King Henry V. / William Shakespeare ; edited by T. W. Craik.

edited by David Bevington

In a sense,too ,Henry V sums up the achievement of the English history play ,not for Shakespeare ,but also for the popular playwrights.The patriotic history was born in the excitement of the Armada era immediately after 1588,had nearly run its course by 1599 and was soon to be supplanted by other dramatic genres,such as satire and revenge stragey.Dark and complex poltical realities were already changing the buoyant mood in which the history play had been born :the aging Queen Elizabeth was near death and without a Protestant heir,while fear of another invasion threatened.In Henry V,we sense the approaching end of an era,for the play both celebrates the achievements of the English monarchy and examines its limits."In The Complete Works of Shakespeare" 5ht edition