ABSTRACT
In his cinematic version of Henry V, Kenneth Branagh as Henry slogs across the muddy Agincourt battlefield carrying the corpse of a boy. The young victim, Falstaffs former page, is held up as an emblem of the terrible cost of war. The obvious irony of the moment is unsettling: God is to be praised for fighting on the side of the English and yet all the English boys have been slaughtered. 1 As director, Branagh has given the slain boy the spotlight after the Agincourt victory, but he has also decisively cut most of the lines that Shakespeare has given the character, including the boy's moderately lengthy speeches at 3.2.24--45 and at 4.4.53-61.2 Similar truncations appear frequently in dramatic and cinematic productions of 2 Henry IV, where Falstaffs page is introduced. It is common theatrical practice to cut lines and rearrange text to speed a production along, to remove the difficulty of outdated jokes and references and, in some cases, to adapt to the limitations of actors available to perform various roles.3
