William Shakespeare · Henry V, Act 3, Scene 1. 272 spoken words · approximately 2–3 minutes. Blank verse.
At a glance
- Character: Henry V — Male character.
- Useful for: Older teens and adults.
- Rehearsal challenge: Advanced: sustained address and forceful imagery.
- Text: The complete uninterrupted speech identified below, extracted from the public-domain source edition. It is one speech within a longer play.
Timing is an estimate, not an audition guarantee. Time your own delivery with pauses and reactions. The character description explains the play; actors of any gender may explore the role in practice, subject to the requirements of a particular production or audition.
What happens immediately before this speech?
The English army is attacking Harfleur in France. Henry speaks to his troops during the assault, asking them to return to the opening in the city's defenses. He moves from the choice between attack and death to images of physical ferocity, appeals to ancestry and rank, and a final command to charge.
Speaking to: The soldiers before him, including both noblemen and yeomen.
What the character wants: Get exhausted or hesitant troops to act together and renew the attack.
A change to explore: Instructions for individual courage expand into a collective identity and an immediate action.
The complete speech
Henry V · Henry V, Act 3, Scene 1
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from morn till even fought
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'
Source: Henry V, Act 3, Scene 1 in MIT’s Complete Works of Shakespeare. The spoken wording follows that edition; stage directions are omitted. Verse line breaks are retained. Prose is displayed as a paragraph. Other editions may differ in spelling, punctuation or line division.
The thought in plain English
Go back into the breach, or let our bodies close it. Peace values modesty; war asks us to look and act fiercely. Draw on the strength you claim from your families and country. Whatever your rank, prove your courage. You look ready to run; follow that energy and charge.
This CueRoom paraphrase is a study aid. The rehearsal demo uses Shakespeare’s wording above.
Words and phrases to understand
- breach
- An opening in a defensive wall.
- sinews
- Tendons, and by extension bodily strength.
- portage of the head
- The openings of the eyes in the head.
- fet / argument
- Fetched or derived / cause for fighting in this use.
- yeoman / slips
- A man of a lower social rank than the nobles addressed / leashes restraining hunting dogs before release.
Acting questions
- What do you see in the soldiers that makes another appeal necessary?
- Which group needs the first practical image of courage?
- When you invoke their families, are you encouraging them or applying pressure?
- What visible readiness gives you permission to issue the final charge?
A rehearsal experiment
Begin with one soldier who is not moving. Keep the voice conversational enough to reach that person, then widen the address as more listeners respond. Build urgency through clearer images and changing focus before experimenting with greater volume.
Keep the scene playable
The speech contains battlefield death, nationalistic persuasion and appeals to social rank and parentage. Those are tools Henry uses to obtain action. Physical instructions in the text are imagery for the soldiers; avoid locking your jaw or holding your breath in a way that strains your own voice.
Rehearse Henry V’s monologue free in CueRoom
The real rehearsal app opens with this exact speech divided into 9 thought beats. Choose Practice my lines to recall each beat, or Listen to the recording to hear the prepared reading. Prompt plays the current beat; bookmarks help you return to a difficult transition.
No account, purchase or replay credits required. The Studio reading is recorded once. Unlimited replays and prompts use those saved files.
Fixed text and voice; changes stay in this tab. Manual advance and timed hands-free practice are available. Voice Control depends on browser support and optional microphone permission. The reading offers one interpretation, not an authoritative pronunciation or performance guide.
How to memorize this speech
Learn the audience and image sequence: the breach, peace and war, tiger, eyes and rock, breath, fathers, mothers, leaders, yeomen and greyhounds. Rehearse the changes of audience separately from the long descriptive passages.
Try recalling a beat before revealing it, check the exact wording, and then connect it to the following beat. Once the sequence holds, run the whole speech with a listener and intention. Use the monologue preparation plan for a short deadline or the line-learning guide for a longer rehearsal routine.
Choosing it for an audition or class
This longer speech needs room for an audience and a changing argument. If a brief requires a short, intimate classical monologue, a different selection may serve it better.
Read the surrounding scene and check the audition’s period, duration and edition requirements. Make any permitted cut before learning it. This public demo always uses the complete selected speech shown above.
Related Shakespeare monologues
- Edmund: Thou, nature, art my goddess — Edmund rejects the social rules that favor his legitimate brother and reveals his intention to take Edgar's inheritance.
- Portia: The quality of mercy is not strain'd — In the courtroom, Portia asks Shylock to temper his legal claim against Antonio with mercy.
- Jaques: All the world's a stage — Jaques answers the Duke's image of the world as a theatre by describing a human life as seven roles.
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Text and rehearsal-note credits
Speech by William Shakespeare. MIT states that its HTML Shakespeare texts are placed in the public domain. Selection, context, plain-English explanation and rehearsal exercises on this page are prepared for CueRoom. The Shakespeare text is not an original CueRoom monologue or a modern copyrighted edition.
Compare this male Shakespeare character with contemporary originals in Monologues for Men, with playing-age guidance and contrasting rehearsal pairs.
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