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Shakespeare and King Henry V View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Saskatchewan's Research Archive SHAKESPEARE AND KING HENRY V: Historical Research Informing Artistic Decisions A Thesis Submitted to the College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts Interdisciplinary Studies University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon BY SKYE BRANDON © Copyright Skye Morgan Brandon, April, 2019. All rights reserved. PERMISSION TO USE In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Postgraduate degree from the University of Saskatchewan, I agree that the Libraries of this University may make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copying of this thesis in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor or professors who supervised my thesis work or, in their absence, by the Head of the Department or the Dean of the College in which my thesis work was done. It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this thesis or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of Saskatchewan in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my thesis. DISCLAIMER The Greystone Theatre production of Henry V was exclusively created to meet the thesis requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at the University of Saskatchewan. Reference in this thesis to any specific commercial products, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the University of Saskatchewan. The views and opinions of the author expressed herein do not state or reflect those of the University of Saskatchewan, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes. Requests for permission to copy or to make other uses of materials in this thesis in whole or part should be addressed to: Chair Interdisciplinary Studies College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies University of Saskatchewan 116 Thorvaldson Building, 110 Science Place Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7N 5C9 Canada OR Dean College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies University of Saskatchewan 116 Thorvaldson Building, 110 Science Place Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7N 5C9 Canada i ABSTRACT William Shakespeare (1564-1616) remains simultaneously the most produced and most studied playwright in the English-speaking world. With so many Shakespeare festivals spread across Canada and the United States, it seems that there would be ample opportunity for the artistic and academic communities to partner with each other. However, in my experience, very few scholars practice as professional theatre artists, and conversely there are very few theatre artists that have taken the time that many academics have done in studying and researching Shakespeare’s plays. My thesis asks: Would productions of Shakespeare’s plays be better served by bringing together artistic and academic methodologies? Using one of Shakespeare’s great history plays as the “subject,” I have spent the duration of my graduate studies researching Henry V (1386-1422) and the medieval period in which he lived, and I have studied and read scholarly materials that cover his life as well as the literature that would have been available to Shakespeare when he wrote his play Henry V (1599). All this was done as the preparation for a production of Henry V that integrated specific research that was discovered by utilizing methodologies from the three departments that make up my Interdisciplinary studies (Drama, English, and History) along with the creative insights that I brought from my own professional experience as a working theatre artist since the completion of my undergraduate studies. The Greystone Theatre production of Henry V had its theatrical run in the Emrys Jones Theatre on the U of S campus from November 22 to December 1, 2018. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have a great deal of gratitude for my committee: co-advisors Dr. Moira Day and Dr. Joanne Rochester, committee chair Dr. Doug Thorpe, and committee members Dr. Sharon Wright, Dr. Frank Klaassen, and Pamela Haig Bartley. I have received guidance from them all at one point in time or another, and some were instrumental in creating special topics courses to facilitate my degree. Additional thanks to Dr. Jim Clifford from the U of S History Department, and Dr. Brent Nelson from English. Designers Carla Orosz and Beverley Kobelsky not only provided fantastic designs for the production but were key collaborators from beginning to end. My study was supported by two Interdisciplinary Studies Devolved Scholarships, as well as a SHRCC Joseph Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship (Master’s). Without this financial support I would not have been able to continue my work. Thanks also goes to Kendall Bitner, Kyle Dase, Mark Doerksen, Tristan Taylor, Joel Salt, Shane Farris, and Chloe Peters for their Latin translation of the missing section of the Gesta Henrici Quinti; James Dobson, Devin Backman, and the Interdisciplinary Studies team; Nora Polley and the staff of the Stratford Festival Archives Department; the U of S Drama Department and Greystone Theatre who supported my work and treated me as a colleague; and the entire cast and crew of Henry V, without whose work and dedication this whole project would have been for naught. Finally, thank you to my wife, Kristi, and my daughter, Pyper, for their support on this journey. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS PERMISSION TO USE ....................................................................................................................................... i DISCLAIMER ..................................................................................................................................................... i ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................................................. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................................................. iv INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................................. 1 HISTORY CHAPTER: “A Historical view of King Henry V” ...................................................................... 4 A Brief Overview of King Henry V ................................................................................................................. 4 Early Sources .................................................................................................................................................... 6 Latin Lives .................................................................................................................................................... 7 Chronicles ................................................................................................................................................... 12 King Henry’s Personal Writing .................................................................................................................. 13 Holinshed, Hall, and the newly discovered North .......................................................................................... 15 Holinshed ................................................................................................................................................... 15 Hall ............................................................................................................................................................. 16 North........................................................................................................................................................... 18 Survey of Historical Scholarship .................................................................................................................... 19 Thoughts on King Henry V following the Historical Survey ......................................................................... 26 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................................... 30 ENGLISH CHAPTER: “King Henry V in Elizabethan Literature” ........................................................... 32 Literary Criticism on Shakespeare’s History Plays ........................................................................................ 32 Granville-Barker to Tillyard and Campbell’s Elizabethan Worldview ...................................................... 33 The Lost Garden ......................................................................................................................................... 35 New Historicism and Cultural Materialism ................................................................................................ 36 Holderness, Rackin, and Recent Perspectives ............................................................................................ 39 Shakespeare’s Prince Hal (1 and 2 Henry IV) ...............................................................................................
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