— all of us standing around the piano, and taking various folk songs that we knew and playing with them — seeing whose voice sat where, who could accompany etc. Out of this came the folk tune ‘John O’Dreams’, that we now sing to introduce the Chorus of ‘Now entertain conjecture of a time’… on the night before Agincourt. We just sang it together for ages — a soft, beautiful tune which we split into four harmonies, listening to each other together filling the room with simple sound.
By the time I came to write the Te Deum and Non Nobis it was easy. I dreamt up an introduction and theme for it, but I never wrote it down as a piece of music. We just picked it out and fashioned it together into a rousing, spiritual piece with a religious, ‘choric’ feel. Gunnar Cauthery then said he would write a Requiem in response to the Te Deum — so in the two big Choral numbers there is a deliberate musical correlation. We then used his same music for the Kyrie. Once we had a musical language we found we could knit all sorts of things together. We created contemporary soldiers’ songs which allude to contemporary music.
Actors are extraordinarily adaptable creatures and will learn things very quickly, but to me, there is no point in imposing a piece of music or dance upon a group when most of them are intimidated and don’t think they can do it. They won’t enjoy what they’re doing, it is alien to them, and they won’t sing it very well. If it comes from the group, and we find it together, then the whole group can invest in it, find our joy in it, and therefore communicate what we need to do all the better. To me, there is no difference between dividing up the lines of the Chorus speeches, and the division of the music amongst the company. Each man plays his part. To say I wrote the Te Deum, or did the arrangements for some of the songs, is true in one sense, but actually it came from us all. And I still haven’t written it down.
Nick Asbury
This Edition
This is a shortened version of the text of Henry V as printed in the First Folio of Shakespeare’s works (1623). It differs from the original in three principal respects. Most noticeably, all the Choruses are divided amongst the company, and in this text the speakers are simply indicated by numbers. Mistress Quickly’s account of the death of Falstaff is omitted, since it alludes to events of earlier plays, not to this one. And on the night before Agincourt, the scenes in the English camp are performed simultaneously with an earlier scene for the French nobles.
We are very grateful to Angie Kendall for her help in preparing this edition.
Edward Hall and Roger Warren
A NOTE ON VIOLENCE
The violence in the play is presented symbolically rather than realistically. The executions and beatings, for example, are dramatized by the use of punch-bags or by musical effects.
King Henry: the night before Agincourt
The King rallies his troops
Princess Katherine takes her bath
Characters
ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
BISHOP OF ELY
KING HENRY V
DUKE OF EXETER, his uncle
EARL OF WESTMORLAND
MONTJOY, the French ambassador and herald
NYM
BARDOLPH
PISTOL
MISTRESS QUICKLY, his wife
BOY
THE FRENCH KING
THE DAUPHIN
THE CONSTABLE OF FRANCE
DUKE OF ORLEANS
GOVERNOR OF HARFLEUR
FLUELLEN, a captain in King Henry’s army
KATHERINE, the French princess
ALICE, her gentlewoman
SIR THOMAS ERPINGHAM
EARL OF SALISBURY
DUKE OF YORK
MONSIEUR LE FER
DUKE OF BURGUNDY
The CHORUS and other parts played by members of the company
| On stage, a central metal tower, providing an upper acting level; four ammunition boxes; two side staircases; and a flag with the red cross of St George. |
SCENE ONE
| A company of soldiers enters through the audience, singing. | |
| Music: ‘Brown Eyes’. | |
| The company then delivers the first CHORUS, divided (like the subsequent ones) between them. | |
| CHORUS 1 | (Taking the crown from one of the ammunition boxes.) |
| O for a muse of fire, that would ascend | |
| The brightest heaven of invention: | |
| CHORUS 2 | A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, |
| And monarchs to behold the swelling scene. | |
| CHORUS 3 | Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, |
| Assume the port of Mars, and at his heels, | |
| Leashed in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire | |
| Crouch for employment. | |
| CHORUS 4 | But pardon, gentles all, |
