Henry V Memory and the Past Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Act.Scene.Line)

Quote #4

HOSTESS
As ever you come of women, come in quickly
to Sir John. Ah, poor heart, he is so shaked of a
burning quotidian-tertian that it is most lamentable
to behold. Sweet men, come to him.
NYM
The King hath run bad humors on the knight,
that’s the even of it.
PISTOL
Nym, thou hast spoke the right. His heart is
fracted and corroborate. (2.2.114-121)

At the end of Henry IV Part 2, Shakespeare promised to bring Falstaff back and send him to the war in France. Soon after Henry V opens, though, we hear that Falstaff is deathly ill. (He's so ill, in fact, that Shakespeare doesn't even bother to bring him out on stage.) What's up with that?

Quote #5

CAMBRIDGE
For me, the gold of France did not seduce,
Although I did admit it as a motive
The sooner to effect what I intended;
But God be thanked for prevention;
Which I in sufferance heartily will rejoice,
Beseeching God and you to pardon me. (2.2.162-167)

When Cambridge confesses that he took French money to assassinate King Henry, we're reminded that Cambridge supports Mortimer, who may have a better claim to the English throne than Henry, who only inherited the crown after his father usurped it from Richard II.

Quote #6

KING OF FRANCE
Think we King Harry strong,
And, princes, look you strongly arm to meet him.
The kindred of him hath been fleshed upon us,
And he is bred out of that bloody strain
That haunted us in our familiar paths.
Witness our too-much-memorable shame
When Cressy battle fatally was struck
And all our princes captived by the hand
Of that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales,
Whiles that his mountain sire, on mountain standing
Up in the air, crowned with the golden sun,
Saw his heroical seed and smiled to see him
Mangle the work of nature and deface
The patterns that by God and by French fathers
Had twenty years been made. This is a stem
Of that victorious stock, and let us fear
The native mightiness and fate of him. (2.4.51-68)

The Dauphin might underestimate Henry, but King Charles VI certainly doesn't. Here, he recalls the time when Henry's great uncle (Edward the Black Prince) invaded France and made their lives a living hell. This is Shakespeare's way of reminding us that Henry comes from a long line of warriors and is not to be messed with.