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Title: The Life of Henry V: With New and Updated Critical Essays and a Revised Bibliography by William Shakespeare, John Russell Brown, Sylvan Barnet ISBN: 0-451-52690-2 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: August, 1998 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $4.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4.87 (15 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: Shakespeare is a damned liar!
Comment: I just have to share this with everybody...
Henry was not the nice "Welshman to the core" of this play. After Agincourt, he ordered "the slaughter of all disarmed prisoners, noble or otherwise, and his foot soldiers watched, deeply shocked as two hundred archers stabbled, clubbed, or burned the captives to death."

Coupled with the fact that Henry didn't smile once during his victorious progress through London...I must conclude that the historical guy was an evil hardass.

The Duke of York was not stabbed to death, and did not dramatically barf blood like in the Kenneth Branagh film. "He was a big man and very overweight, and it is reported that he either suffocated to death in his armor or suffered a heart attack in the press of the fighting."

So the next time you read Shakespeare, especially this play or, my favorite ahistorical pro-Lancastrian history twister, Richard III....just remember.... Shakespeare is a damned liar. :-)

Thanks to Alison Weir for the information in "The Wars of the Roses".

Rating: 5
Summary: A popular play in an edition fabulously rich in helps
Comment: This play is best known for the St. Crispian's Day "Band of Brothers" speech given by King Henry just before the battle at Agincourt. It is a powerful speech that rallies people at all times and everywhere. Sir Lawrence Olivier made a film version in 1944 during WWII and Kenneth Branagh made another as recently as 1989. You can count on there being more versions. Epecially so when computers can help them make spectacular battle scenes (that aren't really in the play) with less expense.

Audiences love this play and they should. There is a lot to like and enjoy. I think upon repeated readings Henry becomes a more equivocal character than he seems at first. And readers of the King Henry IV plays will know him before he became King Henry and know something deeper about his personality.

And of course there is the whole bit about the drive to France being sponsored by the Church to avoid confiscation of property by the Crown. Moreover, there is the slaughtering of the French prisoners, and his treatment of Falstaff (who dies offstage in this play). This isn't revisionist stuff, it is right there in the play, but it is easy to miss the first time you are trying to take in the play.

In any case, this Arden edition is the one to buy and read from. Why? Because it has the most authoritative text, but that is only the beginning. It also shows variants between the early sources. The notes at the bottom of each page of the play are simply fabulous. The editor includes not only helpful notes explaining what might be obscure in the text of the play, he provides sources Shakespeare probably used such as Holinshed and makes for some very interesting study. There are also some helpful notes on how various scenes have been performed over time.

And to make this sound more like an infomercial, you get more! The introduction provides great background material on the play, its sources, and how it has been performed throughout history. After the play, there is a photo reproduction of the first Quarto from 1600 and it is fairly readable. There are also a couple of maps showing the path of the English Army from Harfleur through other towns on its way to Calais and makes clear how they had to pass through Agincourt.

There is also a helpful genealogical table so you can see the confusing claims used by Henry and the French nobility to make their claims. And there is a doubling chart so you can see how theater companies can perform all the roles with fewer actors.

This is a great edition as are all the plays published by the Arden Shakespeare. The amount of work collected in these volumes is stunning and they will enrich your experience of the plays tremendously. I can't recommend them enough.

Rating: 5
Summary: the great king henry v
Comment: this is the last instalment in the history tetralogy that started with richard ii. it chronicles the brief but brilliant career of henry v, incl his miraculous victory at agincourt, the treaty at troyes that gave him the title of king of france, and his wooing of the lovely french princess catherine. this is the play that churchill turned to in britain's darkest hour - 'once more into the breach', 'we the few...', etc.

as usual, there are many historical inaccuracies in the play. the most amusing is the death of the duke of york at agincourt. in the play, he's reported to have died valiantly in battle and is therefore hailed as a hero. in fact, he died from injuries sustained when he fell off his horse! he was a fat old man, not exactly the picture we see when we think of war heroes. the lop-sided victory at agincourt is also exaggerated. shakespeare claims that no more than 'five and twenty' died on the english side. actually, about 500 died. 7000 french were killed, however, so it was still a wildly one-sided victory.

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