THE AMERICAN SHAKESPEARE CENTER
STUDY GUIDE
Henry V
1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
6
10
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
20
Inside This Guide
Shakespeare Timeline
Shakespeare's Staging Conditions
Playgoer's Guide
Stuff That Happens
Director's Notes
Who's Who
Character Connections
Things You Didn't Know About…
Discovery Space Questions
Basics
21
22
25
30
34
37
44
46
49
55
62
65
71
74
75
Getting Them on Their Feet
Line Assignments
First 100 Lines
Choices
Verse and Prose
Handout #1 – Scansion Guidelines
Paraphrasing
Wordle
R.O.A.D.S. to Rhetoric
Handout #2 – R.O.A.D.S. Guidelines
The Elizabethan Classroom
Classroom Diagram
Asides and Audience Contact
Handout #3 – Asides Diagram
Teacher's Guide – Asides Diagram
115
118
120
124
126
127
132
134
135
138
142
143
Teacher's Guide
Perspectives: Agincourt (4.7, 4.8)
Handout #8A-D
ShakesFear Classroom Activity:
Alternative Readings (3.1, 3.4, 4.8, 5.2)
Production Choices
Student Handout #9 – Doubling Chart
Student Handout #10 – Script Prep
Student Handout #11 – Line Count
Film in the Classroom
SOL Guidelines
Core Curriculum Standards
Bibliography
Classroom Exploration of Henry V
78
Staging Challenges: Salic Law (1.2)
79
Handout #4 – Salic Law Speech
81
Teacher's Guide
84
Perspectives: Leadership & Motivation
(1.2, 2.2, 2.4, 3.7, 4.1; 3.1, 4.3)
88
Handouts #5A-E – Leadership
94
Teacher's Guide
104
Handouts #6A-B – Motivation
106
Teacher's Guide
110
Rhetoric: Clues for Performance (4.1)
114
Handout #7 – General Ceremony
2
THE BASICS
Verse and Prose
VERSE
Shakespeare wrote most of the verse in his plays in iambic pentameter, a style consisting of ten syllables per line –
five metrical feet, each consisting of one unstressed and one stressed syllable. The process of marking the stresses
in a line is called scansion. By writing plays in iambic pentameter, Shakespeare was, in a way, directing the actors of
his company. By scanning the lines themselves, your students can discover those directions and the opportunities
for choice embedded within the text. Scansion is a valuable tool for both scholars and actors, because determining
where the stresses go can reveal much not only about how the line might be delivered and about character, but also
about what words in the line are most important. Scansion can also aid your students with the pronunciation of
unfamiliar words.
In this active physical and vocal demonstration of Iambic Pentameter, students will gain an understanding of the
placement of the stress, feminine line endings, and the importance meter plays in the performance and
understanding of early modern plays.
Activity: Iambic Bodies
PROSE
Your students may initially fear verse far more than prose; after all, prose is the form that dominates their reading
elsewhere, in novels, textbooks, magazines, and online. In Shakespeare, however, prose may actually be more
difficult for your students to work with, since prose is more likely to be heavy with colloquialism, and its rhythms
are more likely to be idiosyncratic to a particular character’s way of speaking. When working through a prose
section of a play, therefore, your students will need to look for different indications of rhythm than they do in verse:
● Identifying Prose from Verse: Depending on how your text is laid out, your students may have trouble
distinguishing verse from prose at first glance – and may end up trying to scan their prose lines for iambic
meter. The shortcut is this: in most texts, the first word of each verse line is capitalized, while prose lines,
written as normal sentences, do not capitalize the first word after a line break.
● Sentence Length: Have your students go through the block of prose and find all of the sentence breaks. Are
the sentences short and concise? Or does the character run on, linking many clauses together? How much
variation is there in the length of the sentences?
● Unfinished Thoughts: Have your students identify the subject of each independent clause, then determine
where that thought reaches completion -- or if it does.
● Questions: Does the speaker ask questions? Does anyone answer them?
● Interruptions: Does the speaker interrupt himself, or does someone else interrupt him?
● Shifts in Focus: When does the speaker change the subject? Does it come as part of an interruption?
3
R.O.A.D.S. to Rhetoric – An Introduction to Rhetorical Figures
Student Handout #2
When you work through a passage out of Shakespeare’s plays, look for the following five types of rhetorical devices:
Repetition, Omission, Addition, Direction, and Substitution. These devices can provide you with character clues,
telling you more about the speaker, and they can provide acting cues, indicates on how to behave physically or
vocally when delivering the lines.
Repetition
Repetition gives speech a cadence, a rhythm to follow. Our brains, which are tuned to appreciate harmony,
naturally pick up on these patterns, assisting us in synthesizing ideas. Shakespeare frequently uses devices of
repetition within the structure of iambic pentameter, which already has a distinct rhythm; layering the rhetorical
device on top of the scansion augments the brain’s ability to hear patterns.
Omission
Omission interrupts the normal flow of speech or ideas in some way, by leaving out a component of a sentence or a
layer of meaning. This omission requires the brain to try to fill in the gap. You should also consider what omission
implies about the listener. Either Shakespeare or the character thinks that his audience (within the play or in the
theatre) can fill in the blanks, crediting them with enough intelligence and reasoning to follow along – or, if the gaps
are not easily filled, that may be significant; a character may be counting on poor comprehension.
Addition
These rhetorical devices focus on words which are either extraneous or explanatory – they either elaborate
unnecessarily on something which is already clear, or they make clear what was previously vague. Many of these
devices slow down a speech, drawing out the tempo. They may overlap with devices of repetition.
Direction
Devices of direction are devices of arrangement and rearrangement, and they can either illuminate or obfuscate
meaning. A device which arranges words more neatly, by highlighting contrast or building to a climactic point,
illuminates meaning. A device which rearranges words into a less sensible order, altering normal English syntax,
may obfuscate meaning. These devices may also more literally change the direction of the speech – that is, change
to whom a character directs a speech.
Substitution
Devices of substitution are when, in one way or another, one word or phrase stands in for something else. This
may be purely grammatical, or it may be more conceptual and abstract. Metaphors, malapropisms, and puns all fall
into this category.
Notice that these five types of forms are not mutually exclusive. They may overlap and intertwine. A figure of
direction may also have within it repetition. You may find omission nested within addition. Some devices straddle
the line between one type and another, and there isn’t always a “right answer.” Your students should look to
rhetoric for suggestions and clues as a way of opening up the text, not to try and pin it down to any one
interpretation or another.
4
First 100 Lines – R.O.A.D.S. to Rhetoric
PROLOGUE
Enter Chorus
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!
Then should the warlike Harry, [like himself],
~~~~~~~
Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,
S – metaphor / personification
D – building force
R – structure
R – alliteration
R – “like”
A – parenthetical
S - metaphor
[Leash'd in like hounds], should famine, sword and fire

~~~~
Crouch for employment. But pardon, [gentles all],
~~~~~~~~~~
The flat unraised spirits that have 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 affright the air at Agincourt?
~~~~~~~~~
[O, pardon]! since a crooked figure may
-------------------
Attest in little place a million;
A – descriptive
S – personification
D – change of focus
A – address
S – for “actors”
S – for “stage”
D – unusual syntax
S – for “theatre”
And let us, [ciphers to this great accompt],
------------------------------
On your imaginary forces work.
~~~
Suppose within the girdle of these walls
-------------------------------------------
Are now confined two mighty monarchies,
A – parenthetical
D – unusual syntax
Whose high [upreared and abutting] fronts
A – compound modifiers
The perilous narrow ocean parts [asunder]:
A – redundancy
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10
S – rhetorical question
S – for “theatre” (likely “Globe”)
S – rhetorical question
S – for “zero”
A – exclamatory
D – unusual syntax
O – “that”
S – metaphor
D – unusual syntax
R – alliteration
15
20
5
STAGING CHALLENGES
Salic Law
The Archbishop of Canterbury’s long speech at the beginning of 1.2 of Henry V, frequently called the “Salic Law
speech,” may at first appear to represent everything your students fear most about Shakespeare. On the page, it is a
long block of text, full of names they don't recognize and odd sentence construction. On the stage, however, this
speech has potential as the set-up for a grand joke. Canterbury’s laborious explanation of obscure law and archaic
genealogy ostensibly provides King Henry with the excuse he needs to invade France – but Henry’s decision
ultimately hinges instead on an insult from the Dauphin involving tennis balls. Moreover, the audience need not
understand every one of Canterbury's references; Shakespeare's audience was not any more likely to know who
Pepin, Blithild, or Clothair were than modern audiences are. What's important is that the actor playing Canterbury
make clear that Canterbury knows, and that he be able to express that confidence to his audience.
In this activity, your students will explore the language of Canterbury’s infamous “Salic Law” speech and discover
the performance opportunities encoded in it.
Activity:
 Do a read-around of the text (see page 21).
 Assign each student responsibility for one line of text at a time. Depending on the size of your class, you
will probably wrap back around and end up assigning each student two or three lines at different points in
the text.
 Work through the text one line at a time. Make each student stand to deliver the text.
o Designate a King Henry for your Canterburies to direct their speech towards.
o Examine each line for its potential clues. Make each student deliver the line several times to bring
out as much meaning as possible. Use Choices (page 30) to encourage your students to use
methods of varying pitch, volume, and pace to bring forward the potential humor.
o Consider issues of scansion and rhetoric. What clues does the language itself provide?
o Use the Teacher’s Guide (page 81) to help your students bring forward the meaning and playability
of these lines.
 Now, select an avatar for the class, who will perform the entire monologue according to the discoveries and
decisions you’ve just made.
o Give your Canterbury an on-stage audience as well as the off-stage audience: nobles who can react
and respond to what he is saying.
 Do Henry’s nobles necessarily follow along with the explanation? How can they indicate
that they do or do not understand? How can either choice help ally their response with the
audience’s?
 Discuss:
o How does Shakespeare construct the speech deliberately to be long-winded and confusing?
Examine (and possibly tally up) enjambments, feminine endings, conjunctions, and rhetorical
devices of Addition (especially parenthesis and epanorthosis).
Further Exploration
Challenge your students to draw a family tree based off of the information Canterbury supplies.
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Teacher’s Guide – Salic Law
CANTERBURY
˘ '
˘
'
˘ '
˘
'
˘
'
Then hear | me, grac|ious sov|ereign,
ereign, and | you peers,
˘
'
˘
'
˘
'
˘ ' ˘ '
That owe | yourselves, | your lives | and serv
serv|ices
˘
' ˘ ' ˘
'
˘ ' ˘ '
To this| imper|ial throne.* || There is | no bar
˘
'
˘ '
˘
'
˘
'
˘
'
To make | against | your high|ness'
ness' claim | to France
˘
'
˘
'
˘ '
˘
' ˘ '
But this, | which they | produce | from Phar
Phar|amond,
Note that the "peers" could include both the
on-stage
stage audience of nobles and the off-stage
off
audience of the theatre.
Try the final two feet as a pyrrhic-spondee
pairing.
Try opening with a trochee, to key the
turnaround on the "But". Is it possible that Henry
and his nobles start celebrating at the end of line
4, and that Canterbury has to stop them with 5?
5
'In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant:'
˘
'
˘ '
˘ '
˘ '
˘
'
'No wom|an shall | succeed | in Sal|ique
ique land:'
˘
'
˘
'
˘
'
˘ ' ˘ '
Which Sal|ique land | the French | unjust
unjust|ly gloze
˘ '
˘ '
˘
'
˘
' ˘ '
To be | the realm | of France, | and Phar
Phar|amond
˘
'
˘ '
˘ '
˘ '
˘ '
The found|er of | this law | and fe|male
male bar.
10
˘ ˘
'
'
˘
'
˘ ' ˘ '
Yet their | own auth|ors faith|fully | affirm
˘ ˘
' '
˘ ' ˘
'
˘ '
That the | land Sal|ique is | in Germ|any,
any,
˘
'
˘
'
˘ ' ˘ '
˘ '
Between | the floods | of Sal|a and | of Elbe;
˘
'
˘
'
' ˘
˘
'
˘ ' ˘
Where Charles | the Great, | having | subdued | the Saxons,
˘ '
˘ '
˘
' ˘ ' ˘
'
There left | behind | and sett|led cer|tain
tain French;
15
'
'
˘ '
˘ '
˘ '
˘
' ˘
Who, hold|ing in | disdain | the Ger|man
man women
˘
'
˘ '
˘ '
˘
'
˘ '
For some | dishon|est man|ners of | their life,
˘ '
˘
'
˘ '
˘ '
˘ ' ˘
Estab|lish'd then | this law; || to wit, | no female
˘
'
˘ ' ˘ '
˘ '
˘
'
Should be | inher|itrix | in Sal|ique
ique land:
˘
'
˘ ' ˘ '
˘
'
˘ ' ˘
Which Sal|ique, as | I said, | 'twixt Elbe | and Sala,
20
˘ '
˘ '
˘ ' ˘ '
˘
' ˘
Is at | this day | in Ger|many | call'd Meisen.
˘
'
˘ '
˘ '
˘ ' ˘ '
Then doth | it well | appear | that Sal|ique
ique law
˘ '
˘ ' ˘ '
˘ '
˘
'
Was not | devis|ed for | the realm | of France:
Tell your student not to be afraid of the
Latin; just deliver it with confidence.
Your students may first attempt to scan this
line regularly. Encourage them to find the comic
potential in moving to a pyrrhic-spondee
pyrrhic
pair, for
the emphasis it places on "own".
Is there a way to scan this line so that a
stress falls on "in"? What performance potential
does that offer?
How "Great" does Canterbury really think
Charles is? What does a note of sarcasm add?
What is this euphemistic for? How
uncomfortable is Canterbury, a church man,
about even alluding to the issue?
What emotions can key "as I said"? Does
Canterbury assume everyone is following him, or
is he aware that attention may be wandering?
What emotions can key "as I said"? Does
Canterbury
rbury assume everyone is following him, or
is he aware that attention may be wandering?
The stressed "not" is significant; negations
usually do not fall into stressed positions. Make
sure your student hits it.
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PERSPECTIVES
Leadership and Motivation
Henry V is, in many ways, a tale of leadership. King Henry is a man who uses language to its greatest effect in
persuading others to follow along with his ideas – to the extent of convincing them that facing an army ten times
stronger than their own is even better than fighting with even odds, because it increases the share of honor each
individual man will earn. The audience sees the hero-king reflected through many eyes, and the play also presents
foils and contrasts for him: in King Charles of France, in the headstrong young Dauphin, in stalwart Fluellen, in
swaggering Pistol, all of whom are leaders in some way or another, though each enjoys a variable measure of
success.
In these activities, your students will explore Shakespeare's presentations of leadership and the capacity of language
to motivate throughout Henry V. They will then relate these ideas to modern concepts of power and influence.
ACTIVITY 1: LEADERSHIP
Henry V celebrates the successes of its primary character – but it also calls attention to some of his less-attractive
traits. The man who threatens the town of Harfleur and gets into scrapes with common soldiers seems in contrast
with the inspirational leader who leads England to a legendary patriotic victory. The glorious monarch that the
Chorus describes isn't always the character we see on stage.
In this activity, your students will probe the question of what makes someone a good leader, and they will decide for
themselves whether they think Henry is successful by their criteria.
Brainstorm as a class:
○ What are some of the traits of a good leader?
○ What are some traits of a poor leader?
○ What are the responsibilities of a leader?
○ What happens when a leader fails those responsibilities? Is that sometimes different from what
should happen?
○ Is there any overlap, any traits that can be a double-edged sword?
● Use Choices (page 30) to discuss what a leader does or does not look like on stage.
○ What physical and vocal traits project confidence?
 Suggestions: straight back, open posture, strong eye contact, clear voice, landing on ends of
sentences, even-paced speech, louder and bolder tone
○ What physical and vocal traits project weakness?
 Suggestions: hunched or slouchy posture, wandering or shuffling feet, indirect eye contact,
softer and wavering tone, upward-pitched "questioning" tone at end of sentences
● Divide your students into 5 groups.
● Assign each group one of the scenes from Handouts #5A-E.
○ 1.2: King Henry (will need to be comfortable speaking a lot), Ambassadors (one speaking, one nonspeaking), Exeter (one line), lords (non-speaking)
●
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Teacher's Guide – Leadership and Motivation
Henry V, 1.2
KING HENRY V
Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin.
Now are we well resolved; and, by God's help,
And yours, the noble sinews of our power,
France being ours, we'll bend it to our awe,
Or break it all to pieces: […] or else our grave,
Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth,
Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph.
This "yours" refers to the other characters
on stage, but could it also be opened up to
include the audience?
5
Henry uses a vivid metaphor to describe
that, if he does not conquer France, he will not
be worthy of any remembrance after his death.
How should others on stage respond to this?
Enter Ambassadors of France
Now are we well prepared to know the pleasure
Of our fair cousin Dauphin; for we hear
Your greeting is from him, not from the king.
From where? How might they be visually
distinct from the English?
10
AMBASSADOR
May't please your majesty to give us leave
Freely to render what we have in charge;
Or shall we sparingly show you far off
The Dauphin's meaning and our embassy?
KING HENRY V
We are no tyrant, but a Christian king;
Unto whose grace our passion is as subject
As are our wretches fetter'd in our prisons:
Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness
Tell us the Dauphin's mind.
The ambassador is offering
offer
to deliver the
message in private, not in the middle of Henry's
court. Is the ambassador nervous about other
English nobles hearing the message, or
disdainful of them? How can your student actor
demonstrate this vocally or physically?
15
AMBASSADOR
Thus, then, in few.
Your highness, lately sending into France,
20
Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right
Of your great predecessor,
edecessor, King Edward the Third.
In answer of which claim, the prince our master
Says that you savour too much of your youth,
And bids you be advised there's nought in France 25
That can be with a nimble galliard won;
You cannot revel into dukedoms there.
He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit,
This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this,
Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim
30
Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.
KING HENRY V
What treasure, uncle?
EXETER
Tennis-balls, my liege.
Are the two really mutually exclusive?
Ask your students if they can think of examples
where one did not negate the other.
Does the ambassador deliver the message
from memory, or does he read from a paper?
How might the audience's perception of the
message change in either instance?
The use of the pronoun "this"
demonstrates that the tun (or box) is close to the
speaker, not far away.
An embedded stage direction: Exeter, not
Henry, opens the box.
Does Exeter show this to the audience?
9
PRODUCTION CHOICES
At the ASC, we've discovered that the best way to learn the inner workings of a play is by doing it. The process,
from start to finish, calls upon a broad range of disciplines and talents, not just those crucial for understanding the
text, but also those organizational and critical thinking skills required for managing any project which has many
moving parts. In the following activities, your students will discover the processes through which directors, stage
managers, costumers, prop-builders, and other production assistants build a play for the stage. These explorations
are valuable on their own, but can also help you to put on a one-hour version of the play in your classroom, if you
so wish.
Casting and Doubling
Most acting companies today employ as many actors as there are parts. In the sixteenth- and seventeenth-centuries,
companies were smaller, usually based around 8 or 9 “sharers” and a handful of journeymen. The ASC replicates
these conditions. This means that most of the actors would have to play two or more roles in a practice called
“doubling”. Shakespeare, in fact, wrote his plays knowing that actors would be playing multiple roles. Henry V
presents a particular challenge, as it has over 40 characters spread across 23 scenes, many of whom may appear only
once or twice in the entire play.
Activity 1: Doubling
Imagine you are staging a production of Henry V with only 12 actors. In order to double roles without overlapping,
many directors use a doubling chart to discover which characters need to be on stage and when they need to be on
stage.
1. Look at the doubling chart for Henry V. One character has already been completed for you. Go through the
play tracking the rest of the characters and mark the scenes in each character appears.
2. Once you have completed this chart, find out which characters do not overlap.
3. On the next page, fill in which character(s) you want to assign each actor.
4. Looking at your chart, do you have enough actors in your troupe of twelve to double effectively? Can you
make any of your doubling more thematically interesting?
Activity 2: Cutting the Script
One of the challenges in taking Shakespeare from the page to the stage is deciding how to cut the script. The
version of a play that you see performed is almost never the entire play as written. Different production companies
will make different editing choices based on the desired length of a play, their overall mission and concept, and
technical concerns. At the American Shakespeare Center, we try to preserve the integrity of the text as much as
possible while still cutting the script down to the number that can be played in two hours – about 2400 lines,
assuming that 100 lines of text can be spoken in about 5 minutes. The process may be difficult, particularly in longer
play where more must be cut; sometimes great material must be sacrificed in one part of the play in order to
preserve a favorite moment elsewhere. These are all choices that the person responsible for the editing – be it the
director, dramaturg, production manager, or actor – must make while preparing a play for the stage.
Henry V is about 3100 lines long in the Folio, meaning that we cut about 700 lines for a two-hour performance. A
director may also choose to make cuts for clarity or to emphasize certain aspects of a production. At the ASC, we
also cut shows down to a one-hour format for our ASC Theatre Camp performances, so even the shortest plays
experience substantial cutting under those conditions.
10