“All would be royal”: The effacement of disunity in Shakespeare’s Henry V

Abstract

This paper seizes on the unresolved moment of conflict between Henry and the common soldier Williams in Shakespeare's Henry V to demonstrate the ways in which traditional criticism has occluded dissent and co-opted the common soldier on behalf of a perceived empathy towards the king on the part of the author. A look at documented evidence shows that Shakespeare was articulating a common reality in this unresolved moment, one which dsiplays rather than effaces contemporary discontent with the lot of the ordinary soldier.