Famous Victories Katharine speaks in English. In the account of the Dauphin's present to Henry, which is merely mentioned in Holinshed, the details and the phraseology of the old play are adopted by Shakespeare. See note on I, ii, 255. In the broken French-English of one of the soldier scenes in The Famous Victories is what may have suggested the dialect passages in King Henry the Fifth. (I, ii, 187-204.) "SO WORK THE HONEY-BEES As the note on I, ii, 187 indicates, bees have ever been a favorite subject of poetic simile, but the unusual elaboration of the apologue in Canterbury's speech attracts attention as a kind of purple patch,' 1 and it is not surprising to find that it is probably borrowed from Lyly. In Euphues and his England, Fidus, the old Kentish beekeeper, in his little garden discourses at great length upon the polity of bees: 1 Thou wouldest think, that they were a kinde of people, a common wealth for Plato, where they all labour, all gather honny, flye all together in a swarme ... They lyue vnder a lawe, vsing great reuerence to their elder, as to the wiser. They chuse a King, whose pallace they frame both brauer in show, and stronger in substaunce: whome if they find to fall, they establish again in his throne, with no less duty than deuotion... They call a Parliament, wher-in they consult, for lawes, statutes, penalties, chusing officers, and creating their King, not by affection but reason ... Euery one hath his office, some trimming the honny, some working the wax, one framing hiues... Diuers hew, others polish, all are carefull to doe their work so strongly, as they may resist the craft of such drones, as seek to liue by their labours, which maketh them to keepe watch and warde.2 1 Shakespeare's introduction of this lengthy disquisition has been condemned as a dramatic impropriety, but may it not be regarded as thoroughly in character' in the discourse of an archbishop? 2 Lyly's Euphues and his England, edited by Arber, pages 261-263. Like many of Lyly's natural history allusions, the original of this is in Pliny. See Natural History, Book XI, Chapters iv-xxii. II. DATE OF COMPOSITION The date of composition of King Henry the Fifth falls within 1600, the later time limit (terminus ante quem), and 1598, the earlier time limit (terminus post quem). The weight of evidence is in favor of 1598-1599. EXTERNAL EVIDENCE 1. Negative. King Henry the Fifth is not mentioned by Francis Meres in the Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury; being the Second Part of Wits Commonwealth, published in 1598. Here Meres gives a list of twelve noteworthy Shakespeare plays in existence at that time. He expressly refers to "Richard the 2, Richard the 3, Henry the 4, King John," and as the patriotic and popular qualities of King Henry the Fifth, if it had been in existence, would undoubtedly have led to its being mentioned in that famous list, the negative evidence gives 1598 as a satisfactory earlier time limit. 2. Positive. (1) Allusion in King Henry the Fourth. In the epilogue to the second part of King Henry the Fourth the speaker says, 66 our humble author will continue the story, with Sir John in it, and make you merry with fair Katharine of France; where, for anything I know, Falstaff shall die of a sweat, unless already a be kill'd with your hard opinions." This seems to indicate that in 1596–1597, when Shakespeare may have completed King Henry the Fourth, he had in view for speedy production such a play as King Henry the Fifth. That part of the promise which relates to Falstaff was fulfilled in The Merry Wives of Windsor, probably dashed off1 in 1597-1598, and the rest of the promise, it is natural to assume, was fulfilled as soon after as possible. (2) Every Man in His Humour. In the prologue to Ben Jonson's popular play, Every Man in His Humour, there is a seemingly pointed reference to a passage in the speech of Chorus preceding the first act of King Henry the Fifth. See note, Chorus-prologue, I, 29-31. Ben Jonson's play was produced in 1598 by Shakespeare's own company, but the date of composition of the prologue is uncertain. Prologues and epilogues were often added to plays to suit special circumstances of performance. This prologue was not printed in the quarto edition of Jonson's play which was published in 1601; it appeared first in the folio edition of his works in 1616. 2 (3) The Stationers' Registers. The earliest unmistakable 1 Tradition says in a fortnight, to please Elizabeth, who had ordered Shakespeare to write a play to show Falstaff in love. P. A. Daniel and the others, who hold that The Merry Wives was written after King Henry the Fifth, base much on the mention of "Auncient Pistoll and Corporall Nym" on the title-page of the quarto edition of The Merry Wives, published in 1602, as evidence that they had become well-known characters through their appearance in King Henry the Fifth. 2 Nash in Pierce Pennilesse his Supplication to the Devill, 1592, refers to a play introducing King Henry the Fifth; and Henslowe in his Diary mentions a play of harey the Vth (Furnivall here reads harey the 6th) as having been performed on May 14, 1592, and another harey the Vth as a new play produced November 28, 1595, but these are undoubtedly references to The Famous Victories. references to Shakespeare's play are the following entries in The Stationers' Registers1: Henry the Ffift | a booke Euery man in his humour | a booke The commedie of muche A doo about-nothing a booke | 14. Augusti [1600] to be staied 2 Thomas Pavyer Entred for his Copyes by Direction of master white warden vnder his hand wrytinge. These Copyes followinge beinge thinges formerlye printed and sett over to the sayd Thomas Pavyer viz.... The historye of HENRY the Vth with the battell of vjd8 The former of these entries is not in regular course in the Registers and no date is attached to the '4 August,' but the proximity of 1600' in the previous entry and other circumstances make 1600 certain. The' to be staied' shows that the first application for license to print was objected to, but ten days later the bar was removed in the case of 1 Professor E. Arber's Transcripts of The Stationers' Registers (1554-1640), 4 vols., 1875–1877. 2 To be staied' is the old expression for 'not to be printed.' sixpence. This was the usual price of a Quarto. King Henry the Fifth and the play was issued as a Quarto (the First Quarto) within the year. INTERNAL EVIDENCE I. Allusion to Essex. The only direct allusion to a contemporary event in Shakespeare gives an unmistakable later time limit for the composition of King Henry the Fifth. This is the reference to the Earl of Essex in the speech of Chorus prefixed to the last act. See note, Chorus-prologue, V, 30-32. Essex left for Ireland on April 15 (Stow gives the date of the enthusiastic demonstration on the departure from London as March 27), 1599, and as news of his disastrous failure reached London by the end of June, these lines must have been written before that time. The fact that Essex was an intimate friend of the Earl of Southampton to whom Shakespeare dedicated Venus and Adonis and Lucrece, and that Southampton accompanied Essex to Ireland, would give the dramatist a peculiar interest in this ill-starred expedition. It is not necessary for the argument that the play was begun in 1598 to suggest that the Chorusprologues were written later than the body of the play. It is significant that the lines occur in the last act, which is short, chiefly prose, and comparatively free from elaborated transcripts from Holinshed. 2. "This wooden O." If "this wooden O" of the first speech of Chorus refers to the Globe theatre the argument for 1599 is strengthened, as this famous theatre was built early in 1599 by Richard Burbage (Burbadge) and his brother Cuthbert out of the wood of the dismantled theatre in Shoreditch known as the Theatre originally built for their father, James Burbage. But between 1595 and 1599 |