“Into a thousand parts”: Representing the Nation inHenry V

Abstract

Shakespeare's history plays in general, and Henry V in particular, grant a good deal of attention to Parliament. The injunction by the opening Chorus of Henry V, “Into a thousand parts divide one man,” echoes Speaker of the House Edward Coke's anecdote about the origins of a bicameral Parliament, in the course of which he recounted a knight's purported remark that “his Majestie and the lordes there every one being great persons represented but themselves, but his commons though they were inferiour men yet every one of them represented a thowsand men.”Henry V, like Shakespeare's earlier histories, explores the relationship between theatrical and parliamentary forms of representation. Recognizing the ways in which the plays both draw upon and challenge Elizabethan ideas about parliamentary representation casts new light on the relations between nobles and commoners in Shakespeare's histories.

Nation and Responsibility: The King and His Soldiers in Shakespeare’s Henry V

“…As Jonathan Baldo writes: "Fragmentation becomes the founding principle of representation and representation in turn the basis of English unity." 22 In addition to making one many, Chorus also asks that our imagination allow Henry to assume "the port of Mars," so that we can exorcise any memory of his youthful exploits. And so it goes throughout the play.…”