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Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-85507-5 - The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare’s History Plays Warren Chernaik Frontmatter More information

The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare’s History Plays Shakespeare’s history plays, as fresh today as when they were written, are based upon the assumption that time is not simply a destroyer but a preserver, and that ‘examples past’ might enable us to understand the present and anticipate the future. This lively study examines the continuing tradition of Shakespeare’s history plays in stage and ﬁlm productions as well as giving an account of the critical debate on these plays. Following two introductory chapters giving essential background on the genre, the English history plays are discussed in turn, bringing out the distinctive characteristics of each play: the three early Henry VI plays; the perennial stage favourite Richard III; King John; Richard II; Henry IV 1 and 2, famous for the character of Falstaff; Henry V,whichistreated very differently in the ﬁlm versions by Olivier and Branagh; and Henry VIII. An invaluable introduction to these fascinating and complex plays.

Warren Chernaik is Visiting Professor at King’s College London, and Emeritus Professor, University of London.

Cambridge Introductions to Literature

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Titles in this series: Eric Bulson The Cambridge Introduction to James Joyce Warren Chernaik The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare’s History Plays John Xiros Cooper The Cambridge Introduction to T. S. Eliot Patrick Corcoran The Cambridge Introduction to Francophone Literature Gregg Crane The Cambridge Introduction to The Nineteenth-Century American Novel Kirk Curnutt The Cambridge Introduction to F. Scott Fitzgerald Janette Dillon The Cambridge Introduction to Early English Theatre Janette Dillon The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare’s Tragedies Jane Goldman The Cambridge Introduction to Virginia Woolf KevinJ.Hayes The Cambridge Introduction to Herman Melville Nancy Henry The Cambridge Introduction to George Eliot Leslie Hill The Cambridge Introduction to Jacques Derrida David Holdeman The Cambridge Introduction to W. B. Yeats C. L. Innes The Cambridge Introduction to Postcolonial Literatures M. Jimmie Killingsworth The Cambridge Introduction to Walt Whitman Pericles Lewis The Cambridge Introduction to Modernism Ronan McDonald The Cambridge Introduction to Samuel Beckett Wendy Martin The Cambridge Introduction to Emily Dickinson Peter Messent The Cambridge Introduction to Mark Twain David Motley The Cambridge Introduction to Creative Writing Ira Nadel The Cambridge Introduction to Ezra Pound Leland S. Person The Cambridge Introduction to Nathaniel Hawthorne John Peters The Cambridge Introduction to Joseph Conrad Sarah Robbins The Cambridge Introduction to Harriet Beecher Stowe Martin Scoﬁeld The Cambridge Introduction to the American Short Story Emma Smith The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare Peter Thomson The Cambridge Introduction to English Theatre, 1660–1900 Janet Todd The Cambridge Introduction to Jane Austen Jennifer Wallace The Cambridge Introduction to Tragedy

The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare’s History Plays

WARREN CHERNAIK

cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao˜ Paulo, Delhi Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521671200

C Warren Chernaik 2007

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2007

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Chernaik, Warren L. The Cambridge introduction to Shakespeare’s history plays / Warren Chernaik. p. cm. – (Cambridge introductions to literature) Includes bibliographical references (p. ). ISBN 978-0-521-85507-5 – ISBN 978-0-521-67120-0 (pbk.) 1. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616 – Histories. 2. Historical drama, English – History and criticism. 3. Great Britain – History – 1066–1687 – Historiography. 4. Literature and history – Great Britain. 5. Kings and rulers in literature. 6. Middle Ages in literature. I. Title. II. Series. PR2982.C53 2007 822.33–dc22 2007033002

ISBN 978-0-521-85507-5 hardback ISBN 978-0-521-67120-0 paperback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Contents

List of illustrations page viii Acknowledgements ix

Chapter 1 The uses of history 1 Renaissance ideas of history 1 Shakespeare’s history plays 7 The genre and its conventions 11

Chapter 2 The wars of the critics 15 Hall, Holinshed, and Tillyard 15 Shakespearean ambivalence: liberals and sceptics 17 New Historicism and ideology 18

Chapter 3 The paper crown: 1, 2, and 3 Henry VI 23 Henry VI and the critics 23 Stage history, 1963–2006 25 1HenryVI: brave Talbot and his adversaries 28 2HenryVI: ‘Thou art not king’ 31 3HenryVI: Tiger’s heart 37

Chapter 4 Determined to prove a villain: Richard III 45 Stage and screen 45 Shakespeare and More 49 Tyrant, seducer, and clown 51

vi Contents

Deformity 59 Nemesis 61

Chapter 5 Gain, be my lord: King John 70 The uncertainties of King John 70 Mad world, mad kings 73 Machiavels and victims 78 The Bastard’s progress 84

Chapter 6 The death of kings: Richard II 91 ‘I am Richard II. Know ye not that?’ 91 Rival monarchs 97 The wasteful king 100 The name of king 103 ‘Down, down, I come like glistering Phaeton’¨ 107 The lamentable tale of me 111

Chapter 7 Lord of Misrule: 1 and 2 Henry IV 117 Kings and clowns 117 ‘When thou art king’ 120 ‘The immortal Falstaff’ 125 ‘This chair shall be my state’ 129 Honour 135 Part 2: old age, disease, and death 139

Chapter 8 Band of brothers: Henry V 144 The reformed Prince 144 War and politics 148 The death of Bardolph: rewriting Henry V 153 Imaginary forces 160 Brotherhood and hierarchy 164

Contents vii

Chapter 9 Epilogue: Henry VIII 168 Pomp and glory 168 Farewell to greatness 170 Kings as gods 174

Notes 179 Bibliography 194 Index 203

List of illustrations

Cover illustration: David Troughton as Henry IV, Henry IV, Part 1, Royal Shakespeare Company, Swan Theatre, Stratford, 2000, directed by Richard Attenborough. Photograph by Geraint Lewis.

1 Antony Sher as Richard III, Penny Downie as Lady Anne, Richard III, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1984, directed by Bill Alexander. Photography by Reg Wilson, copyright Royal Shakespeare Company page 47 2 Ian McKellen as Richard III, Bill Paterson as Ratcliffe, Richard III, directed by Richard Loncraine, produced by Lisa Katselas and Stephen Bayly, screenplay adapted by Ian McKellen and Richard Loncraine, 1995. Photography by Alex Bailey, copyright Lisa Katselas 60 3 Richard Pasco as Richard II, Ian Richardson as Bullingbrook, Richard II, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1973, directed by John Barton. Joe Cocks Studio Collection, copyright Shakespeare Birthplace Trust 99 4 Alan Howard as Prince Hal, Brewster Mason as Falstaff, Henry IV, Part 1, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1975, directed by Terry Hands. Joe Cocks Studio Collection, copyright Shakespeare Birthplace Trust 130 5 Laurence Olivier as Henry V, Henry V, directed by Laurence Olivier, 1945. Photograph courtesy of Photofest Inc. 151 6 Robert Stephens as Pistol, Geoffrey Hutchings as Nym, Henry V, directed by Kenneth Branagh, 1989. Photograph courtesy of the British Film Institute 156

viii

Acknowledgements

Much of this book was written in the Humanities Reading Room of the British Library, and I am grateful for the helpfulness of the library staff there and in the Rare Books room, the Senate House Library, and the Maughan library of King’s College London. For help with illustrations and with research into the stage and cinematic history of the plays, I owe a particular debt of gratitude to the library staff at the Shakespeare Centre Library, Stratford-upon-Avon, the Theatre Museum, and the British Film Institute. Among copyright holders of film versions of Richard III and Henry V, I am grateful for the assistance of Lisa Katselas, Photofest Inc., and the BFI. Sarah Stanton not only commissioned the book, but has been an unfailing source of encouragement and gave me excellent advice on revision. Judith Chernaik, as well as attending endless productions, good and bad, with me, has carried on a running conversation about Shakespeare with me for many years, from which I have profited greatly. Friends and colleagues who have read chapters in draft form or have helped me to clarify my views in conversation include Janet Clare, Robyn Bolam, Gabriel Egan, F. J. Levy, Michael Hattaway, A. R. Braunmuller, Gordon McMullan, Rene´ Weis, Kate McLuskie, Sandra Clark, Sonia Massai, Ann Thompson, Richard Proudfoot, and Andrew Gurr. I am especially grateful to Sarah Hatchuel and Nathalie Vienne-Guerin for inviting me to give a paper comparing the Olivier and Branagh films of Henry V at the International Shakespeare Conference organized by the Shakespeare Institute in August 2006; that essay, a version of which appears in chapter 8, will be included in a forthcoming collection edited by them, Shakespeare on Screen. Sonia Massai invited me to give a paper on Henry VI (mostly about the relationship of different versions of 2 and 3HenryVI) at the London Shakespeare Seminar in 2005. And among the Shakespeare scholars from whom I have learned most, I must particularly thank Emrys Jones, Annabel Patterson, and Phyllis Rackin. I have gained immeasurably from discussing Shakespeare’s histories with my students at King’s College London, the University of Southampton, and Queen Mary, University of London. But my main debt, other than to Shakespeare himself, is to the actors and directors who have made the history plays of Shakespeare come alive in productions.