Henry V (Oxford Shakespeare)
by William Shakespeare
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Book Summary Information
Author: William ShakespeareEditor: Gary Taylor
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1998-10-29
ISBN: 0192834231
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Book Reviews of Henry V (Oxford Shakespeare)
Book Review: The Play Is Great, But Henry Is a Boor
Summary: 5 Stars
What strikes me most is the play's faceted nature. In *Henry V*, Shakespeare is like a jeweler, cutting through the action of war -- the true subject of this play -- to fashion an aesthetic object whose every scene brings out a different aspect of war. It seems to me impossible to maintain that the play has a comforting moral unless one freeze the view upon a single facet. Rotate the jewel, and the thing looks otherwise. (It follows that directors who cut minor scenes are bound to seriously distort the play.) The inspirational character of the "St. Crispin's Day" speech and the cheerful charm of the wooing of the Princess Katharine, for example, cannot be maintained in the mind when surrounding scenes are contemplated. What does the famous paean to honor amount to when scarcely two hundred lines later King Henry cooly orders his men to commit an atrocity? ("Then every soldier kill his prisoners.") How amusing is Katharine's enforced consent when we recall that in III,iii our noble king told the good people of Harfleur: "What is't to me, when you yourselves are cause,/If your pure maidens fall into the hand/Of hot and forcing violation . . . in a moment look to see/The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand/Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters." Henry's pre-battle prayers and post-battle thanks to God are offset by the fact that the very first scene of the play implies that the Archbishop of Canterbury's support for the expedition to France is the result of a deal to sabotage an anticlerical bill in the House of Commons in exchange for funds from the Church to finance the war? Henry is above all a master of conniving and rationalization. Even his praiseworthy attempt to mingle with the common soldiers (the only action that calls forth much praise from the Chorus) is marred by a stupid prank he cannot resist contriving, thereby humiliating a simple soldier named Michael Williams. The king thinks he can make good this indignity by giving Williams money. He is wrong. Frankly, these antics are in poor taste -- though such tastes are part of what makes the young king appealing to many, no doubt. Forcing a kiss from Katharine at the end of the play is much in the same vein. The fact is, the royal Harry is not only a war criminal but also something of a boor, even if he has reformed since his "Prince Hal" days. Do I exaggerate? Read or reread *Henry V* and see if you do not agree.
Summary of Henry V (Oxford Shakespeare)
Henry V, the climax of Shakespeare's sequence of English history plays, is an inspiring, often comic celebration of a young warrior-king. But it is also a study of the costly exhilarations of war, and of the penalties as well as the glories of human greatness. Introducing this brilliantly innovative edition, Gary Taylor shows how Shakespeare shaped his historical material, examines controversial critical interpretations, discusses the play's fluctuating fortunes in performance, and analyses the range and variety of Shakespeare's characterization. The first Folio text is radically rethought, making original use of the First Quarto (1600).Royalty Books
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