Henry V is the last, and perhaps most important, play of Shakespeare's tetralogy. Shakespeare's three earlier plays, Richard II, Henry IV, Part I, and Henry IV, Part II, established the foundation for Henry V. What makes Henry V so pivotal is that it shows King Henry V as the ideal Christian monarch, i.e., a figure of enlightenment and perfection.
This paper examines the function and significance of Act IV, Scene I in the overall development of the play. One of the most remarkable facets of this scene is that it allows the readers to gain an understanding of the common soldiers' view of the matter as well as witness the doubts and insecurities that plague Henry as he prepares for the crucial Battle of Agnicourt. This battle resulted from a dispute between England and France over certain lands and titles.
ACT IV, SCENE I
Act IV, Scene I is critical to the overall development of the play for several reasons. First, this scene emphasizes the differing attitudes between the English and French camps. The soldiers in the English camp were essentially serious, in stark contrast to the joviality, overconfidence, and superficiality of the French camp. However, there is an anticipation of great humor when the disguised King Henry exchanges gloves with Williams and promises to meet him in a duel if they both survive today's battle; we anticipate Williams discovering that he was arguing with the very monarch for whom he is fighting.
Next, Act IV, Scene I further illuminates the depth and integrity of King Henry's character on the eve before the decisive and important Battle of Agincourt. Democracy, a deeply religious nature, modesty, and simplicity were some of King Henry's greatest traits. However, some ambiguity is demonstrated by the fact that the king is in darkness and incognito, implying that an individual's actions by day are different from his words concealed by night.
In the first act, King Henry was ready to place the blame for the war on the shoulders of the Archbishop. However, in Act IV, Scene I, when...
Williams maintains:
But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs and arms and heads chopped off in a battle shall join together at the latter day, and cry all, "We died at such a place, some swearing, some crying for a surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind them, some upon the debts they owe, some upon their children rawly left . . ." It will be a black matter for the king that led them to it (128-134, 140-44).
In response to Williams, Henry avoids taking responsibility by using this analogy:
So, if a son that is by his father sent about merchandise do sinfully miscarry upon the sea, the imputation of his wickedness, by your rule, should be imposed upon his father that sent him . . . Every subject's duty is the kings; but every subject's soul is his own . . . The king is but a man, as I am; the violet smells to him as it doth to me . . . his ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man, and though his affections are higher mounted than ours, yet, when they stoop, they stoop with the like wing. (99)
In his soliloquy, Henry expresses the suffering he endures, and he pours forth his anguish and his sense of guilt for the crown that his father usurped. The gravity of Henry's sorrow is poignantly illustrated when he utters a final prayer, beginning "God of battles . . ." The sense of guilt which Henry feels for his father's crime against Richard II is carefully scrutinized:
Not to-day, O Lord,
O, not to-day, think not upon the fault
My father made in compassing the crown! (310-12).
King Henry's act of wrapping himself in Sir Erpingham's cloak and walking among his men incognito is reminiscent of Jesus Christ's descent in several ways. First, Henry uses prose so that his men will be able to understand him plainly. The chorus describes this as "a little…
