THE LIFE OF HENRY V

A pleasing and early octavo printing. Engraved frontispiece, engraved head-piece and a six-line engraved initial at the beginning of the text Small 8vo, bound in later blue wrappers, hand calligraphed on the cover in brown ink. 96pp. A fine and well preserved copy, the blue wrappers as pristine.

Edizione: very scarce. from the important theobold oeuvre. although theobold ultimately gave way to johnson in popularity, he remains one of the pre-eminent shakespearean editors. churton collins, writing in the dnb, claimed it “would not be too much to say that the text of shakespeare owes more to theobold than to any other editor.”<br> the collection also draws on two rival editions, j. tonson’s and r. walker’s. although the two are nearly identical, tonson issued an advertisement warning the public against “such useless, pirated, and maim’d editions, as are publish’d by the said r. walker.” <br> henry v contains one of the most famous of all shakespearean quotations:<br><br>".he that outlives this day, and comes safe home,<br>will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,<br>and rouse him at the name of crispian.<br>he that shall live this day, and see old age,<br>will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,<br>and say "to-morrow is saint crispian."<br>then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,<br>and say "these wounds i had on crispin's day."<br>old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,<br>but he'll remember, with advantages,<br>what feats he did that day. then shall our names,<br>familiar in his mouth as household words—<br>harry the king, bedford and exeter,<br>warwick and talbot, salisbury and gloucester—<br>be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.<br>this story shall the good man teach his son;<br>and crispin crispian shall ne'er go by,<br>from this day to the ending of the world,<br>but we in it shall be rememberèd—<br>we few, we happy few, we band of brothers;<br>for he to-day that sheds his blood with me<br>shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,<br>this day shall gentle his condition;<br>and gentlemen in england now a-bed<br>shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,<br>and hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks<br>that fought with us upon saint crispin's day."<br>