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King henry v william6/28/2023 ![]() Does this play have a sceptical sub-text which subverts its patriotism? Is Henry’s achievement beset by irony? Has current scepticism distorted a predominantly and proudly nationalistic drama? Henry V demonstrates Shakespeare’s acclaimed ability to bring new complexity to the material that he adapted, so that different eras may find within his work the familiar and the strange, the congenial and the harsh, the sustaining and the challenging. Kenneth Branagh’s film-production reflected the changing valuation. In recent decades the play has attracted increasing critical attention and is now highly controversial. Henry himself, astute and charismatic, who led his ‘band of brothers’ to victory in the Battle of Agincourt, could indeed seem to be ‘this star of England’. Its powerful patriotic rhetoric has resounded down the ages, gaining eloquent expression in Laurence Olivier’s renowned film. Henry V is the most famous and influential of Shakespeare’s history plays. ![]() Edited, introduced and annotated by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex. ![]()
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