France, the battle of Agincourt,
the articles of peace between the French and English, and the
courtship of the King with Katharine, daughter of the French King.
It is a chronicle of the coming, seeing, and conquering of the
"fellow" "whose face was not worth sun-burning."

The play bears every mark of having been hastily written. Though it
belongs to the great period of Shakespeare's creative life, it contains
little either of clash of character, or of that much tamer thing,
comparison of character. It is a chronicle or procession, eked out with
soldiers' squabbles. It seems to have been written to fill a gap in the
series of the historical plays. Perhaps the management of the Globe
Theatre, where the play was performed, wished to play the series
through, from _Richard II_ to _Richard III_, and persuaded Shakespeare
to write this play to link _Henry IV_ to _Henry VI_. The lines of the
epilogue show that Shakespeare meant the play to give an image of
worldly success between the images of failure in the other plays.

The play ought to be seen and judged as a part of the magnificent tragic
series. Detached from its place, as it has been, it loses all its value.
It is not greatly poetical in itself. It is popular. It is about a
popular hero who is as common as those who love him. But in its place it
is tremendous. Henry V is the one commonplace man in the eight plays. He
alone enjoys success and worldly happiness. He enters Shakespeare's
vision to reap what his broken-hearted father sowed. He passes out of
Shakespeare's vision to beget the son who dies broken-hearted after
bringing all to waste again.

"Hear him but reason in divinity,"

cries the admiring archbishop. Yet this searcher of the spirit woos his
bride like a butcher, and jokes among his men like a groom. He has the
knack of life that fits human beings for whatever is animal in human
affairs.

His best friend, Scroop, plots to kill him, but is detected and put to
death. Henry accuses Scroop of cruelty and ingratitude. He forgets those
friends whom his own cruelty has betrayed to death and dishonour.
Falstaff dies broken-hearted. Bardolph, whose faithfulness redeems his
sins, is hanged. Pistol becomes a cutpurse. They were the prince's
associates a few months before. He puts them from his life with as
little feeling as he shows at Agincourt, when he orders all the
prisoners to be killed.

He has a liking for knocks. Courage tempere