The First Quarto of King Henry V

The Quarto text of Henry V is of unique importance. It is the first and probably the only text of a Shakespeare play which provides the playscript corresponding to the version that was actually performed by Shakespeare’s own company. It has the authority of being transcribed by actors in the company as a record of their original staging at the Globe in 1599. The quarto version differs radically from the First Folio text which is used as the source for all other editions. Half as long as the Folio, it represents a practical staging text that streamlined the script supplied by Shakespeare. This edition of the Henry V quarto provides a modernized text alongside the extensive commentary. Andrew Gurr examines each variant from the Folio text in detail, shedding new light on what happened to scripts that the Shakespeare company bought from their resident playwright.

• An evaluative edition of the quarto text • Provides a most detailed study of this text • The quarto of Henry V is uniquely important, as the only text that can be shown to have been produced by Shakespeare’s own company for staging

List of illustrations; Preface; Abbreviations and conventions; Introduction; 1. The significance of the quarto text; 2. The nature of playhouse manuscripts; 3. The history of Henry V\'s quarto text; 4. The quarto printings; 5. The copy for and printing of Q1; 6. The so-called ‘reporters’ of Q1; 7. Compositor errors in Q1; 8. Mishearings from dictation; 9. Re-lineation; 10. Premeditated revisions; 11. Reassignments of parts; 12. Q’s use of the cuts from F; 13. Verbal alterations for consistency; 14. Shakespeare’s changes or the players’?; 15. Stage history; Note on the text; List of characters; The Play; Textual notes; Appendix 1: some of Q\'s re-lining of verse; Appendix 2: Q\'s rendering of Pistol\'s lines as verse; Bibliography.