THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. WITH A LIFE OF THE POET, EXPLANATORY FOOT-NOTES, CRITICAL Barvard Edition. BY THE REV. HENRY N. HUDSON, PROFESSOR OF SHAKESPEARE IN BOSTON UNIVERSITY. IN TWENTY VOLUMES. VOL. XII. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY GINN & HEATH. 1880. MAY 16 1881 KD 53009, (12), Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, by in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. KING HENRY THE FIFTH. R EGISTERED, along with As You Like It, at the Stationers' on the 4th of August, 1600, but locked up from the press under an injunction "to be stayed." In regard to As You Like It the stay seems to have been continued; but not so in regard to the other, as this was entered again on the 14th of the same month, and was published in the course of that year. The same text was reissued in 1602, and again in 1608. In these editions the author's name was not given; the play, moreover, was but about half as long as we have it; the Choruses, the whole of the first scene, and also many other passages, those too among the best in the play, being wanting altogether. All these were supplied in the folio of 1623; which, accordingly, is our only authority for the text. 66 In the Epilogue to King Henry the Fourth the speaker says, Our humble author will continue the story, with Sir John in it, and make you merry with fair Catharine of France." Whether this promise was directly authorized by Shakespeare we cannot positively say, as that Epilogue was probably not of his writing; but there is little doubt that the play to which it is affixed was written as early as 1597. That the play now in hand was written soon after the date of that promise, and written in pursuance of it, is highly probable. On the other hand, in the Chorus to Act v. we have the following: Were now the general of our gracious Empress — As in good time he may- from Ireland coming,
Bringing rebellion broachèd on his sword, How many would the peaceful city quit, To welcome him! This undoubtedly refers to the Earl of Essex, who went on his expedition against the Irish rebels in April, 1599, and returned in September following. That Chorus, therefore, and probably the others also, was written somewhere between those two dates. The most likely conclusion, then, seems to be, that the first draught of the play was made in 1597 or 1598; that the whole was rewritten, enlarged, and the Choruses added during the absence of Essex, in the Summer of 1599; and that a copy of the first draught was obtained for the press, perhaps fraudulently, after it had been superseded on the stage by the enlarged and finished copy. In this play, as in King Henry the Fourth, the historical matter was taken from Holinshed, both the substance and the order of the events being much the same as they are given by the historian. The King came to the throne in March, 1413, being then twenty-six years old. The Parliament with which the play opens was held in the Spring of 1414, and the King's marriage with Catharine took place in the Spring of 1420; so that the time of the action is measured by that interval. Shakespeare, for some cause or other, did not fulfil the promise, already quoted, touching Falstaff. Sir John does not once appear in the play. I suspect that, when the author went to planning the drama, he saw the impracticability of making any thing more out of him. Sir John's dramatic character and mission were clearly at an end when his connection with Prince Henry was broken off; the purpose of the character being to explain the Prince's wild and riotous courses. Falstaff repenting and reforming, if such a thing were possible, might indeed be a much better man, but in that capacity he was not for us. So that the Poet did well, no doubt, to keep him in retirement where, though his once matchless powers no longer give us pleasure, yet the report of his sufferings and death gently touches our pity, and recovers him to our human sympathies. In respect of proper dramatic interest and effect, this play is far inferior to King Henry the Fourth, nor does it rank very high in the list of Shakespeare's dramas; but in respect of wisdom and poetry and eloquence, it is among his very best. KING HENRY THE FIFTH. PERSONS REPRESENTED. KING HENRY THE FIFTH. his Brothers. BATES, COURT, WILLIAMS, Soldiers in the same. PISTOL, NYM, BARDOLPHI, also Soldiers. THOMAS BEAUFORT, Duke of Exeter, A Boy, Servant to them. A Herald. his Uncle. Chorus. CHARLES VI., King of France. DUKES OF BURGUNDY, ORLEANS, RAMBURES and GRANDPRE, Lords. ISABEL, Queen of France. Officers in CATHARINE, Daughter of Charles. ALICE, a Lady attending her. Mrs. PISTOL, late Mrs. Quickly. Lords, Ladies, Officers, French and English Soldiers, Messengers, and Attendants. SCENE. At the beginning of the play, in England; afterwards, in France. PROLOGUE. Enter Chorus. Chor. O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention, A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, And monarchs to behold the swelling scene! |