SOURCE: Richardson, W. M. “The Brave New World of Shakespeare's Henry V Revisited.” Allegorica 6, no. 2 (winter 1981): 149-54.

In the following essay, Richardson claims that Henry V features Shakespeare's depiction of a cynically modern and amoral state.

By modern political criteria, the medieval world was confused and chaotic. Men's loyalties and duties were divided among the often conflicting claims of the Church, the crown, and their feudal overlords; and it was largely due to these divided loyalties that Malory's Arthur's dream of an England united in the fellowship of the Round Table failed. By the time Malory's Morte D'arthur ends, feudal loyalties, the Grail quest and other claims of the Church, clan loyalties, and the obligations of the Courtly Love tradition have broken the ties of brotherhood so precariously united in the Round Table; and both Arthur and his dream are dead.

However, it is doubtful that the political...