DRAMATIS PERSONÆ KING HENRY the Sixth. DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, uncle to the King, and Protector. DUKE OF BEDFORD, uncle to the King, and Regent of France. THOMAS BEAUFORT, Duke of Exeter, great-uncle to the King. HENRY BEAUFORT, great-uncle to the King, Bishop of Winchester, and afterwards Cardinal. JOHN BEAUFORT, Earl, afterwards Duke, of Somerset. RICHARD PLANTAGENET, Son of Richard late Earl of Cambridge, afterwards Duke of York. EARL OF WARWICK. EARL OF SALISBURY. EARL OF SUFFOLK. LORD TALBOT, afterwards Earl of Shrewsbury. JOHN TALBOT, his son. EDMUND MORTIMER, Earl of March. SIR JOHN FASTOLFE. SIR WILLIAM LUCY. SIR WILLIAM GLANSDALE. SIR THOMAS GARGRAVE. Mayor of London. WOODVILE, Lieutenant of the Tower. VERNON, of the White-Rose or York faction. BASSET, of the Red-Rose or Lancaster faction. A Lawyer. Mortimer's Keepers. CHARLES, Dauphin, and afterwards King, of France. DUKE OF BURGUNDY. DUKE OF ALENÇON. BASTARD OF ORLEANS. Governor of Paris. Master-Gunner of Orleans, and his Son. General of the French forces in Bourdeaux. A French Sergeant. A Porter. An old Shepherd, father to Joan la Pucelle. MARGARET, daughter to Reignier, afterwards married to King Henry. COUNTESS OF AUVERGNE. JOAN LA PUCELLE, commonly called Joan of Arc. Lords, Warders of the Tower, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, Fiends appearing to La Pucelle. SCENE: Partly in England, and partly in France. DURATION OF TIME I. Dramatic Time.-The time actually represented on the stage is eight days, with intervals. II. Historic Time.-The historic period represented is from the death of Henry V., August 31, 1422, to the death of Talbot, July 17, 1453. But the latter event is made to precede the treaty of marriage between Henry VI. and Margaret of Anjou, 1444, with which the action closes. Daniel, New Shakesp. Soc. Transactions (1877-79). INTRODUCTION Literary Texts. In the Folio of 1623, where it was first completely Early printed, Henry VI. is presented as a kind of Trilogy. HistoryBut it is evident that its three Parts have not the same continuity and coherence as e.g. the two Parts of Henry IV. The most colossal tragic theme in English history looms uncertainly through a surface intersected by the sharpest divergences of style, intention, and power. Hardly any critic now contends that Shakespeare was the author of the whole; but the evidences of his hand are very unevenly distributed. In particular, the First Part clearly stands apart from the other two. It deals mainly with the war in France, they with the Civil War ; it contains a far larger mass of utterly un-Shakespearean work; it diverges far more recklessly from history; it is connected with the second and third parts by slighter and looser links of action than they with each other. It was printed, moreover, to all appearance, for the first time in the Folio of 1623, while the substance of the other two parts had appeared, under other titles, nearly twenty years before, in Quarto editions, the relation of which to the Folio texts presents one of the most crucial problems in Shakespeare. VI. Date of But they tion. Composi The substance of all three Parts of Henry was already familiar to the stage in 1592. |