King Henry V · William Shakespeare
HISTORICAL NOTES TO ACT FIRST.
(B) KING HENRY _on his throne,_] King Henry V. was born at Monmouth, August 9th, 1388, from which place he took his surname. He was the eldest son of Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby, afterwards Duke of Hereford, who was banished by King Richard the Second, and, after that monarch's deposition, was made king of England, A.D. 1399. At eleven years of age Henry V. was a student at Queen's College, Oxford, under the tuition of his half-uncle, Henry Beaufort, Chancellor of that university. Richard II. took the young Henry with him in his expedition to Ireland, and caused him to be imprisoned in the castle of Trym, but, when his father, the Duke of Hereford, deposed the king and obtained the crown, he was created Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall. In 1403 the Prince was engaged at the battle of Shrewsbury, where the famous Hotspur was slain, and there wounded in the face by an arrow. History states that Prince Henry became the companion of rioters and disorderly persons, and indulged in a course of life quite unworthy of his high station. There is a tradition that, under the influence of wine, he assisted his associates in robbing passengers on the highway. His being confined in prison for striking the Chief Justice, Sir William Gascoigne, is well known.
These excesses gave great uneasiness and annoyance to the king, his father, who dismissed the Prince from the office of President of his Privy Council, and appointed in his stead his second son, Thomas, Duke of Clarence. Henry was crowned King of England on the 9th April, 1413. We read in Stowe-- "After his coronation King Henry called unto him all those young lords and gentlemen who were the followers of his young acts, to every one of whom he gave rich gifts, and then commanded that as many as would change their manners, as he intended to do, should abide with him at court; and to all that would persevere in their former like conversation, he gave express commandment, upon pain of their heads, never after that day to come in his presence." This heroic king fought and won the celebrated battle of Agincourt, on the 25th October, 1415; married the Princess Katherine, daughter of Charles VI. of France and Isabella of Bavaria, his queen, in the year 1420; and died at Vincennes, near Paris, in the midst of his military glory, August 31st, 1422, in the thirty-fourth year of his age, and the tenth of his reign, leaving an infant son, who succeeded to the throne under the title of Henry VI. The famous Whittington was for the third time Lord Mayor of London in this reign, A.D. 1419. Thomas Chaucer, son of the great poet, was speaker of the House of Commons, which granted the supplies to the king for his invasion of France.
(C) _Bedford,_] John, Duke of Bedford, was the third son of King Henry IV., and his brother, Henry V., left to him the Regency of France. He died in the year 1435. This duke was accounted one of the best generals of the royal race of Plantaganet. King Lewis XI. being counselled by certain envious persons to deface his tomb, used these, indeed, princely words:-- _"What honor shall it be to us, or you, to break this monument, and to pull out of the ground the bones of him, whom, in his life time, neither my father nor your progenitors, with all their puissance, were once able to make fly a foot backward? Who by his strength, policy, and wit, kept them all out of the principal dominions of France, and out of this noble Dutchy of Normandy? Wherefore I say first, God save his soul, and let his body now lie in rest, which, when he was alive, would have disquieted the proudest of us all; and for his tomb, I assure you, it is not so worthy or convenient as his honor and acts have deserved." --Vide Sandford's History of the Kings of England._ (D) _Gloster,_] Humphrey, Duke of Gloster, was the fourth son of King Henry IV., and on the death of his brother, Henry V., became Regent of England. It is generally supposed he was strangled. His death took place in the year 1446.
(E) _Exeter,_] Shakespeare is a little too early in giving Thomas Beaufort the title of Duke of Exeter; for when Harfleur was taken, and he was appointed governor of the town, he was only Earl of Dorset. He was not made Duke of Exeter till the year after the battle of Agincourt, November 14, 1416. Exeter was half brother to King Henry IV., being one of the sons of John of Gaunt, by Catherine Swynford. (F) _Archbishop of Canterbury,_] The Archbishop's speech in this scene, explaining King Henry's title to the crown of France, is closely copied from Holinshed's chronicle, page 545. "About the middle of the year 1414, Henry V., influenced by the persuasions of Chichely, Archbishop of Canterbury, by the dying injunction of his royal father, not to allow the kingdom to remain long at peace, or more probably by those feelings of ambition, which were no less natural to his age and character, than consonant with the manners of the time in which he lived, resolved to assert that claim to the crown of France which his great grandfather, King Edward the Third, had urged with such confidence and success." --_Nicolas's History of the Battle of Agincourt._ (G) _----the law Salique,_] According to this law no woman was permitted to govern or be a Queen in her own right. The title only was allowed to the wife of the monarch. This law was imported from Germany by the warlike Franks.
(H) _Tennis-balls, my liege._] Some contemporary historians affirm that the Dauphin sent Henry the contemptuous present, which has been imputed to him, intimating that such implements of play were better adapted to his dissolute character than the instruments of war, while others are silent on the subject. The circumstance of Henry's offering to meet his enemy in single combat, affords some support to the statement that he was influenced by those personal feelings of revenge to which the Dauphin's conduct would undoubtedly have given birth. (I) _Enter BARDOLPH, NYM, PISTOL, Mrs. QUICKLY, and BOY._] These followers of Falstaff figured conspicuously through the two parts of Shakespeare's Henry IV. Pistol is a swaggering, pompous braggadocio; Nym a boaster and a coward; and Bardolph a liar, thief, and coward, who has no wit but in his nose. _Enter CHORUS._ _Cho._ Now all the youth of England are on fire, And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies: Now thrive the armourers, and honour's thought Reigns solely in the breast of every man: They sell the pasture now to buy the horse; Following the mirror of all Christian kings, With winged heels, as English Mercuries; For now sits expectation in the air. O England!--model to thy inward greatness, Like little body with a mighty heart,-- What might'st thou do, that honour would thee do, Were all thy children kind and natural! But see thy fault! France hath in thee found out A nest of hollow bosoms, which he fills[1] With treacherous crowns; and three corrupted men,-- One, Richard earl of Cambridge;[2] and the second, Henry lord Scroop of Masham,[3] and the third, Sir Thomas Grey, knight, of Northumberland,-- Have, for the gilt of France[4] (O guilt, indeed!), Confirm'd conspiracy with fearful France;(A) And by their hands this grace of kings[5] must die, (If hell and treason hold their promises,) Ere he take ship for France, and in Southampton.
_The back scene opens and discovers a tableau, representing the three conspirators receiving the bribe from the emissaries of France._ Linger your patience on; and well digest The abuse of distance, while we force a play.[6] The sum is paid; the traitors are agreed; The king is set from London; and the scene Is now transported, gentles, to Southampton,-- There is the playhouse now, there must you sit: And thence to France shall we convey you safe, And bring you back, charming the narrow seas To give you gentle pass; for, if we may, We'll not offend one stomach[7] with our play. But, till the king come forth, and not till then,[8] Unto Southampton do we shift our scene. [_Exit._ [Footnote IIc.1: _----which +he+ fills_] i.e., the King of France.] [Footnote IIc.2: _----Richard, earl of Cambridge;_] Was Richard de Coninsbury, younger son of Edmund of Langley, Duke of York. He was father of Richard, Duke of York, father of Edward the Fourth.] [Footnote IIc.3: _Henry lord Scroop of Masham,_] Was third husband of Joan Duchess of York (she had four), mother-in-law of Richard, Earl of Cambridge.] [Footnote IIc.4: _----the +gilt+ of France,_] i.e., _golden money_.] [Footnote IIc.5: _----this grace of kings_] i.e., he who does the greatest honor to the title. By the same phraseology the usurper in _Hamlet_ is called the _vice of kings_, i.e., the opprobrium of them.]
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.