Simply Symbolic: First Words of Katherine of Valois
Carley Becker
Catherine of Valois was born to be a wife, and not just anyone's but "the wife and mother of kings" (Ward, 119). English forces had been warring with the French for years throughout the fifteenth century, and Catherine, a French princess, was a bargaining chip between them. Married to Henry V in 1420, the idea "was first proposed [in 1409] when Catherine was eight" (Hilton, 322). As "a beautiful blonde virgin who brought the kingdom of France as a dowry" (325), Catherine was half of "one of the most glamorous English royal marriages" in the Middle Ages (321). Her seemingly destined role is represented in Henry V even from her opening lines:
KATHERINE : Alice, tu as été en Angleterre, et tu parles
bien le langage.
ALICE : Un peu, madame.
KATHERINE : Je te prie, m'enseignez. Il faut que j'apprenne
à parler. Comment appelez-vous "la main" en
anglais?
ALICE : La main? Elle est appelée "de hand." (III.iv.1-7)
At this point, Catherine of Valois' character, Katherine, does not speak any English. In choosing to ask how to say 'hand,' Katherine sets the stage for her entire purpose in the play: to become Henry V's wife. "[S]he draw[s] attention to the parts of her own body," and in doing so, "she is following an itinerary that can lead her only one place: to Henry's royal bed" (Wilcox, 67).
However, there is more at stake than just her body. Though she asks about them later, Katherine does not start with the words for chin, elbow, or foot. The hand is first because it symbolizes the greater theme of marriage, used in the modern day saying of "hand in marriage" or phrased in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night as "[a] contract of eternal bond of love / Confirmed by mutual joinder of your hands" (V.i.164-5). Katherine's role is solely symbolic, and "her appeal is entirely and somewhat simplemindedly aesthetic, as opposed to moral or intellectual" (Wilcox, 61).
Henry V is, of course, a tale of military significance and a warrior king, so why does Shakespeare include Katherine at all? First, because she was a bargaining chip, the battles in France could not come to a close without her. Though a treaty between England and France was often debated, one constant was Catherine of Valois. She was requested in Henry's first proposal, and, according to Holinshed, "[w]hen kyng Henry had heard his Ambassadors reherse the articles and poin-tes of the treatie and amitte cocluded, he condescended & agreed with al diligèce to set forward to Troys, longing for the sight of his darling the fayre Lady Katherin" (Holinshed opposite fol.lxix). It was not until the "ceremonies were honorably finished and the mariage consumate [that] the twoo kynges and their counsaill assem-bled together" that a treaty was absolutely certain, so Katherine's marriage is symbolic of the end of war (Holinshed fol.lxix).
Secondly, "Shakespeare's inclusion of Katherine in his Henry V pageant was inevitable" (Wilcox, 61). The playwright's audience would have craved an interpretation of Catherine of Valois, as she was a direct ancestor of Queen Elizabeth and because she was included in the previously popular play, The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth. In this play, Katherine's first line is, "And it please your Majesty, / My father sent me to know if you will debate any of these / Unreasonable demands, which you require" (Six Old Plays, 369). Despite the claim that Katherine of Henry V has little personality, Shakespeare gives her far more character than she is allotted in The Famous Victories, where she appears as nothing more than her father's daughter and a political pawn without even the depth of marital imagery or the veil of symbolism.
Katherine's Shakespearean first lines allude to her use as a woman, as a daughter, and as a queen. She is a piece of a treaty, bred for royalty and meant for marriage since the age of eight. Whatever qualities Catherine of Valois had within her own right, they are lost in the context of Henry V, but at least "Katherine accepts Henry as her suitor with no great unwillingness" and brings peace to two kingdoms (Wilcox, 74).
However, there is more at stake than just her body. Though she asks about them later, Katherine does not start with the words for chin, elbow, or foot. The hand is first because it symbolizes the greater theme of marriage, used in the modern day saying of "hand in marriage" or phrased in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night as "[a] contract of eternal bond of love / Confirmed by mutual joinder of your hands" (V.i.164-5). Katherine's role is solely symbolic, and "her appeal is entirely and somewhat simplemindedly aesthetic, as opposed to moral or intellectual" (Wilcox, 61).
Henry V is, of course, a tale of military significance and a warrior king, so why does Shakespeare include Katherine at all? First, because she was a bargaining chip, the battles in France could not come to a close without her. Though a treaty between England and France was often debated, one constant was Catherine of Valois. She was requested in Henry's first proposal, and, according to Holinshed, "[w]hen kyng Henry had heard his Ambassadors reherse the articles and poin-tes of the treatie and amitte cocluded, he condescended & agreed with al diligèce to set forward to Troys, longing for the sight of his darling the fayre Lady Katherin" (Holinshed opposite fol.lxix). It was not until the "ceremonies were honorably finished and the mariage consumate [that] the twoo kynges and their counsaill assem-bled together" that a treaty was absolutely certain, so Katherine's marriage is symbolic of the end of war (Holinshed fol.lxix).
Secondly, "Shakespeare's inclusion of Katherine in his Henry V pageant was inevitable" (Wilcox, 61). The playwright's audience would have craved an interpretation of Catherine of Valois, as she was a direct ancestor of Queen Elizabeth and because she was included in the previously popular play, The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth. In this play, Katherine's first line is, "And it please your Majesty, / My father sent me to know if you will debate any of these / Unreasonable demands, which you require" (Six Old Plays, 369). Despite the claim that Katherine of Henry V has little personality, Shakespeare gives her far more character than she is allotted in The Famous Victories, where she appears as nothing more than her father's daughter and a political pawn without even the depth of marital imagery or the veil of symbolism.
Katherine's Shakespearean first lines allude to her use as a woman, as a daughter, and as a queen. She is a piece of a treaty, bred for royalty and meant for marriage since the age of eight. Whatever qualities Catherine of Valois had within her own right, they are lost in the context of Henry V, but at least "Katherine accepts Henry as her suitor with no great unwillingness" and brings peace to two kingdoms (Wilcox, 74).