With the passing of Queen Elizabeth II after 70 years on the British throne, we have the chance to look at how Shakespeare, writing during the 40-year reign of Elizabeth I, had his characters eulogize the death of an even earlier monarch, the warrior-hero of early England Henry V who died of battlefield dysentery in France, even as Britain reveled in the revenge he had wrought on France some 350 years after William the Conqueror had arrived in the opposite direction.
Shakespeare has a series of great lords eulogize Henry V in rapid succession. Their comments focus on his glory in war, but you can substitute other forms of glory if you so choose, and as easily as you can substitute the monarch’s gender:
Bedford: “Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night
Comets, importing change of times and states,
Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky,
And with them scourge the bad revolting stars
That have consented unto Henry’s death!
King Henry the Fifth, too famous to live long!
England ne’er lost a king of so much worth.”
Gloucester: “England ne’er had a king until his time.
Virtue he had, deserving to command:
His brandish’d sword did blind men with his beams:
His arms spread wider than a dragon’s wings;
His sparking eyes, replete with wrathful fire,
More dazzled and drove back his enemies
Than mid-day sun fierce bent against their faces.
What should I say? his deeds exceed all speech:
He ne’er lift up his hand but conquered.
Exeter: “We mourn in black: why mourn we not in blood?
Henry is dead and never shall revive:
Upon a wooden coffin we attend,
And death’s dishonourable victory
We with our stately presence glorify,
Like captives bound to a triumphant car.
What! shall we curse the planets of mishap
That plotted thus our glory’s overthrow?
Or shall we think the subtle-witted French
Conjurers and sorcerers, that afraid of him
By magic verses have contrived his end?”
Bishop of Winchester: “He was a king bless’d of the King of kings.
Unto the French the dreadful judgement-day
So dreadful will not be as was his sight.
The battles of the Lord of hosts he fought:
The church’s prayers made him so prosperous.”
