168 HENRY V
Beyond the banner
What follows the Chorus’s prologue
is not scenes of heroism but a
shady debate between England’s
two church leaders. These men
of the cloth do not discuss high
moral matters, but a back-alley
collusion to escape taxes by
supporting Henry’s claim to
the French throne. If the church
leaders’ motives are so venal,
maybe one should question their
assessment that the erstwhile
tearaway Prince Hal has had an
almost religious conversion to the
straight and narrow on becoming
king: “Consideration like an angel
came / And whipped th’offending
Adam out of him” (1.1.29–30).
Throughout the narrative, Henry
presents himself as a Christian
king, armed by God. After the
seemingly miraculous triumph
on the battlefield at Agincourt, he
declines to take credit, offering the
victory to God—“Take it God, / For
it is none but thine” (4.8.111–112).
But is this all image-building, part
of a necessary display of kingship?
We never actually see Henry on the
battlefield, nor do we ever hear of
any strategic skill. Instead, Henry
dazzles with rhetoric.Henry the orator
Two speeches in particular show
Shakespeare’s language at its most
muscular. The first is when Henry
urges his men on outside the walls
of Harfleur: “Once more unto the
breach, dear friends, once more, /
Or close the wall up with our
English dead” (3.1.1–2). The second
is his address before the battle,
when he promises: “And Crispin
Crispian shall ne’er go by / From
this day to the ending of the world /
But we in it shall be rememberèd, /
We few, we happy few, we band of
brothers” (4.3.57–60).Ruthless leader
The picture presented of Henry is
far from simply heroic. Shakespeare
shows him to be not just an
inspiring leader, but a tough,
even brutal, one too. His way with
justice is ruthless. The traitors are
tricked into urging their own death
sentence, while Henry brusquely
confirms the death sentence on
his drinking friend Bardolph for
stealing from a church, despite
pleas for clemency. Indeed, Henry’s
old Eastcheap pals—Bardolph,
Nim, and Pistol—are as unheroic
an image of soldiering as can be.
Disreputable, lazy, cowardly, and
argumentative, very often they
seem to parody Henry’s rhetoric,
with Bardolph proclaiming, “On,
on, on, on, on! To the breach!
To the breach!” (3.2.1–2). In theIn Kenneth Branagh’s film version,
the Battle of Agincourt takes place
on a rain-drenched, muddy battlefield.
In contrast to Olivier’s earlier film,
Branagh stressed the horrors of war.
O God of battles, steel my
soldiers’ hearts.
Possess them not with fear.
Take from them now.
Henry V
Act 4, Scene 1