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Summary: Act 4: Scene 2
At their camp, the French prepare for the battle. The Constable, Lord Rambures, the Earl of Grandpré, and others put on their armor and mount their horses. The Constable and Grandpré give pre-battle speeches filled with expressions of cheerful overconfidence and cheerfulness. Seeing the English army’s ragged appearance and small numbers, the French look forward to an easy victory.
Read a translation of Act 4: Scene 2.
Summary: Act 4: Scene 3
If we are marked to die, we are enough
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
In scene 3, the English noblemen gather before the Battle of Agincourt and realize that the French outnumber them five to one. Westmoreland wishes that they had with them some of the men who sit idle in England. But King Henry, entering and overhearing him, disagrees. In his famous St. Crispin’s Day speech (so called because he addresses his troops on October 25, St. Crispin’s Day), King Henry says that they should be happy that there are so few of them present, for each can earn a greater share of honor.
Henry goes on to say that he does not want to fight alongside any man who does not wish to fight with the English. He tells the soldiers that anyone who wants to leave can and will be given some money to head for home. But anyone who stays to fight will have something to boast about for the rest of his life and in the future will remember with pride the battle on this day. He adds that every commoner who fights today with the king will become his brother, and all the Englishmen who have stayed at home will regret that they were not in France to gain honor upon this famous day of battle. The soldiers and noblemen are greatly inspired, and morale rises dramatically.
The French are now ready for the battle. Montjoy, the French messenger, comes to the English camp one more time, asking King Henry if he wants to take the last opportunity for peace and surrender himself for ransom, instead of facing certain defeat in battle. Henry rejects the offer in strong though courteous terms, and the English organize and march into battle.
Summary: Act 4: Scene 4
In scene 4, as the battle begins to rage across the field, Pistol takes a French prisoner. The scene is comic: Pistol, who cannot speak French, tries to communicate with the Frenchman, who cannot speak English. Fortunately, the boy is present. He speaks very good French and is able to translate, though the hotheaded Pistol makes communication difficult. The terrified soldier is convinced that Pistol is a nobleman and a ferocious fighter.
The French soldier, who gives his name as Monsieur le Fer, says that he is from a respected house and family and that his relatives will give Pistol a rich ransom if Pistol lets him live. Pistol is very interested in money and accepts this bargain, and the grateful Frenchman surrenders as a willing captive. As the boy follows them offstage, he complains about Pistol’s empty boasting, saying that Bardolph and Nym both had ten times the courage. The boy’s speech also reveals, for the first time, that Nym, like Bardolph, has been hanged for theft.
Summary: Act 4: Scene 5
Scene 5 depicts the French camp in disarray, with the cries of. French soldiers revealing that, against all expectations, the English have won the day. The French troops have been routed and scattered. Astonished and dismayed, the French nobles bewail their great shame and contemplate suicide. But they decide that rather than surrender in shame and defeat, they will go down fighting, and so they return to the field for one final attempt.
Read a translation of Act 4: Scene 5.
Analysis: Act 4: Scenes 2–5
For an audience that already knows the outcome of the battle to come, the second scene in act 4 largely functions to develop a sense of dramatic irony. As they prepare for battle, the French nobles lament that there aren’t enough English soldiers for them to kill, and they complain that the soldiers that are on the field are all haggard, weak, and dressed in rusting armor. Although it could be argued that their expressions of belief in their inevitable victory are just a way to bolster their confidence. However, the sheer exuberance of their attitudes gives a strong impression of foolish overconfidence. This impression grows yet stronger when considering how this scene immediately follows the long, important scene where Henry goes among his soldiers in disguise and laments the burden of power. Contrasted with the moral gravitas of the previous scene, this French nobles in this seem even more flippant. As such, and despite their significant advantage in numbers, it increasingly seems evident that the French are destined to lose the battle to come.
The Frenchmen’s confidence about outnumbering the English plays out in stark contrast to the Englishmen’s rhetorical embrace of their small army. The French make the simple assumption that the sheer size of their army has already dictated an outcome. However logical this assumption may seem, it also leads the French to a state of complacency. By contrast, the English, knowing themselves to be the underdogs in this fight, appear to have something greater at stake than simply winning. Whether they defeat the French or not, the most important thing for the English is the honor of going into battle with unity and courage.
In what’s likely the most famous passage in the play, King Henry makes a point of underscoring this paradox. He claims that he wishes there were even fewer Englishmen to fight, since that would ensure that he’d accrue a greater proportion of the honor they’d collectively earn by fighting together. Harry’s so-called “St. Crispin Day” speech again showcases his gifts as an orator, allowing him to bolster morale among his soldiers and effectively turn his army’s small size into an advantage. The language of his speech also cultivates a powerful bond between king and commoner—the very bond he attempted to articulate when wandering among his soldiers in act 4, scene 1. Here, he asserts in his own voice that any man who fights alongside him in the battle to come shall forever be his brother—a status that will elevate them among the common rabble.
Despite the seriousness of the battle, Shakespeare inserts a surprisingly comic scene. The humorous encounter between Pistol and his captive French soldier plays on language in much the same way that the earlier scene of Catherine’s English lesson did. Pistol’s misunderstandings of French, like Catherine’s of English, are amusing. He takes the soldier’s exclamation, “O Seigneur Dieu!” (“O Lord God!”), for a name and mistakes the words “bras” (“arm”) and “moi” (“me”) for “brass” and “moy” (a unit of measurement). Pistol must rely on the boy to translate for him, and, ironically, the boy shows himself to be better informed than the man he serves.
In the jaws of defeat, the French noblemen at long last recognize the power of the English combatants. When they realize that their troops have been scattered and defeated, their first reaction is one of overwhelming shame. But the nobles show hitherto unprecedented courage when they decide to return to the fight instead of surrendering or giving themselves up to be ransomed. This last show of courage on the part of the French adds a welcome new dimension to Shakespeare’s characterization of different nationalities and prevents his portrayal of the French from becoming a one-dimensional mockery motivated only by patriotic loyalty to England.
