a lesson in the importance of assumed audience and the perils of second-person
The preface to Gordon McMullan's Norton Critical Edition of 1 Henry IV begins thus:
You recognize Henry VIII and Elizabeth I when you see them in portraits, I'm sure. Of all the other English kings and queens, I imagine you have slightly more of a sense of Henry V than of the rest -- assuming, that is, that you have seen one or the other of the two highly successful twentieth-century film adaptations of Shakespeare's Henry V, starring Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh respectively -- and you will surely know more about him than you do about his father, Henry IV.
Now, I know that Norton Critical Editions are aimed very much at students, but hands up, anyone else whose immediate reaction was to go "Screw you, Gordon! I know lots about Henry IV!"
I realize, though, that I am no longer technically a member of the assumed audience... ;)
You recognize Henry VIII and Elizabeth I when you see them in portraits, I'm sure. Of all the other English kings and queens, I imagine you have slightly more of a sense of Henry V than of the rest -- assuming, that is, that you have seen one or the other of the two highly successful twentieth-century film adaptations of Shakespeare's Henry V, starring Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh respectively -- and you will surely know more about him than you do about his father, Henry IV.
Now, I know that Norton Critical Editions are aimed very much at students, but hands up, anyone else whose immediate reaction was to go "Screw you, Gordon! I know lots about Henry IV!"
I realize, though, that I am no longer technically a member of the assumed audience... ;)