The World of Art
Inside Shakespeare’s mind:
Henry V as a ‘Mirror’
King Henry is maturing fast and good especially with the impatience
to ascent the throne, hurting his royal father hardly few hours before
dying. In full control of his royal duties, the young monarch from he
beginning, displays a greater sense of responsibility and wisdom which
his righteous father never had. He is strong and confident enough to
claim the French throne that his father never deemed.
Credits
* Henry V – He is the Mirror of all Christian kings and has the third
longest part (1105 lines) known also as the Star of England. Delivers
the Crispin's Day speech, now treated as an oration.
* Duke of Exter – The King's uncle who brought English defiance to
Charles VI.
* Duke of York – Two lines only and king's cousin
* Archbishop of Canterbury – His verbose and thankless verification
is frequently abridged.
* Bishop of Ely – Often suffer as Canterbury does which means the
loss of tribute to Henry.
* Gower – The steady average Englishman
* Fluellen – The Welsh captain and a fiery little dragon.
* Williams – A blunt soldier who argue at the camp-fire in Agincourt
with the disguised Henry about the king's responsibility.
* Bardolph – The red faces Lieutenant is hanged with two other for
looting.
* Lewis the Dauphine – Sends Henry the insulting tennis balls.
* Katerine – The bubbly French Princess marries Henry.
* Hostess Nell Quickly – She is now Pistol's wife. We hear from
Pistol himself that Nell has died.
* Chorus – He has over half dozen expository speeches to make at
different times in the play. A character sought after by Thespians to
act. |
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King Henry – ‘Then I will kiss your
lips’
Katherine – (in French) Les dames, et damoiselles, pour
estre baisees devant leur nopces,
il n'est pas le costume de France.
Henry V. Act. V, Sce 11. |
King Henry is born to face challenges that face the crown of England
without many of his father's staff, most of whom have passed away since.
Whatever he does, the young king makes a deep impression.
This historical play is one of the Parts – 3 series written in 1599
in which Henry V succeeds his father in 1413 and who died in 1422. This
was the time that the English won the battle of Agincourt against the
French. In 1420, he marries Katherine, Princess of France.
Henry is delighted when he gets the news that the Archbishop of
Canterbury's explanation of the ‘Salic Law’ which justifies the royal
claim to the French throne and send word to the Dauphine that he will
fight in France. Before Badolph, Nym and Pistol sails with the army,
they hear Falstaff's death from Nell Quickly, presently Pistol's wife:-
Pistol – No; for my manly heart doth years, Bardolph, be blithe; Nym,
rouse thy vaunting veins; Boy, bristle thy courage up; for Falstaff he
is dead and we must yearn therefore;
Bard – Wouls I were with him wheresome'er he is, either in heaven or
in hell.
Act 11, Sce. 111
At Southhampton, the King executes three traitors.
Princess Katherine has English lessons from her confidante, Alice. In
the meantime, Henry's outnumbered army prepares to fight in Agincourt on
the night before the battle, Henry disguises himself and walks among his
troops. He debates with three soldiers, prays for success. Rises with
the sun and delivers his famous rallying cry. The battle is fought
fiercely and won with great losses to the French and English soldiers
lesser than thirty.
With contempt, the Welsh captain, Fluellen forces the braggart Pistol
to eat a leek for humiliating the Welsh. At a final meeting in the
palace of the French King, peace is restored. In his attractive
gaucherie Henry, proposes to Princess Katherene and she accepts him.
Chorus who set the scene on five occasions, presently is there to end
the play. ‘Oh for a Muse of fire’ cries Chorus in the most resounding
opening to any chronicle. It is possible that Shakespeare may have been
Chorus though some scholars say it was Falstaff all the way that he way.
In performance
At the Globe, Southark, the plan of Chorus was a plan of utterance
throughout and was principally derived from Holinshed. There was a
failure to show the fury of the French wars.
But they fired the imagination of the audience. Some modern critics
would have undervalued it as an exercise in chauvinism but then heroism
was the theme and Henry the hero. When he is speaking on the morning of
Crispin's day in the theatre, before Agincourt, the piece has unerring
power.
It is the same at the moment of quieter emotion and the reading of
the casualty list after the battle. But Henry is strong in character and
he has to act like a monarch and not shed tears. Henry will come unto us
unfashionable though it may be as his old advisory Horspur did.
There have been a mix-up in dates as to performances until 1735. In a
bad text, John Philip Kemble was Henry from 1789 to 1811 at Drury Lane
and Covent Garden. However, in 1839, he sustained the spirit and in the
last year at Covent Garden added spectacular effects.
After Phelps at Sadler's Wells in 1852 and Charles Kean at Princess's
in 1859, with his prolific pageantry the major performance was by Frank
Benson at Stratford. Many directors opted to stage their versions with
commission of certain characters as well as texts.
Chorus was often a victim. Lewis Weller, an eloquent paladin, used to
downstage for the Crispin crescendo.
Ralf Richardson at the Old Vic in 1931 and Laurence Olivier at the
Old Vic in 1937 chiselled the way at the dead wood tradition. There was
also the valian Robert Atkins directing his version under hard white
lights.
During his experimental season in 1936. Ivor Novello dis Shakespeare
proud at Drury Lane. After the war, Alex Clunes at the Old Vic in 1951
in Glen Byam Shaw's production, banged Henry over an assault course of
rhetoric.
Alan Howard at Stratford in 1975 thought his way into the part,
rekindled it more than had been removed and taken for granted. Royal
Shakespeare Company at Stratford in 1984 led to his later translation
film.
Michael Bogdanov directed Michael Pennington in the inaugural
production for the Old Vic in 1986.
The very popular Christopher Plummer played Henry at Stratford,
Ontario in 1956. Edinborough Festival had the play in 1957 with the
French parts played by French Canadians, Barry Kyle directed a
spectacular revival at the Theatre for a New Audience in New York in
1993.
Henry V was also made into a film and was the first of Laurence
Oliviet's three Shakespeare films. The score was composed by William
Walton.
Olivier apart from producing, directed and acted as well. It had a
valuable caste with Lesli Banks playing Chorus and George Robey the
dying Falstaff. Though the film was fabulous and suited the temper of
time, it was not much of a success and less uncompromising than its
stage version at the Old Vic in 1937.
George Robey was a gallant Elizabethan and among other things down
the years he has been Clio. The Muse of History, an Elizabethan youth,
an actor in a duffle coat and the semblance of Shakespeare himself. He
is no longer sonorous.
Featuring a fine array of British talent that included Derek Jacobs,
Brian Blessed, Ian Holm, Paul Schofield and Emma Thompson, Keneth
Branagh chose Henry V as his first film direction. He himself acted as
Henry V.
Drama-wise Phil Wilmott's play The wax king adopted from
Shakespeare's histories, predominantly Henry V and first performed at
the Man in the Moon theatre, London in 1992. BBC televised it in 1979
with David Gwillim as Henry.
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