Cry God for Harry, England, and St. George, but What About Katherine?

The view from the balcony

On Friday evening, I had the amazing opportunity to attend the penultimate performance of Shakespeare's Henry V with Jude Law in the titular role. Sitting among the lights in the balcony (I was nearly eye level with the chandelier), I had a bird's eye view of the stripped down stage, consisting of only gray-washed walls and doors, that truly challenged the audience to heed the Chorus and imagine the fields of Agincourt before them. When the doors in the back of the stage opened to reveal Henry lounging on his throne with a crown perched on his head, I knew that I was in for an interesting experience.

Henry rallies his troops.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25200156

I've always had a bit of a love-hate relationship with Henry V. Shakespeare's second tetralogy, consisting of Richard II, Henry IV Parts I & II, and Henry V, has always captured my interest, and to most people's disbelief, Richard II is my favorite history play and ranks high on my list of favorite Shakespeare plays. Out of the other three plays in the tetralogy, Henry, Harry, Hal, Monmouth, whichever name you prefer, was my favorite character and I find his progression in the three plays from rakish boy prince to capable, strong ruler really interesting, especially considering his willingness to leave his friends behind to die without a second glance. Law played this change superbly, pausing ever so slightly when he learns that Bardoff is to be hanged in a moment of pained recognition that is quickly replaced with his usual kingly stoicism. This was the only moment of vulnerability in Hal Law played that felt genuine. Henry's greatest moment of vulnerability, when he kneels in prayer in the middle of his army's camp, was overwhelmed by a blazing spotlight, placing him a little too much in the light of Heaven for my taste. In contrast, Law played Henry's moments of strength almost too perfectly, shouting the St. Crispian's Day speech with such gusto that I had chills as his men shouted around him. Law certainly played King Henry as the capable, rallying military man that has come to be expected from the role.

Jessie Buckley in rehearsals.
Source: http://www.irishtimes.com/
life-and-style/people/i-like-feeling-out-
of-my-depth-how-jessie-buckley-went-
from-kerry-to-the-west-end-1.1591322

It is that military man quality in King Henry that pervades the tone of the entire play that frustrates me the most, however, especially in its treatment of Princess Katherine, played beautifully by Irish actress Jessie Buckley. As the play revolves around England's capturing of France, Katherine comes to embody the land that Henry fights for throughout the play. Because she appears in the play only to become Henry's queen and possession, the physical embodiment of the France that must become England, she is made into a foreign object whose mispronunciation of English represents the need for her education and correction. Thus, Katherine and her lady were the only French characters in the entire play who actually had French accents, because they undoubtedly needed to be corrected by Henry, as king and as England. Shakespeare's less than subtle pun on female genitalia that he gives to Katherine in her English lesson couples her with the body part that will be the most important in her role as Henry's queen, her womb. She becomes synonymous with her breeding capabilities and her country, making her less than a woman even before she's been committed to Henry.

Henry wooing Katherine
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25200156

The pervasion of Henry's militaristic qualities into Law's performance of Henry's wooing continued to lessen Katherine's status as a woman. Shakespeare's script obviously calls for Henry to be less than competent in his flirtation, as he calls himself a "soldier" who does not know the terms "such as will enter a lady's ear / and plead his love-suit to her gentle heart" (V.ii.102-104). Law in this scene lessened the inherent awkwardness and vulnerability of Henry's wooing by consistently mocking Katherine throughout the scene. Law went so far as to vocally break character as he asks her, "Do you like me, Kate?" in the tone you might expect from a teenage boy speaking to a girl on the street or in an underground station. The "love" Henry professes throughout the scene seems hardly plausible as Law flippantly ridicules Katherine's broken English, looking at her in dismay when she remarks that she cannot "speak [his] England" (V.ii.105). Law's firmness when he adds, "and you are mine," to Henry's roundabout logic of Katherine's ownership of France if they are married leaves little doubt that Katherine will become Henry's queen (V.ii.169). Even the strength Buckley gives to Katherine's character as she continues to resist Henry is diminished by Henry's continuous ridicule, finally stopping her voice entirely with over one hundred lines left in the scene as Henry stops her mouth with a kiss. Thus, she begins the scene in broken English and ends the scene in silence, as Henry declares his ownership of her and her France.

Years after Shakespeare's play was written, the age of British exploration and imperialism saw the real-life silencing of women as they stood as representations of their desired countries. In Sex, Botany, and Empire, Patricia Fara describes many of Joseph Banks's sexual exploits during his expeditions. One woman in particular, the Tahitian woman Purea, became the sexualized representation of her exotic country when word of Banks's sexual indiscretions came back to England. Poems inspired by the woman made her into a "common whore"and other satires alluded to her "handling" of the "sensitive plant" Banks (8, 13). This woman was denied a voice and reduced to her sexuality in these publications, just as Katherine is in Henry V. Thus, in both drama and real life, the women in the foreign countries that England sought to overtake became the silent, sexualized representations of their lands, forced to yield to the ridiculing advances of England's men, be they kings, botanists, or writers.

In any case, even if I have my complaints about the production and the play's unfair portrayal of Katherine, I got Jude Law to sign my program, so it's not all bad.