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King Henry V

Chapter 2: Dramatis Personæ
By William Shakespeare
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The play dramatizes a monarch’s transformation from a former life of licence into a decisive wartime ruler who asserts a disputed claim to a neighboring crown, balancing diplomacy and force. Framed by a choric narrator, the action moves from court deliberation and recruitment through a coastal siege to a hard-fought battlefield victory achieved against long odds, and closes with negotiations that mix politics and marriage. Interwoven comic episodes and soldierly conversations contrast exalted rhetoric with the day-to-day hardships of camp life, probing themes of leadership, national identity, legality of conquest, and the human cost of war.

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Title: King Henry V

Author: William Shakespeare

Release date: November 1, 1998 [eBook #1521]
Most recently updated: September 19, 2025

Language: English

Credits: the PG Shakespeare Team, a team of about twenty Project Gutenberg volunteers.

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KING HENRY V ***

THE LIFE OF KING HENRY V

by William Shakespeare

Contents

ACT I
Prologue.
Scene I. London. An ante-chamber in the King’s palace.
Scene II. The same. The presence chamber.
ACT II
Chorus.
Scene I. London. A street.
Scene II. Southampton. A council-chamber.
Scene III. London. Before a tavern.
Scene IV. France. The King’s palace.
ACT III
Chorus.
Scene I. France. Before Harfleur.
Scene II. The same.
Scene III. Before the gates.
Scene IV. The French King’s palace.
Scene V. The same.
Scene VI. The English camp in Picardy.
Scene VII. The French camp, near Agincourt.
ACT IV
Chorus.
Scene I. The English camp at Agincourt.
Scene II. The French camp.
Scene III. The English camp.
Scene IV. The field of battle.
Scene V. Another part of the field.
Scene VI. Another part of the field.
Scene VII. Another part of the field.
Scene VIII. Before King Henry’s pavilion.
ACT V
Chorus.
Scene I. France. The English camp.
Scene II. France. A royal palace.
Epilogue.

Dramatis Personæ

KING HENRY V.
DUKE OF CLARENCE, brother to the King.
DUKE OF BEDFORD, brother to the King.
DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, brother to the King.
DUKE OF EXETER, uncle to the King.
DUKE OF YORK, cousin to the King.
EARL OF SALISBURY.
EARL OF HUNTINGDON.
EARL OF WESTMORLAND.
EARL OF WARWICK.
ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.
BISHOP OF ELY.
EARL OF CAMBRIDGE.
LORD SCROOP.
SIR THOMAS GREY.
SIR THOMAS ERPINGHAM, officer in King Henry’s army.
GOWER, officer in King Henry’s army.
FLUELLEN, officer in King Henry’s army.
MACMORRIS, officer in King Henry’s army.
JAMY, officer in King Henry’s army.
BATES, soldier in the same.
COURT, soldier in the same.
WILLIAMS, soldier in the same.
PISTOL.
NYM.
BARDOLPH.
BOY.
A Herald.

CHARLES VI, king of France.
LEWIS, the Dauphin.
DUKE OF BERRY.
DUKE OF BRITTANY.
DUKE OF BURGUNDY.
DUKE OF ORLEANS.
DUKE OF BOURBON.
The Constable of France.
RAMBURES, French Lord.
GRANDPRÉ, French Lord.
Governor of Harfleur
MONTJOY, a French herald.
Ambassadors to the King of England.

ISABEL, queen of France.
KATHARINE, daughter to Charles and Isabel.
ALICE, a lady attending on her.
HOSTESS of a tavern in Eastcheap, formerly Mistress Nell Quickly, and now married to Pistol.

CHORUS.

Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Citizens, Messengers, and Attendants.

SCENE: England; afterwards France.