Hamlet Reading Questions (Norton)

English 304: Shakespeare: Major Plays (Prof Boyer)

Reading Questions for Henry V
Keyed to the The Norton Shakespeare

The best beginning procedure is always to familiarize yourself with the cast of characters and then to read the play (or at least an act or a scene) all the way through so that you know what's happening. The notes can help if you're stuck, but try to get the big picture of a scene before getting bogged down in details. Read through, then go back and clear up details. Then you're ready to think about the questions.
Act 1
Act 2
Act 3
Act 4
Act 5
Return to list of English 304 reading questions

BACKGROUND
King Edward III (reigned 1327-1377) had too many sons. His eldest son, Edward the Black Prince, won famous victories in France but died the year before his father. (See Henry V 2.2.4.48-64.) So the Black Prince's ten-year-old son became kind in 1377 as Richard II (reigned 1377-1399). He was a bad king and was deposed by Henry of Bolingbroke, sone of another of Edward III's sons, John of Gaunt. (Shakespeare portrays the last years of Richard II's reign and his deposition inRichard II.) Bolingbroke rules as Henry IV (1399-1413), always with strong opposition. His son Henry (Prince Hal), instead of learning how to be a king, spends his time in in a tavern in Eastcheap (a section of London) with a band of thieves and drunkards headed by Sir John Falstaff (one of Shakespeare's greatest comic creations). Shakespeare portrays these events in the two parts of Henry IV, ending with Prince Hal's accession to the throne as Henry V and his utter rejection of Falstaff and his companions. To Shakespeare's audience, Henry V (reigned 1413-1422) would be well known as one of the great hero kings of England, having won a magnificent victory over the French at Agincourt in 1415 but then dying young in 1422, leaving his nine-month-old son to rule as Henry VI (reigned 1422-1461, 1471). Very early in his career Shakespeare had portrayed Henry VI's unfortunate reign and the civil wars known as the Ward of the Roses in the three parts of Henry VI. Thus Henry V represents the one bright spot in what was otherwise a pretty bleak 70 years, ending with the reign of the villain Richard III (1483-1485), who was deposed by Henry Tudor, Queen Elizabeth's grandfather. Shakespeare portrayed these events in Richard III.

PROLOGUE AND ACT 1

Prol.

1.

What is the main point of the Prologue? Of course the theatre can't hold the world--but why is that said at the beginning of this play but not at the beginning of other plays? What is the effect of this Prologue?

2.

In what other literary types might one find a request for a muse such as appears in Prol.1?

1.1

1.

The Chorus has promised us ships and horses, but instead we get an archbishop and a bishop plotting how to avoid having a lot of church property taken over by the state. What is the effect of this abrupt transition from heroic war to the back rooms of politicians?

2.

What action are Canterbury and Ely trying to prevent? How do they propose to prevent it? (For the action, see 1.1.1-21, 71-72; for the prevention, see 1.1.73-90.)

3.

What is their reaction to the new king? Key here is the awareness that as Prince Hal he had spent his time in taverns with thieves, although he also helped his father win an important military victory. These things are portrayed in Henry IV parts 1 and 2. Part 2 ended with Prince Hal becoming king and rather cruelly rejecting his companion and alternate-father-figure Sir John Falstaff. (See Henry IV Part 2 5.5.45-69, p.1374.) Yet this is exactly what he said he would do early in Part 1. (See Henry IV Part 1 1.2.173-195, p. 1164.)

4.

What has the king asked Canterbury to tell him about?

5.

How would you characterize Canterbury and Ely based on this scene?

1.2

1.

Why is the king so insistent on the Archbishop of Canterbury telling him the truth about the Salic law and the king's claim to France (1.2.13-32)?

2.

What is the Salic law, and why is it in question now? (See 1.2.35-54 and, for the basis of Henry V's claim, Note 8 to line 104.)

3.

What assurances does the king need (and get) in addition to the assurance that his claim to France is just? What is your response to the care the king takes to assure that he is getting a true answer (especially in 1.2.18-32).

4.

What role do the Scots play in this discussion and why?

5.

Canterbury uses the image of the beehive as a metaphor for the well-run state. (He is by no means the first, nor the last, do do so.) How effective is the metaphor? What sort of society is being described here? This question of the proper form of government (see 1.2.180) will return. (One thing that may bother you about this description is that the bees have a king, not a queen. At this time no one knew that the head bee was female and not male; that is a more recent scientific discovery.)

6.

What has King Henry already done (1.2.246-248)? Does this suggest that he has already decided to claim the French throne or not?

7.

What gift has the Dauphin sent? Why? What is King Henry's response? ("The Dauphin" is the title of the heir to the French throne, the equivalent of "Prince of Wales" for England.)

8.

Note again King Henry's seeming desire for a just war (1.2.281-288; compare lines 11-32 and 96.) Is the king really concerned about the effect of war on the English and the French, or is he merely trying to keep himself free from blame? (Keep this question in mind; it will return and is one of the key sources of alternative readings of the play. Arriving at an answer won't be easy.

top
ACT 2

2.0

1.

What does the Chorus think of the traitors?

2.

Does it bother you that the Chorus takes us to Southampton but then at the end of 2.0 (a way of designating the Chorus's speech) says we don't go there yet?

2.1

1.

Instead, we go to the tavern in Eastcheap (a section of London) that would be well known as a setting to the audience from the tavern scenes in both parts of Henry IV. This is the world that in those plays was ruled over by Sir John Falstaff, a character so beloved that Shakespeare wrote The Merry Wives of Windsor, a comedy about Falstaff in "love" and fooled by the two married women he tries to seduce. So popular was Falstaff that at the end of Henry IV Part 2 Shakespeare promised his return (see the Epilogue, lines 22-26, p. 1375). Bardolph, who first appeared in Henry IV Part 1 was noted for his bright red nose, which first becomes the subject of discussion at 1H4 3.3.51. Ensign Pistol first appeared in Henry IV Part 2; he is noted for his "ranting" in the high style of the tragedies of a decade earlier, such as Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine; his "swaggering" is discussed in 2H4 2.4.68-107. You can see samples of this ranting in 2.1.53-55, 59-61, and 65-72. (Pistol's actual title is "Ancient," which has become the rank "Ensign." He is normally known as "Ancient Pistol.") Nim (usually spelled Nym) first appeared in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Nim is a "humors" character, modeled on the plays of Ben Jonson, especially Every Man In His Humor (1598). ("Humors" characters emphasized one, normally comic, character trait.) Mistress Quickly was the hostess of the tavern where these characters and Prince Hal spent their time. Doll Tearsheet was one of Mistress Quickly's "ladies" (i.e., prostitutes).

2.

Keep track of the idea "Couple a gorge!" ("cut the throat" 2.1.72). We'll meet it again (and again in French) in Act 4.

3.

Where is Falstaff? We were promised his appearance, but instead he is reported as ill. What do the characters in 2.1 blame his illness on? Does this help or hurt the image of King Henry in the play?

2.2

1.

How does King Henry reveal, and then deal with, the traitors? (Henry's brother Prince John similarly tricked some traitors in Gaultree Forest in Henry IV Part 2 4.2. In most editions he appears in this scene as the Duke of Beford, speaking the lines here given to the Duke of Gloucester, his brother.)

2.

Does the King's handling of the traitors strengthen or weaken his image?

3.

What does the scene do to our image of the French?

2.3

1.

Look closely at the description of Falstaff's death (2.3.9-37). Try to get beyond the Hostess's malapropisms to understand what she is trying to say.

2.

With what attitude to Pistol, Bardolph, and Nim depart for France? (See 2.3.54-55.) How does this attitude compare with King Henry's?

2.4

1.

How are the French portrayed in this scene? How would you characterize the Dauphin? (Remember he's the one who sent the tennis balls.)

2.

What message does Exeter bring as ambassador? What is Henry doing in lines 103-109? Whose fault will a war be?

top
ACT 3

3.0

1.

Again, think about the purpose of the Chorus and its emphasis on our need to imagine the scene. (Can we, as the Chorus describes it? Is the power of language to do that perhaps part of what's going on?)

2.

What was the French king's offer to King Henry? What was Henry's response?

3.1

1.

Where are we at the beginning of 3.1? Is this an effective speech to motivate soldiers?

2.

Most of the King's speech is addressed to the nobles. Who are the yeomen addressed in line 25? (These are the archers who, using longbows, massacred the French at Crecy and Poitier in the previous century and will again do so at Agincourt. The longbow was seen as a major escalation of weaponry.)

3.2

1.

Has King Henry's speech in 3.1 motivated all the soldiers? What are Nim, Bardolph, Pistol, and the boy doing at the beginning of the scene?

2.

How does Captain Fluellen respond to these men? (From his name and language, the audience would have known at once that he is Welsh.)

3.

What does the boy think about the three men he serves? This is the boy that Prince Hal gave to Falstaff as a servant in Henry IV Part 2.

3.3

1.

As the tavern gang of both parts of Henry IV sinks in our estimation, a new group of commoners appears. It would be very clear to the audience that Gower is English, Fluellen is Welsh, MacMorris is Irish, and Jamy is Scots. So we have here all of the major nationalities of the British Isles. Keep watching as these four help King Henry to build a new sense of nationhood for Britain. How, both here and in later scenes, is each one characterized as typical of his nationality? These are stereotypes, of course. Are they negative or benign stereotypes?

2.

What are these four talking about? Specifically, what is the Roman discipline that Fluellen is so enamored of?

3.

What do you think of the tone of King Henry's speech to the Governor of Harfleur? If his men do sack Harfleur, whose fault will it be?

4.

Despite the speech, how does the King tell Exeter to treat the citizens of the town?

5.

What do we learn in 3.3.131-133?

3.4

1.

Why does Princess Catherine think that she needs to learn English? (Remember 3.0.29-31.) Ironically, Catherine is the much younger sister of Richard II's queen, who with her husband was deposed by King Henry's father.

2.

What is going on here? What's the "punch line" of the scene? (Look at the comment in the translation of 3.4.47-50.) How many people in Shakespeare's audience would understand this joke?

3.

Consider a larger issue of gender representation: why do the French women speak French but the French men speak English in the play?

3.5

1.

How are the French king and nobles reacting to Henry's victory?

2.

What is the effect of juxtaposing the two French scenes, 3.4 and 3.5?

3.6

1.

What has happened at the bridge, and what was Pistol's apparent part in it?

2.

What favor does Pistol ask of Fluellen? What has Bardolph done, and what is to happen to him? Does Fluellen agree to help?

3.

Bardolph was a tavern buddy of the King's when he was Prince Hal. Given the description in 3.6.91-97, it is impossible to think that the King does not know who this Bardolph is. How then would you stage the King's response in line 98? Does he respond in any way to the death of his former companion? This could be an important moment in developing one interpretation or another of the King's character.

4.

What message does the French king send, and how does King Henry respond? What ransom does King Henry offer? What shape is the English army in?

3.7

1.

Why spend so much time listening to a bunch of French nobles waiting for the night to end?

2.

What do the French expect to happen in the battle the next day?

top
ACT 4

4.0

1.

What picture of the Feench appears in the Act 4 Chorus? What picture of the English camp? What picture of King Henry?

4.1

1.

What is the effect of the encounter between King Henry (hidden in a cloak) and Pistol?

2.

How does the campfire scene between King Henry and the three soldiers (4.1.84-211) affect our understanding of the play? Note the King's quarrel with Williams and their trading of gloves--the quarrel will return. And pay close attention to the content of the discussion about the King's responsibility for his men? Who comes off better in the argument, the King or the soldiers?

3.

How does the King respond to the campfire discussion in his soliloquy (4.1.212-266)? What is the King's attitude toward his soldiers here? How does the soliloquy affect our understanding of the King?

4.

How does the King's prayer (4.1.271-287) affect our understanding of the King? What does it tell us about his view of his father's deposition of Richard II? Consider carefully what the King says in lines 285-287--do you see any problems with it?

4.2

1.

With what attitude do the French nobles approach the battle? What is the effect of this scene on our picture of the French? Of the English?

.

4.3

1.

Note the King's speech (4.3.18-67, especially lines 40 ff). What is the effect of the speech?

2.

How does the appearance of the Herald (Montjoy) strengthen or weaken the effect of the speech?

3.

What is our feeling about King Henry as the battle begins?

4.4

1.

How does this scene with Pistol and Monsieur le Fer affect our sense of the battle? Why is it located here? How much of the battle have we seen? Notice the emphasis on throat cutting.

2.

What does the boy say at the end of the scene? Note especially what he says about guarding the baggabe wagons.

4.5

1.

What is the purpose of 4.5? What important information do we learn from it?

4.6

1.

What success have the English had? How much of the battle have we actually seen on stage so far?

2.

Why does the King order that all the prisoners be killed (4.6.37) and what is so unusual about the order? (Consider what Pistol will lose if he kills Monsieur le Fer. What does the audience know at this point about the reason for killing the prisoners?

4.7

1.

What event is Fluellen reacting to at the beginning of 4.7, and who is responsible for it? What comment does the event make on the two armies and their leaders?

2.

Is the explanation at 4.7.6-8 for ordering the killing of the prisoners the same as the one at the end of 4.6? Can they be reconciled? If so, how?

3.

How are we to read Gower's "O 'tis a gallant king" (line 7)?

4.

What is the comparison of King Henry to "Alexander the Pig" doing here? What is the effect (in lines 27-45) of reminding us, even before the King's great victory at Agincourt is certain, of the most controversial event in Shakespeare's portrait of him, the rejection of Falstaff? Consider this part of 4.7 carefully (lines 1-45) to see how complex a setr of responses we are expected to have here: the horror of the killing of the boys, the humor of "Alexander the Pig" and the comparison of Monmouth and Macedon, the sudden turning of the joke into a horrible reminder of the King's rejection of Falstaff, and finally the entry of King Henry--who suddenly appears both as the victor at Agincourt and as the killer of his best friend.

5.

Why is King Henry surprised at the Herald's mission this time? What does he learn at line 78?

6.

Obviously the battle is over. How much of it have we seen on stage? What do we know about how it was won by the English? How much do we hear about King Henry's great tactical invention of having the archers protected from enemy horsemen by being placed behind rows of sharp stakes sticking up from the ground? (Note that Branagh shows us those stakes.)

7.

Why do we now have the interplay between Williams and the King and between the King and Fluellen (lines 109-168)? What does this do to the importance of the victory? What is the point of this practical joke at the expense of both Williams and Fluellen?

4.8

1.

How does the practical joke on Williams and Fluellen work out in 4.8? Note especially the echoes of the apprehension of the traitors in 2.2. What is the point of this echo? Is this the "brotherhood" of those who fought at Agincourt together that the King referred to in 4.3?

2.

Once the English (and the audience) finally get the results of the battle, how great a victory have the English achieved?

3.

What is King Henry's response to the magnitude of the victory? How seriously should we take him?

top
ACT 5

5.0

1.

What is the effect of the two comparisons the Chorus makes with the King's victorious return to England, (1) with the Roman Caesars (Shakespeare wrote Julius Caesar, which begins with Caesar's triumph, later in the same year as Henry V) and (2) apparently with the Earl of Essex?

5.1

1.

What is the effect of the "leek" scene between Fluellen and Pistol? Why does it occur after the description of the King's return to England?

2.

What is Pistol's future?

5.2

1.

What do you make of Burgundy's long speech about peace (5.2.23-67)? Does it heop to know that critics have seen echoes both of Virgil's Georgics and of Isaiah 32.10-20? (And what does it do to note that the next verse in Isaiah, 33.1, reads "Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou was not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! When thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee"?)

2.

Are you surprised that Queen Isabel expects to have a voice in the peace negotiations (5.2.92-94)?

3.

How important is King Henry's wooing of Catherine for the outcome of the treaty? For his marriage to her?

4.

What is the effect of King Henry's wooing of Catherine as he does when their marriage depends on the peace treaty, not on her saying yes or no? And why does King Henry portray himself so much as a "plain man"? Does he believe it, or is he playing another role?

5.

What is the effect of the bantering between King Henry and Burgundy about love?

6.

How well does Cathering acquit herself in the wooing scene? How much room to maneuver does she have? How well does she use what room she does have?

7.

What is the effect of giving the last important lines to Queen Isabel and her prayer (even if King Henry has the absolutely last lines)?

Epi.

1.

And so bleessed peace unites the kingdoms of France and England forever, even unto the present day. What's the catch here? And why remind us of it in the Epilogue? By the time we leave the theatre, France has been lost and England bleeds in the Wars of the Roses. Is this a final undercutting of the heroic King Henry V? Or is it just a way of selling tickets to those plays without undercutting Henry V?

top

Prol.
1.	What is the main point of the Prologue? Of course the theatre can't hold the world--but why is that said at the beginning of this play but not at the beginning of other plays? What is the effect of this Prologue?
2.	In what other literary types might one find a request for a muse such as appears in Prol.1?

1.1
1.	The Chorus has promised us ships and horses, but instead we get an archbishop and a bishop plotting how to avoid having a lot of church property taken over by the state. What is the effect of this abrupt transition from heroic war to the back rooms of politicians?
2.	What action are Canterbury and Ely trying to prevent? How do they propose to prevent it? (For the action, see 1.1.1-21, 71-72; for the prevention, see 1.1.73-90.)
3.	What is their reaction to the new king? Key here is the awareness that as Prince Hal he had spent his time in taverns with thieves, although he also helped his father win an important military victory. These things are portrayed in Henry IV parts 1 and 2. Part 2 ended with Prince Hal becoming king and rather cruelly rejecting his companion and alternate-father-figure Sir John Falstaff. (See Henry IV Part 2 5.5.45-69, p.1374.) Yet this is exactly what he said he would do early in Part 1. (See Henry IV Part 1 1.2.173-195, p. 1164.)
4.	What has the king asked Canterbury to tell him about?
5.	How would you characterize Canterbury and Ely based on this scene?

1.2
1.	Why is the king so insistent on the Archbishop of Canterbury telling him the truth about the Salic law and the king's claim to France (1.2.13-32)?
2.	What is the Salic law, and why is it in question now? (See 1.2.35-54 and, for the basis of Henry V's claim, Note 8 to line 104.)
3.	What assurances does the king need (and get) in addition to the assurance that his claim to France is just? What is your response to the care the king takes to assure that he is getting a true answer (especially in 1.2.18-32).
4.	What role do the Scots play in this discussion and why?
5.	Canterbury uses the image of the beehive as a metaphor for the well-run state. (He is by no means the first, nor the last, do do so.) How effective is the metaphor? What sort of society is being described here? This question of the proper form of government (see 1.2.180) will return. (One thing that may bother you about this description is that the bees have a king, not a queen. At this time no one knew that the head bee was female and not male; that is a more recent scientific discovery.)
6.	What has King Henry already done (1.2.246-248)? Does this suggest that he has already decided to claim the French throne or not?
7.	What gift has the Dauphin sent? Why? What is King Henry's response? ("The Dauphin" is the title of the heir to the French throne, the equivalent of "Prince of Wales" for England.)
8.	Note again King Henry's seeming desire for a just war (1.2.281-288; compare lines 11-32 and 96.) Is the king really concerned about the effect of war on the English and the French, or is he merely trying to keep himself free from blame? (Keep this question in mind; it will return and is one of the key sources of alternative readings of the play. Arriving at an answer won't be easy.

2.0
1.	What does the Chorus think of the traitors?
2.	Does it bother you that the Chorus takes us to Southampton but then at the end of 2.0 (a way of designating the Chorus's speech) says we don't go there yet?

2.1
1.	Instead, we go to the tavern in Eastcheap (a section of London) that would be well known as a setting to the audience from the tavern scenes in both parts of Henry IV. This is the world that in those plays was ruled over by Sir John Falstaff, a character so beloved that Shakespeare wrote The Merry Wives of Windsor, a comedy about Falstaff in "love" and fooled by the two married women he tries to seduce. So popular was Falstaff that at the end of Henry IV Part 2 Shakespeare promised his return (see the Epilogue, lines 22-26, p. 1375). Bardolph, who first appeared in Henry IV Part 1 was noted for his bright red nose, which first becomes the subject of discussion at 1H4 3.3.51. Ensign Pistol first appeared in Henry IV Part 2; he is noted for his "ranting" in the high style of the tragedies of a decade earlier, such as Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine; his "swaggering" is discussed in 2H4 2.4.68-107. You can see samples of this ranting in 2.1.53-55, 59-61, and 65-72. (Pistol's actual title is "Ancient," which has become the rank "Ensign." He is normally known as "Ancient Pistol.") Nim (usually spelled Nym) first appeared in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Nim is a "humors" character, modeled on the plays of Ben Jonson, especially Every Man In His Humor (1598). ("Humors" characters emphasized one, normally comic, character trait.) Mistress Quickly was the hostess of the tavern where these characters and Prince Hal spent their time. Doll Tearsheet was one of Mistress Quickly's "ladies" (i.e., prostitutes).
2.	Keep track of the idea "Couple a gorge!" ("cut the throat" 2.1.72). We'll meet it again (and again in French) in Act 4.
3.	Where is Falstaff? We were promised his appearance, but instead he is reported as ill. What do the characters in 2.1 blame his illness on? Does this help or hurt the image of King Henry in the play?

2.2
1.	How does King Henry reveal, and then deal with, the traitors? (Henry's brother Prince John similarly tricked some traitors in Gaultree Forest in Henry IV Part 2 4.2. In most editions he appears in this scene as the Duke of Beford, speaking the lines here given to the Duke of Gloucester, his brother.)
2.	Does the King's handling of the traitors strengthen or weaken his image?
3.	What does the scene do to our image of the French?

2.3
1.	Look closely at the description of Falstaff's death (2.3.9-37). Try to get beyond the Hostess's malapropisms to understand what she is trying to say.
2.	With what attitude to Pistol, Bardolph, and Nim depart for France? (See 2.3.54-55.) How does this attitude compare with King Henry's?

2.4
1.	How are the French portrayed in this scene? How would you characterize the Dauphin? (Remember he's the one who sent the tennis balls.)
2.	What message does Exeter bring as ambassador? What is Henry doing in lines 103-109? Whose fault will a war be?

3.0
1.	Again, think about the purpose of the Chorus and its emphasis on our need to imagine the scene. (Can we, as the Chorus describes it? Is the power of language to do that perhaps part of what's going on?)
2.	What was the French king's offer to King Henry? What was Henry's response?

3.1
1.	Where are we at the beginning of 3.1? Is this an effective speech to motivate soldiers?
2.	Most of the King's speech is addressed to the nobles. Who are the yeomen addressed in line 25? (These are the archers who, using longbows, massacred the French at Crecy and Poitier in the previous century and will again do so at Agincourt. The longbow was seen as a major escalation of weaponry.)

3.2
1.	Has King Henry's speech in 3.1 motivated all the soldiers? What are Nim, Bardolph, Pistol, and the boy doing at the beginning of the scene?
2.	How does Captain Fluellen respond to these men? (From his name and language, the audience would have known at once that he is Welsh.)
3.	What does the boy think about the three men he serves? This is the boy that Prince Hal gave to Falstaff as a servant in Henry IV Part 2.

3.3
1.	As the tavern gang of both parts of Henry IV sinks in our estimation, a new group of commoners appears. It would be very clear to the audience that Gower is English, Fluellen is Welsh, MacMorris is Irish, and Jamy is Scots. So we have here all of the major nationalities of the British Isles. Keep watching as these four help King Henry to build a new sense of nationhood for Britain. How, both here and in later scenes, is each one characterized as typical of his nationality? These are stereotypes, of course. Are they negative or benign stereotypes?
2.	What are these four talking about? Specifically, what is the Roman discipline that Fluellen is so enamored of?
3.	What do you think of the tone of King Henry's speech to the Governor of Harfleur? If his men do sack Harfleur, whose fault will it be?
4.	Despite the speech, how does the King tell Exeter to treat the citizens of the town?
5.	What do we learn in 3.3.131-133?

3.4
1.	Why does Princess Catherine think that she needs to learn English? (Remember 3.0.29-31.) Ironically, Catherine is the much younger sister of Richard II's queen, who with her husband was deposed by King Henry's father.
2.	What is going on here? What's the "punch line" of the scene? (Look at the comment in the translation of 3.4.47-50.) How many people in Shakespeare's audience would understand this joke?
3.	Consider a larger issue of gender representation: why do the French women speak French but the French men speak English in the play?

3.5
1.	How are the French king and nobles reacting to Henry's victory?
2.	What is the effect of juxtaposing the two French scenes, 3.4 and 3.5?

3.6
1.	What has happened at the bridge, and what was Pistol's apparent part in it?
2.	What favor does Pistol ask of Fluellen? What has Bardolph done, and what is to happen to him? Does Fluellen agree to help?
3.	Bardolph was a tavern buddy of the King's when he was Prince Hal. Given the description in 3.6.91-97, it is impossible to think that the King does not know who this Bardolph is. How then would you stage the King's response in line 98? Does he respond in any way to the death of his former companion? This could be an important moment in developing one interpretation or another of the King's character.
4.	What message does the French king send, and how does King Henry respond? What ransom does King Henry offer? What shape is the English army in?

3.7
1.	Why spend so much time listening to a bunch of French nobles waiting for the night to end?
2.	What do the French expect to happen in the battle the next day?

4.0
1.	What picture of the Feench appears in the Act 4 Chorus? What picture of the English camp? What picture of King Henry?

4.1
1.	What is the effect of the encounter between King Henry (hidden in a cloak) and Pistol?
2.	How does the campfire scene between King Henry and the three soldiers (4.1.84-211) affect our understanding of the play? Note the King's quarrel with Williams and their trading of gloves--the quarrel will return. And pay close attention to the content of the discussion about the King's responsibility for his men? Who comes off better in the argument, the King or the soldiers?
3.	How does the King respond to the campfire discussion in his soliloquy (4.1.212-266)? What is the King's attitude toward his soldiers here? How does the soliloquy affect our understanding of the King?
4.	How does the King's prayer (4.1.271-287) affect our understanding of the King? What does it tell us about his view of his father's deposition of Richard II? Consider carefully what the King says in lines 285-287--do you see any problems with it?

4.2
1.	With what attitude do the French nobles approach the battle? What is the effect of this scene on our picture of the French? Of the English?
.
4.3
1.	Note the King's speech (4.3.18-67, especially lines 40 ff). What is the effect of the speech?
2.	How does the appearance of the Herald (Montjoy) strengthen or weaken the effect of the speech?
3.	What is our feeling about King Henry as the battle begins?

4.4
1.	How does this scene with Pistol and Monsieur le Fer affect our sense of the battle? Why is it located here? How much of the battle have we seen? Notice the emphasis on throat cutting.
2.	What does the boy say at the end of the scene? Note especially what he says about guarding the baggabe wagons.

4.5
1.	What is the purpose of 4.5? What important information do we learn from it?

4.6
1.	What success have the English had? How much of the battle have we actually seen on stage so far?
2.	Why does the King order that all the prisoners be killed (4.6.37) and what is so unusual about the order? (Consider what Pistol will lose if he kills Monsieur le Fer. What does the audience know at this point about the reason for killing the prisoners?

4.7
1.	What event is Fluellen reacting to at the beginning of 4.7, and who is responsible for it? What comment does the event make on the two armies and their leaders?
2.	Is the explanation at 4.7.6-8 for ordering the killing of the prisoners the same as the one at the end of 4.6? Can they be reconciled? If so, how?
3.	How are we to read Gower's "O 'tis a gallant king" (line 7)?
4.	What is the comparison of King Henry to "Alexander the Pig" doing here? What is the effect (in lines 27-45) of reminding us, even before the King's great victory at Agincourt is certain, of the most controversial event in Shakespeare's portrait of him, the rejection of Falstaff? Consider this part of 4.7 carefully (lines 1-45) to see how complex a setr of responses we are expected to have here: the horror of the killing of the boys, the humor of "Alexander the Pig" and the comparison of Monmouth and Macedon, the sudden turning of the joke into a horrible reminder of the King's rejection of Falstaff, and finally the entry of King Henry--who suddenly appears both as the victor at Agincourt and as the killer of his best friend.
5.	Why is King Henry surprised at the Herald's mission this time? What does he learn at line 78?
6.	Obviously the battle is over. How much of it have we seen on stage? What do we know about how it was won by the English? How much do we hear about King Henry's great tactical invention of having the archers protected from enemy horsemen by being placed behind rows of sharp stakes sticking up from the ground? (Note that Branagh shows us those stakes.)
7.	Why do we now have the interplay between Williams and the King and between the King and Fluellen (lines 109-168)? What does this do to the importance of the victory? What is the point of this practical joke at the expense of both Williams and Fluellen?

4.8
1.	How does the practical joke on Williams and Fluellen work out in 4.8? Note especially the echoes of the apprehension of the traitors in 2.2. What is the point of this echo? Is this the "brotherhood" of those who fought at Agincourt together that the King referred to in 4.3?
2.	Once the English (and the audience) finally get the results of the battle, how great a victory have the English achieved?
3.	What is King Henry's response to the magnitude of the victory? How seriously should we take him?

5.0
1.	What is the effect of the two comparisons the Chorus makes with the King's victorious return to England, (1) with the Roman Caesars (Shakespeare wrote Julius Caesar, which begins with Caesar's triumph, later in the same year as Henry V) and (2) apparently with the Earl of Essex?

5.1
1.	What is the effect of the "leek" scene between Fluellen and Pistol? Why does it occur after the description of the King's return to England?
2.	What is Pistol's future?

5.2
1.	What do you make of Burgundy's long speech about peace (5.2.23-67)? Does it heop to know that critics have seen echoes both of Virgil's Georgics and of Isaiah 32.10-20? (And what does it do to note that the next verse in Isaiah, 33.1, reads "Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou was not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! When thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee"?)
2.	Are you surprised that Queen Isabel expects to have a voice in the peace negotiations (5.2.92-94)?
3.	How important is King Henry's wooing of Catherine for the outcome of the treaty? For his marriage to her?
4.	What is the effect of King Henry's wooing of Catherine as he does when their marriage depends on the peace treaty, not on her saying yes or no? And why does King Henry portray himself so much as a "plain man"? Does he believe it, or is he playing another role?
5.	What is the effect of the bantering between King Henry and Burgundy about love?
6.	How well does Cathering acquit herself in the wooing scene? How much room to maneuver does she have? How well does she use what room she does have?
7.	What is the effect of giving the last important lines to Queen Isabel and her prayer (even if King Henry has the absolutely last lines)?

Epi.
1.	And so bleessed peace unites the kingdoms of France and England forever, even unto the present day. What's the catch here? And why remind us of it in the Epilogue? By the time we leave the theatre, France has been lost and England bleeds in the Wars of the Roses. Is this a final undercutting of the heroic King Henry V? Or is it just a way of selling tickets to those plays without undercutting Henry V?