ABSTRACT
When playwrights turned to prose chronicles to adapt their material for the stage, they were, in a sense, free to choose. Chronicles such as Holinshed's conveniently divided history from Adam and Eve to the Elizabethan present into smaller units. Thus, British history fell into the reigns of kings and queens. Although the general popularity of historical material has been widely discussed, the narrative scope of theatrical representations, and its possible implications for the dramaturgy and reception of Shakespeare's plays, surprisingly, has not been explored in more detail. Criticism constantly constructs beginnings and ends, and often does so with a focus on the career of a particular playwright. In this regard, the early work of Shakespeare has been a particularly contested issue. A closer look reveals that the first moments function to powerfully draw spectators into the perspective of the mourning nobility, who have gathered around Henry V's coffin, and on whose minds the memory of earlier reign is still fresh.
