● At the English camp, King Henry talks with Gloucester and Clarence.

 
● Henry borrows Erpingham's dirty old cloak and then sends the men off to 
prepare for battle. 
● Henry disguises himself as a commoner and walks around camp, where 
nobody recognizes him as the king. 
● Pistol shows up and chats up Henry. 
● When Henry claims to be a kinsman of Fluellen, Pistol makes an obscene hand 
gesture (the fig) and storms off. 
● Fluellen and Gower show up and Henry eavesdrops on their conversation. 
● Gower speaks too loudly and Fluellen tells him to pipe down since they're so 
close to the French camp. 
● Henry thinks that, even though Fluellen is kind of whacky, he's actually a pretty 
smart Captain. 
● Three common soldiers show up (Bates, Court, and Williams) and Henry talks 
to them about the war. All three soldiers wish they were back at home and 
question the King's motives and decisions. 
● Bates, who doesn't recognize Henry, declares that the king isn't as brave as he 
pretends to be. 
● Henry tries to defend himself by saying that he's sure Henry wouldn't wish that 
he was anywhere else but here. 
● Williams and Bates are skeptical. They admit that they don't even know if 
Henry's war against France is "just." 
● Williams chimes in that, if the soldiers die in battle the next day and leave 
behind a bunch of grieving widows, it will be all King Henry's fault. 
● Henry is furious and says that the king isn't responsible for the deaths of his 
soldiers, just like a father isn't responsible if his son dies during a commercial 
sea venture. (Um, okay.) 
● Williams and Henry can't come to any agreement, so they decide to exchange 
gloves. (The idea is that, when they bump into each other later, they'll recognize 
the gloves and can fight about it then.) 
● Bates tells the men to be friends – they've got enough to worry about fighting 
against the French. 
● The common soldiers exit. 
● Alone on stage, King Henry delivers a speech about the difficulties of kingship. 
Being king is tough work and it's isolating. Henry says he spends all of his time 
worrying about his people and never has any time to relax. 
● Henry says a prayer. He asks God to make his men brave and to forgive him for 
his father's sins. (Remember, Henry's dad, King Henry IV, stole the English 
crown from King Richard II.) 
● Henry reminds God that he's built a kind of shrine to Richard II and that he pays 
500 poor people to pray for Richard twice a day. He's also built two chantries 
(chapels where people sing masses for the dead). 
● Henry hopes that God will keep all of this in mind during tomorrow's battle. 
● Over at the enemy camp, the French are as cocky as ever as they prepare for 
battle. 
● A Messenger arrives with word that the English have lined up and are ready to 
rumble. 
● The Constable declares that whipping the English soldiers is going to be a 
piece of cake. In fact, the English soldiers will probably just "couch down in fear 
and yield." Also, he adds, the English have probably already said their prayers 
and are just standing around waiting to die. 
● Bourbon jokes that maybe they should send over some fresh clothes for the 
English and some food for their starving horses before they destroy them in 
battle. 
● They run off to fight.