Henry V

I'm still not a huge fan of Shakespeare's history plays, but I liked Henry V more than most of the others. Of course, I watched Tom Hiddleston play Henry V in the Hollow Crown before reading, so the story had more theatrical resonance with the live performane bolstering it. The strength of this play comes from its focus on Henry's war and negotiations with France, which, while I may not be able to judge the historical accuracy of, provided ample room for some top notch speeches, dichotomous character development, and a well-driven plot. Being the titular character, Henry really overshadows everyone else in the story and provides the majority of scenes which kept me engaged; he displays an uncanny knack for commandeering and rattles off show more some truely inspirational pep-talks to his troops (many of which we will see requoted in later years by other war leaders), but he hasn't quite let go of his impish tendencies of youth. We see him disguised and acting the part of a commoner once again, as he baits and debates with an unwitting group of soldiers, and then see him play a flirtatious rogue with Katherine, princess of France in the final moments of the play. He may be viewed as a king known for his prowess in combat, but Shakespeare does much to explore the man behind the crown - even if these characteristics are less than historically accurate, it gives us pause to think about who these legendary characters are in their everyday lives. show less

Yeah, yeah, I'm supposed to be reading King Lear, but the BBC broadcast Brannagh's Henry V film and I thought I'd catch it on iPlayer before it disappears.

Now generally speaking I'm not in favour of invading your neighbour because everything's a bit fraught at home and you need to create a distraction and a bit of nationalistic fervour to make people forget about it and think you're a hero, but when Shakespeare's Henry V does it, I'm on board for plenty of gung-ho Jingoism leavened with comedic scenes and tragic loss of youth's friendships as Kingly responsibility makes its demands.

Why? Because Shakespeare's Chorus calls on a muse of fire in the Prologue - and was answered! There are so many great speeches and great scenes in this play show more that it would be easier to point out the bits that aren't unalloyed genius. I'm not going to do that because it would be boring. I'm also going to pass over Henry's numerous justly famous speeches in favour of the insufficiently praised Chorus. In all the Shakespeare (or any other drama for that matter) I've witnessed only Romeo and Juliet with it's "Two Houses, both alike in dignity" comes close to having such a truly awe-inspiring scene setting Prologue as this play does, calling upon the audience to supply with imagination the vasty fields of Agincourt whilst verbally rendering the necessary image in all the necessary technicolor 3-D surround-sound iMax glory. The Chorus goes on to further feats of hyperbolic scene-setting that are just amazing - all the more so if you are smart enough to get Derek Jacobi to deliver them for you.

There is of course another reason why I love Henry V so much - because he's a self-declared Welshman. The whole Ffluellyn as butt of Welsh stereotyping jokes tempered by Henry's proud acceptance of Welsh ancestry is great - makes Shakespeare feel more British and less purely English. (On the other hand, Flagon points out that Harry likes St. George who is a Dragon slayer and therefore not his favourite bloke.)

The play is also the culmination of a trilogy and at its best when taken straight after it's two preceding parts so that the transformation from Harry, jack-the-lad, to Henry, respected King and conqueror via a bloody rite-of-passage, assailed by doubts and overwhelming odds against him. Brannagh cleverly incorporates flashbacks to scenes from Henry IV in order to remind the viewer of this.

People don't talk much about the comedy of the play, either, despite there being plenty of it, some of it typically of the era. Where else but the Elizabethan/Jacobean stage would you find an English boy playing a French Princess learning English from her maid who is being played by another English boy? Must have been hilarious - still is when Emma Thompson does it. ANd talking of boys, the Boy is played by Christian Bale!

Anyway, it would take a muse of fusing plasma to inspire me to sufficient praise of this play. Go see it. show less

This has long been one of my favourite plays, but I was prompted to re-read it when my children had to do military service. I think this is easily one of the most accessible of Shakespeare’s works; the language is rich, but not at all obscure, and it’s very easy to read. People have variously described this play as being either anti-war, or glorifying war, but of course it is neither, and both; giving, as so much Shakespeare does, a window into a disturbing yet fundamental part of human nature. True, it is heavy on patriotic themes (“Cry, God for Harry, England, and Saint George!”). But it also portrays the mad rush to conflict, fuelled by the vain pride of two puerile leaders, as part of a pointless hundred years of conflict show more between the two nations. Nothing portrays futility more than, after thousands die in Harry’s quest (“No king of England, if not king of France!”), the war ultimately ends when Harry falls in lust for the princess of France, and demands her as his capital demand.
When the king tours his camp in disguise on the eve of a hopeless battle, his soldiers tell him plainly of their contempt for fighting (“there are few die well, that die in a battle… it will be a black matter for the king that led them to it”). And yet, the following morning, on the eve of the battle of Agincourt, Harry delivers one of the greatest motivational speeches of all times; infecting even we readers for whom the glorification of battle doesn’t sit well with our own personal ideology.
Of course, any reading of Henry V brings to mind Kenneth Brannagh’s brilliant film dramatisation. Even if you never read the play, make sure you see the film. And that’s something one doesn’t often say about good literature. show less

Do I hear the drums of war? Hal has drawn all the attention away from divided England with a time-honored ploy of kings of any unsure stripe... Let's kick the shit out of France!

Even though Henry V is a bright light and his fortunes burn ever brighter, it's hard to go through this story without feeling a lot of heavy sorrow for how he burned up his friends in his rise and how he shed no tears as he learned of all his youthful adventurer's deaths, save one, and he was only a boy in a skirmish after the war had been won.

Truly, this play is the rock-star legend played in blood, honor, and glory. He burns so bright that he snuffs himself out in practically no time. Who knows what kind of king he would have been had he lived to know his son. show more *shiver* What kinds of tragedies might have been avoided, such as losing France, sending England into a 30 year civil strife, and so much grief and poverty, besides?

And yet, this is the story of the greatest King of England, the one that captures all our hearts and minds, and me, I'm not even English and I don't particularly care a whiff for royalty at all! :)

Henry IV part 1:
"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 and ugly mist
Of vapors that did seem to strangle him."

The sun shook off the base clouds, indeed, to clothed the world in his naked splendor, seeing Falstaff dead by hanging and nearly all his chums in the ground.

Is his early death his fate for having dishonored the dishonorable? *sigh* show less

I’ve loved Shakespeare’s work for a long time, but I’ve always struggled with his Histories. I enjoy seeing them performed live, but when I read them it’s easy for me to get lost in a sea of soldiers and forget who is who. This play is preceded by Richard II, Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2, and the last two feature our illustrious title character, Henry V.

This particular play rises above the other histories in my opinion because it’s more about the transformation of one man than about war. Obviously there is war and a bloody one at that, but it’s also about Henry (Prince Harry) coming to terms with his responsibility and leadership. He must grow up and leave the boy from the Henry IV plays behind. The lives of so many show more men are in his hands and without his leadership all will be lost.

This is fully realized in one of the most famous monologues in the English canon. We’ve heard the “band of brothers” line thrown around for years, but when you hear the full speech, on the cusp of battle, it’s incredibly moving and powerful. Here’s one small bit…

“This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.”

Think about what he is actually saying there. This huge moment in history, the Battle of Agincourt, is so important that the men who weren’t here will wish they were. They won’t consider themselves real men because they were unable to fight in this battle. What an incredible thing to say to your men before rushing in to battle!

I also really love the scene with the French princess, Katharine, and Henry at the end of the play. It’s one of the only moments in a very serious story that is a bit light and witty.

BOTTOM LINE: It is a classic for good reason. While I struggle with Shakespearean histories, others love them. I don’t think it’s the best place to start with his work, but it’s certainly an essential piece. I think I will probably enjoy it more with each re-read as the language and action becomes even clearer.

Also, I would highly recommend the 1989 film version starring and directed by Kenneth Branagh. I watched it after finishing the book and it was really excellent. I have always been impressed with Branagh’s Shakespearean films. I particularly love his version of Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing. show less

Bombast, stirring speeches, dubious English adventurism in France, the camaraderie of “we happy few”: one sees how the simple, direct valour and honour of this Henry embodies so much of the English character and self-assurance. The Chorus has some memorable lines too, as does the Archbishop of Canterbury, seeming to scheme at the outset, but then dropped from this uncharacteristically straightforward plot. I’m still not clear though, despite the Archbishop’s long attempt at explanation, whether Henry’s claims in France were indeed “with right and conscience” valid or not. No matter now; legend and a heroic leader do the trick.

People are usually put off reading Shakespeare because they are intimidated by the language and the archaisms. Often, an aversion to the playwright can be traced back to an initial chastening experience in high school. Personally, I rather enjoyed my teenage experience with Macbeth, but still felt a bit daunted at picking up Henry V now, some years later. I've always wanted to read some more Shakespeare, and Henry V was a logical place to start. I've always had an interest in military history, and knew all about the 'band of brothers' speech (though I accept that Shakespeare's work cannot be taken as factual history). This was a good choice, as it is a rather straightforward play, beginning with the English king Henry waging war on show more France, peaking with the battles of Harfleur and Agincourt, and finishing with Henry's courtship of the French princess Katherine, uniting the two kingdoms. One can find deeper meaning if one truly wishes to search and scrutinise, but the simplicity of the basic storyline makes it accessible for Shakespeare novices like myself who are warily dipping their toes into the waters.

When I say it is simple and straightforward, I do not mean to imply that it is poor. Its crowd-pleasing patriotism may occasionally border on jingoism, but it is stirring stuff nonetheless. Shakespeare is a master wordsmith (not an original observation, I know), not only in the eloquence and poetry of his dialogue but in its overall rhythm; the play rolls along nicely and it is over before you know it. One can find faults in the play: it does drag a bit once the field of Agincourt is won, and the final scene before the Epilogue degenerates rapidly from a rather sweet declaration of love into a crude and cheap procession of bawdy sexual innuendo rather at odds with the high-minded chivalry one's mind usually conjures up when thinking of Henry V and its famous 'band of brothers' speech.

However, I have always maintained that works of art, particularly books, can never chime one-hundred percent with audiences more than a generation removed. There will necessarily be things which do not play well with modern audiences, but these should not be used to injure the piece of art itself. Problems regarding the archaic language are mitigated by having a sympathetic annotated version of the text. I had the Wordsworth Classics edition to hand, which was useful, even if it did unhelpfully take a rather conservative approach to the text (using 'Dolphin' instead of 'Dauphin', 'Callice' instead of 'Calais', and so on). This proved less troublesome than I anticipated because, by necessity, any reader of Shakespeare self-edits. As the Wordsworth editor Cedric Watts notes at the start of my edition, you are editing it to suit yourself, even as you are directing it in your imagination" (pg. 27). Your mind is automatically transmuting the words on the page into actions in your imagination; this is, of course, true when you are reading any book, it is just that the sensation is more pronounced when reading Shakespeare. The Bard himself implores you to do just this on numerous occasions: the initial Prologue of Act I, for example, encourages the audience to "Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts". You may find yourself constantly flicking through to the endnotes or the glossary, making Henry V rather a restless read, but it is certainly worth it." show less