“Erasing Machiavellian moments in film and stage history: the strange fates of Marlowe’s Massacre and Shakespeare’s Henry V”

This lecture will address the way different contexts, historical and contemporary, shape how we interpret the rabbit/duck perspective of Henry V. More specifically, this will be done with two particular angles in mind. The lecture will begin by focusing on the difference between following the “Crispin’s Day” scene with the Le Fer/Pistol scene, which is what one actually gets as the text’s battlefield, as opposed to what films (and even most modern stage productions) show. The second angle considers the memory of Marlowe’s explicit reference to the Machiavel—and its association not only with Barrabas but with the Duke of Guise in Massacre at Paris, a play which lurks in the background as Shakespeare writes his histories (and more) from 1593 forward, especially as they deal with civil wars and French affairs.

Date: 11 November, 2024
Schedule: 11 am to 12.30 pm
Venue: FLUL, Room C251 A
Keynote: Diana Henderson