King:
Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard.
My lord of Cambridge and my kind lord Masham,
And you my gentle knight, give me your thoughts.
Think you not that the powers we bear with us
Will cut their passage through the force of France,
Doing the execution and the act
For which we have in head assembled them?
He then tests them by speaking of his followers’ loyalty, which each traitor affirms.
King:
I doubt not that, since we are well persuaded
We carry not a heart with us from hence
That grows not in a fair consent with ours,
Nor leave not one behind that doth not wish
Success and conquest to attend on us.
This is another of Henry’s ability to test people while he disguise into someone else or pretend as if nothing has happened while he checks out his troops so he can get a better feel and idea of what is going on in his situation at that moment.
Then Henry tells Exeter to release a man imprisoned for insulting the king. The traitors oppose this mercy and want him to be punished.
Henry then reply back to the traitors and overrules them.
King:
Alas, you too much love and care of me
If little faults, proceeding on distemper,
Shall not be winked at, how shall we stretch our eye
When capital crimes, chewed, swallowed, and digested,
Appear before us? We’ll yet enlarge that man,
Though Cambridge, Scroop and ray, in their dear care
And tender preservation of our person
Would have him punished.
Shakespeare not only shows us how merciful Henry is, and that Henry cares about his citizens, but that Henry is aware of the three traitor is pretending to love and care for Henry, so Henry draws the opinion of the three traitors of what a citizen who insulted the king should be done to him, and Henry using this, then Henry can make up a excuse of executing the three traitors or making other people appear to take the responsibility or blame for his own action. I think Shakespeare makes Henry to turn out like a very thoughtful king, as in here, he has plan the excuse in which he can use to arrest the traitors and execute them. He is also very patient and concentrates very much on what he is doing, Henry also cares about the action of the traitors which might affect the decision of what is going to happen to them.
Next Henry goes onto the late commissioners, and the traitors find that their plot has been discovered.
Here we see the traitors change and that their face has turn so pale as Henry says, as Henry described them,
King:
What see you in those papers, that you lose
So much complexion? Look ye how they change.
Their cheeks are paper. Why what read you there,
That have so cowarded and chased your blood
Out of appearance?
We can guest that the three traitors are quite shock at the moments and that they are scared and will ask for mercy as it said in line 73-75.
Cambridge:
I do confess my fault,
And do submit me to your highness’ mercy. (Kneel)
Gray and Scroop:
To which we all appeal. (They kneel)
Now we see Henry using the three traitors recent judgement of punishing the citizen against them. Shakespeare show us that Henry is thoughtful and that he tricks them and draw the traitors to make up of a excuse for Henry, that if a citizen called me a name would be punished badly, then what should I do if someone try to kill me?
We can see this in line 76-80
King:
The mercy that was quick in us but late
By your own counsel is suppressed and killed.
You must not dare for shame to talk of mercy,
For your own reasons turn into your bosoms,
As dogs upon their masters, worrying you.
For the first time here, we see Henry really lose control of himself and gets angry with the three traitors and becomes a very serious man, one of the reason of this is Shakespeare is trying to show us that what Henry’s past relationship with the three traitors were like and that what they really meant for Henry, especially Henry’s favorite, Scroop, which Henry is most upset about.
The line 8-9 from Exeter showed us how close Henry and Scroop really was.
Exeter:
Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow,
Whom he hath dulled and cloyed with gracious favours;
Meaning that Scroop was Henry’s bedfellow and Scroop was the one who Henry has glutted with honours. Telling us that Henry was an outgoing young man who like to go out with friends and like to social rather that a king that would stay at home reading and studying politic.
First we are shown the way Henry interacts with Cambridge, here Henry says that he would have agree to provide him with all privileges belonging to his rank, and that he blame it on Cambridge that it was all his fault and that if he didn’t treacherous and sworn unto France to kill Henry here in Hampton.
Henry is a well known king and was respected a lot by most of people, one of the reason the Earl of March was probably because he respect him or his father very much and so could not do it. This has prove that he is very well respected even when the person was bride they could still not handle it.
Then we sees Henry’s reaction to his erstwhile friend Scroop, Henry called him a cruel, ingrateful, savage and inhuman creature. Which shows Henry is angry and that he can’t believe what he is seeing. Again he tries to blame them by saying that they knew each other so well and that he knew the very bottom of Henry’s soul. And saying to Scroop that you could have got all the money you wanted out of me if you had worked on me for your own ends and if you didn’t betrayed me. This is just another example of Henry tendency to blame people.
Overall, in this scene, apart from being clever and tough, we have also see how Henry can adapt to his sad situation and also he is aware of what is going on both around and away from him, he is a king with good version, like in Act 1 Scene 2, where he is deciding to attack France or not, he demonstrated that he is very thoughtful for his country, even know he was going to France, he still wanted England to be safe, just incase the Scottish start to attack while he is away and so he left a big army behind to secure the country, which show that he is very deep thinking man.
We also see this in Act 1 Scene2 as Henry already had in mind to attack France, however he doesn’t decline this until the ambassador of France comes.
In this scene, Shakespeare has try to show us that Henry is powerful and that the ambassador is a bit scared of him though the lines of ambassador.
Ambassador:
May’t please your majesty to give leave
Freely to render what we have in charge,
Or shall we sparingly show you far off
The Dauphin’s meaning, and our embassy?
Here we see the ambassador asking if he could speak the Dauphin’s meaning when he know is his job, showing a sign of fear in him and that he thinks of Henry as a ruthless king.
After this, Shakespeare show another thing about Henry is that he always stick up for his country, and at the same time speaks for himself and always try to be a nice king, as he reply back to the ambassador.
King:
We are no tyrant, but a Christian king,
Unto whose grace our passion is as subject
As we wretches fettered in our prisons.
Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness
Tell us the dauphin’s mind.
As I said before Henry has a tendency to blame people for their fault. We can find out here, as uncle Exeter opens the treasure and finds out that it is tennis balls and tells Henry, Henry first being sarcastic in response and says,
King:
We are glad that the dauphin is so pleasant with us.
His present and your pain we thank you for.
If he was being funny, then Shakespeare is really trying to show us is that Henry is able to keep cool under extreme condition and that he doesn’t panic and does silly things to show that he can be draw away easily, and reply as if he like it to show that he is not scare of the challenge.
There is one more very good example of this in Act 4 Scene 1. The scene is about Henry is disguise as normal soldier serve under Sir Thomas Erpingham, Henry then using subterfuge to find out what his men really think of him. And at the same time, he uses this chance to raise the army’s spirits, and to increase their trust in Henry, but there are certain moment when it looks more as if Henry is seizing the opportunity to stand up for himself, and to make the case that it is not his fault if many men die the next day with their sins upon their heads. Here Shakespeare again shows again the great talent in which Henry has-disguise. He is not just able to hide his feelings, but he can disguise in every possible way there is. Firstly, Henry has manage to put on some old clothes with a hoods, which has completely hidden his face and body, then he also change the way he speaks to people, what I mean by this is, normally he speaks using verse, which is a way to demonstrated to people that you are a high class person-a wealthy noble but he has changed to prose which means the way low class people speak for example the soldiers that Henry is trying to get information off from, this is because Henry is well aware of that if he was recognized then the soldiers would say that the king thinks he is good, we can tell what is a prose or a verse by looking at the length and the size of the scribe of the play.
Example1:
Act1 Scene1
Canterbury:
My lord, I’ll tell you, that self bill is urged
Which in th’eleventh year of the last kings reign
Was like, and hath indeed against us passed…
We can see this is in verse because there are always 10 different voices for each sentence, and it starts again in the next on as well.
Example2:
Act4 Scene1
King:
So if a son that is by his father sent about merchandise does sinfully miscarry upon the sea, the imputation of his wickedness, by your rule, should be imposed upon his father that sent him.
Here is a good example of a prose, the sentence keep going until the end of the page and it shows that you are a lower class of people.
Then Henry goes serious and using the tennis-playing theme, he creates the image to the ambassador of what will happen to them because you challenge me to this game of tennis match.
King:
When we have matched our rackets to these tennis balls
We will in France, by God’s grace, play a set
Shall strike his father’s crown into hazard.
Tell him he hath made a match with such a wrangler
That all the courts of France will be disturbed
With chases.
Henry then gives a long scaring speech to the ambassador and as he blames the Dauphin for his joke which will cause thousands to weep more than that laugh at it, and that it has start the war. As he can now focus on invading France, and let every man to get ready for war. This will leave the audience an image of what the battle will be like.
As we see later Henry does like France and would not let his soldier to take money from the villages and church, this is another way of Shakespeare to show that Henry respect other nation and will respect them and give them what they own, this is also showing that Henry is generous and has a heart as well as being a ruthless king as the same time, he tell all of these to Katherine later on in Act 5 Scene 2, but if he love France, then why did he made up a speech about killing the French people?
King:
And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his
Hath turned his balls to gun-stones, and his soul
Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance
That shall fly with them; for many a thousand widows
Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands,
Mock mothers from their sons, mock castle down,
And some are yet ungotten and unborn
That shall have cause to curse the dauphin’s scorn.
Looking closely at this passage here, we can see that the language that Shakespeare has used here is that he has turned the tennis match into a war match like. It is like using animals in a story and then animated them. This is a speech that will really shock the enemy, and is exactly what Shakespeare wants Henry to say so that he can become a feared character.
One of the reasons is that Henry wants to scare them by telling them this and mentally destroy them, or it could be that Henry was just out of control and that he was very angry. But why did he lied to Katherine that he loves France and that he would not part with a village of it, maybe he doesn’t love France and just want to get Katherine’s heart so that he could get a better chance of securing the French throne? Or maybe it was to scare the ambassador, either way when the ambassador goes back, his leader will be quite shock and rather scared at what Henry said. We can see another skill in Henry is that he could hurts the enemies without the needs of war and loss of blood, but however he did not succeed. This is another way of Shakespeare showing us that Henry is powerful and that he is strongly minded and will not let anything to bring him down easily.
Now going back to Act 2 Scene 2, after Henry makes the long speech, then he tells Exeter to arrest the three traitors in the formal ways even know they were good friends of his, as Henry pronounces the death sentence of their offence against the kingdoms, not for personal revenge. This shows that Henry doesn’t take thing personally but will treat them the same no matter who they were, this is fair and what a ruthless king should be, this also shows that Henry is not scared of losing his close ones which makes him a perfect king without any weakness.
We can also prove this when Henry orders the sentence for Bardolph’s crime and is proposed a death penalty. This indicates a heartless rejection of his former companion. Although Henry is visibly distressed, as he is not a selfish man, he keeps his cool and does his job and focusing back to the war.
After that Henry turns his attention to France, as he says these words:
King:
We doubt not of a fair and lucky war,
Since god so graciously hath brought to light
This dangerous treason lurking in our way.
Here Henry takes the discovery of the plot as a sign that god is with him, commends his army to God’s protection. At the time of King Henry, most of the people supported Christian Church; And Henry was one of them, though out the play we see Henry praying for God’s help and also thanking god for what he did here. We can see by this that he trusted a lot in God and that he is true lover of God and that if he did something wrong, he would ask for help from God or ask for mercy. We also see he relies on God to win, as he say:
King:
Then forth, dear countrymen. Let us deliver
Our puissance into the hand of God,
And also in Act 4 Scene 1
As he prays for God to encourage for his outnumbered men. Then he begs God not to think of the crime his father committed to gain the crown. He has tried to make amends.
You can see these lines in Act 4 Scene1 line263-279.
As we can see Henry is a king that is full of strength and is willing to fight on, he has also got tremendous skill in him.
In this scene, Shakespeare created a Chorus to build up an atmosphere and our expectation of what is going to happen to Henry and what he is like at the moment.
We find out that Henry is full of encouragements for others as he try to cheer up people of all ranks and so that it can raise the army’s spirits and to increase the chance of winning the battle next day, this is maybe to show that Henry knew that his soldier were not very confidents and needed some help because he also feels the same, and he keeps them calm and confident by keeping himself calm and not to panic.
As you can also see Henry make jokes with Sir Thomas Erpingham, this is a little bit to do with encouraging, but to lighten the sense of danger and doom. Henry already knows that Sir Thomas is putting on a front, we can find out this in line 90-95, and that he thinks his knight doesn’t really stand a chance. So why does Shakespeare show do joking in the face of almost certain death by the mass outnumbering strong army of France the next day? Shakespeare probably did this to show that Henry is brave and is not scare to have a few jokes before the battle or to show that Henry has given up and knows that he hasn’t got much of a chance in the battle, and why isn’t Henry as a king discussing strategy with the other leaders? Well may be he was trying to concentrating on trying to get the whole team together to raise their faith and spirits.
One more interesting thing here is that Henry send his brothers off to deal with ‘the lords of England’, could this means that Henry doesn’t want his brother to get killed in the battle tomorrow and Henry wants to take it as his fault not his brothers fault to start the war at the first place, either way he is a responsible king and man who will not let his dear ones die save them by fighting by himself.
We have seen the way Shakespeare dramatics the role of Henry, and it has shown that Henry is a great king and he is able to hide lots of good things that he does, while others doesn’t even notice it, Henry has prove that he is able to fight on despite the apparent hopelessness of their situation and at the same time not losing control of himself and keep calm. Shakespeare has really shown us here that he is a great king.
