King Henry V

Henry V

Comment upon the attributes of Henry V that are brought out in various parts of the play

One of the most interesting aspects of Shakespeare's history play "Henry V" is not the military drama of the piece, but the way that the central protagonist evolves as a king over the course of the play, both in his own estimation as well as the estimation of the other characters on stage. Henry V begins the play as a relatively untested king of England. Then the young king emerges through military struggle into a final, regal maturity as a statesman. At the end of the play, the king's tender and less confident side is show in his wooing of the young French princess Katherine. or, as his old friend Nym says: "The king is a good king: but it must be as it may;/he passes some humours and careers," passing from prince to warlike king, to fully-fledged leader. (II.1. (http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/henryv/henryv.2.1.html)

Henry V's former, less mature princely side is first showing during the early course of the play, less in the king's actions but more in other character's references to Henry's past life. As the new king resolves to go to war with France, to reclaim what Henry V considers England's rightful lands, the Archbishop of Canterbury remarks: "The courses of his youth [Henry's] promised it not. / the breath no sooner left his father's body, / but that his wildness, mortified in him, / Seem'd to die too."(I.1. (http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/henryv/henryv.1.1.html) the young king's past is referred to in even less flattering terms when the new king receives "tennis-balls, my liege," from the Dauphin of Franc. (I.2. (http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/henryv/henryv.1.2.html) These tennis balls are sent to remind Henry V of his youthful pastimes as well as his youth in general. Henry meets them with stern-faced humor and uses the flagrant disrespect the gift shows to rally his troops. "We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us;/His present and your pains we thank you for:/When we have march'd our rackets to these balls, / We will, in France, by God's grace, play a set/Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard." (I.2. (http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/henryv/henryv.1.2.html)

Henry solidifies his regality and kinship with war: "Now all the youth of England are on fire, / and silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies:/Now thrive the armourers, and honour's thought/Reigns solely in the breast of every man," says the Chorus, when Henry takes England to war against France for the disputed territories Henry believes are his country's by right, custom, and law. Henry takes the slight upon his persona in the 'gift' of the tennis balls along with his land's claim upon France as a justification to seek glory through armament for all the people of England. Henry's actions indicate that he is not pacific or idle in temperament, but still possesses some of his old, immature and adolescent character -- not in his love of games, but in his view of war as a diplomatic game and a scene for proving his reputation to be won or lost, much as at a game of tennis. (II. Prologue. (http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/henryv/henryv.2.0.html) but when at war, this changes within and without of Henry's character, showing that he always has a capacity to adapt and evolve as a leader.

Henry cries, when first going to war to the English troops: "You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy;/for your own reasons turn into your bosoms, / as dogs upon their masters, worrying you," and ends one of his first wartime rallying cries of the second act, "the signs of war advance:/No king of England, if not king of France." (II.2. (http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/henryv/henryv.2.2.html) a slight against his men is a slight against Henry by France! But after fighting for a time, even the young enthusiasm of the king realizes the emotional contrast between the needs of war and peacetime within himself and within men, just as there is a difference between the demands of being a prince and a king / "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;/or close the wall up with our English dead. / in peace there's nothing so becomes a man/as modest stillness and humility:/but when the blast of war blows in our ears,

Then imitate the action of the tiger." (3.1. (http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/henryv/henryv.3.1.html)

This growing awareness of the different demands of wartime in contrast to peacetime, and the demands of hardness it makes upon a man shows that the king is capable of learning through experience, and he has begun to realize that war is not a game. When Henry is leading his men, he also realizes that he cannot show fear, despair, or weakness -- as early illustrated in his weathering of French diplomacy. This characteristic is sharpened before his experiences leading common men in the field, while it was before only shown before aristocrats whose esteem he was trying to win, and show his current contrast to his old reputation. In fact, towards the French enemy, the king is willing to be outright bloodthirsty in rhetoric and posturing when he wishes to win an objective and tactical city and show his resolve before his fighting English legions: "And the flesh'd soldier, rough and hard of heart, / in liberty of bloody hand shall range/With conscience wide as hell, mowing like grass/Your fresh-fair virgins and your flowering infants. / What is it then to me, if impious war," he shouts to the town of Hafleur (3.3. http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/henryv/henryv.3.3.html)

In moments of respite, or when speaking to men whom he trusts Henry clearly is not as confident and single-minded as the image he presents to the common, fighting or diplomatic and aristocratic world. "We are in God's hand, brother, not in theirs," he says, showing his religious side. (3.6. (http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/henryv/henryv.3.6.html) and before the battle of Agincourt, Henry is clearly cognizant of the potential damage he may do to England and to his poorly armed, tired, and dispirited soldiers. "Upon the king! let us our lives, our souls, / Our debts, our careful wives, / Our children and our sins lay on the king! We must bear all." (4.1. (http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/henryv/henryv.4.1.html)