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Henry V
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Act IChapter Summaries & Analyses
Act I, Prologue (Chorus) Summary
The Chorus (represented by a single actor) takes to the stage to deliver an opening speech. The Chorus announces that the audience is about to view a play that will involve grand battles and vast environments, filled with warring knights. The Chorus acknowledges that the stage cannot physically replicate the effect of these. As a result, the audience will need to use their imagination to bring the play to life. The stage will become the fields of France and the actors will represent the men who fought to the death in the Hundred Years’ War.
Act I, Scene 1 Summary
The setting is the English royal court, in London. Two powerful figures from the British church take to the stage: the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely. Through their conversation, they reveal that a recent bill presented to the King is causing them worry. The bill gives King Henry V of England the power to unilaterally “strip” land and money from the church. With this money, King Henry will be able to pay his soldiers, provide alms for the poor, and replenish the country’s coffers. The rich and powerful churchmen would rather keep this wealth to themselves: To combat the bill, the Archbishop has devised a plan. King Henry is young and considered brash. He is planning to invade France and make good on his claim to the French throne. This potential war could be used to distract the King from reading and passing the bill. To keep Henry’s focus on France, the Archbishop has promised a large donation to the King that can be used to fund his war. The two men reflect on the king’s character. They praise him as a good, intelligent man, much changed from the reckless boy he once was. They are impressed that he has matured so much after spending his younger years on “riots, banquets, sports” (1.1.56) and other pursuits with disreputable company. Soon, this reformed young king will meet with the Ambassadors of France. The Archbishop and the Bishop make their way to the throne room to attend the King.
Act I, Scene 2 Summary
King Henry prepares to meet with the French Ambassadors. He is surrounded by advisors, including his two brothers: Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester and Thomas, Duke of Clarence. The King sends for the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely. King Henry asks the Archbishop to explain in clear terms why he—the King of England—has a claim to the throne of France. The claim is historical and complicated; he wants to be sure of his right before he invades France, which would be very costly in both money and men. Henry warns the Archbishop that any lies or mistruths could result in a great loss of life: This blood would be on the Archbishop’s hands. Henry wants honest advice.
The Archbishop of Canterbury explains King Henry’s claim to be the King of France. His speech is long and complicated; he is a pompous man. He explains that French law says the French throne cannot be inherited by or through a woman. England does not follow this law, and the Kings of England have sometimes inherited the throne through their mothers’ bloodline. King Henry V’s great-great-great grandmother was the King of France’s daughter. According to English law, she would have been the heir to the French throne. Instead, a man took precedence. The English and French have been in dispute since then. The French support their king, King Charles VI, as the rightful heir, dismissing Henry’s claim. If Henry wants to be King of France, the Archbishop says, then he must take it by force.
The Archbishop and the Bishop of Ely urge Henry to invade France. Exeter and Westmorland, advisors to the King, agree with the churchmen. The archbishop promises that a “mighty” donation will be raised from the clergy across Britain to help fund this war. Henry is concerned about rebels in Scotland. If he takes his army to France, the Scots may see an opportunity to invade England. The Archbishop advises Henry to take a quarter of his soldiers and leave the remainder in England to defend the realm against rebels. Henry decides to invade France. He summons the French Ambassadors.
The Ambassadors have been sent by the Dauphin, the heir-apparent of the King of France. The Ambassadors are nervous; they have a message from the Dauphin that they know will anger him. Henry assures them not to fear and to speak plainly. They say that the Dauphin insists that Henry stop pressing his claim in France and, as part of negotiations, sends a “tun of treasure.” The message alludes to Henry’s indolent youth, with imagery of dancing. When the cask of “treasure” is opened, it is found to be tennis balls, another insulting illusion to Henry’s youth and lack of seriousness. Henry is furious but his speech is eloquent and dignified as he sends the Ambassadors back to the Dauphin with his answer. He already intended to take the throne of France and to “dazzle all the eyes of France” (1.2.280), but now the Dauphin’s insult will transform tennis balls into “gunstones” (cannonballs) and he will wreak “vengeance.” The Dauphin and all France will regret the Dauphin’s “shallow wit.”
Act I Analysis
Each act of Henry V is introduced by a brief prologue in a speaker called the Chorus who takes to the stage. The device of the Chorus goes back to Classical Greek drama, where it was used to narrate setting and context, to introduce themes, and to explore or suggest audience responses. The Chorus was occasionally used in Renaissance drama for similar purposes, and William Shakespeare’s choice to use this device reveals much about the play’s messaging and ambition. Chorus frames Henry’s actions to make him more sympathetic to the audience, editorializing events so that the play’s intended political message (broadly in support of the English monarchy, legitimizing their right to rule) can be better conveyed. The Chorus also acts as an essential means for context and setting, as his narrations describe the history and events, and ask the audience to partake in the great scenes that the stage can only invoke in the imagination. In Act I, the Chorus asks the audience for sympathy for the inherent limitations of the theater. Even though the narrative is based around several key historical battles, the audience will have to imagine the bare stage and the relatively limited number of actors to represent violent battles between massive armies. This is partly an explicit conceit on the limits and power of language, introducing the theme of Language as a Tool for Identity, and also shows the play’s purpose beyond simply reenacting history. The primary purpose of the play is not to retell events, but to tell a story that explores national identity through The Nature of Kingship and War and Conquest. Through the Chorus’s pleas for understanding, Henry is framed as a classical hero, deserving of the audience’s sympathy before he has taken to the stage. In creating a Chorus, Shakespeare is also able to frame each of his Acts with this device, and to therefore contain the necessary information of the play inside this formal structure. In doing so, he leaves the scenes free for action and characterization without stilted expositions.
The political nature of War and Conquest and the Nature of Kingship is established immediately in the first Act. The first characters introduced are two senior clergy, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely. They talk about their desire to manipulate the King, suggesting that they believe that they have the power to influence a reigning monarch. Henry V was written nearly 200 years after the events of the play; between these two periods, England had changed from a Catholic to a Protestant nation, and the Church authorities had been brought under the control of the Monarch, who was both head of Church and State. The characters of Henry V would have been Catholic, whereas the Elizabethan society was Protestant. As Elizabeth was the first Protestant monarch, Protestantism was closely linked with loyalty and patriotism; overt Catholicism was illegal at this time. The play speaks to this contemporaneous issue when it opens with powerplay between the monarch and the churchmen who are emblematic of Catholicism.
Act I is vital for establishing Henry’s character as king, especially as his character appears in earlier plays by William Shakespeare, as the wayward young heir Prince Hal. The opening of Henry V immediately establishes him as very different as his younger self, though his reputation as a reckless man continues to linger in the public consciousness. The audience is not alone in associating Henry with his past. The Dauphin still mistakenly clings to the belief that Henry has not grown or matured. He sends a letter to Henry that mocks Henry’s immaturity, showing how the young King is battling against a version of himself that no longer exists. Unlike the audience, the Dauphin does not have the Chorus to inform him of the many ways in which Henry has grown up. Nor does the Dauphin particularly bother himself with adjusting his presumptions. Instead, the letter becomes an important part of Henry’s argument for war. The catalyst for the invasion is the Dauphin’s misjudgment of Henry’s character, as represented by the letter and the mocking gift of the tennis balls. The audience is able to see, through Henry’s careful explanations for the war, that he has changed. The first Act therefore sets up the dramatic irony of the “testing” of Henry’s character.
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By William Shakespeare
