INTRODUCTION

LITERARY HISTORY

King Henry the Fifth was first printed in quarto form in 1600, with the following titlepage:— the | CRONICLE | History of Henry the fift, | With his battell fought at Agin Court in | France. Togither with Auntient | Pistoll. | As it hath bene sundry times playd by the Right honourable | the Lord Ghamberlaine his seruants. | LONDON | Printed by Thomas Creede, for Tho. Milling- | ton, and Iohn Busby. And are to be | sold at his house in Carter Lane, next | the Powle head. 1600. This edition, which is very imperfect, was evidently brought out in a hurried manner, and the text was probably prepared from shorthand notes taken in the theatre.

Fleay (Chronicle History of William Shakespeare, p. 206) expresses the opinion that the Quarto is “a shortened version of a play written in 1598 for the Curtain Theatre, and that the Folio (except such alterations as were made after James's accession) is a version enlarged and improved for the Globe Theatre later in the same year.”

A second quarto edition, reprinted from the first, was issued in 1602, “by Thomas Creede, for Thomas Pauier,” and “sold at his shop in Cornhill, at the signe of the Cat and Parrets, neare the Exchange.” A third quarto, in similar style, “Printed for T. P”(the same Thomas Pavier) appeared in 1608. No complete edition of the play was published until it was incorporated in the Folio of 1623, which must be regarded as the sole authority for the text.