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Marry, I tell thee it is not meet that I should be sad, now my father is sick—albeit I could tell to thee, as to one it pleases me, for fault of a better, to call my friend, I could be sad, and sad indeed too.
(Act 2, scene 2, lines 38–41)
Prince Harry addresses these words to Poins, to whom he confesses feeling sad about his father’s grave illness. Harry clearly feels odd about his grief. He seems to believe that others expect him to be happy about the king’s imminent demise. Such a response would be appropriate for a power-hungry reprobate, which is how many people in England continue to see Harry. But even though Harry does feel sad, he still needs to manage his public image. And as viewers familiar with Henry IV, Part 1 will know, Harry has actively cultivated the image of a reprobate so that his transformation into King Henry V will seem all the more magnificent. The care he shows in his language here demonstrates that his political performance is ongoing. Not only can he not tell Poins about his grief in a straightforward way, he can’t even muster the wherewithal to address Poins directly as a friend.
Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow,
Being so troublesome a bedfellow?
O polished perturbation, golden care,
That keep’st the ports of slumber open wide
To many a watchful night! Sleep with it now;
Yet not so sound and half so deeply sweet
As he whose brow with homely biggen bound
Snores out the watch of night. O majesty,
When thou dost pinch thy bearer, thou dost sit
Like a rich armor worn in heat of day,
That scald’st with safety.
(Act 4, scene 3, lines 167–77)
Harry speaks these words to the crown, which lies on the pillow next to the head of the dying king. This speech is characterized by the literary device of apostrophe, which entails a direct address to an absent figure or else to an inanimate object. Here, Harry directly addresses the crown that has weighed so heavily on his father’s head, and he confronts it for its cruel contradictions. As the supreme emblem of kingship, the crown should guarantee the king’s power and freedom. Yet the crown confers an immense responsibility that curbs the king’s power and circumscribes his freedom. Harry suggests this contradiction in the image of the crown as a form of “rich armor” that may protect its wearer, but whose metal also “scald’st” him when “worn in the heat of day.” Harry will reflect on these words later in this scene, when his father confronts him for apparently having stolen the crown. Harry reports that he in fact “accus[ed]” it of treachery, then placed it on his head as though to duel with it “as with an enemy / That had before my face murdered my father” (4.3.322–24).
You did commit me,
For which I do commit into your hand
Th’ unstainèd sword that you have used to bear,
With this remembrance: that you use the same
With the like bold, just, and impartial spirit
As you have done ‘gainst me. There is my hand.
You shall be as a father to my youth.
(Act 5, scene 2, lines 113–19)
Harry, now crowned as King Henry V, addresses these words to the Lord Chief Justice. These words come as a great relief to the Chief Justice, who has just expressed grave concern that his past attempts to keep Harry in line as a youth—including arresting him once—will now put him in danger. But Harry, demonstrating reason and calm understanding, commends the Chief Justice for his honorable efforts. Not only that, but he also embraces the Chief Justice as a new father figure—a symbol of law and order to replace that lord of misrule, Sir John Falstaff. Harry’s eloquent speech and noble demeanor signify the completion of his transformation from reprobate to king. Moreover, his earnest desire to soothe the Chief Justice’s reflects an attempt to establish himself as a just and loving ruler. In this respect, Harry’s words here echo his earlier address to his brothers, who apparently feared that he might execute them to secure the throne: “This is the English, not the Turkish court; / Not Amurath and Amurath suceeds, / But Harry Harry” (5.2.48–50).
