# Henry V: every role by lines, words, and stage time

> William Shakespeare. 45 speaking roles, 25,596 words, about 183 minutes of speech.

- URL: https://www.offbook.com/plays/henry-v
- Last updated: 2026-10-08

**King Henry** has the most to say in Henry V: about 1,028 lines and 8,336 words, 32.6% of the play. Henry V follows the young king from his claim on France through the Battle of Agincourt to his courtship of Katherine. King Henry carries about a third of the words and speaks in 11 of 29 sections, including several large public speeches. The Chorus opens every act and closes the play, and Fluellen is the second-largest part, at about 10%.

- Speaking roles: 45
- Scenes: 29
- Words: 25,596
- Speech time: 183 min

## Every role, largest first

| Role | Lines | Words | Share | Minutes | Scenes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| King Henry | 1,028 | 8,336 | 32.6% | 59.5 | 11 |
| Fluellen | 281 | 2,500 | 9.8% | 17.9 | 6 |
| Chorus | 223 | 1,667 | 6.5% | 11.9 | 6 |
| Canterbury | 223 | 1,651 | 6.5% | 11.8 | 2 |
| Pistol | 162 | 1,115 | 4.4% | 8.0 | 7 |
| Exeter | 126 | 983 | 3.8% | 7.0 | 8 |
| Constable | 121 | 919 | 3.6% | 6.6 | 5 |
| Dauphin | 113 | 906 | 3.5% | 6.5 | 5 |
| French King | 94 | 701 | 2.7% | 5.0 | 3 |
| Boy | 69 | 624 | 2.4% | 4.5 | 4 |
| Williams | 74 | 619 | 2.4% | 4.4 | 3 |
| Burgundy | 67 | 511 | 2% | 3.7 | 1 |
| Gower | 64 | 507 | 2% | 3.6 | 6 |
| Katherine | 61 | 444 | 1.7% | 3.2 | 2 |
| Montjoy | 51 | 400 | 1.6% | 2.9 | 3 |
| Nym | 49 | 397 | 1.6% | 2.8 | 3 |
| Hostess | 43 | 371 | 1.4% | 2.7 | 2 |
| Orleans | 43 | 313 | 1.2% | 2.2 | 3 |
| Bardolph | 31 | 224 | 0.9% | 1.6 | 3 |
| MacMorris | 23 | 205 | 0.8% | 1.5 | 1 |
| Westmoreland | 27 | 203 | 0.8% | 1.5 | 4 |
| Queen Isabel | 24 | 188 | 0.7% | 1.3 | 1 |
| Ely | 27 | 181 | 0.7% | 1.3 | 2 |
| Alice | 28 | 168 | 0.7% | 1.2 | 2 |
| Bates | 19 | 167 | 0.7% | 1.2 | 1 |
| Bourbon | 18 | 138 | 0.5% | 1.0 | 2 |
| Grandpré | 18 | 135 | 0.5% | 1.0 | 1 |
| Cambridge | 15 | 107 | 0.4% | 0.8 | 1 |
| French Soldier | 15 | 103 | 0.4% | 0.7 | 1 |
| Ambassador | 13 | 101 | 0.4% | 0.7 | 1 |
| Jamy | 11 | 97 | 0.4% | 0.7 | 1 |
| Scroop | 12 | 88 | 0.3% | 0.6 | 1 |
| Grey | 12 | 81 | 0.3% | 0.6 | 1 |
| Salisbury | 9 | 75 | 0.3% | 0.5 | 1 |
| Rambures | 8 | 66 | 0.3% | 0.5 | 2 |
| Bedford | 7 | 56 | 0.2% | 0.4 | 2 |
| Governor | 7 | 56 | 0.2% | 0.4 | 1 |
| Erpingham | 7 | 52 | 0.2% | 0.4 | 1 |
| Messenger | 6 | 36 | 0.1% | 0.3 | 3 |
| First Ambassador | 4 | 30 | 0.1% | 0.2 | 1 |
| Gloucester | 5 | 28 | 0.1% | 0.2 | 4 |
| York | 2 | 14 | 0.1% | 0.1 | 1 |
| Court | 2 | 11 | 0% | 0.1 | 1 |
| Herald | 1 | 8 | 0% | 0.1 | 1 |
| Warwick | 1 | 7 | 0% | 0.1 | 1 |

## Who speaks in which scene

Words each role speaks in each scene (scene: words). Scenes: Pro = Prologue; 1.1 = Act 1, Scene 1; 1.2 = Act 1, Scene 2; Pro 2 = Prologue 2; 2.1 = Act 2, Scene 1; 2.2 = Act 2, Scene 2; 2.3 = Act 2, Scene 3; 2.4 = Act 2, Scene 4; Pro 3 = Prologue 3; 3.1 = Act 3, Scene 1; 3.2 = Act 3, Scene 2; 3.3 = Act 3, Scene 3; 3.4 = Act 3, Scene 4; 3.5 = Act 3, Scene 5; 3.6 = Act 3, Scene 6; 3.7 = Act 3, Scene 7; Pro 4 = Prologue 4; 4.1 = Act 4, Scene 1; 4.2 = Act 4, Scene 2; 4.3 = Act 4, Scene 3; 4.4 = Act 4, Scene 4; 4.5 = Act 4, Scene 5; 4.6 = Act 4, Scene 6; 4.7 = Act 4, Scene 7; 4.8 = Act 4, Scene 8; Pro 5 = Prologue 5; 5.1 = Act 5, Scene 1; 5.2 = Act 5, Scene 2; Epi = Epilogue.

- **King Henry**: 1.2 (960), 2.2 (1,071), 3.1 (273), 3.3 (389), 3.6 (356), 4.1 (1,617), 4.3 (785), 4.6 (87), 4.7 (470), 4.8 (433), 5.2 (1,895)
- **Fluellen**: 3.2 (365), 3.6 (523), 4.1 (147), 4.7 (686), 4.8 (339), 5.1 (440)
- **Chorus**: Pro (244), Pro 2 (320), Pro 3 (261), Pro 4 (381), Pro 5 (349), Epi (112)
- **Canterbury**: 1.1 (603), 1.2 (1,048)
- **Pistol**: 2.1 (312), 2.3 (116), 3.2 (78), 3.6 (151), 4.1 (109), 4.4 (186), 5.1 (163)
- **Exeter**: 1.2 (107), 2.2 (84), 2.4 (435), 4.3 (36), 4.6 (212), 4.7 (16), 4.8 (31), 5.2 (62)
- **Constable**: 2.4 (81), 3.5 (171), 3.7 (406), 4.2 (236), 4.5 (25)
- **Dauphin**: 2.4 (282), 3.5 (76), 3.7 (443), 4.2 (64), 4.5 (41)
- **French King**: 2.4 (316), 3.5 (208), 5.2 (177)
- **Boy**: 2.1 (39), 2.3 (50), 3.2 (290), 4.4 (245)
- **Williams**: 4.1 (350), 4.7 (97), 4.8 (172)
- **Burgundy**: 5.2 (511)
- **Gower**: 3.2 (83), 3.6 (183), 4.1 (16), 4.7 (99), 4.8 (5), 5.1 (121)

## The longest speeches

| Speech | Scene | Words | Lines |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| King Henry: “The mercy that was quick in us but late,” | Act 2, Scene 2 | 523 | 66 |
| Canterbury: “Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers,” | Act 1, Scene 2 | 477 | 63 |
| King Henry: “Indeed, the French may lay twenty French crowns to one, they will beat us; for they bear them on their shoulders: but it is no English treason to cut French crowns, and tomorrow the king himself will be a clipper.” | Act 4, Scene 1 | 460 | 59 |
| King Henry: “What’s he that wishes so?” | Act 4, Scene 3 | 408 | 50 |
| King Henry: “Marry, if you would put me to verses or to dance for your sake, Kate, why you undid me: for the one, I have neither words nor measure, and for the other, I have no strength in measure, yet a reasonable measure in strength. If I could win a lady at leap-frog, or by vaulting into my saddle with my armour on my back, under the correction of bragging be it spoken, I should quickly leap into a wife. Or if I might buffet for my love, or bound my horse for her favours, I could lay on like a butcher and sit like a jack-an-apes, never off. But, before God, Kate, I cannot look greenly nor gasp out my eloquence, nor I have no cunning in protestation; only downright oaths, which I never use till urged, nor never break for urging. If thou canst love a fellow of this temper, Kate, whose face is not worth sun-burning, that never looks in his glass for love of anything he sees there, let thine eye be thy cook. I speak to thee plain soldier: if thou canst love me for this, take me; if not, to say to thee that I shall die, is true; but for thy love, by the Lord, no; yet I love thee too. And while thou livest, dear Kate, take a fellow of plain and uncoined constancy; for he perforce must do thee right, because he hath not the gift to woo in other places: for these fellows of infinite tongue, that can rhyme themselves into ladies’ favours, they do always reason themselves out again. What! a speaker is but a prater; a rhyme is but a ballad. A good leg will fall; a straight back will stoop; a black beard will turn white; a curled pate will grow bald; a fair face will wither; a full eye will wax hollow: but a good heart, Kate, is the sun and the moon; or rather the sun and not the moon; for it shines bright and never changes, but keeps his course truly. If thou would have such a one, take me; and take me, take a soldier; take a soldier, take a king. And what sayest thou then to my love? speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee.” | Act 5, Scene 2 | 383 | 39 |
| Chorus: “Now entertain conjecture of a time” | Prologue 4 | 381 | 53 |
| King Henry: “So, if a son that is by his father sent about merchandise do sinfully miscarry upon the sea, the imputation of his wickedness, by your rule, should be imposed upon his father that sent him: or if a servant, under his master’s command transporting a sum of money, be assailed by robbers and die in many irreconcil’d iniquities, you may call the business of the master the author of the servant’s damnation: but this is not so: the king is not bound to answer the particular endings of his soldiers, the father of his son, nor the master of his servant; for they purpose not their death, when they purpose their services. Besides, there is no king, be his cause never so spotless, if it come to the arbitrement of swords, can try it out with all unspotted soldiers: some peradventure have on them the guilt of premeditated and contrived murder; some, of beguiling virgins with the broken seals of perjury; some, making the wars their bulwark, that have before gored the gentle bosom of peace with pillage and robbery. Now, if these men have defeated the law and outrun native punishment, though they can outstrip men, they have no wings to fly from God: war is his beadle, war is his vengeance; so that here men are punished for before-breach of the king’s laws in now the king’s quarrel: where they feared the death, they have borne life away; and where they would be safe, they perish: then if they die unprovided, no more is the king guilty of their damnation than he was before guilty of those impieties for the which they are now visited. Every subject’s duty is the king’s; but every subject’s soul is his own. Therefore should every soldier in the wars do as every sick man in his bed, wash every mote out of his conscience: and dying so, death is to him advantage; or not dying, the time was blessedly lost wherein such preparation was gained: and in him that escapes, it were not sin to think that, making God so free an offer, He let him outlive that day to see His greatness and to teach others how they should prepare.” | Act 4, Scene 1 | 369 | 37 |
| Chorus: “Vouchsafe to those that have not read the story,” | Prologue 5 | 349 | 45 |
| King Henry: “We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us;” | Act 1, Scene 2 | 341 | 39 |
| King Henry: “How yet resolves the governor of the town?” | Act 3, Scene 3 | 330 | 43 |

## Small roles that can be doubled

These pairs of small roles never speak in the same scene, so one actor could play both. Check entrances and silent appearances in your script before you cast it this way.

- Pistol and Exeter
- Pistol and Constable
- Pistol and Dauphin
- Pistol and French King
- Pistol and Burgundy
- Pistol and Katherine
- Pistol and Orleans
- Pistol and Westmoreland
- Pistol and Queen Isabel
- Pistol and Ely
- Pistol and Alice
- Pistol and Bourbon

## Questions actors ask

### Who has the most lines in Henry V?

King Henry, with about 1,028 lines and 8,336 words, 32.6% of everything spoken in the play. Fluellen is next, with about 281 lines (9.8%).

### How long is Henry V?

The full text has 25,596 spoken words, about 183 minutes at 140 words a minute before pauses, scene changes, and cuts. Most productions cut the text, so running times vary.

### How many speaking roles are in Henry V?

45 named roles speak in this edition, across 29 scenes. 32 of them have less than 2% of the words, which is why small parts are often doubled.

## How we count

Counts are computed from the full text of the [Standard Ebooks edition](https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/william-shakespeare/henry-v) (public domain; retrieved 2026-10-08). Words are every spoken word, with stage directions removed. Lines are verse lines as printed, plus prose at 10 words a line, because prose has no fixed line breaks; editions differ, so other sources give slightly different line counts. Time is words at 140 words a minute, before pauses and stage business. A role is counted in a scene when it speaks there. To count a script that is not in the library, paste it into the [script line counter](https://www.offbook.com/tools/script-line-counter).