medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dennis Martin wrote:
>
> I always did assume that there was some medieval litugical precedent
> for employing that Psalm phrase after a battle--does Shakespeare
> himself insert it or is this Branagh's artistic license? And, if
> Shakespeare already has the phrase in the play, where did he get it
> from? How much artistic license with medieval liturgical practice
> did Shakespeare add--or if it's Branagh's invention, then how much
> artistic license did Branagh employ.
Actually, that *was* the starting point for my query! We had been
discussing it over on the SHAKSPER list. This is what Shakespeare's source
(Holinshed) wrote:
". . . the King when he saw no appearance of his enemies, caused the
retreat to be blown; and gathering his army together, gave thanks to the
almighty God for so happy a victory, causing his prelates and chaplains
to sing this psalm: 'In exitu de Aegypto', and commanded every man to
kneel down on the ground at this verse: 'Non nobis Domine, non nobis,
sed nomini tuo da gloriam' (a worthy example of a godly prince.) Which
done, he caused 'Te deum', with certain anthems to be sung, giving laud
and praise to God, without boasting of his own force or any human power"
But Shakespeare reduced that to:
"Let there be sung /Non nobis/ and /Te Deum/" ("Henry V", Act 4, Scene 8,
line 124.)
Now, it seems to me that this only makes sense in an Anglican context - 'Non
nobis, Domine' only seemed to exist as the Protestant Psalm 115 ("Not unto
us, O Lord, not unto us,") and it appeared in the Anglican Psalter with the
title 'Non nobis, Domine', where it was specified as one of the Psalms for
Evening Prayer of Day 23. ('Te Deum laudamus' ("We praise thee, O God") was
specified for Morning Prayer throughout the year, where it was given the
title 'Te Deum laudamus'.)
The question I posed for the Shakespeare list was this: did Shakespeare
misread his source (reading it in an Anglican sense, being more familiar
with the Book of Common Prayer than the Vulgate), or did he choose to
interpret it in an Anglican sense for his audience?
The question for *this* list was whether there was actually any medieval
liturgical precedent - but we may have answered that :-)
John Briggs
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