Critical Comments. I. Argument. I. Soon after his coronation Henry V. resolves to secure his title to the crown and augment his popularity with the masses by the splendours of foreign conquest. Accordingly he lays claim to the throne of France through the medium of the ancient Salic law, and declares war against that country. In answer to his first demands for certain French dukedoms, the Dauphin sends back to him in mockery a bag of tennis-balls—the French heir-apparent believing that he has still to deal with a madcap prince. II. At this time, however, the young monarch's accession of virtues and regal dignities is a source of marvel and admiration; for he has made good his promise, given upon assuming the crown, to forsake the wild companions of his youth. But Sir John Falstaff cannot fathom the sudden change, and dies of a broken heart. The King imbues all England with his military enthusiasm. A large army is speedily levied and makes ready to embark at Southampton. The French, growing apprehensive at this warlike display, seek to check the invasion by treacherous means, and bribe three English lords to murder the King at the time of his embarkation. The plot is discovered and the King sentences the traitors to death. III. King Henry storms the French city of Harfleur, which, lacking support, is forced to capitulate. But sickness and privation now make such inroads upon his army that he finds himself in danger of annihilation at the hands of a French force led by the Dauphin, outnumbering his own five to one. Nevertheless he does not avoid battle but pitches camp near the French at Agin court. IV. The French are so confident of victory that they cast dice for the disposal of the contemplated prisoners. On the English side all is watchfulness and preparation. The King in person goes disguised through his camp to learn the temper of his men. At daybreak the armies meet in the shock of battle. The Dauphin's forces suffer a disgraceful and overwhelming defeat through lack of generalship. V. The French are forced to sue for peace. King Henry's terms include, among other things, the recognition of himself as heir to the throne of France, and the bestowal upon him of the hand of the Princess Katharine. All the terms are agreed to. The English conquerors are received at the court of France amid protestations of amity, while the English king and the French princess arrive at a mutual understanding of hearts despite their ignorance of tongues. MCSPADDEN: Shakespearian Synopses. II. France and England. The principal historical feature [of Henry V.], the description of the spirit of the age with its relations to the past, and the character of the two belligerent nations is brought out in a truly dramatic style, by giving the utmost animation to the action. Henry IV., on his deathbed, had counselled his son to engage And, in fact, "giddiness" and vacillation were the leading features in the character of the age; the reason of this lay not only in the unjust usurpation of Henry IV., which, owing to the close connection existing between the state and its various members, exercised its influence on the barons and people, but also in the progressive development of the state and of the nation itself. The corporative estates of the kingdom, the clergy, knights and burghers, incited by an esprit de corps and by their wellordered organisation, felt their power and endeavoured to assert it, both against the royal power and against one another. Their disputes among one another would have been of more frequent occurrence had it not been for the fact that, in direct contrast to the French nobility, the English barons generally sided with the commoners, so as mutually to protect their rights against the pretensions of the crown. Eoch of these several parties endeavoured to promote their own interests and to act with the greatest possible amount of freedom; their active strength naturally strove to find a vigorous sphere of action and would have consumed itself, and thus internally destroyed the organism of the state, had it not succeeded in obtaining vent in an outward direction. In France, on the other hand, the vanity, the excessive arrogance of the court, the nobility and the people desired war in order to realise their proud dream of internal and external superiority; the historical course of the nation's culture required that it should be thoroughly humbled by misery and wretchedness, otherwise it would have decayed prematurely through extravagance and effeminate luxury. Moreover in France also, the organism of the state was broken up into so many separate and independent corporations that it required a great and general interest, a great national disaster to preserve their consciousness of mutual dependence and unity. All this Shakspeare has intimated in a few but vigorous features. But still more clearly are the characters of the two nations brought forward as the historical motive. The sober, practical patriotism of the English, in the full consciousness of their own strength, could not tolerate the arrogance, the conceit and the frivolity of the French, of which the Dauphin's contumelious embassy to Henry gives so distinct a reflex. The two nations stood opposed to one another like a couple of men who, in spite of the great difference in their natures, both maintain that they are in the right and aim at the same goal; such natures must necessarily come into conflict. ULRICI: Shakspeare's Dramatic Art. III. The King. From first to last the one overshadowing character is the King. His irregular, undignified conduct when Prince of Wales would hardly have prepared the people to expect a model king. The prince, however, felt within himself the power to rise above the frivolities of his early life when higher duties called him; and the play abundantly shows how thoroughly he had redeemed himself, rising to such a pitch of glory that in the epilogue to the play he is "the Star of England." The full portrait of him, drawn in an atmosphere of loyalty and patriotism, is in close agreement with that of contemporary writers. As a military leader he exhibited great capacity and foresight; in Holinshed's phrase," he had indeed a gift to encourage his people." As king, he secured the loyal respect of his people, and their admiration for his piety, justice, and simplicity of character; in these respects he afforded a striking contrast to the crooked ways of his father. A living poet (Mr. William Watson) has said of him: The roystering prince, that afterward Such as our warrior fathers loved, Henry V., as Shakespeare has portrayed him, will live in the memory of every reader of the play, not merely as an ideal English warrior king, but as the noblest illustration bequeathed to us by any dramatist of that intense patriotic feeling of Englishmen that reached so high a pitch in Elizabeth's reign, when proud confidence in the strength of English spirit and deep love of their country and queen were fully as earnest and as widely felt as in our own time. FERGUSON: The Swan Edition. In his courtship and on the day of battle Henry is just as plain a king as if he had "sold his farm to buy his crown.' He has shaken off his old dissolute companions, but the remembrances of that simple intercourse are recalled to our mind at every moment. The same inclination to rove about with the common man in his army, the old mildness and familiarity, and the same love for an innocent jest, exist in him now as then, without derogating in the least from his kingly dignity. He leaves his nobles waiting in his tent while he visits the posts of his soldiers; the old habit of night-watching is of use to him now; he sounds the disposition of individuals; he encourages them without high-sounding words; he fortifies them without ostentation; he can preach to them and solve moral scruples, and can make himself intelligible to them; he contrives a trick quite of the old kind in the moment of most gloomy suspense; like a brother, he borrows the cloak of the old Erpingham; he familiarly allows his countryman Fluellen to join freely in his conversation with the herald; and in his short appeal before the battle he declares all to be his brothers who on this Crispin's day shed their blood with him. This contrast between his repose and calmness and his martial excitement, between his plain homely nature and the kingly heroic spirit which in the moment of action exercises dominion over him, is, however, not the only one in which the Poet has exhibited him. The |