THE PLAYS OF

SHAKESPEARE

EDITED BY

HENRY MORLEY, LL.D.

KING HENRY V

WITH "HOLINSHED'S

CHRONICLE," WHICH
IT IS SUPPOSED
FURNISHED SHAKE-
SPEARE THE FACTS
FOR HIS PLAY

NEW YORK :

DOUBLEDAY & McCLURE CO.

INTRODUCTION.

THE Prologue to the Fifth Act of King Henry the Fifth, in telling of the King's reception in London after his return from Agincourt, says that the citizens poured out to meet him

"As, by a lower but loving likelihood,

Were now the general of our gracious empress,
As in good time he may, from Ireland coming,
Bringing rebellion broachéd on his sword,
How many would the peaceful city quit

To welcome him!"

Essex was in Ireland from the 27th of March to the 28th of September, 1599, and this passage was addressed to the audience. The play, therefore, was finished and produced in the summer or autumn of that year. On the 14th of August, 1600, it was entered at Stationers' Hall, and it was published in that year in quarto, as "The Cronicle History of Henry the Fift, With his battell fought at Agin Court in France. Togither with Auntient Pistoll. As it hath bene sundry times playd by the Right honorable the Lord Chamberlaine his servants." This quarto was reprinted in 1602 and 1608. It gives the play in an imperfect form, omitting all that is spoken by the Chorus, also the first scenes of the First and Third Acts, and the second scene of the Fourth Act, besides omissior's and imperfect

CD. TRANSFER JAN 2 6 1942