Henry V

This history play, first printed in 1600, follows the newly crowned Henry V from the tennis-ball insult of the French Dauphin through the invasion of France. A Chorus frames the action as a tale that must be imagined on a bare stage. At court and among the remnants of the Eastcheap tavern world the king sets aside Falstaff's company; on campaign he moves among nobles, common soldiers, and captured towns. The central military action is the outnumbered English stand at Agincourt. The play is a drama of kingship, rhetoric, and war, concerned with how a young king makes a public self before an army and an enemy court.

Series binding. Mottled grey slipcase.