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Article: Ancient/Ensign Pistol and A Match at Midnight.(William Shakespeare's Henry V)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- ANQ
- Article date:
- September 22, 2000
- Author:
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In the 1982 Oxford edition of Henry V, Gary Taylor emended the Folio's reading of ancient Pistol to Ensign Pistol, arguing that the former was a corruption of the latter. Further, he argued, using ancient was "misleading for modern audiences," presumably because it indicated that Pistol was old (2.1.3n). Andrew Gurr's 1992 Cambridge edition challenged the argument by reversing the reading. While Gurr admitted that ancient and Ensign were used interchangeably, he argued that old age was indeed part of the overt reading. Gurr thought ancient was a better selection because Ensign "loses precisely that additional connotation [of age]" (63). Neither editor could cite a ...