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Introduction

Text. - In 1600 a Quarto of Henry V was published with the following title-page: “The Cronicle History of Henry the fift, With his battell fought at Agin Court in France. Togither with Auntient Pistoll. As it hath bene sundry times playd by the Right honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his servants. London, Printed by Thomas Creede, for Tho. Millington, and John Busby. And are to be sold at his house in Carter Lane, next the Powle head, 1600." This edition (Q1), which was reprinted with slight variations in 1602 (Q2), and 1608 (Qs), lacks all the Choruses, three entire scenes (I. i; III. i; IV. ii), and many scattered passages of importance. The text that remains is exceedingly corrupt, offering abundant evidence that the copy was pirated, and that it was, partly at least, printed from notes taken down at the theater. It has little value for textual purposes.

The complete play first appeared in the Folio of 1623, where it is simply entitled, The Life of Henry the Fift. More than double the length of the Quarto, this version furnishes a satisfactory text, and is the basis of all the modern editions, the Quarto being used only for a few minor corrections. It has been maintained that Shakespeare first wrote a shorter drama and later enlarged it, but the evidence for such a view is entirely inadequate, and the Folio is now almost universally accepted as the

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original form. There is, however, a rather widely held theory that the play was cut for performance, and that some at least of the omissions in the Quartos are to be ascribed to this procedure. Such a theory, even if there are strong probabilities in its favor, is obviously not capable of demonstration.

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Date of Composition. There is hardly a doubt that Henry V was first performed in the spring or early summer of 1599. In Prologue V, lines 30-32, "the general of our gracious empress" is expected to return from Ireland 'bringing rebellion broached on his sword." This is an allusion to Essex, sent by Elizabeth to suppress Tyrone's rebellion, who left London March 27 and returned September 28, 1599. The play must, therefore, have preceded the latter date, and, as the favorite's lack of success in his undertaking was soon obvious, the hope of his triumphal entry into London must have been expressed soon after his departure. It is hardly necessary to add to this evidence the fact that Henry V was published in 1600, and that it was not mentioned by Meres in his list, which appeared in 1598 and which includes Henry IV.

Source of the Plot. All the historical incidents represented in this play were selected from the chapter on "Henrie the Fift" in Holinshed's Chronicles.1 As usual, Shakespeare has treated his source with considerable

1 The matter used by the poet can be found in convenient form in Shakespeare's Holinshed, the Chronicle and the Historical Plays Compared, by W. G. Boswell-Stone. New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1896.

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freedom, condensing or expanding as suited his purpose. All the royal, noble, and knightly characters are, as might be expected, drawn from history, though their motives are altered in order to fit them for their relations with the hero king. The minor officers and common soldiers are entirely the products of invention, as is also the group including Pistol, Bardolph, Nym, the boy, and Mistress Quickly, which is continued from Henry IV, Pistol being now developed into the most important of the comic personages.

A few hints were taken from an early play, The Famous Victories of Henry the Fift, first published in 1598, but written more than ten years earlier. In this source there is a crude suggestion of the tennis ball speech, of Pistol's dealing with the French soldier, and of the wooing of Katharine, as there are also a few suggestions, equally crude, which Shakespeare utilized in Henry IV.

Relations to Contemporary Drama.- The last decade of the sixteenth century was a period marked by an extraordinary popularity of the Chronicle-History. During these years Shakespeare, himself, the most prolific author of this type of drama, produced in addition to the detached King John, two groups of four plays each, the first group culminating in Richard III, the second in Henry V. Owing to the fact that they are based upon the annals of England, such pieces display a peculiar dramatic technique, the amount of invention being notably restricted. Many incidents are also introduced rather because they are found in the history than because they belong to the development of the plot. These limitations,

however, are much more marked in the other writers, even in Marlowe, than they are in Shakespeare, who, particularly in Henry V, strikes a just balance between slavish adherence to Holinshed and originality of conception. As this play is the culmination of a group, it naturally contains connecting links, most important of which are the conversation of the bishops about Henry's change of character from the Prince Hal of Henry IV (I. i), and the account given by the Hostess of the death of Falstaff (II. iii).

The legend of the wild youth of the prince was so widely known, and furnished in addition such effective dramatic situations, that Shakespeare could hardly have neglected it. He has, however, even in the tavern scenes, preserved a certain dignity and nobility in his hero, and while making him fond of a jest and of a practical joke, has carefully kept him from performing any act that would really besmirch him. Henry himself maintains that it was not vice which tempted him into low company, but a desire for experience of all sorts of men. The change of character is, therefore, more apparent than real: the king stands sternly aloof from his former friend, the entertaining but unprincipled Falstaff.

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Stage History. Little is known about the early stage history of Henry V, though its popularity may be inferred from the fact that it was sundry times playd," and that it went through three quarto editions. Apparently, as it did not appeal to the Restoration taste, it was not acted during the second half of the seventeenth century. Its place was taken by a piece of quite different character.

In 1664 Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery, the so-called father of English heroic drama, produced his History of Henry the Fifth, written in the then fashionable rhymed couplets. The main motive here is the conflict in the breast of Owen Tudor between love and loyalty; for the king, unaware of Owen's passion for the Princess Katharine, sends him to woo her in his name. Loyalty triumphs, but the princess despises her former admirer for not remaining true to love. The historical matter is comparatively insignificant.

In 1723 was acted Hill's Henry V, or the Conquest of France by the English. This is founded upon Shakespeare, but there are many alterations, one of the new matters introduced being the wrong done by Henry to Harriet, niece of Lord Scroop.

Some fifteen years later Shakespeare's play was restored to the boards, and it has since been revived frequently down to the present time. Most of the leading actors of tragedy, attracted doubtless by the declamatory possibilities, have essayed the part of the king, but David Garrick chose for himself the part of Chorus. As if moved by Shakespeare's apologies for the inadequacy of the representation in the Elizabethan theater, these revivals have often sought to increase interest in the piece by adding gorgeous spectacles, such as Henry's coronation procession, the popular greeting on his return to London, or his betrothal to Katharine in the Cathedral of Troyes. Chorus, if a man, has often appeared in the character of Time; if a woman, as Clio, the Muse of History.

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