King Henry V Essay | Critical Essay #11

King Henry V Critical Essay #11

Source: "The Comic Scenes in Henry V," in Hebrew University Studies in Literature, Vol. 4, No.1, Spring, 1976, pp. 18-26.

[In the following essay, Schwartz examines the importance of the comic scenes to the playas an epic and contends that these scenes prove the worthiness of the king and his subjects. Schwartz maintains that Shakespeare replaces the Eastcheap gang with more orderly comic characters who can prosper under Henry's command and can contribute to the stability of his rule.]

The comic scenes in Shakespeare's Henry V are often used to support a satiric interpretation of the play, are diagnosed as evidence for an inadequate rendering of an epic intention, or are censured or largely ignored in interpretations of the playas epic. I would argue, however, that these scenes have an integral and important function in the plotting of a national English epic and a drama of an...
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