Word: casuist
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...offers a subtler challenge. Taken at handsome face value, he is the noble conqueror of a contemptuous nation. Henry is also a bit of a prig: "The cold-bath king," Ralph Richardson called him, "the exaltation of all scoutmasters." Beneath the glamorous raiment one can also glimpse the wily casuist who accepts the flimsiest excuse for invading France and courts his future wife knowing he has already won her as a spoil of war. Perhaps following Olivier's lead, Kline plays Henry as a hero and allows the attentive spectator to listen for the rogue, not between Shakespeare...