Henry V and VI
Sir: Accusing the Oxford editor of Henry V of 'an elementary howler' in applying to Henry V the Prologue of Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour, A. L. Rowse commits a slightly less than elementary howler (23 April). Though Jonson's play belongs in its first version to 1598 — the year before the composition of Henry V — the Prologue occurs (as the editor remarks on p. 309) only in the revised version., printed in 1616. So there is no reason why It should not refer to Henry V. Certainly the lines quoted by A. L. Rowse are best inter- preted as an allusion to the Henry VI plays, but he omits Prologue's reference to Plays in which 'Chorus wafts you ore the seas i. There is a chorus in Henry V, but not n Henry VI.
Stanley Wells The Oxford Shakespeare, 40 Walton Crescent, Oxford
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