Shortly before the English engage the French for the final time in Henry V, King Henry comes upon a group of his most senior officers-among them the Duke of Gloucester, the Duke of Bedford, the Duke of Exeter, Sir Thomas Erpingham, and the Earl of Westmoreland-just as his uncle, Earl of Westmoreland, is commenting, “O, that we now had here/ But one ten thousand of those men in England/ That do no work today” (4.3.18-20). Quickly, the King launches into a speech in which he attempts not only to persuade his men that they are in no more need of soldiers, but at the same time to encourage them to fight valiantly in the impending battle. While Henry V gives many speeches throughout Shakespeare’s play, this speech given on Saint Crispin’s Day in Act Four, Scene Three is the best example of the King’s excellent grasp of the elements of rhetoric and persuasion. In just forty eight lines, Henry V expertly employs devices and ideas from both Lannon’s The Writing Process as well as traditional Elizabethan Rhetoric, including the use of deliberative rhetoric, the presentation of a debatable point, and an ability to connect with his audience.
The first main rhetorical device Henry V employs in his Saint Crispin’s Day speech is Elizabethan deliberative rhetoric. According to the Elizabethan Rhetoric handout we received, deliberative rhetoric is used to “persuade, or dissuade, entreate, or rebuke, exhort, or dehort, command or comfort any man” (Lanham 1). King Henry’s speech embodies many of the purposes of deliberative rhetoric. Henry’s words are directed at his cousin, the Earl of Westmoreland, to rebuke him for wishing that they had with them more soldiers. Henry says, “What’s he that wishes so?/ My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin” (Henry 4.3.21-22). He then continues to address his cousin throughout the speech, showing him why he is wrong, and attempting to persuade the others to agree. In this way, the monarch’s speech wishes both to persuade the men and to dissuade them from being discouraged, negative, and believing that they need more troops; two more of the purposes of deliberative rhetoric. Henry’s speech can be further categorized as one of the two subcategories of deliberative rhetoric: political deliberative rhetoric, which has to do with war, specifically one’s own strength and the strength of the enemy (Russo 1). In his speech, the King is persuading his companions that they have the strength and perseverance to trounce the French by emphasizing the strength of the English army and downplaying the power of the French forces.
In King Henry’s speech, the idea that the English should not desire additional combatants is indeed what The Writing Process describes as a debatable point to present to his audience, for the English are not only outnumbered by the French, but in a worse condition to fight as well. In the beginning of Act Three, the Earl of Westmoreland and the Duke of Exeter discuss the apparent doom that lurks in the awaiting battle. As Westmoreland points out, “Of fighting men [the French] have full threescore thousand” (Henry 4.3.3). Exeter continues, calculating that, “There’s five to one. Besides, they are all fresh” (Henry 4.3.4). These are not very favorable odds for the English, whose soldiers are already tired and weakened from traveling to France and overpowering the French city of Harfleur. Henry, who has just spent time walking through his camps dressed as a common man only to discover the downtrodden disposition of his troops, enters upon the end of this conversation and rushes to reassure his men, saying:
No, ‘faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God’s peace, I would not lose so great an honor
As one man more, methinks, would share from me,
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart. (4.3.33-39)
Concerned to find even his highest-ranking officers pessimistic about the imminent skirmish, Henry argues that the English do not need more men to fight for England. In addition, the King emphasizes his confidence in his soldiers by telling the Dukes, Earl and Knight that the English are so superior to the French that they do not even need all the men they currently have, but only those who truly wish to fight for England. The monarch supplements a previous statement to a French messenger in which he says, “When [my men] were in health, I tell thee, herald,/ I thought upon one pair of English legs/ Did march three Frenchmen,” by informing his comrades that, “We would not die in that man’s company/ That fears his fellowship to die with us” (Henry 3.6.153-155;4.3.41-42). Henry asserts that, though relatively few in number, his men are so great that they do not even need those among them whose hearts are not truly in the battle.
In his Saint Crispin’s Day speech Henry also illustrates his confidence with the rhetorical ability to connect with one’s audience. Henry’s diction shows that he is aware of his listeners. In this speech, the King is addressing his uncle, Thomas the Duke of Exeter, his brothers, Humphrey the Duke of Gloucester and John the Duke of Bedford, his cousin, the Earl of Westmoreland, and Sir Thomas Erpingham, one of the officers in Henry’s army (Shakespeare 3). Being almost entirely family, as well as high-ranking officers and nobles, the monarch addresses this group differently than he would a faction of mere soldiers, for he is afforded more leeway with those people closest to him. For example, rather than using the “Royal We” as the monarch does when addressing the French ambassador in front of his full court, saying, “When we have matched our rackets to these balls,/ We will, in France, by God’s grace, play a set/ Shall strike his father’s crown into the hazard,” Henry employs instead a “middle” style of elocution (1.2.272-274). Henry can be more relaxed with his friends and high-ranking officers, as he says, “By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,/ Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;” using the pronoun “I” rather than the classical “Royal We” (Henry 4.3.27-28).
Henry also uses the rhetorical strategy of appealing to goals and values that he shares with his men in an effort to involve them personally in his argument. As he states in lines 23-25, “If we are marked to die, we are enough/ To do our country loss; and if to live,/ The fewer men, the greater share of honor” (Henry 4.3.23-25). Here the King contends that the English have enough men with them that, should they all die, it would be a devastating loss for their country. He also plays upon his comrades’ desire for the much sought after and valued attribute of honor, telling them they have few enough men that, if they do indeed live, the share in honor would be great for each man. Herein lies great motivation, since each man present wishes to return home an honored hero. Much the same way, Henry glorifies the idea of winning a battle so against them in odds by describing to the men how he envisions the Saint Crispin’s day survivors showing off their battle wounds and recounting their valiant tales for years to come:
He that outlives this day and comes safe home
Will stand o’ tiptoe when this day is named
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall see this day, and live old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors
And say “Tomorrow is Saint Crispian.”
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
(Henry 4.3.44-50)
The prestige of telling such a tale is evident at the end of Henry’s speech, when he asserts that:
Gentlemen in England now abed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.
(Henry 4.3.66-69)
Likewise Henry expresses the particular fame that he and his companions will share if they do indeed triumph over the French. Due to the fact that Henry and these men are the highest-ranking officers in the army, they will be remembered in particular for any positive outcome of the battle. As the monarch says:
Then shall our names
…Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered.
(Henry 4.3.53;55-57)
Thus Henry presents an enticing idea-for when is fame and glory not enticing-to his men in order to bolster their courage and confidence.
Henry combines his middle elocution and these appeals to common values with an attempt to present himself as a reasonable and likeable speaker, because in so doing his men are more apt to embrace his argument than to reject it, and in turn to fight gallantly for him. The King presents himself to his comrades as a fearless individual who is anxious to ride into combat and claim what honor he expects to glean from it. Early in his speech he comments:
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honor,
I am the most offending soul alive.
(Henry 4.3.29-32)
Here, Henry is trying to portray himself as a member of the group with which he stands, desiring honor and glory as much as the next man. This use of rhetoric gives his listeners personal investment in his speech and causes them to identify more greatly with the King and what he is saying to them.
A monarch’s need for confidence with rhetoric is great in the time of King Henry V, especially when entering combat. When the King’s men begin to lose confidence before the battle of Agincourt-as one soldier expresses his doubts by commenting, “We see yonder the beginning of day, but/ I think we shall never see the end of it”-the King is able to rally his men so that they are prepared to fight courageously for England. The combination of rhetorical devices that Henry, noticeably a great rhetorician, uses in his Saint Crispin’s Day speech create an effective persuasive argument that compels the King’s men to proclaim, as Westmoreland does, “God’s will, my liege, would you and I alone,/ Without more help, could fight this royal battle!” (Henry 4.3.76-77). It would be difficult to resist the monarch’s argument, so expertly does he intertwine the use of traditional Elizabethan rhetoric with audience awareness to capture his comrades and encourage them into battle. As Henry responds to his own success, evident in Westmoreland’s statement above, “Why, now thou hast unwished five thousand men,/ Which likes me better than to wish us one.-/ You know your places. God be with you all” (Henry 4.3.78-80).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lanham, Richard A., et al. “An Outline of Elizabethan Rhetoric.” A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms. Handout.
Russo, M. “Rhetoric: The Art of Persuasion.” Department of Philosophy. 29 Jan. 2002. Molloy College Online. 24 Oct. 2004 .
Shakespeare, William. Henry V. Ed. Barbara A. Mowatt, et al. New York: Washington Square Press Publishing, 1995.
