Henry V (play) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Overview

Henry V is a history play by William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

, believed to be written in approximately 1599. Its full titles are The Cronicle History of Henry the Fifth (in the First Quarto text) and The Life of Henry the Fifth (in the First Folio

First Folio

Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. is the 1623 published collection of William Shakespeare's plays. Modern scholars commonly refer to it as the First Folio....

text). It tells the story of King Henry V of England

Henry V of England

Henry V was King of England from 1413 until his death at the age of 35 in 1422. He was the second monarch belonging to the House of Lancaster....

, focusing on events immediately before and after the Battle of Agincourt

Battle of Agincourt

The Battle of Agincourt was a major English victory against a numerically superior French army in the Hundred Years' War. The battle occurred on Friday, 25 October 1415 , near modern-day Azincourt, in northern France...

(1415) during the Hundred Years' War

Hundred Years' War

The Hundred Years' War was a series of separate wars waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, also known as the House of Anjou, for the French throne, which had become vacant upon the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings...

.

The play is the final part of a tetralogy

Tetralogy

A tetralogy is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works, just as a trilogy is made up of three works....

, preceded by Richard II
Richard II (play)
King Richard the Second is a history play by William Shakespeare believed to be written in approximately 1595. It is based on the life of King Richard II of England and is the first part of a tetralogy, referred to by some scholars as the Henriad, followed by three plays concerning Richard's...

, Henry IV, part 1
Henry IV, Part 1
Henry IV, Part 1 is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written no later than 1597. It is the second play in Shakespeare's tetralogy dealing with the successive reigns of Richard II, Henry IV , and Henry V...

and Henry IV, part 2
Henry IV, Part 2
Henry IV, Part 2 is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed written between 1596 and 1599. It is the third part of a tetralogy, preceded by Richard II and Henry IV, Part 1 and succeeded by Henry V.-Sources:...

.

Unanswered Questions

Who are Pistol, Alice and Mistress Quickley

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Quotations

O! for a muse of fire, that would ascendThe brightest heaven of invention!A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!

Chorus

Consideration, like an angel, cameAnd whipp'd the offending Adam out of him.

Archbishop of Canterbury, scene i

Turn him to any cause of policy,The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,Familiar as his garter; that, when he speaks,The air, a charter'd libertine, is still.

Archbishop of Canterbury, scene i

We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us;His present and your pains we thank you for:When we have match'd our rackets to these balls,We will, in France, by God's grace, play a setShall strike his father's crown into the hazard.

King Henry, scene ii

Base is the slave that pays.

Pistol, scene i

Sure, he's not in hell; he's in Arthur's bosom, if ever man went to Arthur's bosom. 'A made a finer end, and went away, an it had been any christom child; 'a parted even just between twelve and one, even at the turning o’ the tide: for after I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers, and smile upon his fingers' ends, I knew there was but one way; for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and a’ babbled of green fields.

Mistress Quickly, scene iii

As cold as any stone.

Mistress Quickly, scene iii

Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin,As self-neglecting.

Dauphin, scene iv File:Agincourt miniature.JPG|144px|thumb|right|Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;Or close the wall up with our English dead!

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, summon up the blood.

King Henry, scene i

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