The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.1368 Tuesday, 23 August 2005
From: Andy Jones <
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Date: Monday, 22 Aug 2005 22:13:38 -0300
Subject: 16.1319 Archbishop's Speech, Henry V
Comment: Re: SHK 16.1319 Archbishop's Speech, Henry V
From H.R.Greenberg:
>As background for my ongoing article about the SALIC LAW speech by
>Canterbury at the beginning of Henry V, I am looking for small changes
>in the Shakespearean text as opposed to major overhauls like Tate's.
>A sentence or two. Alterations in the actual text, not cutting.
Yes, some of these are interesting, aren't they? For example at line 77,
editors from Pope to T. W. Craik in the 3rd edition Arden have emended
"Tenth" in F to "Ninth" on grounds of historical accuracy: which is fair
enough in its own way, although:
1. How can we be sure that Shakespeare didn't know that Holinshead was
wrong, but chose to retain "Tenth" anyway for some poetic or figurative
reason? Or, more pertinently:
2. Surely it is inconsistent to make the Ninth/Tenth change when we do
not emend other lines which are historically inaccurate. No-one emends
"Charlemagne" in the line 75 to "Charles the Bald" to avoid the nonsense
that Charles the Great and Charlemagne (who in this context are one and
the same person) was his own grandfather, as lines 75 to 77 are clearly
telling us. Similarly, no-one changes lines 56 to 64, which appear to be
telling us, in the face of all mathematical evidence, that 805-426=421.
Andy Jones
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