Henry V - The Quarto (Sos)

William Shakespeare, Graham Holderness, Bryan Loughrey

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780745011028
• eBook ISBN: 9781317867104
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Shakespeare Drama
• Index: Literature

One of a series on Shakespeare's original texts, including facsimile pages, this version of "Henry V" is claimed to be, in some ways, the most authentic version of the play that we have. Included are an introduction, notes, and a theoretical, historical and contextual critique. The original text - or First Quarto - of "Henry V", published in 1600, is missing the Chorus, a dramatic device which recent criticism has used to suggest a strikingly modern view of history and politics. These and other significant changes mean that critics can no longer assume that the play presents a distanced, ironic perspective on its own political and military action. If Elizabethan audiences saw in performance something closer to the First Folio than the 1623 Folio text, then their dramatic engagement with history was of a kind very different from that of the play's 20th-century interpreters. This new edition makes available the original text of "Henry V", in all its theatrical simplicity and historical difference.

THE CRONICLE HISTORY OF
Henry the fift,
With his battell fought at
Agin Court in France.
Togither with Auntient Pistoll.

Enter King Henry, Exeter, 2. Bishops, Clarence, and other Attendants.

Exeter.

Shall I call in Thambassadors my Liege?

King. Not yet my Cousin, til we be resolvde

Of some serious matters touching us and France.

Bi. God and his Angels guard your sacred throne,

And make you long become it.

King. Shure we thank you. And good my Lord proceed

Why the Lawe Salicke which they have in France,

Or should or should not, stop us in our clayme:

And God forbid my wise and learned Lord,

That you should fashion, frame, or wrest the same.

For God doth know how many now in health,

Shall drop their blood in approbation,

Of what your reverence shall incite us too.

Therefore take heed how you impawne our person,

How you awake the sleeping sword of warre:

We charge you in the name of God take heed.

After this conjuration, speake my Lord:

And we will judge, note, and beleeve in heart,

That what you speake, is washt as pure

As sin in baptisme.

[Bish.] Then heare me gracious soveraigne, and you peeres,

Which owe your lives, your faith and services

To this imperiall throne.

There is no bar to stay your highnesse claime to France

But one, which they produce from Faramount,

No female shall succeed in salicke land,

Which salicke land the French unjustly gloze

To be the realme of France:

And Faramont the founder of this law and female barre:

Yet their owne writers faithfully affirme

That the land salicke lyes in Germany,

Betweene the flouds of Sabeck and of Elme,

Where Charles the fift having subdude the Saxons,

There left behind, and setled certaine French,

Who holding in disdaine the Germaine women,

For some dishonest maners of their lives,

Establisht there this lawe. To wit,

No female shall succeed in salicke land:

Which salicke land as I said before,

Is at this time in Germany called Mesene:

Thus doth it well appeare the salicke lawe

Was not devised for the realme of France,

Nor did the French possesse the salicke land,

Untill 400. one and twentie yeares

After the function of king Faramont,

Godly supposed the founder of this lawe:

Hugh Capet also that usurpt the crowne,

To fine his title with some showe of truth,

When in pure truth it was corrupt and naught:

Convaid himselfe as heire to the Lady Inger,

Daughter to Charles, the foresaid Duke of Lorain,

So that as cleare as is the sommers Sun,

King Pippins title and Hugh Capets claime,

King Charles his satisfaction all appeare,

To hold in right and title of the female:

So do the Lords of France until this day,

Howbeit they would hold up this salick lawe

To bar your highnesse claiming from the female,

And rather choose to hide them in a net,

Then amply to imbace their crooked causes,

Usurpt from you and your progenitors. (claime?

K. May we with right & conscience make this

Bi. The sin upon my head dread soveraigne.

For in the booke of Numbers is it writ,

When the sonne dies, let the inheritance

Descend unto the daughter.

Noble Lord stand for your owne,

Unwinde your bloody flagge,

Go my dread Lord to your great graunsirs grave,

From whom you clayme:

And your great Uncle Edward the blacke Prince,

Who on the French ground playd a T...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• General Introduction
• Introduction
• Select Bibliography
• Textual History
• Text: The Cronicle History of Henry the Fift: with his battel fought at agin court in france. togither with auntient pistoll
• Endnotes
• Appendix: Photographic facsimile pages