ACT 5
Fortunes turn and Joan is captured and burned. An uneasy peace is concluded between England and France. In light of this, Gloucester engineers a politically astute marriage between Henry and the Earl of Armagnac's daughter. Winchester is created Cardinal. Meanwhile, in France, Suffolk is enchanted by Margaret, daughter of the Duke of Anjou. Suffolk woos her to be Henry's queen and in order to gain her father's consent cedes the newly conquered French territories of Anjou and Maine. Suffolk returns to England and persuades Henry, against opposition from the court, to marry Margaret and make her Queen of England.
HENRY VI PART II
ACT 1
Despite the recently concluded peace between England and France, dissension is rife within the English court. Suffolk brings Margaret to the king with a letter stating that she is to be exchanged for the territories of Anjou and Maine. Henry agrees and makes him Duke of Suffolk. Gloucester confides to the English nobles that he is outraged that the lands so hard won by his brother, Henry V, should be so lightly given back to the French. He prophesies the loss of France and leaves, and Cardinal Beaufort (Winchester), Somerset, and Buckingham, along with Suffolk, unite in their common aim to get rid of him. Salisbury, Warwick, and York unite to undo the powers of Suffolk and the Cardinal. York soliloquizes that the lost lands are his by rights, and opts to bide his time in the alliance he has forged. Gloucester dreams that his staff of office was broken by the Cardinal, and Eleanor, his wife, tells him she dreamed of being queen, which angers him. Eleanor is lured by a priest, John Hume, who is in the pay of Suffolk, to consult a sorcerer about her ambitions. Suffolk's influence, both at court and with the new Queen Margaret, intensifies. Petitioners come to seek Gloucester because one, Peter, accuses his master, Horner, of saying that York is the rightful king. They encounter Margaret and Suffolk, however, and tell them this, believing Suffolk to be Gloucester. Suffolk now knows he has ammunition against York. Henry and his court enter discussing the regency of France. Gloucester suggests York, but changes his mind to Somerset when he hears of the controversy. Margaret attacks Gloucester and Eleanor, questioning Gloucester's continued protectorship and accusing them of having ambitions on the crown. Gloucester orders Peter and Horner to settle the dispute in combat. Later, Eleanor meets the sorcerer Roger Bullingbrook and they raise spirits that give ambiguous answers to her questions about Henry's reign. York and Buckingham burst in on them and Eleanor and Hume are arrested for treason.
ACT 2
Henry and his party meet a man claiming to have been cured of blindness. Henry thinks it is a miracle, but Gloucester reveals the man to be a liar, his worldly wisdom contrasting with Henry's naive faith. York illustrates his claim to the throne to Warwick and Salisbury, and both men swear allegiance to him, convinced of his right. Eleanor is brought to trial and banished. Gloucester resigns his staff of office, allowing Henry to become king in his own right. Peter and Horner fight and Horner loses, confessing his treason as he dies. On her way to banishment, Eleanor warns Gloucester that the other nobles will conspire against him, but he believes his innocence puts him beyond their reach.
ACT 3
Henry meets with his lords and Somerset returns from France with the news of the loss of all English territories. York and others seize this opportunity to implicate Gloucester in the loss of France and to accuse him of treason. Gloucester is arrested and Henry grieves, knowing he is powerless to defend his innocent uncle. Suffolk, Margaret, the Cardinal, and York agree that Gloucester should be murdered. Meanwhile, there is a rebellion in Ireland and York is sent by Suffolk to deal with the crisis. York in soliloquy resolves to move against his enemies and strive for the throne, revealing that he has incited Jack Cade, a clothier posing as Mortimer, to promote further dissension by rebelling in Kent. Gloucester is murdered and the king turns against Suffolk, banishing him. Suffolk and Margaret, plainly in love with each other, share a passionate farewell. Cardinal Beaufort outlives his old enemy by only a few hours, dying in agony of body and soul.
ACT 4
Suffolk is captured at sea and beheaded, killed "by water" as Bullingbrook's prophecy had foretold. Jack Cade's rebellion begins in Kent. Cade speaks to the rabble claiming he will be the next king and will change the laws of England to suit the common man. Stafford and his brother attempt to quell the rebellion but are killed and Cade and his army drag their bodies to London. Margaret mourns over Suffolk's head, and, despite her denials, Henry believes that she loved Suffolk far more than she loves him. Hearing of the rebellion's approach he resolves to leave London for a while. Cade marches on London, and has Lord Saye killed for his encouragement of literacy. Cade and his followers run riot until Buckingham and Clifford arrive to quell the crowds, urging them to remember the glories of England under Henry V. The rabble is swayed and Cade flees, killed by Alexander Iden in Iden's garden in Kent. Henry is told that York has returned at the head of an army to remove Somerset, whom he has deemed a traitor.
ACT 5
York returns to claim the crown, supported by his sons Edward, Richard, and George (Clarence), and by Salisbury and Warwick, though he claims he only wants Somerset imprisoned. He is promised by Buckingham that this has already happened, but, seeing Somerset free, York becomes enraged and accuses Henry of weakness. The two sides take up arms, Henry supported by Margaret, Somerset, Buckingham, and the Cliffords. For the first time, Lancastrians face Yorkists at the battle of St. Albans. The play ends with the king and queen in flight and the Yorkists contemplating the crown.
HENRY VI PART III
ACT 1
Having won the battle of St. Albans and with Richard Plantagenet sitting on the throne of England, the Yorkists confront the Lancastrians. Partly admitting his claim to sovereignty is dubious, King Henry asks York that he be allowed to reign for his lifetime, after which the crown will pass to the House of York. York swears an oath in agreement, though Margaret is furious that Henry has disinherited his own son, Edward, Prince of Wales. Margaret vows to destroy York and his followers. She enlists the support of Clifford and others to raise an army. York and his sons discuss what has happened, all three urging their father to take the crown. York says he has sworn an oath, but Richard quickly talks him out of it. Margaret's forces meet with those of York in battle, during which York's youngest son, Rutland, is killed by Clifford. York is then captured by Margaret, Clifford, and Northumberland, taunted with details of his son's death--even offered a handkerchief dipped in Rutland's blood with which to wipe his tears--and brutally murdered.
ACT 2
Edward and Richard see three suns in the sky and take it as a sign that they, with Clarence, York's three sons, should unite and defeat the Lancastrians. They are informed of their father's murder and swear revenge, uniting with Warwick, who proclaims Edward the new Duke of York. York's head is set upon the gates of his own city, which appalls Henry, though Clifford and Margaret tell him to be without pity in his claim for what is his and his son's: the crown. Henry, however, retorts that "things ill-got had ever bad success." The Yorkists and Lancastrians trade insults and Henry tries to calm them but neither side will listen to him any longer. Both armies fight at Towton, and the fortunes of the battle ebb and flow between them. Richard seeks Clifford to take his revenge. Henry, isolated and all but forsaken, soliloquizes on the miseries of kingship, wishing himself a shepherd that he might live free from the treacherous world of the court. He sees a father who has mistakenly killed his own son and a son his father in the battle and laments that the nation's strife has become so desperate and inhumane. The Yorkists defeat the Lancastrians, and Henry, Margaret, and their son, Edward, are forced to flee to the north. Clifford is killed and his head set on the walls in place of York's. The Yorkists head to London to claim the throne.
ACT 3
Henry, returning to England from Scotland, is captured by two gamekeepers and brought to London, where he is placed in the Tower by the new King Edward. Lady Elizabeth Grey comes to see Edward to ask for her lands t
o be returned to her. Edward falls in love with her and asks her to marry him. Richard, in a powerful soliloquy, reveals that he has no allegiance to anyone but himself and that he will remove all who stand in his way to the throne. In France, Margaret and Warwick meet at the court of King Lewis. News reaches them that Edward has married Lady Grey, in spite of his earlier betrothal, instigated by Warwick, to King Lewis' sister, Lady Bona. This insult turns both Warwick and Lewis against Edward. Warwick pledges support to Margaret, offering her his daughter, Anne, as wife to her son, Prince Edward. Lewis gives Margaret troops to fight King Edward.
ACT 4
Edward's brothers are unhappy about his match with Lady Grey, not wanting to make enemies of Lewis and Warwick. They learn that Margaret and Warwick have joined forces and Clarence revolts to Warwick's side, seeking to marry Warwick's other daughter. Richard stays, "not for the love of Edward, but the crown." Warwick returns to England and joins with Clarence in support of Henry. They seize upon King Edward and take his crown, imprisoning him at the estate of Warwick's brother, the Archbishop of York. Lady Grey, now Queen Elizabeth, reveals that she is pregnant with Edward's child. Richard and Hastings rescue Edward and send him to Flanders. Warwick and Clarence release Henry from the Tower, and reinstate him as King of England. He asks to be king in name only, and confers the protectorship of the realm upon Warwick and Clarence. Seeing the young Earl of Richmond (also named Henry), Henry prophesies that the youth will prove to be England's savior. Hearing that Edward is in Flanders and fearing he will return to make war, Somerset and Oxford take Richmond to Brittany for his safety. Edward returns and retakes York, proclaiming himself king again. Warwick hears of Edward's approach toward London and leaves to muster his army. Henry is recaptured by Edward and Richard and sent to the Tower.
ACT 5
The forces of Edward and Warwick meet at Barnet, where Edward convinces Clarence to rejoin him. Warwick is killed in the ensuing battle. Margaret arrives in England with reinforcements, and is joined by Warwick's supporters, Somerset and Oxford. Her forces encounter Edward's for the last time at Tewkesbury, where she is defeated. Her son Edward is killed, she imprisoned, and Somerset and Oxford sent to execution. Richard goes to the Tower to murder Henry, who, knowing why he has come, prophesies that Richard will bring untold suffering to the country before the end. Henry taunts Richard, and Richard stabs and kills him in an angry rage. Over Henry's body Richard soliloquizes on his own rejection of all ties of brotherhood and his newly strengthened resolve to do away with Edward and Clarence and take the crown for himself. Edward's son is born and Richard and Clarence join the celebrations, kissing the child, though Richard has multiple asides in which he states that he means "all harm" to it and to his brothers. The play ends with King Edward calling for festivity "as befits the pleasure of the court." The Wars of the Roses seem finally to be over with the House of York victorious at last. Its new enemy, however, will come from within in events dramatized in Shakespeare's Richard III.
HENRY VI
IN PERFORMANCE:
THE RSC AND BEYOND
The best way to understand a Shakespeare play is to see it or ideally to participate in it. By examining a range of productions, we may gain a sense of the extraordinary variety of approaches and interpretations that are possible--a variety that gives Shakespeare his unique capacity to be reinvented and made "our contemporary" four centuries after his death.
We begin with a brief overview of the play's theatrical and cinematic life, offering historical perspectives on how it has been performed. We then analyze in more detail a series of productions staged over the last half-century by the Royal Shakespeare Company. The sense of dialogue between productions that can only occur when a company is dedicated to the revival and investigation of the Shakespeare canon over a long period, together with the uniquely comprehensive archival resource of promptbooks, program notes, reviews, and interviews held on behalf of the RSC at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon, allows an "RSC stage history" to become a crucible in which the chemistry of the play can be explored.
We then go to the horse's mouth. Modern theater is dominated by the figure of the director. He or she must hold together the whole play, whereas the actor must concentrate on his or her part. The director's viewpoint is therefore especially valuable. Shakespeare's plasticity is wonderfully revealed when we hear the directors of two highly successful productions answering the same questions in very different ways. We also hear from the designer of one of these acclaimed productions about the challenges posed by mounting an ambitious cycle of historical plays.
FOUR CENTURIES OF HENRY VI: AN OVERVIEW
The three plays dealing with the reign of Henry VI have an unusual performance history. They are rarely revived--almost never individually--and are among the least performed of Shakespeare's canon. Yet when they are mounted, they are often high profile and audacious experiments, spreading several hours of history over a number of sittings. The relative paucity of performances perhaps contributes to the sense of anticipation and event that accompanies productions of the trilogy.
It is probable that the 1592 reference to "harey the vj" in the diary of Philip Henslowe refers to Henry VI Part I, and the 1595 octavo of The True Tragedy of Richard, Duke of York (Henry VI Part III) claims it was performed by the Earl of Pembroke's Men. Current consensus is that Part II and Part III were staged first, with Part I appearing later as a "prequel." We know little of these early stagings, but references in the literature of the period to the exploits of Talbot, as well as the famous reference to Shakespeare in Greene's Groatsworth of Wit paraphrasing a line from Henry VI Part III, suggest their popularity.1 The plays are perhaps still most familiar to modern audiences for certain memorable lines quoted in different contexts: Laurence Olivier's seminal film of Richard III opens with a soliloquy augmented by lines from Part III (Act 3 Scene 2), and Richard Loncraine's Richard III similarly used "I can smile ... and murder while I smile!" as its tagline.
The first performances of which we have a definite record took place in 1680 at Lincoln's Inn Theatre. Thomas Crowne became the first to offer a two-part adaptation, the format most frequently adopted even into the twenty-first century. Entitled Henry the Sixth; The First Part, with the Murder of Humphrey, Duke of Glocester [sic] and The Miseries of Civil-War, the plays, featuring Thomas Betterton as a heroic Humphrey and Lady Slingsby as Margaret, were a success. Following the action of Part II and Part III, the first play concentrates on the fall of Humphrey, while the second begins with Cade's rebellion and proceeds to the coronation of Edward. However popular the play, Crowne's own political leanings doomed it to failure:
Crowne, to use his own words, had mixed with the mutilated relics of Shakespeare's play "A little vinegar against the Pope" as well as a very thick coating of sickening sweet loyalty, and this was fatal. The offended Roman Catholics went to the King, who had found or was seeking conciliation with the Pope, and he at once suppressed the "new history play" in the midst of its success.2
Crowne appropriated the plays to provide commentary on current political affairs, particularly attacking civil dissension:
Crowne's most substantial, and most remarkable, addition to the play was a scene involving soldiers who rob a "couple of seditious rogues" (i.e. supporters of civil war) and rape their daughters. The scene was played in the same comic vein as the Simpcox scenes, except this time the punishment for civil disobedience was more extreme. Before hanging them, the soldiers give the rogues a stern lesson on the consequences of rising up against the crown.3
Crowne's model was revived in the early eighteenth century. Ambrose Philips' adaptation Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester (1723) borrowed characters and situations from Shakespeare, but minimal dialogue. Here, "Gloucester was not just a Protestant hero but a model statesman" and the role of Eleanor was dramatically increased.4 Even more interestingly, the play was restructured to make York (as an enemy of the Cardinal) the hero. Philips' play ended with Beaufort's death
scene and Eleanor's pious forgiveness of her enemy.
Theophilus Cibber provided a continuation of Philips' play with his adaptation of Part II (from the Cade rebellion onward) and Part III into The Historical Tragedy of Henry VI. Intended as a prequel to his uncle Colley Cibber's Richard III (which anticipated Olivier in its interpolation of lines from Henry VI Part III into Richard's opening soliloquy), Theophilus' play was hampered by attempts to unify the two. The Lady Anne is introduced awkwardly, and the play ends with Henry still alive in the Tower, as Colley had used the murder to begin his Richard III. Theophilus shared Philips' interest in condemning civil war, and the two plays enjoyed some success, being revived in 1738 with Delane as Talbot and Mrs. Hallam as Joan of Arc at Covent Garden.
John Herman Merivale adapted the trilogy into a single play as a vehicle for Edmund Kean, which opened in December 1817. Entitled Richard, Duke of York, Kean took the title role and the production ended with his death at the hands of Margaret. Joan and Talbot were entirely cut, and John Hamilton Reynolds complained that "missing [Talbot] is like walking among the Elgin Marbles, and seeing an empty place where the Theseus had reclined."5 Rutter and Hampton-Reeves point out, however, that the recent Napoleonic Wars may have complicated the resonances of Joan and Talbot too much for contemporary audiences.6 Kean's York was the central concern: