Title page from The Life of King Henry the Fifth

Part of: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (The Oxford Shakespeare) The Life of King Henry the Fifth

One of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, Henry V has spoken to generation after generation because its complex view of military action has allowed for each generation of readers to interpret the play’s stance on war according to their own context. This edition comes from the 1916 Oxford University Press edition of all of Shakespeare’s plays and poems.

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Therefore doth heaven divide The state of man in divers functions, Setting endeavour in continual motion; To which is fixed, as an aim or butt, Obedience: for so work the honey-bees, Creatures that by a rule in nature teach The act of order to a peopled kingdom. … I this infer, That many things,…

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