Before Agincourt | Session

The purpose of this section of the workshop is to help the students use the exercises in order to imaginatively connect with the experience of Henry and his army (and indeed of all armies) in those times when they prepare to risk their lives in battle. They are to attempt to put them in the situation described by the Chorus at the top of Act IV:

The poor condemned English, Like sacrifices, by their watchful fires Sit patiently, and inly ruminate The morning’s danger…

1. Have the students work in pairs. Each pair should find a space in the room as far away from others as they can.

2. Ask them to sit down and be silent. Shutting their eyes ask them to think for a moment or two about a situation in their past when they were really frightened.

3. Each couple now shares the experience by telling each other what happened when they experienced fear, and what it felt like. How did they cope with it?

4. Ask the group to separate so that everyone is sitting on the floor with some space around them ignoring everyone else. As they do this, talk them through the scene as it happens in Henry V when Henry’s exhausted army is watching and waiting through the long night before the battle of Agincourt.

“It is cold and the night is still, in the far distance you can hear the sounds of the enemy, laughter, the sound of trucks moving mixed in with the noise made by small animals, perhaps an occasional owl hoots.” “What are you thinking of as you anticipate tomorrow? Your family? Your friends? Do you pray, and if so what do you ask for?

5. As the students sit in quiet contemplation play the music (Fortune my Foe or your own choice for 3 or 4 minutes).

As the music ends (or you could fade it down) read to them from Michael Williams’ speech, Act IV scene 1 from line 135 thru 149 “…if the cause be not good…” If you don’t want to read it yourself you could of course get an actor to do it by using one of the many versions of the play available on tape or watch actor David Kennedy speaking part of this speech (he played Williams and Bardolph in Hytner’s 2003 Henry V).