Henry V tells the story of Henry of Monmouth, now King Henry V. This play stands as the final part of Henriad tetralogy and presents the transformation of the main character from a wild, undisciplined young man to the young prince who has matured. The story focuses on an expedition to France led by Henry V in which his army although widely outnumbered defeats the French at Agincourt.

Larry S. Champion examines Shakespeare's English history plays and describes the structural devices through which Shakespeare controls the audience's angle of vision and its response to the pattern of historical events. Champion observes the experimentation between stage worlds and the significance of a dramatic technique unique to the history play—one that combines the detachment of a documentary necessary for a broad intellectual view of history and the simultaneous engagement between character and spectator. Champion sees a conscious bifurcation occurring in Shakespeare's dramaturgy after Richard II. In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare continues to focus on the psychological analysis and internalized protagonist which lead to his major tragic achievements. In King John and Henry IV, the playwright develops a middle ground between the polarities of Henry VI, in which the flat, onedimensional characters essentially serve the purposes of the narrative, and the tragedies, in which the spectator's consuming interest is in the developing centralfigure whose critical moments they share. Champion sees Henry V as the culmination of Shakespeare's e fforts in the English history play.

The ultimate visual guide to every Shakespeare play The Essential Shakespeare Handbook unravels the history, themes and language of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. Romance, comedy and tragedy, Shakespeare's canon has it all. With act-by-act plot summaries and resumes of main characters, the Essential Shakespeare Handbook will allow you to enjoy the Bard with new confidence. See the plays and sonnets in context with a portrait of the Bard's life and the world of Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre. Enrich your experience of the Bard's work on the page, stage, and screen with an in-depth look at Shakespearean language and Shakespeare's influence across the globe. Whether you want a quick overview of Hamlet before a trip to the theatre or help with a Shakespeare essay, the popular Essential Shakespeare Handbook now with a new jacket (previous ISBN 9780751348828) is the book for you.