' Summary
The Elizabethan stage lacked scenery. It begins with a Prologue, in which the Chorus (a lone speaker addressing the audience) apologizes for the limitations of the theatre, wishing for "a Muse of fire", with real princes and a kingdom for a stage, to do justice to King Henry's story. Then, says the Chorus, King Henry would "[a]ssume the port [bearing] of Mars". The Chorus encourages the audience to use their "imaginary forces" to overcome the limitations of the stage: "Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts ... turning the accomplishment of many years / Into an hour-glass".
Shakespeare's plays are in five acts. In Henry V, the first act deals largely with the king and his decision to invade France, persuaded that through ancestry, he is the rightful heir to the French throne. The French Dauphin, son of King Charles VI, answers Henry's claims with a condescending and insulting gift of tennis balls, "as matching to his youth and vanity."
The Chorus reappears at the beginning of each act to advance the story. At the beginning of Act II, he describes the country's dedication to the war effort: "Now all the youth of England are on fire... They sell the pasture now to buy the horse, / Following the mirror of all Christian kings ...." Act II includes a plot by the Earl of Cambridge and two comrades to assassinate Henry at Southampton. Henry's clever uncovering of the plot and his ruthless treatment of the conspirators show that he has changed from the earlier plays in which he appeared.
In Act III Henry and his troops siege the French port of Harfleur after crossing the English Channel. The Chorus appears again: "Grapple your minds to sternage of this navy/And leave your England, as dead midnight still". The French king, says the Chorus, "doth offer him / Catharine his daughter, and with her, to dowry, / Some petty and unprofitable dukedoms." Henry is not satisfied.
At the siege of Harfleur, the English are beaten back at first, but Henry urges them on with one of Shakespeare's best-known speeches. "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; / Or close the wall up with our English dead...." After a bloody siege, the English take Harfleur, but Henry's forces are so depleted that he decides not to go on to Paris. Instead, he decides to move up the coast to Calais. The French assemble a powerful army and pursue him.
They surround him near the small town of Agincourt, and in Act IV, the night before the battle, knowing he is outnumbered, Henry wanders around the English camp in disguise, trying to comfort his soldiers and determine what they really think of him. He agonizes about the moral burden of being king, asking God to "steel my soldiers' hearts". Daylight comes, and Henry rallies his nobles with the famous St Crispin's Day Speech (Act IV Scene iii 18–67): "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers". The French herald Montjoy returns to ask if Henry will surrender and avoid certain defeat, and ransom his men's survival; Henry bids him "bear my former answer back," saying the French will get no ransom from him "but these my joints."
Shakespeare does not describe the battle in the play. Though the French in one scene complain that 'Tout est perdu', the outcome is not clear to Henry, until the French Herald Montjoy tells him the 'day is yours'. The battle turns out to be a lop-sided victory: the French suffered 10,000 casualties; the English, fewer than 30. "O God, thy arm was here," says Henry.
Act V comes several years later, as the English and French negotiate the Treaty of Troyes, and Henry tries to woo the French princess, Catherine of Valois. Neither speaks the other's language well, but the humour of their mistakes actually helps achieve his aim. The scene ends with the French king adopting Henry as heir to the French throne, and the prayer of the French queen "that English may as French, French Englishmen, receive each other, God speak this Amen."
The play concludes with a final appearance of the Chorus who foreshadows the tumultuous reign of Henry's son Henry VI of England, "whose state so many had the managing, that they lost France, and made his England bleed, which oft our stage hath shown". Shakespeare had previously brought this tale to the stage in a trilogy of plays: Henry VI Part 1, Henry VI Part 2, and Henry VI Part 3.
As in many of Shakespeare's history and tragedy plays, a number of minor comic characters appear, contrasting with and sometimes commenting on the main plot. In this case, they are mostly common soldiers in Henry's army, and they include Pistol, Nym, and Bardolph from the Henry IV plays. The army also includes a Scot, an Irishman, and an Englishman, and Fluellen, a comically stereotyped Welsh soldier. The play also deals briefly with the death of Sir John Falstaff, Henry's estranged friend from the Henry IV plays, whom Henry had rejected at the end of Henry IV, Part 2.
Book Details
Author
![William Shakespeare image](/thumbs/image/author/william-shakespeare.webp)
William Shakespeare
United Kingdom
William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon. The son of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, he was probably educated at the King Edward VI Grammar School in Stratford, where he...
More on William ShakespeareDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books
![Hindle Wakes Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/hindle-wakes.webp)
Hindle Wakes by Stanley Houghton
Hindle Wakes is a stage play by Stanley Houghton written in 1910. It was first performed in 1912.
![Theft Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/theft.webp)
Theft by Jack London
This is a political play which is set in Washington DC. Howard Knox is a congressman and believes that there are corrupt practices going on at the fir...
![He and She Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/he-and-she.webp)
He and She by Rachel Crothers
He and She is a play written by Rachel Crothers in 1920, who wrote a majority of her plays during amidst the first wave of feminism. It specifically t...
![Shakespeare Monologues Collection vol. 10 (Multilingual) Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/shakespeare-monologues-collection-vol-10-multilingual.webp)
Shakespeare Monologues Collection vol. 10 (Multilingual) by William Shakespeare
This is the tenth collection of monologues from Shakespeare’s plays. Containing 20 parts.
![The Wonder! A Woman Keeps a Secret Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/the-wonder-a-woman-keeps-a-secret.webp)
The Wonder! A Woman Keeps a Secret by Susanna Centlivre
Donna Isabella does not want to marry Don Guzman, her father's choice. Donna Violante's father wants her to become a nun. Isabella is attacked on the...
![The Birth of Merlin: The Childe Hath Found His Father Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/the-birth-of-merlin-the-childe-hath-found-his-father.webp)
The Birth of Merlin: The Childe Hath Found His Father by William Shakespeare
The Birth of Merlin, or, The Child Hath Found his Father is a Jacobean play, probably written in whole or part by William Rowley. It was first perform...
![Curculio; or, The Forgery Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/curculio-or-the-forgery.webp)
Curculio; or, The Forgery by Titus Maccius Plautus
Step into the lively streets of ancient Athens and experience a world of comedic chaos, cunning schemes, and mistaken identities in "Curculio; or, The...
![Faust I Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/faust-i.webp)
Faust I by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Faust is a tragic play in two parts by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, usually known in English as Faust, Part One and Faust, Part Two. Although rarely st...
![The Dance of Death Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/the-dance-of-death.webp)
The Dance of Death by August Strindberg
For twenty-five years Edgar, a captain in the Swedish coast artillery, and his wife, Alice, live an unhappy existence. Their unhappiness is caused by...
![Modern Monologues Cover image](/thumbs/image/book/modern-monologues.webp)
Modern Monologues by Marjorie Benton Cooke
Modern Monologues is a collection of 12 monologues by Marjorie Benton Cooke, a renowned monologist, playwright, and novelist. The monologues in this c...
Reviews for Henry V
No reviews posted or approved, yet...