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The “Histories” of Henry VI

from History and Histories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2014

Janet Clare
Affiliation:
The University of Hull
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Summary

In his dedication to Edward VI of The union of the two noble and illustre families of Lancastre and York (1548), one of the intertexts Shakespeare draws on for The First Part of Henry the Sixth, Edward Hall depicts his chronicle as being in the service of “memory.” Hall interconnects memory with fame, history and literature while structuring the dedication round the dichotomy of “memory-oblivion” and “oblivion-memory.” Oblivion, which is represented as a diseased enemy of Fame and as “the sucking serpent of ancient memory,” has been defeated by Memory, operating through the invention and intervention of letters and literature. Memory by literature, claims Hall, is “the very dilator and setter forth of Fame.”

History is mnemonic. The act of recording is the process that creates the memorial phantasm and the compilation of history is thus undertaken to dilate, or spread abroad, the glory of forbears. We can see here one of the classical and medieval archetypes of memory as a tablet awaiting inscription. What stands out in Hall's exposition on memorial inscription of history is its hierarchical selectivity: “For what diversity is between a noble prince and a poor beggar, ye a reasonable man and a brute beast, if after their death there be left of them no remembrance or token.” From the exempla that Hall then offers – Augustus, Caligula and Nero – it would seem that infamy and power have as equal a share in memory as fame and nobility while the beggar perforce is consigned to oblivion. Further, memory is accredited with remarkable longevity.

Type
Chapter
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Shakespeare in Europe
History and Memory
, pp. 79 - 88
Publisher: Jagiellonian University Press
Print publication year: 2008

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