![First-page-first-folio-1henry6](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/First-page-first-folio-1henry6.jpg)
''Henry VI, Part 1'', often referred to as ''1 Henry VI'', is a
history play
History is one of the three main genres in Western theatre alongside tragedy and comedy, although it originated, in its modern form, thousands of years later than the other primary genres. For this reason, it is often treated as a subset of trage ...
by
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
—possibly in collaboration with
Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe, also known as Kit Marlowe (; baptised 26 February 156430 May 1593), was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the Elizabethan playwrights. Based upon the ...
and
Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe (baptised November 1567 – c. 1601; also Nash) was an Elizabethan playwright, poet, satirist and a significant pamphleteer. He is known for his novel ''The Unfortunate Traveller'', his pamphlets including ''Pierce Penniless,'' a ...
—believed to have been written in 1591. It is set during the lifetime of King
Henry VI of England
Henry VI (6 December 1421 – 21 May 1471) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. The only child of Henry V, he succeeded to the English thron ...
.
Whereas ''
Henry VI, Part 2
''Henry VI, Part 2'' (often written as ''2 Henry VI'') is a Shakespearean history, history play by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1591 and set during the lifetime of King Henry VI of England. Whereas ''Henry VI, Part 1'' ...
'' deals with the King's inability to quell the bickering of his nobles and the inevitability of armed conflict and ''
Henry VI, Part 3
''Henry VI, Part 3'' (often written as ''3 Henry VI'') is a history play by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1591 and set during the lifetime of King Henry VI of England. Whereas '' 1 Henry VI'' deals with the loss of Eng ...
'' deals with the horrors of that conflict, ''Henry VI, Part 1'' deals with the
loss of England's French territories and the political machinations leading up to the
Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These wars were fought bet ...
, as the English
political system
In political science, a political system means the type of political organization that can be recognized, observed or otherwise declared by a state.
It defines the process for making official government decisions. It usually comprizes the govern ...
is torn apart by personal squabbles and petty
jealousy
Jealousy generally refers to the thoughts or feelings of insecurity, fear, and concern over a relative lack of possessions or safety.
Jealousy can consist of one or more emotions such as anger, resentment, inadequacy, helplessness or disgust. ...
.
Although the ''Henry VI'' trilogy may not have been written in chronological order, the three plays are often grouped together with
''Richard III'' to form a tetralogy covering the entire Wars of the Roses saga, from the death of
Henry V Henry V may refer to:
People
* Henry V, Duke of Bavaria (died 1026)
* Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (1081/86–1125)
* Henry V, Duke of Carinthia (died 1161)
* Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine (c. 1173–1227)
* Henry V, Count of Luxembourg (121 ...
in 1422 to the rise to power of
Henry VII in 1485. It was the success of this sequence of plays that firmly established Shakespeare's reputation as a playwright.
Some regard ''Henry VI, Part 1'' as the weakest of
Shakespeare's plays
Shakespeare's plays are a canon of approximately 39 dramatic works written by English poet, playwright, and actor William Shakespeare. The exact number of plays—as well as their classifications as Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy, Shakespearean ...
. Along with ''
Titus Andronicus
''Titus Andronicus'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written between 1588 and 1593, probably in collaboration with George Peele. It is thought to be Shakespeare's first tragedy and is often seen ...
'', it is generally considered one of the strongest candidates for evidence that Shakespeare collaborated with other dramatists early in his career.
Characters
''The English''
*
King Henry VI
Henry VI (6 December 1421 – 21 May 1471) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. The only child of Henry V, he succeeded to the English throne a ...
– King of England
*
Duke of Bedford
Duke of Bedford (named after Bedford, England) is a title that has been created six times (for five distinct people) in the Peerage of England. The first and second creations came in 1414 and 1433 respectively, in favour of Henry IV's third so ...
– Henry VI's uncle and
regent
A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...
of France
*
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester
Humphrey of Lancaster, Duke of Gloucester (3 October 139023 February 1447) was an English prince, soldier, and literary patron. He was (as he styled himself) "son, brother and uncle of kings", being the fourth and youngest son of Henry IV of E ...
– Henry VI's uncle and
Lord Protector
Lord Protector (plural: ''Lords Protector'') was a title that has been used in British constitutional law for the head of state. It was also a particular title for the British heads of state in respect to the established church. It was sometimes ...
of England
*
Duke of Exeter
The title Duke of Exeter was created several times in England in the later Middle Ages. Exeter is the main town of Devon. It was first created for John Holland, the half-brother of King Richard II in 1397. That title was rescinded upon Henry IV ...
– Henry VI's great-uncle
*
Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester – Exeter's younger brother and Henry VI's great-uncle
* Duke of Somerset (a conflation of
John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset
John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, 3rd Earl of Somerset, KG (25 March 1404 – 30 May 1444) was an English nobleman and military commander during the Hundred Years' War. He was the maternal grandfather of Henry VII.
Origins
Born on 25 ...
and his younger brother
Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset
Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, 4th Earl of Somerset, 1st Earl of Dorset, 1st Marquess of Dorset styled 1st Count of Mortain, KG (140622 May 1455), was an English nobleman and an important figure during the Hundred Years' War. His riva ...
)
*
Richard Plantagenet – later
3rd Duke of York
*
Earl of Warwick
Earl of Warwick is one of the most prestigious titles in the peerages of the United Kingdom. The title has been created four times in English history, and the name refers to Warwick Castle and the town of Warwick.
Overview
The first creation c ...
(Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick—often mistakenly identified as
Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...
, from ''Henry VI, Part 2'' and ''Henry VI, Part 3'')
*
Earl of Salisbury
Earl of Salisbury is a title that has been created several times in English and British history. It has a complex history, and is now a subsidiary title to the marquessate of Salisbury.
Background
The title was first created for Patrick de S ...
*
William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk
William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, (16 October 1396 – 2 May 1450), nicknamed Jackanapes, was an English magnate, statesman, and military commander during the Hundred Years' War. He became a favourite of the weak king Henry VI of Engl ...
*
Lord Talbot –
Constable of France
The Constable of France (french: Connétable de France, from Latin for 'count of the stables') was lieutenant to the King of France, the first of the original five Great Officers of the Crown (along with seneschal, chamberlain, butler, and ...
*
John Talbot – his son
* Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March (a conflation of
Sir Edmund Mortimer, his brother John, and his nephew,
Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March
Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, 7th Earl of Ulster (6 November 139118 January 1425), was an English nobleman and a potential claimant to the throne of England. A great-great-grandson of King Edward III of England, he was heir presumptive to ...
)
* Sir
John Fastolf
Sir John Fastolf (6 November 1380 – 5 November 1459) was a late medieval English landowner and knight who fought in the Hundred Years' War. He has enjoyed a more lasting reputation as the prototype, in some part, of Shakespeare's charac ...
– a cowardly soldier
* Sir William Glasdale
* Sir
Thomas Gargrave
Sir Thomas Gargrave (1495–1579) was an English Knight who served as High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1565 and 1569. His principal residence was at Nostell Priory, one of many grants of land that Gargrave secured during his lifetime. He was Speak ...
* Sir William Lucy
* Vernon – of the White Rose (
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
) faction
* Basset – of the Red Rose (
Lancaster) faction
* Richard Woodville –
Lieutenant of the Tower
* Mayor of London
''The French''
*
Charles
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...
–
Dauphin of France
Dauphin of France (, also ; french: Dauphin de France ), originally Dauphin of Viennois (''Dauphin de Viennois''), was the title given to the heir apparent to the throne of France from 1350 to 1791, and from 1824 to 1830. The word ''dauphin'' ...
*
Reignier, Duke of Anjou – titular King of Jerusalem
*
Margaret
Margaret is a female first name, derived via French () and Latin () from grc, μαργαρίτης () meaning "pearl". The Greek is borrowed from Persian.
Margaret has been an English name since the 11th century, and remained popular througho ...
– Reignier's daughter, later betrothed to King Henry
*
Duke of Alençon
Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, t ...
*
Bastard of Orléans
*
Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy (french: duc de Bourgogne) was a title used by the rulers of the Duchy of Burgundy, from its establishment in 843 to its annexation by France in 1477, and later by Holy Roman Emperors and Kings of Spain from the House of Habsburg ...
* General of the French forces at
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...
* Countess of
Auvergne
Auvergne (; ; oc, label=Occitan, Auvèrnhe or ) is a former administrative region in central France, comprising the four departments of Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal and Haute-Loire. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region Auverg ...
* Master Gunner of
Orléans
Orléans (;["Orleans"](_blank)
(US) and [Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronati ...]
)
* Shepherd –
Joan's father
* Governor of Paris (non-speaking role)
* French Sergeant
* Sentinels
* Watchman of
Rouen
Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...
* Porter
''Other''
*
Papal Legate
300px, A woodcut showing Henry II of England greeting the pope's legate.
A papal legate or apostolic legate (from the ancient Roman title ''legatus'') is a personal representative of the pope to foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic ...
* Fiends
* Messengers, a captain, lawyer, a gaoler, soldiers, heralds, scouts, on both the English and French sides
Synopsis
![Rosornaskrig](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Rosornaskrig.jpg)
The play begins with the funeral of Henry V, who has died unexpectedly in his prime. As his brothers, the
Dukes of Bedford
Duke of Bedford (named after Bedford, England) is a title that has been created six times (for five distinct people) in the Peerage of England. The first and second creations came in 1414 and 1433 respectively, in favour of Henry IV of England, ...
and
Gloucester
Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...
, and his uncle, the
Duke of Exeter
The title Duke of Exeter was created several times in England in the later Middle Ages. Exeter is the main town of Devon. It was first created for John Holland, the half-brother of King Richard II in 1397. That title was rescinded upon Henry IV ...
, lament his passing and express doubt as to whether his son (the as yet uncrowned
heir apparent
An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...
Henry VI) is capable of running the country in such tumultuous times, word arrives of military setbacks in France. A
rebellion
Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority.
A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...
, led by the
Dauphin Charles, is gaining momentum, and several major towns have already been lost. Additionally, Lord Talbot, Constable of France, has been captured. Realising a critical time is at hand, Bedford immediately prepares himself to head to France and take command of the army, Gloucester remains in charge in England, and Exeter sets out to prepare young Henry for his forthcoming
coronation
A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a coronation crown, crown upon a monarch's head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the ...
.
Meanwhile, in Orléans, the English army is laying
siege
A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition warfare, attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity con ...
to Charles' forces. Inside the city, the Bastard of Orléans approaches Charles and tells him of a young woman who claims to have seen
visions
Vision, Visions, or The Vision may refer to:
Perception Optical perception
* Visual perception, the sense of sight
* Visual system, the physical mechanism of eyesight
* Computer vision, a field dealing with how computers can be made to gain un ...
and knows how to defeat the English. Charles summons the woman, Joan la Pucelle (i.e.
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronati ...
). To test her resolve, he challenges her to
single combat
Single combat is a duel between two single warriors which takes place in the context of a battle between two armies.
Instances of single combat are known from Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The champions were often combatants who repres ...
. Upon her victory, he immediately places her in command of the army. Outside the city, the newly arrived Bedford negotiates the release of Talbot, but immediately, Joan launches an attack. The French forces win, forcing the English back, but Talbot and Bedford engineer a sneak attack on the city, and gain a foothold within the walls, causing the French leaders to flee.
Back in England, a petty quarrel between Richard Plantagenet and the Duke of Somerset has expanded to involve the whole
court
A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance ...
. Richard and Somerset ask their fellow nobles to pledge allegiance to one of them, and as such the lords select either red or white
rose
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...
s to indicate the side they are on. Richard then goes to see his uncle, Edmund Mortimer, imprisoned in the
Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...
. Mortimer tells Richard the history of
their family's conflict with the king's family—how they helped
Henry Bolingbroke
Henry IV ( April 1367 – 20 March 1413), also known as Henry Bolingbroke, was King of England from 1399 to 1413. He asserted the claim of his grandfather King Edward III, a maternal grandson of Philip IV of France, to the Kingdom of Fran ...
seize power from
Richard II
Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father died ...
, but were then shoved into the background; and how Henry V had Richard's father (
Richard of Conisburgh
Richard of Conisbrough, 3rd Earl of Cambridge (20 July 1385 – 5 August 1415) was the second son of Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, and Isabella of Castile, Duchess of York. He was beheaded for his part in the Southampton Plot, a conspirac ...
) executed and his family stripped of all its lands and monies. Mortimer also tells Richard that he himself is the rightful heir to the throne, and that when he dies, Richard will be the true heir, not Henry. Amazed at these revelations, Richard determines to attain his birthright, and vows to have his family's dukedom restored. After Mortimer dies, Richard presents his
petition
A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication.
In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to some offici ...
to the recently crowned Henry, who agrees to reinstate the Plantagenet's title, making Richard 3rd Duke of
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
. Henry then leaves for France, accompanied by Gloucester, Exeter, Winchester, Richard and Somerset.
In France, within a matter of hours, the French retake and then lose the city of
Rouen
Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...
. After the battle, Bedford dies, and Talbot assumes direct command of the army. The Dauphin is horrified at the loss of Rouen, but Joan tells him not to worry. She then persuades the powerful Duke of
Burgundy
Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...
, who had been fighting for the English, to switch sides, and join the French. Meanwhile, Henry arrives in Paris and upon learning of Burgundy's betrayal, he sends Talbot to speak with him. Henry then pleads for Richard and Somerset to put aside their conflict, and, unaware of the implications of his actions, he chooses a red rose, symbolically aligning himself with Somerset and alienating Richard. Prior to returning to England, in an effort to secure peace between Somerset and Richard, Henry places Richard in command of the
infantry
Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and marine i ...
and Somerset in command of the
cavalry
Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from "cheval" meaning "horse") are soldiers or warriors who fight mounted on horseback. Cavalry were the most mobile of the combat arms, operating as light cavalry ...
. Meanwhile, Talbot approaches
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...
, but the French army swings around and traps him. Talbot sends word for reinforcements, but the conflict between Richard and Somerset leads them to second guess one another, and neither of them send any, both blaming the other for the mix-up. The English army is subsequently destroyed, and both Talbot and his son are killed.
![Joan (Selous)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Joan_%28Selous%29.jpg)
After the battle, Joan's visions desert her, and she is captured by Richard and
burned at the stake
Death by burning (also known as immolation) is an execution and murder method involving combustion or exposure to extreme heat. It has a long history as a form of public capital punishment, and many societies have employed it as a punishment f ...
. At the same time, urged on by
Pope Eugenius IV
Pope Eugene IV ( la, Eugenius IV; it, Eugenio IV; 1383 – 23 February 1447), born Gabriele Condulmer, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 3 March 1431 to his death in February 1447. Condulmer was a Venetian, and ...
and the
Holy Roman Emperor, Sigismund, Henry
sues for peace. The French listen to the English terms, under which Charles is to be a
viceroy
A viceroy () is an official who reigns over a polity in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term derives from the Latin prefix ''vice-'', meaning "in the place of" and the French word ''roy'', meaning "k ...
to Henry and reluctantly agree, but only with the intention of breaking their oath at a later date and expelling the English from France. Meanwhile, the
Earl of Suffolk
Earl of Suffolk is a title which has been created four times in the Peerage of England. The first creation, in tandem with the creation of the title of Earl of Norfolk, came before 1069 in favour of Ralph the Staller; but the title was forfei ...
has captured a young French princess, Margaret of
Anjou Anjou may refer to:
Geography and titles France
* County of Anjou, a historical county in France and predecessor of the Duchy of Anjou
**Count of Anjou, title of nobility
*Duchy of Anjou, a historical duchy and later a province of France
**Duk ...
, whom he intends to marry to Henry in order that he can dominate the king through her. Travelling back to England, he attempts to persuade Henry to marry Margaret. Gloucester advises Henry against the marriage, as Margaret's family is not rich and the marriage would not be advantageous to his position as king. But Henry is taken in by Suffolk's description of Margaret's beauty, and he agrees to the proposal. Suffolk then heads back to France to bring Margaret to England as Gloucester worryingly ponders what the future may hold.
Sources
![The vnyon of the twoo noble famelies](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/The_vnyon_of_the_twoo_noble_famelies.jpg)
Shakespeare's primary source for ''1 Henry VI'' was
Edward Hall
Edward Hall ( – ) was an English lawyer and historian, best known for his ''The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancastre and Yorke''—commonly known as ''Hall's Chronicle''—first published in 1548. He was also sever ...
's ''The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancaster and York'' (1548). Also, as with most of Shakespeare's chronicle histories,
Raphael Holinshed
Raphael Holinshed ( – before 24 April 1582) was an English chronicler, who was most famous for his work on ''The Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande'', commonly known as ''Holinshed's Chronicles''. It was the "first complete printe ...
's ''
Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland'' (1577; 2nd edition 1587) was also consulted. Holinshed based much of his Wars of the Roses information in the ''Chronicles'' on Hall's information in ''Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families'', even to the point of reproducing large portions of it verbatim. However, there are enough differences between Hall and Holinshed to establish that Shakespeare must have consulted both of them.
For example, Shakespeare must have used Hall for the scene where Gloucester is attempting to gain access to the Tower, and Woodville tells him that the order not to admit anyone came from Winchester. Dismayed, Gloucester refers to Winchester as "that haughty
prelate
A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pref ...
,/Whom Henry, our late sovereign, ne're could brook" (1.3.23–24). Only in Hall is there any indication that Henry V had a problem with Winchester. In Holinshed, there is nothing to suggest any disagreement or conflict between them. Another example of Shakespeare's use of Hall is found when Sir Thomas Gargrave is injured by the
artillery
Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...
strike at Orléans (1.5). In the play, he dies immediately, and the rest of the scene focuses on the death of the more senior soldier Salisbury. Likewise, in Hall, Gargrave dies immediately after the attack. In Holinshed, however, Gargrave takes two days to die (as he did in reality). The semi-comic scene where the French leaders are forced to flee Orléans half-dressed (dramatised in 2.1) also seems based on an incident reported only in Hall. When discussing the English retaking of
Le Mans
Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...
in 1428, Hall writes, "The French, suddenly taken, were so amazed in so much that some of them, being not out of their beds, got up in their shirts." Another incident involving Gloucester and Winchester is also unique to Hall. During their debate in Act 3, Scene 1, Gloucester accuses Winchester of attempting to have him assassinated on
London Bridge
Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It r ...
. Hall mentions this assassination attempt, explaining that it was supposed to have taken place at the
Southwark
Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...
end of the bridge in an effort to prevent Gloucester from joining Henry V in
Eltham Palace
Eltham Palace is a large house at Eltham ( ) in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The house consists of the medieval great hall of a former royal residence, to which an Art Deco extension was added in the 1930s. ...
. In Holinshed however, there is no reference to any such incident. Another incident possibly taken from Hall is found in Act 3, Scene 2, where Joan and the French soldiers disguise themselves as
peasant
A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasants ...
s and sneak into Rouen. This is not an historical event, and it is not recorded in either Hall or Holinshed. However, a very similar such incident ''is'' recorded in Hall, where he reports of the capture of Cornhill Castle in
Cornhill-on-Tweed
Cornhill-on-Tweed is a small village and civil parish in Northumberland, England about to the east of Coldstream, Scotland. The hamlets of West Learmouth and East Learmouth are located to the south and west of the village respectively.
Histor ...
by the English in 1441.
![1587 printing of Holinshed's Chronicles](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/1587_printing_of_Holinshed%27s_Chronicles.jpg)
On the other hand, some aspects of the play are unique to Holinshed. For example, in the opening scene, as word arrives in England of the rebellion in France, Exeter says to his fellow peers, "Remember, Lords, your oaths to Henry sworn:/Either to quell the Dauphin utterly,/Or bring him in obedience to your yoke" (1.1.162–164). Only in Holinshed is it reported that on his deathbed, Henry V elicited vows from Bedford, Gloucester and Exeter that they would never willingly surrender France, and would never allow the Dauphin to become king. Another piece of information unique to Holinshed is seen when Charles compares Joan to the
Old Testament
The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
prophetess
Deborah
According to the Book of Judges, Deborah ( he, דְּבוֹרָה, ''Dəḇōrā'', " bee") was a prophetess of the God of the Israelites, the fourth Judge of pre-monarchic Israel and the only female judge mentioned in the Bible. Many scholars ...
(1.2.105). According to
Judges
A judge is an official who presides over a court.
Judge or Judges may also refer to:
Roles
*Judge, an alternative name for an adjudicator in a competition in theatre, music, sport, etc.
*Judge, an alternative name/aviator call sign for a membe ...
4 and 5, Deborah masterminded
Barak
Barak ( or ; he, בָּרָק; Tiberian Hebrew: '' Bārāq''; ar, البُراق ''al-Burāq'' "lightning") was a ruler of Ancient Israel. As military commander in the biblical Book of Judges, Barak, with Deborah, from the Tribe of Ephrai ...
's surprise victory against the
Canaan
Canaan (; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus T ...
ite army led by
Sisera
Sisera ( he, סִיסְרָא ''Sîsərā'') was commander of the Canaanite army of King Jabin of Hazor, who is mentioned in of the Hebrew Bible. After being defeated by the forces of the Israelite tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali under the comm ...
, which had suppressed the
Israelites
The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan.
The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...
for over twenty years. No such comparison is found in Hall. Another piece of information unique to Holinshed occurs when the Master Gunner mentions that the English have taken control of some of the suburbs of Orléans (1.4.2). Holinshed reports that the English captured several of the suburbs on the other side of the
Loire
The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône ...
, something not found in Hall.
Date and text
Date
The most important evidence for dating ''1 Henry VI'' is the ''Diary of
Philip Henslowe
Philip Henslowe (c. 1550 – 6 January 1616) was an Elizabethan theatrical entrepreneur and impresario. Henslowe's modern reputation rests on the survival of his diary, a primary source for information about the theatrical world of Renaissance ...
'', which records a performance of a play by
Lord Strange's Men
Lord Strange's Men was an Elizabethan playing company, comprising retainers of the household of Ferdinando Stanley, Lord Strange (pronounced "strang"). They are best known in their final phase of activity in the late 1580s and early 1590s. After ...
called ''Harey Vj'' (i.e. ''Henry VI'') on 3 March 1592 at the
Rose Theatre in Southwark. Henslowe refers to the play as "ne" (which most critics take to mean "new", although it could be an abbreviation for the
Newington Butts theatre, which Henslow may have owned) and mentions that it had fifteen performances and earned £3.16s.8d, meaning it was extremely successful. ''Harey Vj'' is usually accepted as being ''1 Henry VI'' for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it is unlikely to have been either ''2 Henry VI'' or ''3 Henry VI'', as they were published in 1594 and 1595, respectively, with the titles under which they would have originally been performed, so as to ensure higher sales. As neither of them appear under the title ''Harey Vj'', the play seen by Henslowe is unlikely to be either of them. Additionally, as
Gary Taylor points out, Henslowe tended to identify sequels, but not first parts, to which he referred by the general title. As such, "''Harey Vj'' could not be a ''Part Two'' or ''Part Three'' but could easily be a ''Part One''." The only other option is that ''Harey Vj'' is a now lost play.
That ''Harey Vj'' is ''not'' a lost play, however, seems to be confirmed by a reference in Thomas Nashe's ''
Piers Penniless his Supplication to the Devil
''Pierce Penniless his Supplication to the Divell'' is a tall tale, or a prose satire, written by Thomas Nashe and published in London in 1592. It was among the most popular of the Elizabethan pamphlets. It was reprinted in 1593 and 1595,Harris ...
'' (entered into the
Stationers' Register
The Stationers' Register was a record book maintained by the Stationers' Company of London. The company is a trade guild given a royal charter in 1557 to regulate the various professions associated with the publishing industry, including print ...
on 8 August 1592), which supports the theory that ''Harey Vj'' is ''1 Henry VI''. Nashe praises a play that features Lord Talbot: "How would it have joyed brave Talbot (the terror of the French), to think that after he had lain two hundred years in his tomb, he should triumph again on the stage, and have his bones new embalmed with the tears of ten thousand spectators (at least), who in the tragedian that represents his person imagine they behold him fresh bleeding." It is thought that Nashe is here referring to ''Harey Vj'', i.e. ''1 Henry VI'', as there is no other candidate for a play featuring Talbot from this time period (although again, there is the slight possibility that both Henslowe ''and'' Nashe are referring to a now lost play).
If Nashe's comment is accepted as evidence that the play seen by Henslowe was ''1 Henry VI'', to have been on stage as a new play in March 1592, it must have been written in 1591.
There is a separate question concerning the date of composition, however. Due to the publication in March 1594 of a
quarto
Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...
version of ''2 Henry VI'' (under the title ''The First part of the Contention betwixt the two famous Houses of Yorke and Lancaster, with the death of the good Duke Humphrey: And the banishment and death of the Duke of Suffolke, and the Tragicall end of the proud Cardinal of Winchester, with the notable Rebellion of Jack Cade: and the Duke of Yorke's first claim unto the crowne'') and an
octavo
Octavo, a Latin word meaning "in eighth" or "for the eighth time", (abbreviated 8vo, 8º, or In-8) is a technical term describing the format of a book, which refers to the size of leaves produced from folding a full sheet of paper on which multip ...
version of ''3 Henry VI'' in 1595 (under the title ''The True Tragedie of Richard Duke of Yorke, and the death of good King Henrie the Sixt, with the Whole Contention betweene the two Houses, Lancaster and Yorke''), neither of which refer to ''1 Henry VI'', some critics have argued that ''2 Henry VI'' and ''3 Henry VI'' were written prior to ''1 Henry VI''. This theory was first suggested by
E.K. Chambers in 1923 and revised by
John Dover Wilson
John Dover Wilson CH (13 July 1881 – 15 January 1969) was a professor and scholar of Renaissance drama, focusing particularly on the work of William Shakespeare. Born at Mortlake (then in Surrey, now in Greater London), he attended Lancing Co ...
in 1952. The theory is that ''The Contention'' and ''True Tragedy'' were originally conceived as a two-part play, and due to their success, a
prequel
A prequel is a literary, dramatic or cinematic work whose story precedes that of a previous work, by focusing on events that occur before the original narrative. A prequel is a work that forms part of a backstory to the preceding work.
The term " ...
was created. Obviously, the title of ''The Contention'', where it is referred to as ''The First Part'' is a large part of this theory, but various critics have offered further pieces of evidence to suggest ''1 Henry VI'' was not the first play written in the trilogy.
R.B. McKerrow, for example, argues that "if ''2 Henry VI'' was originally written to continue the first part, it seems utterly incomprehensible that it should contain no allusion to the prowess of Talbot." McKerrow also comments on the lack of reference to the symbolic use of roses in ''2 Henry VI'', whereas in ''1 Henry VI'' and ''3 Henry VI'', they are mentioned numerous times. McKerrow concludes that this suggests ''1 Henry VI'' was written closer to ''3 Henry VI'', and as we know ''3 Henry VI'' was definitely a sequel, it means that ''1 Henry VI'' must have been written last, i.e., Shakespeare only conceived of the use of the roses while writing ''3 Henry VI'' and then incorporated the idea into his prequel. Eliot Slater comes to the same conclusion in his statistical examination of the vocabulary of all three ''Henry VI'' plays, where he argues that ''1 Henry VI'' was written either immediately before or immediately after ''3 Henry VI'', hence it must have been written last. Likewise, Gary Taylor, in his analysis of the authorship of ''1 Henry VI'', argues that the many discrepancies between ''1 Henry VI'' and ''2 Henry VI'' (such as the lack of reference to Talbot) coupled with similarities in the
vocabulary
A vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's language. A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the la ...
,
phraseology
In linguistics, phraseology is the study of set or fixed expressions, such as idioms, phrasal verbs, and other types of multi-word lexical units (often collectively referred to as ''phrasemes''), in which the component parts of the expression tak ...
, and
tropes of ''1 Henry VI'' and ''3 Henry VI'', suggest ''1 Henry VI'' was probably written last.
One argument against this theory is that ''1 Henry VI'' is the weakest of the trilogy, and therefore, logic would suggest it was written first. This argument suggests that Shakespeare could only have created such a weak play if it was his first attempt to turn his chronicle sources into drama. In essence, he was unsure of his way, and as such, ''1 Henry VI'' was a trial-run of sorts, making way for the more accomplished ''2 Henry VI'' and ''3 Henry VI''. Emrys Jones is one notable critic who supports this view. The standard rebuke to this theory, and the one used by Dover Wilson in 1952, is that ''1 Henry VI'' is significantly weaker than the other two plays not because it was written first but because it was co-authored and may have been Shakespeare's first attempt to collaborate with other writers. As such, all of the play's problems can be attributed to its co-authors rather than Shakespeare himself, who may have had a relatively limited hand in its composition. In this sense, the fact that ''1 Henry VI'' is the weakest of the trilogy has nothing to do with ''when'' it may have been written, but instead concerns only ''how'' it was written.
As this implies, there is no critical consensus on this issue.
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...
, writing in his 1765 edition of ''
The Plays of William Shakespeare
''The Plays of William Shakespeare'' was an 18th-century edition of the dramatic works of William Shakespeare, edited by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. Johnson announced his intention to edit Shakespeare's plays in his ''Miscellaneous O ...
'', pre-empted the debate and argued that the plays were written in sequence: "It is apparent that
'2 Henry VI''begins where the former ends, and continues the series of transactions, of which it presupposes the first part already written. This is a sufficient proof that the second and third parts were not written without dependence on the first." Numerous more recent scholars continue to uphold Johnson's argument.
E. M. W. Tillyard
Eustace Mandeville Wetenhall Tillyard (19 May 1889 – 24 May 1962) was an English classical scholar, classical and literary scholar who was List of Masters of Jesus College, Cambridge, Master of Jesus College, Cambridge from 1945 to 1959.
Bio ...
, for example, writing in 1944, believes the plays were written in order, as does Andrew S. Cairncross in his editions of all three plays for the 2nd series of the ''
Arden Shakespeare
The Arden Shakespeare is a long-running series of scholarly editions of the works of William Shakespeare. It presents fully edited modern-spelling editions of the plays and poems, with lengthy introductions and full commentaries. There have been t ...
'' (1957, 1962 and 1964). E.A.J. Honigmann also agrees, in his "early start" theory of 1982 (which argues that Shakespeare's first play was ''Titus Andronicus'', which Honigmann posits was written in 1586). Likewise, Michael Hattaway, in both his 1990 ''New Cambridge Shakespeare'' edition of ''1 Henry VI'' and his 1991 edition of ''2 Henry VI'', argues that the evidence suggests ''1 Henry VI'' was written first. In his 2001 introduction to ''Henry VI: Critical Essays'', Thomas A. Pendleton makes a similar argument, as does Roger Warren in his 2003 edition of ''2 Henry VI'' for the ''
Oxford Shakespeare
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
''.
On the other hand, Edward Burns, in his 2000 ''Arden Shakespeare'' 3rd series edition of ''1 Henry VI'', and Ronald Knowles, in his 1999 ''Arden Shakespeare'' 3rd series edition of ''2 Henry VI'', make the case that ''2 Henry VI'' probably preceded ''1 Henry VI''. Similarly, Randall Martin, in his 2001 ''Oxford Shakespeare'' edition of ''3 Henry VI'', argues that ''1 Henry VI'' was almost certainly written last. In his 2003 ''Oxford'' edition of ''1 Henry VI'', Michael Taylor agrees with Martin. Additionally, it is worth noting that in the ''Oxford Shakespeare: Complete Works'' of 1986 and the 2nd edition of 2005, and in the ''Norton Shakespeare'' of 1997 and again in 2008, both ''2 Henry VI'' and ''3 Henry VI'' precede ''1 Henry VI''.
Ultimately, the question of the order of composition remains unanswered, and the only thing that critics ''can'' agree on is that all three plays (in whatever order) were written by early 1592 at the latest.
Text
The text of the play was not published until the 1623 ''First Folio'', under the title ''The first part of Henry the Sixt''.
When it came to be called ''Part 1'' is unclear, although most critics tend to assume it was the invention of the ''First Folio'' editors,
John Heminges
John Heminges (bapt. 25 November 1566 – 10 October 1630) was an actor in the King's Men, the playing company for which William Shakespeare wrote. Along with Henry Condell, he was an editor of the First Folio, the collected plays of Shakespeare ...
and
Henry Condell
Henry Condell ( bapt. 5 September 1576 – December 1627) was a British actor in the King's Men, the playing company for which William Shakespeare wrote. With John Heminges, he was instrumental in preparing and editing the First Folio, the col ...
, as there are no references to the play under the title ''Part 1'', or any derivative thereof, prior to 1623.
Analysis and criticism
Critical history
Some critics argue that the ''Henry VI'' trilogy were the first plays based on recent English history, and, as such, they deserve an elevated position in the
canon
Canon or Canons may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base
* Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture
** Western ca ...
and a more central role in Shakespearean criticism. According to F. P. Wilson, for example, "There is no certain evidence that any dramatist before the defeat of the
Spanish Armada
The Spanish Armada (a.k.a. the Enterprise of England, es, Grande y Felicísima Armada, links=no, lit=Great and Most Fortunate Navy) was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, commanded by the Duke of Medina Sidonia, an aris ...
in 1588 dared to put upon the public stage a play based upon English history
..so far as we know, Shakespeare was the first." However, not all critics agree with Wilson here. For example, Michael Taylor argues that there were at least thirty-nine history plays prior to 1592, including the two-part Christopher Marlowe play ''
Tamburlaine
''Tamburlaine the Great'' is a play in two parts by Christopher Marlowe. It is loosely based on the life of the Central Asian emperor Timur (Tamerlane/Timur the Lame, d. 1405). Written in 1587 or 1588, the play is a milestone in Elizabethan p ...
'' (1587),
Thomas Lodge
Thomas Lodge (c. 1558September 1625) was an English writer and medical practitioner whose life spanned the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods.
Biography
Thomas Lodge was born about 1558 in West Ham, the second son of Sir Thomas Lodge, Lo ...
's ''
The Wounds of Civil War'' (1588), the anonymous ''
The Troublesome Reign of King John
''The Troublesome Reign of John, King of England'', commonly called ''The Troublesome Reign of King John'' (c. 1589) is an Elizabethan history play, probably by George Peele, that is generally accepted by scholars as the source and model that W ...
'' (1588), ''
Edmund Ironside
Edmund Ironside (30 November 1016; , ; sometimes also known as Edmund II) was King of the English from 23 April to 30 November 1016. He was the son of King Æthelred the Unready and his first wife, Ælfgifu of York. Edmund's reign was marred by ...
'' (1590 – also anonymous),
Robert Green
Robert Paul Green (born 18 January 1980) is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He played in the Premier League and Football League and for the England national team.
Green made his first-team debut for Norwi ...
's ''
Selimus'' (1591) and another anonymous play, ''
The True Tragedy of Richard III
''The True Tragedy of Richard III'' is an anonymous Elizabethan history play on the subject of Richard III of England. It has attracted the attention of scholars of English Renaissance drama principally for the question of its relationship wi ...
'' (1591). Paola Pugliatti however argues that the case may be somewhere between Wilson and Taylor's argument: "Shakespeare may not have been the first to bring English history before the audience of a public playhouse, but he was certainly the first to treat it in the manner of a mature historian rather than in the manner of a worshipper of historical, political and religious myth."
Another issue often discussed amongst critics is the quality of the play. Along with ''3 Henry VI'', ''1 Henry VI'' has traditionally been seen as one of Shakespeare's weakest works, with critics often citing the amount of violence as indicative of Shakespeare's artistic immaturity and inability to handle his chronicle sources, especially when compared to the more nuanced and far less violent
second historical tetralogy (''
Richard II
Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father died ...
'', ''
1 Henry IV
''Henry IV, Part 1'' (often written as ''1 Henry IV'') is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written no later than 1597. The play dramatises part of the reign of King Henry IV of England, beginning with the battle at ...
'', ''
2 Henry IV'' and ''
Henry V Henry V may refer to:
People
* Henry V, Duke of Bavaria (died 1026)
* Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (1081/86–1125)
* Henry V, Duke of Carinthia (died 1161)
* Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine (c. 1173–1227)
* Henry V, Count of Luxembourg (121 ...
''). For example, critics such as E. M. W. Tillyard, Irving Ribner and A. P. Rossiter have all claimed that the play violates
neoclassical precepts of
drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...
, which dictate that violence and battle should never be shown
mimetically on stage, but should always be reported
diegetically in dialogue. This view was based on traditional notions of the distinction between high and low art, a distinction based partly upon
Philip Sidney
Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek language, Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philip ...
's ''
An Apology for Poetry
''An Apology for Poetry'' (or ''The Defence of Poesy'') is a work of literary criticism by Elizabethan poet Philip Sidney. It was written in approximately 1580 and first published in 1595, after his death.
It is generally believed that he was ...
'' (1579). Based on the work of
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...
, Sidney criticised
Thomas Norton
Thomas Norton (153210 March 1584) was an England, English lawyer, politician, writer of verse, and playwright.
Official career
Norton was born in London, the son of Thomas Norton and the former Elizabeth Merry. He was educated at university o ...
and
Thomas Sackville's ''
Gorboduc
Gorboduc ('' Welsh:'' Gorwy or Goronwy) was a legendary king of the Britons as recounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth. He was married to Judon. When he became old, his sons, Ferrex and Porrex, feuded over who would take over the kingdom. Porrex tried ...
'' (1561) for showing too many battles and being too violent when it would have been more artistic to verbally represent such scenes. The belief was that any play that ''showed'' violence was crude, appealing only to the ignorant masses, and was therefore low art. On the other hand, any play that elevated itself above such direct representation of violence and instead relied on the writer's ability to verbalise and his skill for diegesis, was considered artistically superior and, therefore, high art. Writing in 1605,
Ben Jonson
Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for t ...
commented in ''
The Masque of Blackness
''The Masque of Blackness'' was an early Jacobean era masque, first performed at the Stuart Court in the Banqueting Hall of Whitehall Palace on Twelfth Night, 6 January 1605. It was written by Ben Jonson at the request of Anne of Denmark, the ...
'' that showing battles on stage was only "for the vulgar, who are better delighted with that which pleaseth the eye, than contenteth the ear." Based upon these theories, ''1 Henry VI'', with its numerous on-stage skirmishes and multiple scenes of violence and murder, was considered a coarse play with little to recommend it to the
intelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the in ...
.
On the other hand, however, writers like
Thomas Heywood
Thomas Heywood (early 1570s – 16 August 1641) was an English playwright, actor, and author. His main contributions were to late Elizabethan and early Jacobean theatre. He is best known for his masterpiece ''A Woman Killed with Kindness'', a ...
and Thomas Nashe praised battle scenes in general as often being intrinsic to the play and not simply vulgar distractions for the illiterate. In ''Piers Penniless'' (1592), Nashe praised the
didactic
Didacticism is a philosophy that emphasizes instructional and informative qualities in literature, art, and design. In art, design, architecture, and landscape, didacticism is an emerging conceptual approach that is driven by the urgent need to ...
element of drama that depicted battle and martial action, arguing that such plays were a good way of teaching both history and
military tactics
Military tactics encompasses the art of organizing and employing fighting forces on or near the battlefield. They involve the application of four battlefield functions which are closely related – kinetic or firepower, Mobility (military), mobil ...
to the masses; in such plays "our forefather's valiant acts (that have lain long buried in rusty brass and worm-eaten books) are revived." Nashe also argued that plays that depict glorious national causes from the past rekindle a
patriotic
Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and sense of attachment to one's country. This attachment can be a combination of many different feelings, language relating to one's own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or histor ...
fervour that has been lost in "the puerility of an insipid present," and that such plays "provide a rare exercise of virtue in reproof to these degenerate
effeminate
Effeminacy is the embodiment of traits and/or expressions in those who are not of the female sex (e.g. boys and men) that are often associated with what is generally perceived to be feminine behaviours, mannerisms, styles, or gender roles, rather ...
days of ours." Similarly, in ''An Apology for Actors'' (1612), Heywood writes, "So bewitching a thing is lively and well-spirited action, that it hath power to new mould the hearts of the spectators, and fashion them to the shape of any noble and notable attempt." More recently, Michael Goldman has argued that battle scenes are vital to the overall movement and purpose of the play; "the sweep of athletic bodies across the stage is used not only to provide an exciting spectacle but to focus and clarify, to render dramatic, the entire unwieldy chronicle."
Questions of originality and quality, however, are not the only critical disagreement ''1 Henry VI'' has provoked. Numerous other issues divide critics, not the least of which concerns the authorship of the play.
Attribution studies
A number of Shakespeare's early plays have been examined for signs of co-authorship (''
The Taming of the Shrew
''The Taming of the Shrew'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1592. The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken ...
'', ''The Contention''
.e., ''2 Henry VI'' and ''True Tragedy''
.e., ''3 Henry VI'' for example), but, along with ''Titus Andronicus'', ''1 Henry VI'' stands as the most likely to have been a collaboration between Shakespeare and at least one other dramatist whose identity remains unknown. Thomas Nashe, Robert Greene,
George Peele
George Peele (baptised 25 July 1556 – buried 9 November 1596) was an English translator, poet, and dramatist, who is most noted for his supposed but not universally accepted collaboration with William Shakespeare on the play ''Titus Andronicus' ...
, Christopher Marlowe and
Thomas Kyd
Thomas Kyd (baptised 6 November 1558; buried 15 August 1594) was an English playwright, the author of ''The Spanish Tragedy'', and one of the most important figures in the development of Elizabethan drama.
Although well known in his own time, ...
are common proposals.
The belief that Shakespeare may have written very little of ''1 Henry VI'' first came from
Edmond Malone
Edmond Malone (4 October 174125 May 1812) was an Irish Shakespearean scholar and editor of the works of William Shakespeare.
Assured of an income after the death of his father in 1774, Malone was able to give up his law practice for at first p ...
in his 1790 edition of Shakespeare's plays, which included ''A Dissertation on the Three Parts of King Henry VI'', in which he argued that the large number of classical allusions in the play was more characteristic of Nashe, Peele, or Greene than of early Shakespeare. Malone also argued that the language itself indicated someone other than Shakespeare. This view was dominant until 1929, when
Peter Alexander Peter Alexander may refer to:
* Pete Alexander (born Grover Cleveland Alexander; 1887–1950), American baseball player
* Peter Alexander (Shakespearean scholar) (1893–1969), professor of English language and literature at the University of Glasgo ...
challenged it. Since then, scholars have remained divided on the issue. In 1944,
E. M. W. Tillyard
Eustace Mandeville Wetenhall Tillyard (19 May 1889 – 24 May 1962) was an English classical scholar, classical and literary scholar who was List of Masters of Jesus College, Cambridge, Master of Jesus College, Cambridge from 1945 to 1959.
Bio ...
argued that Shakespeare most likely wrote the entire play; in 1952, John Dover Wilson claimed Shakespeare wrote little of it.
In perhaps the most exhaustive analysis of the debate, the 1995 article, "Shakespeare and Others: The Authorship of ''Henry the Sixth, Part One''", Gary Taylor suggests that approximately 18.7% of the play (3,846 out of 20,515 words) was written by Shakespeare. Taylor argues that Nashe almost certainly wrote all of Act 1, but he attributes to Shakespeare 2.4, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4., 4.5, 4.6, and 4.7 through line 32. Taylor also suggests that the Temple Garden scene (2.4), in which the rival factions identify themselves through the selection of red and white roses, may have been a later addition. Scenes 4.5 to 4.7 include a series of
rhyming couplets
A couplet is a pair of successive lines of metre in poetry. A couplet usually consists of two successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (or closed) couplet, each of the ...
between Talbot and his son (4.5.15–4.7.50), which, while unusual to modern ears, apparently had "an electric effect upon early audiences." Traditionally, these lines have often been pinpointed as one of the most obviously non-Shakespearean sections of the play. Roger Warren, for instance, argues that these scenes are written in a language "so banal they ''must'' be non-Shakespearean."
Other than Taylor, however, several other critics also disagree with Warren's assessment of the quality of the language, arguing that the passages are more complex and accomplished than has hitherto been allowed for. Michael Taylor, for example, argues that "the
rhyming
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually, the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic ...
dialogue between the Talbots – often
stichomythic – shapes a kind of noble
flyting
Flyting or fliting is a contest consisting of the exchange of insults between two parties, often conducted in verse.
Etymology
The word ''flyting'' comes from the Old English verb meaning 'to quarrel', made into a noun with the suffix -''ing''. ...
match, a competition as to who can out-''oblige'' the other."
[Taylor (2003: 66)] Similarly, Alexander Leggatt argues that the passages are a perfect blend of
form and content
In art and art criticism, form and content are considered distinct aspects of a work of art. The term ''form'' refers to the work's composition, techniques and media used, and how the elements of design are implemented. It mainly focuses on the phy ...
: "The relentless click-click of the rhymes reinforces the point that for John Talbot, all arguments are arguments for death; as every other line ending is countered by a rhyme, so every argument Talbot gives John to flee becomes an argument for staying." Taylor and Leggatt are here arguing that the passages are more accomplished than most critics tend to give them credit for, thus offering a counter-argument to the theory that they are so poorly written, they could not possibly be by Shakespeare. In this sense, his failure to use couplets elsewhere in a tragic passage
can thus be attributed to an
aesthetic
Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed th ...
choice on his part, rather than offered as evidence of co-authorship.
Other scenes in the play have also been identified as offering possible evidence of co-authorship. For example, the opening lines of Act 1, Scene 2 have been argued to show clear evidence of Nashe's hand. The scene begins with Charles proclaiming, "
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...
his true moving – even as in the heavens/So in the earth – to this day is not known" (I.ii.1–2). Some critics believe that this statement is paraphrased in Nashe's later pamphlet ''
Have with You to Saffron-Walden
"Have With You To Saffron-Walden, Or, Gabriell Harveys hunt is up" is the title of a pamphlet written by Thomas Nashe and published in London in late 1596 by John Danter. The work is Nashe's final shot in his four-year literary feud with Dr. Gab ...
'' (1596), which contains the line, "You are as ignorant as the
astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...
s are in the true movings of Mars, which to this day, they never could attain to." The problem with this theory however, as Michael Hattaway has pointed out, is that there is no reason as to why Nashe could not simply be paraphrasing a play he had no involvement in—a common practice in
Elizabethan literature
Elizabethan literature refers to bodies of work produced during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603), and is one of the most splendid ages of English literature. In addition to drama and the theatre, it saw a flowering of poetry, with n ...
. Shakespeare and Marlowe, for example, often paraphrased each another's plays.
Nasheeb Sheehan offers more evidence, again suggestive of Nashe, when Alençon compares the English to "
Samson
Samson (; , '' he, Šīmšōn, label= none'', "man of the sun") was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges (chapters 13 to 16) and one of the last leaders who "judged" Israel before the institution o ...
s and
Goliases" (I.ii.33). The word 'Golias', Sheehan argues, is unusual insofar as all bibles in Shakespeare's day spelt the name 'Goliath'; it was only in much older editions of the Bible that it was spelt 'Golias'. Sheehan concludes that the use of the arcane spelling is more indicative of Nashe, who was prone to using older spellings of certain words, than Shakespeare, who was less likely to do so.
However, evidence of Shakespeare's authorship has also been found within the play. For example, Samuel Johnson argued that the play was more competently written than ''
King John'', ''Richard II'', ''1 Henry IV'', ''2 Henry IV'' and ''Henry V'', and, therefore, not attributing it to Shakespeare based on quality made little sense. A similar point is made by Lawrence V. Ryan, who suggests that the play fits so well into Shakespeare's overall style, with an intricate integration of form and content, that it was most likely written by him alone.
Another aspect of the debate is the actual likelihood of Shakespeare collaborating at all. Some critics, such as Hattaway and Cairncross, argue that it is unlikely that a young, up-and-coming dramatist trying to make a name for himself would have collaborated with other authors so early in his career. On the other hand, Michael Taylor suggests "it is not difficult to construct an imaginary scenario that has a harassed author calling on friends and colleagues to help him construct an unexpectedly commissioned piece in a hurry."
Another argument that challenges the co-authorship idea is that the basic theory of co-authorship was originally hypothesised in the 18th and 19th centuries due to a distaste for the treatment of Joan. Critics were uncomfortable attributing such a harsh depiction to Shakespeare, so they embraced the co-authorship theory to 'clear his name', suggesting that he could not have been responsible for the merciless characterization.
As with the question of the order in which the trilogy was written, twentieth century editors and scholars remain staunchly divided on the question of authorship. Edward Burns, for example, in his 2000 edition of the play for the ''Arden Shakespeare'' 3rd series, suggests that it is highly unlikely that Shakespeare wrote alone, and, throughout his introduction and commentary, he refers to the writer not as Shakespeare but as 'the dramatists'. He also suggests that the play should be more properly called ''Harry VI, by Shakespeare, Nashe and others''. Burns' predecessor however, Andrew S. Cairncross, editor of the play for the ''Arden Shakespeare'' 2nd series in 1962, ascribes the entire play to Shakespeare, as does Lawrence V. Ryan in his 1967 ''Signet Classic Shakespeare'' edition, and Michael Hattaway in his ''
New Cambridge Shakespeare
''The Cambridge Shakespeare'' is a long-running series of critical editions of William Shakespeare's works published by Cambridge University Press. The name encompasses three distinct series: ''The Cambridge Shakespeare'' (1863–1866), ''The Ne ...
'' edition of 1990. In his 1952 edition of the play, Dover Wilson, on the other hand, argued that the play was almost entirely written by others, and that Shakespeare actually had little to do with its composition. Speaking during a 1952 radio presentation of ''The Contention'' and ''True Tragedy,'' which he produced, Dover Wilson argued that he had not included ''1 Henry VI'' because it is a "patchwork in which Shakespeare collaborated with inferior dramatists."
On the other hand, Michael Taylor believes that Shakespeare almost certainly wrote the entire play, as does J. J. M. Tobin, who, in his essay in ''Henry VI: Critical Essays'' (2001), argues the similarities to Nashe do not reveal the hand of Nashe at work in the composition of the play, but instead reveal Shakespeare imitating Nashe. More recently, in 2005, Paul J. Vincent has re-examined the question in light of recent research into the Elizabethan theatre, concluding that ''1 Henry VI'' is Shakespeare's partial revision of a play by Nashe (Act 1) and an unknown playwright (Acts 2–5) and that it was the original, non-Shakespearean, play that was first performed on 3 March 1592. Shakespeare's work in the play, which was most likely composed in 1594, can be found in Act 2 (scene 4) and Act 4 (scenes 2–5 and the first 32 lines of scene 7). In 2007, Vincent's authorship findings, especially with regard to Nashe's authorship of Act 1, were supported overall by Brian Vickers, who agrees with the theory of co-authorship and differs only slightly over the extent of Shakespeare's contribution to the play.
In 2016,
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
announced that it would credit Christopher Marlowe as co-author alongside Shakespeare for all three ''Henry VI'' plays in its ''
New Oxford Shakespeare'' series. In the ''New Oxford Shakespeare,'' ''1 Henry VI'' was specifically credited as being written by "Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, and Anonymous, adapted by William Shakespeare".
Language
The very functioning of
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
itself is literally a theme in the play, with particular emphasis placed on its ability to
represent
Represent may refer to:
* ''Represent'' (Compton's Most Wanted album) or the title song, 2000
* ''Represent'' (Fat Joe album), 1993
* ''Represent'', an album by DJ Magic Mike, 1994
* "Represent" (song), by Nas, 1994
* "Represent", a song by the ...
by means of
signs (
semiosis
Semiosis (, ), or sign process, is any form of activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, including the production of meaning. A sign is anything that communicates a meaning, that is not the sign itself, to the interpreter of the sign ...
), the power of language to sway, the aggressive potential of language, the failure of language to adequately
describe reality and the manipulation of language so as to hide the truth.
The persuasive power of language is first alluded to by Charles, who tells Joan after she has assured him she can end the siege of Orléans, "Thou hast astonished me with thy high terms" (1.2.93). This sense is repeated when the Countess of Auvergne is wondering about Talbot and says to her servant, "Great is the rumour of this dreadful
knight
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...
,/And his achievements of no less account./Fain would mine eyes be witness with mine ears,/To give their censure of these rare reports" (2.3.7–10). Like Charles, Auvergne has been astonished with the 'high terms' bestowed on Talbot, and now she wishes to see if the report and the reality conflate. Later in the play, the persuasive power of language becomes important for Joan, as she uses it as a subterfuge to sneak into Rouen, telling her men, "Be wary how you place your words;/Talk like the vulgar sort of market men/That come to gather money for their corn" (3.2.3.5). Later, she uses language to persuade Burgundy to join with the Dauphin against the English. As Burgundy realises he is succumbing to her
rhetoric
Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...
, he muses to himself, "Either she hath bewitched me with her words,/Or
nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...
makes me suddenly relent" (3.3.58–59). Here, language is shown to be so powerful as to act on Burgundy the same way Nature itself would act, to the point where he is unsure if he has been persuaded by a natural occurrence or by Joan's words. Language is thus presented as capable of transforming
ideology
An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied pri ...
. As Joan finishes her speech, Burgundy again attests to the power of her language, "I am vanquish'd. These haughty words of hers/Have battered me like roaring canon-shot,/And made me almost yield upon my knees" (3.3.78–80). Later, something similar happens with Henry, who agrees to marry Margaret merely because of Suffolk's description of her. In a line that echoes Burgundy's, Henry queries what it is that has prompted him to agree to Suffolk's suggestion: "Whether it be through force of your report,/My noble lord of Suffolk, or for that/My tender youth was never yet attaint/With any passion of inflaming love, I cannot tell" (5.6.79–83). Here, again, the power of language is shown to be so strong as to be confused with a natural phenomenon.
![Talbot and Auvergne (Orchardson)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Talbot_and_Auvergne_%28Orchardson%29.jpg)
Language can also be employed aggressively. For example, after the death of Salisbury, when Talbot first hears about Joan, he contemptuously refers to her and Charles as "Puzel or pussel, dolphin or
dogfish" (1.5.85). In French, 'puzel' means
slut
''Slut (archaic: slattern)'' is an English-language term for a person, usually a woman or girl, who is considered to have loose sexual morals or who is sexually promiscuous. It is usually used as an insult, sexual slur or offensive term of d ...
, and 'pussel' is a variation of 'pucelle' (meaning
virgin
Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...
), but with an added negative connotation. These two words, 'puzel' and 'pussel', are both
pun
A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...
s on Joan's name (Pucelle), thus showing Talbot's utter contempt for her. Similarly, the use of the word 'dolphin' to describe the Dauphin carries negative and mocking connotations, as does the use of the word 'dogfish', a member of the
shark
Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimo ...
family considered dishonourable scavengers, preying on anything and anyone. Again, Talbot is showing his contempt for Charles' position by exposing it to mockery with some simple word play. Other examples of words employed aggressively are seen when the English reclaim Orléans, and a soldier chases the half-dressed French leaders from the city, declaring "The cry of 'Talbot' serves me for a sword,/For I have loaden me with many spoils,/Using no other weapon but his name" (2.1.81–83). A similar notion is found when the Countess of Auvergne meets Talbot, and muses, "Is this the Talbot so much feared abroad/That with his name the mothers still their babes" (2.3.15–16). Here words (specifically Talbot's name) literally become weapons, and are used directly to strike fear into the enemy.
However although words are occasionally shown to be powerful and deeply persuasive, they also often fail in their signifying role, exposed as incapable of adequately representing reality. This idea is introduced by Gloucester at Henry V's funeral, where he laments that words cannot encompass the life of such a great king: "What should I say? His deeds exceed all speech" (1.1.15). Later, when Gloucester and Winchester confront one another outside the Tower of London, Gloucester champions the power of real action over the power of threatening words: "I will not answer thee with words but blows" (1.3.69). Similarly, after the French capture Rouen and refuse to meet the English army in the battlefield, Bedford asserts, "O let no words, but deeds, revenge this
treason
Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...
" (3.2.48). Another example of the failure of language is found when Suffolk finds himself lost for words whilst attempting to woo Margaret: "Fain would I woo her, yet I dare not speak./I'll call for pen and ink and write my mind./Fie, de la Pole, disable not thyself!/Hast not a tongue?" (5.4.21–24). Later, Joan's words, so successful during the play in convincing others to support her, explicitly fail to save her life, as she is told by Warwick, "Strumpet, thy words condemn thy brat and thee./Use no entreaty, for it is in vain" (5.5.84–85).
Language as a system is also shown to be open to manipulation. Words can be employed for deceptive purposes, as the representative function of language gives way to deceit. For example, shortly after Charles has accepted Joan as his new commander, Alençon calls into question her sincerity, thus suggesting a possible discrepancy between her words and her actions; "These women are shrewd tempters with their tongues" (1.2.123). Another example occurs when Henry forces Winchester and Gloucester to put aside their animosity and shake hands. Their public words here stand in diametric opposition to their private intentions;
''WINCHESTER''
Well, Duke of Gloucester, I will yield to thee
Love for thy love, and hand for hand I give.
''He takes Gloucester's hand''
''GLOUCESTER''
(''aside'') Ay, but I fear me with a hollow heart.
(''to others'') See here, my friends and loving countrymen,
This token serveth for a flag of truce
Betwixt ourselves and all our followers.
So help me God as I dissemble not.
''WINCHESTER''
So help me God. (''aside'') As I intend it not.
:::::::(3.1.136–143)
![Choosing the Red and White Roses](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Choosing_the_Red_and_White_Roses.jpg)
Act 2, Scene 4 is perhaps the most important scene in the play in terms of language, as it is in this scene where Richard introduces the notion of what he calls "dumb significants," something that carries resonance throughout the trilogy. During his debate with Somerset, Richard points out to the lords who are unwilling to openly support either of them, "Since you are tongue tied and loath to speak,/In dumb significants proclaim your thoughts."(ll.25–26) The dumb significants he refers to are roses—a red rose to join Somerset, a white rose to join Richard. As such, the roses essentially function as
symbol
A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...
s, replacing the very need for language. Once all the lords select their roses, these symbolize the houses they represent. Henry chooses a red rose—totally unaware of the implications of his actions, as he does not understand the power the "dumb significants" have.
He places his trust in a more literal type of language, and thus selects a rose in what he thinks is a meaningless gesture—but that does in fact have profound implications. Henry's mistake results directly from his failure to grasp the importance of silent actions and symbolic decisions; "a gesture—especially such an ill-considered one—is worth and makes worthless, a thousand pretty words."
Themes
Death of chivalry
A fundamental theme in the play is the death of
chivalry
Chivalry, or the chivalric code, is an informal and varying code of conduct developed in Europe between 1170 and 1220. It was associated with the medieval Christianity, Christian institution of knighthood; knights' and gentlemen's behaviours we ...
, "the decline of England's
empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
over France and the accompanying decay of the ideas of
feudalism
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...
that had sustained the order of the
realm
A realm is a community or territory over which a sovereign rules. The term is commonly used to describe a monarchical or dynastic state. A realm may also be a subdivision within an empire, if it has its own monarch, e.g. the German Empire.
Etym ...
."
[Hattaway (1990: 6)] This is specifically manifested in the character of Talbot, the symbol of a dying breed of men honourably and selflessly devoted to the good of England, whose methods and style of leadership represent the last dying remnants of a now outmoded, feudal gallantry. As such, Michael Taylor refers to him as "the representative of a chivalry that was fast decaying," whilst Michael Hattaway sees him as "a figure for the nostalgia that suffuses the play, a dream of simple chivalric ''
virtus
''Virtus'' () was a specific virtue in Ancient Rome. It carries connotations of valor, manliness, excellence, courage, character, and worth, perceived as masculine strengths (from Latin ''vir'', "man"). It was thus a frequently stated virtue o ...
'' like that enacted every year at
Elizabeth
Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to:
People
* Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name)
* Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist
Ships
* HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships
* ''Elisabeth'' (sch ...
's
Accession Day tilts, a dream of true empire. He is designed to appeal to a popular audience, and his death scene where he calls for troops who do not appear is yet another demonstration of the destructiveness of aristocratic factionalism."
One of the clearest examples of Talbot's adherence to the codes of chivalry is seen in his response to Fastolf's desertion from the battlefield. As far as Talbot is concerned, Fastolf's actions reveal him as a dishonourable coward who places self-preservation above self-sacrifice, and thus he represents everything wrong with the modern knight. This is in direct contrast to the chivalry that Talbot represents, a chivalry he remembers fondly from days gone by:
''TALBOT''
I vowed, base knight, when I did meet thee next,
To tear the garter
A garter is an article of clothing comprising a narrow band of fabric fastened about the leg to keep up stockings. In the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, they were tied just below the knee, where the leg is most slender, to keep the stocking ...
from thy craven's leg,
Which I have done because unworthily
Thou wast install'd in that high degree. –
Pardon me, princely Henry, and the rest.
This dastard, at the Battle of Patay
The Battle of Patay, fought on 18 June 1429 during the Hundred Years' War, was the culmination of the Loire Campaign between the French and English in north-central France. In this engagement, the horsemen of the French vanguard inflicted heavy ...
,
When but in all I was six thousand strong,
And that the French were almost ten to one,
Before we met, or that a stroke was given,
Like to a trusty squire
In the Middle Ages, a squire was the shield- or armour-bearer of a knight.
Use of the term evolved over time. Initially, a squire served as a knight's apprentice. Later, a village leader or a lord of the manor might come to be known as a " ...
did run away;
In which assault we lost twelve hundred men.
Myself and divers gentlemen beside
Were there surprised and taken prisoners.
Then judge, great lords, if I have done amiss,
Or whether that such cowards ought to wear
This ornament of knighthood: yea or no?
''GLOUCESTER''
To say the truth, this fact was infamous
And ill beseeming any common man,
Much more a knight, a captain, and a leader.
''TALBOT''
When first this order was ordained, my lords,
Knights of the garter were of noble birth,
Valiant and virtuous, full of haughty courage,
Such as were grown to credit by the wars;
Not fearing death nor shrinking for distress,
But always resolute in most extremes.
He then that is not furnished in this sort
Doth but usurp the sacred name of knight,
Profaning this most honourable order,
And should – if I were worthy to be judge –
Be quite degraded, like a hedge-born swain
That doth presume to boast of gentle blood.
:::::::(4.1.14–44)
Talbot's description of Fastolf's actions stands in direct contrast to the image of an ideal knight, and as such, the ideal and the reality serve to highlight one another, and thus reveal the discrepancy between them.
Similarly, just as Talbot uses knights to represent an ideal past, by remembering how they used to be chivalric, so too does Gloucester in relation to Henry V, who he also sees as representing a glorious and honourable past:
England ne're had a king until his time.
Virtue he had, deserving to command;
His brandished sword did bind men with his beams,
His arms spread wider than a dragon
A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...
's wings,
His sparkling eyes, replete with wrathful fire,
More dazzled and drove back his enemies
Than midday sun fierce bent against their faces.
:::::::(1.1.8–14)
Henry V has this function throughout much of the play; "he is presented not as a man but as a
rhetoric
Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...
al construct fashioned out of
hyperbole
Hyperbole (; adj. hyperbolic ) is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. In rhetoric, it is also sometimes known as auxesis (literally 'growth'). In poetry and oratory, it emphasizes, evokes strong feelings, and ...
, as a heroic image or heraldic icon." He is seen as a representative of a celebrated past that can never be recaptured: "There is in the play a dominant, nostalgic, celebratory reminiscence of Henry V who lives on in the immortality of
preternatural
The preternatural (or praeternatural) is that which appears outside or beside (Latin: '' præter'') the natural. It is "suspended between the mundane and the miraculous".
In theology, the term is often used to distinguish marvels or deceptive t ...
legend."
![The Maid of Orleans (Ward)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/The_Maid_of_Orleans_%28Ward%29.jpg)
The play, however, does not simply depict the fall of one order; it also depicts the rise of another; "How the nation might have remained true to itself is signified by the words and deeds of Talbot. What she is in danger of becoming is signified by the shortcomings of the French, failings that crop up increasingly amongst Englishman
..also manifest are an English decline towards French effeminacy and the beginnings of reliance upon fraud and cunning rather than manly courage and straightforward manly virtue." If the old mode of honourable conduct is specifically represented by Talbot and Henry V, the new mode of duplicity and
Machiavellianism
Machiavellianism or Machiavellian may refer to:
Politics
*Machiavellianism (politics), the supposed political philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli
*Political realism
Psychology
*Machiavellianism (psychology), a personality trait centered on cold an ...
is represented by Joan, who employs a type of warfare with which Talbot is simply unable to cope. This is seen most clearly when she sneaks into Rouen and subsequently refuses to face Talbot in a battle. Talbot finds this kind of behaviour incomprehensible and utterly dishonourable. As such, he finds himself fighting an enemy who uses tactics he is incapable of understanding; with the French using what he sees as unconventional methods, he proves unable to adapt. This represents one of the ironies in the play's depiction of chivalry; it is the very resoluteness of Talbot's honour and integrity, his insistence in preserving an old code abandoned by all others, which ultimately defeats him; his inability to adjust means he becomes unable to function in the newly established 'dishonourable' context. As such, the play is not entirely nostalgic about chivalry; "so often the tenets of chivalry are mocked by word and action. The play is full of moments of punctured aristocratic hauteur."
Talbot's mode of chivalry is replaced by politicians concerned only with themselves and their own advancement: Winchester, Somerset, Suffolk, even Richard. As
Jane Howell
Jane Howell (15 Aug 1935) is an English theatre and television director. She is known for directing six television plays of the BBC Television Shakespeare series in the 1980s: ''The Winter's Tale'' (1981), ''Henry VI, Part 1'' (1983), ''Henry VI ...
, director of the ''BBC Shakespeare'' adaptation argues, "what I was concerned about in the first play
..was that for a long time, the code of the people had been chivalry. But with the death of Talbot, one starts to see a demise of chivalry."
Narcissistic
Narcissism is a self-centered personality style characterized as having an excessive interest in one's physical appearance or image and an excessive preoccupation with one's own needs, often at the expense of others.
Narcissism exists on a co ...
political infighting has supplanted self-sacrificing patriotism and chivalry: "the play charts the disastrous breakdown of civility among the English nobility."
Nobles concerned with personal power above all else have replaced knights concerned only with the empire. As such, by the end of the play, both Talbot and his son lay dead, as does the notion of English chivalry. In this sense then, the play "depicts the deaths of the titanic survivors of an ''
ancien régime
''Ancien'' may refer to
* the French word for "ancient, old"
** Société des anciens textes français
* the French for "former, senior"
** Virelai ancien
** Ancien Régime
** Ancien Régime in France
{{disambig ...
''."
Patriotism
![Henry VI Part I - Lord Talbot dies](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Henry_VI_Part_I_-_Lord_Talbot_dies.jpg)
Hand-in-hand with the examination of chivalry with which the play engages is an examination of patriotism. Indeed, some critics argue that patriotism provided the impetus for the play in the first place. England defeated the
Spanish Armada
The Spanish Armada (a.k.a. the Enterprise of England, es, Grande y Felicísima Armada, links=no, lit=Great and Most Fortunate Navy) was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, commanded by the Duke of Medina Sidonia, an aris ...
in 1588, leading to a short-lived period of international confidence and patriotic pride—but by 1590, the national mood was one of despondency, and as such, ''1 Henry VI'' may have been commissioned to help dispel this mood: "The patriotic emotions to which this play shamelessly appeals resonate at an especially fragile time politically speaking. Frightening memories of the 1588 Spanish Armada, or of the
Babington Plot
The Babington Plot was a plan in 1586 to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I, a Protestant, and put Mary, Queen of Scots, her Catholic cousin, on the English throne. It led to Mary's execution, a result of a letter sent by Mary (who had been impris ...
of 1586, which led to the execution of
Mary, Queen of Scots
Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567.
The only surviving legitimate child of James V of Scot ...
; concerns over a noticeably declining and still unmarried Queen Elizabeth; worries over
Catholic recusancy; fear of military involvement in Europe, and, just as disquietingly, in Ireland, combine to make a patriotic response a matter of some urgency.
he play
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
is a bracing attempt to stiffen the sinews of the English in a time of danger and deceit."
Evidence of this is seen throughout. For example, the English seem vastly outnumbered in every battle, yet they never give up, and often they prove victorious. Indeed, even when they do lose, the suggestion is often made that it was because of treachery, as only by duplicitous means could their hardiness be overcome. For example, during the Battle of Patay (where Talbot is captured), the messenger reports,
The tenth of August last, this dreadful lord .e. Talbot
Retiring from the siege of Orléans,
Having full scarce six thousand in his troop,
By three-and-twenty thousand of the French
Was round encompass'd and set upon:
No leisure had he to enrank his men.
He wanted pikes to set before his archers
Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In mo ...
;
Instead whereof sharp stakes plucked out of hedges
They pitch'd in the ground confusedly
To keep the horsemen off from breaking in.
More than three hours the fight continu'd,
Where valiant Talbot, above human thought,
Enacted wonders with his sword and lance
A lance is a spear designed to be used by a mounted warrior or cavalry soldier ( lancer). In ancient and medieval warfare, it evolved into the leading weapon in cavalry charges, and was unsuited for throwing or for repeated thrusting, unlike si ...
.
Hundreds he sent to hell
In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...
, and none durst stand him;
Here, there, and everywhere, enraged he slew.
The French exclaimed the devil
A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...
was in arms:
All the whole army stood agazed on him.
His soldiers, spying his undaunted spirit,
'À Talbot! À Talbot!' cried out amain,
And rushed into the bowels of the battle.
Here had the conquest fully been sealed up
If Sir John Fastolf had not played the coward.
He, being in the tactical formation, vanguard placed behind,
With purpose to relieve and follow them,
Cowardly fled, not having struck one stroke.
Hence flew the general wrack and massacre;
Enclos'd were they with their enemies.
A base Walloons, Walloon, to win the Dauphin's grace,
Thrust Talbot with a spear into the back –
Whom all France, with their chief assembled strength,
Durst not presume to look once in the face.
:::::::(1.1.108–140)
Here Fastolf's betrayal is the direct cause of the English defeat, not the fact that they were outnumbered ten-to-one, that they were hit by a surprise attack or that they were surrounded. This notion is returned to several times, with the implication each time that only treachery can account for an English defeat. For example, upon hearing of the first loss of towns in France, Exeter immediately asks, "How were they lost? What treachery was used?" (1.1.68). Upon losing Rouen, Talbot exclaims, "France, thou shalt rue this treason with thy tears/If Talbot but survive thy treachery" (3.2.35–36). Later, when thinking back on the French campaign, Richard asks Henry, "Have we not lost most part of all the towns/By treason, falsehood and by treachery" (5.5.108–109).
![Talbot (Selous)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Talbot_%28Selous%29.jpg)
However, if the English are of the mind that they can only be defeated by treachery and betrayal, the play also presents the French as somewhat in awe of them, bearing a begrudging respect for them, and fearing their strength in battle. As such, whilst the English attribute every defeat to treachery, the French opinion of the English seems to imply that perhaps this is indeed the only way to beat them. For example, during the siege of Orléans:
''ALENÇON''
Jean Froissart, Froissart, a countryman of ours, records
England all Oliver (paladin), Olivers and Rolands bred
During the time Edward III of England, Edward the Third did reign.
More truly now may this be verified,
For none but Samsons and Goliases
It sendeth forth to skirmish. One to ten?
Lean raw-boned rascals – who would e'er suppose
They had such courage and audacity.
''CHARLES''
Let's leave this town, for they are hare-brained slaves,
And hunger will enforce them to be more eager.
Of old I know them; rather with their teeth
The walls they'll tear down than forsake the siege.
''REIGNIER''
I think by some odd gimmers or device
Their arms are set, like clocks, still to strike on,
Else n'er could they hold out as they do.
:::::::(1.2.29-44)
As such, the play presents, to a certain extent, the English image of themselves as somewhat in line with the French image of them, with both stressing resoluteness and steadfastness.
Another component of the patriotic sentiment is the religious note the play often strikes. On the whole, everything Catholic Church, Catholic is represented as bad, everything Protestantism, Protestant is represented as good: "The play's popularity [in 1592] has to be seen against the backdrop of an extraordinary efflorescence of interest in political history in the last two decades of the sixteenth century fed by self-conscious patriotic Protestantism's fascination with its own biography in history. It is not for nothing that ''Part One'' is persistently anti-Catholic in a number of ways despite the fact that in the fifteenth century the entire population of England was nominally Catholic (though not, of course, in 1592). The French are presented as decadently Catholic, the English (with the exception of the Bishop of Winchester) as attractively Protestant." Talbot himself is an element of this, insofar as his "rhetoric is correspondingly Protestant. His biblical references are all from the Old Testament (a source less fully used by Catholics) and speak of stoicism and individual faith." Henry V is also cited as an example of Protestant purity: "He was a king blest of the King of Kings./Unto the French the dreadful Last Judgment, judgement day/So dreadful will not be as was his sight./The battles of the Heavenly host, Lords of Hosts he fought" (1.1.28–31). "King of kings" is a phrase used in First Epistle to Timothy, 1 Timothy, 6:15. "Lords of Hosts" is used throughout the Old Testament, and to say Henry fought for the Lord of Hosts is to compare him to the warrior king, David, who also fought for the Lords of Hosts in Books of Samuel, 1 Samuel, 25:28.
However, despite the obvious celebratory patriotic tone and sense of Protestant/English religio-political identity, as with the lamentation for the death of chivalry, the play is somewhat ambiguous in its overall depiction of patriotism. Ultimately, the play depicts how the English ''lost'' France, a seemingly strange subject matter if Shakespeare was attempting to instil a sense of national pride in the people. This is rendered even more so when one considers that Shakespeare could have written about how England won France in the first place: "The popularity of "Armada rhetoric" during the time of ''1 Henry VIs composition would have seemed to ask for a play about Henry V, not one which begins with his death and proceeds to dramatise English loses." In this sense then, the depiction of patriotism, although undoubtedly strong, is not without ambiguity; the very story told by the play renders any patriotic sentiment found within to be something of a hollow victory.
Saintly vs. demonic
![Joan and the Furies (Hamilton)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Joan_and_the_Furies_%28Hamilton%29.jpg)
Demons, spirits, witchcraft, witches, saints and God are all mentioned on numerous occasions within the play, often relating directly to Joan, who is presented as "a fascinating mixture of saint, witch, naïve girl, clever woman, audacious warrior and sensual tart." The English continually refer to her as a witch and a whore, the French as a saint and a Salvation, saviour, and the play itself seems to waver between these two poles: "Joan first appears in a state of Beatitudes, beatitude, patient, serene, the "Divinest creature" of Charles' adoration, the object of the Mary, mother of Jesus, Virgin Mary's miraculous intercession, chosen by her to rescue France, and so made beautiful, courageous and wise
..on the other hand, and virtually at the same time, she's clearly an early combination of the demonic, the Machiavellian, and the Marlovian."
Joan is introduced into the play by the Bastard, who, even before anyone has seen or met her, says, "A holy maid hither with me I bring" (1.2.51). Later, after Joan has helped the French lift the siege of Orléans, Charles declares, "No longer on Saint Denis of Paris, Saint Denis will we cry, but Joan la Pucelle shall be France's saint" (1.7.28–30). Similarly, when Joan reveals her plan to turn Burgundy against the English, Alençon declares, "We'll set thy statue in some holy place/And have thee reverenced like a blessed saint" (3.3.14–15).
On the other hand, however, the English see her as a demon. Prior to her combat with Talbot, he exclaims, "Devil or devil's dam, I'll conjure thee./Blood will I draw on thee – thou art a witch –/And straightway give thy soul to him thou serv'st" (1.6.5–7). Then, after the fight, he says, "My thoughts are whirl'd like a potter's wheel./I know not where I am nor what I do./A witch, by fear, not force, like Hannibal,/Drives back our troops and conquers as she lists" (1.6.19–22). Upon arriving in France, Bedford condemns Charles for aligning himself with Joan: "How much he wrongs his fame,/Despairing of his own arms' fortitude,/To join with witches and the help of hell" (2.1.16–18). Talbot responds to this with, "Well, let them practice and converse with spirits./God is our fortress" (2.1.25–26). Later, Talbot refers to her as "Pucelle, that witch, that damn'd sorceress" (3.2.37) and "Foul fiend of France, and hag of all despite" (3.2.51), declaring "I speak not to that railing Hecate" (3.2.64). Prior to executing her, York also calls her a "Fell banning hag" (5.2.42).
Joan herself addresses this issue as she is about to be executed:
First let me tell you whom you have condemned:
Not me begotten of a shepherd swain,
But issued from the progeny of kings;
Virtuous and holy, chosen from above
By inspiration of celestial grace
To work exceeding miracles on earth.
I never had to do with wicked spirits;
But you, that are polluted with your lusts,
Stained with the guiltless blood of innocents,
Corrupt and tainted with a thousand vices –
Because you want the grace that others have,
You judge it straight a thing impossible
To compass wonders but by help of devils.
No, misconceiv'd, Joan of Arc hath been
A virgin from her tender infancy,
Chaste and immaculate in very thought,
Whose maiden blood, thus rigorously effused,
Will cry for vengeance at the gates of heaven.
::::::: (5.5.36–53)
Having failed in her efforts to convince the English she is a holy virgin, and that killing her will invoke the wrath of heaven, she alters her story and claims she is pregnant, hoping they will spare her for the sake of the child. She then lists off various French nobles who could be her child's father in an effort to find one who the English respect. In this sense then, Joan leaves the play as neither saintly nor demonic, but as a frightened woman pleading fruitlessly for her life.
An important question in any examination of Joan is the question of whether or not she is a unified, stable character who vacillates from saintly to demonic, or a poorly constructed character, now one thing, now the other. According to Edward Burns, "Joan cannot be read as a substantive realist character, a unified subject with a coherent singly identity."
Michael Hattaway offers an alternate, sympathetic view of Joan that argues that the character's movement from saintly to demonic is justified within the text: "Joan is the play's tragic figure, comparable with Faulconbridge in ''King John''. She turns to witchcraft only in despair; it cannot be taken as an unequivocal manifestation of diabolic power."
Another theory is that Joan is actually a comic figure, and the huge alterations in her character are supposed to evoke laughter. Michael Taylor, for example, argues, "A fiendish provenance replaces a divine one in [Act 5, Scene 3], a scene that reduces Joan to a comic, bathetic dependency on shifty representatives of the underworld." In line with this thinking, it is worth pointing out that in the 1981 ''BBC Television Shakespeare'' adaptation, Joan, and the French in general, are treated predominantly as comic figures. Joan (Brenda Blethyn), Alençon (Michael Byrne (actor), Michael Byrne), the Bastard (Brian Protheroe), Reignier (David Daker) and Charles (Ian Saynor) are treated as buffoons for the most part, and there is no indication of any malevolence (significantly, when Joan's fiends abandon her, we never see them, we simply see her talking to empty air). Examples of the comic treatment of the characters are found during the battle of Orléans, where Joan is ludicrously depicted as defending the city from the entire English army single-handed, whilst Talbot stands by incredulously watching his soldiers flee one after another. Another example appears in Act 2, Scene 1, as the five of them blame one another for the breach in the watch at Orléans that allowed the English back into the city. Their role as comic figures is also shown in Act 3, Scene 2. After Joan has entered Rouen and the others stand outside waiting for her signal. Charles is shown sneaking through a field holding a helmet with a large plumage, plume up in front of his face in an effort to hide.
The notion of demonic agency and saintly power, however, is not confined to Joan. For example, in the opening conversation of the play, speculating as to how Talbot could have been taken prisoner, Exeter exclaims "shall we think the subtle-witted French/Conjurers and sorcerers, that, afraid of him,/By magic verse have contrived his end" (1.1.25–27). Later, discussing the French capture of Orléans, Talbot claims it was "contrived by art and baleful sorcery" (2.1.15). Indeed, the French make similar claims about the English. During the Battle of Patay for example, according to the messenger, "The French exclaimed the devil was in arms" (1.1.125). Later, as the English attack Orléans,
''BASTARD''
I think this Talbot be a fiend of hell.
''REIGNIER''
If not of hell, the heavens sure favour him.
:::::::(2.1.47–48)
Here, much as the English had done when they were being defeated by Joan, the French attribute diabolic power to their vanquishers. Unlike the English however, the French acknowledge that Talbot must be either a demon or a saint. As far as the English are concerned, Joan is demonic, it is not open to question.
Performance
After the original 1592 performances, the complete text of ''1 Henry VI'' seems to have been rarely acted. The first definite performance after Shakespeare's day was on 13 March 1738 at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in what seems to have been a stand-alone performance, as there is no record of a performance of either ''2 Henry VI'' or ''3 Henry VI''. The next certain performance in England did not occur until 1906, when Frank Benson (actor), F.R. Benson presented the play at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in a production of Shakespeare's two tetralogies, performed over eight nights. As far as can be ascertained, this was not only the first performance of the octology, but was also the first definite performance of both the tetralogy and the trilogy. Benson himself played Henry and his wife, Constance Benson, played Margaret.
In 1953, Douglas Seale directed a production of ''1 Henry VI'' at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, following successful productions of ''2 Henry VI'' in 1951 and ''3 Henry VI'' in 1952. All three plays starred Paul Daneman as Henry and Rosalind Boxall as Margaret, with ''1 Henry VI'' featuring Derek Godfrey as Talbot and Judi Dench as Joan.
A 1977 production at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre made much of its unedited status. Terry Hands presented all three ''Henry VI'' plays with Alan Howard (actor), Alan Howard as Henry and Helen Mirren as Margaret. Though the production had only moderate box office success, critics lauded it for Alan Howard's unique portrayal of Henry. Howard adopted historical details concerning the real Henry's insanity, madness into his performance, presenting the character as constantly on the brink of a mental and emotional breakdown. Possibly as a reaction to a recent adaptation of the trilogy under the general title ''Wars of the Roses'', which was strongly political – Hands attempted to ensure his own production was entirely apolitical. "''Wars of the Roses'' was a study in power politics: its central image was the conference table, and Warwick, the scheming king-maker, was the central figure. But that's not Shakespeare. Shakespeare goes far beyond politics. Politics is a very shallow science." Aside from Howard and Mirren, the production starred David Swift (actor), David Swift as Talbot and Charlotte Cornwell as Joan.
Under the direction of Michael Boyd (theatre director), Michael Boyd the play was presented at the Swan Theatre (Stratford), Swan Theatre in Stratford in 2000, with David Oyelowo as Henry and Keith Bartlett as Talbot. Both Margaret and Joan were played by Fiona Bell (as Joan is burned, Bell symbolically rose from the ashes as Margaret). The play was presented with the five other history plays to form a complete eight-part history cycle under the general title ''This England: The Histories'' (the first time the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) had ever attempted to stage the eight plays as one sequence). ''This England: The Histories'' was revived in 2006, as part of the ''Complete Works (RSC festival), Complete Works'' festival at the Courtyard Theatre, with the ''Henry VI'' plays again directed by Boyd, and starring Chuk Iwuji as Henry and Keith Bartlett reprising his role as Talbot. Katy Stephens played both Margaret and Joan. When the ''Complete Works'' wrapped in March 2007, the history plays remained on stage, under the shorter title ''The Histories'', as part of a two-year thirty-four actor ensemble cast, ensemble production. ''1 Henry VI'' was performed under the title ''Henry VI, Part 1: The War Against France''. At the end of the two-year programme, the entire octology was performed over a four-day period under the title ''The Glorious Moment''; ''Richard II'' was staged on a Thursday evening, followed by the two ''Henry IV'' plays on Friday afternoon and evening, the three ''Henry VI'' plays on Saturday (two afternoon performances and one evening performance), and ''Richard III'' on Sunday evening.
Boyd's production garnered much attention at the time because of his interpolations and additions to the text. Most notably, Boyd introduced a new character into the trilogy. Called The Keeper, the character never speaks, but upon the death of each major character, the Keeper (played by Edward Clayton in 2000, and by Anthony Bunsee in 2006/2007), wearing all red, would walk onto stage and approach the body. The actor playing the body would then stand up and allow himself to be led off-stage by the figure. The production was also particularly noted for its realistic violence. According to Robert Gore-Langton of the ''Daily Express'', in his review of the original 2000 production, "blood from a severed arm sprayed over my lap. A human liver slopped to the floor by my feet. An eyeball scudded past, then a tongue."
In 2012, the trilogy was staged at Shakespeare's Globe as part of the Globe to Globe Festival, with each play performed by a different Balkans based company and offered as a commentary on the recent history of violence in that region. ''1 Henry VI'' was staged by National Theatre in Belgrade, National Theatre Belgrade, directed by Nikita Milivojević, and starring Hadzi Nenad Maricic as Henry, Nebojša Kundačina as Talbot and Jelena Djulvezan as Joan. In 2013, Nick Bagnall directed another production of the trilogy at the Globe. All three plays were performed each day, beginning at midday, under the overall title ''Henry VI: Three Plays''. ''1 Henry VI'' was performed under the title ''Henry VI: Harry the Sixth''. Each of the plays was edited down to two hours, and the entire trilogy was performed with a cast of fourteen actors. On several specific dates, the plays were performed at the actual locations where some of the original events took place and Streaming media, streamed live to the theatre; "battlefield productions" were staged at Towton (Battle of Towton from ''3 Henry VI''), Tewkesbury (Battle of Tewkesbury from ''3 Henry VI''), St Albans Cathedral (First Battle of St Albans from ''2 Henry VI'' and Second Battle of St Albans from ''3 Henry VI''), and Monken Hadley Common (Battle of Barnet from ''3 Henry VI''). The production starred Graham Butler as Henry, Mary Doherty as Margaret, Andrew Sheridan as Talbot and Beatriz Romilly as Joan.
Apart from the 1738 performance at Covent Garden (about which nothing is known), there is no evidence of ''1 Henry VI'' having ever been performed as a stand-alone play, unlike both ''2 Henry VI'' (which was initially staged as a single play by Douglas Seale in 1951) and ''3 Henry VI'' (which was staged as a single play by Katie Mitchell in 1994).
Outside the UK, the first major American performance was in 1935 at the Pasadena Playhouse in California, directed by Gilmore Brown, as part of a production of all ten Shakespearean histories (the two tetralogies, preceded by ''King John'' and proceeded by ''Henry VIII (play), Henry VIII'').
In Europe, unedited stagings of the play took place at the Deutsches Nationaltheater and Staatskapelle Weimar, Weimar Court Theatre in 1857. Directed by Franz von Dingelstedt, it was performed as the sixth part of the octology, with all eight plays staged over a ten-day period. A major production was staged at the Burgtheater in Vienna in 1873, with a celebrated performance from Friedrich Mitterwurzer as Winchester. Jocza Savits directed a production of the tetralogy at the Bavarian State Opera, Munich Court Theatre in 1889 and again in 1906. In 1927, Saladin Schmitt presented the unedited octology at the Municipal Theatre in Bochum. Denis Llorca staged the tetralogy as one twelve-hour piece in Carcassonne in 1978 and in Créteil in 1979.
Adaptations
Theatrical
Evidence for the first adaptation of ''1 Henry VI'' is not found until 1817, when Edmund Kean appeared in John Herman Merivale, J.H. Merivale's ''Richard Duke of York; or the Contention of York and Lancaster'' at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Drury Lane, which used material from all three ''Henry VI'' plays, but removed everything not directly related to York; the play ended with his death, which occurs in Act 1, Scene 4 of ''3 Henry VI''. Material used from ''1 Henry VI'' includes the Temple Garden scene, the Mortimer scene and the introduction of Margaret.
Following Merivale's example, Robert Atkins (actor), Robert Atkins adapted all three plays into a single piece for a performance at The Old Vic in 1923 as part of the celebrations for the tercentenary of the ''First Folio''. Guy Martineau played Henry, Esther Whitehouse played Margaret, Ernest Meads played Talbot and Jane Bacon played Joan.
The success of the 1951–53 Douglas Seale stand-alone productions of each of the individual plays in Birmingham prompted him to present the three plays together at the Old Vic in 1957 under the general title ''The Wars of the Roses''. Barry Jackson (director), Barry Jackson adapted the text, altering the trilogy into a two-part play. ''1 Henry VI'' and ''2 Henry VI'' were combined (with almost all of ''1 Henry VI'' eliminated) and ''3 Henry VI'' was edited. Seale again directed, with Paul Daneman again appearing as Henry, alongside Barbara Jefford as Margaret. The roles of both Talbot and Joan were removed, and ''1 Henry VI'' was reduced to three scenes – the funeral of Henry V, the Temple Garden scene and the introduction of Margaret.
The production usually credited with establishing the reputation of the play in the modern theatre is John Barton (director), John Barton and Peter Hall (director), Peter Hall's 1963/1964 RSC production of the tetralogy, adapted into a three-part series, under the general title ''The Wars of the Roses (adaptation), The Wars of the Roses'', at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. The first play (entitled simply ''Henry VI'') featured a much shortened version of ''1 Henry VI'' and half of ''2 Henry VI'' (up to the death of Beaufort). The second play (entitled ''Edward IV'') featured the second half of ''2 Henry VI'' and a shortened version of ''3 Henry VI'', which was followed by a shortened version of ''Richard III'' as the third play. In all, 1,450 lines written by Barton were added to 6,000 lines of original Shakespearean material, with a total of 12,350 lines removed. The production starred David Warner (actor), David Warner as Henry, Peggy Ashcroft as Margaret, Derek Smith (later replaced by Clive Swift) as Talbot and Janet Suzman as Joan. Barton and Hall were both especially concerned that the plays reflect the contemporary political environment, with the civil chaos and breakdown of society depicted in the plays mirrored in the contemporary ''milieu'', by events such as the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 and the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. Hall allowed these events to reflect themselves in the production, arguing that "we live among war, race riots, revolutions, assassinations, and the imminent threat of extinction. The theatre is, therefore, examining fundamentals in staging the ''Henry VI'' plays." They were also influenced by politically focused literary theory of the time; both had attended the 1956 London visit of Bertolt Brecht's Berliner Ensemble, both were subscribers to Antonin Artaud's theory of "Theatre of Cruelty", and Hall had read an English translation of Jan Kott's influential ''Shakespeare Our Contemporary'' in 1964 prior to its publication in Britain. Both Barton and Hall were also supporters of
E. M. W. Tillyard
Eustace Mandeville Wetenhall Tillyard (19 May 1889 – 24 May 1962) was an English classical scholar, classical and literary scholar who was List of Masters of Jesus College, Cambridge, Master of Jesus College, Cambridge from 1945 to 1959.
Bio ...
's 1944 book ''Shakespeare's History Plays'', which was still a hugely influential text in Shakespearian scholarship, especially in terms of its argument that Shakespeare in the tetralogy was advancing the Tudor myth.
Another major adaptation was staged in 1987 by the English Shakespeare Company, under the direction of Michael Bogdanov. This touring production opened at the Old Vic, and subsequently toured for two years, performing at, amongst other places, the Panasonic Globe Theatre in Tokyo, Japan (as the inaugural play of the arena), the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy and at the Adelaide Festival in Australia. Following the structure established by Barton and Hall, Bogdanov combined a heavily edited ''1 Henry VI'' and the first half of ''2 Henry VI'' into one play (''Henry VI''), and the second half of ''2 Henry VI'' and ''3 Henry VI'' into another (''Edward IV''), and followed them with an edited ''Richard III''. Also like Barton and Hall, Bogdanov concentrated on political issues, although he made them far more overt than had his predecessors. For example, played by June Watson, Margaret was closely modelled after the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, British Prime Minister at the time, Margaret Thatcher, even to the point of having similar clothes and hair. Likewise, Paul Brennan's Henry was closely modelled after Edward VIII, King Edward VIII, prior to his abdication. Bogdanov also employed frequent anachronisms and contemporary visual registers (such as modern dress), in an effort to show the relevance of the politics to the contemporary period. The production was noted for its pessimism as regards British politics, with some critics feeling the political resonances were too heavy handed. However, the series was a huge box office success. Alongside Watson and Brennan, the play starred Michael Fenner as Talbot and Mary Rutherford as Joan.
Another adaptation of the tetralogy by the Royal Shakespeare Company followed in 1988, performed at the Barbican Centre, Barbican. Adapted by Charles Wood (playwright), Charles Wood and directed by Adrian Noble, the Barton/Hall structure was again followed, reducing the trilogy to two plays by dividing ''2 Henry VI'' in the middle. The resulting trilogy was entitled ''The Plantagenets'', with the individual plays entitled ''Henry VI'', ''The Rise of Edward IV'' and ''Richard III, His Death''. Starring Ralph Fiennes as Henry, Penny Downie as Margaret, Mark Hadfield as Talbot and Julia Ford as Joan, the production was extremely successful with both audiences and critics.
Michael Bogdanov and the English Shakespeare Company presented a different adaptation at the Swansea Grand Theatre in 1991, using the same cast as on the touring production. All eight plays from the history cycle were presented over a seven night period, with each play receiving one performance only, and with only twenty-eight actors portraying the nearly five hundred roles. Whilst the other five plays in the cycle were unadapted, the ''Henry VI'' plays were combined into two, using the Barton/Hall structure, with the first named ''The House of Lancaster'' and the second, ''The House of York''.
In 2000, Edward Hall (director), Edward Hall presented the trilogy as a two-part series at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury, Berkshire, Newbury. Hall followed the Jackson/Seale structure, combining ''1 Henry VI'' and ''2 Henry VI'' into one play that all but eliminated ''1 Henry VI'', and following this with an edited version of ''3 Henry VI''. This production was noted for how it handled the violence of the play. The set was designed to look like an slaughterhouse, abattoir, but rather than attempt to present the violence realistically (as most productions do), Hall went in the other direction, presenting the violence symbolically. Whenever a character was decapitated or killed, a red cabbage was sliced up whilst the actor mimed the death beside it.
In 2001, Tom Markus directed an adaptation of the tetralogy at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. Condensing all fours plays into one, Markus named the play ''Queen Margaret'', doing much the same with the character of Margaret as Merivale had done with York. Margaret was played by Gloria Biegler, Henry by Richard Haratine, York by Lars Tatom and Gloucester by Charles Wilcox. The only scene from ''1 Henry VI'' was the meeting between Margaret and Suffolk.
Another unusual 2001 adaptation of the tetralogy was entitled ''Shakespeare's Rugby Wars''. Written by Matt Toner and Chris Coculuzzi, and directed by Coculuzzi, the play was acted by the Upstart Crow Theatre Group and staged outdoors at the Robert Street Playing Field as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival. Presented as if it were a live rugby match between York and Lancaster, the 'play' featured commentary from Falstaff (Stephen Flett), which was broadcast live for the audience. The 'match' itself was refereed by 'Bill Shakespeare' (played by Coculuzzi), and the actors (whose characters names all appeared on their jerseys) had microphones attached and would recite dialogue from all four plays at key moments.
In 2002, Leon Rubin presented the tetralogy as a trilogy at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario. Using the Barton/Hall method of combining ''1 Henry VI'' with the first half of ''2 Henry VI'', and the second half of ''2 Henry VI'' with ''3 Henry VI'', the plays were renamed ''Henry VI: Revenge in France'' and ''Henry VI: Revolt in England''. Michael Thierry played Henry, Seana McKenna played Margaret, Brad Ruby played Talbot and Michelle Giroux played Joan.
Also in 2002, Edward Hall and the Propeller (theatre company), Propeller company presented a one-play all-male cast modern dress adaptation of the trilogy at the Watermill Theatre. Under the title ''Rose Rage'', Hall used a cast of only thirteen actors to portray the nearly one hundred and fifty speaking roles in the four-hour production, thus necessitating doubling and tripling of parts. Although a new adaptation, this production followed the Jackson/Seale method of eliminating almost all of ''1 Henry VI'' (Joan was completely absent). The original cast included Jonathan McGuinness as Henry, Robert Hands as Margaret and Keith Bartlett as Talbot. After a successful run at the Watermill, the play moved to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. The American cast included Carman Lacivita as Henry, Scott Parkinson as Margaret and Fletcher McTaggart as Talbot.
Outside England, a major adaptation of the tetralogy took place in 1864 in Weimar under the direction of Franz von Dingelstedt, who, seven years previously had staged the play unedited. Dingelstedt turned the trilogy into a two-parter under the general name ''Die weisse rose''. The first play was called ''Haus Lancaster'', the second ''Haus York''. This adaptation was unique insofar as both plays were created by combining material from all three ''Henry VI'' plays. Following this structure, Alfred von Walzogen also produced a two-part play in 1875, under the general title ''Edward IV''. Another European adaptation was in 1965 at the Piccolo Teatro (Milan), Teatro Piccolo in Milan. Directed by Giorgio Strehler it went under the title ''Il gioco del potenti'' (''The Play of the Mighty''). Using Barton and Hall's structure, Strehler also added several characters, including a Chorus, who used monologues from ''Richard II'', both parts of ''Henry IV'', ''Henry V'', ''Macbeth'' and ''Timon of Athens'', and two gravediggers called Bevis and Holland (after the names of two of Cade's rebels in the Folio text of ''2 Henry VI''), who commented (with dialogue written by Strehler himself) on each of the major characters as they set about burying them. A major German adaptation was Peter Palitzsch's two-part adaptation of the trilogy as ''Rosenkriege'' in 1967 at the Staatstheater Stuttgart, Stuttgart State Theatre. Condensing the three plays into two, ''Heinrich VI'' and ''Eduard IV'', Palitzsch's adaptation concluded with the opening monologue from ''Richard III''.
Film
The only cinematic adaptation of the play came in the 1973 horror comedy film ''Theatre of Blood'', directed by Douglas Hickox. Vincent Price stars in the film as Edward Lionheart, (self)regarded as the finest Shakespearean actor of all time. When he fails to be awarded the prestigious Critic's Circle Award for Best Actor, he sets out exacting bloody revenge on the critics who gave him poor reviews, with each act inspired by a death in a Shakespeare play. One such act of revenge involves the critic Chloe Moon (Coral Browne). Lionheart electrocutes Moon using a pair of hair curlers, whilst he recites excerpts from Act 5, Scene 4 of ''1 Henry VI'', where Joan is sentenced to burn at the stake.
Television
The first television adaptation of the play was in 1960 when the BBC produced a serial entitled ''An Age of Kings''. The show comprised fifteen sixty- and seventy-five-minute episodes that adapted all eight of Shakespeare's sequential history plays. Directed by Michael Hayes (director), Michael Hayes and produced by Peter Dews (director), Peter Dews, with a script by Eric Crozier, the production featured Terry Scully as Henry, Mary Morris as Margaret and Eileen Atkins as Joan. The ninth episode, under the title An Age of Kings#"Henry VI: The Red Rose and the White", "The Red Rose and the White", presented a heavily abridged version of ''1 Henry VI''. With the episode only running one hour, obviously a great deal of text was removed (''1 Henry VI'' was the only play in the octology to be screened in one episode, as opposed to split over two). Perhaps the most significant cuts were the complete removal of the character of Talbot, and the excision of all battle scenes in France.
In 1965, BBC One, BBC 1 broadcast all three plays from John Barton and Peter Hall's ''The Wars of the Roses'' trilogy (''Henry VI'', ''The Rise of Edward IV'' and ''Richard III'') with David Warner as Henry and Peggy Ashcroft as Margaret. Directed for television by Robin Midgley and Michael Hayes (director), Michael Hayes, the plays were presented as more than simply filmed theatre, with the core idea being "to recreate theatre production in televisual terms – not merely to observe it, but to get to the heart of it." Filming was done on the RSC stage, but not during actual performances, thus allowing cameras to get close to the actors, and cameramen with hand-held cameras to shoot battle scenes. Additionally, camera platforms were created around the theatre. In all, twelve cameras were used, allowing the final product to be edited more like a film than a piece of static filmed theatre. Filming was done following the 1964 run of the plays at Stratford-upon-Avon, and took place over an eight-week period, with fifty-two BBC staff working alongside eighty-four RSC staff to bring the project to fruition. In 1966, the production was repeated on BBC 1 where it was re-edited into eleven episodes of fifty minutes each. The first episode, The Wars of the Roses (adaptation)#"The Inheritance", "The Inheritance" covered Acts 1, 2, 3 and Act 4, Scene 1, ending with Henry choosing a red rose and inadvertently aligning himself with Somerset. The second episode, The Wars of the Roses (adaptation)#"Margaret of Anjou", "Margaret of Anjou", presented the rest of ''1 Henry VI'', beginning with Talbot confronting the French general at Harfleur (Bordeaux in the play), as well as the first half of Act 1, Scene 1 of ''2 Henry VI'' (concluding with Henry and Margaret departing from the court).
Another BBC Television Shakespeare#The First Part of Henry the Sixt, television version of the play was produced by the BBC in 1981 for their ''BBC Television Shakespeare'' series, although the episode did not air until 1983. Directed by Jane Howell, the play was presented as the first part of the tetralogy (all four adaptations directed by Howell) with linked casting. Henry was played by Peter Benson (actor), Peter Benson, Margaret by Julia Foster, Talbot by Trevor Peacock and Joan by Brenda Blethyn. Howell's presentation of the complete first historical tetralogy was one of the most lauded achievements of the entire BBC series, and prompted Stanley Wells to argue that the productions were "probably purer than any version given in the theatre since Shakespeare's time."
[Stanley Wells, "The History of the Whole Contention", ''The Times Literary Supplement'', (4 February 1983)] Michael Mannheim was similarly impressed, calling the tetralogy "a fascinating, fast-paced and surprisingly tight-knit study in political and national deterioration."
Inspired by the notion that the political intrigues behind the
Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These wars were fought bet ...
often seemed like playground squabbles, Howell and production designer Oliver Bayldon staged the four plays in a single set resembling a children's adventure playground. However, little attempt was made at realism. For example, Bayldon did not disguise the parquetry, parquet flooring ("it stops the set from literally representing
..it reminds us we are in a modern television studio"), and in all four productions, the title of the play is displayed within the set itself (on banners in ''1 Henry VI'' and ''2 Henry VI'' (where it is visible throughout the entire first scene), on a shroud in ''3 Henry VI'', and written on a chalkboard by Richard himself in ''Richard III''). Many critics felt these set design choices lent the production an air of Brechtian ''Distancing effect, verfremdungseffekt''. Stanley Wells wrote of the set that it was intended to invite the viewer to "accept the play's artificiality of language and action,"
Michael Hattaway describes it as "anti-illusionist," Susan Willis argues that the set allows the productions "to reach theatrically toward the modern world" and Ronald Knowles writes "a major aspect of the set was the subliminal suggestion of childlike anarchy, role-playing, rivalry, game and vandalism, as if all culture were precariously balanced on the shaky foundations of Atavism, atavistic aggression and power-mad possession." Another element of ''verfremdungseffekt'' in this production is seen when Gloucester and Winchester encounter one another at the Tower of London, Tower, both are on horseback, but the horses they ride are Hobby horse (toy), hobby-horses, which the actors (David Burke (British actor), David Burke and Frank Middlemass respectively) cause to pivot and prance as they speak. The ridiculousness of this situation works to "effectively undercut their characters' dignity and status." The "anti-illusionist" set was also used as a means of political commentary; as the four plays progressed, the set decayed and became more and more dilapidated as social order became more fractious. In the same vein, the costumes become more and more monotone as the four plays move on. ''The First Part of Henry the Sixt'' features brightly coloured costumes that clearly distinguish the various combatants from one another, but by ''The Tragedy of Richard III'', everyone fights in similarly coloured dark costumes, with little to differentiate one army from another. Graham Holderness saw Howell's non-naturalistic production as something of a reaction to the BBC's adaptation of the ''Henriad'' in seasons one and two, which had been directed by David Giles (director), David Giles in the traditional and straightforward manner favoured by then series producer Cedric Messina; "where Messina saw the history plays conventionally as orthodox Tudor historiography, and [David Giles] employed dramatic techniques that allow that ideology a free and unhampered passage to the spectator, Jane Howell takes a more complex view of the first tetralogy as, simultaneously, a serious attempt at historical interpretation, and as a drama with a peculiarly modern relevance and contemporary application. The plays, to this director, are not a dramatisation of the Elizabethan World Picture but a sustained interrogation of residual and emergent ideologies in a changing society
..This awareness of the multiplicity of potential meanings in the play required a decisive and scrupulous avoidance of television or theatrical naturalism: methods of production should operate to open the plays out, rather than close them into the immediately recognisable familiarity of conventional Shakespearean production."
For the most part, Howell's adaptation is taken word-for-word from the ''First Folio'', with only some relatively minor differences. For example, the adaptation opens differently to the play, with Henry VI singing a lament for his father. Another difference is that Fastolf's escape from Rouen is seen rather than merely mentioned. Also worth noting is that Act 5, Scene 1 and Act 5, Scene 2 are reversed so that Act 4, Scene 7 and Act 5, Scene 2 now form one continuous piece. Additionally, numerous lines were cut from almost every scene. Some of the more notable omissions include; in Act 1, Scene 1, absent are Bedford's references to children crying and England becoming a marsh since Henry V died: "Posterity await for wretched years/When, at their mothers' moistened eyes, babes shall suck,/Our isle be made a marish of salt tears,/And none but women left to wail the dead." (ll.48–51). In Act 1, Scene 2, Alençon's praise of the resoluteness of the English army is absent: "Froissart, a countryman of ours, records/England all Olivers and Rolands bred/During the time Edward the Third did reign./More truly now may this be verified,/For none by Samsons and Goliases/It sendeth forth to skirmish." (ll.29–34). In Act 1, Scene 3, some of the dialogue between Gloucester and Winchester outside the Tower is absent (ll.36–43), whilst in Act 1, Scene 5, so too is Talbot's complaint about the French wanting to ransom him for a prisoner of less worth: "But with a baser man-of-arms by far,/Once in contempt they would have bartered me—/Which I, disdaining, scorned, and crav'd death/Rather than I would be so vile-esteemed" (ll.8–11). In Act 1, Scene 7, some of Charles' praise of Joan is absent: "A statelier pyramid, pyramis to her I'll rear/Than Queen Rhodope, Rhodope's of Memphis, Egypt, Memphis ever was./In memory of her, when she is dead,/Her ashes, in an urn more precious/Than the rich-jewelled coffer of Darius I, Darius,/Transported shall be at high festivals/Before the kings and queens of France" (ll.21–27). In Act 3, Scene 1, some of Warwick's attack on Winchester is absent: "You see what mischief – and what murder too –/Hath been enacted through your enmity" (ll.27–28). In Act 4, Scene 6, some of the dialogue between Talbot and John has been removed (ll.6–25). The most interesting omissions come in Act 4, Scene 7. In this scene, twelve of Joan's sixteen lines have been cut; the entire seven line speech where she says John Talbot refused to fight her because she is a woman (ll.37–43); the first three lines of her five line mockery of Lucy's listing of Talbot's titles, "Here's a silly, stately style indeed./The Turk, that two-and-fifty kingdoms hath,/Writes not so tedious a style as this" (ll.72–75); and the first two lines of her four line speech where she mocks Lucy, "I think this upstart is old Talbot's ghost,/He speaks with such a proud commanding spirit" (ll.86–88). These omissions reduce Joan's role in this scene to a virtual spectator, and coupled with this, Brenda Blethyn portrays the character as if deeply troubled by something (presumably the loss of contact with her 'fiends').
Another notable stylistic technique used in the adaptation is the multiple addresses direct-to-camera. Much more so than in any of the sequels, the adaptation of ''1 Henry VI'' has multiple characters addressing the camera continually throughout the play, oftentimes for comic effect. The most noticeable scene in this respect is Act 2, Scene 3, where Talbot meets the Countess of Auvergne. Almost all of her dialogue prior to line 32 ("If thou be he, then thou art prisoner") is delivered direct to camera, including her incredulous description of the difference between the real Talbot, and the reports she has heard of him. At one point during this speech, Auvergne exclaims "Alas, this is a child, a silly dwarf" (l.21), at which point Talbot himself looks at the camera in disbelief. The comedy of the scene is enhanced by having the 5-foot 10 actor Trevor Peacock playing Talbot, and the 6-foot 3 actress Joanna McCallum playing Auvergne. Elsewhere, addresses to the camera are found throughout the play. For example, as Bedford, Gloucester, Exeter and Winchester leave in Act 1, Scene 1, each one reveals their intentions direct-to-camera (ll.166–177).
Other examples are Joan's confession of where she got her sword (1.2.100–101); the Mayor's last two lines at the Tower (1.3.89–90); Talbot's "My thoughts are whirl'd like a potter's wheel./I know not where I am nor what I do./A witch, by fear, not force, like Hannibal,/Drives back our troops and conquers as she lists" (1.6.19–22); some of Mortimer's monologue prior to the arrival of Richard (2.5.22–32); Richard's "Plantagenet, I see, must hold his tongue,/Lest it be said, 'Speak, sirrah, when you should:/Must your bold verdict enter talk with lords?'/Else would I have a fling at Winchester" (3.1.61–64); Exeter's soliloquy at the end of Act 3, Scene 1 (ll.190–203); Exeter's soliloquy at the end of Act 4, Scene 1 (ll.182–194); most of the dialogue between Suffolk and Margaret as they ignore one another (5.4.16–64); and Suffolk's soliloquy, which closes the play (5.6.102–109). Also to-camera is Joan's "Poor market folks that come to sell their corn" (3.2.14), which is delivered as if it were a translation of the preceding line for the benefit of the non-French speaking audience.
In 1964, Austrian channel ORF 2 presented an adaptation of the trilogy by Leopold Lindtberg under the title ''Heinrich VI''. The cast list from this production has been lost. In 1969, German channel ZDF presented a filmed version of the first part of Peter Palitzsch's 1967 two-part adaptation of the trilogy in Stuttgart, ''Heinrich VI: Der Krieg der Rosen 1''. The second part, ''Eduard IV: Der Krieg der Rosen 2'', was screened in 1971.
Radio
In 1923, extracts from all three ''Henry VI'' plays were broadcast on BBC Radio, performed by the Cardiff Station Repertory Company as the third episode of a series of programs showcasing Shakespeare's plays, entitled ''Shakespeare Night''. In 1947, BBC Third Programme aired a one-hundred-and-fifty-minute adaptation of the trilogy as part of their ''Shakespeare's Historical Plays'' series, a six-part adaptation of the eight sequential history plays, with linked casting. Adapted by Roy Ridley, Maurice Roy Ridley, ''King Henry VI'' starred John Byron as Henry and Gladys Young as Margaret. Almost the entirety of ''1 Henry VI'' was cut, with everything related to the conflict in France being removed. In 1952, Third Programme aired an adaptation of the tetralogy by Peter Watts and John Dover Wilson under the general name ''The Wars of the Roses''. The tetralogy was adapted into a trilogy but in an unusual way. ''1 Henry VI'' was simply removed, so the trilogy contained only ''2 Henry VI'', ''3 Henry VI'' and ''Richard III''. The adaptation starred Valentine Dyall as Henry and Sonia Dresdel as Margaret. In 1971, BBC Radio 3 presented a two-part adaptation of the trilogy by Raymond Raikes. Part 1 contained an abridged ''1 Henry VI'' and an abridged version of the first three acts of ''2 Henry VI''. Part 2 presented Acts 4 and 5 of ''2 Henry VI'' and an abridged ''3 Henry VI''. Nigel Lambert played Henry, Barbara Jefford played Margaret, Francis de Wolff played Talbot and Elizabeth Morgan (actress), Elizabeth Morgan played Joan. In 1977, BBC Radio 4 presented a 26-part serialisation of the eight sequential history plays under the general title ''Vivat Rex'' (long live the King). Adapted by Martin Jenkins as part of the celebration of the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II, ''1 Henry VI'' comprised episodes 15 ("Joan of Arc") and 16 ("The White Rose and the Red"). James Laurenson played Henry, Peggy Ashcroft played Margaret, Clive Swift played Talbot, Hannah Gordon played Joan, and Richard Burton narrated.
In America, in 1936, a heavily edited adaptation of the trilogy was broadcast as part of Blue Network, NBC Blue's ''Radio Guild'' series. Comprising three sixty-minute episodes aired a week apart, the adaptation was written by Vernon Radcliffe and starred Henry Herbert (actor), Henry Herbert as Henry and Janet Nolan as Margaret. In 1954, CBC Radio presented an adaptation of the trilogy by Andrew Allen, who combined ''1 Henry VI'', ''2 Henry VI'' and ''3 Henry VI'' into a one-hundred-and-sixty-minute episode. There is no known cast information for this production.
In 1985, German radio channel Sender Freies Berlin broadcast a heavily edited seventy-six-minute two-part adaptation of the octology adapted by Rolf Schneider, under the title ''Shakespeare's Rosenkriege''.
Manga
Aya Kanno's Japanese manga comic ''Requiem of the Rose King'' is a loose adaptation of the first Shakespearean historical tetralogy, covering ''Henry VI'' and ''Richard III''.
References
Notes
Citations
All references to ''Henry VI, Part 1'', unless otherwise specified, are taken from the ''Oxford Shakespeare'' (Taylor), based on the First Folio text of 1623. Under its referencing system, 4.3.15 means act 4, scene 3, line 15.
Editions of ''Henry VI, Part 1''
* Jonathan Bate, Bate, Jonathan and Rasmussen, Eric (eds.) ''Henry VI, Parts I, II and III'' (The RSC Shakespeare; London: Macmillan, 2012)
* David Bevington, Bevington, David. (ed.) ''The First Part of Henry the Sixth'' (The Pelican Shakespeare; London: Penguin, 1966; revised edition 1979)
* Burns, Edward (ed.) ''King Henry VI, Part 1'' (The Arden Shakespeare, 3rd Series; London: Arden, 2000)
* Andrew Cairncross, Cairncross, Andrew S. (ed.) ''King Henry VI, Part 1'' (The Arden Shakespeare, 2nd Series; London: Arden, 1962)
* J. Dover Wilson, Dover Wilson, John (ed.) ''The First Part of Henry VI'' (The New Shakespeare; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1952)
* G. Blakemore Evans, Evans, G. Blakemore (ed.) ''Riverside Shakespeare, The Riverside Shakespeare'' (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974; 2nd edn., 1997)
* Stephen Greenblatt, Greenblatt, Stephen; Cohen, Walter; Jean E. Howard, Howard, Jean E. and Maus, Katharine Eisaman (eds.) ''The Norton Shakespeare: Based on the Oxford Shakespeare'' (London: Norton, 1997; 2nd edn., 2008)
* Hart, H. C. and Pooler, C. Knox (eds.) ''The First Part of Henry the Sixt'' (The Arden Shakespeare, 1st Series; London: Arden, 1909)
* Hattaway, Michael (ed.) ''The First Part of King Henry VI'' (The New Cambridge Shakespeare; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990)
* Kingsley-Smith, Jane (ed.) ''Henry VI, Part One'' (The New Penguin Shakespeare, 2nd edition; London: Penguin, 2005)
* Montgomery, William (ed.) ''Henry VI Part I'' (The Pelican Shakespeare, 2nd edition; London: Penguin, 2000)
* Ryan, Lawrence V. (ed.) ''Henry VI, Part I'' (Signet Classic Shakespeare; New York: Signet, 1967; revised edition, 1989; 2nd revised edition 2005)
* Sanders, Norman (ed.) ''Henry VI, Part One'' (The New Penguin Shakespeare; London: Penguin, 1981)
* Taylor, Michael (ed.) ''Henry VI, Part One'' (The Oxford Shakespeare; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003)
* Stanley Wells, Wells, Stanley; Gary Taylor (scholar), Taylor, Gary; John Jowett, Jowett, John and Montgomery, William (eds.) ''The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986; 2nd edn., 2005)
* Werstine, Paul and Mowat, Barbara A. (eds.) ''Henry VI, Part 1'' (Folger Shakespeare Library; Washington: Simon & Schuster, 2008)
Secondary sources
* Peter Alexander (Shakespearean scholar), Alexander, Peter. ''Shakespeare's Henry VI and Richard III'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1929)
* Berry, Edward I. ''Patterns of Decay: Shakespeare's Early Histories'' (Charlottesville: Virginia University Press, 1975)
* Brockbank, Philip. "The Frame of Disorder – ''Henry VI''" in John Russell Brown and Bernard Harris (editors), ''Early Shakespeare'' (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1961), 72–99
* . "Shakespeare: His Histories, English and Roman" in Christopher Ricks (editor), ''The New History of Literature (Volume 3): English Drama to 1710'' (New York: Peter Bedrick, 1971), 148–181
* Bullough, Geoffrey. ''Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare (Volume 3): Early English History Plays'' (Columbia: Columbia University Press, 1960)
* Candido, Joseph. "Getting Loose in the ''Henry VI'' Plays", ''Shakespeare Quarterly'', 35:4 (Winter, 1984), 392–406
* Clarke, Mary. ''Shakespeare at the Old Vic, Volume 4 (1957–1958): Hamlet, King Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3, Measure for Measure, A Midsummer Night's Dream, King Lear, Twelfth Night'' (London: A. & C. Black, 1958)
* Daniel, P. A. ''A Time Analysis of the Plots of Shakespeare's Plays'' (London: New Shakspere Society, 1879)
* Dobson, Michael S. ''The Making of the National Poet: Shakespeare, Adaptation and Authorship, 1660–1769'' (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1995)
* Dockray, Keith. ''Henry VI, Margaret of Anjou and the Wars of the Roses: A Source Book'' (Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2000)
* Duthie, G. I. ''Shakespeare'' (London: Hutchinson, 1951)
* R. A. Foakes, Foakes, R. A. and Rickert, R. T. (eds.) ''Henslowe's Diary'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961; 2nd edn. edited by only Foakes, 2002)
* Frey, D. L. ''The First Tetralogy: Shakespeare's Scrutiny of the Tudor Myth'' (The Hague: Mouton, 1976)
* Goodwin, John. ''Royal Shakespeare Theatre Company, 1960–1963'' (London: Max Reinhardt, 1964)
* Goy-Blanquet, Dominique. "Elizabethan Historiography and Shakespeare's Sources", in Michael Hattaway (editor), ''The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's History Plays'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 57–70
* Richard Grafton, Grafton, Richard. ''A Chronicle at Large'', 1569
* Griffiths, Ralph A. ''The Reign of King Henry VI'' (London: Ernest Benn, 1981; 2nd edn. 1998)
* Edward Hall, Hall, Edward. ''The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancaster and York'', 1548
* F. E. Halliday, Halliday, F. E. ''A Shakespeare Companion, 1564–1964'' (Baltimore: Penguin, 1964)
* Thomas Heywood, Heywood, Thomas. ''An Apology for Actors'', 1612
* Hodgdon, Barbara. ''The End Crowns All: Closure and Contradiction in Shakespeare's Histories'' (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1991)
* Graham Holderness, Holderness, Graham. ''Shakespeare: The Histories'' (New York: Macmillan, 2000)
* Raphael Holinshed, Holinshed, Raphael. ''Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland'', 1587
* Jackson, Gabriele Bernhard. "Topical Ideology: Witches, Amazons and Shakespeare's Joan of Arc", ''English Literary Renaissance'', 18:1 (Spring, 1988), 40–65
* Jones, Emrys. ''The Origins of Shakespeare'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977)
* Ben Jonson, Jonson, Ben. ''
The Masque of Blackness
''The Masque of Blackness'' was an early Jacobean era masque, first performed at the Stuart Court in the Banqueting Hall of Whitehall Palace on Twelfth Night, 6 January 1605. It was written by Ben Jonson at the request of Anne of Denmark, the ...
'', 1605
* Kastan, David Scott. "Shakespeare and English History", in Margreta de Grazia and Stanley Wells (editors), ''The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 167–183
* Kay, Carol McGinis. "Traps, Slaughter and Chaos: A Study of Shakespeare's ''Henry VI'' plays", ''Studies in the Literary Imagination'', 5 (1972), 1–26
* Leggatt, Alexander. "The Death of John Talbot" in John W. Velz (editor), ''Shakespeare's English Histories: A Quest for Form and Genre'' (New York: Medieval & Renaissance Texts, 1996), 11–30
* Lull, Janis. "Plantagenets, Lancastrians, Yorkists and Tudors: ''1–3 Henry VI, Richard III, Edward III''", in Michael Hattaway (editor) ''The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's History Plays'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 106–125
* Martin, Randall. "Elizabethan Pageantry in ''Henry VI''", ''University of Toronto Quarterly'', 60:1 (Spring, 1990), 244–264
* McAlindon, Tom. "Swearing and Foreswearing in Shakespeare's Histories", ''The Review of English Studies'', 51 (2000), 208–229
* Marco Mincoff, Mincoff, Marco. "The Composition of ''Henry VI, Part 1''", ''Shakespeare Quarterly'', 16:2 (Summer, 1965), 199–207
* Kenneth Muir (scholar), Muir, Kenneth. ''The Sources of Shakespeare's Plays'' (London: Routledge, 1977; rpt 2005)
* Charles Talbut Onions, Onions, C. T. ''A Shakespeare Glossary'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1953; 2nd edn. edited by Robert D. Eagleson, 1986)
* Pearlman, E. "Shakespeare at Work: The Two Talbots", ''Philological Quarterly'', 75:1 (Spring, 1996), 1–20
* Richard Pearson (actor), Pearson, Richard. ''A Band of Arrogant and United Heroes: The Story of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Staging of'' The Wars of the Roses (London: Adelphi, 1991)
* Pendleton, Thomas A. (ed.) ''Henry VI: Critical Essays'' (London: Routledge, 2001)
* Pugliatti, Paola. ''Shakespeare the Historian'' (New York: Palgrave, 1996)
* Rackin, Phyllis. "Foreign Country: The Place of Women and Sexuality in Shakespeare's Historical World", in Richard Burt and John Michael Archer (editors) ''Enclosure Acts: Sexuality, Property and Culture in Early Modern England'' (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994), 68–95
* Rackin, Phyllis and Howard, Jean E. ''Engendering a Nation: A Feminist Account of Shakespeare's English Histories'' (London: Routledge, 1997)
* . "Women's Roles in the Elizabethan History Play", in Michael Hattaway (editor) ''The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's History Plays'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 71–88
* Reed, Robert Rentoul. ''Crime and God's Judgement in Shakespeare'' (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1984)
* Ribner, Irving. ''The English History Play in the Age of Shakespeare'' (London: Routledge, 1957; 2nd edn. 1965)
* Riggs, David. ''Shakespeare's Heroical Histories'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971)
* Rossiter, A. P. "Ambivalence: The Dialectics of the Histories", in Russ McDonald (editor), ''Shakespeare: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory, 1945–2000'' (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004), 100–115
* . ''Angel with Horns: Fifteen Lectures on Shakespeare'' (London: Longmans, 1961; edited by Graham Storey)
* Naseeb Shaheen, Shaheen, Naseeb. ''Biblical References in Shakespeare's History Plays'' (London: Associated University Presses, 1989)
* Robert Speaight, Speaight, Robert. ''Shakespeare on the Stage: An Illustrated History of Shakespearean Performance'' (London: Collins, 1973)
* Sokol, B. J. "Manuscript evidence for an earliest date of ''Henry VI Part One''", ''Notes and Queries'', 47:1 (Spring, 2000), 58–63
* Swandler, Homer D. "The Rediscovery of ''Henry VI''", ''Shakespeare Quarterly'', 29:2 (Summer, 1978), 146–163
* Gary Taylor (scholar), Taylor, Gary. "Shakespeare and Others: The Authorship of ''Henry the Sixth, Part One''", ''Medieval and Renaissance Drama'', 7 (1995), 145–205
* E. M. W. Tillyard, Tillyard. E. M. W. ''Shakespeare's History Plays'' (London: The Athlone Press, 1944; rpt. 1986)
* Brian Vickers (literary scholar), Vickers, Brian. "Incomplete Shakespeare: Or, Denying Coauthorship in ''Henry the Sixth, Part 1''", ''Shakespeare Quarterly'', 58:3 (Fall, 2007), 311–352
* . "Thomas Kyd, Secret Sharer", ''The Times Literary Supplement'', 18 April 2008, 13–15
* Vincent, Paul J. "Structuring and Revision in ''1 Henry VI''", ''Philological Quarterly'', 84:4 (Fall, 2005), 377–402
* Watkins, Ronald. "The only Shake-scene", ''Philological Quarterly'', 54:1 (Spring, 1975), 47–67
* Watt, R. J. C. "The Siege of Orléans and the Cursing of Joan: Corruptions in the Text of ''Henry VI, Part 1''", ''English Language Notes'', 33:3 (Autumn, 1996), 1–6
* Wells, Robert Headlam. "The Fortunes of Tillyard: Twentieth-Century Critical Debate on Shakespeare's History Plays", ''English Studies'', 66:4 (Winter, 1985), 391–403
* Wells, Stanley; Taylor, Gary; Jowett, John and Montgomery, William. ''William Shakespeare: A Textual Companion'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987)
* Williams, G. Walton. "Fastolf or Falstaff", ''English Literary Renaissance'', 5:4 (Winter, 1975), 308–312
* Williamson, Marilyn L. ""When Men Are Rul'd by Women": Shakespeare's First Tetralogy", ''Shakespeare Studies'', 19 (1987), 41–59
* F. P. Wilson, Wilson, F. P. ''Shakespearian and Other Studies'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969; edited by Helen Gardner)
External links
Winston Churchill & Henry V - UK Parliament Living Heritage*
''Henry VI, Part 1''– from Project Gutenberg.
''The First part of King Henry the Sixth''– scene-indexed HTML version of the play.
– scene-indexed, searchable HTML version of the play.
''The first Part of Henry the Sixt''– PDF version, with original ''First Folio'' spelling.
*
a
at
'. Accessed 30 October 2018.
* (''BBC Television Shakespeare'' Version).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Henry Vi, Part 1
1590s plays
Cultural depictions of English monarchs
English Renaissance plays
Henry VI of England
Plays about English royalty
Plays by Thomas Nashe
Plays set in England
Plays set in the 15th century
Shakespearean histories
Works by Thomas Nashe
Works about Joan of Arc
Wars of the Roses in fiction