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Eddie Hood
Hey, friends. Welcome back to the Read well podcast. My name is Eddie Hood and I am really excited today. I just got back from class. I've been taking a course called Studies in Shakespeare and I learned something today that I thought you would really find interesting. There's this great play called Henry V by Shakespeare, of course, and if you've never read it, I'm going to give you kind of the background of this play, why it's important. But there's a specific element of this play that I think will help make us better readers. It really is this nice little trick that Shakespeare gives us or at least reminds us and will help us to get more from our book. So we're going to be talking about Henry V today. Really, really cool old book of all of William Shakespeare's collected works. I love this thing. But if you're going to read Shakespeare, do yourself a favor and get the Folgers editions. They really are worth the money. So that's what we're going to do today. We're going to talk about the chorus of Henry V by William Shakespeare and why it matters. All right, let's get into it. Welcome to this week's episode of the Read well podc. My name is Eddie Hood and I'm your host where I believe it's more important to read well than to be well read. So grab your favorite book, open up your notes, and let's get ready to learn something fascinating. Okay, welcome back. So here we go. Henry V is this play. It's a war play by Shakespeare. He had several war plays, but this one is interesting because it's about the king, Henry V. No surprise there. And he has this sort of feeling or he believes he has the right to claim the throne of France. You've got to love those power hungry presidents and kings and czars and monarchs or whatever. I don't know. People in power just like they can take stuff from other people. It is what it is. But this book is interesting or this play is interesting because the English were going up against the French and they were very, very outnumbered. And so the, the battle that took place is called the Battle of Agincour Court. It actually happened. It was led by King Henry V and the English, despite being outnumbered terribly. In the book it says they were outnumbered 5 to 1, but I looked it up and it's more like 2 to 1 or maybe 3 to 1. Regardless, there were more French people than there were English people. The point here is that they won. And there are several stories in Henry V where Sort of his men are just like downtrodden and they're worried that they're going to die and battle's going to be impossible. But sort of his, his pass leadership is what sort of brings them through, gives them the courage. They win the battle, they get the throne, everything's great, yada, yada, yada. Okay, well that's not what I want to talk about in detail. What I want to talk about in detail is a specific. I don't know if you call it character, but it's called the chorus. And the chorus is used a lot in drama when your drama being plays. And often the chorus represents the opinion of the people or it can be kind of a narrator voice at times. And Shakespeare didn't use the chorus narrative tool often. In fact, I think he only used it twice in Henry V. And I believe in Romeo and Juliet. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think that's the case. Okay, well the interesting thing about the chorus, and this is going to help us be better readers, is that this chorus gives a speech before each of the acts in the play. Now there are five acts in Henry V and the first one is the one I want to read to you today and we're going to talk about. I'm going to sort of translate what it means because I get it. Shakespeare can be a little wordy at times. That's why the Folgers editions are so nice because you've got, on the, on the right hand side you've got the text by Shakespeare himself. On the left hand side you've got a translation of all of the meanings and, and what have you. So it's nice to have. But I'm not going to read this word for word. There's a lot here. But I am going to set the stage. Yes, I just did. Upon people. We're going to set the stage. And what happens is that this whole drama opens up with the chorus saying that they are about to tell you a story that really cannot be captured on page. It cannot be. I mean, how do you, how do you sort of capture all of the fear and, and terror and sort of subterfuge that comes with war? Especially a battle that apparently was so great as that of Agincourt. Right. So Shakespeare I think was probably sitting at his desk like scratching his head, going, how on earth do I do I capture the death and all of that stuff and actually give it the, the value it deserves? No matter what I put on paper, it's going to dilute the actual events of life. I think he was really feeling stressed that day when he wrote the chorus. But there's this really nice thing where the chorus sort of reaches through the page to you as the reader, or if you're watching the play, the chorus actually breaks the fourth wall and speaks to the aud. He would have coached the. The actual audience on how to think and use their imagination while they acted. So here we go. Let's see what the chorus has to say. He says, oh, for a muse of fire that would ascend the brightest heavens of invention. Okay, so he's. He's saying, hey, we're going to write something here, and this is a big thing that's about to happen, and we're going to do our very best. He goes on to say, a kingdom for a stage, princes to act and monarchs to behold the swelling sc. So he uses the term a swelling scene to describe this battle of Agincourt. Right. This is a big battle. Lots of people died. It was terrifying. So this is a really big grand moment. And he goes on to say, on this unworthy scaffold, how. How can we bring this forth on such an unworthy scaffold? And what he means by that scaffold is, of course, the stage that they're standing on. How can you stand there, a couple of people, and. And convey the importance of this thing? So he's feeling a little overwhelmed, right? And he goes on to say, here, can this cockpit. Cockpit is another sort of synonym for the stage that Shakespeare's actors were acting on. Can this cockpit hold the vasty fields of France? Or maybe cram within this wooden o? The stage was in the shape of an O, the very casks that did affright the air at Agincourt. Okay, so again, we're summarizing at this point, but, hey, to try and, you know, somehow convey what it was like to be in battle. And just think about that. If you're the author, how do you get your reader to feel all of the emotions that an actual soldier felt? You kind of can't, right? Nothing compares to being at war. But the author wants to try and give you as much of that feeling as possible. So here's what he says. Here's the tip that comes from the chorus and asks us to. He says, let us cipher to this great account on your imaginary forces work. Okay, so first of all, he's saying, hey, you've got some work to do. If you're going to read this play or you're going to watch it, you have to decide to use your Imagination. If you're going to sit out in the audience, I kind of need you to close your eyes at times or at least picture in your head what we're saying and bring it to life. You have to be a part of this. And that's the nice thing about drama. If you've ever watched an actual theatrical performance, the actual audience is a character in the play. And this is something I learned in a previous English class that I had when we were analyzing drama. The actual audience is a character. I'd never thought about it like that before. But if you've ever gone to a production two nights in a row or you've been in a production as an actor and you've noticed that it's always different, well, that's because the audience is giving and taking from the actors the entire time. They're responding in different ways. There's. There's like an energy level there. Right. And if the audience is doing a great job at using their imagination and being in the story, it's going to be a really good production tonight. But if the audience, for whatever reason, is, I don't know, maybe there was a car accident outside the theater. And it took people forever to get in the theater. And so now they're just distressed and frustrated. And as they sit in their chairs, they can't quite relax their muscles because they're, you know, they're tensed about being late to the production. That audience is not going to be very good at our imaginations. And it's going to cause the production to feel stifled. Right? So, okay, the chorus in Henry V, this first speech, right before act one, he's saying, let us ciphers to this great account on your imaginary forces work. Now, here's my favorite line from this little speech. He says, think when we talk of horses, that you see them printing their proud hoofs in the receiving earth. For tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings, carry them here and there, jumping over times, turning the accomplishment of many years into an hourglass for the witch supply. Admit me, chorus, to this history who prologue, like your humble patience, pray gently to hear, kindly to judge our play. So this is the. The chorus reaching through. And he's saying, hey, if. As an example, if we're going to talk about horses in this play, you need to do your part. I need you to see the horses stamping into the ground I you to feel the breath of their nostrils as it sort of, you know, plumes in the cold air, that kind of thing. You need to close your eyes and realize that now that got me thinking about how I read books and this sort of really set in stone how I feel. My mantra about reading, slowly taking notes and applying the ideas I said all the time. If you think about Harry Potter, for example, Harry Potter is a young boy who goes to wizarding school and he learns how to fly on a broom and on and on. It's very cool idea, right? But Harry Potter cannot get off the ground. He cannot learn to fly. Unless you imagine it. Unless you, unless you sort of commit as the reader to do your part of that work. If we're reading Animal Farm by George Orwell and you've got two pigs who are sort of fighting for power, you've got Napoleon and Snowball and they are trying to become the new source of power on the farm. Now they've kicked out the farmer. That's never going to happen unless you can commit to using your imagination and seeing these pigs up in front of all of the other animals having debates about power. Finally, another example here, My sister, the serial killer. This is a really punchy, strong book. The theme of this essentially is that sisterhood can be one of the strongest forces in the world. And in this story, one of the sisters is a serial killer and the other one kind of comes behind her and instead of giving her up to the authorities or what have you, she is tasked with cleaning up the mess, right? So just if I read the first passage of this book, let's see what happens here. Now, we could read My Sister the Serial Killer and we could do so quickly, right? We could speed read and we could try to get in, I don't know, 200 books a year. And if we did that, we would really burn through this. Or we could slow down and we could really pay attention and imagine what's happening. She says on page two here, it's titled Bleach. I bet you didn't know that bleach masks the smell of blood. Most people use bleach indiscriminately, assuming it's a catch all product. Never taking time to read the list of ingredients on the back, never taking time to return to that recently wiped surface to take a closer look. So here I want you to imagine turning a bleach bottle over in your hand and seeing the ingredients on the back, right? Actually see that happening in your mind. She goes on to say, bleach will disinfect, but it's not great for cleaning residue. So I use it only after I have first scrubbed the bathroom of all traces of life and death. What A cool book. This is a really fun book to read. But if you can imagine this lady in sort of this bathroom and she's just like scrubbing the tiles and she's trying to get all traces of life and death out between the tiles before she uses the bleach, that scene becomes very real. You can sort of be in the bathroom with her. But if you speed read that page and you see. Yeah, yeah, okay. Bleach. There's a lady cleaning. I got it. And you keep moving through it, then you're going to miss the grandness of the event. Much like the chorus in Henry V. Hey, we're going to describe one of the greatest battles in all of English history. And if you speed read through this play, you're going to miss the grandness of that battle. But if you slow down and you use your imagination, then you too can stand on the field with King Henry as he. He gives his most, you know, inspiring speeches about facing the breach. Right on. Into the breach we go. It's a really great passage here. So that's what I wanted to share with you guys today, is just that, you know, books, they're a relationship and they expect us to do our half the authors put in an incredible amount of work to give you great characters and plot and story, but at the end of the day, they're just words on a page. And if you decide that you're going to treat them as words on the page, that's all you're ever going to get. You're going to. You're going to read a book, you'll put it back, and you'll wonder really why everybody else loved it so much. I can tell you why. It's because they spent time using their imaginations. So slow down, give yourself some time and some patience. Read Harry Potter slowly. Read My Sister the Serial Killer slowly. Read Henry V slowly. And I promise you, I promise you, your reading experience will improve by a thousand percent. Hey, I want to thank all of you for being a part of the Read well podcast community. It's been an honor to be here with you. I just. I love showing up every week and talking about the things I love, which are books. If this podcast has helped you at all, if you're watching on YouTube, please take a moment to just give the video a. Like, drop me a comment, tell me what you think about the content and help me to figure out what you want to hear in the future. If you're listening on the podcast, I would sure appreciate taking a moment just to go to Apple Podcasts or Spotify and leaving me a review. Let me know how I'm doing for you. Other than that, thank you. And as always, remember to read slowly, take notes, and apply the ideas. I'll see you next time. If you'd like to take your reading to the next level, then head on over to thereadwellpodcast.com there you'll find daily posts on how to read well. You'll also get access to all of my book notes and tools for becoming a better reader. And as always, don't forget to read slowly, take notes, and apply the ideas. Thank you for listening to the Read well podcast.