Henry V—Study Guide

Henry V was written about 1599, and might have been the first play performed at the Globe. It was first published in 1600 as The Cronicle History of Henry the Fift. This edition lacks the Choruses that appear in the play as it was printed in the 1623 Folio, and also omits 3 entire scenes (1.1.; 3.1.; and 4.2). The quarto seems to be a reported text (i.e. one reconstructed by some of the actors who preformed in it) of a version of the play perhaps adapted for a touring company (but note the ‘seems’ and ‘perhaps’ in that sentence).

1.  What is the effect of the opening Chorus? Why apologize for the limits of dramatic representation? How are we to understand this? Think also about the scene that immediately follows—does it fulfil the promise made by the Chorus of the action we are to see? Why give us a scene of worldly Bishops to begin the play?

2.  What are the motives for the war with France? Who is responsible for the action—Henry or the Bishops?

3.  What is the point of the long speech by Canterbury at 1.2.33ff? How does his geological argument apply to Henry? Are we meant to follow his reasoning or to hear it as a rationalization? What is the effect either way?

4.  How does the comic action relate to the historical plot?

5.  Why do you think Falstaff is killed off by Shakespeare and not allowed to appear in this play? What do you make of the report of his death?

6.  Look at 4.1. What is the effect of the ‘little touch of Harry in the night’? Does he bring comfort to his troops as the Chorus says? What is the importance of the exchange with Williams (Olivier cut most of this in his film made in late 1943 and released in London in 1944; why might he have done this?)

7. Before Agincourt, Henry says to his men that all who fight with him that day shall be his ‘brothers’, that ‘This day shall gentle his condition’. Does it? How does the play understand and present class differences. (Think also about the first Chorus’s address: ‘pardon, gentles all’; was the audience at the Globe all gentlemen and gentlewomen?)

8. In the soliloquy “Upon the King’ (4.1.226ff.), Henry engages in his most sustained meditation on kingship. How does he talk about the problems of being king? How does his understanding affect our sense of as a King? as a man?

9.  Why does the play not end with the remarkable victory at Agincourt? What does Act 5 do to our sense of the action? What are Henry’s motives in his wooing of Kate?

10. What do you finally make of Henry? Is he a patriotic hero or a jingoistic prig?

What are the qualities that make him at very least Shakespeare’s most successful king?

11. Look carefully at the Epilogue: what does it accomplish? How does the information of the subsequent history affect an audience (remember the Henry 6 plays were written before this)? Is it significant that the epilogue is some kind of sonnet? What is a “bending author”: to what or whom does he bend?