English 241:  Shakespeare's Plays

HENRY V PAPER ASSIGNMENT:

Myth and history seem to give us two versions of King Henry V. According to the Elizabethan historian Lacy Baldwin Smith, the Henry of Elizabethan myth was the archetype of the hero, "the paragon of kingly and soldierly virtues--loyal, just, upright, honorable, able, chivalric, and pious." In reality, says Smith, he may have had feet "not of clay but of iron. Hard, domineering,
overambitious, bigoted, sanctimonious, priggish" may be a better description of this king.

Over the years, Henry has been described as a monster, a splendid king and general, a shrewd and pragmatic leader, a sneaky and even immoral person, and an ambiguous figure.

Write a three page paper in which you speculate on what version of Henry V Shakespeare gives us in Henry IV, 1 and Henry V. You may, of course, conclude that the plays give us neither a purely positive nor negative version, but something in between.

You might consider the following situations as you think your way through the paper:

Henry IV, #1:

1.3: "I know you all"--Is he just being shrewd and planning for the future or is he really just using his tavern buddies?

2.4: Playing with the waiter Francis: Is he cruely manipulating him for his own pleasure or simply jovally getting in touch with the common people?

2.4: Kidding with Falstaff when he already knows the truth: Is he just kidding or really toying with him?

2.4: When he rejects Falstaff: Is he giving him fair warning or colding beginning to reject him?

3.2: With father: Is he finally listening to, and being reconciled with father; or just toying with him too, playing his game?

5ff: In Battle: Does he handle himself as a future King should or just as a killer might?

Henry V:

1.2: In the Courtroom: When consults the Archbishop about his claim to French territories, the person whom we already know has a conflict of interest, is Henry being sneaky and deceitful, or just smart and shrewd enough to know how to incite his men to war;

1.2: Response to the French Ambassador: Do we remember the gift of the tennis balls, the embarrassing reminder of Henry's misspend youth or are we stirred by his reaction to the gift?

2.1: What kind of portrait are we given of Henry's common soldiers in this tavern scene?

2.2: What do we think of a King whose best friend is willing to betray him to enemy?

2.3: Is Henry's cruelty revealed in what the tavern cronies say about how he has broken Falstaff's heart?

3.1: Does Henry look heroic in his speech before Harfleur or is this appearance undercut by the fact that his old friends "charge to the rear," so to speak?

3.2: How does Henry's threat to the citizens of Harfleur make him look to us?

3.6: Is Henry's execution of Bardolph cruel and unfeeling or a necessary response to his crime?

4.1: What is Henry's argument with the common soldier Williams about and is the King right or wrong?

4.3: Does Henry's St. Crispin's day speech make him appear to be a heroic or a calculating leader?

5.2: In his courting of Katherine, isn't Henry being slightly disingenuous?