Shakespeare's "King Henry V" from "The War of the Roses" (English Shakespeare Company, UK, 1990) is a direct filming, from the stage, of Michael Bogdanov and Michael Pennington's 7-play sequence based on Shakespeare's history plays. King Henry - Michael Pennington
Ben Bazell - Westmoreland
Roger Booth as Williams
Director Michael Bogdanov
from "Tales from Shakespeare" by Charles and Mary Lamb:
And now, all offers of peace thus being rejected, the battle at last began and raged hotly throughout the field until the French ranks were broken and their craven troops began to fly. There were enough Frenchmen still alive to smother the English in their throngs, but despite the efforts of their leaders, who, themselves also flying, were shamed into a brief resistance, the day was lost and King Henry and his army were left victors on the glorious field, which the king called Agincourt.
Standing there in the flush of victory amid his nobles, the king saw near by him the soldier with whom, in his disguise, he had exchanged gloves in token of their quarrel, and he bid one call him thither. When this same Michael Williams came into his presence, King Henry asked him why he wore that glove in his hat, and Williams told him it was the gage of one he should fight with. The king, feigning not to know it, asked if this were an Englishman, and the soldier replied that it belonged to a rascal that swaggered with him last night, and then he told over the conditions of their quarrel, vowing that he would roundly box the ears of him who wore his glove.
King Henry's old love for such merry tricks kindling anew, he put it to Captain Fluellen whether it were fit the soldier should keep his oath. "He is a villain eke," said the Welsh captain; but the king argued that he might have to challenge a gentleman of great rank. Fluellen held that though he were as good a gentleman as Beelzebub himself, yet it would be necessary that he keep his oath, and so the king, relishing the humour of the scene, bid the soldier keep his vow.
Then he commanded him to call Captain Gower thither, and, while he was gone, he hastily thrust the glove that Williams had given him into Fluellen's hand, asking him to stick it in his cap, for, he explained, when the Duke of Alenon and he were down together in the fight, he had plucked this glove from his helm, and if any man challenged it he was a friend of Alencon, and hence an enemy to England; and he said if the captain encountered any such he should apprehend him, if he did love his king. The fiery Welshman was flattered by his majesty's show of confidence in him, and he said he would fain see the man that had but two legs that should find himself aggrieved at that glove. Then the king pretended again that he desired to see Gower, and sent Fluellen also to look for him; but when the Welsh captain was out of sight, he explained the merry ruse of the glove, and hurried Warwick and his brother Gloster after him, for he feared that blood would be spilt between two such hot spirits as Williams and the Welshman.
Presently these two met, Williams promptly challenging the glove in Fluellen's hat and striking him roundly on the ear, whereupon the Welshman would have made short work of the soldier, but for the timely arrival of Warwick and Gloster. In another instant the king came up crying, with well-feigned surprise, "How now! What's the matter ?'' to which Fluellen proudly answered that he had caught the traitor.
Williams pleaded that in buffeting the wearer of the glove he had but kept his oath; but the Welshman called him by a score of foul names, and asked the king to bear witness that the glove the soldier had challenged was his majesty's own. Then King Henry took his glove from Williams, and holding up its fellow, showed him that the owner was the king.'" Twas I you promised to strike," he said, "and you have spoken most vilely of me." Fluellen said the soldier's neck should answer for it if there was any martial law in the world, and the king asked him how he could make satisfaction for his disloyalty.
Williams's stout English heart was undismayed by the captain's threat or the king's question, and he answered that all offences come from the heart, and never came any from his that might offend his king; whereupon the king, who was but putting the brave fellow to the test, bid his uncle of Exeter to fill a glove with crowns and give it to him, saying, "Keep it fellow, and wear it as an honour in your cap till I do challenge it." Then he commanded the good Welsh captain to be friends with the soldier, and the merry sport, which even on the battle-field cheered the gay heart of King Hal, was ended in a pleasant leave- taking.
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Henry IV, Part 2 (1990, Michael Bogdanov) part 2 of 15by ShakespeareAndMore2,588 views
Wow, cool commentry. I watched a production of this tonight that left out this scene, which I thought made the whole glove exchange thing a bit pointless. I don't think it's in the Kenneth Branagh one either, but do you have this scene from the Laurence Olivier version? I'd like to see it as part of an actual television show, not just filmed from a stage.
thanks, great channel.
JupitaRose 1 year ago