I feel sorry for the bottom lion.
Shakespeare’s play Henry V came up on the BBC’s In Our Time podcast, in celebration of their 20th anniversary. Pretty impressive for a podcast! As the panel discussed all the Plantagenets in their turn, it reminded me of an experience from long ago.
An impressive theatrical company was performing the play in Paris while I was living there. Le Monde published a long review in their entertainment section. 25 years later I’m unable to track it down on line, so I’m working from memory here.
The writer pointed out a thing I’d never heard in any English-language source. All the carousing that young Hal did with Falstaff and the gang in the “Henry IV” plays has an important role in Henry V: because he had spent all that time in bars, he spoke fluent English. His rousing speeches to the troops at Harfleur and on St. Crispin’s day are a huge deal because no previous king since 1066 could have given them. From William the Bastard on, the kings only spoke French. When history is written by the winners, valuable perspectives like this can easily get lost.
Disclaimer: Henry IV spoke English as his native language, according to the fountain of all knowledge, but this may not contradict the Le Monde reviewer. Henry grew up in aristocratic surroundings, and the gaps between classes in England were wide, and are still large today. Henry IV probably could not speak in an idiom that would sound congenial to the common soldiers, at least not well enough to pull off something like this:
Leave a Reply