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THE

DRAMATIC WORKS

[graphic]

Time, which is continually washing away the dissoluble Fabrics of other Poets,
passes without Injury by the Adamant of Shakespeare.

1823.

6T

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30X292

HENRY THE FIFTH.

30′55

OBSERVATIONS.

KING HENRY V.] This play was writ (as appears from a passage in the chorus to the fifth Act) at the time of the Earl of Essex's commanding the forces in Ireland in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and not till after Henry the Sixth had been played, as may be seen by the conclusion of this play.

POPE.

The transactions comprised in this historical play commence about the latter end of the first, and terminate in the eighth year of this king's reign: when he married Katharine princess of France, and closed up the differences betwixt England and that crown. THEOBALD.

This play, in the quarto edition, 1608, is styled The Chronicle History of Henry, &c. which seems to have been the title anciently appropriated to all Shakespeare's historical dramas. So, in The Antipodes, a comedy, by R. Brome, 1638 :

"These lads can act the emperors' lives all over,
"And Shakespeare's Chronicled Histories to boot."

The players likewise, in the folio edition, 1623, rank these pieces under the title of Histories.

It is evident that a play on this subject had been performed before the year 1592. Nash, in Pierce Penniless his Supplication to the Devil, dated 1592, says: "-what a glorious thing it is to have Henry the Fift represented on the stage, leading the French king prisoner, and forcing both him and the Dolphin to sweare fealtie."

Perhaps this is the same play as was thus entered in the books of the Stationers' company: "Tho. Strode] May 2, 1594. A booke entituled The famous Victories of Henry the Fift, containing the honorable Battle of AginThere are two more entries of a play of Henry V. viz. between 1596 and 1615, and one August 14th, 1600. I have two copies of it in my possession; one without date, (which seems much the elder of the two,)

court."

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