In my opinion, William Shakespeare’s Henry V is the greatest of all his plays and thus worth your consideration.
I note this for two reasons. First, because Henry V centers on the Battle of Agincourt, the 602nd anniversary of which was this week. Second, because Shakespeare is no longer required reading for English majors at Yale University.
The play begins with 28-year-old King Henry V of England contemplating his territorial claims in France. An ambassador from France quickly arrives and presents Henry with “treasure” from the Dauphin, heir to the French throne. But the treasure is tennis balls, a sign that France views Henry as a playboy deserving only ridicule.
Henry is not amused.
“We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us;” Henry tells the ambassador, “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 … So get you hence in peace; and tell the Dauphin his jest will savor but of shallow wit, when thousands weep more than did laugh at it.”
Evidencing his seriousness, Henry dispatches a trusted commander to warn the French king to yield to his provincial claims. The unconvinced king responds, “Or else what follows?”
“Therefore in fierce tempest is he coming, in thunder and in earthquake, like a Jove.”
The king refuses Henry anyway, justifying his cause for war. And so after putting down a conspiracy in England, Henry sets sail.
Attacking the strategic port city of Harfleur, Henry’s army wavers at the castle gates. The king summons them to action:
“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; stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood … I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, straining upon the start. The game’s afoot: follow your spirit, and upon this charge cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!”
Harfleur is taken.
The glory, however, is short-lived as hunger, disease, and a large French army shadow his force. Making matters worse, a friend from Henry’s youth (and Henry IV parts 1 and 2) steals from a church and forces Henry to decide his fate. Does the king forgive his friend and risk the discipline of his army and the prospective support of his French subjects?
No. In a line modern-day counterinsurgency theorists would recognize, Henry justifies his decision in that “for when lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentler gamester is the soonest winner.” Shakespeare is telling us that Henry has become a leader who prioritizes his kingly ambition over the friendships of his youth.
Still, the task ahead is grave.
On the eve of Agincourt, Shakespeare has Henry take up a disguise and walk through the English camp. Stopping to talk with soldiers, Henry bears his soul and the solemn responsibility of his leadership.
I think the king is but a man, as I am: the violet smells to him as it doth to me: the element shows to him as it doth to me; all his senses have but human conditions… Therefore when he sees reason of fears, as we do, his fears, out of doubt, be of the same relish as ours are: yet, in reason, no man should possess him with any appearance of fear, lest he, by showing it, should dishearten his army.
Shakespeare’s lesson here is that a leader’s fear is no sin unless rendered apparent. Or as Winston Churchill once observed, “war is a game that is played with a smile. If you can’t smile, grin. If you can’t grin, keep out of the way till you can.”
On the day of battle, the massed French forces seem insurmountable and Henry’s commanders fear defeat is inevitable. One wishes for more troops, “O that we now had here but one ten thousand of those men in England that do no work today!”
Then comes Henry’s epic rejoinder.
What’s he that wishes so? My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin: If we are mark’d to die, we are enough to do our country loss; and if to live, the fewer men, the greater share of honor. God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one man more… Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host, that he which hath no stomach to this fight, let him depart; his passport shall be made and crowns for convoy put into his purse: We would not die in that man’s company that fears his fellowship to die with us… He that shall live this day, and see old age, will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors, and say ‘tomorrow is Saint Crispian’ then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars. And say ‘these wounds I had on Crispin’s day.’ Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot, but he’ll remember with advantages what feats he did that day.
Shakespeare has our hero conclude by explaining that battles render brothers between kings, nobles, and peasants. “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; for he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother.”
Then comes a French emissary, again offering Henry the chance to save his army from an inevitable defeat. Henry sends him packing, “I pray thee, bear my former answer back: bid them achieve me and then sell my bones.” The king warns that he intends to fight until his last breath, “Come thou no more for ransom, gentle herald: they shall have none, I swear, but these my joints; which if they have as I will leave ’em them, shall yield them little, tell the constable.”
Against all the odds, Henry’s army carried the day.
The rest of the play focuses on Henry’s struggle to speak French in attempt to woo Catherine of Valois, daughter of the French king. As with other elements of the play, this exchange is Shakespeare’s creation rather than actual history, but it speaks to Shakespeare’s penchant for comedy!
All in all, whether or not you are a Yale student majoring in English, Henry V is well worth your time. Go to a theater production, or if you don’t like the theater, watch Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh.
