The Role of Chorus in Henry V

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/ Confirmed conspiracy with fearful France” (II.Cho.22-28) Being one of the more straightforward ones, this pun makes use of the similar sounding words of gilt and guilt to deride the renegades’ decision for golds in exchange for their own guilt. Without the pun, this whole phrase would just be a plain, dull fact statement. It is, in fact, the phrase “O guilt indeed” that makes the magic here and sparks the audience’s engagement as if it is an alarum calling the audience’s attention back onto the play. Another subtler example of wordplay requiring more of an audience’s critical analysis is when the Chorus describes Henry V during his visit at the campsite in disguise:

Upon his royal face there is no note

How dread an army hath enrounded him;

Nor doth he dedicate one jot of color

Unto the weary and all-watched night,

But freshly looks, and overbears attaint. (IV.Cho. 36-39)

Other than the meaning of overcoming Henry his own fatigue, the phrase “overbears attaint” here is played on the words “attaint” and “tint” for a deeper, underlying meaning. It signifies how Henry’s “color” and brightness “tint” onto the fatigue soldiers, lightening up their faces.

In addition, Shakespeare’s choice of word in the Chorus’s speech brings unity among the audience and leads them to ruminate about their own current societal situation:

Now thrive the armorers, and honor’s thought

Reigns solely in the breast of every man

They sell the pasture now to buy the horse

Following the mirror of all Christian kings

With winged heels, as English Mercuries. (II. Cho. 3-7)

During the Elizabethan Age, the English were no strangers to the matter of war. Here, even though the Chorus is technically speaking of the characters in the play, he manages to arouse resonance amid the audience who had sacrificed their livelihood in exchange for the implementation of the war. Not only as “soldiers,” the English in the play are depicted as “English Mercuries” with “winged heels” able to drive the enemy to “shake in their fear” (II.Cho.14). That is, by bestowing reverence and accolade on their analogues in the play, the ably chosen words warm and move the audience’s heart as a whole. Besides the enlisted, the Chorus has not forgotten about the others in the audience population: “Guarded with grandsires, babies, and old women,/ Either past or not arrived to pith and puissance;/ For who is he whose chin is but enriched, / With one appearing hair that will not follow/ These culled and choice-drawn cavaliers to France” (III.Cho.20-24). Through acknowledging their contribution and support to the society, the Chorus appeals to all division of the population of his audience and prompts the audience to relate the play to the contemporary political events by playing on their sense of pride and emotion.

The Chorus’s undue awareness of himself, contradictions among the play and his speech, and his choice of words evokes the audience’s active engagement, keeping them interested and informed at the same time. Like a radio color commentator, the Chorus in Henry V contributes substantially to the play.