The Life of Henry the Fifth, often shortened to Henry V, is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written circa 1599. It tells the story of King Henry V of England, focusing on events immediately before and after the Battle of Agincourt (1415) during the Hundred Years' War. In the First Quarto text, it was titled The Cronicle History of Henry the fift, and The Life of Henry the Fifth in the First Folio text.
The play is the final part of a tetralogy, preceded by Richard II, Henry IV, Part 1, and Henry IV, Part 2. The original audiences would thus have already been familiar with the title character, whom the Henry IV plays depicted as a wild, undisciplined young man. In Henry V, the young prince has matured. He embarks on an expedition to France and, despite his army being greatly outnumbered, defeats the French at Agincourt.
Contents
Synopsis
A Chorus (a lone speaker addressing the audience) delivers the Prologue, apologising for the limitations of the theatre and wishing that a muse could inspire the audience's imagination, real royals could be the actors, and the stage could be as large as a kingdom, to do justice to the story of King Henry V (or "Harry"). The Chorus encourages the audience to use their "imaginary forces" to overcome these limitations: "Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts ... turning the accomplishment of many years / Into an hour-glass".
Act I deals largely with Henry 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 an insulting gift of tennis balls, meant to symbolise Henry's perceived youth and frivolity.
The Chorus reappears at the beginning of each act to advance the story. In Act II, he describes the country's dedication to the war effort: "Now all the youth of England are on fire... / Now thrive the armorers, and honor's thought / Reigns solely in the breast of every man". Act II focuses on 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 besiege the French port of Harfleur after crossing the English Channel. The French king, says the Chorus, "doth offer him / Katharine his daughter, and with her, to dowry, / Some petty and unprofitable dukedoms", but 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 hard-won battle, the English take Harfleur. Montjoy, herald of the French king Charles, delivers a message of Charles's taunts and threats, scorning Henry. Henry tells Montjoy that his forces have been so weakened that he will not yet attack Paris directly, but will instead march up the coast to Calais.
In Act IV, the full power of the French army has surrounded Henry at the small town of Agincourt. 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 agonises 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: "we ... shall be remember'd; / We few, we happy few, we band of brothers". The messenger Montjoy returns to ask if Henry will avoid certain defeat by paying the French a ransom for his men's survival. Henry requests that Montjoy "bear my former answer back", thus refusing to surrender.
Shakespeare does not directly describe the Battle of Agincourt. Though the French in one scene complain that "Tout est perdu" ("all is lost"), the outcome is not clear to Henry until Montjoy reappears and declares that the "day is yours". Henry soon discovers it was a deeply lop-sided victory: the French suffered 10,000 casualties, while the English lost only a Duke, an Earl, a knight, a squire, and "of all other, but five and twenty". (In Laurence Olivier's 1944 film adaptation, this line is modified to "of all other men, but five and twenty score", since historians believe the English toll was approximately 600). Henry praises God for his shocking victory.
Act V opens some years later, when the war comes to a brief interval of peace, as the English and French negotiate the Treaty of Troyes, and Henry tries to woo the French princess, Katharine. Neither Henry nor Katharine speaks the other's language well, but the humour of their mistakes actually helps Henry achieve his aim. The scene ends with the French king adopting Henry as heir to the throne of France, and the prayer for unity of the French queen "that English may as French, French Englishmen, receive each other."
The play concludes with the Chorus foreshadowing Henry's death (within two years) and the tumultuous reign of his 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 here is referring to the fact that he had previously staged the trilogy of plays that focus on these later events: Henry VI Part 1, Henry VI Part 2, and Henry VI Part 3.)
Subplots
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. In a grim note, Bardolph is executed for looting. The army also includes a Scot, an Irishman, and an Englishman, and Fluellen, a comically stereotyped Welsh soldier. In one scene of extended French dialogue, Princess Katharine tries to learn some basic English words for body parts from her maid. 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.