Metafiction, Henry V, and
Shakespearean Hypermedia
by Ronald Fedoruk
Flourish. Enter Chorus.
Now all the Youth of England are on fire,
horus takes for granted that the audience has indeed "admitted him to this historie", and he assumes full control of the proceedings. He returns accompanied by a trumpet flourish to pick up the story where he left off. It is as if, no matter how involved we may have become with the other characters during Chorus' absence, the intervening Act I was no more than an illustration, put there by Shakespeare to amplify the real text being narrated by Chorus.
As with any hypermedia, Chorus supplements the main plot of the play, augmenting the action with background information or exposition that is important to the understanding of the story. But that information needs to be delivered outside the action of the play. Many of the audience might know the background and would be impatient with long description were it included in the main plot, so Chorus quickly relates the preamble and allows the plot to proceed much more quickly.
Chorus also provides a warning of what to expect in the upcoming scene. This is especially useful for events that are less well known, or that Shakespeare particularily wants to emphasize. Repetition is an important aspect of storytelling, and this passage has the effect of reasserting the important points so we get at least two opportunities to understand.
The abrupt manner of his coming also implies that he will continue to insert himself into the play at his pleasure, creating breaks in the linearity of the dramatic action. To participate in this threatrical event we will have to shift our focus from the action to the narrator and back again creating a multi-layered and contextual understanding. There is a casual assurance in Chorus' assumption that the audience can readily imagine itself first in Southampton then in France, then back to the present location. Indeed he does not phrase this as imagination, but as an actual deed. "You must sit" (498). The separation between reality and imagination has been eliminated allowing the audience to sit where it imagines itself, to becomes what it thinks it is. This is precisely what is asked of the audience in the creation of a virtual world.
Building such a virtual world is hard work. The events of the play, and particularily the non-linear plot structure imposed by Chorus himself, are rather abstract concepts, requiring a good deal of mental dexterity. Shakespeare realizes that in order to have imaginative freedom in constructing the plot, the audience must have some place to start. Shakespeare's starting point is a real space. He has Chorus suggest a specific local, telling the audience to imagine themselves in a playhouse in Southampton.
Significantly, Chorus does not locate the audience in the battlefield. There are far too many options in conjuring a battlefield. Chorus would have to spend a lot more iambic pentameter describing in detail the place he wants us to be. The playhouse on the other hand, is a much more restricted and more accessible option. In fact the playhouse imagined by the audience will likely be similar to the one they are currently sitting in. Not only is this more effiicient in establishing the starting point, there is a shared experience from which to launch. It also preserves, even in the virtual world, the relationship between audience and action.
One of the aspects of hypermedia is the interactive control the audience can exercise in pursuing the possible options. Some of the audience will choose to leave Chorus' virtual Southampton theatre, and sally into the virtual fields around the virtual Agincourt; to imagine ourselves in the midst of battle. The power of the virtual world lies in its immediacy. Without Chorus' help the audience may be able to develop an understanding of the events of the Battle of Agincourt, but by situating us in a specific location, Shakepeare allows us the opportunity to experience those events as if they were really happening around us.
Of course in real life, the battlefield would be a very dangerous place from which to view the events. While the inherent danger might stop us from actually participating in Henry's life, it does indicate another key factor in the creation of a virtual environment. Shakepeare's virtual space contains none of those dangers; an ocean voyage will "not offend one stomacke" (502). Virtual space is a safe space. Or at least the dangers that exist can only exist as virtual dangers. And they largely exist only so far as the audience wants them to exist. We choose our own level of comfort within the virtual space, and imagine our own level of danger .
The ease with which the audience can slip back and forth between imagined spaces illustrates an important fact of theatre performance. Perhaps all Scenographic space is virtual space. Even for the Scenographer attempting to create a realistic environment, it would be well to remember the active role of the audience imagination in constructing the illusion.
Now thriue the Armorers, and Honors thought
Reignes solely in the breast of euery man.
They sell the Pasture now, to buy the Horse;
Following the Mirror of all Christian Kings,
With winged heeles, as English Mercuries.
470 For now sits Expectation in the Ayre,
With Crownes Imperiall, Crownes and Coronets,
Promis'd to Harry, and his followers.
The French aduis'd by good intelligence
475 Of this most dreadfull preparation,
Shake in their feare, and with pale Pollicy
Seeke to diuert the English purposes.
O England: Modell to thy inward Greatnesse,
Like little Body with a mightie Heart:
480 What mightst thou do, that honour would thee do,
Were all thy children kinde and naturall:
But see, thy fault France hath in thee found out,
A nest of hollow bosomes, which he filles
With treacherous Crownes, and three corrupted men:
485 One, Richard Earle of Cambridge, and the second
Henry Lord Scroope of Masham, and the third
Sir Thomas Grey Knight of Northumberland,
Haue for the Gilt of France (O guilt indeed)
Confirm'd Conspiracy with fearefull France,
490 And by their hands, this grace of Kings must dye.
Ere he take ship for France; and in Southampton.
Linger your patience on, and wee'l digest
Th' abuse of distance; force a play:
We cannot imagine individual objects without imagining the
space, or the world that contains them ...By space of the
textual world, then, I mean the imaginative extension...of
the world represented or simulated by the text.
495 The summe is payde, the Traitors are agreed,
The King is set from London, and the Scene
Is now transported (Gentles) to Southampton,
There is the Play-house now, there must you sit,
And thence to France shall we conuey you safe,
500 And bring you backe: Charming the narrow seas
To giue you gentle Passe:
for if we may,
Wee'l not offend one stomacke with our Play.
Vnto Southampton do we shift our Scene.
Exit.
