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HENRY IV


            
             Sweet Rose of virtue and of gentleness,.
             Delightsome Lily of every lustiness, .
             Richest in bounty, and in beauty clear,.
             And every virtue that is held most dear,.
             Except, only, that you are merciless. [ ]--William Dunbar.
             By yielding to the needs of England, Henry is left alone to woo Princess Katharine. Paradoxically, failing to accomplish the desires of his people transforms a king into an incompetent ruler. Can a sovereign who combines strength of character with a joyous humor, dignity with simplicity, justice with bravery, piety with martial enthusiasm command a marriage with Princess Katharine? If a king can command, can he, being Henry not woo? Is a princess, still a daughter not bound to duty? William Shakespeare's Henry V considers this romantic interlude to be a stepping-stone to political game; yet by doing so reveals Henry's pretensions of courtliness or eloquence. Henry's "the princess is the better Englishwoman" (5.2.121-130) captures the essence of his humanity in being a man with no power over love or the speech to project such affections. King Henry states he is a "plain king," in that he lacks the language and eloquence to win her. .
             The text of Henry V. is told mostly in blank verse; without the Elizabethan High-Renaissance manner the character Henry is mortalized as being seen as a "common soldier." His speech heightens the resonance of his confession, "If I could win a lady at leap frog/ I should quickly leap into a wife" (5.2.136-139). By admitting to his .
             .
             ruggedness and his disheveled features, he asks Katharine, "If thou canst love a fellow of this temper/let thine eye be thy cook," (5.


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