The Chorus here wishes for the
power to re-create the very persons of history, imagining that
the rulers of England and France wage war while the other crowned heads
of Europe […] look on (Craik, King Henry V).
swelling
Magnificent, majestic.
Cf. Macbeth:
the swelling Act / Of the Imperiall Theame (Mac 1.3.124–125).
like himself
In a manner suiting his status.
Part of the Chorus’s rhetorical apology
for the inadequacy of theater, this tautological simile is a reminder of the
difference between the historical figure and the actor who plays him.
port
Bearing, demeanor.
With a pun on an actor’s
part, which was probably pronounced identically; see
Love’s Labour’s Lost, where part is
rhymed with short (LLL 5.2.56–57).
Traditional tools of war, perhaps
suggested here by Holinshed’s blood, fire, and famine (Chronicles, 1587 567). See also 1 Henry VI, where Talbot
threatens Bordeaux with my three attendants— / Lean famine, quartering
steel, and climbing fire (1H6 4.2.10–11).
As this word was used often of
stages, for plays, proclamations, and public exhibitions, neither the
implications of ephemerality in modern ‘scaffoldingʼ nor the sense
‘place of executionʼ is relevant (Taylor, Henry V).
cockpit
Circular arena (for cockfighting).
Literal cockpits were similar in
structure, but much smaller than an Elizabethan theater.
vasty
Vast.
A Shakespearean coinage, probably merely
for metrical purposes.
wooden O
The circle of the playhouse.
Critics and editors (John Dover Wilson excepted) long presumed that the playhouse
here mentioned was the newly-built Globe, as represented memorably in Olivier’s
film adaptation. But Tiffany Stern argues convincingly from both internal and
external evidence that Henry V was one of the last plays
the Lord Chamberlain’s Men put on at the Curtain (Stern, The Curtain is
Yours).
casques
Helmets.
Malone read The very casques as even the casques or helmets, much less the men by whom they were worn (Malone, Plays; see OED, 2nd ed. very, A.a.II.9.b). Gurr finds a connection to the cask (barrel) suggested
by Wooden O (King Henry V).
affright
Frighten.
Agincourt
Battlefield in northern France, site of the English victory over
the French on 25 October 1415.
figure
Numerical symbol; here, the digit 1.
The metaphor compares the small company
of actors to the six zeros (ciphers) that make the numeral one
(a crooked figure) into one million. Most modern editors gloss
the crooked figure as the round zero, but the implication is that
the actor, or even Henry himself, is the figure, with
crooked suggesting possible overtones of craftiness and
deception; compare Canterbury’s disdain for the French crooked
titles (A1 Sc2 Sp8),
and cf. WT
1.2.6–7.
Craik points out that the possible
secondary sense of narrative is unknown elsewhere in Shakespeare
(King Henry V).
your imaginary forces
Powers of your imagination.
Forces may also suggest that the audience’s imagination is being recruited into an army.
See OED, 2nd ed. force, n.1.I.4.
girdle
Encircling boundary.
With the implication of restraint […]
picked up in confined (Taylor, Henry V).
two mighty monarchies
England and France.
abutting
Projecting toward each other; butting, striking each other.
fronts
1) The cliffs of Dover and Calais imagined as foreheads, butting
or projecting toward each other; 2) frontiers; 3) lines of battle.
perilous narrow ocean
The English Channel.
Piece out
Supplement, extend.
puissance
Military power.
Trisyllabic.
deck
Clothe, adorn.
jumping o’er times
The play covers the historical period
from the 1414 parliament at Leicester to the 1420 treaty of Troyes.
hourglass
The space of an hour.
for the which supply
To aid in which.
Supply is used here in the military sense of reinforcement (OED, 2nd ed. supply, n.II.5). See 1 Henry VI (The Earle
of Salisbury craueth supply [1H6 1.1.159]) and 1 Henry
IV (looks he not for supply? [1H4 4.3.3]).
prologue-like
Speaking like a prologue; in the traditional costume of a
prologue.
Heywood’s Four
Prentices of London (ca. 1592; printed 1615) suggests the conventional
staging of a dramatic prologue:
Doe you not know that I am the Prologue? Do you not see this long blacke
veluet cloke vpon my backe? Haue you not sounded thrice? Do I not looke
pale, as fearing to bee out in my speech? Nay, haue I not all the signes of
a Prologue about me?
(Heywood A4)
your humble patience pray
Humbly ask for your patience.
1.1
Location: the royal court.
According to Shakespeare’s historical
sources, the setting of the first act should be the last daie of Aprill in
the towne of Leicester (Holinshed,
Chronicles, 1587 545). The Chorus suggests,
however, that the play begins in London (A2 Sc0 Sp1).
self
Same.
th’eleventh … reign
In Henry IV’s reign, the year 1410, four years before the present
action.
Turbulent, contentious (here referring to civil war).
To scamble is
literally to struggle for food or money scattered on the ground. Steevens notes a
reference in the household book of the fifth Earl of Northumberland to the
scambling days, a period in Lent when no regular meals
were provided to the household and individuals had to fend for themselves (Plays).
question
Debate, discussion.
possession
Wealth, property.
Until Henry VIII’s seizure of it in the
1530s, and even beyond, church property was a subject of perennial conflict
between the church and English secular powers. Gurr, following John Cox, sees an
allusion here to the struggles of Richard Cox, the Elizabethan Bishop of Ely, to
keep his own property out of royal control.
temporal lands … church
Lands held by laymen and bequeathed to the church in the owners’
wills (by testament).
they
The House of Commons.
As much … year.
This passage is almost verbatim—though
altered to verse—from Holinshed:
a bill exhibited in the parlement holden at Westminster in the eleuenth
yeare of king Henrie the fourth (which by reason the king was then troubled
by ciuill discord, came to none effect) might now with good deliberation be
pondered, and brought to good conclusion. The effect of which supplication
was, that the temporall lands deuoutlie giuen, and disordinatlie spent by
religious, and other spirituall persons, should be seized into the kings
hands, sith the same might suffice to mainteine, to the honor of the king,
and defense of the realme, fifteene earles, fifteene hundred knights, six
thousand and two hundred esquires, and a hundred almesse-houses, for reliefe
onelie of the poore, impotent, and needie persons, and the king to haue
cleerelie to his coffers twentie thousand pounds, with manie other
prouisions and values of religious houses, which I passe ouer.
(Chronicles, 1587 545)
The bill in question was proposed by a group of Lollards in the parliament
of 1410, a fact that might implicitly raise historical comparisons—especially in
the minds of Shakespeare’s original audience—to anticlerical movements during the
Protestant Reformation, and especially to Henry VIII’s dissolution of the
monasteries. See General Introduction.
Maurice Hunt points out the historical correspondences of behaviour between Henry
V and Henry VIII, and discusses Shakespeare’s dramatic association of the two
kings (Hybrid
Reformations, 176–206, 189–192).
maintain
Bear the expenses of.
to the king’s honor
To demonstrate the king’s generosity.
esquires
Gentry ranking immediately below knights.
lazars
Lepers.
From the proper name
Lazarus; see Luke 16:20.
weak age
The elderly.
indigent … toil
Poor people too weak for physical work.
almshouses
Houses for dispensing charity.
coffers
Treasury (literally, money boxes).
beside
Additionally.
A thousand … year.
The sum that Holinshed’s 20,000 pounds would bring in at 5 per
cent interest (Craik, King Henry V).
bill
Parliamentary act.
With a pun on the sense of “statement
of amount owed”.
drink deep
Swallow up our wealth.
what prevention?
How may the bill be prevented?
This incomplete line after the previous
shared line, a repetition of Ely’s earlier question, perhaps suggests a thoughtful
pause before Canterbury’s next speech.
The bishops’ political subterfuge is
more explicitly stated in Shakespeare’s source:
This bill was much noted, and more feared among the religious sort, whom
suerlie it touched verie neere, and therefore to find remedie against it,
they determined to assaie all ways to put by and ouerthrow this bill:
wherein they thought best to trie if they might mooue the kings mood with
some sharpe inuention, that he should not regard the importunate petitions
of the commons.
(Holinshed, Chronicles, 1587 545)
grace
Virtue, honor.
In the theological, chiefly Protestant
sense of the term, divine favor or providential election.
and fair regard
1) And is also full of respect, consideration; 2) and is highly
esteemed.
courses
Habits, behaviour.
The breath … him
The phrasing evokes Saint Paul, but for
this passage, Shakespeare seems to have been influenced less by any biblical
passage than by a prayer of confession to the Holy Ghost in Thomas Becon’s Flour of godly praiers (London, 1551):
thou making me a new creature by
mortifying old Adam in me, and by geuing me a good spirite, mayeste delyght in me as a father in
hys sonne, and continually dwell in me as in thy holy temple.
(Becon fol. xiiv-xiii)
The mortification of unlawful desire is
a common theological conceit. See Alexander Nowell’s Catechisme (1570): By the force of Christ’s death our old man
is, after a certain manner, crucified and mortified, and the corruptness of our
nature is, as it were, buried (Nowell T3v). Cf. 2 Henry IV: My Father
is gone wild into his grave, / For in his tomb lie my affectïons (2H4
5.2.122–123).
Consideration
Reflection, contemplation.
th’offending Adam
The sinful nature.
As Adam was ejected by an Angel from the garden of Eden after
the fall (Geneva, Genesis 3:23–24), Henry’s Adam has been
whipped out of him.
paradise
A place of sinless innocence, like Eden before the fall of
man.
The state of sinlessness that
Canterbury’s metaphor implies in Henry is, strictly speaking, heretical, since
according to Christian doctrine only Christ is without sin: for all haue
sinned, and are depriued of the glorie of God (Geneva, Romans 3:23). Unless
otherwise noted, biblical citations refer to the Geneva Bible of 1576.
The word echoes Hal’s soliloquy in
1 Henry IV: My reformation, glitt’ring o’er my
fault, / Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes / Than that which hath no
foil to set it off (1H4 1.2.168–170). Spoken by a fifteenth-century cleric, it is an anachronistic word; OED gives 1425 as the first instance of the word in its moral sense, and 1531 for the
first use in the religio-political context familiar today (OED, 3rd ed. reformation, n.1.4.a, 3.b). The only Shakespearean character to use reform in the specifically religious context with which history
is familiar is the Lord Chancellor in Henry VIII, who
ironically uses it in defense of Catholic orthodoxy, advising Cranmer that his new
Protestant opinions are heresies, / And, not reformed, may prove
pernicious (H8 5.2.52–53).
flood
Canterbury’s metaphor for Henry’s
reformation recalls two biblical floods at once, both common to
the rhetoric of sixteenth-century religious polemic. On the one hand it recalls
the image of the Genesis deluge—the first godly reform—that cleansed the false
religion that held sway in Noah’s sinful world. Calvin, in Arthur Golding’s 1583
translation of his sermons on Deuteronomy, had evoked that flood in language that
Shakespeare may imitate here: the seruice of GOD was imbaced euen in the
life of Adam, and that it was fayne to bee reformed againe as it were by
miracle. When the floude came, God cleansed the earth newe againe (Calvin, Sermons
Ccccc1r). But the phrase also has a potentially negative religious connotation for
Shakespeare’s audience, and it is telling that the current that scours away Prince
Hal’s faults is heady — “threatening,
disorderly, uncontrollable”—a word the play applies only once (in the F2
reading) elsewhere: to the murder, spoil, and villainy with which
Henry threatens the defeated Harfleur (A3 Sc3 Sp1). This second connotation of “flood”, along with Canterbury’s mention of
hydra-headed willfulness immediately following, suggests instead
an allusion to the flood that proceeds from the mouth of the many-headed dragon of
Revelation: And ye serpent cast out
of his mouth water after ye woman like a flood, yt he might cause her to be
caryed away of the flood (Geneva, Revelation 12:15). Traditionally read as an
allegory of the Arian heresy that threatened the early church, the dragon-flood
metaphor was activated by both early-modern reformers and Catholics to describe
the Satanically-inspired waves of heresy that each confession saw flowing from the
other.
heady
Headlong, violent.
currence
Current.
There is no reason to characterize this, as
Walter does, as a nonce-word. It is a variant of currency,
in its obsolete sense of stream, current (OED, 2nd ed. currency, 1.a, first example 1657). F2’s spelling,
currant (i.e., “current”), may
also be correct, possibly reflecting a t/c compositorial error (Comedies, Histories, &
Tragedies, 1632 Histories I3).
scouring
Flushing away.
hydra-headed
Having several heads like the Hydra of Greek myth, thus a
difficult monster to kill.
Johnson notes that the image of flushing
away filth in the previous line may have brought to the author’s mind Hercules’s
labor of cleaning the Augean stables, which then led to his allusion to the Hydra,
another of the twelve labors (Plays).
seat
Throne, place of authority.
We are
Could be pronounced “we’re” to
regularize the meter, though Johnson’s emendation is unnecessary (Plays).
Henry, that is, finds the harmony within
the chaos of battle.
cause of policy
Political issue.
Gordian knot
A knot proverbially impossible to untie.
The original Gordian knot was
intricately tied—by King Midas, according to myth—to an oxcart standing in the
palaces of the kings of Phrygia in Gordium. According to the biographers of
Alexander the great, it could only be untied by the destined ruler of Asia; in 333
BCE Alexander cut the knot with his sword, an act that became a metaphor for an
intractable problem solved by bold thinking (see Tilley G375). This is first of several comparisons
between Alexander’s conquests and Henry’s campaign (A3 Sc1 Sp1, A4 Sc7 Sp3).
Familiar … garter
As easily as he would his garter, a band tied around the leg to
support the stockings.
chartered
Licensed.
libertine
One free from restraint, who follows his own inclination.
For the proverbial metaphor of the air
as a chartered libertine cf. Jaques’s I must have
liberty / Withal, as large a charter as the wind (AYL 2.7.49-50; see also Dent A88). Here, uncharacteristically for Shakespeare,
libertine seems to carry no negative connotations, though
Craik argues that we might understand Henry to be converting the breeze from
waywardness (King Henry
V).
the mute … ears
Wonder (at Henry’s sentences) makes men
mute.
practic part … theoric
Henry must have learned how to theorize from practical experience
(the practic part of life).
glean it
Acquire this wisdom.
Literally, pick it up like scattered grain after a
harvest.
Since … popularity.
According to fifteenth-century
historical tradition, passed down to Shakespeare’s historical sources and
dramatized in both parts of Henry IV, before acceding to
the crown, Henry had surrounded himself with dissolute and lawless friends—
represented by Shakespeare in the characters of Sir John Falstaff, Pistol,
Bardolph, and Nym—whose companionship he had dutifully discarded at his accession:
this king even at first appointing with himselfe, to shew that in his
person princelie honors should change publike manners, he determined to put
on him the shape of a new man. For whereas aforetime he had made himselfe a
companion unto misrulie mates of dissolute order and life, he now banished
them all from his presence (but not unrewarded, or else unpreferred)
inhibiting them upon a great paine, not once to approach, lodge, or sojourne
within ten miles of his court or presence: and in their places he chose men
of gravitie, wit, and high policie.
(Holinshed, Chronicles, 1587 543)
Public places, especially those frequented by lowlifes.
popularity
Ordinary, vulgar people.
strawberry … quality
Elizabethan horticulturalists believed
that
a plant derived from its neighbours the good or evil qualities they
possessed: but the strawberry was an exception. Although it crept along the
ground exposed to every sort of contamination, yet no evil companionship
could taint its purity.
(R. E. Prothero, Shakespeare’s England 1: 373)
The strawberry thus came to be a symbol of incorruptible righteousness. The
Bishop of Ely is similarly associated with strawberries— for which Ely Place,
Holborn, was noted—in R3 (R3 3.4.31–33).
This very rare word is borrowed from the
Latin crescere and used by Shakespeare only in
this line. As Steevens notes (Plays), the line parallels a passage in a Horatian
ode: crescit occulto velut arbor aevo / fama
Marcelli — “The glory of Marcellus,
like a tree, grows by the silent lapse of time” — (Horace, trans. C. E. Bennet, 38–39). Renaissance
versions of the sentiment became so commonplace as to be used in English grammar
schools, like Shakespeare’s, to illustrate the colon rule. See T. W. Baldwin, William Shakspere’s Small
Latine & Lesse Greeke, 501–503.
in his faculty
By its nature.
It must … ceased
The king’s transformation must be a natural phenomenon, since the
supernatural events recorded in the Bible no longer occur.
The Protestant doctrine of cessationism,
the belief that miracles ceased to be performed early in Christian history, while
familiar to Shakespeare’s audience, is an anachronism in the mouth of a medieval
archbishop.
needs
Necessarily.
admit
Acknowledge, allow.
means
Natural cause.
perfected
1) Accomplished; 2) made perfect.
Accented on the first syllable.
mitigation
Reducing the severity.
commons
House of Commons, the lower house of parliament.
Incline to
Support, favor.
swaying more upon
Leaning toward.
exhibitors
Those proposing the bill.
For I … withal
These lines, the gist of which is
repeated later (A1 Sc2 Sp14), closely follow the ending of the Archbishop’s speech in Holinshed: the
archbishop declared that in their spiritual conuocation, they had granted to
his highnesse such a summe of monie, as neuer by no spirituall persons was to
any prince before those daies giuen or aduanced (Holinshed, Chronicles, 1587
546). Shakespeare’s innovation is to place the offer to his majesty
in the private scene prior to the public speech, thus implying a back-room
agreement between the king and the clergy.
Upon
During, on the occasion of, as a result of.
Another possible sense is “concerning, touching upon” (OED, 2nd ed. upon, prep.II.22.a). Modern editors often gloss the word as “on behalf of”, but this sense is not to
be found in OED and requires convocation to serve as an overly
specific metonym for the clergy and their interests.
convocation
Assembly, meeting.
Canterbury means either an assembly of
the clergy, or a private meeting between the king and the archbishop.
causes
Legal matters.
opened
Disclosed.
at large
Either 1) fully, or 2) in general terms.
touching
Concerning.
to give … sum
Canterbury plans to let the church take
a smaller loss by financing the war than it would should the commons’ bill pass.
During Elizabeth’s reign, Dollimore and Sinfield point out, the Church resented the fact that it was
expected to help finance foreign wars, but in 1588 Archbishop Whitgift
encouraged his colleagues to contribute generously towards resistance to the
Armada on the grounds—just as in Henry V—that it would
head off criticism of the Church’s wealth (History and Ideology
216).
withal
With.
of his majesty
By the king.
fain
Eagerly, willingly.
severals
Particulars.
Also a legal term meaning lands, over which one has a private right of possession
(OED, 2nd ed. several, C.n.2).
passages
Lines of inheritence.
With a play on the sense of passages of legal text.
true titles … dukedoms
Wherevpon, on a daie in the parlement, Henrie Chichelie archbishop of
Canturburie made a pithie oration, wherein he declared, how not onelie the
duchies of Normandie and Aquitaine, with the counties of Aniou and Maine,
and the countrie of Gascoigne, were by vndoubted title apperteining to the
king, as to the lawfull and onelie heire of the same; but also the whole
realme of France, as heire to his great grandfather king Edward the
third.
(Holinshed, Chronicles, 1587 545)
Edward … great-grandfather
King Edward III (1312–1377).
Edward III’s mother, Isabella (ca.
1295–1358), was the daughter of the French King Philip IV, making Henry Philip’s
direct descendant. The fact that this claim is derived through the
female line becomes the legal crux of the following scene and of the play at large
(see note to A1 Sc2 Sp7).
Although all three of her elder brothers died without issue, the French barred
Isabella from succession in order to exclude Edward III. Shakespeare and his
collaborators recall this legal history in the opening scene of Edward III (Q1 E3 sig. A3r).
embassy
Message.
1.2
Location: the royal presence chamber.
Humphrey
Henry’s youngest brother Humphrey
(1390–1447) is referred to throughout this play as Gloucester, and
only here by his name, though he appears as Duke Humphrey in the
Henry VI plays.
Bedford, Clarence
The king’s brother Bedford, referred to as
John of Lancaster in 2 Henry IV, speaks no lines in this
scene, and does not appear in the scene’s analog in Q. His brother Clarence speaks
no line in the entire play, and is only mentioned twice, appearing in this stage
direction and addressed once (A5 Sc2 Sp11). Taylor, who follows Q in deleting
Bedford’s appearance and giving his lines to Clarence, argues that Q indicates an
authoritative intention to streamlines these characters (Three Studies 101). The
appearance of all four royal brothers, however, is symbolically fitting; as Gurr
argues, retaining them all in this scene underscores the play’s emphasis on
brotherhood (King Henry
V). Historically, Thomas, Duke of Clarence (ca. 1388–1421),
was part of the 1415 French campaign until he was invalided home after the battle
of Harfleur, in which he took a leading role.
The presence chamber (the room where monarchs receive
visitors).
The king’s presence took on its own aura
of authority, as indicated in Thomas Smith’s De Republica
Anglorum (1583): in the chamber of presence where the cloath of
estate is set, no man dare walke, yea though the prince be not there, no man
dare tarrie there but bareheaded (Smith 2.47).
cousin
A term of polite address among the
nobility, though Ralph Neville, first earl of Westmorland (1354–1425), was Henry’s
cousin by marriage.
A law prohibiting the inheritance of titles from a female
ancestor.
The Pactus Legis
Salicae was a legal code that adapted Roman law for the governance of
the barbarian tribes under Frankish rule. Issued by the Frankish King Clovis I
between 508 and 511, the Pactus governed crime as
well as inheritance, but when later French jurists used it to combat English
claims of inheritance, it came to be synonymous with the tenet of agnatic
succession, i.e., the exclusion of females from the inheritance of titles in
Salic land, a phrase that, as Canterbury points out, has
no certain interpretation. (See Patrick
Geary, Before France and Germany 90–91 and
105–106.) An Elizabethan audience would be well aware of the obsolescence of any
such laws in Tudor England, but they would also be familiar with the Salic Law
from its prominence in public discourse about the queen’s proposed marriage to the
Duke of Alençon in the 1570s. In 1579, the puritan John Stubbes wrote The Discoverie of a Gaping Gulf, an immediately censored, but
much-read pamphlet against the marriage that suggested that Salic Law would strip
Elizabeth of her power should she marry a Frenchman.
1) Legal entitlement; 2) justice, moral propriety.
In this scene, Henry precisely and strategically calculates his rhetoric to collapse
two not quite identical senses of right. Here, he seems to use the word in its legal sense (OED, 2nd ed. right, n.1.II): he will have the legal right to claim the titles, presuming they are not miscreate. In this sense, right is merely a synonym of title or claim, and one might conceivably claim a legal right that was derived falsely, i.e., “suiting
not with the truth”. This is the sense Canterbury employs consistently in the scene:
right and title of the female (A1 Sc2 Sp8); with blood and sword and fire to win your right (A1 Sc2 Sp14). Henry, however, subtly alters the meaning of the word when he next uses it: May I with right and conscience make this claim? (A1 Sc2 Sp9). The pairing of right with conscience suggests their equivalency, that the moral sense of right (OED, 2nd ed. right, n.1.I) is now in play. This retroactively renders Henry’s injunction at A1 Sc2 Sp7
absurd: if the titles are right in the moral sense, then they are also, already,
true. The dual senses form a pivot around which the archbishop, and Henry himself,
can turn the legal argument. His clever equivocation, moving the
right from the contingency of claim to the
certainty of truth decides the matter even as the question is being
posed, and prevents an unfavorable answer. I am indebted to Catherine Lisak,
editor of the ISE Richard II, for the conversation that
led to this observation.
Suits … with
Does not match in its inherent, natural appearance.
drop their blood
Die or be wounded.
approbation
Proving true, putting to trial.
impawn our person
Commit me.
Both the senses of pledge as security (OED, 2nd ed. impawn, v.1) and put in hazard (v.2) are relevant,
with the further implication of the archbishop moving Henry like a pawn in chess.
Impawn, as Taylor points out, is a Shakespearean coinage
(Taylor, Henry
V); see 1H4 4.3.107.
charge
Command.
woe
Cry of grief.
complaint
Lamentation.
whose wrongs
1) The awareness of whose grievances; 2) whose wrongdoing.
conjuration
Entreaty, imposition of an oath.
The more sinister sense of compelling a
demon to do one’s bidding is also implicit.
note
Pay close attention.
believe … baptism
Henry’s beforehand declaration that he
will believe what Canterbury says is truth subtly undercuts the speech’s
ostensible attempt to police and evaluate the truth. It may be meant to imply, as
does the certainty of your reverence shall incite us
(A1 Sc2 Sp7), that the
decision to go to war is a fait accompli.
Then … progenitors.
Other than Shakespeare’s versification
of Canterbury’s speech, it is nearly verbatim from Holinshed:
Herein did he much inueie against the surmised and false fained law
Salike, which the Frenchmen alledge euer against the kings of England in
barre of their iust title to the crowne of France. The verie words of that
supposed law are these, In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant, that is to
saie, Into the Salike land let not women succeed. Which the French glossers
expound to be the realme of France, and that this law was made by king
Pharamond; whereas yet their owne authors affirme, that the land Salike is
in Germanie, betweene the riuers of Elbe and Sala; and that when Charles the
great had ouercome the Saxons, he placed there certeine Frenchmen, which
hauing in disdeine the dishonest manners of the Germane women, made a law,
that the females should not succeed to any inheritance within that land,
which at this daie is called Meisen, so that if this be true, this law was
not made for the realme of France, nor the Frenchmen possessed the land
Salike, till foure hundred and one and twentie yeares after the death of
Pharamond, the supposed maker of this Salike law, for this Pharamond
deceased in the yeare 426, and Charles the great subdued the Saxons; and
placed the Frenchmen in those parts beyond the riuer of Sala, in the yeare
805. Moreouer, it appeareth by their owne writers, that king Pepine, which
deposed Childerike, claimed the crowne of France, as heire generall, for
that he was descended of Blithild daughter to king Clothair the first: Hugh
Capet also, who vsurped the crowne upon Charles duke of Loraine, the sole
heire male of the line and stocke of Charles the great, to make his title
seem true, and appeare good, though in deed it was starke naught, conueied
himselfe as heire to the ladie Lingard, daughter to king Charlemaine, sonne
to Lewes the emperour, that was son to Charles the great. King Lewes also
the tenth otherwise called saint Lewes, being verie heire to the said
vsurper Hugh Capet, could neuer be satisfied in his conscience how he might
iustlie keepe and possesse the crowne of France, till he was persuaded and
fullie instructed, that queene Isabell his grandmother was lineallie
descended of the ladie Ermengard daughter and heire to the aboue named duke
of Loraine, by the which marriage, the bloud and line of Charles the great
was againe vnited and restored to the crowne and scepter of France, so that
more cleere than the sunne it openlie appeareth, that the title of king
Pepin, the claime of Hugh Capet, the possession of Lewes, yea and the French
kings to this daie, are deriued and conueied from the heire female, though
they would vnder the colour of such a fained law, barre the kings and
princes of this realme of England of their right and lawfull
inheritance.
(Chronicles, 1587 545–546)
peers
Nobles.
imperial
This word, used six times in the play to
describe attributes of the English crown, is relevant to the contexts of this
play, beyond the archbishop’s flattering rhetoric, but somewhat anachronistic
within the play’s historical setting. Henry VIII declared England an
Impire in 1532 as a legal assertion of his break with Rome after
the Reformation. Historically, as A4 Sc1 Sp15 and A5 Sc0 Sp1 make clear, Henry, like all crowned
heads of Europe, was legally considered subject to the Holy Roman Emperor.
bar
Legal objection.
they
The French.
Pharamond
A legendary king of the early Franks, supposedly reigning in the
fifth century.
In terram …
succedant
Translated in the next line.
succeed
Inherit a title or estate.
Salic land
Salic land originally referred not to a
specific geographical region, but to any land falling under the Salic law of
succession. Canterbury, like the French, is glossing somewhat unjustly.
gloss
Define, interpret.
female bar
Prohibition against women’s succession.
floods
Rivers.
Saale … Elbe
Rivers in Germany.
The Folio’s spelling of the latter river
(Elue) comes perhaps from the mistaken reading of v for b,
easily confused in the blackletter type in which Holinshed’s Chronicles are printed.
Charles the Great
Charlemagne (ca. 747–814), king of the Franks and first Holy Roman
Emperor.
Charlemagne campaigned to settle and
impose Christianity on the German region of Saxony starting in 773; the last
rebellions there were put down in 804.
French
These French were
properly Franks, the Germanic tribes that Charlemagne ruled. The anachronistic
distinction between French and Germans is, however, crucial to Canterbury’s
case.
dishonest manners
Lewd behaviour.
to wit
Namely.
inheritrix
Heiress.
’twixt
Between.
Meissen
A town in Saxony on the banks of the Elbe.
The punctuation of F3, adopted by many
editors (in Germany called Meissen), weakens Canterbury’s point
that Salic land is German, not French.
four … five
The arithmetical mistake here is
maintained from Holinshed’s Chronicles (Holinshed, 1587 545–546); the correct number would
be 379.
defunction
Death.
within … our redemption
A.D.
seat
Settle.
Besides
Additionally.
Pepin … Childeric
Childeric III, the last Frankish king of
the Merovingian dynasty, held no real power and was deposed in 751 by his Mayor of
the Palace, Pepin the Short, who became the first Carolingian king and the father
of Charlemagne.
heir general
Heir claiming legitimacy through either male or female lines of
succession.
Chlothar
Chlothar I (497–561) may have had a
daughter called Blithild.
Hugh Capet
The first Frankish king of the Capetian
dynasty, Capet’s accession to the throne in 987 was by election rather than
succession.
Charles … the Great
A sixth-generation descendant of
Charlemagne who was briefly crowned, Charles, Duke of Lower Lorraine (953–993) was
excluded from the throne by the Frankish nobles in favor of Hugh Capet.
Charles the Great
Charlemagne.
find
Supply, furnish.
OED, 2nd ed. find, v.III.18.a. Editors have frequently preferred Q’s
fine in the sense of “refine,
purify”, or attempted to justify the Folio reading with various legal
senses of find.
There seems to have been no such
historical person. Lingard may be Holinshed’s spelling of the
Frankish Luitgard, the name of Charlemagne’s last wife, but not that of a daughter
of either Charlemagne or Charles the Bald.
Charlemagne
Historically, this is Charles II, or Charles the Bald (823–877),
rather than the Charles the Great mentioned earlier (A1 Sc2 Sp8, A1 Sc2 Sp8, A1 Sc2 Sp8).
Again, Shakespeare preserves this error
from Holinshed (Chronicles, 1587) (if indeed it is an error; as Boswell
points out, Charles the Bald, like his grandfather, assumed the title of
Magnus [Plays]). Editorial desire for historical accuracy
throughout this passage led Joseph Rann to emend to
Charlechauve (Charles the Bald) (Works).
Louis the emperor
King Louis the Pious (778–840), who ruled as
Holy Roman Emperor after his father Charlemagne.
Louis the Tenth
An error for King Louis IX (1214–1270).
The error appears in Holinshed (Chronicles, 1587), but
not in Hall (The
vnion), a fact which Edmund Malone used to show that
Holinshed was Shakespeare’s primary historical source (Plays).
quiet
Peace of mind, tranquility.
Isabelle
Isabelle of Hainaut (1170–1190), a female
descendant of Charlemagne.
The Capetian King Philip II (1165–1223) married Isabelle in
1180 in order to shore up his dynasty’s legitimacy through connection with the
Carolingian.
lineal
Descended.
as clear … sun
Though often played for laughs in
performance, this is not necessarily irony either on Canterbury’s or Shakespeare’s
part.
1) A complicated web of lines of descent; 2) a tangle of
contradictions.
Perhaps with reference to the proverb
You dance in a net and think nobody sees you (Tilley N130).
amply
Broadly, openly.
embar
Forbid, bar; i.e., the French would rather rely on the intricacies
of the Salic Law than legally bar their own false claims.
Gurr’s spelling is also that of the OED, which cites this line for the definition of embar (King Henry V; OED, 2nd ed. embar, v.2.b). The Folio’s spelling, imbarre, suggests a second possible sense, imbare, which many editors
following Theobald have adopted. The word does not appear in OED, but following the model of impaint,impawn, etc., it would be a perfectly logical Shakespearean
coinage, meaning “to make bare”. But laying bare
their crooked titles would reveal their illegitimacy, implicitly
embarring them, so if a double meaning is implied, both have the same effect.
Other suggested emendations are less satisfactory and harder to justify.
crooked
Indirectly derived.
progenitors
Ancestors.
The sin upon my head
If the claim is false, I will accept moral responsibility.
It was customary to seek
authority for modern law and practice in special Hebrew legislation in the Old
Testament (Kittredge). Both
Hall and Holinshed cite the verse, If a man die and haue no sonne, then ye
shall turne his inheritaunce vnto his daughter (Holinshed, Chronicles, 1587; Hall, The
vnion). Shakespeare shortens the verse for the sake of
meter, sacrificing some of the explicit sense in both the Folio and the Quarto,
which reads When the sonne dies, let the inheritance / Descend vnto the
daughter (Q1 H5 sig. A3r).
Stand … own.
Defend your right to France.
great-grandsire’s
King Edward III’s.
From … claim;
As whose descendant you make this claim.
Edward III’s maternal grandfather was King Philip IV of
France.
Edward the Black Prince
The eldest of Edward III’s seven sons, Edward
(1330–1376) was popularly known as the Black Prince of Wales because of a gift of
black armour given to him after his famous victory at Crécy.
In this play, Shakespeare strategically
and selectively avoids reference to the dynastic conflicts that underlay the Wars
of the Roses, the subject of his first tetralogy of English
history plays (1 Henry VI, 2 Henry
VI, 3 Henry VI, and Richard
III). The Black Prince’s son, Richard II, was deposed by Henry
Bolingbroke, later Henry IV, an act that would lead to the civil wars. In the
current play, Henry V is aware of the divine disapproval of his father’s
usurpation of Richard’s throne (see A4 Sc1 Sp79), but Canterbury’s public linkage of Henry V to his great-uncle’s glory
downplays the conflict.
a tragedy
The battle of Crécy, 1346, at which the Black Prince led the
English forces.
The first of several implicit metaphors
comparing warfare to drama. As Taylor points out, this comparison might also
glance at ground in the sense of The bare floor which constituted the pit of a theatre (Taylor, Henry V; OED, 2nd ed. ground, n.III.8.e).
his most … hill
According to Holinshed, Edward III
stood aloft on a windmill hill at Crécy and refused to join the
battle, commanding that his officers
send no more to me for any aduenture that falleth, so long as my son is
aliue, for I will that this iournie be his, with the honor thereof.
(Chronicles, 1587 372)
1) Cold through lack of action; 2) indifferent or unmoved to
action.
valiant dead
Henry’s ancestors.
puissant
Mighty.
renownèd them
Made them famous.
May-morn of his youth
In 1415, Henry was twenty-seven years
old.
the former … blood
Your kingly ancestors.
As a symbol of English royalty, the lion
appears on the English royal coat of arms.
So hath your highness
You do indeed have what they know you have.
Whose hearts … France
Who are already imagining themselves in military tents on a French
battlefield.
Oh … ancestors.
Again, Shakespeare follows his source in
Holinshed closely:
The archbishop […] exhorted him to aduance foorth
his banner to fight for his right, to conquer his inheritance, to spare
neither bloud, sword, nor fire, sith his warre was iust, his cause good, and
his claime true. And to the intent his louing chaplains and obedient
subiects of the spiritualitie might shew themselues willing and desirous to
aid his maiestie, for the recouerie of his ancient right and true
inheritance, the archbishop declared that in their spirituall conuocation,
they had granted to his highnesse such a summe of monie, as neuer by no
spirituall persons was to any prince before those daies giuen or
aduanced.
(Chronicles, 1587 546)
right
Rightful claim to France.
spiritualty
Clergy.
lay … proportions
Determine the appropriate military force.
OED does not list the sense of
proportion as “military
force”, but here and elsewhere Shakespeare uses the plural in this sense
(FM H5A1 Sc2 Sp30, A2 Sc4 Sp4; Ham 1.2.32).
the Scot
Scotland.
make road
Invade, make inroads.
With all advantages
At any opportunity; i.e., with our military power engaged in
France.
those marches
The Scottish border lands.
OED, 2nd ed. march, n.3.1.a. The Wardens of the Marches, bordering Scotland and Wales, kept a military retinue
and a quasi-regal authority there until the
seventeenth century (Gurr, King Henry V).
Our inland
The interior part of England, as opposed to the marches.
Some editors accept Q’s
England on the theory that F’s in-land is a
compositorial misreading of Ingland in the manuscript copy.
This sense (OED, 2nd ed. intendment, n.6) seems primary in the context of the passage, though OED cites this line under intention or design (n.5).
still
Always.
giddy
Unstable, inconstant.
For you … neighborhood.
From 1295 to 1560, France and Scotland
made a series of treaties, the Auld Alliance, providing
mutual military aid in conflicts with England. In 1346, during Edward III’s
campaign in France, the Scottish King David II invaded England, though as
Canterbury notes below, he did so unsuccessfully. Hall, though not Holinshed (Chronicles, 1587), has Westmorland, as warden of the Scottish marches, make a
similar argument:
None of your progenitors euer passed the sea in iust quarell against the
Frenche nacion, but the Scottishe
people in their absence entered your realme, spoyled your houses, slewe your
people and toke great praies innumerable, only to prouoke your auncestors
for to returne from the inuayding of
Fraunce.
(The vnion fol.39)
The English fears were well grounded in this instance; the Scottish Earl of
Douglas had made arrangements in 1413 with the nominally pro-English Duke of
Burgundy to provide each other military aid. See Anne Curry, Agincourt: A New
History 37.
The Scottish King David II, captured at
the battle of Neville’s Cross, 1346, while Edward III was in France. Historically,
and in Holinshed (Chronicles, 1587), David II is not sent to France, though he
is so in Edward III.
fame
Reputation.
their
The English.
Editors have emended unnecessarily to his (i.e.,
Edward’s) or her (i.e., England’s), but the Folio reading
emphasizes the communal ownership of English history.
Many editors since Warburton have assigned
this speech to Westmorland, arguing that Holinshed’s account of this council has
Westmorland making this argument (see third-level note). Assigning this reasonable
caveat about Scotland to the bishop, however, makes the character more than
Canterbury’s yes-man, and it adds nuance to the clergy’s case for the war.
Holinshed suggests that Westmorland had a personal agenda for making this
argument:
When the archbishop had ended his prepared tale, Rafe Neuill earle of
Westmerland, and as then lord Warden of the marches against Scotland,
understanding that the king vpon a courageous desire to recouer his right in
France, would suerlie take the wars in hand, thought good to mooue the king
to begin first with Scotland, and thereupon declared how easie a matter it
should be to make a conquest there, and how greatlie the same should further
his wished purpose for the subduing of the Frenchmen, concluding the summe
of his tale with this old saieng: that Who so will France win,
must with Scotland first begin. Manie matters he touched, as
well to shew how necessarie the conquest of Scotland should be, as also to
prooue how iust a cause the king had to attempt it, trusting to persuade the
king and all other to be of his opinion.
(Chronicles, 1587 546)
If … first begin.
See Tilley (F663), which lists Hall’s chronicle as the earliest instance of
the proverb. In Holinshed, both versions of the proverb are cited, first by
Westmorland and then inverted by Exeter, who
replied against the erle of Westmerlands oration, affirming rather that
he which would Scotland win, he with France must first begin. For if the
king might once compasse the conquest of France, Scotland could not long
resist; so that conquere France, and Scotland would soone obeie. For where
should the Scots lerne policie and skill to defend themselves, if they had
not their bringing vp and training in France? If the French pensions
mainteined not the Scotish nobilitie, in what case should they be? Then take
awaie France, and the Scots will soone be tamed; France being to Scotland
the same that the sap is to the tree, which being taken awaie, the tree must
needs die and wither.
(Chronicles, 1587 546)
in prey
A predator.
Playing … cat
Proverbial: While the cat’s away, the mice will
play (Tilley C175).
’tame
Attame: to meddle with, or to penetrate into food stores.
Editors puzzled by F’s tame have emended
to more common verbs, the most common being tear and
taint.
havoc
Lay waste.
but … necessity
Not really a necessity.
I.e., only a forced logic could make staying at home seem
necessary; Exeter questions the conclusion of Ely’s reasoning.
Various editors have suggested unnecessary emendations of F’s
crush’d, all of which lead to a weakened sense. Compare
Malvolio’s to crush this a little, it would bow to me (TN
2.5.116–117).
Though it be put into parts according to social hierarchy.
The phrase also establishes the musical
metaphor of a chorus of parts singing in harmony. As Theobald notes, Shakespeare
closely follows Cicero’s De re publica in his comparison
of the state to musical harmony:
For just as in the music of harps and flutes or in the voices of singers
a certain harmony of the different tones must be preserved […] so also is a State made harmonious by agreement among
dissimilar elements, brought about by a fair and reasonable blending
together of the upper, middle, and lower classes, just as if they were
musical tones. What musicians call harmony in song is concord in a State,
the strongest and best bond of permanent union in any commonwealth.
(Theobald, Works of
Shakespeare; Cicero 2.42)
consent
Agreement, consensus.
OED, 2nd ed. consent, n.3. As Hudson argues, the spelling
concent, meaning “harmony”, is a more
specific musical term of art—deriving from the Latin con
cantus, a singing together—and would better elaborate the musical
metaphor, but the difference in the spoken words is inaudible, and would limit the
range of meaning intended (Hudson, Complete Works).
The trope of bees as a model for human
society and government is ancient, appearing in the fourth of Virgil’s Georgics and
Pliny’s Natural
History (Book XI, Chapters 4-5), but Shakespeare may have
patterned this speech after the theme’s treatment in Elyot’s The
Governour (Elyot 7v) or an
extended passage in Lyly’s Euphues and his England (Lyly sigs. F4r–G1v).
by … nature
By instinct.
Wilson glosses rule in
nature as “instinctive polity” (Henry V), but no paradox or oxymoron is necessarily
intended.
act
Activity.
The sense of “law” or statute may be intended, as
suggested by the equivalent line in Q, but it makes less sense here; laws are not
taught. F5’s reading, (art) may be correct.
peopled kingdom
Kingdom of humans.
king
The Aristotelian belief that the leader
of a beehive was male was traditional until the late sixteenth century. As Taylor
notes, the fact of the queen bee’s sex was not published in England until Charles
Butler’s The Feminine Monarchy in 1609 (Taylor, Henry V).
of sorts
Of various kinds or ranks.
magistrates
Civil justices.
correct
Punish (wrongdoers).
venture
1) Send; 2) financially speculate in.
Make boot upon
Plunder.
velvet
1) Soft; 2) prosperously dressed.
pillage
Spoils, booty.
tent-royal
Royal pavilion.
The image anticipates the battlefield
pavilion that Henry will occupy in his French campaign.
majesties
Royal duties.
Most editors since Rowe emend to
majesty (Works, 1714), but C.J. Sisson defends F’s reading:
Majesties in
the plural gives good sense, indeed better sense. To say that the King is
‘busy in his majestyʼ suggests merely that he is absorbed in his
lofty rank, whereas ‘busy in his majestiesʼ means occupied by all the
diverse attributes and functions of a king.
(New Readings in
Shakespeare 2.57)
masons
Builders.
civil
Orderly.
citizens
The term has a more specific sense than
city-dwellers; citizen, in
Shakespeare’s London, signified a member of a recognized trade guild, especially
the twelve great livery companies from which the city’s
governors were elected. In the absence of banks in early modern England, wealthy
citizen merchants and their guilds were storehouses of liquid wealth, providing
loans of ready money to individuals, to civic institutions, and to the crown.
Canterbury’s characterization of those bees who store the hive’s own liquid wealth
as citizens would thus have seemed particularly apt to the play’s
original audience.
A noise of deliberation, (i.e., “hmmm”); also the buzz of a bee.
executors
Executioners.
The weaker legal sense of OED, 2nd ed. executor, n.1, those that carry out a warrant, is possible, but the
grimmer sense better fits the context, and foreshadows the execution of Bardolph
in the third act.
drone
Non-working male bee whose function is to impregnate the
queen.
After their sexual function is
fulfilled, drones are ejected from the hive to die. The drone is a common
Renaissance figure for laziness.
The division into quarters
appears as a first indication of the size of the English army in France
and the small numbers present at Agincourt (Gurr, King Henry).
Gallia
The ancient Roman name for France (Gaul).
Craik notes that all
Gallia recalls the familiar opening to Caesar’s Gallic Wars: Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres (“All Gaul is divided into three parts”) (Craik, King Henry V).
worried
Shaken to death, as by the dog.
policy
Political shrewdness.
dauphin
The title of the heir to the French throne, taken from the dolphin
depicted on the arms of the French King’s eldest son.
In productions, the original spelling
of the title (Dolphin) has suggested a fertile joke to directors.
In Adrian Noble’s 1984 production, for example, Exeter (Brian Blessed) insisted on
the English pronunciation in order to irk the French, and the dauphin’s reaction,
an indignantly precise French pronunciation (For the—Doe-fan — ,
I stand here for him) raised a laugh (Henry V). Similarly, in
2000, Edward Hall’s English characters used the Folio spellings of Dauphin, Calais
(Callice), etc., as a running joke about the parochialism of the
English tourist’s refusal to acknowledge local custom (Henry V).
Now … resolved
Now I am determined.
In giving Henry a decisive and vocal
role in the move to war, Shakespeare departs from Holinshed’s portrayal of the
events, in which the bishops’ and lords’ arguments whip the English into a frenzy,
and Henry’s voice is absent:
To be briefe, the duke of Excester used such earnest and pithie
persuasions, to induce the king and the whole assemblie of the parlement to
credit his words, that immediatelie after he had made an end, all the
companie began to crie; Warre, warre; France, France. Hereby the bill for
dissoluing of religious houses was cleerlie set aside, and nothing thought
on but onelie the recouering of France, according as the archbishop had
mooued.
(Chronicles, 1587 546)
France being ours
Since France is rightfully ours.
bend … awe
Make it submit to us in fear.
Or … sit
Either I will reign there (in France).
large and ample
1) Generous, liberal; 2) extensive, wide-ranging.
empery
Dominion, authority.
kingly
Grand enough to be kingdoms themselves.
these bones
My bones.
in … Tombless
In a grave without a monument.
with full mouth
Loudly.
Turkish mute
A Turkish slave with his tongue removed to ensure secrecy.
Not worshipped … epitaph.
Not even memorialized in easily-obliterated wax (let alone in
stone or brass).
An actor might clarify the line’s
meaning, as Iain Glen did in the 1994 RSC production, by placing emphasis on
waxen (Warchus, Henry V).
pleasure
Intention.
render
Deliver, recite.
what … charge
What we have been ordered to say.
sparingly
Reservedly, delicately.
far off
Indirectly, as if from a distance.
Unto … our prisons.
Whose anger is subdued by his virtue.
fettered
Chained.
in few
Briefly.
sending into
Sending an ambassador to.
some certain dukedoms
Shakespeare alters the chronology of the
political wrangling that led up to Henry’s invasion. In Holinshed, the tennis ball
embassy precedes and more clearly instigates the build-up to war (Chronicles, 1587; see A1 Sc2 Sp27 n.). Only after that
insult does Canterbury’s speech incite the English lords to support the campaign,
and after another French embassy Exeter is sent to France to demand that the
French king deliuer vnto the king of England the realme and crowne of
France, with the entier duchies of Aquiteine, Normandie and Aniou, with the
countries of Poictiou and Maine and to suggest that Henry take
in mariage the ladie Katharine, daughter to the French king, and to indow hir
with all the duchies and countries before rehearsed (Chronicles, 1587 546).
Shakespeare’s alterations to the source—making the English more clearly into
instigators, changing the idea of the royal marriage into a desperate French
attempt to avoid war that likes Henry not (A3 Sc0 Sp1), and removing Exeter’s embassy until
the English invasion has already begun—might be seen cumulatively to portray the
English cause less as a righteous response to injury, as in Holinshed, and more as
a premeditated campaign looking for a pretext.
savor
Have a taste about you.
be advised
Take heed.
naught
Nothing.
galliard
Lively dance.
revel into
Party your way into.
meeter
More appropriate.
tun
Chest.
Tennis balls
The colorful but probably apocryphal
anecdote of the dauphin’s gift of tennis balls was among the most memorable
popular traditions surrounding Henry V. Holinshed places the disdainfull
ambassage in the spring preceding the Leicester parliament dramatized
here:
Whilest in the Lent season the king laie at Killingworth, there came to
him from Charles Dolphin of France certaine ambassadors, that brought with
them a barrel of Paris balles, which from their maister they presented to
him for a token that was taken in verie ill part, as sent in scorne, to
signifie, that it was more meet for the king to passe the time with such
childish exercise, than to attempt any worthie exploit.
(Chronicles, 1587 545)
Following the example of the anonymous 1598 play The
Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth, Shakespeare conflates the tennis
ball embassy with the French reply to Henry’s demands (FV sigs. D2v-D3v).
When … chases.
Henry engages in extended wordplay,
quibbling on several terms from tennis (as it was played by the aristocracy of
late medieval European courts): rackets, set, hazard, match, courts, chases. The
game of real tennis (as opposed to the modern lawn tennis)
originated in France, was popular among the English aristocracy from the reign of
Henry V to the seventeenth century, and has maintained its enthusiasts to the
present day.
Real tennis: a seventeenth-century French illustration.It is played indoors on a walled, oblong court, and scoring is achieved
when the ball is struck into a hazard (a hole or concavity
in the wall) or when it bounces twice without being returned (a
chase). See Shakespeare’s England 2: 459–462.
The context makes clear that
seat refers metonymically to the royal place and duties,
and not, as some early editors surmised, to England itself. But as Craik argues,
‘this poor seatʼ may introduce the ironical idea that England is
only the lesser part of his rightful inheritance, his ‘throne of Franceʼ
being the greater part (Craik,
King Henry V).
The metaphor carries a reminder of the
naval expedition about to ensue.
rouse me
Rise up.
For that
With that goal in mind.
like … days
Like a common working man.
Moore Smith reads for working
days as during working days and draws a comparison
between Henry’s ultimate glory and the Sabbath as a day of rest (Henry V).
mock
Act of mockery.
The repetition of the word in the ensuing lines appropriately
evokes the sound of a tennis ball struck back and forth.
balls
Tennis balls.
Some editors have found a bawdy play on
the sense of “testicles”.
gunstones
Cannon-balls.
Stones, rather than iron balls, were
used as ammunition in early cannons, and gunstones remained
the more usual word until the seventeenth century. Henry’s quip about tennis balls
returned as ammunition has a long pedigree. Caxton’s Cronycles of
Englond (1482), for example, records that Henry
was wonder sore agreued & right euyll payed toward the frensshmen,
and toward the kyng & the Dolphyn / & thought to auenge hym vpon hem
/ as sone as god wolde sende hym grace & myght / and anone lete make
tenys balles for the dolphyn in al the hast that they mygt be made and they
were grete gonne stones for the Dolphyn to playe with all.
(Caxton T5)
In Famous Victories, Henry rejoins that in
steed of balles of leather, / We will tosse him balles of brasse and
yron (Sp335FV).
Again Henry’s speech to the ambassador
follows Holinshed closely:
tell this to the vsurper your master, that within three moneths, I will
enter into France, as into mine owne true and lawfull patrimonie, appointing
to acquire the same, not with brag of words, but with deeds of men, and dint
of sword, by the aid of God, in whome is my whole trust and confidence.
Further matter at this present I impart not vnto you, sauing that with
warrant you maie depart suerlie and safelie into your countrie, where I
trust sooner to visit you, than you shall haue cause to bid me
welcome.
(Chronicles, 1587 548)
Trumpet fanfare accompanying a person of distinction.
The Chorus’s entrance here and at 3.0 is
accompanied by a flourish in the Folio stage directions (A3 Sc0 SD1), but the trumpets in both cases seem
intended to mark the exit of royalty and the transition from the previous scene,
not to announce the Chorus’s arrival.
on fire
Burning with eagerness for war.
silken dalliance
Fine clothes appropriate to idleness.
armourers
Makers of armour.
mirror
Exemplar, model.
Holinshed and Hall both use the term
mirror in the sense of “exemplar” to describe
Henry’s virtues (Holinshed, Chronicles; Hall, The vnion). This precise phrase may echo
Hall’s comment on Agincourt: THIS battail maie be a mirror and
glasse to al Christian princes to beholde and folowe (The vnion fol.
52).
With … Mercuries
Swiftly, like the Roman messenger god Mercury, who wore winged
sandals.
hides … imperial
Woodcut of Edward III from Holinshedʼs Chronicles (1577), 2:885. Image via Internet Archive.The image of the sword encircled by crowns was a heraldic device of
Edward III, Henry V’s great-grandfather, who was frequently depicted wielding it.
One such representation that Shakespeare may have seen appears in a woodcut in the
first edition of Holinshed’s Chronicles (Holinshed, 1577 885).
hilts
The arms of the crosspiece guarding the hand.
coronets
Small crowns, inferior to kingly crowns
imperial
worn ceremonially by some noble ranks.
Model may also be intended in the more evocative sense of a mold for shaping molten material
(OED, 2nd ed. model, n.I.5); the inward greatness is thus the
glorious potential to be physically embodied in England.
Like little … heart
This marks the first recorded instance
of this proverb (see Tilley
B501).
What
What great things.
that honor … do
Either “that would do honor to you
(England)” or “that your honor would have you
do”.
thy children
Englishmen.
kind
Innately loyal.
But see … out
The Folio’s pointing emphasizes more
strongly the pessimism of the previous lines than does Capell’s emendation,
suggesting that England’s fault is not merely the three
hollow bosoms that France has found
out in this instance, but rather perennial problem that any enemy
might exploit. It has been common since the nineteenth century, though strictly
unnecessary, to provide the traitors in dumb show at this point (as for example in
the Branagh film of 1989).
While it is more usual to personify
countries as feminine, Capell’s emendation is unnecessary, even without Malone’s
explanation that he refers to the king of France and not
France itself (Comedies,
Histories, and Tragedies; Malone, Plays).
crowns
Gold coins.
Not the silver five shilling crown
current in sixteenth-century England, but the gold écu à la
couronne of Charles VI, bearing the imprint of the French crown on
the obverse. The word also serves as a debased echo of the crowns
imperial (A2 Sc0 Sp1), and later, in its sense of “head”, provides
grim wordplay for Henry (A4 Sc1 Sp75).
three corrupted men
Cf. Holinshed:
When king Henrie had fullie furnished his nauie with men, munition,
& other prouisions, perceiuing that his capteines misliked nothing so
much as delaie, determined his souldiors to go a ship-boord and awaie. But
see the hap, the night before the daie appointed for their departure, he was
crediblie informed, that Richard earle of Cambridge brother to Edward duke
of Yorke, and Henrie lord Scroope of Masham lord treasuror, with Thomas
Graie a knight of Northumberland, being confederat togither, had conspired
his death: wherefore he caused them to be apprehended. […] These prisoners vpon their examination, confessed,
that for a great summe of monie which they had receiued of the French king,
they intended verelie either to haue deliuered the king aliue into the hands
of his enimies, or else to haue murthered him before he should arriue in the
duchie of Normandie.
(Chronicles, 1587 548)
This king who does most grace to the title, i.e., Henry V.
Ere
Before.
Southampton
Port city on England’s southern coast.
Historically, after discovering the
conspiracy the English did depart from Southampton, despite the claim at A3 Sc0 Sp1 that Henry embarked
at Dover, the more usual port of departure for Calais.
digest
Condense and order in your minds.
Pope’s emendation to well
digest is difficult to justify, but it does appeal by virtue of its
imperative to the audience, a parallel to Linger your patience
(Works). It
allows for a much more common gloss on digest, the sense of
brook, endure, stomach (OED, 2nd ed. digest, v.6), and it sets up the play on offended stomachs and seasickness at A2 Sc0 Sp1.
Th’abuse of distance
The strain on credulity produced by shifting the scene from London
to Southampton.
force
Bring about by strenuous effort.
The irregular meter of this line has
sparked conjecture that Shakespeare meant to delete A2 Sc0 Sp1, but most recent editors find a way to
add two syllables. Neither Taylor’s nor Craik’s emendation is convincing (Taylor, Henry V;
Craik, King Henry
V), and the line as it appears in F causes little difficulty
in performance.
And bring you back
Often a joke in the theatre: an
afterthought, or anxious reassurance (Taylor, Henry V).
charming
Casting a spell on.
pass
Passage.
offend one stomach
Cause dissatisfaction with the drama, or seasickness.
But when … forth
Only when Henry appears on the stage; i.e., the scene will remain
in London in the following scene and shift to Southampton in 2.2.
The geographical and logical confusion here
are lessened somewhat by adopting Hanmer’s emendation, and Peter Blayney’s
conjecture, that till the is a compositor error anticipating
till then at the line’s end, is convincing (Hanmer; Hinman). Having
promised to shift the setting to Southampton (A2 Sc0 Sp1), the Chorus seems to have a second
thought, accounting for the interposed London scene with Bardolph, Nym, and
company. Pope solved the difficulty by moving the Chorus after 2.1 (Works), and
Johnson by rearranging lines (Plays), but others, following John Dover Wilson,
have suggested that the awkwardness is the result of the comic scenes 2.1 and 2.3
having been interpolated in a late revision process, thus requiring the addition
of this apparently contradictory closing couplet. See Wilson, The “Stolne and
surreptitious” Shakespearean texts.
2.1
Location: London
This scene and 2.3 are frequently called
the Eastcheap scenes, since Eastcheap — a street
near the north end of London Bridge — is the location of the tavern where Hal and
his dissolute comrades spend their time in 1 Henry IV.
Given the entrances of the Hostess and Falstaff’s Boy, both associated with that
tavern in the earlier plays, the location could be a part of that tavern or a
nearby street, but the location is not be specified in the text.
Corporal
A low-ranking non-commissioned officer.
The rank of corporal is anachronistic; the earliest OED citation dates to the sixteenth century (OED, 2nd ed. corporal, n.2.1).
morrow
Morning.
Lieutenant
Although Bardolph appears in 1 Henry IV, 2 Henry IV, and
Merry Wives, this is the first time he is addressed
as Lieutenant, and the addition of a military rank to the character seems
intended to emphasize the mobilization process. Nym is addressed as
Corporal consistently in Merry Wives
(the other play in which he appears), though Pistol is given the title
Ancient only on the Quarto title pages of that play. Pistol
is introduced in 2 Henry IV more as the comic type of
the braggart soldier than as a literal military man, and in that play he is
variously called Ancient (F1 2H4 sig. G4v,
G5r), Captain (sig. G5r), and
Lieutenant (sig. GG7v).
In Henry V, the three characters’ frequent
misrememberings of each other’s military ranks and positions, even in the same
scene, serves as a running joke about their military incompetence. Malone
comments on the discrepancies with regard to these character’s ranks:
The author of REMARKS on the last edition of Shakespeare wishes to
know, where Bardolph acquired this commission, (as he is no more than
Falstaff’s corporal in K. Henry IV.) and calls
on Mr. Steevens for information on this subject. If Shakespeare were now
alive, he would perhaps find it as difficult to give the desired
information as Mr. Steevens. The intelligent reader must have long since
observed that our author not only neglected to compare his plays with
each other, but that, even in the same play, ‘the latter end of his
commonwealth sometimes forgets the beginning.ʼ
(Plays)
Ancient
Ensign, i.e., military flag-bearer.
Although some editors emend to the modern
form, ensign, which appears in that form once in Sp165Q1 H5), I have retained
ancient, as it is not merely an archaism, but a part of
a well-known character’s name that reflects a clear authorial choice.
part
The RSC editors find a quibble on the
sense of penis (Bate and
Rasmussen).
I say little
Compare the Boy’s comment on Nym’s
terseness (A3 Sc2 Sp10).
time shall serve
The opportunity arises.
there … smiles
We shall be friendly; probably ironic.
This phrase puzzled some eighteenth-century editors; Johnson,
following Warburton’s conjecture, made smiles a stage
direction, despite the fact that directions for facial expressions are unknown in
early modern drama (Johnson, Plays; Warburton, Works). Dyce emended to smites,
eliminating the potential for Nym’s sinister irony (Works).
Many editors find bawdy phallic
associations throughout this scene’s several references to swords.
what though
What of that?
it … cold
I.e., it does not mind being unsheathed.
there’s an end
That’s all there is to say.
bestow
Give.
sworn brothers
Bound by oaths as brothers.
The phrase is a translation of fraters jurati, a reference to the practice of knights
binding themselves by oath to share each other’s fortunes and profits.
Proverbial: Men must do as they
may, not as they would (Tilley M554). A modern stage tradition, that Nim stutters, has
the merit of bringing out the absurdity of this line, the stutter on
do giving an audience time to anticipate the obvious
and logical conclusion die, which Nim then
avoids (Taylor, Henry V).
rest
1) Final consolation, i.e., death; 2) last-ditch bet (a reference to the card game
primero).
A more binding arrangement than a modern engagement.
cannot tell
Cannot be certain.
Though patience … plod.
Nym implies that he can wait indefinitely for his revenge.
The Folio reading, a tired name, is likely a
result of minim error. Horses were proverbially tired, and Taylor cites Gabriel
Harvey’s Pierces supererogation (1593) for a source of
Nym’s metaphor: Patience is the
common Pack-horse of the world (Taylor, Henry V; Harvey 142).
conclusions
A resolution (to all things).
Here comes … Pistol?
Many editors emend these lines into a conflation of the Folio
and Quarto versions, preferring, like me, to give the insulting
address—mine host rather than Ancient—to Nym
rather than to the peacekeeping Bardolph. Q’s version of the lines is as follows:
Bar: Godmorrow ancient Pistoll. / Here
comes ancient Pistoll, I prithee Nim be quiet. /
Nim: How do you my Hoste? (Q1 H5 sig. B1v).
host
Innkeeper, with the suggestion of “pimp”.
tyke
Low-bred dog, mongrel.
As his spelling suggests, Malone read this word as a variant spelling of tick, the blood-sucking arachnid, an appropriate term of abuse for Bardolph (or Nym),
despite Pistol’s other canine insults in this scene (Malone, Plays). See OED, 2nd ed. tick, n.1
keep lodgers
Rent out rooms.
With the suggestion of keeping a brothel, as the Hostess
implies.
troth
Faith.
not long
Not for much longer.
This undercuts Pistol’s moralistic indignation by implying
that she is currently keeping a brothel.
live honestly … needles
Make an honest living by sewing.
With additional bawdy senses, as both
prick and needle have the sense
of “penis” (and, the RSC editors assert,
needles can mean vaginas as well [Bate and Rasmussen]).
bawdy house
Brothel.
straight
Immediately.
Nym draws his sword
The Folio text for this scene gives editors, directors, and
actors considerable latitude when determining who draws or sheathes a sword and
when. The only original stage direction is Draw (F1 H5 sig.
H3r), but the dialogue
makes it clear that the threat of comic violence repeatedly arises. I have made
editorial incursions only where the dialogue makes the stage business
indisputable.
welladay
An exclamation of lament, like “alas”.
lady
By our lady (the Virgin Mary).
if … hewn
Should Nym not be cut down.
adultery
Perhaps a mistake for assault.
lieutenant
I.e., Pistol
Capell was the first editor to notice that
Bardolph is ostensibly the only lieutenant in the scene (Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies), and editors have struggled to emend what they perceive as an
obvious error. Malone reassigned the entire line to the Hostess, which makes her
warn both Nym and Bardolph away from her husband (Plays). Hudson gave only
Good lieutenant to her, making the address a plea to Bardolph to
help her part the fray (Complete Works). I retain the Folio readings, on the grounds
that the characters misremember each other’s ranks frequently enough to make
intentional error a possibility. Addressing Pistol as a lieutenant may not be an
error at all. Ancient (i.e., “standard-bearer”) is an occupation, not necessarily a rank; Pistol’s
rank may well be lieutenant, as Fluellen later implies by referring to him as an
aunchient lieutenant (F1
H5 sig. H6v).
offer nothing
Attempt no violence.
Pish
Expression of contempt.
Iceland dog
A popular breed of lap dog with long, course hair.
Vse and custome hath intertained other dogges of an outlandishe kinde,
but a fewe and the same beyng of a pretty bygnesse, I meane Iseland, dogges
curled & rough al ouer, which by reason of the lenght of their heare
make showe nei ther of face nor of body. And yet these corres, forsoothe;
because they are so straunge are greatly set by, esteemed, taken vp, and
made of many times in the roome of the Spaniell gentle or comforter.
(Caius 37)
Pistol’s insult may depend on the course shagginess of the breed or its
meekness.
prick-eared
Pointy eared.
The phrase may also suggest the horns
traditionally thought to grow on a cuckold’s head, since Pistol has triumphantly
stolen Nym’s intended bride.
This is evidently directed at the Hostess, as the next sentence explains that she
is keeping Nym from his private duel with Pistol. Another sense of shog, to shake off (OED, 2nd ed. shog, v.1.a) may indicate that she is attempting to restrain Nym
physically. Craik’s placement of the To Pistol direction at the
beginning of the line suggests another possibility, that Will you shog
off? invites Pistol to withdraw to duel elsewhere (Craik, King Henry V).
solus
Alone (Latin).
Usually a theatrical term indicating a character’s solo
entry, Pistol seems to misunderstand the word as an insult.
Pistol’s name (both a firearm and a
homophone of pizzle, a slang term for penis) provides much
potential for wordplay in scenes where he appears. The Quarto version of this
phrase (Pistolls flashing firy cock is vp [Q1 H5 sig. B1v]) is more
suggestive of genitals and venereal disease than F’s reading, which plays more
heavily on the handgun image.
fire
Gunshot.
The RSC editors find further bawdy,
glossing as a secondary sense the effects of venereal disease (Bate and Rasmussen).
Barbason
The name of a demon.
Pistol’s inflated speech reminds Nym of
a conjuror’s spell. Barbason is also mentioned in Merry
Wives (Wiv 2.2.227).
conjure
Invoke or control by magic.
humour
Inclination.
Nym implies that his violent urges are
influenced by one of the four humours believed by medieval
medicine to control moods and behaviours: excess blood made one impulsive,
boisterous, and amorous; extra phlegm made one lethargic; black bile (melancholy)
made one pensive or despondent; and yellow bile (choler) made one irritable. Nym,
both in this play and in Merry Wives, uses the word
rather imprecisely, typically in some variation of his catchphrase, that’s
the humour of it. His overuse of the word pokes fun at the
comedy of humours, a type of play made fashionable at the time of
Henry V by Chapman’s A humourous
Day’s Mirth (1597) and Jonson’s Every Man in His
humour (1598).
indifferently
Fairly.
foul
1) Insulting; 2) dirty from being fired.
scour
1) Stab; 2) clean the pistol’s dirty
barrel.
rapier
Long, light sword used for fencing.
As Nym is a contemporary of Henry V, his
rapier is anachronistic, as it evolved from the older longsword only in the
sixteenth century.
in fair terms
Legitimately.
In contrast to the foul Pistol.
braggart
Boaster.
furious
1) Raging; 2) absurd.
wight
Person.
doting
Amorous, eager.
exhale
Draw (literally “haul out”) your
sword.
Steevens’s suggestion, breathe
your last, is another possibility (Plays).
Pistol’s version of Couper la
gorge, French for “cut the
throat”.
hound of Crete
Rather obscure as a term of abuse, this
phrase was found in a passage from Arthur Golding’s translation of Ovid that
describes Actaeon’s dogs (Metamorphosis 3.247). Wilson finds it a likely reference to
Nym’s shaggy hair (Wilson, Henry V). Malone conjectures that such hounds were
bloodhounds and so Pistol calls Nym bloodthirsty (Plays), but that hardly
seems an insult coming from a man who compares himself to a horse-leech (A2 Sc3 Sp16) and whose oaths
include as I suck blood (A4 Sc4 Sp30).
Spital
Hospital.
Specifically, a hospital for low-class
persons, or those afflicted with pox or leprosy. To a Londoner like Pistol (or
Shakespeare), the Spital would be taken to mean Saint Mary Spital, a
charity hospital outside Bishopsgate (in what is now London’s East End).
powd’ring tub
Sweating tub used to treat venereal disease.
Here a figurative phrase, a powdering
tub was literally a barrel used in salting beef. In the treatment of venereal
disease, patients were enclosed in a wooden chamber up to the neck and fumigated
with powdered cinnabar (mercury sulfide).
infamy
Shame, bad reputation.
lazar
Diseased.
Usually leprous, though in this context
Pistol probably means poxy, i.e., syphilitic.
kite
Bird of prey, predatory person.
Cressid’s kind
Impoverished whores.
Cressida, in classical legend, was the
unfaithful lover of Troilus, son of the Trojan king Priam. Robert Henryson’s
fifteenth century poem The Testament of Cresseid, a
sequel to Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, has her ending
her life as a leprous beggar.
Doll Tearsheet
The name of a prostitute.
Doll was a common name for a prostitute
(cf. Jonson’s Dol Common in The Alchemist), and Tearsheet
suggests violently vigorous sexual activity. A character by this name is mentioned
as a consort of Falstaff’s (2H4 2.1.133, 2.2.123, 2.2.134). This Doll may or may not be
the person to whom Pistol refers in 5.1 (A5 Sc1 Sp27).
espouse
Marry.
I have … hold
The phrase recalls the marriage
service.
quondam
Former (Latin).
By marriage, the Hostess’s name has become Mistress
Pistol.
only she
Unparalleled woman.
pauca
Few (Latin), i.e., “I am a man of few words”.
The full phrase is pauca verba (“few
words”); Pistol’s elliptical usage reinforces his meaning. Cf. Wiv
1.1.103.
Go to.
A contemptuous exhortation, equivalent to “come on!”
Falstaff is the companion of King Henry’s dissolute youth, as
depicted in 1 Henry IV and 2 Henry
IV, and alluded to in the previous act (e.g. A1 Sc1 Sp11).
Bardolph … warming-pan
Warm Falstaff’s sheets with your fiery red nose.
Bardolph’s alcoholically red face, often
compared to fire or to red gems, is a running joke in the plays in which he
appears. See the Boy’s joke at A2 Sc3 Sp13 and Fluellen’s description of Bardolph at A3 Sc6 Sp29. See
also especially 1H4 3.3.10–36. A warming-pan is a
long-handled brass pan of live coals, used for warming beds.
At the end of 2 Henry
IV, the newly-crowned King Henry rejects Falstaff and all of his former
companions (See 2H4 5.5.42–66). Fluellen similarly implies that Falstaff’s death
is attributable to this rejection (A4 Sc7 Sp9).
presently
Soon.
Let floods … on.
Editors have variously read this line as
a statement either of concession or of defiance. Wilson, glossing
for as for want of, heard Pistol saying
Let evil (or riot) have its way and the Devil wait for his prey a little
longer (i.e., “I won’t kill you right
now”) (Henry
V). Taylor suggests that Pistol might be thinking of the
coming war in France (Henry
V). The point of both phrases, however, seems to be that
apocalyptic destruction, like Pistol’s own rage, is insatiable, and the line looks
like a retort to Bardolph’s gesture toward peace.
Base
Unworthy, low.
As Craik argues, Base is the
slave that pays seems to have become proverbial from its use here (Craik, King Henry
V; Tilley
S523).
Punning on ’sword (i.e., “God’s word”), a common oath.
Craik argues that the line means merely
that soldiers must keep their oaths (Craik,
King Henry), taking issue with Kaplan’s
identification of the pun on the grounds that Pistol is a ranter, not a
quibbler (Pistol’s “Oath”).
an
If.
put up
Sheathe your sword.
Nym … swords.
Nym could logically sheathe here as well, or at A2 Sc1 Sp39, when he has had his
conditions met.
noble
A gold coin.
Nobles were worth six shillings eight
pence, i.e., sixteen pence less than Nym claims Pistol owes him.
present pay
Immediate payment.
combine
Join us together.
live by Nym
1) Live with Nym’s help; 2) make a living by thievery (playing on the sense of nym as steal [OED, 2nd ed. nim, v.3.a]).
The RSC editors find a potential bawdy
quibble on come off (i.e., “dismount after
sex”) (Bate and
Rasmussen).
A poor heart
Some editors read F’s article as an interjection: “Ah,
poor heart”.
quotidian tertian
Types of fever or ague.
Despite her tendency toward
malapropisms, the Hostess may be giving a correct diagnosis rather than presenting
a contradiction in terms. A quotidian fever causes daily
paroxysms, and a tertian every third day. Sir John is
apparently dangerously afflicted with multiple fevers at once. This particular
death for Falstaff is predicted repeatedly in the Henry
IV plays, sweating uncontrollably being a final stage of an ague. In
1H4 for example, Hal jokes that Falstaff will sweat to
death (1H4
2.3.14), and the actor of Falstaff predicts a similar fate in the epilogue of
2 Henry IV: our humble author will continue the
story with Sir John in it, and make you merry with fair Catherine of France;
where, for anything I know, Falstaff shall die of a sweat (2H4 Epilogue
21–23).
run … knight
1) Caused Falstaff’s illness; 2) expressed his bad temper to
Falstaff.
even of it
Truth of the matter.
fracted
Broken.
corroborate
Strengthened, made whole; probably Pistol’s error for “corrupted”.
Compare Bardolph’s phrase from Merry Wives: and so conclusions passed the
careers (Wiv 1.1.137–138).
condole
Comfort, grieve over.
live
Outlive Falstaff.
Malone’s punctuation (lambkins we will live [Plays]) alters
the traditional reading: we will live as quietly and peaceably together as
lambkins.
2.2
Location: the English muster camp at Southampton, a port city on
the southern coast of England.
In performance, this scene is often set on a quayside or a
makeshift council chamber to indicate the English preparations to embark, but no
such specificity is indicated in the text.
It was not unusual for men to share beds
until the middle of the seventeenth century, often only for convenience, though
here the practice indicates the special relationship that Scrope enjoyed with
Henry, detailed in Holinshed:
The said lord Scroope was in such fauour with the king, that he admitted
him sometime to be his bedfellow, in whose fidelitie the king reposed such
trust, that when anie priuat or publike councell was in hand, this lord had
much in the determination of it. For he represented so great grauitie in his
countenance, such modestie in behauiour, and so vertuous zeale to all
godlinesse in his talke, that whatsoeuer he said was thought for the most
part necessarie to be doone and followed.
(Chronicles, 1587 548)
In Munday’s Sir John Oldcastle (1600), which
dwells much more fully on the conspiracy than does Henry
V, Scrope proposes using this trust to assassinate the king:
Historically, Lord Scrope’s crime was not involvement in the plot, but
failure to reveal it to the king, and as Anne Curry argues, Henry’s action against
Scrope was verging on arbitrary rule (Curry 37).
dulled
Deadened the appetite of.
cloyed
Sickened by overfeeding.
a foreign purse
French bribes.
aboard
Embark the navy.
gentle
Noble.
powers
Troops.
force
Military might.
execution
1) Accomplishment; 2) destruction.
in head
As an army; in force.
we are
I am.
Henry begins the scene using the royal
pronoun we almost exclusively, to indicate that he is speaking from
the symbolic authority of the kingdom. The exception is care of me
(A2 Sc2 Sp18), with which he
seems to specify his personal safety. At A2 Sc2 Sp25 he shifts to the singular
I in addressing Scrope, marking the shift from general to
personal injury. The careful use of the two pronouns highlights the double nature
of the king, and of the crime of treason, made explicit in the rhetorical
distinction between our person and our kingdom (A2 Sc2 Sp30).
grows not in a fair consent
Is not in complete harmony.
attend on
Wait upon, serve.
feared
Revered.
Taylor notes that this line may allude
to the famous question—posed by Machiavelli in The
Prince—of whether it is better for a ruler to be feared or loved (Taylor, Henry
V); if so, then feared may have the sinister
connotation more usual today. Holinshed (citing Hall, The vnion) may
provide a source for the balanced view of Henry that Cambridge voices here:
Thys king was a Prince whome all men loued, and of none disdayned. This
Prince was a captain against whome fortune neuer frowned, nor mischance once
spurned. This captain was a shepheard, whom his flocke both loued and
obeyed. This shephearde was suche a Iusticiarie, that lefte no offence
vnpunished, nor frendship vnrewarded. Thys Iusticiarie was so feared, that
all rebellion was banished, and sedition suppressed.
(Holinshed, Chronicles, 1577 1217)
heart-grief
Unhappiness.
your father’s enemies
The reign of Henry IV, the scambling and unquiet
time (A1 Sc1 Sp1),
was characterized by frequent rebellion.
steeped their galls
Drowned their bitterness.
Galls are gall-bladders, traditionally regarded as
the source of bitter feelings, especially those of resentment (Craik, King Henry
V).
create
Entirely composed.
And … merit
I am more likely to forget how to use my own hand than to neglect
to pay people what they deserve.
Possibly an echo of Psalm 137:5:
If I forget thee, O Ierusalem, let my right hand forget to play
(Geneva).
office
Function.
quittance
Requital, recompense.
weight and worthiness
Appropriate measure of the deserving deeds.
steelèd
Hardened.
judge
Think.
Enlarge
Release.
committed
Imprisoned.
railed … person
Ranted, spoke abusively about me.
See OED, 2nd ed. rail, v.5.1. Neither this incident, the release of the complaining
drunkard, nor the game with the commission papers that ensues, is historical, and
all seem to be Shakespeare’s inventions.
set him on
Provoked him.
on … advice
Now that he has sobered up and come to his senses.
Steevens quotes an unrelated passage of
Holinshed: his neighbours came to him, and gaue him wine and strong drinke
in such excessiue sort, that he was therewith distempered, and reeled as he
went (Chronicles, 1587 626 qtd. in Steevens, Plays).
The conspirators’ treachery is
the more ‘monstrousʼ in that they are English;
‘monstersʼ (monstrosities) were commonly shown as exotic
marvels (Humphreys, Henry V).
The sense of “interest, usury” may be a reminder, along with the coining metaphor
in
the previous line, that Scrope had been Henry IV’s Lord Treasurer.
hire
Payment.
annoy
Harm, irritate.
stands off
Stands out.
gross
Plainly.
black and white
Q reads black from white, which implicitly
assigns moral value to black and white and aligns truth with blackness.
Editors usually emend F’s curious an naturall to
a natural, which still requires the explanation natural
to devils. It seems as likely that the Folio reading is a compositorial
mishearing.
admiration
Wonder.
whoop
Exclaim.
The sense of these lines is that
ordinary treason, unlike Scrope’s, is so commonly associated with murder that the
linking of the two sins is nothing to excite wonder.
Either 1) by using treachery; or 2) by suggesting treasonous
acts.
Rowe attempted to give suggest the more
usual transitive sense by emending to by-treasons (i.e., insidious,
non-straightforward treasons) (Works, 1714).
botch … up
Clumsily stitch together.
The metaphor is of a devil as a
botcher, i.e., a tailor who makes repairs (OED, 2nd ed. botcher, n.1.2.b), hastily fashioning a garment
(damnation) out of the tatters of piety.
Johnson’s suggested emendation to tempted is
plausible, but weakens the artisanal image (Plays). Shakespeare uses the verb in the
sense of “soften” (like wax) in 2
Henry IV: I have him already tempering between my finger and my
thumb, and shortly will I seal with him (2H4 4.2.105–106).
Alludes to 1 Peter 1:8: for your
aduersarie the deuil as a roaring lyon walketh about, seeking whom he may
deuoure (Geneva).
vasty
Vast, immense.
Tartar
Hell.
A shortening of
Tartarus, a name for hell in classical mythology and
early Christianity (alluded to at 2 Peter 2:4 [Geneva]). Shakespeare
prefers this spelling; see also Err 4.2.32
and TN 2.5.167.
legions
Armies of devils.
A common collective noun for devils,
alluding to Mark 5:9, where Jesus casts devils out of a possessed man: And
he asked him, What is thy name? and hee answered, saying, My name is Legion:
for we are many (Geneva).
Not judging merely by appearances, but also by listening.
purgèd
Purified.
finely bolted
Refined.
Literally, like flour with all faults sifted out (OED, 2nd ed. bolt, v.1).
Geoffrey Whitney’s Choice of Emblemes (1586) illustrates the moral
symbolism of the flour-bolt (Whitney 68). Image via Internet Archive.
To make … indued
The Folio reading (To make thee full fraught man)
causes confusion only because of the confusion of thee for
the, which Pope’s easy emendation clarifies (Works). F’s
punctuation seems to support Pope’s reading. Theobald, whose emendation of
make to mark has been almost
universally accepted, argues that to endue with suspicion seems less credible than
to mark with it (Works of
Shakespeare).
full-fraught
Fully laden, like a ship (i.e., with virtues).
indued
Invested, overlaid.
The word derives from the latin induere, “to put on (a garment)”. For
the complicated and subtle etymological distinctions among
indue, endue, and
endow, each of which has its proponents among editors, see OED, 2nd ed. endue.
Another fall of man.
A repetition of Adam and Eve’s first sin in the Garden of
Eden.
According to Shakespeare’s chronicle
sources, Cambridge’s motivation for treason was to supplant Henry in favor of
his brother-in-law Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, and of his own progeny. As a
grandson of Edward III, Richard of Cambridge had his own claim to the throne, a
claim that his son, Richard, Duke of York (1411–1460), would eventually make
openly, starting the Wars of the Roses. While Shakespeare had chronicled these
matters extensively in his first tetralogy of history plays, this later
conflict is only hinted at in Henry V. Cf. Holinshed:
Diuerse write that Richard earle of Cambridge did not conspire with
the lord Scroope & Thomas Graie for the murthering of king Henrie to
please the French king withall, but onelie to the intent to exalt to the
crowne his brother in law Edmund earle of March as heire to Lionell duke
of Clarence: after the death of which earle of March, for diuerse secret
impediments, not able to haue issue, the earle of Cambridge was sure that
the crowne should come to him by his wife, and to his children, of hir
begotten. And therefore (as was thought) he rather confessed himselfe for
need of monie to be corrupted by the French king, than he would declare
his inward mind, and open his verie intent and secret purpose, which if
it were espied, he saw plainlie that the earle of March should haue
tasted of the same cuppe that he had drunken, and what should haue come
to his owne children he much doubted.
(Chronicles, 1587 548–549)
Karl P. Wentersdorf argues that Shakespeare went to such conspicuous
lengths to omit the political motives linking Cambridge to Mortimer and the Wars
of the Roses so that the silence itself would serve, to an attentive listener in
the original audience, to undermine Henry’s dynastic claims to both England and
France (Conspiracy of
Silence).
Because it was presented in repertory
as part of a larger production called The Wars of the
Roses, Peter Hall’s 1964 RSC Henry V made
several staging choices to highlight the continuity of Shakespeare’s history plays
and place this play into the context of the civil wars dramatized in the first
tetralogy. The English soldiers in Henry’s army, for example, were clothed
anachronistically in surcoats with the badge of the red Lancastrian rose. So it is
unsurprising that Hall augmented the role of the traitor Cambridge to indicate his
importance in planting the seeds of rival claims to the throne. Cambridge was
included in the council scene (1.2) of Hall’s production, given lines in support
of the French war, but also set apart from the other peers by costume: where they
wore mainly rich colors and coronets, Cambridge wore plain black velvet to mark
him as sinister. Hall cut Scrope and Grey entirely, and changed Cambridge’s final
speech, omitting his repentance and grimly prophesying the coming conflict.
sufferance
My punishment.
quit
Pardon.
sentence
The sentencing closely follows Holinshed:
When king Henrie had heard all things opened, which he desired to know,
he caused all his nobilitie to come before his presence, before whome he
caused to be brought the offendors also, and to them said. Hauing thus
conspired the death and destruction of me, which am the head of the realme
and gouernour of the people, it maie be (no doubt) but that you likewise
haue sworne the confusion of all that are here with me, and also the
desolation of your owne countrie. To what horror (O lord) for any true
English hart to consider, that such an execrable iniquitie should euer so
bewrap you, as for pleasing of a forren enimie to imbrue your hands in your
bloud, and to ruine your owne natiue soile. Reuenge herein touching my
person, though I seeke not; yet for the safegard of you my deere freends,
& for due preseruation of all sorts, I am by office to cause example to
be shewed. Get ye hence therefore ye poore miserable wretches to the
receiuing of your iust reward, wherein Gods maiestie giue you grace of his
mercie and repentance of your heinous offenses. And so immediatlie they were
had to execution.
(Chronicles, 1587 548)
Though in both Holinshed and Shakespeare the traitors are summarily
executed, in fact they were arrested on 20 July 1415 and tried nearly two weeks
later (2 August) by jury in Southampton. Grey was executed, but Scrope and
Cambridge claimed their right as lords to be tried by a court of peers, after
which trial (on 5 August) they were also executed.
enemy proclaimed
Officially recognized enemy of England (i.e., France).
Shakespeare commonly plays on the two
meanings of dear; cf. AYL
1.3.21–22.
Now, lords, for France … France.
Another passage that follows Holinshed closely:
This doone, the king calling his lords againe afore him, said in words
few and with good grace. Of his enterprises he recounted the honor and
glorie, whereof they with him were to be partakers, the great confidence he
had in their noble minds, which could not but remember them of the famous
feats that their ancestors aforetime in France had atchiued, whereof the due
report for euer recorded remained yet in register. The great mercie of God
that had so gratiouslie reuealed vnto him the treason at hand, whereby the
true harts of those afore him made so eminent & apparant in his eie, as
they might be right sure he would neuer forget it. The doubt of danger to be
nothing in respect of the certeintie of honor that they should acquire,
wherein himselfe (as they saw) in person would be lord and leader through
Gods grace. To whose maiestie as cheeflie was knowne the equitie of his
demand: euen so to his mercie did he onelie recommend the successe of his
trauels. When the king had said, all the noble men kneeled downe, &
promised faithfullie to serue him, dulie to obeie him, and rather to die
than to suffer him to fall into the hands of his enimies. This doone, the
king thought that suerlie all treason and conspiracie had beene vtterlie
extinct: not suspecting the fire which was newlie kindled, and ceassed not
to increase, till at length it burst out into such a flame, that catching
the beames of his house and familie, his line and stocke was cleane consumed
to ashes.
(Chronicles, 1587 548)
enterprise
Undertaking, attempt to conquer.
like
Equally.
doubt not of
Do not doubt that we shall have.
fair
Just, honorable.
lucky
Successful.
rub
Obstacle, bump in the ground.
A term from bowling, but compare Isaiah
on God preparing the road for the return to Israel from Babylonian exile:
Euery valley shall be exalted, and euery mountaine and hill shall be
made lowe: and the crooked shalbe streight, & the rough places
plaine (Geneva, Isaiah 40:4).
Steevens notes the echo of Famous Victories: What not King of France, then
nothing (Sp549FV, qtd. in Steevens, Plays).
Flourish. Exeunt.
Neither F nor F2 has space on the line for both
Flourish and Exeunt. Both are
appropriate for a royal exit, and one may be seen to imply the other. F prints
only the Flourish and F2 only
Exeunt.
2.3
Location: London.
bring
Accompany.
Staines
A town west of London, on the road to Southampton.
Seventeen miles away from London,
Staines is where the soldiers would cross the Thames on their way to Southampton,
eighty miles to the southwest.
A quibble on the modern sense, i.e.,
“find a new way to make money (now that Falstaff is not
paying us)” is possible, though as Craik points out,
earn is always transitive elsewhere in Shakespeare (Craik, King Henry
V).
Nay … stone.
As Dover Wilson notes, Shakespeare seems
to have modeled the Hostess’s description of Falstaff’s death on the death of
Socrates as described in the Phaedo (Wilson, The Fortunes of
Falstaff 128).
Samuel Johnson’s note to this passage is one of his most famous pieces of
Shakespearean criticism, and as such it is worth quoting in full:
Such is the end of Falstaff, from whom Shakespeare had promised us in
his epilogue to Henry IV. that we should receive
more entertainment. It happened to Shakespeare as to other writers, to have
his imagination crowded with a tumultuary confusion of images, which, while
they were yet unsorted and unexamined, seemed sufficient to furnish a long
train of incidents, and a new variety of merriment, but which, when he was
to produce them to view, shrunk suddenly from him, or could not be
accommodated to his general design. That he once designed to have brought
Falstaff on the scene again, we know from himself; but whether he could
contrive no train of adventures suitable to his character, or could match
him with no companions likely to quicken his humour, or could open no new
vein of pleasantry, and was afraid to continue the same strain lest it
should not find the same reception, he has here for ever discarded him, and
made haste to dispatch him, perhaps for the same reason for which Addison
killed Sir Roger, that no other hand might attempt to exhibit him. Let
meaner authours learn from this example, that it is dangerous to sell the
bear which is yet not hunted, to promise to the publick what they have not
written.
(Plays)
Arthur’s bosom
The Hostess’s mistake for Abraham’s bosom,
i.e., heaven.
For the origin of the correct phrase,
see the parable of Dives and Lazarus, (Geneva, Luke 16:19–31). Arthur’s
bosom, as a secular, literary alternative to Abraham’s, is arguably a
more appropriate afterlife for Falstaff. Sir John himself is familiar with the
gospel passage that the Hostess misremembers: see 1H4 3.3.22–25. Philip
Schwyzer suggests that her error reflects dual impulses by English reformers (Literature, Nationalism, and
Memory 131–133). On the one hand, Abraham’s bosom was deleted
from the Edwardian Book of Common Prayer in an attempt to eradicate, along with
purgatory, all middle spaces between hell and heaven. At the same time,
early in the English Reformation, a link had been forged between Arthur
and the True Church, both arch-enemies of Rome (Schwyzer 132). The newly-Protestant English crown
could have a middle place between heaven and hell or […] Aruthur’s Empire but not both.
Imperial Britain and Purgatory were effectively in economic and
conceptual competition to fill a single space. It is no accident that the
English crown’s seizure in 1547–1548 of the assets set aside for the relief
of souls in Purgatory coincided with its aggressive attempt to force the
Scots to participate in a renewed British Empire. England’s rulers had
chosen Arthur over Abraham—the same choice made in Henry
V by Hostess Quickly.
(133)
A made
He made.
a finer end
As fine an end as possible.
No implied comparison need be inferred, though editors have
attempted to do so. The most common reading is finer than going to
hell, though Taylor proposes finer than going to Abraham’s
bosom (Henry
V). Gurr suggests the unlikely implication that his death was
finer than his life (King
Henry V), and Craik explains that the Hostess trails off and
presumes the rest of the sentence to be understood (Craik, King Henry V).
Proposed emendations have included fine and Johnson’s
final (Plays), which Malone rightly describes as absurd, since
everyone makes a final end (Plays).
an … been
As if it had been.
christom
Newly-baptized.
The Hostess blends Christian and chrisom, the latter referring either to the white robe worn by babies at baptism (OED, 2nd ed. chrisom, n.2), or to the baby itself in its first month (n.4).
ev’n
Just, exactly.
at … o’th’tide
A folk belief held that souls departed
at ebb tide.
fumble … pen
The Hostess lists traditional signs of
approaching death. Cf. Thomas Lupton’s A thousand notable
things (1579): If the foreheade of the sycke, waxe redde […] and his nose waxe sharpe and colde […] if he pull strawes, or the cloathes of his bedde […] These are most certayne tokens of death (Lupton 221–222).
flowers
Flowers were laid in sickbeds to improve the smell.
his finger’s end
His own fingertip.
but one way
No alternative but death.
pen
Quill pen, i.e., a feather sharpened to a point.
a … fields
Perhaps the Hostess’s misunderstanding of Falstaff’s reciting the
twenty-third Psalm, He maketh me to rest in greene pasture (Geneva, Psalm
23:2).
The Folio’s reading, a Table of greene fields,
has occasioned more controversy than any other textual crux in Shakespeare. This
text adopts, as do almost all editors, Theobald’s ingenious emendation, justified
by the resemblance of b to t and d to e in early modern secretary hand, so that
(Theobald argued) the manuscript reading babld was misread
by the compositor as table (Works of Shakespeare).
Justifications of the original reading are more entertaining than convincing.
Pope, for example, conjectured that a stage direction—to bring on a
table owned by a prop-master called
Greenfield—had crept into the text (Works). Moore Smith (cited
by Steevens and Malone), reads a table of green fells, i.e., a
pocket book with a cover of green-dyed animal hide (Moore Smith; Steevens, Plays; Malone, Plays). Most
recently, the RSC editors have found an allusion to the fields on a green
gaming (backgammon) table (Bate
and Rasmussen).
a … God
This joke does not originate with
Shakespeare; Malone cites a similar anecdote in Anthony Copley’s humourous
miscellany Wits fittes and fancies (1595): A
Gentlewoman fearing to be drown’d, said: Now, Iesu receiue our soules: Soft
maistresse (answered the water-man) I trow we are not yet come to that
passe (Copley 128 qtd. in
Malone, Plays).
Editors have nearly always emended F’s
up-peer’d to up’ard or
upward, but it makes perfect sense as a nonce-word, and
I find it unbelievable that a compositor would distinguish the two words if they
were meant to indicate a repetition.
stone
Taylor suggests that the word
unintentionally suggests testicle, citing Shakespeare’s frequent
punning use of the slang term (Henry V).
cried out of
Decried, spoke against.
sack
Dry Spanish white wine.
Derived from the French vin sec, “dry wine”,
sack seems to have referred in the sixteenth century to
fortified wines generally. In Shakespeare it is Falstaff’s favorite drink,
associated with him in all four plays in which he appears, rather
anachronistically, as its import to England began in the sixteenth century (e.g.:
1H4 3.3.33;
2H4
2.4.151; and Wiv 2.1.6).
incarnate
In the flesh. The hostess understands him to mean “wearing carnation”.
carnation
Pink, flesh-colored.
Cf. Lancelot Gobbo in Merchant of Venice: the verie diuell incarnation (F1 MV sig.
O6r).
would … about
1) Would take his soul because of; 2) wanted him to be
around.
handle
Discuss, with a bawdy play on the sense of “grope”.
rheumatic
Feverish; the Hostess probably intends “lunatic”.
Some editors suggest that the word’s
similarity to Rome-atic suggests the ensuing connection to the
whore of Babylon, associated by Protestants with Rome and the Catholic
Church.
whore of Babylon
A figure from Revelation representing the sin and wickedness of
the world.
I sawe a woman sit vpon a skarlet coloured beast, full of names of
blasphemie, which had seuen heads, and tenne hornes. And the woman was
arayed in purple & skarlet, and gilded with golde, and precious stones,
and pearles, and had a cup of gold in her hand, full of abominations, and
filthines of her fornication. And in her forehead was a name written, A
mysterie, that great Babylon, that mother of whoredomes, and abominations of
the earth.
(Geneva, Revelation 17:3–5)
Since the figure of the whore of Babylon was most familiar to Shakespeare’s
audiences from religious polemic associating her with the Catholic Church, Maurice
Hunt suggests that Falstaff seeks to die a proto-Protestant condemning a
personification of the Church of Rome (Hybrid Reformations
181).
stick upon
Cling to, bite.
black
Damned souls and devils were
traditionally thought to be black in colour. Craik points out that in some Last Judgment plays in the mystery
cycles the costume of white souls and black souls indicated their
condition (Craik, King Henry V). The idea seems to have extended beyond
theatrical practice, however: Reginald Scot, in his Discoverie of
Witchcraft (1584), describes damned souls as cole blacke
compared to the shining white souls of saints, and explains more
descriptively that a damned soule may and dooth take the shape of a blacke
moore (Scot 535).
burning in hell
See A2 Sc1 Sp24 n. A memory of Falstaff’s description of Bardolph’s face in 1
Henry IV: I never see thy face but I think upon hell-fire and
Dives that lived in purple—for there he is in his robes, burning,
burning. (1H4 3.3.22–24).
the fuel
The liquor provided by Falstaff.
Bardolph hearkens back to Falstaff’s
complaint in 1 Henry IV: I have maintained that
salamander of yours with fire any time this two-and-thirty years, God reward me
for it (1H4 3.3.35–36).
shog
Be gone.
my … moveables
My personal, as opposed to real, property; a legal phrase.
A redundancy, since
chattels and movables are legal
synonyms.
Let senses rule.
Let common sense govern you; be sensible.
The … pitch-and-pay.
In this world you must insist on ready money, not credit.
OED cites this line as a source of
Holdfast as the literal name of a dog that holds tenaciously (OED, 2nd ed. holdfast, B.n.3.b), but Pistol probably refers to sense 4.a, a clamp that holds part of a building or structure together. Rann cites the proverb
Brag is a good dog, but holdfast is better, which plays on the sense of dog as iron clamp (OED, 2nd ed. dog, n.I.1.7.a) and brag as nail (OED, 2nd ed. brag, n.2).
caveto
Beware (Latin).
clear thy crystals
Dry your eyes.
Yoke-fellows
Partners.
unwholesome food
As Wilson notes, the Physician Andrew
Boorde, in A compendyous regyment or a dyetary of healthe
(1547), advised against eating the
blode of all beastes & foules […] for it is harde of
digestion (Wilson, Henry V; Boorde sig. F4v).
housewifery
Thrifty housekeeping.
Keep close
1) Stay indoors; 2) keep quiet; 3) be sexually faithful.
Exeunt
Obviously, the men must exit one way and the Hostess
another; the actors of Bardolph, Nym, and the Boy may come as they bid the Hostess
farewell, leaving Pistol alone with her for lines A2 Sc3 Sp21.
2.4
Location: The French royal court at Rouen, in northern
France.
the Constable of France
The constable must enter here, since he speaks in the scene. I
have made only this change to F’s stage direction, choosing not to replace or
delete Berry and Brittany (Britaine F) as some editors have
done. Both Q and F specify the presence of mute French lords, and Gary Taylor
suggests replacing them with characters who take a much larger role later in the
play, like Orléans or Bourbon (Henry V).
English
English army; English king.
more … defenses
It is crucial that we establish strong defenses, as befits
royalty.
Holinshed attributes the French
defensive preparations to the dauphin, who had the gouernance of the
realme, bicause his father was fallen into his old disease of frensie.
On hearing of the English preparations, the dauphin
sent for the dukes of Berrie and Alanson, and all the other lords of the
councell of France: by whose aduise it was determined, that they should not
onelie prepare a sufficient armie to resist the king of England, when so
euer he arriued to inuade France, but also to stuffe and furnish the townes
on the frontiers and sea coasts with conuenient garrisons of men.
(Chronicles, 1587 547)
Whitsun morris dance
Traditional English folk-dance performed at the summer holiday of
Pentecost, or Whitsun.
The morris was an elaborately
choreographed dance involved several (traditionally nine) men in various costumes,
among which often appeared a fool (in a coat of folly [A2 Sc4 Sp3]), Robin Hood and
Maid Marian, and a hobby-horse indicating a mimetic carnival version of a mounted
knight. The latter character might suggest to the dauphin a hyperbolically
ineffectual English attack. Alan Brissenden suggests that the scepter so
fantastically borne (A2 Sc4 Sp2) refers to the fool’s bauble stick
(Shakespeare and the
Dance 28–33).
she
England.
so idly kinged
Ruled by such a frivolous king.
scepter
Ornamental rod, symbol of royal power.
fantastically
Whimsically, strangely.
humourous
Moody, capricious.
attends
Accompanies, serves.
Oh, peace … delicate.
Famous Victories supplied the basis for this exchange:
Dolphin
Tut my Lord, although the King of England
Be young and wilde headed, yet neuer thinke hee will be so
Unwise to make battell against the mightie King
ofFrance.
King
Oh my sonne, although the king of England be
Young and wilde headed, yet neuer thinke but he is rulde
After duping his enemies by pretending
to be lazy, vain, and stupid (brutus in Latin),
Lucius Junius Brutus expelled the tyrannical king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus in
509 BCE. Shakespeare alludes to this Brutus, founder of the Roman republic and one
of its first consuls, in Julius Caesar (JC
1.2.160), and the end of The Rape of
Lucrece discusses his Henry-like policy of encouraging his enemies to
underestimate him:
While the Folio reading certainly makes
sense, Theobald’s emendation to mounting (i.e., ascendant)
is logical, and justified by the strong possibility of influence from
on mountain standing (Works of Shakespeare). Some
editors, following Capell (Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies), suggest that a reference
to mountainous Wales is intended; cf. Pistol’s insulting Fluellen with
mountain squire (A5 Sc1 Sp10). As Malone points out, however,
Edward III had virtually no associations with Wales (Plays).
Taylor sees the possibility of a
blasphemous allusion to God the Father smiling down on the
baptism of Jesus, the beloued Sonne, in whome I am well pleased
(Henry V;
Geneva,
Mark 1:11).
seed
Edward the Black Prince.
Mangle
Cut, hack.
patterns
Exemplars of excellence (i.e., the young French nobility).
Had … made
Had taken twenty years to make.
This
Henry.
stock
Tree-trunk.
native
Innate.
fate of him
1) His destiny, that which he is fated to do; 2) destruction he carries with him.
Foreshadowing the eventual French
defeat, both the king and the dauphin characterize the French as game hunted by
the English. This continues the
metaphor begun with ‘fleshedʼ (Wilson, Henry V).
coward … them
Proverbial: Fearful dogs bark
most vehemently (Tilley
D528).
Craik argues that Exeter must enter
accompanied by attendants, since he refers to us,our
king, and our delay (A2 Sc4 Sp19), but such a decision can be left to directors (Craik, King Henry V); there
is no absolute need to have Exeter’s retinue in the French king’s presence
chamber.
wills
Orders, demands.
divest
Undress.
lay apart
Set aside.
borrowed glories
Usurped glories of kingship.
law … nations
Both divine and human law.
The law of nature is divine law (perhaps implied by gift of heaven) implanted by nature in the mind (OED, 2nd ed. law, n.1.I.9.c), and subordinate to that was international human law, the law of nations (OED, 2nd ed. law, n.1.4.c). The alliterative pairing of the two laws is common;
cf. Troilus and Cressida: these moral laws / Of
nature, and of nation, speak aloud / To have her back returned (Tro
2.2.183–185).
Holinshed may suggest the pairing as well, when he writes that Henry demanded
restitution of that which he wrongfully withheld, contrarie to the lawes
of God and man (Chronicles, 1587 548).
wide-stretchèd
Extensive, far-reaching.
ordinance of times
Law established by historical tradition.
With a particular glance, perhaps, at
Salic law.
sinister
Malicious, deceitful.
Literally, “left-handed”. The word in its figurative senses was originally stressed
on the second syllable.
awkward
Backhanded, indirect.
wormholes
Decay, rotting remains.
With the connotation of worm-eaten, obsolete historical
manuscripts.
oblivion
Long-forgotten obscurity.
raked
Though the sense of raking a claim
from the dust is clear, F’s spelling
(rakt) may also suggest racked, i.e.,
“a claim drawn from a twisted or forced interpretation
of old, forgotten documents”.
line
A document establishing Henry’s family tree and bloodline.
Gives … paper
A stage direction is suggested by the text,
and editors since Capell have placed it here (Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies), though
some, like Craik, place it at the conclusion of his speech (Craik, King Henry V). It is
probable that the document changes hands, or at least leaves Exeter’s, by A2 Sc4 Sp13, but of course the
French King (or his surrogate) need not take it at the moment that Exeter offers
it. In the 2000 production at the RSC, director Edward Hall solved the problem by
having the pedigree unfurled by an English soldier from a balcony behind Exeter
(Henry V).
The sheer length of the scroll, some fifteen feet or so, produced awe in the
French and a laugh from the audience.
the king further declaring how sorie he was that he should be thus
compelled for repeating of his right and iust title of inheritance, to make
warre to the destruction of christian people, but sithens he had offered
peace which could not be receiued, now for fault of iustice, he was forced
to take armes. Neuerthelesse exhorted the French king in the bowels of Iesu
Christ, to render him that which was his owne, whereby effusion of Christian
blood might be auoided.
(Chronicles, 1587 548)
tempest … earthquake
Cf. Isaiah 29:6: Thou shalt be
visited of the Lorde of hoastes with thunder, earthquake, and with a great
noyse, with storme and tempest, and with the flambe of a consuming fire
(Bishop’s
Bible).
Jove
Another name for Jupiter, king of the Roman gods, who threw
thunderbolts.
requiring
Demanding.
bids … Lord
Charges you by the innermost part of God.
Cf. Philippians 1:8 : For God is
my recorde howe greatly I long after you all, in the bowels of Iesus
Christe (Bishop’s
Bible, 1568). The bowels of the Lord
were traditionally associated with the sort of divine mercy that Henry charges the
French King to take upon his people, as seen, for example, in a 1571 sermon by
John Bridges, quoting Saint Bernard: That that I haue not of my selfe, I
will boldly vsurpe of the bowels of the Lord, for bycause they flow in
mercie (Bridges, A sermon, preached at Paules Crosse, 170 [sig. Z1v]).
on … Turning
Places with you the blame for.
Because of the apparent verbal irregularity, some editors emend
to the Q reading, on your heads turnes he (Sp116H5Q1).
privy maidens’ groans
1) Privately expressed lamentations of maids; 2) groans of maids
in mourning seclusion.
Many editors, finding the modification of maidens
by privy to be awkward, accept Q’s reading (pining maydens
grones). Others, following Warburton (Works), emend to
privèd (i.e., “deprived of their
lovers”).
slight regard
Little estimation.
misbecome
Be inappropriate to.
Unlike the dauphin himself, that is,
Henry will not demean himself with childish insults.
prize you at
Estimate your worth to be.
Thus … king: an
Rowe’s reading, followed substantively by many editors, makes
Thus says refer backward to the previous three lines. My
reading, following Dyce, more sensibly and with more fidelity to the Folio, makes
the phrase introduce the following lines.
an if
If.
at large
In full.
hot
Violent.
womby vaultages
Womb-like caverns.
chide
Answer reprovingly, rebuke.
trespass
Wrong.
The specific sense of “trespass to land”, i.e., the wrongful entry or
inhabitation by the French of Henry’s rightful lands, is implied.
second accent
Echo.
ordinance
Artillery, gunfire.
Although, as Malone points out, ordnance is the modern spelling of the term in its military sense of artillery, a double meaning is most appropriate here, since Exeter is also threatening the French
with their divinely-ordained destiny (Plays; OED, 3rd ed. ordinance, n.3.a). Cf. Cymbeline:
Let ord’nance / Come as the gods foresay it (Cym
4.2.147–148)
fair return
A polite reply.
odds
Conflict.
Paris balls
Tennis balls.
Louvre
Palace in Paris; pun on lover.
The first Paris fortress of this name was
built in the twelfth century. The earliest printed spellings—Louer
in Q and F, Loover in F2—indicate early-modern English
pronunciation, which is frequently used in modern performance to underscore
national difference.
Brian Blessed’s Exeter in 1984, for
example, gleefully mispronounced the word to disgruntle the French (Noble, Henry
V).
shake for it
Cf. Holinshed’s version of Henry’s
response to the scornful gift of tennis balls: the K. wrote to him, that
yer ought long, he would tosse him some London balles that perchance should
shake the walles of the best court in France (Chronicles, 1587
545).
mistress
1) Principal; 2) paramour (playing on Louvre/lover).
greener days
Youth.
masters
1) Possesses; 2) controls.
weighs time
Values each moment of his time.
utmost grain
Last grain of sand in the hourglass.
read
Discover, learn.
Flourish.
A Flourish
usually indicates the entrance or exit of royalty from a scene. Here, as Capell
was the first to observe, it may suggest that the King rises as if to leave, but
that Exeter refuses to be easily dismissed (Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies).
footed
Landed, disembarked.
The fact that the English forces have
landed is new information for the French court as well as for the audience. Exeter
thus prepares us for the upcoming scene shift to the siege of Harfleur.
Historically, Henry did not land until 14 August 1415, six months after Exeter’s
embassy, but Shakespeare adjusts history for dramatic effect, and
characteristically, his adjustments allow for an ambiguous interpretation of
events. On the one hand, we see Exeter in 2.2 before the English embark, and again
at the siege of Harfleur in 3.3, so Exeter’s he is footed in this land
already implies that the English have invaded under cover of
negotiations. On the other hand, the Chorus’s injunction in 3.0 to imagine the
embarkation of the navy and its crossing of the channel gives the impression of
winding back the clock and allows us to see the invasion as a result of the
negotiations having already failed.
breath
Breathing time.
Shakespeare has taken this line from a
passage in Holinshed describing an earlier English embassy: The Frenchmen
being not a little abashed at these demands, thought not to make anie absolute
answer in so weightie a cause, till they had further breathed (Chronicles, 1587 547).
A mistake for Southampton, previously specified as the
embarkation point. Some editors follow Theobald, who posited compositor error, in
emending to Hampton pier (Works of Shakespeare). Wilson more
reasonably attributed the mistake to Shakespeare’s inadvertence
(Wilson, Henry
V).
his royalty
Himself, his royal person.
brave
1) Courageous; 2) splendid, magnificent.
streamers
Banners.
the … feigning
Imitating the glory of the sun (the Roman god Phoebus).
See OED, 2nd ed. feign, v.II.10. Rowe’s emendation of feigning to fanning (i.e., fanning the sun’s hot face) continues to have currency among some editors
(Works, 1714). It is based on Macbeththe Norwegian banners flout the sky, / And fan our people cold
(Mac
1.2.49–50). Cf. Williams’s remark about fanning in the sun’s face with a peacock’s
feather (A4 Sc1 Sp61).
Play with
Divert yourself with, exercise.
fancies
Imaginations.
hempen tackle
Ships’ rigging woven from hemp.
whistle
The boatswain’s whistle, used to summon sailors to their
duties.
In Pericles,
the Boatswain’s whistle contributes to shipboard confusion, rather than ordering
it as here (F1 Per sig.
F3r).
order
Commands.
The sense of harmony (see OED, 3rd ed. order, n.III.14.a) is appropriate as well; the music of the whistle transforms noise (sounds confused) into music.
threaden
Made of linen thread.
bottoms
Ships’ hulls.
furrowed
Wavy, folded.
Like earth that has been furrowed, or plowed.
lofty surge
High waves.
rivage
Shore.
This word, unique in Shakespeare, may
have been suggested by Holinshed’s description of a later attack on Harfleur and
the riuage and shore adioining to the towne (Chronicles, 1587
557).
th’inconstant billows
The shifting waves.
Harfleur
Fortified French port at the mouth of the Seine, near where
Henry’s navy made landfall.
The town’s name is spelled
Harflew throughout F and Q, indicating the pronunciation.
Usually accented on the first syllable, but see A3 Sc3 Sp1 for a possible exception.
Who has barely grown the stubble that marks adolescence.
culled
Selected.
choice-drawn
Specially picked.
Taylor suggests a play on the sense of
‘drawn (hither) by (personal) choice,ʼ i.e., willing
volunteers (Henry
V), but Craik argues that culled and
choice-drawn is a common alliterative pairing and that the terms are
synonymous (King Henry
V).
Historically, this insufficient offer
was made the previous autumn to an English embassy negotiating in France (see Curry 44–45). Holinshed instead has the
offer made by the Archbishop of Bourges in England in 1415, when the English are
known to be preparing the invasion:
These ambassadors accompanied with 350 horsses, passed the sea at Calis,
and landed at Douer, before whose arriuall the king was departed from
Windsore to Winchester, intending to haue gone to Hampton, there to haue
surueied his nauie: but hearing of the ambassadors approching, he tarried
still at Winchester, where the said French lords shewed themselues verie
honorablie before the king and his nobilitie. At time prefixed, before the
kings presence, sitting in his throne imperiall,the archbishop of Burges
made an eloquent and a long oration, dissuading warre, and praising peace;
offering to the king of England a great summe of monie, with diuerse
countries, being in verie deed but base and poore, as a dowrie with the
ladie Catharine in mariage, so that he would dissolue his armie, and
dismisse his soldiers, which he had gathered and put in a
readinesse.
(Chronicles, 1587 547)
Shakespeare further collapses the time frame of the negotiation and
invasion by suggesting here that the French make a desperate offer after the navy
has launched.
to dowry
As a dowry.
likes not
Does not please.
nimble
Skilled, agile.
linstock
A long stick with a forked head to hold flammable linen, used as a
match to light cannon fuses.
devilish
Artillery and gunpowder were frequently described as devilish
or hellish, and fireworks were used as special effects to suggest demonic magic on
the stage.
Alarum
A military trumpet call to arms.
Derived from the Italian all’arme (“to arms”).
chambers
Small cannons.
Chambers were not typically used on the
battlefield, but could be loaded with wadding and fired in the playhouse for a
sound effect. In 1613 the first Globe playhouse burned down when a chamber fired
during a performance of Henry VIII set alight the
playhouse’s roofing thatch.
Still
Continue to.
eke out
Supplement, fill in the deficiencies of.
3.1
Location: outside the walls of Harfleur, northern France.
scaling-ladders
Ladders used in assaulting fortifications.
As Taylor notes, F’s requirement of scaling ladders indicates
that we are to think of the breach (A3 Sc1 Sp1) as an area of Harfleur’s wall where
the top portion has been knocked away, not as a hole completely through it (Henry V). Much
editorial speculation has been aimed at the staging of this scene: some have
suggested that the tiring house represents Harfleur’s wall and that the scaling
ladders are used to climb it as an exit, while others argue that Harfleur is to be
imagined just offstage, and that the ladders are to be carried off. Whatever of
the ladders’ use, the sense of the scene requires the army to be in retreat that
Henry must reverse, rallying them for one last assault.
Once … dead.
Johnson conjectured an omitted line to make up for what he saw
as a lack of sense, e.g. And either enter in and take the town / Or close
the wall up (Plays). Such a first term may simply be implied, however, by
Once more unto the breach, taken to mean “let us at last break through the wall”. The shocking
disjunction between the two options Henry offers in these lines serves to heighten
the desperation of the assault.
breach
Gap in Harfleur’s defensive wall.
conjure
Summon by magic, as a spirit.
Walter’s emendation of F’s commune rests on the
likely compositorial misreading of the minims in conjure (Henry V). Rowe’s
emendation to summon—followed by almost all editors before
Walter—is possible as an error of the ear, but less likely as an error of the eye.
Although summon carries roughly the same sense, it makes
the connotation of sorcery less explicit. Blood, according to classical and
medieval medicine, was thought to contain the body’s vital spirits, and hence
could be conjured by magic. Compare Burgundy’s bawdy play on the idea (A5 Sc2 Sp59). Philip Schwyzer
defends F’s reading on the grounds that Henry is attempting to conjure the idea of
England itself: To ‘commune up the bloodʼ is to recognize one’s
membership in and debt of service to a community (Schwyzer 139).
The association of the verb with
gobbling hogs (v. 3.) might also suggest the sense of “greedily
consumed”.
wasteful
Devastating.
set the teeth
Clench and bare your teeth.
bend … height
Strain your faculties to the utmost, like an archer bending
a bow to increase tension in the string.
Cf. Macbeth’s I am settled and
bend up / Each corporal agent to this terrible feat (Mac
2.1.79–80). This
image is almost the only reference to the longbow, the weapon which largely won
the battle at Agincourt for the English (Gurr, King Henry V).
noble
High born, lordly.
Henry first addresses the noblemen leading his army, then the
yeomen, or common foot soldiers (A3 Sc1 Sp1). Perhaps because this rhetorical
distinction seems inconsistent with Henry’s later class-leveling rhetoric, both in
this speech (A3 Sc1 Sp1) and in the Crispin’s day speech before Agincourt, Taylor
accepts F2’s emendation of F’s Noblish to
noblest—the implication being that all the
English are noble (Taylor, Henry V). But this presumes that Henry is
incapable of self-contradiction, and as Craik points out, it involves the
King in a pedantic distinction: all are noble, but some are more noble than
others, and in another sense of the word (King Henry V). I have
adopted Steevens’s emendation with its explanation of eyeskip corruption by the
following word (Plays).
fet
Fetched, derived.
of war-proof
Proven by war.
like … Alexanders
Like the great conqueror Alexander the great, who famously wept
when he had no more worlds to conquer.
these parts
France.
Alluding to the earlier invasions of France in the Hundred
Years’ War.
even
Evening.
sheathed … argument
Only stopped fighting when there were no more opponents.
Dishonor … mothers
Do not suggest that your mothers were unfaithful, i.e., by
fighting like bastards instead of legitimately-begotten Englishmen.
attest
Prove.
copy
A pattern.
of grosser blood
Less noble.
As this speech is addressed to the noble
English, this phrase could refer either to the French or to the English
yeomen and commoners.
yeomen
Non-aristocratic landholders.
show us
As with let us in the
following line, the plural pronoun is either the royal plural or refers to the
king and the aristocracy. The latter choice, perhaps supported by the switch to
I (A3 Sc1 Sp1, A3 Sc1 Sp1), would
reinforce the rhetorical distinction between classes of men running through the
speech. See A3 Sc1 Sp1 n. and
A3 Sc1 Sp1 n.
I follow the punctuation of F. Some
editors, following Warburton, emend to God for Harry! England and Saint
George! in order to separate the battle cry into two invocations (Works). Taylor
lists several parallel examples of such punctuation, but adopts Warburton’s
emendation mainly on the grounds that it is absurd to call for God to aid a saint
(Taylor, Henry
V). The three parts of the cry, however, all signify the same
thing: Harry, England, and Saint George all mean England
(and its cause).
Harry
Henry.
Saint George
The patron saint of England.
Saint George was an especially important
patriotic symbol to Henry V, who ordained Saint George’s day as a double
feast—the most important class of holiday in the Catholic
calendar—early in his reign. See Holinshed,
Chronicles, 1587 543. George
was pronounced to form a rhyming couplet with charge.
Exeunt.
Editorial scene numbering and stage directions for entrances and
exits from 3.1 to 3.3 (the Harfleur scenes) are bound to lend a false sense of
certainty to scene divisions that are unmarked in F and seem to be purposefully
fluid. No exit is marked after Henry’s speech in 3.1, and it is as likely that
Pistol, Bardolph, Nym, and the Boy remain onstage (refusing to charge into the
breach) as that they enter after the stage clears. Likewise, after Fluellen
beats them in as Q’s SD has it, he can either stay upstage while
the Boy delivers his monologue, or he can follow them offstage (A3 Sc2 SD7).
3.2
Location: outside the walls of Harfleur.
corporal
Nym, the only corporal in
the scene, appears to be addressing Lieutenant Bardolph incorrectly. This may be
intentional on the author’s part, or accidental. Bardolph is addressed as a
corporal in 2 Henry IV (2H4 2.4.123), and there is
little consistency in the play as to these characters’ ranks. See A2 Sc1 Sp2 n.
knocks
Blows.
hot
Fierce, violent.
case
Box; pair.
Nym means either many superfluous lives or just one extra; a case may refer to two, as in a case of pistols (See OED, 2nd ed. case, n.2.8.a: brace, couple).
humour
Condition.
As blood and choler are the two
hot humours, Nym may use his catchword to mean that the
battlefield has an imbalance of those fluids, that it is literally too bloody and
choleric.
plainsong
Simple melody, i.e., truth.
most just
Quite correct.
humours
1) Emotions; 2) bodily fluids; 3) mist, vapor.
Since chambers have been fired in each
of the previous scenes, the most likely humour to abound on
the stage is gunpowder smoke.
God’s vassals
God’s servants, i.e., men.
Singing
Although Dyce contends that Pistol is too
dignified to sing, modern editors follow Johnson in presenting the
following lines (A3 Sc2 Sp3 and A3 Sc2 Sp5), printed as prose in F, as snatches of song lyrics (Plays). Craik contends that
they are simply extempore verse lines, and the Boy’s response to Pistol’s verses
do seem intended as mocking nonce-verse, regardless of whether they are sung or
not (King Henry
V). In the 1997 RSC production directed by Ron Daniels, these
snatches were echoes of larger songs—a military march for God’s
vassals and a four-part music hall ballad for If
wishes would prevail—that were woven throughout the production.
If, as some editors conjecture, Pistol
and the Boy are adapting a folk song to their uses, the Boy’s jab at Pistol
(not as truly) may also suggest “out of
tune”. For a similar interpolation of words into a song lyric, cf.
Ophelia’s to the ground did not go (Ham 4.2.37).
Avaunt
Onward; begone.
cullions
Rascals; literally, testicles.
great duke
Pistol’s melodramatic bombast gives
Fluellen a promotion.
The sense of rottenness (n. 2.c.) may also be
implied.
bawcock
Fine fellow.
From French beau
coq (“fine cock”).
lenity
Mercy.
chuck
Chick, a term of endearment.
These … humours!
This is fine behaviour! (sarcastic).
Nym may instead refer to Pistol’s lines,
meaning that mercy and lenity are good humours.
Your … humours!
1) You are causing yourself distemper; 2) you are making everyone
unhappy.
Some editors, following Capell (Comedies, Histories, and
Tragedies), emend wins to runs,
which resolves the ambiguity in favor of the latter sense. Cf. A2 Sc1 Sp41, where Nym, as he
does twice in Merry Wives, uses humours as the object of run
(Wiv
1.1.129, 1.3.57). Taylor argues—and adds stage directions accordingly—that Nym’s
switch from good to bad humours reflects his glee at Fluellen’s beating of Pistol
turning to complaint as the blows begin to fall on him as well, but this is
unnecessarily proscriptive (Henry V).
Exeunt … Nym.
With the exception of Riverside and
Craig-Bevington (Evans, Riverside; Craig, Works), all editors have had Fluellen exit at this
point, taking their cue from Q’s stage direction that Fluellen beats them
in (i.e., offstage, or into the breach). The Folio stage direction
reads only Exit and there is no real reason to insist
that Fluellen clears the stage. Admittedly, Fluellen’s silent, uninvolved presence
onstage during the Boy’s speech might prove distracting, but there is no reason to
object, as Taylor does, to the idea that Fluellen would appear to be
avoiding the very danger he has forced them to face (Henry V). The ESC production
in the late 1980s, in fact, got a good deal of humour from this hypocrisy as
Fluellen and the other captains occupied the exact spot Pistol and his cohort had
taken to avoid the battle, sharing a drink and a smoke as the siege was underway.
At any rate, Fluellen’s presence onstage might not be simple dumb show; David
Galloway proposes that he remain as the addressee of the Boy’s so-called
soliloquy (Fluellen 116.
swashers
Braggarts, swaggerers.
boy
1) Serving boy; 2) a youth in comparison.
man to
1) Servant to; 2) manly compared to.
antics
Grotesques, clowns.
white-livered
Cowardly.
Literally, without blood in the liver,
thought to be the seat of courage.
Euphemisms for theft are a repeated joke
in the plays where the Eastcheapers appear (cf. Wiv 1.3.18–19).
twelve leagues
About thirty-six miles.
sworn brothers
Bound by oath as brothers.
See A2 Sc1 Sp5 n. Taylor suggests that a pause before
delivering in filching heightens the ironic humour (Henry V).
filching
Stealing.
Calais
A port in the northern coast of France.
Calais, the closest French town to
England, was English-occupied territory—and a potential beachhead for English wars
in France—from its capture by Edward III 1347 to its recapture by the French in
1558. F’s spelling, Callice, indicates traditional English
pronunciation. Rowe, the first to modernize the spelling to
Calais elsewhere in the play, retains the original in
this instance (Works
1714). Historically, the English army did not land at Calais, but
established a landing at Harfleur, so unless Bardolph and Nym have arrived
separately, they could not have been in Calais yet. As with the geographical
confusion of Southampton and Dover (A3 Sc0 Sp1), the mistake passes in the
theater.
fire-shovel
A shovel for carrying coals to a fire or hot ash from it.
Since most editors clear the stage at the Boy’s exit, Taylor
added a scene break here, arguing that time may pass and the location may change
(Henry V).
The Folio, which has no scene divisions at all, does not specify whether Fluellen
has left the stage, and I choose to preserve F’s ambiguity with regard to his
position.
Enter Gower.
Both Q and F indicate the entrance of Gower alone, not of Gower
and Fluellen. They must not enter together, since Gower is looking for Fluellen,
so the situation allows for three basic stagings: 1) Fluellen remains onstage
during the Boy’s speech and Gower enters as the Boy leaves; 2) Fluellen exits with
Pistol, Bardolph, and Nym, the Boy’s exit ends the scene (as in Taylor, Henry V, and Gurr, King Henry
V), and Fluellen and Gower start the next scene by entering at
separate doors; or 3) the Boy’s exit and Gower’s entrance overlap, with Gower’s
first line calling Fluellen back to the stage.
presently
Immediately.
mines
Tunnels dug under a fortification’s walls and planted with
explosives.
Holinshed describes the role of mining
in producing a stalemate at the siege of Harfleur:
And dailie was the towne assaulted: for the duke of Glocecester, to
whome the order of the siege was committed, made three mines vnder the
ground, and approching to the wals with his engins and ordinance, would not
suffer them within to take anie rest. For although they with their
countermining somwhat disappointed the Englishmen, & came to fight with
them hand to hand within the mines, so that they went no further forward
with that worke; yet they were so inclosed on ech side, as well by water as
land, that succour they saw could none come to them.
(Chronicles, 1587 549–550)
In the practices of ancient
warfare (which Fluellen prefers), mines were excavations of the foundations of
walls to cause them to fall (Mowat and
Werstine).
not
Not excavated.
disciplines
Proper procedure.
concavities
Hollowness, i.e., space for explosives.
th’athversary
The adversary (Shakespeare renders Fluellen’s Welsh accent
phonetically).
The spelling conventions that indicate a
Welsh dialect include p for b,
th for d, and
f for v, and occasional
indications of vowel pronunciation, all of which this edition retains. Since
Shakespeare does not make these substitutions consistently in Fluellen’s speeches,
some editors have sought to regularize the patterns, but I have preferred the
Folio spellings.
Henry V is the only Shakespeare play in
which this word appears, in this speech and in three of Pistol’s, below.
is digged himself
Has dug and planted.
under
Under our mines.
The reading of this line in F, with no punctuation, seems to
indicate that Fluellen mistakes the English mines for the
countermines that would be excavated by the French
defenders. I have adopted Taylor’s solution, which, following Moore Smith’s,
clarifies that the French have planted countermines four yards beneath the English
explosives (Taylor, Henry
V; Moore
Smith).
Cheshu
Jesus.
plow up
Blow up.
directions
Strategy, instructions.
order
Command, duty to organize.
altogether
Entirely.
an Irishman
Macmorris is no more historical than
Fluellen, Gower, and Jamy, but the participation of his nation
(A3 Sc2 Sp27) at the siege
of Rouen in 1418 is noted by Holinshed:
During this siege also, there arriued at Harflue the lord of Kilmaine in
Ireland, with a band of sixteene hundred Irishmen, in maile, with darts and
skains after the maner of their countrie, all of them being tall, quicke,
and nimble persons.
(Chronicles, 1587 565)
as in
As much as any in.
directions in
Capacity for.
Roman disciplines
Ancient military tactics.
Fluellen’s respect for the Roman
disciplines may indicate that his military knowledge derives from study
rather than experience. At any rate, the practices of ancient warfare would be
unlikely to help in a fifteenth-century, gunpowder-reliant siege. Leslie Hotson
demonstrates echoes of the arithmeticall militare treatise, named
Stratioticos, by Leonard and Thomas Digges, whose title page promised
to teach the discipline, offices, lawes and orders in euery well gouerned
campe and armie inuiolably to be obserued (Digges qtd. in Hotson, I, William Shakespeare 118–121). A
second edition of the treatise was published in 1590 by Richard Field,
Shakespeare’s fellow Stratfordian who had printed Venus and
Adonis.
falorous
Valorous.
expedition
Assistance, quickness.
Possibly a mangling of “experience” and “erudition”, two
adjectives that convey Fluellen’s meaning.
aunchient
Ancient.
Many editors, following Johnson, standardize the spelling of
this word in Fluellen’s speeches, where it appears seven times. Since, however, it
is consistently spelled aunchiant or aunchient in
his speeches and the usual way in those of Bardolph and Gower, it must indicate an
intentional non-standard pronunciation.
pristine
Ancient.
guid day
Good day. Jamy’s Scots dialect is rendered phonetically as
well.
Jamy’s idiosyncratic pronunciations are
here emended to modern-spelling representations of the Scots dialect based on
The Concise Scots Dictionary, ed. Mairi Robinson,
rather than attempting to collate Shakespeare’s Scots dialect spellings with
contemporary texts (Conflict of Conscience [c. 1579] and
James IV [1590]), as Taylor does (Robinson; Taylor, Henry V).
Good e’en
Good evening.
As Taylor points out, F’s Godden appears
elsewhere in Shakespeare and is unlikely to represent a Welsh dialect (Henry V).
pioneers
Soldiers specializing in digging mines.
given o’er
Finished.
Chrish law
Christ lord. Macmorris’s Irish dialect renders terminal
s as sh.
Although as Gary Taylor argues,
law is a variant of lord, it is often
used on its own, frequently spelled la, as a simple
exclamation of affirmation or intensity (Henry V). See A3 Sc2 Sp25, A4 Sc7 Sp39.
Taylor suggests that Fluellen means the rhetorical device of appearing to consult
with an opponent (Henry V; OED, 3rd ed. communication, n.II.8), but while Fluellen is indeed employing such a
device here, he is not explicitly highlighting his own rhetoric.
opinion … mind
Although these words could be nearly
synonymous, Fluellen’s distinction between opinion and
mind is not necessarily an absurd tautology:
mind may refer to his current mood (OED, 3rd ed. mind, n.1.II.iii.15), as opposed to his opinion, or specific view about the issue at hand.
sall
Shall.
baith
Both.
quit
Answer, requite.
with guid leve
With good leave, i.e., with your permission.
pick occasion
Find an opportunity.
marry
By the Virgin Mary.
besieched
Besieged.
Most editors have retained F’s spelling,
beseeched (beseech’d), but since Macmorris is unlikely
to mistake a siege for a polite query, Taylor’s spelling of his Irish
pronunciation is preferable to avoid confusion (Henry V).
be Chrish
By Christ.
sa’ me
Save me.
mess
Mass, i.e., the Eucharist (a common oath).
ere
Before.
dae
Do.
lig
Lie.
I owe … death
F’s original reading (ay, or goe to
death), as T.W. Craik argues (TLS [29 February 1980]), leaves unclear what
Jamy intends to pay valorously. Craik proposed the
emendation accepted here, justifying it with a convincing discussion of
compositorial misreading. Punning on
death/debt, the phrase is
proverbial (Tilley G237), but it appears in
Shakespeare only in the Henriad (1H4 5.1.126; 2H4 3.2.194).
surely
F’s spelling (suerly) is common enough—it is the
preferred spelling in Holinshed (Chronicles, 1587), for example—and likely does not
represent dialect.
the brefe … long
The brief and the long, i.e., the long and the short of it.
The omission of have is
not uncommon in such expressions, as Taylor argues (Henry V), but it is also
quite possible that Wilson is right in seeing heard as an error for
heare—in which case Jamy proposes a future continuation of the
debate, rather than resigning himself never to hear it (Henry V).
question
Debate.
twae
Two.
under your correction
Unless I am mistaken.
Ish … rascal?
Macmorris expects Fluellen to insult his nation, and asks if that
is what he means by bringing it up.
Rowe was the first editor to make this
sentence a belligerent question (Works, 1714); F’s punctuation may suggest instead
that Macmorris declares that anyone abusing the Irish is a villain, etc. Knight
suggested a transposition of the last five words in the speech, producing the
statement Who i.e., whoever talks
of my nation ish a villain […] and a rascal (Comedies, Histories,
Tragedies, & Poems). For a discussion of different
interpretations of this speech, see Gurr,
Why Captain Jamy.
peradventure
Perhaps.
use
Treat.
discretion
Wisdom, good judgment.
will … other
1) Will do each other wrong if you continue; 2) willfully
misunderstand.
parley
Trumpet call signaling a truce to allow negotiation between the
armies.
required
Asked for, i.e., available.
Exeunt.
This exit, and the subsequent entrance of
Henry and the English army, are probably meant to be staged fluidly. Scene
division in all the Harfleur scenes is unmarked in the Folio, and here more than
ever the scene break seems an artificial submission to the conventions of printed
drama. Some, but not all editors mark a new scene at this point, but F indicates
only a single exit for Fluellen here, which makes as much sense as the departure
of all four captains. See A3 Sc1 SD3 n.
3.3
Location: outside Harfleur.
Enter … gates.
Some editors specify that Henry and his army are below and that
the French appear in an upper space representing the walls of Harfleur. This is
the most likely staging, but the simplicity of the Folio stage directions allows
for flexibility. The train must include Exeter, who is addressed at
A3 Sc3 Sp3.
gates
Town gates.
How … destroyed?
This rather sadistic-sounding speech is
Shakespeare’s invention, and has caused consternation to readers with the tendency
to valorize Henry. The modern reader, writes Humphreys, is
not likely to applaud what looks like Henry’s unholy relish in so ruthlessly
depicting war’s horrors and then blaming the proposed victims for provoking
them (Henry
V). Walter defends the king’s behaviour, arguing from
Albericus Gentilis’s 1612 De Jure Belli that Henry’s
threats are in accordance with military law regarding siege warfare, a law
possibly derived ultimately from Deuteronomy 20:10–14 (Walter, Henry V; Geneva).
Deuteronomy, however, specifically forbids the killing of women and children,
which Henry vividly threatens here. In 1944, John McCloskey bitterly compared the
king’s speech, which shows neither Christianity nor civilization to
the atrocities of twentieth-century total war and denied its
reconcilability to the religious ideal elsewhere ascribed to Henry (The Mirror of All Christian
Kings 36–40, 36–37). See also Curry 89–90.
resolves
Answers, decides.
latest parle
Last negotiation.
we
Since Henry uses the singular pronoun elsewhere in the
speech, the plurals in this and the following two lines may be a gesture at the
army backing up his words rather than the royal plural.
The traditional personification of
cities as feminine allows for play between the military and erotic senses of
conquest. This speech, as Taylor points out, reiterates the more brutal
literal fusion of conquest and sexual violation which can be expected if the
town is sacked (Henry V). Henry’s later comparison of Catherine to the French
cities he plans to conquer (A5 Sc2 Sp66) makes again makes use of the conceit in the context of diplomacy.
fleshed
Hardened to bloodshed; bent on destruction.
With this hunting term, Henry continues
the comparison of his men to greyhounds in the slips (A3 Sc1 Sp1); a
fleshed dog has been given a taste of blood and rendered
eager for prey. See also R3 4.3.6 and 2H4 4.3.261–262.
In … range
Shall roam Harfleur with full license to murder.
conscience … hell
1) Minds as capacious of evil as hell; 2) morals as unrestrained as those of devils.
See OED, 2nd ed. wide, a.III.11.a.
The strict conscience, like
heaven’s narrow gate […] lets little pass; the lax or evil
conscience correspondingly forbids almost nothing (Taylor, Henry V).
flow’ring
Flourishing, in the prime of youth.
impious
Wicked.
Some editors, following Walter (Henry V),
suggest that Shakespeare refers to the use by Virgil and other Latin writers of
bellum impium to denote civil war, the
implication being that since Harfleur is rightfully English, its citizens are
resisting the authority of their sovereign. Craik demurs, arguing that the
King is describing war’s invariable nature, not discussing the political nature
of this particular campaign (Craik, King Henry V).
the prince of fiends
The devil.
smirched complexion
Filthy, discolored face.
fell
Dreadful, cruel.
Enlinked
Linked, joined.
Taylor notes a possible play on link in the sense of a torch made of tow and pitch (OED, 2nd ed. link, n.3.1), reinforcing the passage’s fire imagery (Henry V).
hot
Violent; lustful.
violation
Violence, especially rape.
rein
The pun on reign underscores Henry’s
personal claim of
helplessness.
hold
Restrain.
career
Gallop.
bootless
Uselessly.
spend
Waste.
vain
Useless.
spoil
Act of plundering.
precepts
Legal summons.
leviathan
Gigantic sea monster.
Leviathan is a Hebrew word of uncertain origin found
repeatedly in the Old Testament. Henry here exceeds the ironic absurdity of Job’s
famous question: Canst thou drawe out Liuiathan with an hooke, and with a
line which thou shalt cast downe vnto his tongue? (Geneva, Job 41:1).
of
On.
temperate
Moderate, gentle, restrained.
wind of grace
The wind of grace may
refer to Henry’s own royal power to soothe his troops’ violent instincts, or to
the divine power associated with the Holy Spirit. See the description of Pentecost
in Acts 2:2: there came a sounde from heauen, as of a russhing and mightie
winde (Geneva).
O’er-blows
1) Blows away; 2) cools, as one does with a boiling pot or a
spoonful of soup.
contagious
Infectious, pestilential.
Plague was thought to be carried in clouds of noxious
vapors.
headly
Deadly; chief among the sins.
Nearly all editors accept F2’s reading, the
equally appropriate and more common heady (violently
impulsive), which as Andrew Gurr points out, was a press correction during the
printing of the Second Folio, which read headly in an
earlier state (King Henry
V). F1’s reading preserves an evocative and archaic word used
only for the seven deadly (or headly) sins, and may represent a blending of
heady and deadly.
spoil
Pillage.
look
Expect.
locks
1) Hair; 2) genitals (i.e., chastity).
spitted
Impaled.
Specifically, the image is that of
babies on cooking spits like joints of meat, where a whole animal would normally be transfixed
from mouth to rectum (Taylor,
Henry V).
pikes
Heavy spear-like weapons with long handles and metal tips.
Designed to be used against cavalry, the
pike was an iconic weapon of the English infantry in the Hundred Years’
War.
confused
Intermingled; disorderly.
Jewry
1) Judea, the ancient Jewish kingdom of Palestine, now part of
Israel; 2) the Jewish people.
Herod’s … slaughtermen.
King Herod ordered the slaughter of newborn babies in the vicinity
of Bethlehem in a vain attempt to kill the infant Jesus.
See Matthew 2:16–18 (Geneva). Shakespeare likely
has the stage representation of the Slaughter of the Innocents in early English
cycles of mystery plays, which commonly featured both the lamenting mothers and
the rants of King Herod, to which he refers in Hamlet
(Ham
3.2.10–11).
guilty in defense
Responsible for your own destruction by continuing to defend the
town.
Taylor comments that this is
surely intended to sound paradoxical (Henry V), but the phrase is
specific to the medieval laws of warfare: a governor could be found guilty
in defense if he stubbornly continued to hold a town even without
adequate resources. See Rauchut, “Guilty in Defense”.
Enter Governor.
Editors since Capell have located this
entrance above, i.e., in the upper stage space representing the
walls of Harfleur (Comedies,
Histories, and Tragedies). Some editors relocate the
Governor’s entrance to the beginning of the scene, but as Taylor argues,
neither Q nor F brings on any
French to man the walls during Henry’s speech; this minimizes the usual
awkwardness of scale in siege scenes, leaves us (and Henry) uncertain whether
anyone is listening, prevents us from being distracted during the ultimatum,
and gives the Governor’s entrance […] maximum dramatic
impact (Henry
V)
expectation
Hope.
succors
Aid, reinforcemnts.
entreated
Pleaded.
Holinshed describes the negotiation of
Harfleur’s surrender:
The king […] was after content to grant a respit
vpon certeine conditions, that the capteins within might haue time to send
to the French king for succour (as before ye haue heard) least he intending
greater exploits, might lose time in such small matters. When this
composition was agreed vpon, the lord Bacqueuill was sent vnto the French
king, to declare in what point the towne stood. To whome the Dolphin
answered, that the kings power was not yet assembled, in such number as was
conuenient to raise so great a siege. This answer being brought vnto the
capteins within the towne, they rendered it vp to the king of England. […] The souldiors were ransomed, and the towne sacked, to
the great gaine of the Englishmen.
(Chronicles, 1587 550)
The siege of Harfleur had lasted five weeks (17 August–22 September,
1415).
Returns
Replies to.
powers
Troops.
raise
End by defeating the besieging army.
soft
Tender-hearted.
dispose of
Take control of; make arrangements for.
Come, uncle … Calais.
Holinshed reports the taking of Harfleur:
All this doone, the king ordeined capteine to the towne his vncle the
duke of Excester, who established his lieutenant there, one sir Iohn
Fastolfe, with fifteene hundred men, or (as some haue) two thousand and
thirtie six knights […] King Henrie, after the winning
of Harflue, determined to haue proceeded further in the winning of other
townes and fortresses: but bicause the dead time of the winter approched, it
was determined by aduise of his councell, that he should in all conuenient
speed set forward, and march through the countrie towards Calis by land,
least his returne as then homewards should of slanderous toongs be named a
running awaie: and yet that iournie was adiudged perillous, by reason that
the number of his people was much minished by the flux and other feuers,
which sore vexed and brought to death aboue fifteene hundred persons of the
armie: and this was the cause that his returne was the sooner appointed and
concluded. […] When the king had repared the walles,
bulwarks and rampiers about the towne, and furnished it with vittels and
artillerie, he remooued from Harflue toward Ponthoise, intending to passe
the riuer of Some with his armie, before the bridges were either withdrawen
or broken.
(Chronicles, 1587 550–551)
Because Sir John Fastolfe appears in 1 Henry VI as
a disgraced coward, and because Shakespeare adapted his name into
Falstaff in his revision of the Henry
IV plays, his role as Exeter’s deputy in Harfleur is eliminated from
the play.
your guest
This must be addressed to Exeter, who
has taken over the governorship of Harfleur, and not to the Governor, as Taylor
suggests (Henry
V).
Tomorrow
Historically, Henry remained at Harfleur
for more than two weeks, but Shakespeare’s compression of time, as Craik points
out, creates a sense of danger and urgency to get back to English territory (as
Calais was at this time) (King Henry V).
addressed
Prepared, intended.
3.4
Location: a French court.
This may be Rouen, the location of the
next scene, though the text does not specify.
Alice … langage.
“Alice, you have been to England, and you
speak the language well”.
The degree to which the French in this
scene and elsewhere accurately reflects either sixteenth- or fourteenth-century
French is a subject of some debate, and presents the editor of a modern edition
with a conundrum: does one merely render the scene in correct modern French,
correcting what would be errors in that idiom? Or rather, does one attempt to
preserve the different flavor of sixteenth-century French, thus perhaps staying
more faithful to the copy text, but departing from the modernizing rationale? This
edition attempts to modernize, referring the reader to commentary when
modernization is uncertain, or would kill an intended bilingual pun. Whatever
choice an editor makes, the scene is likely to sound as absurd to a modern
francophone as it would have to a French ear in 1599. For the most complete
historical-linguistic study of the play’s French, see Déprats, A French history of Henry V, especially 81–85.
bien parles
The word order reflects contemporary
usage.
Un peu, madame.
“A little, Madame”.
Je te … anglais?
“I pray you, teach me; I must learn to
speak it. What do you call the hand in English?”
Catherine’s need to learn English
anticipates the courtship dialogue in Act 5; in the Branagh film, Emma Thompson
delivered the line with a thoughtful resignation that indicated her awareness of
the futility of French resistance. The fact that the English lesson focuses on her
body parts and quickly turns into unintentional bawdy may also highlight the
princess’s role as diplomatic bargaining chip and sexual object.
La main … hand.
“The hand? It is called de
hand”.
De hand … doigts?
“De hand. And the
fingers?”
Les doigts … fingres.
“The fingers—my faith, I forget the
fingers! But I will remember: the fingers, I think they are called de
fingres. Yes, de fingres”.
F’s unusual spelling of the English word may reflect Alice’s
Francophone pronunciation.
Le main … ongles?
“The hand, de hand, the
fingers, the fingres. I think that I am a good student. I have
quickly gotten two English words. What do you call the nails?”
Many editors emend les
fingres to de fingres, but Catherine’s use of the French
article with the English word is likely intentional.
Les ongles … nails.
“The nails, we call them de
nails”.
Although it is unwarranted by the text,
actors sometimes give nails a disyllabic French
pronunciation (as in naïve).
De nails … nails.
De nails. Listen; tell me if I speak well:
de hand, de fingres, and de
nails.
C’est bien … anglais.
“That’s well said, Madame. It is very good
English”.
Dites-moi … bras.
“Tell me the English for the
arm”.
Et le coude?
“And the elbow?”
D’elbow … present.
“D’elbow. I shall repeat all
the words you have taught me so far”.
Il est … pense.
“It is too difficult, Madame, I
think”.
Excusez … Éscoutez
“Pardon me, Alice. Listen”.
bilbow
This mispronunciation produces an English word (bilbo), meaning either a sword produced in Bilbao, Spain (OED, 2nd ed. bilbo, n.1) or a set of ankle fetters (n.2). Neither sense suggests a pun, though the bilingual meaning may prepare the audience
for the bawdy wordplay to come.
O Seigneur … col?
“O Lord God, I forgot!
D’elbow. What do you call the neck?”
“Yes. Saving your honor, in truth you
pronounce the words as correctly as the natives of England”.
Je ne … temps.
“I do not doubt but to learn, by the grace
of God, and in short time”.
N’avez-vous … enseigné?
“Have you not already forgotten what I
have taught you?”
Non … promptement
“No, and I will promptly recite it to
you”.
Sauf votre honneur
“Saving your honor”.
Ainsi dis-je … robe?
“So I said, d’elbow. De
nick, and de sin. What do you call the foot and the
gown?”
foot
Catherine’s reaction suggests that she hears foutre, French for “to
fuck”.
le count
Alice attempts to say gown, but Catherine hears the
French obscenity con (“cunt”).
Modern editors disagree on how to represent
this Franglish hybrid word. The Quarto reading (con) makes
Catherine’s French mishearing clear, but risks making the joke imperceptible to an
Anglophone audience. Taylor’s cown (Henry V), on the other hand,
emphasizes the English word Alice is going for, but obscures the obcenity in both
languages. Craik argues that F’s compositor unnecessarily tried to make the joke
land with English audiences more familiar with English cunt
than French con (King Henry V), but the
decision could just as easily have been authorial, and as Gurr points out, F’s
spelling best reflects the pronunciation that made count/cunt a common
contemporary pun in English (King Henry V). Capell’s emendation of French le to the pidgin English de is
unnecessary, since the language of the article is not the issue (Comedies, Histories, and
Tragedies). The articles are not consistently rendered in any of
the earliest printed texts, and Alice’s slip into French le instead of English de (“the”) is perfectly understandable.
Le foot … monde.
“The foot and the
count? O Lord God, they are words of a wicked sound,
corrupting, gross, and immodest, and not for honorable ladies to use. I would
not pronounce these words before the lords of France for all the
world.”
Foh … ensemble
“Foh! The foot and the count!
Nevertheless, I will once more recite my lesson all together”.
C’est assez … diner.
“That’s enough for one time. Let us go to
dinner”.
3.5
Location: The French royal court at Rouen.
the Duke of Brittany
Brittany does not appear in this stage
direction in F, though Holinshed (see below) lists him as present at this council
(Chronicles, 1587). He does have two speeches, but he is not mentioned in the list
of dukes (A3 Sc5 Sp8). The
Quarto gives these speeches to Bourbon, introducing his character before he
appears at Agincourt (replacing the Dauphin in Q); some editors, starting with
Theobald, have followed.
river Somme
River in northern France, about halfway between Harfleur and
Calais.
Although as Henry makes clear at A3 Sc3 Sp3, the English army is in a tactical retreat to Calais, the French lords’
discussion in this scene depicts the English march as an extended attack, perhaps
to emphasize French cowardice. This tone is Shakespeare’s addition; Holinshed,
whom the playwright otherwise follows closely here, gives the French king and his
council no suggestion of frustration:
The French king being at Rone, and hearing that king Henrie was passed
the riuer of Some, was much displeased therewith, and assembling his
councell to the number of fiue and thirtie, asked their aduise what was to
be doone. There was amongst these fiue and thirtie, his sonne the Dolphin,
calling himselfe king of Sicill; the dukes of Berrie and Britaine, the earle
of Pontieu the kings yoongest sonne, and other high estates. At length
thirtie of them agreed, that the Englishmen should not depart vnfought
withall, and fiue were of a contrarie opinion, but the greater number ruled
the matter: and so Montioy king at armes was sent to the king of England to
defie him as the enimie of France, and to tell him that he should shortlie
haue battell.
(Chronicles, 1587 552)
And if
“An if” is also a possible
reading, but the difference in sense is very subtle.
withal
With.
O Dieu vivant!
“O living God!”
sprays
1) Branches, offshoots (i.e., descendants); 2) spurts of
semen.
After the Norman invasion of England in 1066, many of the
English and nearly all of the English aristocracy had French blood.
Over-ridden horses, on whom the rein has remained too long.
barley broth
Strong ale.
Beer, the characteristic national drink
of the English, is made by fermenting boiled malt, not unlike the mash that Samuel
Johnson points out was commonly given to horses over-ridden or
feverish: ground malt and hot water mixed (Plays).
Decoct
Heat by boiling.
quick
Lively.
spirited
1) Impregnated with alcohol; 2) possessed by energetic
spirits.
roping
Dangling like ropes.
An echo of Golding’s translation of
Ovid: Then Isycles hung roping downe (Metamorphosis 1.137).
thatch
Straw used as roofing material.
drops … youth
The bravely-shed blood of young English knights.
Poor … lords.
Correcting himself, the constable says “We may call our
fields poor, not “rich””, considering their French
masters are so spiritless.
madams
Wives, ladies.
bred out
Weakened by overbreeding.
new-store
Restock, newly populate.
And
To.
lavoltas high
Leaping dances.
Sir John Davies describes the lavolta in
Orchestra, his 1596 poeme of
dauncing:
Yet is there one the most delightfull kind,
A lofty iumping, or a leaping round,
Where arme in arme, two Dauncers are entwind,
And whirle themselues with strickt embracements bound,
An officer employed in carrying messages between royalty.
Speed him hence.
Send him off with speed.
hie
Hasten.
Charles … Charolais
This list is taken, retaining almost the
same order, from Holinshed’s list of the French lords slain at Agincourt (Chronicles, 1587 555; cf. A4 Sc8 Sp32). As Craik points out, Shakespeare’s addition to Holinshed’s list (Berry,
Burgundy, and Charolais) may have been required for metrical reasons (King Henry V).
Notes on the speaking characters appear at the List of Characters. For Burgundy,
see A4 Sc8 Sp32 n. John, Duke
of Berry (1340–1416) was uncle to King Charles VI and
co-regent during his minority; he was seventy-five in 1415 and took no part in the
resistance to the English. Charolais is actually one of the titles
of Philip of Burgundy, who appears under that title in 5.2. The rest were,
according to Holinshed and other chroniclers, all either killed or captured at
Agincourt, Alençon slain by King Henry’s bodyguard.
d’Alberet
The Folio’s spelling of the constable’s
name (Delabreth) follows Holinshed’s de la Berth
spelling for metrical reasons; Holinshed also once renders the name
Dalbreth (Chronicles, 1587 551). As with all historical figures I use
the modern spelling; in this case the variant d’Alberet more closely preserves the
meter than the more common d’Albret. Editors—even those who modernize other proper
French nouns (e.g. Rouen for F’s Roan [A3 Sc5 Sp8])—often opt for a
hybrid form like Delabret or De-la-bret.
kings
Lesser royalty.
King Charles either flatters the
nobility of his aristocratic subjects, employs poetic hyperbole, or alludes to the
historical royal status of dukedoms like Burgundy. Cf. princes all
(A3 Sc5 Sp12). Most editors,
following Theobald’s conjecture, emend to knights (Works of
Shakespeare).
seats
Dignity, authority (as represented by thrones and estates).
This compound suggestively
encapsulates the idea of ‘the king’s two bodiesʼ: the familiar form of the
personal name joined with the idea of king-as-country (Taylor, Henry V).
pennons
Long narrow banners attached to knights’ lances and
helmets.
host
Army.
vassal seat
Inferior location.
The Alps … upon.
The image of mountains spitting their
melted snowpack on valleys originates in the Latin poet Furius Bibaculus, in a
line parodied as bad verse by Horace (Satires II 5.41-42). For void his
rheum (spit phlegm) cf. MV
1.3.110.
Holinshed reports that the French had
planned to parade Henry in this way: The noble men had deuised a chariot,
wherein they might triumphantlie conueie the king captiue to the citie of
Paris (Chronicles, 1587 554).
Rouen
F’s spelling, Roan, indicates
contemporary English pronunciation; the meter requires a monosyllable.
becomes the great
Befits your royal greatness.
heart
Courage.
sink
Sewage pit.
’fore achievement
Even before his capture.
F’s spelling, for
atchieuement, presents a confusing sense. The phrase may mean “instead of achievement”, but if
achievement is taken to mean “capture” or “conquer” (its usual sense
in the play; see A3 Sc3 Sp1,
A4 Sc3 Sp20, Epilogue Sp1), the ransom would
normally follow, rather than replacing Henry’s achievement. Editorial glosses of
the original reading include Rann’s instead of attempting any great
exploit (Works), Craik’s to bring the matter to an end
(King Henry
V), and the RSC editors’ in exchange for honour/as the
only paltry thing to be achieved (Bate and Rasmussen).
ransom
Payment for the return of captives.
In medieval warfare, leaders and noble
members of an army could expect to be held hostage and treated well in
anticipation of a rich ransom. Ransoms were, indeed, the largest source of
potential income from a battle. Hence, Henry’s repeated boast that he will give no
ransom for his safe return if captured (see A3 Sc6 Sp38, A4 Sc1 Sp58, A4 Sc3 Sp20) represents an extraordinary
profession of an intention to fight to the death. Likewise, his infamous order to
kill the prisoners at Agincourt (A4 Sc6 Sp5) is transgressive in part because it
deprives his men of spoil.
haste on
Send with speed.
Prince … Rouen.
In F, but not in Q, the dauphin fights at
Agincourt despite these lines. Shakespeare follows Holinshed for the exchange:
The Dolphin sore desired to haue beene at the battell, but he was
prohibited by his father (Chronicles, 1587 552). Famous
Victories dramatizes the moment and provides the French King with
emotional motivation:
Sp396
Dolphin.
I trust your Maiestie will bestow,
Some part of the battell on me,
I hope not to present any otherwise then well.
King.
I tell thee my sonne,
Although I should get the victory, and thou lose thy life,
I should thinke my selfe quite conquered,
And the Englishmen to haue the victorie.
3.6
Location: the English camp in Picardy, northern France, near the
river Canche.
Holinshed does not note the location of
this action (Chronicles, 1587). Most editors, following Malone, place the
historical encounter on the river Ternoise near Blangy, where English scouts
captured a bridge on 23 October, and where the entire army crossed on the next
day, the eve of the battle of Agincourt (Plays). During the English march to Calais,
however, the French made several attempts to stop the retreat at river crossings;
the skirmish described in this scene, according to Holinshed (Chronicles, 1587), took
place on 22 October, three days before the battle, which would place it instead on
the river Canche, near Frévent (see A3 Sc6 Sp27 n., and Curry 154–156). An audience,
at any rate, cannot know which river the bridge spans, and is likely to assume it
to be the Somme, mentioned in the previous scene.
meeting
Gower and Fluellen, as the dialogue makes clear, must enter
separately.
services
Military feats.
committed
Performed.
at the bridge
Holinshed describes the encounter in
some detail:
The king of England hearing that the Frenchmen approched, and that there
was an other riuer for him to passe with his armie by a bridge, and doubting
least if the same bridge should be broken, it would be greatlie to his
hinderance, appointed certeine capteins with their bands, to go thither with
all speed before him, and to take possession thereof, and so to keepe it,
till his comming thither.
(Chronicles, 1587 552)
magnanimous
Generous, nobly brave.
Agamemnon
Leader of the Greeks during the Trojan war.
Fluellen’s simile may be inadvertently
faint praise. Not particularly noted for magnanimity even in Homer, Agamemnon, as
Shakespeare portrays him in Troilus and Cressida (1603),
is downright petty. Taylor suggests that Fluellen mentions him because of the echo
of the sound of magnanimous (Henry V).
my live
My life.
Probably pronounced with a long vowel.
Mark Antony
One of the three rulers of the Roman world during the Second
Triumvirate (43–33 BCE).
Fluellen’s comparison is again
ambivalent, as Mark Antony is most famous to military history for his famous
retreat from the battle of Actium (31 BCE), which led to the inception of the
Roman Empire and Antony’s disgrace and suicide.
estimation
Reputation.
as gallant service
Exploits as brave as a man of estimation might do.
Pistol
The surprise of the
identification is surely intended as comic, and probably reflects on Fluellen’s
obsession with the form of military action, rather than its content
(Taylor, Henry
V).
buxom
1) Vigorous; 2) kindly, affable.
The definition pliant, obedient (OED, 2nd ed. buxom, a.I.1.a) may also be appropriate, giving buxom valor the sense of valour under good command, obedient to its superiors (Steevens, Plays).
giddy
Fickle.
Fortune’s … blind
The goddess Fortune was traditionally represented as a blind
woman turning a wheel that alternately exalted humans and cast them down.
rolling restless stone
An alternate depiction of Fortune showed
her standing on a spherical stone to represent her proverbial fickleness (cf. Tilley F606). One of the earliest such
representations is that of the Roman tragedian Marcus Pacuvius (220–130 BCE), who
writes,
Hans Sebald Beham’s 1541 engraving of Fortuna depicts both wheel and
spherical stone. Pistol here combines the two icons of Fortune into one, and Fluellen
cannot resist the temptation to read Pistol a little lecture on the
emblems of Fortune (Kittredge).
By your patience
Forgive my interruption.
muffler
Blindfold.
his
Many editors emend to her to regularize Fortune’s
gender in Fluellen’s speech.
to signify … blind
To illustrate that chance, the principle she represents, operates
blindly.
Warburton found this to be a tautology
signifying Fluellen’s absurdity (Works), but Steevens argues that the captain
distinguishes between the goddess Fortuna and the
abstraction fortune (Plays). I have rendered the latter in
lowercase to suggest the distinction.
rowls
Most editors regularize the spelling, but
F’s spelling (rowles) may indicate Fluellen’s non-standard
pronunciation. The spelling does occur rarely elsewhere—in Othello (F1 Oth sig.
VV4v) and Henry VIII (F1 H8 sig.
X3v)—though
roll is the conventional spelling in early Shakespearean
texts.
the poet
Fluellen’s praise of some
particular poet is humourous because this description of
Fortune is so thoroughly traditional (Craik, King Henry V).
moral
Symbolic figure, allegorical emblem.
Fortune … him
A popular ballad began Fortune my
foe, why dost thou frown on me?
he hath … be
Cf. Holinshed:
Yet in this great necessitie, the poore people of the countrie were not
spoiled, nor anie thing taken of them without paiment, nor anie outrage or
offense doone by the Englishmen, except one, which was, that a souldiour
tooke a pix out of a church, for which he was apprehended, & the king
not once remooued till the box was restored, and the offendor
strangled.
(Chronicles, 1587 552)
pax
Precious metal tablet depicting the crucifixion, kissed in mass by
those taking communion.
Though pax is the
reading of both F and Q, some editors emend to pix or
pyx (the chest used to hold the consecrated bread), since that
is the object stolen by the unnamed soldier in both Hall and Holinshed (The vnion; Chronicles, 1587 1217), and since a pyx is an object equally
likely to be stolen from a church. In Hall, though not in the more
Protestant-inclined chronicle of Holinshed, the soldier’s real crime is not theft,
but the blasphemous eating of the host outside the context of mass.
Either because Pistol’s speech is confusing or because the offer
of a bribe is only implied.
Why … therefore!
A theatrical phrase, perhaps (as Malone
observes) recalling Marlowe’s Massacre at Paris (1594,
D2): The Guise is slaine, and I reioyce therefore
(Marlowe qtd. in Malone, Plays). Cf. Pistol’s
Why then, lament therefor (2H4 5.3.94).
For if
For even if.
fico
“A fig” (Italian).
The fig was an insulting exclamation, usually accompanied by biting the thumb or thrusting
it between the first two fingers. By its shape, the gesture, also called the fig or the fig of Spain (A3 Sc6 Sp19) suggests the fruit, but also evokes a hemorrhoid (another sense of fig; see OED, 2nd ed. fig, n.1.3.a), and indicates a wish for its recipient to suffer such a painful condition, or perhaps
to be murdered by poisoned figs, a practice associated with Spanish and Italian revenge
(n.1.2).
Summer days are the longest and thus
offer the best chance at seeing wonders. The phrase is proverbial (Tilley S967); see also A4 Sc8 Sp13, below, and MND
1.2.69.
warrant
Assure, promise.
when … serve
Fluellen’s version of “when time shall
serve”, i.e., when the opportunity arises.
The you is used here for emphasis (the
ethical dative).
by … done
Gower’s warning here recalls a
confidence trick described in early modern literature of roguery: the
whip-jack was a rogue who collected details of naval
battles in order to beg more convincingly as a disabled veteran sailor. See, for
example, Awdelay’s Fraternitie of uacabondes (sig. A2r).
sconce
Small fort.
Andrew Gurr’s discussion of this word—on
which he partly bases his argument about the relationship among Q1, Q3, and a
manuscript copy-text for F—depends on a misreading of Q1, which Gurr believes has
scene here. In fact, Q1 reads sconce, like Q3 and
F, though a worn or imperfectly inked O type might suggest
“scence”. See Gurr, King Henry V, Introduction 8.
Francis M. Kelly and Randolphe Schwabe,
in A Short History of Costume and Armour (1931), note
that in the ’nineties the Earl of
Essex set the fashion of rather long, square beards, otherwise reserved for
elder men (Kelly and Schwabe
2.22), and Edward Le Comte argues that it is to this fashion, the so-called
Cadiz beard to which Gower alludes (Shakspere, Guilpin, and
Essex); this allusion would lend support to the identification of
the general of our gracious empress mentioned by the Chorus
(A5 Sc0 Sp1) with Essex.
Taylor suggests that Pistol himself had such a beard, in the original
performances (Henry V).
horrid
1) Shaggy, rough; 2) intimidating.
suit
Uniform.
The Quarto’s different and equally sensible reading,
shout, suggests a mishearing or misreading of copy text;
contemporary spellings of suit included
soute and shutte (OED, 2nd ed. suit, n.III.13.a, II.9.b).
ale-washed
Drunken.
wonderful
Amazing.
know
Recognize.
slanders … age
Disgraces to the current time.
mistook
Deceived, misled.
hole … coat
Misstep in his pretense; opportunity to expose him.
from the pridge
About the bridge; i.e., to bring news about the skirmish at the
bridge.
The phrase was deleted by some early editors—including Pope and
Malone, who conjectured compositorial eyeskip from A3 Sc6 Sp26 (Pope, Works; Malone, Plays)—who
misunderstood the preposition as being literally locative.
Colors
Military banners.
poor
Sick, tired, bedraggled.
pless
Bless.
The Duke … pridge.
Cf. Holinshed:
Those that were sent, finding the Frenchmen busie to breake downe their
bridge, assailed them so vigorouslie, that they discomfited them, and tooke
and slue them; and so the bridge was preserued till the king came, and
passed the riuer by the same with his whole armie. This was on the two and
twentith day of October.
(Chronicles, 1587)
Holinshed does not mention the role of Exeter, whom Shakespeare has holding
Harfleur for the English in 3.3 (See A3 Sc3 Sp3 n.). Exeter is presumably needed here so that Pistol can ask Fluellen to plead with him for Bardolph’s
life (Gurr, King
Henry V).
prave passages
Brave passages, i.e., admirable fights.
was have
Did have.
enforced
Forced, compelled.
perdition
Loss (of men).
never a man
Not even one man.
if … man
Fluellen, of course, has no way of
knowing of the prior relationship between Henry and Bardolph, but assumes that the
king might have noticed the latter’s odd appearance.
His face … red.
Steevens suggests an echo of Chaucer’s
description of the Summoner, whose face is fyr-reed with
whelkes white and knobbes sittynge on his chekes
(General Prologue 624–633).
Johnson remarks with relief that
this is the last time that any
sport can be made with the red face of Bardolph, which to confess the truth
seems to have taken more hold on Shakespeare’s imagination than on any
other. The conception is very cold to the solitary reader, though it may be
somewhat invigorated by the exhibition on the stage. This poet is always
more careful about the present than the future, about his audience than his
readers.
(Plays)
bubuckles
Swollen, inflamed bumps.
A portmanteau of
buboes (swellings that frequently marked plague victims)
and carbuncles (facial pustules reminiscent the flame-red
gems of the same name).
whelks
Pimples.
knobs
Warts, lumps.
flames afire
Burns like fire.
Following Wilson, I read F’s a fire as an
adverb describing the way His face […] flames
(Wilson). The more usual reading is
Dyce’s flames o’ fire, meaning “red
patches” (Works of
William Shakespeare). Lodged as it is between a series of
nouns and a clause, the phrase could logically serve as both. Audiences are
unlikely to hear the difference, but a verb gives the player of Fluellen a more
active option.
his lips … nose
His breath inflames the fire of his nose like a bellows.
Taylor takes this to imply that the
character should have an underbite.
plue
Blue.
his … executed
His face no longer glows.
Either this means that Bardolph has
been executed, an assumption that reveals Pistol’s pleading to have been useless
and Fluellen’s prediction of the execution (A3 Sc6 Sp29) puzzling, or more likely, as Malone argued, it means that the anticipation of
his fate has extinguished the fire in Bardolph’s face (Plays). Modern directors
frequently portray the execution of Bardolph onstage at this point in the scene.
In Adrian Noble’s 1984 RSC production, for example, the moment was played for full
tragic effect: Bardolph was brought onstage to stare silently at Henry during
Fluellen’s description of him, and slowly knelt after his fire’s
out (Henry
V). Kenneth Branagh’s Henry then gave a nod to Exeter, who
garroted Bardolph gruesomely; his agonizingly slow death and Henry’s static,
silent reaction to it took place in a full eighty seconds of silence, filled only
by the sound of rain falling, before Henry’s next line.
We would … winner
Shakespeare makes this proclamation a
reaction to Bardolph’s offense, while Holinshed makes clear that this was policy
from the outset of the campaign:
At his first comming on land, he caused proclamation to be made, that no
person should be so hardie on paine of death, either to take anie thing out
of anie church that belonged to the same, or to hurt or doo anie violence
either to priests, women, or anie such as should be found without weapon or
armor, and not readie to make resistance: also that no man should renew anie
quarell or strife, whereby anie fraie might arise to the disquieting of the
armie.
(Chronicles, 1587 549)
Holinshed also describes the success of Henry’s policy of the
gentler gamester:
The people of the countries thereabout, hearing of such zeale in him, to
the maintenance of iustice, ministred to his armie victuals, and other
necessaries, although by open proclamation so to doo they were
prohibited.
(Chronicles, 1587 552)
cut off
Punished by death.
express charge
An explicit command.
compelled
Taken by force.
upbraided
Reproached.
levity
Lightness of touch, smoothness.
The Quarto reading,
lenitie (mercy, gentleness), suggests that a u/n
compositorial error is highly likely, but a nonce-use of
levity—in the broadest, non-pejorative sense of
“lightness”—makes sense as an opposite quality to
heavy cruelty. The more usual sense of
“jocularity” may seem inappropriate to the character and
situation, but Henry is still a king capable of playing a violent practical joke
on the battlefield while the dead are being counted.
play for
Gamble for.
gentler
Milder, more generous.
gamester
Player, gambler.
Tucket
Trumpet call.
Usually a signal for marching (OED, 2nd ed. tucket, n.1); here the announcement of Montjoy’s entrance.
habit
Apparel.
The French royal herald would wear a
tabard bearing the king’s coat of arms. Both Walter and Humphreys comment that
Montjoy’s unceremoniously terse greeting is insolent, but Henry’s Thou dost
thy office fairly (A3 Sc6 Sp38) suggests that he does not take
offense (Humphreys, Henry
V; Walter, Henry V).
Holinshed records this response to the
first encounter between Henry and the French herald:
King Henrie aduisedlie answered: Mine intent is to doo as it pleaseth
God, I will not seeke your maister at this time; but if he or his seeke me,
I will meet with them God willing. If anie of your nation attempt once to
stop me in my iournie now towards Calis, at their ieopardie be it; and yet
with I not anie of you so vnaduised, as to be the occasion that I die your
tawnie ground with your red bloud.
(Chronicles, 1587 552)
Q’s spelling, heire, makes clear the pun
on heir of France, i.e., the dauphin.
blown … me
Inflated me with boastfulness.
Continuing the heir/air wordplay, the dauphin can be said to have boasted (see OED, 2nd ed. blow, v.1.I.6.a) boastfulness into Henry.
trunk
Body.
God before
1) With God on our side; 2) I swear before God.
France himself
1) The king in person; 2) the whole of France.
There’s … labor
When he had thus answered the
herald, he gaue him a princelie reward, and licence to depart (Holinshed, Chronicles, 1587 552).
advise himself
Consider carefully.
tawny
Yellow-brown.
on … them
Tomorrow we will order the soldiers to.
Although MacDonald Jackson’s conjecture (Henry V), which Gurr accepts
(King Henry
V), is attractive, the punctuation of Q and F makes perfectly
good sense, and since Henry himself has just given the order to march, a further
command to give the order would be redundant.
3.7
Location: the French camp, Agincourt.
Dauphin
F includes the dauphin in this scene,
despite his historical absence, and despite the French king having ordered him to
remain in Rouen (A3 Sc5 Sp10);
likely Shakespeare was obliged for dramatic reasons to humiliate the
braggart of the tennis-balls at Agincourt (Wilson, Henry V): the
decision to bring the dauphin to Agincourt, though it leads to another internal
inconsistency in F, continues to focus the conflict of the French and English upon
the dauphin as a foil for King Henry. The dauphin’s presence and defeat resolves
the two characters’ in a dramatically satisfying way that Famous
Victories, which sticks to the chronicle more closely on this issue,
can only gesture at: in the earlier play, Henry explicitly laments that the
dauphin’s absence means that he cannot pay his rival back for the mockery with the
tennis balls (FV sigs.
E2v-E3r). The Quarto
version of Henry V solves the inconsistency by revising
this scene and 4.5 in such a way as to replace the dauphin with Bourbon (4.2 has
no analogue in Q). Gary Taylor’s was the first modern edition to adopt this
substitution, on the grounds that it reflects Shakespeare’s most mature artistic
intentions (Henry
V); while this is likely the case, conflating the two states of
the text in this way leads Taylor to rather awkward justifications, like Orléans’s
reference to Bourbon (rather than the dauphin) as a gallant prince
(A3 Sc7 Sp43), a title
reserved elsewhere in the play for royalty.
with others
None of these others participates in the scene’s
dialogue, and they may be intended to pass on and off the stage to indicate the
business of preparation for battle. Q does not indicate non-speaking
characters.
pasterns
Feet, hoofs.
Specifically, the
pastern is the part of the foot between the fetlock and
the hoof.
Ch’ha!
Exclamation of pride.
The dauphin either attempts to mimic the
sound of his horse, imagines making such a sound to urge him on in battle, or
simply makes a general exclamation of triumph or delight. Cf. the passage in
praise of the horse in Job: He sayth among the trumpets, Ha, ha: hee
smelleth the battell afarre off, and the noyse of the captaines, and the
shouting (Geneva, Job 39:25).
as … hairs
As if his insides (specifically intestines) were light as
hairs.
Alternately, the dauphin may allude to
the bounding of tennis balls, which were traditionally stuffed with hairs (Warburton, Works; cf. Ado
3.2.34), or we may
hear a pun on hares (Taylor,
Henry V).
le cheval volant
“The flying horse”.
Pegasus
Winged horse of Greek myth.
qui a … feu
“who has fiery nostrils”.
basest horn
Lowest part.
With a play on the sense of “lowest-pitched wind instrument”.
Hermes
Greek messenger god.
In myth, Hermes used his
pipe to lull the giant Argus to sleep.
heat
Great eagerness, ardor (as ginger is hot to
the taste).
Perseus
Greek hero, rider of Pegasus.
Perseus slew the gorgon Medusa, from
whose blood Pegasus was born.
air and fire
The two hot, light elements of the four elements of ancient
philosophy.
Shakespeare associates these elements
with swiftness and lightness (see Sonnets 44 and 45), and
elsewhere with nobility and courage; see Cleopatra’s boasting self-description :
I am fire and air; my other elements / I give to baser life
(Ant
5.2.278–279).
all … beasts
I.e., other horses do not deserve the name.
Since jade can
also refer to a whore, the dauphin’s line may foreshadow the extended
double entendre below.
absolute
Perfect, incomparable.
horse
Actors frequently emphasize this word
or pause before it to emphasize the ironic absurdity of such overblown
praise.
palfreys
Riding horses.
A palfrey, typically ridden by women,
would be unsuitable in battle, and the dauphin presumably doesn’t mean to imply
that his warhorse is one, choosing it for the alliteration of the phrase and the
word’s association with chivalric poetry.
There seems to be word-play on
subject (one who owes service to a king) and on
‘sovereign reasonʼ (the reason, as having the right to rule over other
faculties Ham 3.1.151) (Craik, King Henry V).
reason on
Discuss.
familiar … unknown
Both the known world and beyond.
to lay … functions
To put aside their individual occupations and join
together.
sonnet
Lyric poem.
Wonder of nature—
Readers at least since Warburton have
conjectured Shakespeare satirizes a specific contemporary poem here, but no such
poem has been convincingly identified (Works).
courser
Warhorse, charger.
bears
Carries a man’s weight.
I.e., in riding or during sex. During
the bawdy exchange following the dauphin’s comparison of his warhorse to a
mistress, the constable and the dauphin quibble repeatedly on horsemanship as a
euphemism for sex, playing on the punning resemblance of
horse and whores.
Me
She bears only me.
prescript
Prescribed, proper.
particular
Privately owned, personal.
As opposed to a
common mistress, i.e., a prostitute.
shrewdly
1) Sharply, severely; 2) like a shrew (a misogynist slang term for an ill-tempered
woman).
shook your back
1) Rattled you while riding; 2) had sex with you.
Mine … bridled.
1) My mistress is a woman, not a horse; 2) my mistress is less
controlled than yours.
belike
Perhaps, presumably.
rode
1) On horseback; 2) sexually.
kern of Ireland
Irish peasant-soldier.
hose
Breeches.
in … strossers
1) In close-fitting trousers; 2) naked.
horsemanship
Often pronounced “whoresmanship” in performance in order to bring out
the implicit pun.
foul bogs
1) Filthy mires; 2) diseased vaginas.
to my mistress
As my mistress.
as lief
Rather.
jade
1) Worn-out horse; 2) whore.
my mistress … hair
I.e., as opposed to yours, who has lost her natural hair to
syphilis and so wears a wig.
Le chien … bourbier.
“The dog has returned to its own vomit,
and the washed sow to the mud”.
The proverb predates the New Testament;
see 2 Peter: But it is come vnto them, according to the true Prouerbe, The
dogge is returned to his owne vomit: and, The sowe that was washed, to the
wallowing in the myre (Geneva 2:22). The French, as Gurr points out,
follows the Huguenot bible (King Henry V).
Thou makest … anything.
You find any way to turn my words against me.
use … for
1) Treat like; 2) employ sexually as.
any such proverb
A proverb such as the one the dauphin has just quoted.
kin … purpose
Relevant to the conversation.
fall
Be knocked off the armour.
want
Lack for stars; be diminished.
a many
A great many.
honor
Respectful, noble.
Ev’n
Just.
his desert
What he deserves.
I will … faces
I.e., I will kill so many English tomorrow that their
bodies will cover a mile (Craik,
King Henry V).
faced … way
Defied and driven from my course.
fain
Eagerly.
about the ears
Beating the heads.
go to hazard
1) Make a wager; 2) go into danger, risk.
Literally a dice game; see the Chorus at A4 Sc0 Sp1 (and note).
he will … kills
I.e., he will kill no one.
The phrase is proverbial (Dent A192.2). Cf. Beatrice’s similar
mock: But how many hath he kil’d? for indeed, I promis’d to eate all of his
killing (Ado
1.1.31–33).
foot
May pun on the sense of “vagina” or the French foutre, “fuck”, contributing to the
bawdy sense of tread out. See Partridge’s entry on
foot (Shakespeare’s Bawdy).
tread out
Erase by stamping out.
Also with a sexual sense; since
tread refers to the copulation of birds,
tread out can mean to beget or engender (OED, 2nd ed. tread, v.B.8).
active
Energetic, diligent.
Doing
Copulation.
See OED, 2nd ed. doing, vbl. n.1.b. Orléans, intentionally or not, takes the word in
the neutral, more innocent sense. As Craik points out, nothing in the dialogue
here or elsewhere suggests that the dauphin is particularly lecherous, so perhaps
the constable means only constant, ineffectual activity (King Henry V).
still
Always, continually.
did harm
Injured anyone.
that good name
I.e., “harmless” (not a favorable
epithet for a warrior).
What’s he?
Who is that?
he
The dauphin.
it
Valor.
no hidden virtue
Obvious.
Could also be taken to mean “nonexistent”.
Never … lackey.
He has only ever done violence to his servant.
hooded
1) Hidden; 2) masked like a hunting falcon.
bate
1) Disappear, diminish; 2) flutter its wings restlessly.
The constable’s falconry quibble comes
from hooded valor. A hawk bates
(flaps its wings) when unhooded (OED, 2nd ed. bate, v.1.2).
The constable here begins a game called
Proverbs, in which players counter one proverbial saying
with another. Taylor notes that such proverb duels also occur in Drayton’s Idea (1619), Henry Porter’s Two Angry Women
of Abingdon (ca. 1588), and John Grange’s Golden
Aphroditis (1577) (Henry V).
flattery in friendship
Outdo, beat.
The more common proverb is
falsehood in fellowship (Tilley F41), but in Shakespeare flattery
invariably connotes deception.
take up
Counter.
Give … due.
Proverbial (Tilley D273).
Well placed.
That’s appropriate.
There stands … for
Your friend (the dauphin) takes the place of.
Have … eye
I’ll shoot at the target.
The constable imagines the dauphin, and
the proverb that makes him into a devil, to stand as
an archery target, the centermost point of which is called the
eye (OED, 2nd ed. eye, n.1.III.16.c).
A pox … devil.
More properly a curse than a proverb, a pox
of/on— was quite a common formulation. Cf. a fig for—
(Tilley F210).
A military pace
is a step, or roughly five feet—the mile being derived from
the Roman mille passus, “a thousand paces”. Shakespeare alters this distance from his source in
Holinshed, who writes that the French were incamped not past two hundred
and fiftie pases distant from the English (Chronicles, 1587 552). The
Chorus in 4.0 seems closer to Holinshed’s estimate of three bow
shoots (554), with the two armies in earshot, eyeing each other’s
campfires; see A4 Sc0 Sp1.
Who … ground?
Although the constable’s subsequent
comment on Grandpré (A3 Sc7 Sp65) suggests that Shakespeare did not intend comic irony here, this line is
sometimes delivered ironically, as if to indicate either disbelief at the distance
or the idea that any attempt at precise measurement would be absurd.
peevish
Obstinate, foolish.
mope
Wander aimlessly and stupidly.
fat-brained
Thick-witted.
out … knowledge
Beyond his familiarity, outside of his territory.
apprehension
Understanding, perception.
headpieces
Helmets.
mastiffs
Large dogs bred for fighting.
The nationalistic association of the
mastiff’s bravery with England is suggested by William Harrison’s Description of England in the first volume of Holinshed’s 1587 Chronicles, which describes the dogs as capable of
courage, violent, valiant, stout and bold (Chronicles, 1587 230), and
tells of one such dog performing English courage patriotically for an
international audience: one English mastiffe, which alone and without anie
helpe at all pulled downe first an huge beare, then a pard, and last of all a
lion, each after other before the French king in one daie (231).
winking
With closed eyes, i.e., blindly.
bear
I.e., in a bear-baiting.
Frequently mentioned in Shakespeare’s
plays, bear-baiting was a popular blood-entertainment in which a bear, often
imported from as far as Russia, was chained to a large stake and attacked by dogs
while onlookers bet on the outcome. Bear-baitings were held in the same spaces
where plays took place, including permanent urban arenas such as the Paris Garden
and the Bear Garden, close to the Globe playhouse. At least one Bankside
playhouse, the Hope, was used alternately for both plays and bear-baitings; the
Induction to Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair (1614) may suggest
that actors at the Hope even shared tiring-house space with caged bears (Jonson).
eat … on
Suck blood from.
Just
Exactly so.
sympathize with
Resemble.
robustious
Violent, boisterous.
coming on
Advancing, attacking headlong.
give
If you give.
meals … fight
The constable’s speech about English
courage coming from his diet of beef (or alternately his warm bed or his ale) has
several analogues in Shakespeare and his sources. Hall (though not Holinshed [Chronicles, 1587]) includes the following passage in the constable’s oration before Agincourt:
For you must vnderstand, that
kepe an Englishman one moneth from
his warme bed, fat befe and stale drynke, and let him that season tast colde
and suffre hunger, you then shal se his courage a bated, his bodye waxe
leane and bare, and euer desirous to returne into his owne countrey.
(The vnion fol. 67v-68
Similarly, Famous Victories has an unnamed French
captain ask, take an English man out of his warme bed / And his stale
drinke, but one moneth, / And alasse, what will become of him (Sp427FV). Alençon in
1 Henry VI attributes the weakness of an English siege
to the besieger’s lack of their porridge and their fat bull beeves
(1H6
1.2.9), and the French king in Edward III says of the
English that if you
F’s spelling, shrowdly, may contain a
macabre pun on shroud, i.e., “burial sheet”, anticipating the impending slaughter of the
English.
stomachs
Appetites.
Now … arm.
The constable’s line suggests that the
dauphin armed himself two hours too early, at midnight (A3 Sc7 Sp39).
by ten
Cf. Holinshed:
They rested themselues, waiting for the bloudie blast of the terrible
trumpet, till the houre betweene nine and ten of the clocke of the same
daie.
(Chronicles 553)
entertain … of
Imagine.
conjecture
Hypothetical supposition.
murmur
Low continuous sounds; rumor.
poring
Eye-straining.
The pun on pouring leads to the image
of darkness as a liquid filling the wide vessel of the
universe.
From camp … face.
Holinshed sets the scene of the quiet
firelit night before the battle:
Order was taken by commandement from the king after the armie was first
set in battell arraie, that no noise or clamor should be made in the host;
so that in marching foorth to this village, euerie man kept himselfe quiet:
but at their comming into the village, fiers were made to giue light on
euerie side, as there likewise were in the French host, which was incamped
not past two hundred and fiftie pases distant from the English.
(Chronicles, 1587 552)
foul
Dark; loathsome.
stilly
Quietly.
That
So that.
fixed sentinels
Watchmen at their stations (nearest the enemy).
almost … watch
Hear their counterparts’ challenges (e.g., “who goes there?”).
paly
Pale.
The heraldic sense of “striped” might also be evoked (OED, 3rd ed. paly, adj.1.1); i.e., the fires paint each soldier’s
umbered face — umber is a heraldic
color—with vertical stripes.
battle
Army.
umbered
Darkened, shadowed.
Literally, the adjective could mean
“as if darkened with umber” a yellow-brown
pigment derived from the earth in the Italian region of Umbria (see AYL
1.3.101). Additionally, the
word could merely mean “shaded”, from Latin
umbra, “shade”.
And since an umber (OED, 2nd ed. umber, n.1.4) is also the visor of a helmet, the word could allude
to the soldier’s heads being armed in readiness for the upcoming battle.
Most editors see F’s apparent slip from
present to past tense here, as at A4 Sc0 Sp1 (Presented) as
errors— either visual (d/e confusion in nam’d) or aural
(Presented for Presenteth)—and
emend accordingly. I preserve the original readings as a grammatical aspect of the
temporal doubleness of the speech; just as the Chorus is both a member of the
modern audience and a voice from the historical past, and
just as Henry is both a historical figure on a battlefield and an actor on a
stage, the speech takes place both in the present of 1415 and that of performance,
and the verbs’ temporal shifts reinforce that effect, in a way similar to the use
of the historical or narrative present tense common to Latin epic.
Wagering, that is, for their anticipated
captives; see A3 Sc7 Sp37.
Holinshed reports that the French, as though they had beene sure of
victorie, made great triumph, for the capteins had determined before, how to
diuide the spoile, and the soldiers the night before had plaid the Englishmen
at dice (Chronicles, 1587 554; FV); and Famous
Victories devotes an entire scene to French soldiers dicing for English
prisoners (
sigs.
E3r-E4r).
chide
Scold, complain about.
cripple tardy-gaited
Lame, slow-moving.
F’s spelling, creeple-tardy-gated, suggests the
etymological of cripple, one who can only creep.
foul … witch
This metaphor, with its echo of
foul womb (A4 Sc0 Sp1) continues the characterization of
the night as both loathsome and female.
tediously
1) Slowly, wearily; 2) disagreeably.
Like sacrifices
Waiting patiently to be slaughtered. Cf.
Hotspur: They come like sacrifices in their trim, / And to the fire-eyed
maid of smoky war / All hot and bleeding will we offer them (1H4
4.1.114–116).
inly
Internally; thoroughly.
ruminate
Ponder.
Literally, “chew over”, a
bovine verb that picks up the previous line’s image of animal
sacrifices.
gesture sad
Serious or mournful bearing, posture.
Investing
Clothing, surrounding.
lank-lean
Loose and shrunken, gaunt.
So many
As just so many.
horrid
1) Frightful; 2) shaggy, rough-clad.
who
Whoever.
Walking from … tent
Neither Hall nor Holinshed describes
Henry cheering his soldiers on the eve of Agincourt (Hall, The vnion; Holinshed, Chronicles, 1587), though an anonymous manuscript biography of Henry V dated 1513
describes similar behaviour at the siege of Harfleur: The Kinge daylie and
nightlie in his owne person visited and searched the watches, orders, and
stacions of everie part of his hoast, and whome he found dilligent he praised
and thanked, and the negligent he corrected and chasticed (The First English Life of King
Henry the Fifth 38).
watch
Group of guards.
host
Army.
note
Indication, sign.
dread
Fearsome.
enrounded
Surrounded.
Shakespeare uses hyperbole to emphasize
the English army’s despair; the English were not literally surrounded, but merely
at a tactical disadvantage, blocked in their path to Calais by a force of superior
numbers. Hall does describe Henry’s battle tactics as an attempt to avoid being
surrounded: the king had thus ordred his battaile, like a puissaunt
conqueror without feare of his enemies, yet considering the multitude of them
farre to excede the smal nombre of his people, doubtyng that the Frenchemen
would compasse and beset him aboute, and so fight with him on euery
side (The
vnion fol. 68v).
dedicate
Surrender, devote, assign.
color
Natural redness of his complexion.
all-watchèd
Universally wakeful; spent entirely in watchfulness.
freshly
With undiminished vigor.
overbears
Puts aside, overcomes, represses.
attaint
Weariness.
Other senses are probably also relevant:
“false color, stain”; “dishonor”. Inasmuch as Henry, as his soliloquy later in the
act will
reveal, is still concerned with legitimizing his claim to the throne that his
father usurped, his entire war could be characterized as part of his attempt to
overbear attaint.
semblance
Appearance.
A word that may carry connotations of
feigning or false seeming.
pining
Languishing, wasting away.
largess
Generosity.
universal … sun
It is proverbial that the sun
shines upon all alike (Tilley S985), but as Paul Jorgensen points out, Shakespeare may have
derived this application of the metaphor from the anonymous A
myrrour for English souldiers (1595): Let euerie Generall know
himselfe to be the sunne in the heauen of his host, from whose beames euery
soldier borroweth his shine (A myrrour C1). See Jorgensen, Shakespeare’s Military
World 95–96.
liberal
Generous, unrestrained.
that
So that.
mean … all
All men, regardless of rank.
as … define
As my humble eloquence might roughly express it.
touch
Glimpse, influence.
Harry
Perhaps Harry is meant to
signify the man, as distinct from Henry the king, though the French king does also
refer to him as Harry.
we … Agincourt
This apology echoes Philip Sidney’s
criticism of the inadequacy of the stage to represent warfare: two Armies
flye in, represented with foure swords and bucklers, & then what harde
heart wil not receiue the stage for a
pitched fielde? (Apologie for poetrie, printed 1595, K1). In his 1616 prologue
to Every Man In His humour (which originally appeared in
the same year as Henry V) Ben Jonson would aim a similar
attack directly at Shakespeare and his chronicle history plays, sneering at
players who would with three rustie swords, / And helpe of some few
foot-and-halfe-foote words, / Fight ouer Yorke, and
Lancasters long iarres (Workes, A3).
vile and ragged
Cheap and shabby.
foils
Blunted fencing swords.
Right ill-disposed
Quite poorly handled.
Minding
Bearing in mind.
mock’ries
Imitations.
4.1
Location: the English camp, Agincourt.
meeting Bedford
It is clear from the dialogue that Henry enters in conversation
with Gloucester alone and greets Bedford at A4 Sc1 Sp1. Gary Taylor substitutes the Duke of
Clarence here, to comply with his earlier substitution of Clarence for Bedford at
1.2 (Henry V),
although the following passage has no equivalent in Q. Historically, the Duke of
Clarence was invalided home after Harfleur and so was absent from the battle of
Agincourt.
soul
Spirit, essence.
Would men
If men would.
observingly
Observantly.
distill
Extract by purification.
bad neighbor … stirrers
The French force us with their noise to rise early.
Proverbial; see Tilley N107: He that has an ill neighbor has
oftentimes an ill morning.
husbandry
Thrift, efficient management.
outward
External.
dress us
Prepare ourselves.
To dress for one’s end is to prepare
spiritually for death. Holinshed writes that the English despite being
hungrie, wearie, sore trauelled, and vexed with manie cold
diseases, nevertheless reconciled themselues with God by hoossell and shriff, requiring
assistance at his hands that is the onelie giuer of victorie (Chronicles, 1587 552).
Erpingham, commander of the archers at
Agincourt, was fifty-eight years old in 1415; Holinshed describes him as an
old knight and a man of great experience in the warre
(554).
churlish
Vulgar; hard.
likes
Pleases.
like a king
The usual sense of the commonplace would
be “richly” or “luxuriously”, but Erpingham literalizes it for comic effect.
Upon example so
By virtue of such an attitude to bodily pain.
The more usual editorial reading, which is, arguably, equally
justified by the Folio punctuation, defines Upon example as
“by taking example of another’s pain”. Moore Smith conjectured
that A4 Sc1 Sp3 should be
spoken as an aside, arguing that Henry is discussing the example he means to give
his subjects (Henry
V).
quickened
Refreshed, brought to life.
out of doubt
Doubtlessly.
Break … grave
Break out of the grave of sleep.
casted slough
Discarded skin (like a reptile’s).
Given the older spelling of
sloth as sloughe, the phrase also
may have the punning sense of “abandoned
sluggishness”. Walter asserts that a snake is sluggish and
listless for a time immediately preceding the shedding of its skin
(Henry V).
Cf. Twelfth Night: cast thy humble slough, and
appear fresh (TN 2.5.122–123).
legerity
Lightness, nimbleness.
This adjective appears nowhere else in
Shakespeare. F3’s emendation to celerity (swiftness) may have been
an attempt to avoid the negative connotations of legerity,
i.e., inappropriate frivolity. Robert Barret, in The theorike and
practike of moderne warres (1598) uses the word for the sort of
unsoldierly behaviour Fluellen attributes to the French, calling pratling
to his next companions […] one of the greatest faults that
a souldier can commit, and a signe of great ligeritie and lightnesse
(Barret 12).
Brothers both
Bedford and Gloucester.
Commend me
Send my greetings to.
anon
Soon.
pavilion
Elaborate ornamental tent.
Shall … grace?
This short speech may form a shared verse line either with
Gloucester’s preceding speech or with Henry’s response. The latter seems more
likely, making Gloucester’s speech a half line indicating that he and Bedford
begin their exit after it. Capell added a direction for such an exit at A4 Sc1 Sp4 (Comedies, Histories, and
Tragedies).
Gurr argued that F’s placement of the
Exeunt makes Henry’s next speech (A4 Sc1 Sp8) a soliloquizing comment
indicating that Henry himself is not cheerful (King Henry V). The exits of
Bedford, Gloucester, and Erpingham take place fluidly during these speeches,
however, as A4 Sc1 Sp3 and A4 Sc1 Sp6 suggest, so
it is more likely that the speech is an address to Erpingham as he departs. Henry
can don the disguise of Erpingham’s cloak at any time after A4 Sc1 Sp3, but it is clear that he must be
wearing it before Pistol encounters him at A4 Sc1 Sp9.
God-a-mercy
God have mercy on you.
Either a general wish for Erpingham’s
welfare or an expression of thanks, its meaning muddled with
gramercy.
Che vous la?
Pistol’s version of Qui va là?,
French for “Who goes there?”
The fact that Pistol gives his challenge
in pidgin French may indicate his ambiguous patriotism, or it may merely serve as
a reminder of how close the camps are.
Discuss
Declare, relate.
popular
Of low birth; one of the common people.
For a discussion of the makeup of the
English army and its class divisions, see Curry 57–78.
gentleman … company
A gentleman serving as a volunteer rather than commissioned as a
captain.
Trail’st … pike?
Do you carry the mighty pike; i.e., are you an infantryman?
To trail a pike—the
English infantryman’s usual weapon during the fifteenth century and into
Shakespeare’s day—is to carry it below the head, dragging the butt along the
ground. Trailing a pike, as opposed to carrying it over a shoulder, could be seen
as a sign of defeat or of funereal mourning (see Cor
), but it was also the
usual means of carrying the weapons when not marching into battle.
Even so.
Just so.
bawcock
Fine fellow.
lad of life
Lively lad.
imp
Shoot of a plant; i.e., child.
Pistol uses the same phrase for Henry
just after his coronation (2H4 5.5.37). The sense of graft (OED, 2nd ed. imp, n.2.a) is a reminder that Henry’s lineage has been grafted
onto the tree of fame, as opposed to growing naturally. Such reminders culminate
in Henry’s anxious prayer that God will ignore his father’s usurpation (A4 Sc1 Sp79).
heartstring
The deepest seat of emotion.
Literally, one of the tendons or nerves
thought to support the heart.
Nothing about the name
Leroy is particularly Cornish. Walter suggests an
allusion to the now lost play Harry of Cornwall (ca.
1591) mentioned in Henslowe’s Diary (Henslowe fol. 7, 7v qtd. in Walter, Henry V).
crew
Band of soldiers.
Crew, related to crowd, is usually
derogatory in Shakespeare; see, for example, Richard II,
so dissolute a crew (R2
5.3.12), Robin’s a
crew of patches (MND
3.2.9), and the doctor’s
a crew of wretched souls (Mac 4.3.142).
a Welshman
Henry was created Prince of Wales—the
traditional title of the English heir apparent—at his father’s coronation, but he
probably refers here to his birth in Monmouth, in southeast Wales. Cf. A4 Sc7 Sp26. Philip Schwyzer points out that the historical Henry V had no actual Welsh
blood, and argues that his claim here relates more to the needs of the Tudor
dynasty—whose own Welshness came from Owain Tudor, the man who would marry Henry
V’s widow—to legitimize their link to Shakespeare’s heroic king: Henry
‘inheritsʼ his Welshness not from his ancestors, but from his Tudor
successors (Schwyzer
127).
leek
Onion-like vegetable whose green and white color, like that of the
Welsh flag, makes it a Welsh national emblem.
pate
Head.
Saint Davy’s day
Feast day of David (Welsh Dewi),
patron saint of Wales (1 March).
On this day Welshmen wear leeks in their caps; see A4 Sc7 Sp25 n.
Do … yours.
Daggers often had thick wooden handles
and could be used as clubs. Cf. Rom
4.4.140.
kinsman
The Welsh were famous for keeping
their genealogical connections up to the remotest degree. Hence it is
proverbial that all Welsh gentlemen are related (Kittredge).
Gower can either follow Fluellen on or
enter at another door, meeting him, but the dialogue indicates that they are not
already in conversation.
’So!
I.e., God-so, a mild oath.
F’s apostrophe makes clear that this is the euphemistic oath,
meaning “God’s such-and-such”, and not merely the
adverb so. Compare ’sblood,
’sfoot, etc. In Ben Jonson’s roughly contemporary play
Every Man In His humour (1600), Stephen uses this
contracted version while lamenting his inability to swear: ’So, I had as
lief as an angel I could swear as well as that gentleman! (Jonson 2.3.106–107).
God-so may be an Anglicization of the very common
Italian oath cazzo (“cock”, used with a broadness of sense comparable to the English
fuck); the cobbler Juniper in Jonson’s The Case is Altered (1598) uses catso and
Gods so interchangeably
Some editors have emended
fewer to Q3’s lower, on the
grounds that Gower promises to speak lower at A4 Sc1 Sp35, and that he has only spoken two
words. The fact that Fluellen goes on to speak a hundred and six, however,
comically illustrates his hypocrisy in the matter. William Lily’s Short Introduction of Grammar (1549), to which Shakespeare elsewhere
alludes, asserts that that manne is
wyse, that speaketh fewe (Lily C7r). Cf. Pistol’s pauca (A2 Sc1 Sp23). Contemporary English historians
emphasize that Henry had given the order for complete silence in the camp on the
eve of battle; see Curry 168.
admiration
Wonder.
prerogatiffs
Prerogatives.
Fluellen either means something like principles, or the
privilege of authority to maintain discipline and decorum, or
prerogatiffs is an error for another word.
Pompey the Great
Roman general and consul (106–148 BCE).
tiddle … babble
Chatter, babbling.
Pompey’s camp
Fluellen’s example is
unfortunate, inasmuch as Pompey’s most famous camp, that just before the Battle
of Pharsalia, was noted for its luxury and lack of discipline. No doubt
Shakespeare knew this from Plutarch, and intentionally makes Fluellen’s
learning go astray (Kittredge).
ceremonies
Formalities.
cares
Heedfulness, seriousness.
forms
Set procedures.
sobriety
Gravity, moderation.
modesty
Decorum, propriety.
otherwise
Different from the loud, undisciplined English camp.
Why … night.
Holinshed records that the French,
all that night after their comming thither, made great cheare and were
verie merie, pleasant, and full of game (Chronicles, 1587 552),
while the English were more disciplined: Order was taken by commandement
from the king after the armie was first set in battell arraie, that no noise or
clamor should be made in the host (552).
prating coxcomb
Chattering fool.
care
Attentive concern, responsibility.
Under
1) In the company of; 2) under the borrowed cloak of.
Thomas
F’s Iohn is a
compositor’s error, possibly a misreading of the manuscript abbreviation
Tho. (Walter, Henry V).
estate
Situation.
wrecked
Shipwrecked.
sand
Sandbar.
meet
Fitting.
though I … you
Though I say so myself.
The proverbial sense (Though I
say it, that should not say it [Tilley S114]) has different implications for the onstage and offstage
audiences: to the soldiers, he is a poor subject with no business discussing the
king, and for the audience, of course, he is the king himself.
element shows
Sky appears.
but human conditions
The same limitations as those of all humans.
This idea is a commonplace that
Shakespeare uses elsewhere (e.g. R2
3.2.171–173), but
Walter notes a parallel with Florio’s translation of Montaigne’s essay on inequality:
All the true commodities that Princes have, are common vnto them with
men of meane fortune. It is for Gods to mount winged horses, and to feed on
Ambrosia. They i.e., princes have no
other sleepe, nor no other appetite then ours. Their steele is of no better
temper, then that wherewith we arme our selves.
(Montaigne 144 qtd. in Walter, Henry
V)
In a play that features the word
conscience more than even Hamlet, in a range of senses from Fluellen’s verbal tic to the fulcrum
of Henry’s moral statecraft, this phrase’s surface meaning, as Camille Wells
Slights argues, does not fully register its self reflexive force
here (Conscience of the
King 41). Slights cites contemporary theologian William
Perkins to explain that for early modern England,
there be two actions of the understanding, the one is simple, which
barely conceiveth or thinketh this or that: the other is a
reflecting or doubting of the former, whereby a man
conceives or thinks with himself what he thinks. And this action properly
pertains to the conscience.
(Perkins)
Henry is voicing an opinion here, argues Slights, that proceeds from his
debate with his bosom: he has examined his
conscience and is at peace with himself (Slights 41).
feel
Feel out, test.
seek after
Look to find out.
Some editors, following Malone’s conjecture, give this speech to
Court, as it does not seem to agree with Bates’s earlier attitude (Plays).
If … us.
This may be seen as a version of
official Tudor response to Cardinal William Allen’s declaration that English
Catholics should desert queen Elizabeth’s cause lest they be tainted by her
heresy, but the debate over the tradition of just war had
been inflamed in 1590s England not only by the Spanish Armada and the queen’s
excommunication, but by the treatises like Alberico Gentilli’s De
Jure Belli, published in England in 1589 and dedicated to the Earl of
Essex. For discussion of the debate in England, see Campbell, Mirrors of Elizabethan
Policy; Andrew Gurr’s introduction (King Henry V 22–23); and
Paola Pugliatti, Shakespeare and the Just War Tradition.
reckoning
Accounting (to God).
Refers to both the literal sense of counting the dead lost in
the battle and the moral sense of accounting for sins.
all … battle
The set of the 1994 Royal Shakespeare
Company production was overhung, in the Agincourt sequence, with disjointed pieces
of armour, suggesting the severed limbs that Williams mentions.
join together
1) Rejoin their bodies; 2) speak in unison.
latter day
Judgment day.
Cf. Job 19:25 (Bishop’s Bible): For
I am sure that my redeemer saueth, and he shall rayse vp at the latter day them
that lye in the dust.
upon
1) In appeal to (as a witness); 2) on account of.
rawly
1) Abruptly; 2) too young; 3) in destitution.
Cf. Malcolm’s Why in that rawness
left you wife and child / […] Without
leave-taking? (Mac 4.3.27–29).
afeared
Afraid.
well
Satisfied; in a state of grace.
charitably
Holily; with Christian charity.
dispose of
Make arrangements for; bestow.
Carries the sense both of arranging the
provisions of a will and making the soul right with God.
argument
Theme, subject.
proportion of subjection
Due measure of obedience.
So
I.e., on the principle that
Williams has just laid down. Williams’s arguments are common and would
instantly appeal to the rank and file in the Elizabethan theatre (Kittredge). Henry’s ensuing argument is
theologically valid; indeed David Womersley argues that the exchange parallels
popular theological dialogues in which a teacher exposes the falsehood of
common-sense belief and presents difficult Protestant doctrine (Divinity and State 332–333).
Rhetorically, even sophistically, however, Henry’s speech avoids the issues that
Bates and Williams raise: the soldiers are concerned with the rightness of the
cause and the king’s responsibility for their deaths, and
Henry’s response is to argue for the individual’s responsibility for the
destination of his soul.
merchandise
Commercial trading.
sinfully miscarry
Die in a state of sin.
imputation of
Blame for.
irreconciled iniquities
Unconfessed and unforgiven sins.
author of
Cause of, person responsible for.
purpose
Intend.
arbitrament of swords
Deciding of the dispute through war.
try it out
Take the cause to trial.
unspotted
Sinless.
peradventure
Perhaps.
contrived
Ingeniously planned.
beguiling
Seducing, deceiving.
broken seals
The image suggests both the wax seals authenticating legal
contracts and the maidenheads of the beguiled maidens.
perjury
Oath-breaking.
bulwark
Defense (from accusation of crimes).
Literally a military fortification or
rampart.
gored
Pierced.
defeated
Escaped.
native punishment
Civil punishment at home.
Steevens gives another possible reading:
the punishment such as they are born to, if they offend (Plays).
though … God
Many editors have found allusions to Old
Testament passages on God’s omnipresence: Though they digge into the hel,
thence shal mine hande take them: though they clime vp to heauen, thence will I
bring them downe (Geneva, Amos 9:2); and Whither shall I goe from thy
Spirite? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? […]
Let mee take the winges of the morning, and dwell in the vttermost parts of the
sea: Yet thither shall thine hand leade me (Geneva, Psalm
139:7–10).
outstrip
Move faster than.
beadle
Parish official who punished petty criminals.
war … vengeance
On war as God’s tool of vengeance, see
Jeremiah: Thou art mine hammer, and weapons of warre: for with thee will I
breake the nations, & with thee wil I destroy kingdomes (Geneva, Jeremiah
51:20).
before-breach
Previous breaking.
now … quarrel
The present conflict fought on the king’s behalf.
This odd syntax is a mere
construction for the occasion that parallels
before-breach (Abbott
section 429).
Where … perish.
Cf. Matthew: For whosoeuer will
saue his life, shall lose it: and whosoeuer shall lose his life for my sake,
shall finde it (Geneva, Matthew 16:25).
the death
Capital punishment.
borne life away
Escaped with their lives.
unprovided
Unready, i.e., without having confessed their sins.
visited
Punished.
mote
Speck of dust.
The word echoes Jesus’s metaphor for
hypocrisy: And why seest thou the mote, that is in thy brothers eye, and
perceiuest not the beame that is in thine owne eye? (Geneva, Matthew 7:3).
death … advantage
Death is a benefit to him (in that, being prepared, he goes to
heaven).
Henry echoes Philippians 1:21:
For Christe is to me lyfe, and death is to me aduantage (Bishop’s
Bible).
blessedly lost
Spent in a holy manner.
making … offer
In return for offering himself to God.
he
God.
prepare
Prepare for death.
Williams
Williams’s later speeches indicate that he is not as immediately
convinced by Henry’s argument as he seems here. The Quarto, which designates the
soldiers by number, gives the speech to the analogue of Bates, not Williams,
keeping quarrelsome soldier’s response to Henry consistent throughout the scene.
Malone, the first to question the Folio’s attribution, suggests giving the speech
to Court (Plays).
Made of a shoot from an elder-bush. The Quarto reading makes the
soldier’s ironic joke more lucid: ’Tis a great displeasure / That an elder
gun can do against a cannon, / Or a subiect against a monarke (Q1 H5 sig.
E1r).
The exchange of gages, usually gloves, was symbolic of a
promise to duel.
bonnet
Hat.
take
Give.
though
Even if.
take
Encounter.
if you … reckon
If you knew how to count.
Bates’s line about reckoning
foreshadows, and may have suggested to Shakespeare, Henry’s prayer to God to
remove their sense of reckoning (A4 Sc1 Sp79).
Exeunt Soldiers.
The three soldiers may begin to exit when Williams bids Henry
farewell (A4 Sc1 Sp73),
allowing the following speeches to be thrown across the stage. F places the stage
direction (Exit Souldiers) after Bates’s final
speech.
crowns
1) Gold coins; 2) heads.
cut French crowns
1) Cut off French heads; 2) illegally clip or shave metal from the
edges of French coins.
In addition to debasing the value of a
coin, the practice of coin clipping counted as treason, as it defaced the image of
the monarch.
clipper
1) Clipper of coins; 2) barber; i.e., cutter of French
heads.
Upon … all.
Although F prints these lines as verse,
they are inconsistently metrical, and editors have tried various lineation
schemes, but it may be intended as a liminal form between verse and prose. The
move in one speech from prose to irregular verse and finally to regular iambic
pentameter reflects the discursive shift from external conflict to an internalized
but not less vigorous attack on ceremony, and only at the end of the speech to
confident, assertive
rhetoric.
See Prologue Sp1 n.
careful
Full of anxiety.
condition
1) Situation; 2) social rank; 3) restriction, proviso
(accompanying kingship).
We
1) I (the royal plural); 2) kings (in general).
twin-born with
Born simultaneously to.
breath
Opinion.
wringing
Pains.
heart’s-ease
Contentment, peace.
privates
Ordinary soldiers; men who hold no public office.
Save
Except.
ceremony
The empty formalities and symbolic rites of royalty.
general
Public; the entirety of.
idol
Puns on “idle”, i.e.,
useless.
mortal
Human, ordinary.
rents
Sources of revenue.
comings in
Income.
What … adoration?
Are you made up of nothing but empty shows of reverence?
Editors have taken this line to be a
textual crux, and at least six different emendations have been proposed, with the
most commonly accepted being Johnson’s What is thy soul, O
adoration? (Plays; interpreting adoration to be
synonymous with ceremony) and Knight’s What is thy
soul of adoration? (Works; i.e., What is the essence of the
adoration paid to thee, ceremony?). While F1’s
odoration is evidently an error, F2’s reading makes
enough sense to demand no further emendation.
aught
Anything.
place … form
Social rank and conventions of etiquette.
homage
Acknowledgement of superiority, shows of respect.
bid … cure
See if ceremony will cure you (said ironically).
Think’st … bending?
The rhetorical question may owe
something to Ralph Robinson’s translation of More’s Utopia (1551): Is it
not a lyke madnes to take a pride in vayne and vnprofitable honoures? For what
naturall or trewe pleasure doest thou take of an other mans bare hede or bowed
knees? Will thys ease the payne of thy knees, or remedye the phrensie of the
heade? (More L8v).
titles
Honors.
Puns on “tittles”, i.e.,
insignificant things.
blown from adulation
1) Breathed by adorers (as if to cool the fiery
fever); 2) inflated, exaggerated by flattery.
flexure
Bending of knees; i.e., kneeling.
bending
Bowing.
command’st … knee
Demand that the beggar kneels to you.
Command … it?
Either 1) command it to be healthy; or 2) claim the health of the
knee (as you claim the respect of the kneeler).
No, thou … king.
As Walter points out, although the
speech about cares of state depriving a king of sleep derives its theme from
Priscian, Shakespeare is explicitly revisiting the theme of Henry IV’s soliloquy
that concludes Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown (2H4
3.1.31).
subtly
Deceitfully.
repose
Rest.
find thee
Discover what you really are.
balm
Holy oil used to anoint kings at their coronation.
ball
Orb held by a monarch to symbolize earthly power.
mace
Scepter.
intertissued
Interwoven.
farcèd
Stuffed, puffed up.
Although farce in
the sense of ridiculous entertainment did not become common until a century after
Henry V’s composition, an earlier sense of the verb
meaning to paint the face (OED, 2nd ed. farce, v.2) might contain similar connotations of ludicrous
hypocrisy.
pomp
Vainglorious show.
distressful
Gained by hard labor.
lackey
Servant.
Specifically, the footman who runs
alongside a coach (here the chariot of Phoebus). Cf. Titus Andronicus’s
The classical equivalent of heaven; i.e., peaceful
contentment.
help … horse
Start work at sunrise.
Hyperion is a Titan who fathered Helios, the sun.
Shakespeare often uses the name interchangeably with the Olympian sun god,
Phoebus.
profitable
Beneficial, valuable.
Had … vantage of
Would have the upper hand and an advantage over.
member of
Sharer in.
Enjoys it
Enjoys the peace.
gross
Dense, unsophisticated.
wots
Knows.
watch
1) Guard; 2) wakefulness.
advantages
Benefits from.
jealous of
Anxious over.
before thee
Before you are.
Kneeling
Actors typically kneel as the prayer
begins, though no such direction is specified in either text.
God of battles
Rather than the classical Mars, this is
likely the aspect of the Christian god referred to in the Old Testament as the
Lord of Hosts (i.e., armies).
steel
Harden.
sense of reck’ning
Ability to count.
ere
Before, lest.
F’s of presents another
famous textual crux. The reading likely comes from a misreading of either
if (as Tyrwhitt conjectured [Observations and
Conjectures]) or or (Moore Smith). I have followed Taylor in using
ere (Henry V), a synonym of or,
since it makes more sense for God to prevent the soldiers’ loss of courage before
it has happened.
th’opposèd numbers
The number of the enemy.
Hall has the king exhort his army, in
his speech before the battle, let not their multitude feare youre heartes,
nor their great nombre abate your courages (The vnion fol.
69).
the fault … crown
Henry IV’s deposition of Richard II, who was later murdered while
imprisoned at Pomfret castle by Sir Piers of Exton, as dramatized by Shakespeare
in Richard II (R2
5.5.105–112).
After Richard’s murder, he was buried at
Kings Langley in Hertfordshire. One of Henry V’s first acts as king, in 1413, was
to rebury Richard II at Westminster, after a lavish
funeral procession. See Holinshed, Chronicles, 1587 543–544.
contrite
Penitent.
forcèd
Violently shed.
Five hundred … soul.
This detail derives from Robert Fabyan’s
1516 New Chronicles of England and France:
for asmoche as he knewe well that his fader had laboured the meanes to
depose the noble Prynce Richarde the Seconde / And after was consentyng to
his deth / for which offence his said Fader had sent to Rome. Of that great Cryme to be assayled absolved / And was by the Pope enioyned that lyke as he had beraft hym of his
naturall and bodely lyfe for euer in this world / That so by contynuel prayer & Suffragies of the
Churche he shuld cause his Soule to lyue perpetuelly in the Celestyall worlde. Whiche penaunce for that
his Fader by his lyfe dyd nat perfourme. This goostly ghostly, i.e., spiritual knyght in most
habaundaunt maner perfourmyd it / For first he buyldyd iii.
houses of Relygyon / as the Charterhous of Monkes called Shene / The house
of close Nunnes called Syon / and the thirde was an house of
Obseruauntes buyldyd vpon that
other side of Thamys.
(Fabyan fol. 182v)
The charterhouse was a Carthusian monastery on the royal estate of Sheen
(now Richmond) on the south bank of the Thames, and the convent of Syon was across
the river from Sheen, each within easy visiting distance of the estate. The
house of Obseruauntes
was a Celestine monastery of French friars; because the friars objected to Henry’s
ongoing war against their homeland and so refused to pray for the king, he
suffred ye hous to fall in
ruyne.
And ouer this great acte of founding of thise .ii. Religious houses he
ordeyned at Westminster to
brenne perpetually without Extincton .iiii. Tapers of waxe vpon the Sepulture of kyng Richarde / & ouer
yt he ordeyned ther to be contynued
for euer / one day i the weke, a
solpempne Dirige to be songe / & vpon the morowe a masse; after which masse endid certayn money to
be gyuen
Fabyan elsewhere specifies the sums given to the poor for the benefit of
King Richard’s soul to be eleven shillings eightpence after the weekly mass and a
further twenty pounds yearly on the anniversary of Richard’s death (fol.
176).
blood
Richard’s murder.
chantries
Privately financed chapels where priests sang masses to reduce an
individual’s time in purgatory.
sad
Serious; mournful.
still
1) Continually; 2) even now.
nothing worth
According to the Anglican doctrine of
Shakespeare’s audience, though not to the Catholic belief of the historical Henry,
such acts of penitence as he describes here would have been insufficient to gain
God’s favor, and the purgatory he imagines Richard to dwell in was an outdated
Catholic fable.
Since … pardon.
In an essay on this crux appended to his edition, Gary Taylor
demonstrates that the lack of clarity many editors have found in these lines rests
on the interpretation of the word all (A3 Sc5 Sp5): either Henry means
1) all that has happened (including his father’s sin); 2) all that he has done; or
3) all that he could possibly do to expiate that sin (Henry V, Appendix B,
295–301). Taylor avoids the issue in his text by emending the word to
ill (i.e., evil acts), though that emendation makes
Henry’s assertion both unnecessary and theologically irrelevant, since all
penitence comes after ill. He is surely right, however, to see in the passage a
statement of the Protestant stance on the controversy about salvation by grace
versus good works. By placing the orthodox Anglican position—that such works of
penitence dependent on the existence of a Purgatory in which the English audience
no longer believed—into the mouth of a still-Catholic hero of England’s past,
Shakespeare seems to claim King Henry as a Protestant hero. By ending his prayer
imploring pardon with this bathetic admission of the inadequacy of his penitence,
Henry enables for the audience the interpretation that the famous victory at
Agincourt is the product of divine grace alone, and that Henry himself is a member
of the elect, regardless of his sins or those of his father. For more discussion,
see my introduction.
friend
Though F makes sense as a reference, or
even an address, to Gloucester, most editors emend to
friends, following the Q reading (Sp294H5 Q1) and conjecturing a
misreading of terminal s as
e.
stay
Wait.
4.2
Location: the French camp, Agincourt.
Beaumont.
A ghost character, Beaumont never speaks and appears only in
this stage direction. In 4.5 Shakespeare seems to have replaced him with Bourbon,
though he does mention him in the list of French casualties (A4 Sc8 Sp32), which closely follows Holinshed.
Holinshed also mentions a Beaumont fighting for the English (Chronicles, 1587 553),
which may account for Shakespeare’s abandonment of the name for a French
character.
gild
Color golden.
Montez à cheval
“To horse”.
This may either be itself an order to
mount or a call for the monte à cheval, a trumpet
signal for the French cavalry (Craik, King Henry V).
varlet
Attendant; rascal.
lackey
Manservant.
Via … terres.
“Go forth over water and
earth”.
Rien … feu?
“Nothing more? Not the air and
fire?”
Orléans refers to the dauphin’s earlier
boast that his horse is pure air and fire (A3 Sc7 Sp9).
Cieux
“The heavens”.
The dauphin boasts that the horse can
bound over all the elements and even to heaven itself, to which the realm of fire
extended; see Prologue Sp1 n.
present service
Immediate employment.
make … hides
Spur them.
The medical connotation of
incision suggests blood-letting to drain off excess
spirit.
A contraction of “do out” that
most modern editors since Malone have accepted as an emendation of F’s
doubt, since it gives a much more specific sense to the
image (Plays).
There may be some cause to retain the Folio spelling, as a minority of editors
have done: doubt can take the sense of to make afraid (OED, 2nd ed. doubt, v.II.9).
superfluous courage
The excess of our courage.
As illustrated by the abundance of
blood.
embattled
Drawn up in battle formation.
Cf. Holinshed:
King Henrie […] perceiuing a plot of ground verie
strong & meet for his purpose, […] on both sides
defended with hedges and bushes, thought good there to imbattell his host,
and so ordered his men in the same place, as he saw occasion, and as stood
for his most aduantage.
(Chronicles, 1587 553)
peers
1) Noblemen; 2) companions in arms.
Do … yield.
Holinshed records that
the constable made vnto the capteins and other men of warre a pithie
oration, exhorting and incouraging them to doo valiantlie, with manie
comfortable words and sensible reasons.
(Chronicles, 1587 553)
Hall presents his readers with the text of the oration (in
effecte):
FRENDES and companions in armes, I cannot but bothe reioyce and lament the
chances & fortunes of these two armies whiche I openly se and behold
with myne iyes here presente. I reioyce for the vamp;ictorie whiche I se at
hand for our part, and I lament and
sorow for the misery and calamitee whiche I perceiue to approche to the
otherside: For wee cannot but be victours and triumphant conquerors, for who saw euer so
florisshyng an armie within any christian region, or suche a multitude of
valiaunt persones in one compaignie? Is not here the flower of the Frenche
nacion on barded horsses with sharpe speares and dedly weapons? Are not here
the bold Britons i.e., Bretons with
fiery handgonnes and sharpe swerdes?
Se you not present the practised Pickardes with strong and weightie
Crossebowes? Beside these, we haue the fierce Brabanders & strong
Almaines with long pykes and cuttyng slaughmesses. And on the otherside is a
smal handfull of pore Englishmen whiche are entred into this region in hope
of some gain or desire of proffite, whiche by reson that their vitaill is
consumed & spent, are by
daily famyn sore wekened, consumed & almost without spirites: for their
force is clerly abated and their strength vtterly decaied, so that or the battailes shall ioyne thei
shalbe for very feblenes vanquished
& ouercom, & in stede of men ye shal fight with shadowes. For you
must vnderstand, that kepe an
Englishman one moneth from his
warme bed, fat befe and stale drynke, and let him that season tast colde and
suffre hunger, you then shal se his courage a bated, his bodye waxe leane
and bare, and euer desirous to returne into his owne countrey. Experience
now declareth this to be true, for if famine had not pinched them, or colde
wether had not nipped them surely they would houe made their progresse
farther into Fraunce, and not by so many perilous passages retired towarde
Calays. Suche courage is in Englishmen when fayre wether and vitaile folow
them, and suche weaknes they haue when famine and cold vexe and trouble
them. Therfore nowe, it is no mastery to vanquishe and ouerthrowe them,
beyng both wery & weake, for by reason of feblenes and faintnes their
weapones shal fal out of their handes when they profer to strike, so that ye
may no easelier kyll a poore shepe then destroye them beyng alredy sicke
& hungerstaruen. But imagyn that thei wer lusty, strong and couragious,
and then ponder wisely the cause of their commyng hither, and the meanyng of their enterprice: Fyrst
their king a yong striplyng (more mete for a tenice playe then a warlike
campe), claimeth the croune, scepter and souereigntie of the verye substance
of the Frenche nacion by battaile: then he and his entende to occupy this
country, inhabite this land, destroy our wiues and children, extinguishe our
blud and put our names in the blacke boke of obliuion. Wherfore remembre
wel, in what quarel can you better fight then for the tuicion of your natural countrey, the honor of
your prince, the surety of your children and the sauegard of your land and
liues. If these causes do not encourage you to fight, beholde before your
eyes the tentes of your enemies,
with treasure, plate & iewels wel stuffed and richely furnished, whiche
pray is surely yours if euery man
strike but one stroke, besyde the great raunsomes whiche shalbe paied for
riche capitaines and welthy prisoners, whiche as surely shalbe yours as you
now had them in your possession. Yet this thyng I charge you withal, that in
nowise the kyng him selfe be killed, but by force or otherwise to be
apprehended & taken to the
entent that with glorye & triumphe we may conuey him openly through the
noble cytie of Paris to oure kyng and dolphyn as a testimony of our victory
& witnes of our noble act. And of this thyng you be sure, that fly they
cannot, and to yelde to our fight, of necessitie they shalbe compelled.
Therfore good felowes take courage to you, the victory is yours, the gaine
is yours & the honor is yours without great laboure or muche
losse.
(The vnion fol. 67v-68)
yon … band
The English.
fair show
Splendid battle array.
shales
Shells.
Literally, nutshells or eggshells, a traditional figure for
worthless things.
curtle-ax
Short broadsword, cutlass.
gallants
Fine gentlemen; military followers.
for … sport
Because no prey remains to be hunted.
o’erturn them
Knock them down.
exceptions
Objections.
squares of battle
Square military formations.
Both the French and English armies at
Agincourt divided their forces into different battles (A4 Sc3 Sp11)
separated by function (see map).
Battle of Agincourt, J.G. Bartholomew, A Literary and Historical Atlas of Europe 124. Image
via Internet Archive The English strategy was to alternate groups of archers with groups of
foot soldiers armed with pikes to deter the French cavalry charge, and to flank
the French with more archers concealed in wooded areas. Though Shakespeare never
mentions the English longbowmen, they were instrumental in evening the odds in
Henry’s favor.
Even if we stood idly watching on the base of this nearby
mountain.
No mountain is mentioned in Holinshed
(Chronicles, 1587), but the line sets up a parallel with the famous English victory
at Crécy, mentioned twice already (A1 Sc2 Sp10, A2 Sc4 Sp5), where Edward III did just what the constable suggests.
honors
1) High ranks; 2) sense of our reputations.
What’s
What more is left.
tucket sonance
Sounding of the tucket (the trumpet signal to begin a cavalry
advance).
dare
Daze and paralyze with the sight of it.
To dare the
field is a phrase in falconry. Birds are dared by the falcon in
the air if they are terrified from rising, so that they will be sometimes taken
by the hand (Johnson, Plays). See OED, 2nd ed. dare, v.2.II.5). The lark may be dared by soaring of a bird of prey
(i.e., the French host) or by a shiny reflective object, perhaps here the French
armour that the sun doth gild (A4 Sc2 Sp1).
couch down
Fall flat.
Grandpré
Grandpré is mentioned at A3 Sc7 Sp64 and appears in the
list of French dead at A4 Sc8 Sp32, though as he is not here
identified in the dialogue, an audience has no opportunity to make the
connection (Taylor, Henry V).
Yon
Those yonder.
island
Island-dwelling, i.e., English.
carrions
Corpses.
desperate … bones
Without hope of saving themselves.
Ill-favoredly become
Are too ugly to befit.
curtains
Banners.
passing
Extremely.
Mars
Roman god of war.
The Chorus had lamented that the staged
Henry could not truly assume the port of Mars (Prologue Sp1), and Grandpré’s metaphor of the
bankrupt Mars draws a parallel with the historical Henry’s inability to
seem appropriately like a war god.
bankrupt
Exhausted, destitute.
beggared host
Impoverished army.
faintly
Weakly.
beaver
Faceguard of a helmet.
Strictly, the
beaver is the hinged lower part of a helmet that can be
opened to drink (Old French beivre); Shakespeare
conflates it with the visor, the upper part through which the wearer looks; cf.
Hamlet: he wore his beaver up (Ham
1.2.228).
fixèd … hand
Inanimate candlesticks holding staffs for torches (instead of
lances).
Grandpré alludes to traditional candlesticks shaped like human figures with hands
extended to hold sockets for candles. Steevens was the first to compare Webster’s
White Devil (1612): I saw him at last tilting;
he showed like a pewter candlestick fashioned like a man in armour, holding a
tilting staff in his hand little bigger than a candle of twelve
i’th’pound (Webster
3.1.65–68 qtd. in Steevens, Plays).
Lob
Droop heavily.
gum
Sticky discharge.
down-roping
Hangling in ropes.
gemelled
Double-linked.
A gemel in this context signifies either a doubling (OED, 2nd ed. gemel, n.1; derived from Latin geminus, “twin”), or a type of hinge (n.5); the related word gimmal can refers to a ring twisted or divided into two (OED, 2nd ed. gimmal, n.1) or to linked pieces of machinery (n.2). The reference to gimmaled mail in Edward III
(E3 1.2.29)
suggests interlinked rings. F’s spelling (Iymold,Sp467) could be
modernized either way, but each would suggest a bit consisting of or including
doubled, hinged, or linked rings.
Either a scornful
mock-proposal (Gurr, King Henry V) or a misguided attempt at hyperbolic
chivalry, the speech ends with a half line that suggests a pause for a double-take
from the French lords at the dauphin’s suggestion.
fasting
Hungry.
provender
Fodder.
guard
Either some ornament of distinction, or a standard bearer.
The next line makes it clear that the
constable has been waiting for some ornament that can be replaced by a trumpet
banner; guard must refer either to the ornament itself or
to a member of his retinue in charge of bringing it to him. Many editors emend F’s
Guard: on to guidon (i.e., the pennant for his
lance).
the banner … trumpet
Shakespeare here includes a popular
anecdote from the Agincourt history. As Holinshed recounts:
diuerse of the noble men made such hast towards the battell, that they
left manie of their seruants and men of warre behind them, and some of them
would not once staie for their standards: as amongst other the Duke of
Brabant, when his standard was not come, caused a banner to be taken from a
trumpet and fastened to a speare, the which he commanded to be borne before
him in steed of his standard.
(Chronicles, 1587 554)
outwear
Waste.
4.3
Location: the English camp, Agincourt.
his host
Gary Taylor emends to the
host, on the rationale that the army is Henry’s, not Erpingham’s (Henry V).
Erpingham was, however, the commander of the archers who were so crucial to the
English victory at Agincourt, and so the direction may call for him to enter with
a contingent of longbowmen. Craik suggests that since the King had bidden
Erpingham assemble the nobles at his tent […] until he
appears Shakespeare regards Erpingham as having charge of the army
(King Henry
V).
Westmorland
Historically, Westmorland remained in
England during the Agincourt campaign, and Q replaces him in this scene with
Warwick. Gurr suggests that Shakespeare includes him here so that Henry can
address him as cousin as he had at A1 Sc2 Sp5, thus emphasizing the theme of the
battlefield family around which the Saint Crispin’s day speech centers (King Henry
V).
The king … rode
In a passage marked by the marginal note
King Henrie rideth foorth to take view of the French armie,
Holinshed reports that after the English scouts reported that a great armie
of Frenchmen was at hand, approching towards them,
the king therevpon, without all feare or trouble of mind, caused the
battell which he led himselfe to staie, and incontinentlie rode foorth to
view his aduersaries, and that doone, returned to his people, and with
cheerefull countenance caused them to be put in order of battell.
(Chronicles, 1587 552)
their battle
The battle formation of their army.
threescore thousand
Sixty thousand.
For this number Shakespeare follows
Holinshed (citing the French chronicler Enguerran de Monstrelet [c. 1400–1453]),
though Holinshed applies the number only to the French cavalry, not their entire
army: threescore thousand horssemen, besides footmen, wagoners and
other (Chronicles, 1587 553).
five to one
Odds against the English.
Contemporary historians, both French and
English, provide differing estimates of the size of the English army, ranging from
6,000 to 15,000; contemporary estimates of the French army range from 10,000 to
150,000 and the chroniclers variously calculate the French outnumbering the
English at multiples ranging from one and a half to six (see Curry 326–328). Exeter’s line would suggest that the
English numbered 12,000, and Henry seems to suggest an army of only 5,000 (A4 Sc3 Sp16). Holinshed,
following Hall (The
vnion), gives the odds as six to one (Chronicles, 1587 553). In
performance, of course, mathematical discrepancies go unnoticed. The numerical
difficulty is harder to ignore in Famous Victories, since
King Henry performs faulty arithmetic on stage:
Salisbury (Thomas Montacute) was related
to Westmorland through the marriage of their children. Hall, in a passage that
Shakespeare consulted for 1 Henry VI, records that
Salisbury died leuyng behind hym, an onely daughter named Alice, maried to
Richarde Neuell, sonne to Raufe erle of Westmerland (The vnion fol.
105v).
And yet … valor.
These two lines are evidently misplaced in F, appearing after
Bedford’s good luck go with thee; They serve as an apology for
reminding (minding) Salisbury to do his duty, not for wishing him
luck. Greg suggested that the lines were a late addition written in the margin and
misplaced by a compositor (Aspects of Shakespeare 143.
mind
Remind.
framed
Entirely formed, composed.
truth
Essence, genuineness.
Exit Salisbury.
Salisbury must exit here in order to re-enter at A4 Sc3 SD5.
Enter the King.
The king’s entry unobserved here
repeats his previous anonymity (Gurr, King Henry V).
Oh … England
Holinshed reports that before the
battle, King Henry heard one of the host vtter his wish to another thus: I
would to God there were with vs now so manie good soldiers as are at this houre
within England! (Chronicles, 1587 553). The anonymous Gesta
Henrici Quinti (1417) attributes the sentiment to Sir Walter
Hungerford, who wished for decem milia de melioribus
sagitariis Angliae qui secum desiderarent esse (ten thousand of the best archers in England who would have
been only too glad to be there). See Gesta Henrici Quinti, trans.
Taylor and Roskell, 78–79.
no work today
The battle of Agincourt was fought on a holiday, the feast day of
Saints Crispin and Crispinian (25 October).
Shakespeare derives only this small
portion of Henry’s famous speech from Holinshed, whose analogous pre-battle
oration focuses mainly on the glory of God:
the king answered: I would not wish a man more here than I haue, we are
indeed in comparison to the enimies but a few, but if God of his clemencie
doo fauour vs, and our iust cause (as I trust he will) we shall speed well
inough. But let no man ascribe victorie to our owne strength and might, but
onelie to Gods assistance, to whome I haue no doubt we shall worthilie haue
cause to giue thanks therefore. And if so be that for our offenses sakes we
shall be deliuered into the hands of our enimies, the lesse number we be,
the lesse damage shall the realme of England susteine.
(Chronicles, 1587 553)
The remainder of the speech warns the English, in the unlikely event of
victory, against ascribing it to their own strength.
we are … loss
There are enough of us for England to feel the loss.
Either “by God’s will” (an oath),
or “God’s will be done” (a prayer).
wish
Wish for.
Jove
Jupiter, the ruler of the Roman gods.
Henry’s swearing by Jove as well as by
God’s will and God’s peace—or as Johnson adroitly
put it, the fact that The king prays like a Christian, and swears like a
heathen (Plays)—has led editors since Malone to posit the interference
of a censor changing by God or by Heaven to
by Jove (Plays). The Folio text, however, shows no other signs of
censorship of the kind associated with the 1606 act against stage profanity, and
the alternation must be intentional.
I … gold
Holinshed describes largesse as one of
Henry V’s qualities: his saieng was, that he neuer desired monie to keepe,
but to giue and spend (Chronicles, 1587 583).
upon my cost
At my expense.
earns
Grieves.
coz
Cousin (i.e., Westmorland).
God’s peace
An oath (“by God’s peace”).
share
Take as his share.
the best … have
I.e., the hope for my soul’s salvation.
proclaim
Announce.
stomach to
Appetite for; courage for.
Let … purse.
Shakespeare derives this proclamation
from an account of King Edward IV’s proclamation before the battle of Towton that
appears in Holinshed (Chronicles, 1587 664) and in Hall:
THE lusty kyng Edward, perceiuing the courage of his trusty
frend the erle of Warwycke, made
proclamacion that all men, whiche were afrayde to fighte, shoulde
incontinent departe, and to all men
that tarried the battell, he promised great rewardes with this addicion,
that if any souldiour, which voluntariely would abide, and in, or before the conflict flye, or
turne his backe, that then he that could kil him, should haue a great
remuneracion and doble
wages.
(The vnion fol. 186–186v)
Cf. Clarence: Yet let us all together to our troops. / And give them
leave to fly that will not stay (3H6
2.3.49–50).
passport
Document authorizing safe passage back to England.
convoy
His journey.
his fellowship
Duty as a comrade.
feast of Crispian
A holiday commemorating the martyrdom of the brothers Crispin and
Crispinian in 287 CE.
Although historically Henry dedicated
the battle of Agincourt to Saint John of Beverley, it became traditionally
associated with the mostly legendary Saints Crispin and Crispinian, said to have
been two third-century noble brothers who fled persecution by Diocletian in Rome
and lived in obscurity in France, making Christian converts and supporting
themselves as shoemakers before their martyrdom in 287 CE. Cf. Holinshed:
The daie following was the fiue and twentith of October in the yeare
1415, being then fridaie, and the feast of Crispine and Crispinian, a day faire
and fortunate to the English, but most sorrowfull and vnluckie to the
French (Chronicles, 1587 552). Shakespeare seems to have combined
Crispin and Crispinian into one name (Crispin Crispian), perhaps
for metrical reasons. The name Crispian, an alternate
spelling of Crispinian, also appears in Thomas Deloney’s The Gentle
Craft (1597–1598), a prose work in praise of famous shoemakers
that includes the story of the craft’s patron saints, the two Roman brothers.
Deloney’s version of the saints’ legend, set in England and involving the
conscription of one of the brothers to fight in Gaul (France), also provided the
source for Thomas Dekker’s comedy The Shoemakers’ Holiday
(1599). Dekker’s play, which the Lord Chamberlain’s Men probably performed in
repertory with Henry V, has many thematic and verbal
parallels to Shakespeare’s history play, and indeed strongly suggests that the
English king who appears in the final act to resolve the romantic comedy and
conscript its characters into his French war is Henry V himself.
stand a tiptoe
Stand tall; i.e., feel eagerness and pride.
live
Live to.
Pope’s emendation, transposing the line’s
verbs (Works),
would seem to be supported by the Quarto’s reading, and has proven popular among
editors, as has Keightley’s live t’old age (Keightley). The elliptical expression is clear as it
stands, and emendation is unnecessary.
vigil
Eve, night before a holiday.
all
Everything else.
advantages
Additions, embellishments.
Warwick and Talbot
Shakespeare is himself
remembering with advantages here: neither Warwick nor John
Talbot, first Earl of Shrewsbury (ca. 1388–1453) fought at Agincourt. The latter,
in fact, played no part at all in the 1415 campaign, and his name appears nowhere
else in the play. Both names would have been familiar to Shakespeare’s audience,
however, as heroes of the French wars he had depicted in 1 Henry
VI, so this half line provides literary, if unhistorical continuity,
serving as a reminder of and advertisement for the earlier play.
Be … remembered.
Have a toast raised to them.
The plural their flowing
cups refers to the hearers of the singular veteran remembering the
battle (Knight, Works).
happy
Fortunate (to be so small in number).
vile
Base, low-ranking.
gentle his condition
Ennoble him.
Steevens and Walter both note that when
Henry passed restrictions on bearing coats of arms in 1418, he excepted veterans
of Agincourt (Steevens, Plays; Walter, Henry V). Here, however, he promises only figurative
gentility; certainly no common soldier is promoted during or after the battle.
Taylor suggests that a depiction of such literal promotion may have occurred in
some earlier play (Henry
V).
manhoods
Manliness, courage.
any
Anyone.
bestow yourself
Move, get into position.
bravely
1) Fearlessly; 2) ostentatiously, showily.
in … set
Ready in their attack formation.
expedience
Speed.
backward
Reluctant, unready.
five thousand men
See A4 Sc3 Sp4 n. Kittredge employs considerable
ingenuity and interpretive generosity to square Henry’s sums: since by Holinshed’s
arithmetic the English army was about ten thousand strong, he writes, the king
regards himself and Westmoreland as each representing half of the
English forces (as would indeed be the case if the two fought the battle
alone), and thinks of Westmoreland as having wished his own half out of
existence (Works).
likes
Pleases.
Once … overthrow
Cf. Holinshed:
Here we may not forget how the French thus in their iolitie, sent an
herald to king Henrie, to inquire what ransome he would offer. Wherevnto he
answered, that within two or three houres he hoped it would so happen, that
the Frenchmen should be glad to common rather with the Englishmen for their
ransoms, than the English to take thought for their deliuerance, promising
for his owne part, that his dead carcasse should rather be a prize to the
Frenchmen, than that his liuing bodie should paie anie ransome.
(Chronicles, 1587 554)
compound
Negotiate terms.
gulf
Whirlpool.
englutted
Swallowed up.
mind … repentance
Remind your army to repent their sins (before death).
retire
Withdrawal, retreat.
achieve
Capture.
The man … him.
I.e., overestimating oneself is dangerous.
Henry refers to the proverb sell
not the bear’s skin before you have caught him (Tilley B132), derived from a fable of Aesop. In
substituting a lion for the more usual bear, he personalizes the proverb, alluding
to the heraldic symbol of English royalty.
A many
A great many.
Find … graves
Be buried in England; i.e., survive the battle.
in brass
Inscribed in monumental plaques.
though … dunghills
Even if they are buried shamefully and anonymously.
reeking
1) Rising like steam (from newly-dead corpses); 2)
blood-smeared.
Plague was thought to be spread by unwholesome air.
Mark
Note, behold.
abounding
1) Plentiful; 2) pun on a bounding, i.e.,
“rebounding like a cannonball”.
crazing
Fragmenting after impact (for greater damage).
May also suggest “grazing”, i.e., ricocheting. The F2 compositors, who printed
grasing, evidently took this as the primary meaning.
Craik defends F1’s reading because it implies the destruction, not merely
the deflection, of the bullets (King Henry V).
course of mischief
Round of damage.
in … mortality
As they fall into decomposition.
Like the shattered bullets, the English will kill even as
they disintegrate.
speak proudly
Wilson glosses this as leave this jesting (Wilson, Henry
V), but since he continues to jest, a literal reading is more
likely.
for … day
Dressed as ordinary workmen.
Henry derides the French army’s ornate
battlefield apparel (see also 3.7) to throw the English shabbiness into the light
of unostentatious modesty and working class honesty. His speech may be undercut,
however, by the memory of Vernon’s earnest praise of Prince Henry’s own army at
the battle of Shrewsbury in 1 Henry IV:
This subtle joke has seemed too grim and
obscure for some editors, who read the fresher robes as synonymous
with the gay new coats to be pillaged from the French (A4 Sc3 Sp20). Such a reading
usually requires emendation of or (A4 Sc3 Sp20) to for (Hanmer) or as (Taylor, Henry
V).
pluck … service
Strip the dead Frenchmen of their finery.
A servant who has been turned out of service
(newly dismissed) has his livery removed.
Some editors print this line as prose, but the rest of the scene
is verse, and F’s extrametrical and redundant againe might have
resulted from a compositor having failed to see that a word in the copy text had
been stricken out, so, following Taylor (Henry V), I emend to regularize the meter.
The tautology is not necessarily an error: Craik compares once more backe
againe (F1 H5 sig.
I4v) and
Harryes backe returne againe
(sig. I6r) (King Henry V). Gurr argues
that the line is meant to be heard as prose and signals an aside revealing
doubts that Henry will not admit to his soldiers (Gurr, King Henry V), but the
tone of the line is equally likely to be mocking French diplomatic
tediousness.
vanguard
Foremost division.
Holinshed does not record York’s
request, but does write that Henry appointed a vaward, of the which he made
capteine Edward duke of Yorke, of an haultie courage had desired that office,
and with him were the lords Beaumont, Willoughbie, and Fanhope, and this
battell was all of archers. (Chronicles, 1587 553).
dispose
Direct, manage.
4.4
Location: the battlefield, Agincourt.
Shakespeare may have derived this scene
from a similar one in Famous Victories in which Dericke
the clown is captured for ransom, tricks his French captor out of his sword, and
takes him prisoner instead (FV sig.
F2v).
Excursions.
Small bouts of fighting between men running over the stage.
Je … qualité.
“I think you are a gentleman of good
quality”.
Qualtity?
Confused repetition of qualité.
This edition retains Pistol’s pronunciation from F (Qualtitie,Sp497),
as he knows no more what’s being said in
French than he knows the bastard Irish it reminds him of.
Calinny … me!
Gibberish, echoing the refrain of an Irish ballad (perhaps
sung).
Warburton’s emendation, which some editors follow, attempted to
make English sense of the words (Works), but Malone (cited by Boswell) identified
them as the refrain of a song printed in 1584 in Clement Robinson’s A Handful of Pleasant Delights (Malone, Plays; Boswell, Plays).
The actual Irish of the line, which Robinson renders Calen o Custure
me, is either cailin og a’ stor
(“young maiden, my treasure”), or as Claire
McEachern suggests, Cailin ó chois tSúire me
(Henry the
Fifth; “I am a girl from beside the
Suir”). As Kittredge notes, it is perilous to emend Pistol’s
gibberish, and we have no warrant for supposing that he would not murder Irish
as badly as he murders French in this play (Works). The lyrics of the
song, as Clement Robinson prints them, are as follows:
Pistol recognizes ‘Seigneurʼ
as meaning ‘Lord,ʼ and infers that his prisoner is a gentleman
(Kittredge).
Perpend
Ponder, consider.
Used in Shakespeare twice by
Pistol and once each by Touchstone, Feste, and Polonius: clearly intended to
sound slightly ridiculous (Taylor,
Henry V). Craik suggests that Shakespeare had
the word in his head after reading it in Preston’s overwrought, semi-allegorical
tragedy Cambyses, to which he alludes comically in 1 Henry IV (Craik,
King Henry V; 1H4 2.5.316).
mark
Take note.
fox
A type of English sword.
This fairly obscure term may come from
the blade-mark stamped on certain swords to identify their maker. Webster’s White Devil uses it to distinguish an English-made rapier:
O what blade is’t? / A Toledo, or an English fox? (Webster 5.6.233–234).
except
Unless.
egregious
Extraordinarily large.
Oh … moi!
“Oh, have mercy! Have pity on
me!”
Moy
Uncomprehending repetition of moi.
The French word may have been pronounced
by contemporary Englishmen as rhyming with destroy (e.g.,
R2
5.4.118–119). Pistol takes
moy to mean a coin, and although OED calls it a nonce-word and denies that any real coin is intended
(OED, 2nd ed. moy, n.2), it may relate to the later word
moidore (Portuguese moeda de
ouro; French moi-d’or), an
eighteenth-century designation for a gold coin.
rim
Peritoneum; stomach lining.
Pistol extravagantly threatens to
put his fist down the Frenchman’s throat and pull his insides out (Craik, King Henry
V).
Est-il … bras?
“Is it impossible to escape the strength
of your arm?”
Brass
Cheap metal (Pistol’s misunderstanding of bras).
The terminal s
was still pronounced before pauses in sixteenth century French, though the joke
inevitably falls flat with modern audiences.
luxurious
Lecherous.
mountain goat
Goats are traditionally associated with
lechery, and Pistol’s insult is of a kind with other instances of abuse, though he
generally associates mountains with the Welsh, not the French; cf. mountain
squire (A5 Sc1 Sp10)
and mountain foreigner (Wiv 1.1.123).
Oh, pardonnez-moi!
“Oh, pardon me!”
ton of moys
Pistol’s attempt to interpret the French.
Écoutez … appellé?
“Listen: what is your name?”
As Taylor observes, there is no textual
justification for the boy to struggle with the French in performance, and a
contrast between his fluency and Pistol’s butchered French often raises a laugh
(Henry
V).
le Fer
“Iron” (French).
fer
Nonce-word, apparently meaning “beat”.
Pistol may also play on “fear” (frighten), but Shakespeare elsewhere uses
similar nonsensical repetitions of names as threatening verbs (cf. Wiv 4.2.144–145,
Cor
2.1.104.
Several other violent senses are
possible; the word sometimes puns on “fuck”, as in
Dekker’s Shoemakers’
Holiday—which also has a character named Firk—though the bawdy
sense seems less likely here.
ferret
Worry (as a ferret would).
Que … monsieur?
“What does he say, sir?”
Il … gorge.
“He commands me to tell you to make ready,
because this soldier here is disposed, at this very hour, to cut your
throat”.
Owi … permafoy
Pistol’s attempt to say Oui, couper la
gorge, par ma foi (“Yes, cut the throat, by
my faith”).
Brave
Good, worthy.
The punctuation of F makes Pistol’s
or redundant after unless, not that Pistol need
care about his grammar. My pointing makes Brave crowns an addendum:
And what’s more, they’d better be brave crowns.
Mceachern’s emendation to o’er-mangled also solves the grammatical
difficulty (Henry the
Fifth).
Oh … écus.
“Oh, I beseech you, for the love of God,
to pardon me! I am a gentleman of a good house. Save my life, and I will give
you two hundred crowns”.
maison
“House”, i.e., family.
Petit … dit-il?
“Little sir, what says he?”
Encore … franchisement.
“Although it is contrary to his judgment
to pardon any prisoner, nevertheless, for the crowns that you have promised
him, he is content to give you liberty, freedom”.
Kneeling to Pistol
Le Fer must be on his knees by this
point at the latest, as the following speech indicates, though there are many
logical opportunities in the scene for him to kneel—e.g. at his line
Oh, je vous supplie—or he
may be on his knees throughout.
Sur … d’Angleterre.
“On my knees I give you a thousand thanks,
and I esteem myself lucky that I have fallen into the hands of a knight
that I think the most brave,
valiant, and very distinguished gentleman of England”.
Expound
Translate, explain.
thrice-worthy
Most worthy.
Apparently the boy mistranslates Le Fer’s très distingué. Gary Taylor’s emendation of the French to trois-distingué, to ensure that the Boy translates
corrently, is unnecessary (Henry V).
suck blood
Am bloodthirsty; am a leech.
Compare Pistol’s earlier promise
the very blood to / suck like horse-leeches (A2 Sc3 Sp16).
Character of the devil in a medieval morality play.
everyone … nails
Any clown may trim his claws.
The devil in English morality plays was
traditionally mocked, ridden, and beaten by the comic Vice figure, as Samuel
Harsnett’s A declaration of egregious popish impostures
(1603) describes:
It was a prety part in the old Church-playes, when the nimble Vice would
skip vp nimbly like a Iacke an Apes into the deuils necke, and ride the
deuil a course, and belabour him with his woodden dagger, til he made him
roare, wherat the people would laugh to see the deuil so
vice-haunted.
(Harsnett 114–115)
Although no extant play includes a vice that pares a devil’s nails,
paring the devil’s nails was proverbial (Tilley N12), and Shakespeare’s audience must have
been familiar with it; such business is also referred to by Feste:
Grimly foreshadowing the massacre that
occurs between 4.6 and 4.7.
good prey
Valuable plunder.
4.5
Location: the battlefield, Agincourt.
O diable!
“O the devil!”
O Seigneur! … perdu!
“O Lord! The day is lost, all is
lost!”
Dauphin
In order to continue his strategy of
assigning the dauphin’s speeches to Bourbon, Gary Taylor is forced in this scene
to rearrange the order and assignment of F’s speeches to avoid Bourbon replying to
himself (Henry
V). As Gurr points out, Bourbon’s characterization in this scene
as an aggressive speaker and leader of men suggests that Shakespeare had not
decided to use him to replace the dauphin, with whom he is clearly contrasted
(Gurr, King Henry
V).
Mort … vie!
“God’s death! My life!”
Many editors emend to Mort de ma
vie, which appears at A3 Sc5 Sp4.
confounded
Disordered, put to confusion; ruined.
in our plumes
In the feathers of our helmets, i.e., over us.
A short alarum
This is evidently the cue for some
action that impels the Dauphin’s Do not run away! (A4 Sc5 Sp3). Taylor argues that
the trumpet startles one of the onstage lords (he suggests Rambures) into
attempting an exit (Henry
V). Craik thinks it more likely that the Dauphin addresses
fleeing French soldiers passing over the stage (King Henry V).
O … Fortune!
“O wicked Fortune!”
broke
Broken, disordered, put to flight.
Cf. Holinshed:
the king minding to make an end of that daies iornie, caused his
horssemen to fetch a compasse about, and to ioine with him against the
rereward of the Frenchmen, in the which was the greatest number of people.
When the Frenchmen perceiued his intent, they were suddenlie amazed and ran
awaie like sheepe, without order or arraie. Which when the king perceiued,
he incouraged his men, and followed so quickelie vpon the enimies, that they
ran hither and thither, casting awaie their armour: manie on their knees
desired to haue their liues saued.
(Chronicles, 1587 554)
perdurable
Everlasting.
In once more
Let us go back into battle.
F’s lack of punctuation and irregular meter
has led some editors to conjecture a missing word (see collation). Adding a period
is the simplest way to maintain the sense of the original reading.
with … hand
Doffing his cap in servility.
pander
Pimp.
no gentler
1) No kinder, no less rough; 2) with no more gentility.
contaminated
Corrupted; i.e., raped.
spoiled
Ruined; plundered.
friend
Befriend.
on heaps
In heaps.
This may echo the Gesta Henrici Quinti:
Nam cum quidam eorum congressu prelii interfecti
ceciderunt a fronte, tanta erat indisciplinata violencia et pressura
posterioris multitudinis, quod vivi super mortuos caderent et super vivos
etiam alii cadentes interficiebantur, sic quod, in tribus locis ubi erat
fortitudo et acies vexilloum nostrorum, tanta crevit congeries occisorum
et interiacencium oppressorum quod nostrates ascenderunt ipsas congeries,
que creverant ultra altitudinem longitudinis hominis, et adversarios
versus deorsum gladiis, securibus et offensionibus aliis
iugularunt.
For when some of them, killed when battle was first joined, fell at the
front, so great was the undisciplined violence and pressure of the mass of
men behind that the living fell on top of the dead, and others falling on
top of the living were killed as well, with the result that, in each of the
three places where the strong contingents guarding our standards were, such
a great heap grew of the slain and of those lying crushed in between that
our men climbed up those heaps, which had risen above a man’s height, and
butchered their enemies down below with swords, axes, and other
weapons.
(Gesta Henrici Quinti 90–91)
upon
Of.
Let … long.
Bourbon’s last line in the play is a
version of the proverb better to die with honor than to live with
shame (Tilley H576),
rendered ironic by his appearance onstage as a prisoner at A4 Sc7 SD2.
4.6
Location: the battlefield, Agincourt.
train
Followers.
with prisoners
Not the French lords who resolve to rally in 4.4, but
prisoners taken by the English earlier in the battle.
thrice-valiant
Most brave.
keep
Occupy, remain on.
Enter Exeter.
It makes more sense for Exeter
to enter shortly after the others (and presumably from a different direction)
than for him to stand there silent before delivering his news (Taylor, Henry
V).
commends him to
Greets.
down
Unhorsed.
According to Enguerran de Monstrelet,
the Duke of Alençon unhorsed and killed York, then tried to engage King Henry,
striking off part of his crowned helmet (See Curry 258). Shakespeare refers both to Henry’s fight with Alençon (A4 Sc7 Sp47) and to his bruisèd helmet (A5 Sc0 Sp1).
array
Condition; attire (i.e., his blood).
Larding
Enriching (with his blood).
Yoke-fellow
Partner, companion.
honor-owing
Honorable.
Owing here has the sense of “owning, possessing”.
Suffolk … love.
Suffolk and York dying in each other’s
arms is Shakespeare’s invention. This Suffolk (Michael de la Pole, 1394–1415) was
succeeded by his brother, William de la Pole, who became a stalwart supporter of
Henry VI during the Wars of the Roses until his execution in 1450 at the orders of
his archenemy Richard, son of this Duke of York. The testament of
noble-ending love here related therefore serves both as an ironic foil
for the conflict to come between the houses of York and Lancaster, and prefigures
that conflict’s resolution. As Wilson noted, the passage also recalls the death of
the Talbots in 1 Henry VI (1H6
4.7.1–32).
haggled over
Hacked, mangled all over.
The word (in this sense) seems to be
Shakespeare’s invention, a portmanteau of hacked and
mangled.
insteeped
Immersed, drenched.
yawn
Gape like mouths.
Julius Caesar, another 1599 play, also compares wounds to
gaping mouths: thy wounds […] Which like dumb mouths
do ope their ruby lips, / To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue
(JC
3.1.263–265).
The mother
frequently refers to a medical condition thought to arise from the uterus and
cause hysteria in women, or a condition with similar symptoms (a sense of
constriction in the torso, shortness of breath) in men (OED, 3rd ed. mother, n.1.II.9). See also Lr 2.2.215 and TN 2.2.30–31. Exeter also plays on the
chemical sense of solids rising to the surface in a distillation
(OED, 3rd ed. mother, n.2.1), which leads to Henry’s compound and
mixtful.
perforce
Necessarily.
compound / With
1) Come to terms, negotiate with; 2) adjust the mixture of
ingredients in.
The word is of unclear meaning, and appears nowhere else.
Editors have emended to mistful (full of mist),
wilful (unruly) and my full, but
mixtful seems to be an intentional nonce-word suggested
by the alchemical connotations of mother (see A4 Sc6 Sp4 n.) and compound (see
A4 Sc6 Sp5 n.).
issue
Flow forth.
But hark … prisoners.
Henry orders the killing of the
prisoners so that the men guarding them might be free to fight. Shakespeare
ingeniously adapts his source material in order to make render Henry’s infamous
killing of the French prisoners morally ambiguous. Although he seems both to
condemn the French attack on the luggage train and to sympathize with the
slaughtered French prisoners, Holinshed presents the attack on the boys as
preceding Henry’s order. But Holinshed’s Henry does not order the slaughter of
prisoners in retaliation for the cowardly French attack, but because he mistakes
the noise of the attack on the luggage for a French rally:
In the meane season, while the battell thus continued, and that the
Englishmen had taken a great number of prisoners, certeine Frenchmen on
horssebacke […] which were the first that fled, hearing
that the English tents & pauilions were a good waie distant from the
armie, without anie sufficient gard to defend the same, either vpon a
couetous meaning to gaine by the spoile, or vpon a desire to be reuenged,
entred vpon the kings campe, and there spoiled the hails, robbed the tents,
brake vp chests, and caried awaie baskets, and slue such seruants as they
found to make anie resistance. For which treason and haskardie villainy in thus leauing their campe at the
verie point of fight, for winning of spoile where none were to defend it, verie manie were after
committed to prison […] But when the outcrie of the
lackies and boies, which ran awaie for feare of the Frenchmen thus spoiling
the campe, came to the kings eares, he doubting least his enimies should
gather togither againe and begin a new field; and mistrusting further that
the prisoners would be an aid to his enimies, or the verie enimies to their
takers in deed if they were suffered to liue, contrarie to his accustomed
gentlenes, commanded by sound of trumpet, that euerie man (vpon paine of
death) should incontinentlie slaie his prisoner. When this dolorous decree,
and pitifull proclamation was pronounced, pitie it was to see how some
Frenchmen were suddenlie sticked with daggers, some were brained with
pollaxes, some slaine with malls, other had their throats cut, and some
their bellies panched, so that in effect, hauing respect to the great
number, few prisoners were saued.
(Chronicles, 1587 554)
Shakespeare removes the news of the French attack on the boys in the camp
until after Henry’s order, thus making the order a canny battlefield decision and
isolating Henry’s savagery from the French war crime. Critics and commentators
have debated the extent to which Shakespeare’s intended the killing of the
prisoners to seem morally questionable; certainly the play does not explicitly
condemn him for it. What this incident does illustrate, however, is the process of
historical interpretation, which Shakespeare shows to start immediately upon the
battlefield itself (see A4 Sc7 Sp2 n.).
The French … men.
An audience will naturally interpret this as the onset of the
desperate French counterattack concerted in 4.5 (Taylor, Henry V).
Give … through.
Pass the order to the whole army.
Craik argues that this line implies
that the killing happens off stage (King Henry V), but other editors disagree; based on
the indication of onstage prisoners at the top of the scene and Pistol’s probably
improvised addition in Q (Couple
gorge [Q1 H5 sig. E4r]), Gary Taylor added a stage direction
to require the killing on stage (Henry V). For many modern directors, the savage
onstage slaughter of the French prisoners becomes a grim climactic spectacle for
the Agincourt sequence. In the 1994 RSC production, for example, Iain Glen’s Henry
coldly gave the order, then proceeded to strangle a prisoner with his bare hands
before his exit. In Ron Daniel’s 1997 production, the soldiers were taken aback by
the order, and Pistol was forced at gunpoint to execute the kneeling, screaming Le
Fer. In Nicholas Hytner’s post-Iraq production at the National in 2003, Adrian
Lester’s media-savvy Henry ordered the embedded news cameras shut off before
giving the order, which was carried out by the disciplinarian Fluellen after the
other English soldiers balked.
4.7
Location: the battlefield, Agincourt.
poys
Boys.
luggage
Presumably Fluellen means “those guarding
the luggage”.
offer’t
Offered, i.e., dared, attempted.
wherefore
For which reason.
Shakespeare’s adaptation of his source
material makes clear that Gower’s interpretation of the prisoner-killing as
retaliation for the French atrocity is simply incorrect; as we have just seen
(A4 Sc6 Sp5), it was
instead a tactical response to the French rally suggested in 4.5, which is
different from the attack by the cowardly rascals that ran from the
battle (A4 Sc7 Sp2). The disjunction between what we see and what the English army incorrectly
remember serves as a subtle commentary on the process of making history.
worthily
Justly; honorably.
porn
Born.
Monmouth
Town in south Wales near the English border.
Pig
Big.
one reckonings
The same thing.
phrase … variations
Wording is a little different.
Macedon
Macedonia, formerly a region in the north of Greece.
take
Understand.
I think it is in Macedon
In Q, Fluellen’s response to Gower
(I think it was Macedon indeed) is clearly an agreement; i.e.,
“Ah, yes, you’re right; it is Macedon”. Taylor
alter’s F to read e’en Macedon in order to give the line the sense
it has in Q (Henry
V), but the Folio reading preserves an attractive option for
actors: if Fluellen stresses is, he merely agrees with
Gower, but if not, then he pretends not to have heard Gower and to have answered
his own factual question.
’orld
World.
situations
Geography.
Wye
River forming the border between Wales and England.
Monmouth sits at the junction of the
Monmow and the Wye.
both
Both rivers.
Fluellen ridiculously and ineffectually
follows the Erasmian method of place description, which included describing the
waterways and fish therein (see Baldwin
2.285).
If … well
This culminates and bathetically
undercuts the play’s strategy of comparisons between Henry and Alexander (see A1 Sc1 Sp11, A3 Sc1 Sp1). As Steevens was the first to note,
Shakespeare here parodies the rhetorical exercize of comparatio, in which the lives of two famous historical figures are
compared (Plays). Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, the
most famous extended example of comparatio, was
the main source for three of Shakespeare’s Roman plays, including Julius Caesar —likely written concurrently with Henry
V—in which Caesar’s life is compared to Alexander’s; it is no
coincidence that Fluellen seems to have been revisiting the lives of the same two
famous generals.
is … it
Follows it, parallels it.
figures
Similitudes, comparisons.
Specifically alluding to the Christian
practice of typology, in which an Old Testament character like Isaac is thought to
be a type or figure for Christ. See OED, 2nd ed. figure, n.II.12.
cholers
Anger.
Anger was thought to be governed by
choler (yellow bile), one of the four humours that determined human
temperaments.
intoxicates
Drunk.
prains
Brains.
in his ales
While drunk.
Cleitus
Macedonian general, friend and bodyguard of Alexander the
Great.
Cleitus, or Kleitos (375–328 BCE) was
ordered in 328—when Alexander was twenty-eight, Henry’s age in 1415—to command a
separate army in Asia. Like Falstaff,
André Castaigne’s The Killing of Cleitus (1898-99). Cleitus rankled at the prospect of being forced to withdraw from the
king’s company to be forgotten; he quarreled with Alexander and was speared to
death by the drunken king, who later regretted the deed. Shakespeare’s audience
would have been familiar with the anecdote; Fluellen follows the crown-approved
Homilie against Gluttonie and Dronkennes:
The great Alexander, after that he hadde conquered the whole worlde, was
hym selfe ouercome by dronkennesse, in so muche, that beyng dronken, he slew
his faythfull frende Clitus, whereof when he was sober, he was so muche
ashamed, that for anguyshe of harte he wyshed death.
(The seconde tome
of homilies fol. 107v)
The belly, or lower part
of a doublet (OED, 2nd ed. belly, n.II.3.b), could be great (padded) or
thin (unpadded), according to fashion. The padding, in
Falstaff’s case, was of course his fat, but the line serves as a reminder of the
padded costuming of an actor playing the role.
gipes
Gibes, i.e., scoffing jokes.
knaveries
Trickery.
mocks
Acts of mockery.
I … name.
Taylor suggests that this is a
joking allusion to the name having had to be changed—from Oldcastle in
1 Henry IV to Falstaff in 2 Henry
IV (Henry
V); similarly in Merry Wives,
Mistress Page declares that she cannot tell what the dickens his name
is (Wiv 3.2.14). But in addition to the inside joke, Fluellen’s line
gives point to the Henriad’s arguably tragic process of casting off Falstaff and
excising him from Henry’s story, and reinforces the play’s theme of memory,
forgetfulness, and remembering with advantages (A4 Sc3 Sp10).
Enter … prisoners.
F’s odd wording (Enter King Harry and Burbon with
prisoners) may be explained, as Craik does, by Bourbon’s
addition being an afterthought (King Henry V). He is mentioned by Exeter as one of
the French prisoners taken, and some editors have removed him from the stage
direction, following Theobald’s logic that such a prominent character would not
remain silent on stage, nor would Exeter mention him without acknowledging his
presence if he were standing right there (Works of Shakespeare). His presence does
serve, however, to demonstrate that this is a second batch of prisoners, resulting
from the failure of the last desperate counterattack that Bourbon led after
4.5.
this instant
The killing of the boys.
Evidently Henry has only just heard of the French attack on
the luggage train, which implicitly contradicts Gower’s earlier assertion (see
A4 Sc7 Sp2 n.).
trumpet
Trumpeter.
Ride thou … so.
Holinshed’s version of this threat
suggests that the horsemen on yon hill are attempting to rescue
either the current group of prisoners (in which Shakespeare includes Bourbon) or
to put an end to the killing of the earlier group:
Some write, that the king perceiuing his enimies in one part to assemble
togither, as though they meant to giue a new battell for preseruation of the
prisoners, sent to them an herald, commanding them either to depart out of
his sight, or else to come forward at once, and giue battell: promising
herewith, that if they did offer to fight againe, not onelie those prisoners
which his people alreadie had taken; but also so manie of them as in this
new conflict, which they thus attempted should fall into his hands, should
die the death without redemption.
(Chronicles, 1587 555)
In Shakespeare’s scene the English herald is prevented from sending this
message by the arrival of Montjoy, but in Holinshed the message and Henry’s threat
are successful in bringing the battle to a close, after which Henry celebrates victory:
The Frenchmen fearing the sentence of so terrible a decree, without
further delaie parted out of the field. And so about foure of the clocke in
the after noone, the king when he saw no apperance of enimies, caused the
retreit to be blowen; and gathering his armie togither, gaue thanks to
almightie God for so happie a victorie.
(555)
void
Leave unoccupied.
skirr
Flee.
as swift … slings.
Craik hears an echo of Marlowe’s 1593
translation of Lucan’s Pharsalia (Swifter than
bullets thrown from Spanish slings [Marlowe 231]), and suggests that for patriotic
reasons Shakespeare substituted Assyrians, who, according to the Geneva
translation of Judith, trust in shield, speare and bow, and sling
(Geneva,
Judith 9:7) (Craik, King
Henry V).
Enforcèd
Violently flung.
Besides
Additionally.
those
The prisoners.
take
Capture.
Go … so.
The English herald’s exit to carry out
this order is prevented and made irrelevant by Montjoy’s entrance; he must remain
onstage in order to go with him (A4 Sc7 Sp30).
fined … mine
Determined to pay only my bones and nothing more.
I come … Crispianus.
Cf. Holinshed:
In the morning, Montioie king at armes and foure other French heralds
came to the K. to know the number of prisoners, and to desire buriall for
the dead. Before he made them answer (to vnderstand what they would saie) he
demanded of them whie they made to him that request, considering that he
knew not whether the victorie was his or theirs? When Montioie by true and
iust confession had cleered that doubt to the high praise of the king, he
desired of Montioie to vnderstand the name of the castell neere adioining:
when they had told him that it was called Agincourt, he said, Then shall
this conflict be called the battell of Agincourt.
(Chronicles, 1587 555)
In Holinshed, Henry’s question about whether the day be ours or
no is sarcastic, since he had already celebrated his victory the
previous night, but Shakespeare seems to intend Henry to ask it sincerely.
charitable license
Gracious permission.
book
Record the names of.
princes
Nobles.
woe the while
Cursed be the day.
mercenary blood
The blood of paid soldiers, i.e., commoners.
Montjoy distinguishes between our
princes and their blood from our vulgar
who shed merely mercenary blood. There is no need to assume, as
Gurr and Taylor do, that the French had hired foreign mercenaries (Gurr, King Henry
V; Taylor, Henry V). The distinction is one of class, not nationality:
nobility were presumed to offer military service in return for the lands ranted
them by the king, not for money.
vulgar
Commoners.
Fret
Chafe, struggle.
fetlock deep
Up to their ankles.
The fetlock is the back of the horse’s
pastern, just above the hoof.
Jerk
Lash, whip.
armèd heels
Hoofs with iron horseshoes.
twice
Twice over, again.
O, give … bodies.
Walter points out an echo of Famous Victories, where a French herald tells Henry that the
French king hath sent me to desire your Maiestie, / To giue him leaue to go
into the field to view his poore / Country men, that they may all be honourably
buried (FV sig.
F1v qtd. in Walter, Henry
V)
day
Victory.
peer
Appear; look carefully.
hard by
Nearby.
grandfather … memory
Edward III.
Properly, Edward III was Henry’s
great-grandfather, and Craik suggests emending, as Fluellen has no reason to get
this wrong (King Henry
V). Grandfather might mean simply
“ancestor” here, however, and in later Scottish,
though not Welsh usage, it could mean great-grandfather (OED, 2nd ed. grandfather, n.2, 3).
Fluellen is the only source for the idea
that the tradition of Welshmen wearing leeks comes from Crécy, though
Shakespeare may have gathered a tradition from Welshmen in London, as he
seems to have done for details of Glendower’s character in 1
Henry IV (Humphreys,
Henry V). Editors usually comment that the
custom commemorates a 1 March victory of the Welsh over the Saxons in 540 CE,
Taylor points out that that explanation dates from the late seventeenth century
(Henry
V).
Monmouth caps
Round, woolen, tapered caps, originally made in Monmouth.
badge
Emblem.
Tavy’s
Davy’s.
See A4 Sc1 Sp23 n. Moore Smith first noticed a
parallel with the Duke of Essex (Henry V). The Duke, according to the essayist
Francis Osborne (1593–1659) did not fail to wear a Leek on St.
David’s day, but besides, would upon all occasions
vindicate the Welch Inhabitants, and
own them for his Countrymen, as Queen
Elizabeth usually was wont, upon the first of
March (Politicall deductions from Essex’s death
217).
Either an epithet for the king or a reference to God’s
grace.
The two senses run together, resulting
in a comic muddling of divine and royal agency.
Our heralds … him.
Cf. Holinshed:
He feasted the French officers of armes that daie, and granted them
their request, which busilie sought through the field for such as were
slaine. But the Englishmen suffered them not to go alone, for they searched
with them, & found manie hurt, but not in ieopardie of their liues, whom
they tooke prisoners, and brought them to their tents. When the king of
England had well refreshed himselfe, and his souldiers, that had taken the
spoile of such as were slaine, he with his prisoners in good order returned
to his towne of Calis.
(Chronicles, 1587 555)
just notice
An accurate account.
Gower
Gower must exit at some point before his
qualities are discussed and Williams is sent to fetch him (A4 Sc7 Sp44). This is a logical point for his exit, but not the only possibility.
gage
Pledge.
should
Have agreed to.
An Englishman?
As opposed to one of the enemy.
The question probably carries with it a hint of displeasure, which
accounts for Williams’s defensive further definition, a
rascal, (which, in its turn, improves the dramatic
irony) (Craik, King Henry V).
Capell’s emendation (if a live) gives
dare an explicit subject (Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies), but the
sense of the line in F is clear enough.
ever dare
If he ever dare.
fit
Appropriate that.
craven
Admitted coward.
else
Otherwise.
sort
Rank.
from … degree
Above the need to answer Williams’s challenge.
A gentleman of great sort
would be forbidden by his rank to accept a challenge from a common soldier;
Henry’s practical joke allows Williams to keep his oath while preserving the
strictures of social hierarchy (and without committing treason by striking the
king).
as good … is
The devil’s high rank is traditional.
Editors usually cite Edgar’s declaration in King Lear
that The Prince of Darkness is a gentleman (Lr 3.4.112), but of course
any prince is a gentleman. The Bible refers to the devil as princely repeatedly:
he’s the prince that ruleth in the aire (Geneva, Ephesians 2:2) and
the prince of this world (John 12:31); and Mark makes Beelzebub
specifically the prince of the deuils (3:22).
Lucifer and Belzebub
Names of the devil.
The spelling of the latter in F may, but likely does not
indicate Fluellen’s idiosyncratic pronunciation; it is the Folio’s usual spelling
(F1 TN sig.
Z5v,
m3r).
perjured
Forsworn, an oath-breaker.
jack-sauce
Impudent knave.
as ever
As sure as.
black
1) Filthy; 2) wicked.
law
Exclamation of affirmation.
sirrah
Sir (an address to an inferior).
Pronounced with emphasis on the first
syllable.
is
Has.
literatured
Is well-read.
Fluellen’s nonce-word, but based on the
once primary sense of literature as acquaintance with ‘lettersʼ or books […] literary culture (OED, 2nd ed. literature, n.1).
The Duke of Alençon mentioned in Henry V would likely have reminded the Elizabethan audience
of François of Anjou and Alençon (1555–1584), who courted Queen Elizabeth in 1572.
François, or simply Monsieur, as he was popularly known,
occasioned much ridicule for his physical deformities and for the twenty-two-year
gap in age between himself and the queen, and caused English Protestants
consternation at the idea of a royal marriage to a foreign, Catholic king.
down together
Fighting on the ground.
Perhaps the phrase merely distinguishes
between fighting on foot or on horseback, but its occurrence in Coriolanus (Cor 4.5.119) suggest a rough and tumble
wrestling match on the battlefield. At any rate, Shakespeare has Henry recall his
fight with Alençon as hand-to-hand affair, while Holinshed records it differently:
The king that daie shewed himselfe a valiant knight, albeit almost
felled by the duke of Alanson; yet with plaine strength he slue two of the
dukes companie, and felled the duke himselfe; whome when he would haue
yelded, the kings gard (contrarie to his mind) slue out of hand.
(Chronicles, 1587 554)
helm
Helmet.
our person
Me; the person of the king.
apprehend
Arrest.
love
An act of loyalty and kindness.
Henry’s phrase is often emended to
an thou dost me love, i.e., “if you love
me”.
fain
Gladly.
the man … legs
Any man at all.
aggrief’d
Aggrieved, annoyed.
it
That man’s annoyance.
Know’st thou Gower?
As Fluellen has already
volunteered information about Gower, Henry’s emphasis is presumably on
Know’st. i.e., ‘are you personally familiar with
the man,ʼ the point being ‘would you recognize him? (or have you only
heard of him)ʼ (Taylor, Henry V).
haply
Perhaps.
by bargain
According to my agreement with Williams.
blunt
1) Plain-spoken; 2) unrefined, rough.
mischief
Trouble, harm.
touched
Afflicted
Many editors read And, touched
with choler—i.e., “and when he
is touched with choler, etc”. This stresses the wordplay on
touched, which can mean “touched
off” or “lit” (like a fuse or
gunpowder). The original Folio punctuation, without the
comma, suggests that choler is one of Fluellen’s inherent qualities, not merely an
occasional condition in which he is hot as
gunpowder.
choler
Anger.
More precisely, yellow bile, the humour an excess of which
causes anger.
will
Will he.
Exeunt
Warwick and Gloucester must depart at
A4 Sc7 Sp53, with Henry and
Exeter just behind; as the next scene indicates, all four are heading in the same
direction.
4.8
Location: the field of victory, Agincourt.
I … captain.
Williams has just delivered the king’s
summons to Gower and guesses at its meaning. Holinshed records that to
incourage his capteins the more earlier in the campaign, Henry had
dubbed certeine of his hardie and valiant gentlemen knights
(Chronicles, 1587 551), but he records no such knighthoods granted on the
battlefield after Agincourt (though see A4 Sc3 Sp10 n.). Gurr reads this line as a
reminder that Henry’s promises to gentle the conditions of his
brothers in arms fall prey to the realities of social inequality (King Henry V, Introduction,
32–33).
apace
Quickly.
toward
Coming to.
peradventure
Perhaps, possibly.
know you
Do you recognize.
this glove
Henry’s glove (in Williams’s possession).
this
Williams’s glove (in Fluellen’s cap).
Strikes him.
Both Williams (A4 Sc1 Sp69, A4 Sc7 Sp35) and Henry (A4 Sc7 Sp53) suggest that this blow is to be a
box on the ear; since Fluellen claims, Williams struck the glove
(A4 Sc8 Sp15), then either
the glove must be pictured hanging from Fluellen’s cap near his ear, or Fluellen
is speaking metonymically.
’Sblood
God’s blood.
I.e., by the blood of Christ, a powerful oath.
To Williams
Some editors place this direction at the
beginning of the line, but How now, sir? might as easily be
addressed to Fluellen, with the sense of “What’s going
on?” or “Are you all right?”
be forsworn
Break my oath.
his
Its.
into plows
In blows.
Perhaps, as Johnson conjectured, this should read in two
blows, i.e., in short order (Plays)
That’s … thy throat.
1) That’s a foul, deliberate lie; 2) I cast that lie back down
your throat.
Some editors see this as a malapropism,
perhaps for outrageous, but the now-obsolete sense is morally or socially injurious (OED, 2nd ed. contagious, a.II.7).
An apology for the scurrility of
Fluellen’s terms of abuse. The usual formula is saving your
reverence, but Fluellen works in a compliment to Henry’s courage as
well.
is pear
Will bear.
will avouchment
Will avouch, attest.
Either Fluellen uses
avouchment as a verb, or he means “will make an avouchment”.
is give me
Gave me.
thy glove
That glove (actually Henry’s).
bitter terms
Abusive language.
An’t
If it.
satisfaction
Amends.
In context, the word carries the sense
of an opportunity for Henry to satisfy honor in a duel (OED, 2nd ed. satisfaction, n.I.4.a), as he and Williams might have done had they
been of the same rank.
offences
Deeds truly worthy to be called offenses.
abuse
Insult.
lowliness
Disguise of low rank.
under that shape
In that disguise.
pardon me
Some editors insert a stage direction to
indicate that Williams kneels when begging for pardon. Though such a direction
would be logical and may be indicated by the text, its insertion depends more upon
editorial bias than textual support: Gurr, who reads this scene as an extended
reminder of the unbridgeable social distance between Henry and his men, has
Williams kneel and never rise (King Henry V), while Craik, seeing Henry as more
congenial, has the king raise Williams himself before directing him to be rewarded
(King Henry
V).
mettle
Courage.
prawls, and prabbles
Brawls and brabbles (frivolous quarrels).
dissensions
Disagreements, disputes.
will
Want.
Whether Williams assents to take
Fluellen’s shilling is a performer’s choice; Taylor argues that he does so, but he
has no obvious warrant for arguing for the assertion that silence normally
gives consent to a direction implied in the dialogue or that
continued refusal would surely elicit some verbal reaction from Henry or
the others (Henry
V). The scene allows no time for such comment, as the focus is
shifted to loftier matters by the French herald’s entrance.
This, and the speech prefix at A4 Sc8 SD12, could refer either
to the English herald or to the French one (i.e., Montjoy).
Presenting a paper
Either the herald presents the paper directly to Exeter, who
reads from it before passing to the Henry, or he hands it to the king, who may or
may not bid Exeter to read from it, since Exeter may simply speak from his own
knowledge. I have attempted to leave the stage directions as open as
possible.
good sort
High rank, nobility.
Charles … common men.
Shakespeare closely follows Holinshed:
There were taken prisoners, Charles duke of Orleance nephue to the
French king, Iohn duke of Burbon, the lord Bouciqualt one of the marshals of
France (he after died in England) with a number of other lords, knights, and
esquiers, at the least fifteene hundred, besides the common people.
(Chronicles, 1587 555)
This note … Lestrelles.
Cf. Holinshed, whom the Folio follows
nearly verbatim, preserving even his idiosyncratic spellings of the slain French lords:
There were slaine in all of the French part to the number of ten
thousand men, whereof were princes and noble men bearing baners one hundred
twentie and six; to these, of knights, esquiers, and gentlemen, so manie as
made vp the number of eight thousand and foure hundred (of the which fiue
hundred were dubbed knights the night before the battell) so as of the
meaner sort, not past sixteene hundred. Amongst those of the nobilitie that
were slaine, these were the cheefest, Charles lord de la Breth high
constable of France, Iaques of Chatilon lord of Dampier admerall of France,
the lord Rambures master of the crossebowes, sir Guischard Dolphin great
master of France, Iohn duke of Alanson, Anthonie duke of Brabant brother to
the duke of Burgognie, Edward duke of Bar, the earle of Neuers an other
brother to the duke of Burgognie, with the erles of Marle, Uaudemont,
Beaumont, Grandpree, Roussie, Fauconberge, Fois and Lestrake, beside a great
number of lords and barons of name.
(Chronicles, 1587 555)
princes
Royalty.
bearing banners
Of rank sufficient to fly their own standards.
gallant
Fine, noble.
mercenaries
Common soldiers serving for pay.
Cf. Montjoy’s mention of
mercenary blood at A4 Sc7 Sp17. These sixteen hundred
correspond to Holinshed’s meaner sort, not past sixteene hundred
(Chronicles, 1587 555).
blood
Noble birth.
Admiral
Commander of the navy.
Master … Crossbows
Commander of the French archers, a title
traditionally given to a high-ranking member of the French aristocracy.
Great Master
Head of the royal household.
The Grand
Maître was one of the highest-ranking officials of the French court.
Guichard Dauphin is a name; he is not to be confused with the French crown
prince.
Duke of Burgundy
This Duke of Burgundy (also mentioned at
A3 Sc5 Sp8) is John the
Fearless (Jean sans Peur, 1371–1419), the notorious lord who, in the power vacuum
left by Charles VI’s dementia, took part in internecine conflict including civil
war and assassination, and secretly treated with the English before and during
Henry’s invasion (see Curry 35–56).
After his assassination in 1419 John was succeeded by his son Philip the Good
(Philippe le Bon, 1396–1467), the Duke of Burgundy who negotiated the Treaty of
Troyes and who appears in 5.2.
Captain of a company of archers, Kyghley
is one of the few English casualties recorded by name in multiple
chronicles.
Davey Gam
A Welshman sometimes recorded as having
killed Alençon, Gam’s recorded surname is actually a version of a Welsh word
meaning “squinty”.
name
Repute, high rank.
five-and-twenty
Neither the French nor the English kept
accurate records of the mortality rates at Agincourt, and both sides had motives
for exaggerating the discrepancy between the sides’ losses. Most accounts put
English losses in the hundreds at most, but twenty-five is an absurdly low number
that became traditional among those wishing to emphasize the miraculous quality of
the victory (see Curry 278–282). Even
Holinshed, from whom Shakespeare derives the number, cautiously qualifies the figure:
Of Englishmen, there died at this battell, Edward duke Yorke, the earle
of Suffolke, sir Richard Kikelie, and Dauie Gamme esquier, and of all other
not aboue fiue and twentie persons, as some doo report; but other writers of
greater credit affirme, that there were slaine aboue fiue or six hundred
persons. Titus Liuius saith, that there were slaine of
Englishmen, beside the duke of Yorke, and the earle of Suffolke, an hundred
persons at the first incounter.
(Chronicles, 1587 555)
arm
Power, influence.
Ascribe we all.
Do we attribute the victory.
stratagem
Trickery.
The usual sense is an artifice or
trick designed to outwit or surprise the enemy (OED, 2nd ed. stratagem, n.1.a). Often paired as a synonym with
policy, Shakespeare seems to use it contemptuously, as
he does that word (see A2 Sc0 Sp1). As Andrew Gurr points out (King Henry V), Henry’s claim to have used no
strategem ignores what Holinshed calls a politike invention, the
innovation of protecting archers from a cavalry charge with sharpened stakes:
he caused stakes bound with iron sharpe at both ends, of the length of
fiue or six foot to be pitched before the archers, and of ech side the
footmen like an hedge, to the intent that if the barded horsses ran rashlie
vpon them, they might shortlie be gored and destroied. Certeine persons also
were appointed to remooue the stakes, as by the mooueing of the archers
occasion and time should require, so that the footmen were hedged about with
stakes, and the horssemen stood like a bulwarke betweene them and their
enimies, without the stakes. This deuise of fortifieng an armie, was at this
time first inuented.
(Chronicles, 1587 553, margin)
plain shock
Straightforward encounter of forces.
even play
Direct contest.
Take it
Accept the credit.
wonderful
Extraordinary, to be wondered at.
Come … men.
Cf. Holinshed:
And so about foure of the clocke in the after noone, the king when he
saw no apperance of enimies, caused the retreit to be blowen; and gathering
his armie togither, gaue thanks to almightie God for so happie a victorie,
causing his prelats and chapleins to sing this psalme: In exitu Israel de Aegypto, and commanded euerie
man to kneele downe on the ground at this verse: Non
nobis Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam. Which
doone, he caused Te Deum, with certeine
anthems to be soong, giuing land and praise God, without boasting of his
owne force or anie humane power. That night he and his people tooke rest,
and refreshed themselues with such victuals as they found in the French
campe, but lodged in the same village where he laie the night
before.
(Chronicles, 1587 555)
village
Maisoncelles, a village near Agincourt castle.
my conscience
I swear upon my conscience.
Camille Wells Slights suggests that
Fluellen, reflecting the contemporary idea of the monarch as the conscience of the
commonwealth, may here address the Henry as his conscience
(The Conscience of the
King 46–47).
Non nobis
Latin hymn based on Psalm 115: “Give not
praise to us, Lord”.
The Psalm reads Non nobis Domine non nobis sed nomini tuo da
gloriam (Vulgate, Psalm 113:9), or “Not vnto vs, O Lord, not vnto vs, but vnto thy Name giue the glorie”
(Geneva,
Psalm 115:1).
Te Deum
Latin hymn of thanksgiving, beginning Te deum laudamus (“We praise thee, O God”).
A Te
Deum is sung regularly at the Catholic service of Matins and at
public occasions celebrating divinely influenced deliverance or victory.
with … clay
Given Christian burial.
According to Holinshed, the English army
departed to Calais leaving the despoiled French bodies on the field for days until
the Earl of Charolais had 5,800 bodies buried in three pits (Chronicles, 1587 555). The
English dead seem to have been burned or buried, for the most part, though
Holinshed records that Henry brought the corpses of York and Suffolk with him to
be buried in England (see Curry
12).
happy
1) Joyful; 2) lucky, fortunate.
Vouchsafe
Grant, allow.
prompt them
Remind them what comes next.
admit … time
1) Allow that a play affords limited time; 2) tolerate our
treatment of historical time.
A five-year gap occurred between Agincourt (1415) and the
Treaty of Troyes (1420).
numbers
Insufficient number of players.
due … things
Nature and order of historical events.
huge … life
True magnificence.
grant
Acknowledge, allow (in your imagination).
Athwart
Across.
Behold … his way.
The account of Henry’s reception at
Dover does not appear in Holinshed or Hall (Chronicles, 1587; The vnion);
Shakespeare seems to have derived it from the Annales of
the great London historian John Stow (1592), who had himself twice been a
whiffler (A5 Sc0 Sp1) for Lord Mayor’s
processions. Stow recounts that When the king had passed the sea, and was
come to arriue and to take land at Douer, innumerable people of religion,
priests and noblemen, and of the commons came running to meete the king in
euery way (Annales 564).
Pales in
Fences in.
flood
Sea.
men, wives, and boys
Editors have found fault with the First
Folio’s reading on grounds of both meter and of sense. Those that object to its
irregular meter generally emend to some version of F2’s men, with wives,
and boys. This reading can be interpreted as “men—that is to say, wives and boys”, thus answering
the other
objection, that men should properly be those returning
home, not those greeting the fleet. This reasoning led Gary Taylor to emend
men to maids, but while it is
just possible to justify this with manuscript misreading, it is unnecessary (Henry V). As
Westmorland’s lament at A4 Sc3 Sp9 made clear, England has men enough
among those who did not go to war.
claps
Applause.
deep-mouthed
Deep-voiced, loud.
whiffler
Officer who leads a procession and clears the crowd from its
route.
solemnly
Ceremoniously.
Blackheath
Open grassy area just southeast of London.
Cf. Holinshed:
The maior of London, and the aldermen, apparelled in orient grained
scarlet, and foure hundred commoners clad in beautifull murrie, well
mounted, and trimlie horssed, with rich collars, & great chaines, met
the king on Blackheath, reioising at his returne: and the clergie of London,
with rich crosses, sumptuous copes, and massie censers, receiued him at
saint Thomas of Waterings with solemne procession.
(Chronicles, 1587 556)
Where that
Where.
have borne
Order to be borne.
bruisèd
Dented.
bended
Bent.
An older form of the participle used for
poetic reasons of alliteration and meter, this description of the sword is
probably not meant literally; a steel sword, as Craik points out, is unlikely to
bend from use (King Henry
V).
He … God.
Cf. Holinshed:
The king like a graue and sober personage, and as one remembring from
whom all victories are sent, seemed little to regard such vaine pompe and
shewes as were in triumphant sort deuised for his welcomming home from so
prosperous a iournie, in so much that he would not suffer his helmet to be
caried with him, whereby might haue appeared to the people the blowes and
dints that were to be seene in the same; neither would he suffer any ditties
to be made and soong by minstrels of his glorious victorie, for that he
would wholie haue the praise and thanks altogither giuen to God.
(Chronicles, 1587 556)
vainness
Vanity, pride.
self-glorious
Self-glorifying.
trophy
Memorial tokens of victory.
signal
Signs of honor.
ostent
Show, display.
Quite from himself
Entirely away from him.
quick
Fast; lively.
forge … of thought
Blacksmith’s workshop of your imagination.
brethren
Aldermen and fellow governors of the city.
best sort
Finest array; i.e., their robes of office.
th’antique Rome
Ancient Rome.
plebeians
Common people of ancient Rome.
by … likelihood
On a similar, less magnificent, but still loving occasion.
The second by may be
a compositorial error; since Rowe (Works, 1714), editors have either deleted it or
replaced it with high (Taylor, conjecturing a misreading of
hy [Henry
V]) or with as (Craik, suggesting a
mistaken repetition of the wrong word from the line’s beginning [King Henry V]). Likelihood here suggests both similitude and the more usual sense of probability (OED, 2nd ed. likelihood, n.1, 2), suggesting that the return of the general of our gracious empress is both like Henry’s and likely
(As in good time he may).
the general … coming
A reference to the Earl of Essex, commanding troops in Ireland in
1599 on behalf of Elizabeth I.
Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, was a
popular hero and still Queen Elizabeth’s favorite when he sailed to Ireland in
late March 1599 to put down Tyrone’s rebellion. His unsuccessful return on 28
September of that year allows for the dating of this Chorus speech, and hence of
the version of the play in which it appears, which must have been written and
acted before the fall from Elizabeth’s graces that ended in his own unsuccessful
rebellion in 1600 and his execution in 1601. Some editors and critics, attributing
to Shakespeare an improbable degree of political clout, have attributed a
political stance to the allusion to Essex: Wilson remarks on how subtly
Shakespeare flatters Essex while keeping him neatly in his place by
referring to Elizabeth as an empress (Henry V), while Annabel
Patterson reads the Chorus as a well-meant but ill-advised attempt at
mediation between the earl and the queen (54). See Patterson, Back by popular
demand. Another candidate for the subject of this allusion—less
likely, but popular with critics who favor a later dating of the play—is Charles
Blount, Lord Mountjoy, who succeeded Essex as governor of Ireland from 1600 to
1603. See, for example Smith, The Henry V
Choruses..
broachèd
Impaled.
Much more
Many more people.
and much more
And with much more.
As yet
While.
lamentation
Mourning.
Invites
Encourages, requires.
emperor’s coming
Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund visited
England in May of 1416, forming an alliance with England and
confirming, as Anne Curry writes, Henry’s new-found
importance on the European stage (Curry 291).
we omit
We (the players) leave out, ignore.
Editors have dealt in various ways with a
perceived problem in these lines as F punctuates them. The RSC editors, following
Rowe (Works,
1714), make a short clause out of The emperor’s coming […] between them (Bate and Rasmussen). This changes the sense of the
nominal phrase to the emperor is coming, and awkwardly
jars the verb tenses in the passage. Others, starting with Capell, conjecture two
missing half-lines between between them and and
omit, occasionally even undertaking to write the missing lines (Comedies, Histories, and
Tragedies). My emendation—adopted from Singer (Dramatic
Works)—of and omit to we omit avoids
these extreme measures, and is easily justified by manuscript confusion: in
secretary hand, w could easily be mistaken for
an, and terminal e is notoriously
similar to d.
All … France.
In the five years between Agincourt and
the Treaty of Troyes in May 1420, the English staged several further campaigns in
France and attempts at negotiation. In fact, despite the Chorus’s implication here
that Henry only returned for the meeting dramatized in 5.2, the king was hardly
absent from France during this period. As Holinshed recounts, he captured Caen in
1417 and laid siege to Rouen for half a year, capturing it in January 1419 (Chronicles, 1587). As Curry argues, however, Shakespeare’s jump from Agincourt to
the treaty is justified: The memory of Agincourt was so deeply ingrained on
French consciousness that they were never prepared to meet Henry in battle
again (Curry 292).
played … interim
Stood in for the gap in time.
brook
Tolerate, accept.
5.1
Location: France.
The precise location is uncertain.
Johnson thought this scene was misplaced and belonged among the post-battle scenes
in the fourth act (Plays), but it is clear from the opening lines that it takes
place in early March (just after Saint Davy’s day), and not in mid-October, when
Agincourt was fought, so apparently time has passed, as the Chorus states.
wherefore
Why, how.
The pairing of the synonyms why
and wherefore is proverbial (Tilley W332).
ass
As; unintentionally plays on “ass”.
scald
Scabby; contemptible.
pragging
Bragging.
petter
Better.
prings
Brings.
pread
Bread.
yesterday
Since Gower implies that the only day
Fluellen would normally wear a leek is Saint Davy’s day, the scene must take place
the day after, i.e., 2 March.
breed no contention
Start any quarrel.
swelling … turkey-cock.
Puffed up with aggressive pride.
The comparison is proverbial (Tilley T612), and used of Malvolio (TN 2.5.25), but
Fluellen’s response—swellings and cocks—plays upon
the resonances of “erect penis”.
Usually Trojan is
a positive epithet for a boisterously good fellow (OED, 3rd ed. Trojan, n.2.a), but Pistol seems to intend a melodramatic insult on
a Homerically epic scale.
fold … web
Kill you.
I.e., cut the cord of Fluellen’s life,
spun out, according to classical myth, by the Fates, or Parcae. Pistol invokes the
sisters Three in 2 Henry IV (2H4
2.4.167).
qualmish at
Nauseated by.
peseech
Beseech.
disgestions
Digestion, stomach.
The spelling probably indicates a Fluellenism; it is not usual
for this compositor (cf. digested,A2 Sc2 Sp18).
Cadwallader
Welsh king of the seventh century.
Cadwaladr became a
semi-legendary hero to the Welsh in the later middle ages; as the last Welsh king
to claim sovereignty over all of Britain, he was prophesied to redeem the Welsh
from the Saxons.
goats
Goats are traditionally associated with
Wales; Pistol may intend a sneer at Welsh poverty by implying that they are the
height of Welsh wealth and luxury.
goat
I.e., blow.
Fluellen may refer to his cudgel, punning on “goad”, a pointed stick for driving livestock.
when God’s will is
When God determines.
victuals
Food.
sauce
Flavor; rebuke.
See OED, 2nd ed. sauce, v.4.c, n.3.a. The joke is akin to the phrase a taste of the same sauce, i.e., more of the same suffering.
mountain squire
Contemptuous phrase for a Welshman.
As squire,
literally an attendant upon a knight, may be used contemptuously, Pistol’s phrase
is comparable to the modern American hillbilly.
squire … degree
Object of contempt.
The Squire of Low
Degree is the title of a late Middle English verse romance, printed in
its fullest form by William Copland ca. 1560.
Some threat by Fluellen seems
necessary to account for the about-face between revenge and eat (Taylor, Henry
V).
I swear.
The Folio’s punctuation makes I
swear an affirmation that Pistol is indeed eating the leek. Some
editors adopt Rowe’s dashes (Works, 1714), arguing that I
swear looks like an interrupted resumption of histrionics,
perhaps when Fluellen lowers his cudgel or partly turns away (Taylor, Henry
V).
do you
May it do you.
take occasions
Have an opportunity.
Good.
Very well.
groat
Small coin worth four pence.
A groat a proverbially small amount,
e.g. not worth a groat, and Fluellen’s offering—a third of the
price he offers for striking Williams only once—is a gesture of contempt.
another leek
Depending on how savage Pistol’s
beating has been, this line can get a large laugh in performance, whether or not
Fluellen flourishes the leek, and whether or not it is of monstrous
size as Taylor claims is invariably the case (Taylor, Henry
V).
in … revenge
As a down payment for the revenge you owe me.
cudgels
Blows, beatings.
woodmonger
Wood merchant.
stir
Rouse itself (for vengeance).
J. A. K. Thompson, in Shakespeare and the Classics, first noted a possible echo of Virgil’s
Aeneid, in which Juno vows, Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronto movebo
(“If I cannot bend the powers above, I will stir up those of Acheron
one of the rivers in hell”)
(Virgil 7.312 qtd. in Thompson
106).
counterfeit
Pretending, deceitful.
upon an honorable respect
In esteem for honor.
predeceased valor
The valor of predecessors.
avouch in
Make good with.
gleeking
Sneering, jesting.
galling
Scoffing, harassing.
garb
Fashion.
correction
Punishment, flogging.
condition
behaviour, disposition.
As a farewell to Fluellen, this doubles
as a highly ambivalent statement of English national identity. The most English
thing about the Welshman, Gower’s admonition suggests, is his affinity for
violence. Only by beating Pistol does Fluellen finally achieve a good
English condition himself.
play the hussy
Abandon me, betray me.
The modern hussy is
a corruption of housewife (pronounced “hussif”) in a derogatory sense. The idea of Fortune as
a whore is proverbial (Dent F603.1; cf.
Ham
2.2.225).
Doll
A mistress of Pistol’s, or possibly a generic word for a
whore.
Many editors emend to Nell, assuming that Pistol
means his wife, the former Nell Quickly, a rather sentimental assumption about his
marital fidelity. Johnson spent some time considering the possibility that
Doll is Doll Tearsheet, the prostitute mentioned in 2 Henry IV and contemptuously at A2 Sc1 Sp23, and
John Dover Wilson uses this mistake as evidence that Pistol’s
character was a late replacement for Falstaff, whom Shakespeare decided to kill
off during the process of composing the play (Wilson, Appendix II, 114–115).
Am somewhat inclined to become a dexterous pickpocket.
steal
Sneak.
With the play on the more usual sense (“rob”) in the repetition.
patches
Bandages.
Gallia wars
French wars.
The pretentiousness of Pistol’s last
phrase, from the Latin for Gaul (France), would remind every former schoolboy in
Shakespeare’s audience of Caesar’s Gallic Wars. His
promise to lie about the origins of his scars reminds us of Gower’s
slanders of the age (A3 Sc6 Sp23); as Joel B. Altman points out, in
the late 1590s England was troubled with veterans returning from the Irish wars to
a life of robbery such as Pistol imagines for himself: Pistol was speaking
to current affairs when he envisioned a profitable future in sturdy vagabondage
upon his return from Henry’s France (Altman, Vile Participation
12). The speech also provides a rather pathetic conclusion to the Henriad’s comic
scenes, as Johnson noted:
The comic scenes of The History of Henry the
Fourth and Fifth are now at an end, and
all the comic personages are now dismissed. Falstaff and Mrs Quickly are
dead; Nym and Bardolph are hanged; Gadshill was lost immediately after the
robbery; Poins and Peto have vanished since, one knows not how; and Pistol
is now beaten into obscurity. I believe every reader regrets their
departure.
(Johnson, Plays)
5.2
Location: a court in Troyes, France.
Shakespeare’s final scene follows the
structure of the last three scenes in Famous Victories,
with initial negotiations between Henry and a resistant French king giving way to
a dialogue between Henry and Catherine, and a final agreement to make Henry the
heir to France and Catherine’s husband. The author of Famous
Victories interposes a scene of clowning, which Shakespeare removes, or
rather relocates to the beginning of the act, and Shakespeare also makes Henry’s
motivations more ambiguous and the parallel between the political and romantic
negotiations more subtle. See A5 Sc2 Sp13 n. Historically, the meeting depicted
in this scene took place on 20 May, 1420, though as recounted by Holinshed, the
negotiations depicted here spanned several weeks, even before Henry came face to
face with the French royalty. First the French King and the Duke of Burgundy
appealed to Henry for peace, and Henry,
minding not to be reputed for a destroier of the countrie, which he
coueted to preserue, or for a causer of christian bloud still to be spilt in
his quarell, began so to incline and giue eare vnto their sute and humble
request, that at length (after often sending to and fro) […] they both finallie agreed vpon certeine articles, so
that the French king and his commons would thereto assent. Now was the
French king and the queene with their daughter Katharine at Trois in
Champaigne gouerned and ordered by them, which so much fauoured the duke of
Burgognie, that they would not for anie earthlie good, once hinder or pull
backe one iot of such articles as the same duke should seeke to preferre.
And therefore what needeth manie words, a truce tripartite was accorded
betweene the two kings and the duke.
(Chronicles, 1587 572)
After further negotiations with English ambassadors at Troyes, it was
agreed that Henry should come to Troyes himself,
and marie the ladie Katharine; and the king hir father after his death
should make him heire of his realme, crowne and dignitie. It was also
agreed, that king Henrie, during his father in lawes life, should in his
steed haue the whole gouernement of the realme of France, as regent thereof,
with manie other couenants and articles, as after shall appeere. […] he went to visit the French king, the queene, and the
ladie Katharine, whome he found in saint Peters church, where was a verie
ioious meeting betwixt them (and this was on the twentith daie of Maie) and
there the king of England, and the ladie Katharine were affianced. After
this, the two kings and their councell assembled togither diuerse daies,
wherein the first concluded agreement was in diuerse points altered and
brought to a certeinetie, according to the effect aboue mentioned.
(572)
Enter … French
The stage direction has been expanded to include the speakers in
the scene and those mentioned at A5 Sc2 Sp11.
Huntingdon
Huntingdon is a ghost
character in Henry V, addressed at A5 Sc2 Sp11 but with no lines.
John Holland, Earl of Huntingdon (1395–1447), was a first cousin of Henry V who
acquired that title after distinguishing himself at Agincourt. He later became
Duke of Exeter when Thomas Beaufort, Henry’s uncle and the Exeter of the play,
died without heirs. Taylor suggests that his mention at A5 Sc2 Sp11 reflects audience familiarity with
Huntingdon as a character from other, earlier plays about Henry V; the character
appears in the slightly later Sir John Oldcastle.
Alice
Catherine’s attendant is not addressed as Alice
in this scene, and her speech prefix throughout is Lady. Since she
serves as a translator, however, editors have always presumed her to be identical
to the Alice of 3.4.
Peace to … met.
Peace, for which we are here met, be to this
meeting (Johnson, Plays).
brother
Fellow king.
The address of
cousin for Catherine and Burgundy, and
sister for Queen Isabeau, are likewise terms of courtesy
among nobility and do not refer to any familial relationship.
sister
Queen Isabeau, wife of the French king.
fair … day
Good day.
princely
Royal.
royalty
Group of royals.
contrived
Arranged, brought together.
issue
Outcome.
Possibly looking forward to the sense of
“offspring” (i.e., her hoped-for grandchildren)
used by the French king at A5 Sc2 Sp77.
England
Wilson suggested that F1’s
Ireland was a mistake suggested by Shakespeare’s
preoccupation with Irish affairs in 1599 (Henry V), and some modern
editors defend the F1 reading (Mowat and
Werstine). Cf. the character of Macmorris in 3.2, the reference to kerns
in 3.8, Pistol’s snatch of an Irish song in 4.4, and the allusion to the Irish
rebellion in 5.0; the only other play with a reference to Ireland not required by
the subject matter is As You Like It (3.2.152), also written in 1599. Walter’s explanation of
the error, however, is just as likely: that the compositor misread the
manuscript’s Ingland, a spelling favored by hand
D—usually identified as Shakespeare —in the anonymous manuscipt of
Sir Thomas More (Walter, Henry V).
gracious
Prosperous, fortunate; pleasant.
bent
Direction of gaze; line of fire.
balls
1) Eyeballs; 2) cannonballs.
basilisks
1) Mythical reptile whose look killed; 2) large cannons.
quality
Poisonous nature.
Burgundy
This Duke of Burgundy is Philip the
Good, son of the duke mentioned at A3 Sc5 Sp8 and A4 Sc8 Sp32, who inherited his father’s
independent diplomatic relationship with England and thus became an engineer of
peace. He was twenty-four at the time of the events pictured in this scene.
My … qualities.
This speech—reduced to four lines in
Q—is almost always cut or shortened in performance. One of the most effective uses
of the passage appears in Branagh’s 1989 film, in which Harold Innocent’s Burgundy
delivered the lines in voiceover during a montage of the dead characters: the
Constable, York, the Boy, Mistress Quickly, Nym, Bardolph, Scrope, and finally
Falstaff. The montage, and its scoring, were arguably more effective at stirring
the audience’s grief than Burgundy’s words themselves, which are nearly lost
during the montage, would have been.
Some editors read these words as
since that time, and punctuate accordingly, ending the sentence
at congreeted. F’s pointing admits either possibility.
The husbandry of peace may refer
figuratively and more broadly to the benefits and resources managed and cultivated
under peace, e.g. the arts, plenties, and joyful births mentioned
above (A5 Sc2 Sp6).
on heaps
In disorderly piles; in a mess.
Corrupting … fertility.
Rotting in its overripe, overgrown state.
Three forms of the possessive
case neuter were in use: his (the most frequent in
Shakespeare), it (less frequent), and
its (rare) (Craik, King Henry V).
Her … heart
That good wine makes a merry
heart was proverbial (Tilley
W460); cf. Psalm 104:15: wine that maketh glad the heart of man
(Geneva).
even-pleached
Formed of carefully interwoven branches.
fallow leas
Untended fields.
darnel … fumitory
Harmful weeds.
Darnel is a rye-grass that chokes wheat
fields, while hemlock and fumitory are both poisonous.
The yellow petals of the cowslip have
light brown spots in them.
cowslip … clover
Plants with dietary and medicinal uses.
Cowslips can be diuretic and analgesic,
burnet is edible and can be used in poultices to stop bleeding, and clover
contains trace amounts of morphine.
Wanting
Lacking.
withal uncorrected
Unchecked by it (the scythe).
Conceives by
Breeds because of; is impregnated by.
teems
Flourishes.
docks
Course weeds.
kexes
Dry, hollow stems.
A modernization of F’s
Keksyes; kex (or Thomas Middleton’s
preferred spelling, kix) was in common use from the
fourteenth century, while kecksy is not cited by the OED again until 1800, though it may have been a dialectical variant familiar to Shakespeare
(OED, 2nd ed. kecksy, n).
burrs
Weeds producing prickly seeds.
And all
Editors since Capell have unnecessarily
emended this phrase (see collation) and changed the period following
wildness (A5 Sc2 Sp6) to fit Burgundy’s comparison of
vegetable and human wildness into one sentence.
fallows
Arable fields.
Defective … natures
Failing in their proper functions.
Another reading, “being by nature defective”, might allude to original
sin and the theme of lost Edenic gardens and fallen man that recurs throughout the
play (e.g. A1 Sc1 Sp9, A2 Sc2 Sp25). Burgundy’s
point is that the plants have grown to wildness, whether the fault be their own or
the war’s.
Most editors emend this word to
cursitory, a form that appears in no authoritative printed
version, and only rarely in the seventeenth century; OED’s only citation is from 1632 (OED, 2nd ed. cursitory, a). Q1 and Q2 read cursenary, Q3 reads cursorary, and F has curselarie. Shakespeare
clearly intended to coin a four-syllable word meaning “passing over rapidly”. The
only such word to have gained common
currency, cursory (whose earliest OED occurrences are contemporary with Henry V [OED, 2nd ed. cursory, a]), is metrically inadequate. Since no modern
alternative recommends itself, this edition retains the original forms.
Shakespeare adapted the following
interlude, Henry’s wooing of Catherine, from Famous
Victories, though he makes the rather uncomfortable link between
romantic and policital bargaining more implicit than it had been in the earlier
play. In Famous Victories, Catherine is sent to Henry for
the explicit purpose of convincing him to abandon his Unreasonable
demands, and before she enters, Henry has a short soliloquy,
acknowledging the awkwardness of his situation and egging himself on:
Ah Harry, thrice vnhappie Harry.
Hast thou now conquered the French King,
And begins a fresh supply with his daughter,
But with what face canst thou seeke to gain her loue,
The marriage to Catherine was the first
item in the treaty, as Holinshed records:
1 First, it is accorded betweene our father and vs, that forsomuch as by
the bond of matrimonie made for the good of the peace betweene vs and our
most deere beloued Katharine, daughter of our said father, & of our most
deere moother Isabell his wife; the same Charles and Isabell beene made our
father and moother: therefore them as our father and moother we shall haue
and worship, as if fitteth and seemeth so worthie a prince and princesse to
be worshipped, principallie before all other temporall persons of the
world.
(Chronicles, 1587 573)
articles
Terms, conditions.
vouchsafe
Condescend.
terms
Words, phrases.
Plays on the sense of “treaty
conditions”.
love-suit
Wooing plea.
A traditional phrase, but also another
reminder of the setting: a court of law where legal matters are being
decided.
Oh
This is either a vocative address
(properly O), or a reaction of surprise to Catherine’s lack
of English. Henry’s heightened language being in vain, he shifts into
prose.
soundly
1) Fully; 2) healthily, unbrokenly.
brokenly
Imperfectly.
Pardonnez-moi
“Excuse me”.
wat
The wat spelling of what
occurs three times in this scene and must indicate a foreign pronunciation. Rowe
emended to vat on the evidence of Doctor Caius’s French dialect in
Merry Wives (Works, 1714), and many editors
follow.
Que dit-il? … anges?
“What says he? That I resemble the
angels?”
Oui, vraiment … dit-il.
“Yes, truly, saving your grace, so he
says”.
O bon … tromperies!
“O good God, the tongues of men are full
of deceptions”.
fair one
Many editors, even as recent ones as
Taylor and Craik, discounting the possibility that an old
gentlewoman (A3 Sc4 SD1) might be sincerely addressed as
fair, see this as evidence of either irony or flattery on Henry’s part, or error
on Shakespeare’s (Taylor, Henry V; Craik, King Henry V).
Dat … princess.
That is what the princess says.
the better Englishwoman
Behaving like an Englishwoman (in her mistrust).
fit
Well-suited.
plain
Plain-spoken; unsophisticated.
mince it
Speak with delicacy; behave pretentiously.
wear … suit
Exhaust my skill at courtship.
May pun on the sense of “worn-out clothes”.
clap … bargain
Shake hands to seal the deal.
Sauf votre honneur
“Saving your honor” (an apologetic
phrase).
me understand well
Because Sauf votre
honneur is an apologetic formula, some editors have conjectured an
error, either on Shakespeare’s part or on Catherine’s. Keightley inserted a
negative, reducing this most subtle of Catherine’s lines to a simple failure to
understand English (Keightley). Since
Henry’s continued rhetoric makes no acknowledgement of such a failure, and since
Catherine has evidently understood his proposal at her next speech, it seems more
likely that her line—often delivered quite dakly in modern performance—refers not
only to the plain English of the proposal, but to the larger situation at hand,
including, perhaps, her position as a bargaining chip in a game whose end has
already been determined.
put me to verses
Make me recite poetry.
undid
Would ruin.
The verb is in the subjunctive
mood.
measure
Poetic meter.
strength in measure
Capacity for dancing.
A measure is a stately,
courtly dance.
measure in strength
Amount of physical strength.
If I … wife.
Cf. Holinshed’s description of Henry’s
athleticism: In strength and nimblenesse of bodie from his youth few to him
comparable, for in wrestling, leaping, and running, no man well able to
compare (Chronicles, 1587 583).
Let it be said at the risk of punishment for boasting.
leap into
Win, gain.
With the attendant bawdy sense of “have sex with”.
buffet
Deal blows, fight.
bound my horse
Make my horse leap.
lay on
Strike vigorously.
With the sexual undertone of “lie on her”.
sit
On my horse.
Or perhaps with a sexual undertone,
“on my wife”.
jackanapes
Monkey.
look greenly
Gaze at you 1) like an inexperienced young lover; 2) with the
pale, sickly complexion that indicates jealousy.
cunning in protestation
Skill in professing love.
downright
Plain.
urged
Provoked, given reason.
urging
The persuasions of others.
temper
Disposition.
not worth sunburning
Too ugly for the sun to make worse.
By Elizabethan conventions of beauty,
dark skin was considered ugly.
glass
Mirror.
be thy cook
Work to make my face more appetizing.
Proverbial: Let his eye be the
best cook (Dent
E242.1).
plain soldier
Plainly, like a soldier.
uncoined
1) Genuine, unfeigned; 2) pristine, like metal not yet stamped as
a coin and put into circulation.
perforce
Necessarily.
in other places
Other women.
infinite tongue
Boundless eloquence.
favors
Good graces, approval.
What!
Exclamation used to call attention to and express contempt for the
following statement.
prater
Chatterer.
ballad
Common (and so contemptible) popular song.
fall
Shrink away.
full
Perfect, intense; overflowing with emotion.
wax hollow
Become sunken; grow insincere.
the sun … moon
I.e., everything worthwhile in the world.
his
Its.
An take … soldier.
If you take me, you take a soldier.
This edition is the first to render
And to An (i.e., “if”). The sense here, as suggested by the rhetorically parallel
following sentence, requires a conditional, not a simple conjunction.
fairly
Favorably; in the affirmative.
Is it … France?
Cf. Famous
Victories: How should I loue him, that hath dealt so hardly /
With my father and How should I loue thee, which is my fathers
enemie (FV sig.
F4r,
G2r).
Je quand … moi
“I, when I have the possession of France,
and when you have the possession of me”.
The Folio’s French here is clumsier even than is usual for this
text, which seems to indicate that Henry’s French is awkward by design. Whether
that design is the playwright’s or the character’s is unclear, but Henry’s sudden
shift to more sophisticated French below, at A5 Sc2 Sp38, may indicate that his struggle with the language here is disingenuous.
Saint Denis
Patron saint of France.
be my speed
Help me.
donc vôtre … mienne
“Then yours is France and you are
mine”.
move
Provoke compassion in.
Sauf votre … parle.
“Saving your honor, the French that you
speak, it is better than the English that I speak”.
With the combined blessings of the patron saints of France and
England.
compound
Create, make up.
a boy
Henry VI.
The irony of Henry’s hopes for Henry VI,
a famously ineffectual king, could not but be apparent to the audience (see
Epilogue, Epilogue Sp1).
take … beard
Drive out the Turks.
To pluck a man by the beard was a
humiliating insult (cf. Ham 3.1.469; Lr 3.7.32). Henry’s sentiment is an anachronism, as
the Ottoman Turks did not occupy Constantinople (modern Istanbul) until 1453,
three decades after Henry’s death. See General
Introduction.
flower-de-luce
Lily (fleur-de-lis), the symbol
on the French royal arms.
An actor might prefer to
modernize, as the anglicized form now sounds like a blunder (Taylor, Henry
V).
“The most beautiful Catherine of the
world, my most dear and divine goddess”.
Apart from the masculine forms mon and divin
incorrectly applied to déesse, this is the most
accurate French that Henry has spoken in the scene. In performance, the eruption
of relatively smooth French can indicate duplicity on Henry’s part about his
linguistic abilities. Historically, Henry certainly spoke French, as it had been
the language of the English ruling families for centuries, though he was the first
English monarch since the Norman invasion to use English in personal
correspondence, and during his reign he promoted the use of English as the
official language of government.
’ave
Have (i.e., has).
fausse
False (i.e., either “incorrect” or “deceptive”).
sage demoiselle
Wise young lady.
blood
1) Emotion; 2) sexual desire.
The sense of royal lineage (OED, 3rd ed. blood, n.8.a) may also be relevant, since it is the reason that the
marriage is a fait accompli.
Concerned with the strife following his deposition of Richard II
at the moment I was conceived.
Contemporary wisdom held that a child’s
temperament and appearance could be affected by its parents’ disposition at
conception. Historically, Henry was already twelve years old when his father
deposed Richard II.
aspect
Appearance.
ill layer-up
Bad preserver.
The image may be that of a garment put
away without being dried and folded first, and therefore wrinkled like an old
man’s face. Cf. 2 Henry IV: O, you shall see him
laugh till his face be like a wet cloak ill laid up. (2H4 5.1.66–67).
spoil
Harm.
wear
Use, possess.
This continues the conceit of Henry as a
garment; see A5 Sc2 Sp40
n.
Henry is not merely speaking redundantly
here. The former verb is a simple future tense, and the latter has the sense of
“must”, so the (potentially sinister) sense of
Henry’s speech is “He will be pleased, since he has no
choice but to be pleased”.
Laissez … puissant
seigneur.
“Forbear, my lord, forbear, forbear! My
faith, I would not have you abase your greatness in kissing the hand of one of
your lordship’s unworthy servants. Excuse me, I beg you, my most mighty
lord”.
Les dames … France.
“For ladies and maids to be kissed before
their weddings, it is not the custom of France”.
entend … moi
“Understands better than
me”.
Oui, vraiment.
“Yes, truly”.
Oh, Kate
Again, I have opted for the interjection Oh
rather than the vocative O, as I think it better suits the
informality of this prose scene.
nice
Strict.
Other possibly relevant senses of this
versatile adjective include “silly”, “fastidious”, “polite”,
“timid”, and “affectedly
coy”.
list
Boundary.
Specifically, the railing enclosing a dueling or jousting
arena.
follows our places
Attends our royal rank.
find-faults
Critics, detractors.
There … monarchs.
Cf. Famous
Victories: none in the world could sooner haue perswaded mee to
/ It then thou (FV sig.
F4r).
apt
Quick to learn.
The bawdy undertone of “ready”
(for sex) anticipates the string of double entendre that follows.
Our tongue
The English language (not the royal plural).
condition
Temperament.
frankness
Cadidness, coarseness.
conjure
Raise up, i.e., cause (a penis) to become erect.
make a circle
1) Draw a magic circle for conjuring; 2) open her vagina.
naked and blind
1) Like the traditional image of the Roman love god Cupid; 2) like
a penis, with its one blind eye.
maid
Virgin.
rosed over
Flushing, either with shame or excitement.
deny
Refuse.
in her … self
1) Emotionally within her; 2) inside her vagina.
naked seeing
1) Exposed; 2) aware of nudity.
hard condition
1) Difficult circumstance; 2) erection.
The diplomatic sense, i.e., a term of a
treaty (OED, 2nd ed. condition, n.I.3) serves as a reminder, like
consign, that this sexual negotiation is part of the
larger political one.
consign
Consent.
The same verb Henry used at A5 Sc2 Sp11 in reference to the
treaty.
wink and yield
Close their eyes and give in.
enforces
Overcomes, forces his way in.
The verb is used both for the taking of besieged towns and of the rape of women (see
OED, 2nd ed. enforce, v.II.9), which may suggest the analogy below (A5 Sc2 Sp66).
1) Tenderly, comfortably; 2) in a state of sexual arousal.
Bartholomew-tide
Saint Bartholomew’s day, 24 August.
Hence the hottest part of the
summer.
blind … eyes
Senseless from the heat.
handling
1) Being held (flies); 2) being sexually handled (maids).
The word is ambiguously either a
participle (“being handled”) or a transitive verb
(handling that which before
they would not abide looking
on (i.e., a penis).
moral
Lesson.
ties me over
Confines me.
latter end
1) Late summer; 2) backside, lower body.
before it loves
1) Until it sees its object; 2) before it is consummated.
Some editors emend to before that it loves (i.e.,
“when faced with the object of
affection”).
who cannot … way
I am distracted from capturing more French cities by the sight of
Catherine.
perspectively
Obliquely, as an optical illusion.
A perspective is
either a lens or mirror that produces an optical distortion (OED, 3rd ed. perspective, n.2.a) or a painting that appears distorted except when viewed from a particular angle
(2.b).
maiden
“Virginal”, i.e.,
unbreached.
so
So long as.
wait on her
1) Attend on her like servants; 2) come with her as a
dowry.
will
Desires (political and sexual).
terms of reason
Reasonable terms.
every article
As Gurr points out, the play glosses
over the fact that the terms of the Treaty of Troyes are largely the same as the
offer that the act three Chorus said likes not (A3 Sc0 Sp1), and are
substantially less than Henry’s stated goal of seizing the crown of France (King Henry V).
He becomes the heir to the throne, receiving it in
reversion for his son, and ignoring the alternate claim of the dauphin—not the
Louis depicted in this play, who died of dysentery in 1415, but his younger
brother Charles, who would later be crowned through the efforts of Joan of
Arc.
in sequel
In succession.
Craik calls this an eminently
defective line and emends to the sequel because
elsewhere the word takes an article (King Henry V). Others smooth the metrical
irregularity by emending to then in sequel (Bate and Rasmussen).
their
The articles’.
firm … natures
Strictly defined stipulations.
subscribèd
Signed agreement to.
where … demands
Holinshed lists this demand as the
twenty-fifth of thirty-three:
25 Also that our said father, during his life, shall name, call, and
write vs in French in this maner: Nostre treschier
filz Henry roy d’ Engleterre heretere de France. And in Latine
in this maner: Praeclarissimus filius noster Henricus
rex Angliae & haeres Franciae..
(Chronicles, 1587 574)
Praeclarissimus (“most
renowned”) is an error for the original treaty’s praecharissimus (“most dear”) that
crept into the second edition of Hall’s chronicle and was maintained by Holinshed
and later Shakespeare.
for … grant
In conferring titles or estates.
addition
Title.
Notre … Franciae.
Both the French and Latin translate to “Our most dear son Henry, King of England,
heir of France”.
your request
Your request to marry Catherine (making you my most dear
son).
Issue
Descendants.
pale
Possibly a reference to the chalky
cliffs of England’s France-facing shores.
and this … France.
Holinshed records the language of
article twenty-nine:
29 Also that there shall be from henceforward for euermore, peace and
tranquillitie, & good accord, and common affection, and stable
friendship betweene the said realmes, and their subiects before said. The
same realmes shall keepe themselues with their councell, helps, and common
assistance against all maner of men that inforce them for to dooen or to
imagine wrongs, harmes, displeasures, or grieuances to them or either of
them.
(Chronicles, 1587 575)
dear
1) Tender; 2) dearly bought.
neighborhood
Neighborliness.
bosoms
Hearts.
advance
Lift.
bleeding
Bloody.
God … marriages
The phrase recalls the language of the
marriage service (Whom God hath joined together let no man put
asunder) and the proverb Marriages are made in heaven
(Tilley M688).
spousal
Marriage-like union.
ill office
Disservice, shirked duties.
fell
Deadly, fierce.
paction
League, covenant.
incorporate
United in one body.
Receive
Accept.
God … amen
May God grant it.
My lord … oath.
Both of Shakespeare’s primary sources
list Burgundy as the first to take the oath of loyalty to Henry:
When this great matter was finished, the kings sware for their parts to
obserue all the couenants of this league and agreement. Likewise the duke of
Burgognie and a great number of other princes and nobles which were present,
receiued an oth.
(Holinshed, Chronicles, 1587, 573)
The oath is somewhat more belligerently administered in Famous Victories (FV sig.
G2r); at Henry’s
insistence, the French King commands Burgundy to swear and kiss Henry’s sword,
after which Henry compels the Dauphin, who remains silent, to kiss the sword as
well.
peers’
Noblemen’s (oaths).
for … leagues
As a pledge of our alliance.
Sennet
Trumpet signal for a ceremonial exit or procession.
Epilogue
This speech, designed to elicit applause
as well as to fit this last play into Shakespeare’s extant cycle of histories, is
written as a regular Shakespearean sonnet of three quatrains and a couplet.
rough
Unpolished, imperfect.
all-unable
Entirely incompetent.
bending
Bent over his writing.
Other possible connotations include:
humbly bowing for applause; stooping beneath the weight of his subject matter; or
distorting the history to suit his purposes.
by starts
By abrupt starting and stopping; by presenting intermittent
episodes.
course
Career.
Small time
Henry V reigned for only nine years,
dying in 1422—two years after the events depicted in this play—at the age of
thirty-six. Holinshed remarks:
Thus ended this puissant prince his most noble and fortunate reigne,
whose life (saith Hall) though cruell Atropos abbreuiated; yet
neither fire, malice, nor fretting time shall appall his honour, or blot out
the glorie of him that in so small time had doone so manie and roiall
acts.
(Chronicles, 1587 584)
star of England
A phrase possibly derived from
Holinshed: a maiestie was he that both liued & died a paterne in
princehood, a lode-starre in honour, and mirrour of magnificence (Holinshed, Chronicles, 1587 583).
world’s … garden
France.
Cf. A5 Sc2 Sp6. The word may pun here on
guerdon (“reward”).
infant bands
Swaddling clothes, strips of linen in which babies were
wrapped.
Whose
Of whose.
That … bleed.
The sense of destiny in this reminder of
England’s catastrophic failures during Henry VI’s reign derives from the
audience’s familiarity both with Shakespeare’s history plays and their subject
matter, of course, but it is reinforced by a tradition, recorded by Holinshed,
that Henry V himself prophesied the losses to come:
This yeare at Windsore on the daie of saint Nicholas in December, the
queene was deliuered of a sonne named Henrie. […] The
king being certified hereof, as he laie at siege before Meaux, gaue God
thanks, in that it had pleased his diuine prouidence to send him a sonne,
which might succeed in his crowne and scepter. But when he heard reported
the place of his natiuitie; were it that he had
been warned by some prophesie, or had some foreknowledge, or
else iudged himselfe of his sonnes fortune, he said vnto the lord Fitz Hugh
his trustie chamberleine these words: My lord, I Henrie borne at Monmouth,
shall small time reigne, & much get; and Henrie borne at Windsore, shall
long reigne, and all loose: but as God will, so be it.
(Chronicles, 1587 581)
oft … shown
The three parts of Shakespeare’s Henry
VI were popularly performed throughout the 1590s.
for … sake
Insofar as the Henry VI plays have
pleased you.
let … take
Let this play find favor with you.
Prosopography
Chris Horne
Donald Bailey
Eric Rasmussen
Eric Rasmussen is Regents Teaching Professor and Foundation Professor of English at
the University of Nevada. He is co-editor with Sir Jonathan Bate of the RSC William Shakespeare Complete Works and general editor, with Paul Werstine, of the New Variorum Shakespeare. He has received the Falstaff Award from PlayShakespeare.com for Best Shakespearean Book of the Year in 2007, 2012, and 2013.
James D. Mardock
James Mardock is Associate Professor of English at the University of Nevada, Associate
General Editor for the Internet Shakespeare Editions, and a dramaturge for the Lake
Tahoe Shakespeare Festival and Reno Little Theater. In addition to editing quarto
and folio Henry V for the ISE, he has published essays on Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and other Renaissance
literature in The Seventeenth Century, Ben Jonson Journal, Borrowers and Lenders, and contributed to the collections Representing the Plague in Early Modern England (Routledge 2010) and Shakespeare Beyond Doubt (Cambridge 2013). His book Our Scene is London (Routledge 2008) examines Jonsonʼs representation of urban space as an element in
his strategy of self-definition. With Kathryn McPherson, he edited Stages of Engagement (Duquesne 2013), a collection of essays on drama in post-Reformation England, and
he is currently at work on a monograph on Calvinism and metatheatrical awareness in
early modern English drama.
Janelle Jenstad
Janelle Jenstad is a Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Director
of The Map of Early Modern London, and Director of Linked Early Modern Drama Online. With Jennifer Roberts-Smith and Mark Kaethler, she co-edited Shakespeare’s Language in Digital Media: Old Words, New Tools (Routledge). She has edited John Stow’s A Survey of London (1598 text) for MoEML and is currently editing The Merchant of Venice (with Stephen Wittek) and Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody for DRE. Her articles have appeared in Digital Humanities Quarterly, Elizabethan Theatre, Early Modern Literary Studies, Shakespeare Bulletin, Renaissance and Reformation, and The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. She contributed chapters to Approaches to Teaching Othello (MLA); Teaching Early Modern Literature from the Archives (MLA); Institutional Culture in Early Modern England (Brill); Shakespeare, Language, and the Stage (Arden); Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate); New Directions in the Geohumanities (Routledge); Early Modern Studies and the Digital Turn (Iter); Placing Names: Enriching and Integrating Gazetteers (Indiana); Making Things and Drawing Boundaries (Minnesota); Rethinking Shakespeare Source Study: Audiences, Authors, and Digital Technologies (Routledge); and Civic Performance: Pageantry and Entertainments in Early Modern London (Routledge). For more details, see janellejenstad.com.
Joey Takeda
Joey Takeda is LEMDO’s Consulting Programmer and Designer, a role he assumed in 2020
after three years as the Lead Developer on LEMDO.
Martin Holmes
Martin Holmes has worked as a developer in the UVicʼs Humanities Computing and Media
Centre for over two decades, and has been involved with dozens of Digital Humanities
projects. He has served on the TEI Technical Council and as Managing Editor of the
Journal of the TEI. He took over from Joey Takeda as lead developer on LEMDO in 2020.
He is a collaborator on the SSHRC Partnership Grant led by Janelle Jenstad.
Michael Best
Michael Best is Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria, BC. He is the Founding
Editor of the Internet Shakespeare Editions, of which he was the Coordinating Editor
until 2017. In print, he has published editions of works of Elizabethan magic and
huswifery, a collection of letters from the Australian goldfields, and Shakespeare on the Art of Love (2008). He contributed regular columns for the Shakespeare Newsletter on Electronic Shakespeares, and has written many articles and chapters for both print and online books and journals,
principally on questions raised by the new medium in the editing and publication of
texts. He has delivered papers and plenary lectures on electronic media and the Internet
Shakespeare Editions at conferences in Canada, the USA, the UK, Spain, Australia,
and Japan.
Navarra Houldin
Project manager 2022–present. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them)
completed their BA in History and Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. During
their degree, they worked as a teaching assistant with the University of Victoriaʼs
Department of Hispanic and Italian Studies. Their primary research was on gender and
sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America.
Nicole Vatcher
Technical Documentation Writer, 2020–2022. Nicole Vatcher completed her BA (Hons.)
in English at the University of Victoria in 2021. Her primary research focus was womenʼs
writing in the modernist period.
Tracey El Hajj
Junior Programmer 2019–2020. Research Associate 2020–2021. Tracey received her PhD
from the Department of English at the University of Victoria in the field of Science
and Technology Studies. Her research focuses on the algorhythmics of networked communications. She was a 2019–2020 President’s Fellow in Research-Enriched
Teaching at UVic, where she taught an advanced course on Artificial Intelligence and Everyday Life. Tracey was also a member of the Map of Early Modern London team, between 2018 and 2021. Between 2020 and 2021, she was a fellow in residence
at the Praxis Studio for Comparative Media Studies, where she investigated the relationships
between artificial intelligence, creativity, health, and justice. As of July 2021,
Tracey has moved into the alt-ac world for a term position, while also teaching in
the English Department at the University of Victoria.
William Shakespeare
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New Internet Shakespeare Editions (NISE1)
The Coordinating Editors of the NISE are Brett Greatley-Hirsch, Janelle Jenstad, James
Mardock, and Sarah Neville.
University of Victoria (UVIC1)
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Metadata
Authority title
Henry V: Folio Annotations
Type of text
Annotation
Publisher
University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online platform
Series
Source
Annotations written by James Mardock to accompany his modern text of Henry V (Folio Modern). First published in the ISE anthology. Converted to TEI-XML and remediated by the
LEMDO Team for republication in the NISE 1.0 anthology on the LEMDO platform.
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Edited according to the ISE Editorial Guidelines
Edition
Released with LEMDO Editions for Peer Review 0.1.5
Sponsor(s)
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
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Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines
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draft, peer-reviewed
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