Henry V unit

Last summer our local theater company did a production of Henry V for Shakespeare in the park. We were out of town for several of the weeks the production was going, but we still made it three times. I would have gone more often, but that is hard to do when you’re out of state. The production was that good. We’d covered the time period for Henry V last year in our history lessons, but I kind of didn’t care, because HENRY V! So, it became a book and a movie night, after we read through the entire play, nominally acting it out.

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Henry V summarized

Henry V is Tudor propaganda written by William Shakespeare. It emphasizes the nobility, faith, and heroism of King Henry V who went in and defeated half of France during the Hundred Years War. The play takes place in the few days before the Battle of Agincourt, and the time immediately after it.

There are many famous speeches and scenes from this play, and the phrase “band of brothers” comes from the famous Saint Crispin’s Day speech.

Favorite Scenes from Henry V

Okay, there are a lot of them, and I’ve found some better examples than others.

Act 1 Scene 2

This is such a great scene, and shows the contempt both sides have for each other.

A great rendition from the Royal Shakespeare Company (who are streaming plays right now for free, I forget which one is currently free)

A college production similar to the Henry V production we saw

Part of what intrigued me about the local production is they have so few players, so everyone, except Henry V, played several parts, it was fun to see how they put on the different characters with just a few mannerism changes.

I like how they deliver the chorus lines, it works quite well.

Some inspiration for our Henry V snacks

What would Shakespeare Eat?

Not too surprisingly a play about war does not have much mention of food, nor does it include much in the way of easy inspiration for snacks, unless you want to have endless variations of weapons…

Henry V snacks

Jeff and I had a brief discussion of which production to watch, while we both enjoy the Kenneth Branaugh Henry V, we both recognize it’s weaknesses, it’s a poor cutting that doesn’t make much sense, and Branaugh seems to swallow his words which can make it hard to understand. But, Brian Blessed in plate mail as an ambassador is always worth watching.

But, we decided to watch The Hollow Crown, a BBC production that follows all of the Henriad with the same actors. It’s a good production.

• Favor- mark of who someone was, and we opted for chocolate, probably not the right idea (in the play it was a glove), but everyone in our family certainly favors chocolate
• leeks- this was probably my kids’ favorite joke in the live production, and they were sore disappointed it wasn’t as well done in the videos, sugar cookies with green food dye and sugar sprinkles
• short-legged hen- fried chicken legs
• English channel- Sprite
• List of the Dead- graham crackers with marshmallow fluff and melted chocolate
• swords- licorice (because I didn’t want to bother with dipping pretzel sticks)
• armor- gingerbread men
• pot of ale- cream soda
• tennis balls- donut holes
• diplomat- sour patch kids
• boats- apple wedges that look vaguely boat like
• Agincourt- we had a discussion between making a castle cake, but I couldn’t find the bundt pan for that, or making a sheet cake and implying a grass field

We thoroughly enjoyed this movie night, and right now we’re about to start the Tempest, which I’m thoroughly looking forward to because it’s a play I’ve only seen once, maybe twice.

More Shakespeare or literary fun

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• How to teach Shakespeare to Kids (I miss that LEGO figure)
• Midsummer Night’s Dream
• How to introduce your kids to live Shakespeare (I don’t have a thumbnail for this one)
• Ex Libris
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Treasure Island

“Corps of Armored Knights greet visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s armor exhibit” by mharrsch is licensed under CC BY 2.0