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Summary: Act 5: Scenes 1 & 2
Falstaff and Bardolph have returned to Gloucestershire, where they are warmly welcomed by Justice Shallow. Shallow gives orders to his servant, Davy, to prepare a fine dinner for the guests. Meanwhile, Davy continually interrupts him by asking questions about the household management and begging favors for servants and local peasants who are in trouble. Falstaff, left alone, laughs over Shallow’s friendly foolishness, and he declares that he will get enough material out of observing Shallow to make Prince Harry laugh for a year.
Back in the king’s castle at Westminster, the Lord Chief Justice, Warwick, and the younger princes—John, Clarence, and Gloucester—meet. We learn that King Henry IV has finally died, and that everyone in the castle is frightened of what will happen to them, and to the rule of law, now that Prince Harry is in charge. The Lord Chief Justice, especially, expects nothing but evil to befall him, since he has never shied away from scolding Harry for his violations of the law. Moreover, he is responsible for briefly imprisoning Harry (when Harry struck him once in a dispute), and he is the most despised enemy of Harry’s lawless friends, particularly Falstaff. The young princes urge the Lord Chief Justice to speak flatteringly to Falstaff now, but he says he has always done what he believes is right and will not compromise now.
Prince Harry enters, dressed in the royal robes of the king. From now on he is King Henry V. The new King Henry addresses his brothers and the courtiers. He tells them that they should not be afraid that he, as the new king, will do them any harm. Still, he notices that they are looking at him strangely—especially the Lord Chief Justice. King Henry V reminds the Justice of the “indignities” to which he subjected him while he was still a prince, by rebuking and punishing him when he broke the law. But the Lord Chief Justice says he was only acting to maintain the laws and order of Henry IV, the new king’s own father. He asks Henry V to imagine himself in a similar situation and to decide whether his actions were unjust.
King Henry V, in an unexpected move, agrees with the Lord Chief Justice. He tells him that he has always been wise and just, and he thanks him for having punished him when he was a wild young prince. Moreover, he tells the Lord Chief Justice that not only may he keep his job, but he will have great honor. He asks the Justice to serve as a father figure, teaching him how to honorably keep order and helping him keep his own sons in line whenever he might have them.
Read a translation of Act 5: Scenes 1 & 2.
Analysis: Act 5: Scenes 1 & 2
Falstaff’s return to Gloucestershire in act 5, scene 1, brings us back to another of Shakespeare’s homely, humorous depictions of country life. Once again, the detailed attention to the small banalities of ordinary life—the blacksmith’s latest bill for shoeing the horses, a heated argument between two local men, how to go about tapping the wages of a servant who lost a sack of grain at the market fair—reminds us that there is more to the world than the conspiracies of noblemen in their castles. Falstaff’s thoughts of Prince Harry and how he can make him laugh are touching, and they become even more so when Harry rejects Falstaff in subsequent scenes.
The official transformation of the wild Prince Harry to the regal King Henry V in act 5, scene 2, is a turning point in the play, and it makes his speeches in this scene, particularly those addressed to the Lord Chief Justice, especially important. The terror with which the noblemen of the court—even Harry’s own younger brothers—regard the new king shows us how genuinely amoral they think Harry is. Having not heard the conversation between Prince Harry and his father in act 4, scene 4, in which Harry swore to be a worthy king, they still think of him as being full of “riot.” They are probably also reminded of the speeches in act 4, scene 4, where Henry IV speculated on the violence and anarchy that he thought would accompany Harry’s rise to power.
Many critics feel that this scene stages the conclusion of Harry’s inner journey from youth to maturity, from wildness to responsibility, and from “riot” to law and order. He no longer thinks that his royal birth is something that should make his life more carefree (if, in fact, he ever did). Instead, he has learned what his father knew—that is, that power brings with it more responsibility, not less, and a responsible ruler is, almost by definition, unfree. The understanding of these crucial paradoxes of power is finally visible in King Henry V’s newly solemn bearing and powerful, humorless speech.
Henry V’s decision to accept the Lord Chief Justice as his “father” is particularly significant. “You shall be as a father to my youth,” he tells the Justice. “My voice shall sound as you do prompt mine ear, / And I will stoop and humble mine intents / To your well-practis’d wise directions” (5.2.119–22). Later, he addresses the Lord Chief Justice as “father” (5.2.141). Critics have long seen this as the final step before Harry’s fateful rejection of Falstaff and everything he stands for—riotous living, anarchy, violation of the law, and wit, all at the cost of responsibility. Falstaff may have been a father figure to Prince Harry, but the Lord Chief Justice will fulfill that role for King Henry V. Falstaff will thus be replaced by his opposite: the ultimate emblem of responsibility and the rule of law.
