Henry V (Bantam Classic)

by William Shakespeare, David Bevington (Editor), David Scott Kastan (Editor)

Overview

A triumphantly patriotic play that also casts a critical eye at war and warriors, this great epic drama depicts a charismatic ruler in a time of national struggle. The young King Henry’s victory over the French despite overwhelming odds creates a spectacle of action, color, and thundering battles. Whether the warrior-king is urging his men “Once more unto the breach, dear friends,” or wooing Katharine of France, Henry is magnificently adapted to the role he must play in England’s greatness. Henry V represents the culmination of Shakespeare’s art as a writer of historical drama.

Each Edition Includes:
• Comprehensive explanatory notes
• Vivid introductions and the most up-to-date scholarship
• Clear, modernized spelling and punctuation, enabling contemporary readers to understand the Elizabethan English
• Completely updated, detailed bibliographies and performance histories
• An interpretive essay on film adaptations of the play, along with an extensive filmography

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780307421234
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/16/2009
Series:	Bantam Classics Series
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was a poet, playwright, and actor who is widely regarded as one of the most influential writers in the history of the English language. Often referred to as the Bard of Avon, Shakespeare's vast body of work includes comedic, tragic, and historical plays; poems; and 154 sonnets. His dramatic works have been translated into every major language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

David Bevington is one of the world's most well-respected Shakespearean scholars. He has served as an editor of several widely acclaimed anthologies, such as English Renaissance Drama: A Norton Anthology, Bantam Shakespeare, Medieval Drama, and The Complete Works of Shakespeare. Since 1967 Bevington has taught at the University of Chicago, specializing in Shakespeare and his contemporaries, as well as Renaissance, medieval, and Western drama. Bevington serves as the chair of theater and performance studies and is a Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the humanities and in English language and literature.

David Scott Kastan is a noted scholar of early modern English literature and culture. He is the George M. Bodman Professor of English at Yale University, where he specializes in Shakespeare, Milton, and literary history. Prior to joining the Yale faculty in 2008, Kastan taught at Columbia University, Dartmouth College, University College London, Eötvös Loránd University, the University of Copenhagen, and the American University in Cairo, Egypt. Kastan has served as an editor on many Elizabethan, Renaissance, and Shakespearean anthologies. His own scholarly publications include Shakespeare and the Shapes of Time, Shakespeare After Theory, Shakespeare and the Book, and A Will to Believe: Shakespeare and Religion.

Date of Death:

2018

Place of Birth:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Place of Death:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Read an Excerpt

Act 1 Scene 1 running scene 1

Enter the two Bishops of Canterbury and Ely

CANTERBURY My lord, I'll tell you: that self bill is urged,

Which in th'eleventh year of the last king's reign

Was like, and had indeed against us passed,

But that the scambling and unquiet time

Did push it out of further question.

ELY But how, my lord, shall we resist it now?

CANTERBURY It must be thought on: if it pass against us,

We lose the better half of our possession.

For all the temporal lands which men devout

By testament have given to the Church

Would they strip from us; being valued thus:

As much as would maintain, to the king's honour,

Full fifteen earls and fifteen hundred knights,

Six thousand and two hundred good esquires,

And, to relief of lazars and weak age

Of indigent faint souls past corporal toil,

A hundred almshouses right well supplied,

And to the coffers of the king beside,

A thousand pounds by th'year. Thus runs the bill.

ELY This would drink deep.

CANTERBURY 'Twould drink the cup and all.

ELY But what prevention?

CANTERBURY The king is full of grace and fair regard.

ELY And a true lover of the holy church.

CANTERBURY The courses of his youth promised it not.

The breath no sooner left his father's body,

But that his wildness, mortified in him,

Seemed to die too. Yea, at that very moment

Consideration like an angel came

And whipped th'offending Adam out of him,

Leaving his body as a paradise,

T'envelop and contain celestial spirits.

Never was such a sudden scholar made,

Never came reformation in a flood,

With such a heady currance, scouring faults,

Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulness

So soon did lose his seat, and all at once,

As in this king.

ELY We are blessèd in the change.

CANTERBURY Hear him but reason in divinity,

And, all-admiring, with an inward wish

You would desire the king were made a prelate.

Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,

You would say it hath been all in all his study.

List his discourse of war, and you shall hear

A fearful battle rendered you in music.

Turn him to any cause of policy,

The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,

Familiar as his garter, that, when he speaks,

The air, a chartered libertine, is still,

And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears

To steal his sweet and honeyed sentences,

So that the art and practic part of life

Must be the mistress to this theoric:

Which is a wonder how his grace should glean it,

Since his addiction was to courses vain,

His companies unlettered, rude and shallow,

His hours filled up with riots, banquets, sports,

And never noted in him any study,

Any retirement, any sequestration

From open haunts and popularity.

ELY The strawberry grows underneath the nettle

And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best

Neighboured by fruit of baser quality.

And so the prince obscured his contemplation

Under the veil of wildness, which, no doubt,

Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night,

Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.

CANTERBURY It must be so, for miracles are ceased.

And therefore we must needs admit the means

How things are perfected.

ELY But, my good lord,

How now for mitigation of this bill

Urged by the commons? Doth his majesty

Incline to it, or no?

CANTERBURY He seems indifferent,

Or rather swaying more upon our part

Than cherishing th'exhibitors against us,

For I have made an offer to his majesty,

Upon our spiritual convocation

And in regard of causes now in hand,

Which I have opened to his grace at large,

As touching France, to give a greater sum

Than ever at one time the clergy yet

Did to his predecessors part withal.

ELY How did this offer seem received, my lord?

CANTERBURY With good acceptance of his majesty,

Save that there was not time enough to hear,

As I perceived his grace would fain have done,

The severals and unhidden passages

Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms

And generally to the crown and seat of France,

Derived from Edward, his great-grandfather.

ELY What was th'impediment that broke this off?

CANTERBURY The French ambassador upon that instant

Craved audience; and the hour I think is come

To give him hearing. Is it four o'clock?

ELY It is.

CANTERBURY Then go we in to know his embassy,

Which I could with a ready guess declare,

Before the Frenchman speak a word of it.

ELY I'll wait upon you and I long to hear it. Exeunt