Henry V

Summary

Henry V follows the young King Henry, once the tavern-haunting Prince Hal, as he leads England to war with France and wins the battle of Agincourt in 1415. A Chorus opens each act, asking the audience to let their imaginations fill the small wooden theatre with the vasty fields of France. In Act I the Archbishop of Canterbury argues that Henry has a lawful claim to the French crown through his great-grandmother, and Henry, asking solemnly for the truth since lives will be spent on it, resolves on war; the Dauphin's insulting gift of tennis balls hardens him. Before sailing he unmasks three noblemen, Cambridge, Scroop and Grey, who have taken French gold to kill him, and sends them to execution; at the same time the Hostess reports the death of his old companion Falstaff, whose heart, his friends say, the king has broken. In France Henry rallies his troops at the breach of Harfleur, then threatens the governor with the horrors of a sack until the town yields. The French princess Katherine takes a comic English lesson, while Henry's army, weakened by sickness, marches toward Calais and his old friend Bardolph is hanged for robbing a church. The night before Agincourt, Henry borrows a cloak and walks among his soldiers; the common soldier Williams tells him that if the cause is not good the king has a heavy reckoning to make for those who die. Alone, Henry reflects on the burden of kingship and the emptiness of ceremony, and prays that God will not remember his father's usurpation. In the morning, outnumbered by the French, he answers the wish for more men with the St. Crispin's Day speech about a band of brothers. After the French kill the boys guarding the baggage, he orders the prisoners killed; then the French herald concedes the field, and Henry orders the Non nobis and Te Deum sung, giving the victory to God. Fluellen, the Welsh captain, settles accounts with the braggart Pistol by making him eat a leek. In Act V the Duke of Burgundy describes France ruined by war, Henry woos Katherine in plain soldier's speech, and the peace is sealed by their marriage. The Epilogue reminds the audience that Henry lived only a short time and that his son lost France.

Top Lessons

• The burden of command

  The night scene shows Henry hearing a soldier argue that a king answers for the souls of men he leads into war. Henry replies that each subject's soul is his own, then feels the weight of rule alone. Shakespeare gives kingship both its grandeur and its cost.

• Words that make men brave

  The Harfleur and St. Crispin's Day speeches show leadership by rhetoric: Henry makes common soldiers his brothers and turns fewness into honor. The play invites students to study how speech forms a company.

• Justice without favor

  Henry sentences the traitors without pity for his friend Scroop and allows Bardolph, an old companion, to be hanged for sacrilege. The play shows a king who has put away the private loyalties of his youth.

• Victory given to God

  After Agincourt Henry forbids boasting and orders Non nobis and Te Deum. The play presents gratitude and humility as the right response to success in a just cause.

Verified Quotes

Medical Lens

The play records the bodily costs of war: Henry admits his army is much enfeebled by sickness on the march from Harfleur (historically dysentery), Fluellen's description of Bardolph's carbuncled face draws on tavern drinking, and the Hostess's account of Falstaff's death, with fumbling at the sheets, a sharp nose and cold feet, reads like a period description of the signs of approaching death. Nym's view that the king has run bad humours on the knight uses humoral language for heartbreak. The killing of prisoners and Burgundy's speech on a ruined France complete the picture of war's harm.

• Act 2, Scene 1 and Scene 3

  Falstaff falls sick; Nym says the king has run bad humours on him, and the Hostess describes his death.

• Act 3, Scene 6

  Fluellen describes Bardolph's face as all bubukles and whelks just before he is hanged; Henry admits his people are much enfeebled with sickness.

• Act 4, Scenes 6 and 7

  The deaths of York and Suffolk, the slaughter of the boys with the baggage, and the order to kill the prisoners.

• Act 5, Scene 2

  Burgundy describes the vineyards, fields and children of France gone wild through war.