Shakespeare's Kings (64 page)

the
man
committed
yesterday That
railed
against
our
person

so
that
they
may
object,
and
urge
instead
that
the
offender
should
be severely
punished.
(This
last
is
a
little
Shakespearean
invention
to increase
the
dramatic
impact
of
the
scene.)
Only
when
they
have condemned
themselves
with
hypocrisy
as
well
as
treachery
does
Henry hand
them
the
'commission
papers'
(another
invention)
which
reveal to
them
the
truth.
None
of
them
—
not
even
Scrope
—
makes
any attempt
to
defend
himself;
they
simply
confess,
express
their
contrition and
beg
for
mercy
-
which,
it
need
hardly
be
said,
they
do
not
receive.

After
the
brief
scene
in
which
the
former
Mistress
Quickly
tells of
the
death
of
Falstaff
—
Shakespeare
thus
in
some
measure
fulfilling the
promise
made
in
the
Epilogue
of
Henry IV Part II
-
the
scene changes
to
the
French
court.
King
Charles
VI
is
present,
in
full
possession of
his
senses.
Nowhere
in
the
play
is
there
any
suggestion
of
his mental
instability;
indeed,
in
this
scene
his
good
sense
stands
out
in marked
contrast
to
the
foolhardiness
of
his
son
the
Dauphin,
who persists
in
underestimating
the
English
threat.
(There
is
no
historical evidence
for
supposing
that
this
was
the
Dauphin's
attitude,
except for
the
earlier
and
equally
suspect
incident
of
the
tennis
balls.)
The
discussion
is
interrupted
by
the
arrival
of
Henry's
uncle
the
Duke
of
Exeter
¹
with his ultimatum: either Charles gives up his throne or, 'in thunder and earthquake, like a Jove', the English will come and get it. Exeter makes it clear, too, that his master has a particular contempt for the Dauphin, whose pride and arrogance are continually emphasized so that it is he, and not his father, who becomes the villain of the play; Charles, however, remains the principal spokesman, and it is he who closes the scene — and the act - with his dismissal of the ambassador and his promise of a full answer on the morrow.

The substance of that answer is left to our imagination. By the opening of Act III we are at Harfleur, and the siege has begun.

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,

Or close the wall up with our English dead.

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man

As modest stillness and humility;

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,

Then imitate the action of the tiger;

Stiffen the sinews, conjure up the blood,

Disguise fair nature with hard-favoured rage.

Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;

Let it pry through the portage of the head

Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it

As fearfully as doth a galled rock

O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,

Swilled with the wild and wasteful ocean.

Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide . . .

Recognizing the limitations of his 'wooden O', Shakespeare confines his account of the siege of Harfleur to Henry's famous exhortation and a brief scene with Pistol, Nym and their ill-fated Boy in which he also introduces both the Welshman Fluellen - thought to be a portrait either of the soldier Sir Roger Williams, a follower of the Earl of Essex, or of the Welsh poet and courtier Ludov
ic Lloyd - and the Irishman Mac
morris. In scene iii the city surrenders, the Governor explaining to the King that since the Dauphin had not been able to send help he had no

i. Thomas Beaufort was not to be made Duke of Exeter until 1416. At this time he was still Earl of Dorset. But Shakespeare calls him Exeter, so Exeter he shall be.

alternative
but
to
yield.
We
are
given
no
indication
of
Henry's
treatment of
the
citizens,
except
for
his
injunction
to
Exeter
to
'use
mercy
to them
all';
interestingly,
however,
there
is
a
reference
to
the
appalling English
losses
through
disease:

The
winter
coming
on
and
sickness

growing Upon
our
soldiers,
we
will
retire
to
Calais.

At
this
point
in
the
play
we
meet
the
Princess
Katherine
for
the
first time.
Born
on
27
October
1401,
in
the
summer
of
1415
she
was
fourteen years
old
-
not
perhaps
too
young,
in
the
late
Middle
Ages,
to
have understood
both
of
the
agonizing
double-entendres
(foot
=
foutre,
gown
= coun
=
con)
in
her
conversation
with
her
companion
Alice
-
to
some of
us,
among
the
most
embarrassing
scenes
in
all
Shakespeare.
It
is
with considerable
relief
that
we
return
to
the
court
of
France,
imaginary though
the
ensuing
conversation
must
be.
Line
64
of
scene
v
reveals that
it
is
set
in
Rouen,
although
by
this
time,
only
a
few
days
before Agincourt,
with
the
English
already
across
the
Somme,
the
Constable d'Albret
would
surely
have
been
with
his
army.
(Holinshed
and
Hall, incidentally,
both
confuse
Louis
the
Dauphin
with
his
cousin
Louis
of Anjou,
King
of
Sicily,
and
Shakespeare
seems
to
have
been
led
into
the same
trap.)
It
is
a
short
scene,
which
serves
only
to
emphasize
the
French determination
to
bring
the
invaders
quickly
to
battle
before
they
reach home
ground
at
Calais
—
or
possibly
to
extort
from
them
an
appropriate ransom.
Holinshed
tells
us
that
at
the
French
council
of
war
-
which was
attended
also
by
'the
dukes
of
Berry
and
of
Britaine
[Brittany],
the earle
of
Pontieu
the
kings
yoongest
sonne,
and
other
high
estates'
-
the voting
was
thirty
to
five
in
favour;
'and
so
Montioy
king
at
armes
was sent
to
the
king
of
England
to
defie
him
as
the
enemie
of
France,
and to
tell
him
that
he
should
shortlie
haue
battell.'

Before
the
herald
can
deliver
his
message,
Henry
hears
from
Fluellen of
the
successful
crossing
of
the
Ternoise
in
the
face
of
strong
French opposition.
(In
the
play
—
though
not
in
Holinshed
—
the
credit
for
this is
wrongly
given
to
Exeter,
who
had
as
we
know
been
left
in
charge at
Harfleur.)
At
this
point,
too,
he
learns
from
the
same
source
of
the arrest
and
impending
execution
of
Bardolph,
who
has
been
caught robbing
a
church.
Clearly
he
has
it
in
his
power
to
pardon
his
old drinking
companion;
instead,
he
unhesitatingly
confirms
the
sentence,