Edward III: A Study of Canonicity, Sources, and Influence

Abstract

Since the first attribution of Shakespeare as the author of the anonymous Edward III (1596) in 1656, the play has occupied a shifting status in the canon. Over the past twenty years renewed critical interest in questions of the canonicity of Edward III has led to a wider acceptance of Shakespeare's involvement with the play.This study reviews the canonical problems raised by Edward III and reappraises the play as a dramatic text. Chapter One concentrates on issues of the play's publication, dating, and authorship. Chapter Two examines how the playwright uses literary and chronicle sources to present celebratory images of Edward III and of his son the Black Prince. Chapter Three analyzes the "ancestral influence" of the figures of Edward III and the Black Prince on the titular hero of Shakespeare's Henry V. The Chapter directs attention to Edward III as a pre-text for Henry V. The Conclusion summarizes the study and indicates future lines of inquiry.