When the play was first performed in 1599, the portrayal of Henry V's military campaign would have made Shakespeare's original Elizabethan audience to think about their own unstable political situation. Though written about the early 1400s, for hundreds of years audiences have found this piece of historical fiction relevant to their wars. Henry V portrays events immediately before and after Henry's miraculous victory at the Battle of Agincourt (1415), a major turning point in the Hundred Years' War (when the English and the French squabbled over who had rights to the French crown). In Henry V, "Wild Prince Hal" has long since grown up into a capable king who is determined to invade France and lay claim to the French throne. In the earlier works, Shakespeare portrays Henry's days as a wild and reckless teenager. Written around 1599, Henry V is the final play in William Shakespeare' second tetralogy, a group of history plays that includes Richard II, Henry Part 1, and Henry IV Part 2. Read the full text of Henry V with a side-by-side translation HERE.
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