The Fifteen Minute Henry the Fifth
THE FIFTEEN MINUTE HENRY THE FIFTH Adapted from William Shakespeare's Henry the Fifth
DRAMATIS PERSONAE: (With scenes and possible doubles)
THE ENGLISH KING HENRY, King of England. CANTERBURY, Archbishop and adviser to Henry. EXETER, a Duke. WESTMORELAND, an Earl. THE ENGLISH ARMY CHORUS, a neutral commentator on the English side.
(2,4,6,8,10,11) (2 West. Cons.) (2,3,4,6,8,10,11) (4,6,8,10,11 Cant. Cons.) (4,6,8,10) (1-11)
THE FRENCH FRENCH KING, a nameless monarch. DAUPHIN, his son. CONSTABLE OF FRANCE, a French noble. HERALD, messenger for the French.
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(3,5,11) (3,5,7,9) (5,7,9 Cant.) (2,3,5-8,10)
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The Fifteen Minute Henry the Fifth
SCENE 1 (Enter Chorus, who remains on stage.) CHORUS: O! for a muse of fire that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention; a kingdom for a stage, princes to act and monarchs to behold the swelling scene. But pardon gentles all, the flat upraised spirits that hath dared, on this unworthy scaffold, to bring forth so great an object. Can this cockpit hold the vasty fields of France? Or may we cram within this wooden O the very casques that did afright the air at Agincourt? Suppose within the girdle of these walls are now confined two mighty monarchies, whose high upreared and abutting fronts the perilous narrow ocean parts asunder. Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts. Into a thousand pieces divide one man, admit me Chorus to this history; who prologue-like your humble patience pray, gently to hear, kindly to judge our play.
SCENE 2 (Enter King Henry, Exeter and Canterbury) K.HENRY: Where is my gracious lord of Canterbury? CANT. : God and his angels guard your sacred throne and make you long become it! K.HENRY: May I with right and conscience make this claim? EXETER: Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth do all expect that you should rouse yourself, as did the former lions of your blood. CANT. : Divide your happy England into four: whereof you take one quarter into France. K.HENRY: Call in the messengers. Now are we well resolved; and by God's help, France being ours, we'll bend it to our awe or break it all to pieces. (Enter Herald) K.HENRY: Tell us the Dauphin's mind. HERALD: Your highness lately did claim some certain dukedoms, in answer of which claim the prince, our master, bids you be advised there's nought in France that can be won. He therefore sends you this tun of treasure and desires you let the dukedoms that you claim hear no more of you. K.HENRY: What treasure, uncle? EXETER: Tennis balls my liege. K.HENRY: When we have matched our rackets to these balls, we will in France, by God's grace, play a set, shall strike his father's crown into the hazard. Tell the Dauphin I will keep my state, be like a king and show my sail of greatness when I do rouse me in my throne of France. (Exit Herald) K.HENRY: My lords, omit no happy hour that may give furtherence to our expedition; for we have now no thought in us but France. (Exeunt)
SCENE 3 CHORUS: Now all the youth of England are on fire, for now sits expectation in the air. The French, advised by good intelligence of this most dreadful preparation, shake in their fear. The King is set from London and the scene is now transported to France. (Enter French King and Dauphin) FR.KING: Thus come the English with full power upon us.
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The Fifteen Minute Henry the Fifth
DAUPHIN: My father, it is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe; and let us do it with no show of fear. No, with no more than if we heard that England were busied with a whitsun morris-dance. FR.KING: O peace, Prince Dauphin! You are much mistaken in this king. Think we King Harry strong. Look you strongly arm to meet him and let us fear the native mightiness and fate of him. (Enter Herald) HERALD: Ambassadors from King Harry of England do crave admittance to your majesty. FR.KING: Go and bring them. (Exit Herald. Enter Exeter) FR.KING: From our brother England? EXETER: From him. He bids you resign your crown and kingdom. FR.KING: Or else what follows? EXETER: Bloody constraint. In fierce tempest is he coming, in thunder and in earthquake like a Jove. This is his claim, his threat'ning and my message; unless the Dauphin be here? DAUPHIN: What to him from England? EXETER: Scorn and defiance, slight regard, contempt. DAUPHIN: I desire nothing but odds with England. I did present him with the Paris balls. EXETER: He'll make your Paris Louvre shake for it. (Exeunt)
SCENE 4 CHORUS: Thus, with imagined wing, our swift scene flies to Harfleur. Work, work your thoughts, and therein see a siege. The nimble gunner the devilish cannon touches and down goes all before them! (Alarums. Enter King Harold, Exeter, West. and the English Army) K.HENRY: 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 summon up the action of the tiger; stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, disguise fair nature with hard favoured rage. Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide, hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit to full height! On, on, you noblest English! Let us swear that you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not. I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, straining upon the start. The game's afoot: follow your spirit and upon this charge cry 'God for Harry! England and Saint George! (Exeunt in fighting mood. Alarums)
SCENE 5 (Enter French King, Dauphin and Constable of France) FR.KING: 'Tis certain he hath passed the river Somme. Where is the Herald? (Enter Herald) FR.KING: Let him greet England with our sharp defiance. Bar Harry England, that sweeps through our land and in a captive chariot bring him our prisoner. DAUPHIN: Sorry am I his numbers are so few, His soldiers sick and famished in their march. FR.KING: Now forth and quickly bring us word of England's fall. (Exeunt)
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The Fifteen Minute Henry the Fifth
SCENE 6 (Enter K.Henry, Exeter, Westmoreland and English Army, dejected) (Enter Herald) HERALD: You know me by my habit. K.HENRY: Well then I know thee: what shall I know of thee? HERALD: Thus says my king: Tell him we could have rebuked him at Harfleur. (The English Army laugh)England shall repent his folly. K.HENRY: Thou dost thy office fairly. Turn thee back, and tell thy king I do not seek him now. My people are with sickness much enfeebled. HERALD:I shall deliver so. Thanks to your highness. (Exit Herald) EXETER:I hope they will not come upon us now. K.HENRY: We are in God's hand, brother, not in theirs. March to the bridge; it now draws toward night: beyond the river we'll encamp ourselves, and on tomorrow. (Exeunt)
SCENE 7 (Enter Dauphin, Constable of France and Herald) HERALD: My lord high constable, the English lie within fifteen hundred paces of your tents. (Exit Herald) CONS.: Alas! Poor Harry of England, he longs not for the dawning as we do. DAUPHIN: What a wretched and peevish fellow is this King of England, to mope with his fat-brained followers so far out of his knowledge. CONS.: If the English had any apprehension they would run away. DAUPHIN: Foolish curs! that run winking into the mouth of a bear and have their heads crushed like rotten apples. CONS.: These English are shrewdly out of beef. Now is it time to arm; come shall we about it? DAUPHIN: We shall have each a hundred Englishmen! (Exeunt)
SCENE 8 (Enter English Army, Exeter and Westmoreland) WEST.: Of fighting men they have full three score thousand. EXETER: There's five to one; besides, they are all fresh. WEST.:O! that we now had here but one ten thousand of those men in England that do no work today. (Enter King Henry) K.HENRY: What's he that wishes so? No, wish not a man from England. O! do not wish one more. Rather proclaim it that he which hath no stomach to this fight, let him now depart. We would not die in that man's company. This day is called the feast of Crispian. He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, will stand a tip-toe when this day is named. He that shall live this day, and see old age, will yearly, on the vigil, say 'Tomorrow is Saint Crispian'. Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars, and say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day'. And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, from this day to the ending of the world, but we in it shall be remembered. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; for he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother. And gentlemen in England now
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The Fifteen Minute Henry the Fifth
a-bed shall think themselves accursed they were not here, and hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks that fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day. EXETER: My sov'reign lord, the french are bravely in their battles set, and will with all expedience charge on us. K.HENRY: All things are ready if our minds be so. WEST.: Perish the man whose mind is backward now! K.HENRY: You know your places. God be with you all! (Enter Herald) HERALD: Once more I come to know of thee King Harry. K.HENRY: Who hath sent thee now? HERALD: The Constable of France. K.HENRY:I pray thee, bear my former answer back. HERALD: I shall, King Harry, and so fare thee well. Thou never shalt hear Herald any more. (Exit Herald. The battle begins. Exeunt)
SCENE 9 (Alarums. Enter Dauphin and Constable of France) DAUPHIN:O diable! CONS.: Mort de ma vie! All is confounded, all! Reproach and everlasting shame! DAUPHIN: Why, all our ranks are broke. Shame, and eternal shame, nothing but shame! CONS.: Let's die in honour! The devil take order now! I'll to the throng: let life be short, or shame will be too long. (Exeunt. Alarums)
SCENE 10 (Enter King Henry, Exeter, Westmoreland and the English Army) K.HENRY: Well have we done, thrice-valiant countrymen: but all's not done; yet keep the French the field. But hark! What new alarum is this same? The French have reinforced their scattered men. I was not angry since I came to France until this instant. Ride thou unto the horsemen on yon hill. If they will fight with us, bid them come down, or void the field; they do offend our sight! (Enter Herald) EXETER: Here comes the Herald of the French, my liege. WEST.: His eyes are humbler than they used to be. K.HENRY: How now! What means this Herald? HERALD: Great king, I come to thee for charitable licence, that we may wander o'er this bloody field to book our dead, and then to bury them. O give us leave, great king, to view the field in safety and dispose of their dead bodies. K.HENRY:I tell thee truly, Herald, I know not if the day be ours or no; for many of your horsemen peer and gallop o'er the field. HERALD: The day is yours. K.HENRY: Praised be God, and not our strength, for it. What is this castle that stands hard by? HERALD: They call it Agincourt. K.HENRY: Then call we this the field of Agincourt, fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus. HERALD: Here is the number of the slaughtered French.
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The Fifteen Minute Henry the Fifth
(Herald presents a paper) K.HENRY: This note doth tell me of ten thousand French that in the field lie slain. Where is the number of our English dead? (Exeter presents another paper) K.HENRY: But five and twenty. O God! Thy arm was here. Come, we'll then to Calais; and to England then, where ne'er from France arrived more happy men. (Exeunt)
SCENE 11 CHORUS: Now we bear the King to London. Behold how London doth pour out her citizens. The mayor and all his brethren, with the plebeians swarming at their heels, go forth and fetch their conquering Caesar in. (Enter King Henry, Exeter, Westmoreland, the Herald and the French King) K.HENRY: Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are met! Unto our brother France health and fair time of day. FR.KING: Right joyous are we to behold your face, most worthy brother England. We have consented to all terms of reason. K.HENRY: Is't so, my lords of England? WEST.: The King hath granted every article. FR.KING: That English may as French, French Englishmen, receive each other! God speak this Amen! ALL: Amen! (Exeunt) CHORUS: Thus far, with rough and all unable pen, our bending author hath pursued the story; in little room confining mighty men, mangling by starts the full course of their glory. Small time, but in that small most greatly lived this star of England. Henry the Sixth, did this king succeed; whose state so many had the managing, that they lost France and made his England bleed: which oft our stage hath shown; and, for their sake, In your fair minds let this acceptance take. (Exit Chorus. Curtain) *********************************************************************
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The Fifteen Minute Henry the Fifth
ENCORE (The Two Minute version) (Enter Chorus with a sign reading 'Encore') CHORUS:O! for a muse of fire. But pardon gentles all, gently to hear, kindly to judge our play. (Enter King Henry and Exeter) K.HENRY: Where is Canterbury? (Enter Canterbury) K.HENRY: May I make this claim? (Canterbury makes to speak. Enter Herald) HERALD: Our master sends you treasure. (Herald throws a tennis ball at Henry) K.HENRY: We shall strike his father's crown into the hazard, for we have no thought in us now but France. (Exit King Henry and Exeter) CHORUS: The scene is now transported to France. (Enter French King and Dauphin) FR.KING: Thus come the English. (Exeunt. Enter Exeter) EXETER: In fierce tempest, in thunder and in earthquake like a jove. (Exeunt) CHORUS: Our scene flies to Harfleur. (Enter King Henry, Exeter Westmoreland and the English Army.) K.HENRY: Once more unto the breach dear friends! Cry 'God for Harry! England and Saint George! (Exeunt. Enter French King and Dauphin) FR.KING: He hath passed the River Somme. (Exeunt. Enter Herald pursued by Henry, Exeter, Westmoreland and the English Army.) HERALD: We could have rebuked him at Harfleur. (The English Army laugh. Exit Herald) K.HENRY: To the bridge! (Exeunt. Enter Dauphin and Constable of France pursued by Herald) HERALD: The English lie within fifteen hundred paces of your tents! CONS.: If the English had any apprehension they would run away. (Exeunt. Enter King Henry, Exeter, Westmoreland and the English Army) K.HENRY: We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. Gentlemen in England now a-bed shall think themselves accursed they were not here. (Exeunt. Enter Dauphin and Constable of France) DAUPHIN:O diable! CONS.: Mort de ma vie! DAUPHIN: Why all our ranks are broke! (Exeunt. Enter King Henry, Exeter, Westmoreland and The English Army, all of whom collapse in exhaustion.) K.HENRY: Well have we done, but yet keep the French the field. EXETER: Here comes the Herald my lord. (Enter Herald) HERALD: Great King...the day is yours. K.HENRY: Praised be God. Come we'll to England. CHORUS: Now we bear the King to London. (The English Army carries King Henry off) CHORUS: Thus with rough, unable pen our author hath pursued the story, mangling by starts the full course of their glory. (Exeunt. Curtain)
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The Fifteen Minute Henry the Fifth
PROPS LIST: Archbishop's prop (Canterbury) Scene 2 and Enc. Tennis-balls (Herald) Scene 2 and Enc. Two pieces of paper (Herald and Exeter) Scene 10 English crown (Henry) Scenes 2,4,6,8,10,11 and Enc. French crown (French King) Scenes 3,5,11 and Enc. 5 Swords (Henry, Exeter, Westmoreland, Dauphin, Constable) 11 various weapons (English Army) *********************************************************************
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