He describes his youth days and his future adulthood days, that he will be like the ‘sun’ and dazzle the French at the war. The sun was like a God in those days and Henry have set the image and positioned himself as the superior being. Furthermore Henry articulates that his life so far has merely been preparation of taking his place on the French throne. Henry mentions that he has been sleeping all these years and now he is awake to avenge the Dauphin. King Henry then comes back to the theme of the tennis in his reply to the Dauphin and warns that a more deadly game will follow. There is much confident in Henry’s speech.
He is contrasting the image of the tennis game to the game of war as he says ‘we will in France, by God’s Grace, play a set.’ There is a tone change, when he states God, but there is also reference to Henry’s religious side. God permits Henry’s anger. When Henry says ‘play a set’, he declares that they will play a game of war. There is a pun when Henry says ‘courts.’ ‘That all the courts of France will be disturbed.’ The word court is used in two different terms in Henry’s speech. Firstly the term court could mean tennis courts and secondly it could mean the courts of France, where the battle will commence.
Henry replies to the Dauphin that the tennis balls will be turned into gun stones, ‘Hath turned his balls to gun stones,’ at the battle and this is an extended metaphor. Henry again refers to God, ‘his soul.’ God is mentioned a few times by Henry and this establishes an image that God is on Henry’s side. The word mock is used four times in Henry’s lecture meaning he shows anger at the Dauphin’s mockery of the tennis balls. Just as tennis is a mock game and the game they are going to play in France will make mockery of Dauphin judgement and the people in France. ‘Shall this his mock mock out their dear husbands, mock mothers from their sons mock castles down.’
Henry is not interested in the consequences of the French in the Dauphin’s insult. The Dauphin’s mockery will only bring hardship on the French people, as Henry needs to proceed in just cause. Henry reveals that even the people who are unborn in France will suffer of the scorn. This is a biblical illusion. ‘And some yet unforgotten and unborn that shall have cause to curse the Dauphin’s scorn.’ The language Shakespeare uses in the quote is typical, since unborn and scorn are rhyming couplets. This is a hysterical flourish, and makes the line more memorable and forms a cut off point.
In conclusion there is a great deal of language and imagery in King Henry’s speech to persuade the Dauphin and his court that he will avenge himself of the insult offered to him by the so called gifts of the tennis balls. Henry’s reply to the Dauphin’s message shows dignity, self-control and wit. There is also a cold, menacing determination in his King Henry’s speech. Henry has used numerous terms in his speech, by taking up the theme of tennis and countless times Henry shows his religious side, by referring to God. This makes Henry holy. Moreover he mentions his childhood and what will happen in the battlefields of France, that he will win the war and rise as the new King of France.
