King Henry V

For this updated edition of Shakespeare’s most celebrated war play, Professor Gurr has added a new section to his introduction which considers recent critical and stage interpretations, especially concentrating on the ‘secret’ versus ‘official’ readings of the play. He analyses the play’s double vision of Henry as both military hero and self-seeking individual. Professor Gurr shows how the patriotic declarations of the Chorus are contradicted by the play’s action. The play’s more controversial sequences are placed in the context of Elizabethan thought, in particular the studies of the laws and morality of war written in the years before Henry V. Also studied is the exceptional variety of language and dialect in the play. The appendices provide a comprehensive collection of source materials, while the stage history shows how subsequent centuries have received and adapted the play on the stage and in film. An updated reading list completes the edition.

• Updated edition, containing a new introductory section which analyses recent critical and stage interpretations, with particular attention to the ‘secret’ versus ‘official’ readings of the play • Places the play’s more controversial sequences in the context of Elizabethan thought Considers the exceptional variety of language and dialect in the play

List of illustrations; Preface; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations and conventions; Introduction: The play and its date; The coercive Chorus; Context and sources; Structure and language; Staging and stage history; Recent critical and stage interpretations; Note on the text; List of characters; The Play; Textual analysis; Appendices: Theatre sources: The Famous Victories; Historical Sources: Holinshed’s Chronicles; Background sources: Richard Crompton, The Mansion of Magnanimitie; Reading list.