'These Plays Might Almost Serve as a Handbook to Patriotism": Prose Adaptations of Henry V for Children, Nationalism, Empire and War

This essay explores adaptations of Shakespeare’s Henry V in the years leading up to World War I, and demonstrates how they articulated an unreservedly positive vision of Henry V, turning this play into an imaginative narrative resource offered to British children to arouse patriotism, not unlike attitudes reflected in other children’s literature of the period. By emphasizing the king’s heroism and the unity of the English (British?) people, retellings of Shakespeare’s Henry V provided a powerful inspiration for a national spirit which is represented as a fantasy to be shared with the original Elizabethan audience.