THE KING'S MAN
On Queen Elizabeth's death in 1603, the new king, James I, who had held the Scottish throne as James VI since he had been an infant, immediately took the Lord Chamberlain's Men under his direct patronage. Henceforth they would be the King's Men, and for the rest of Shakespeare's career they were favored with far more court performances than any of their rivals. There even seem to have been rumors early in the reign that Shakespeare and Burbage were being considered for knighthoods, an unprecedented honor for mere actors--and one that in the event was not accorded to a member of the profession for nearly three hundred years, when the title was bestowed upon Henry Irving, the leading Shakespearean actor of Queen Victoria's reign.
Shakespeare's productivity rate slowed in the Jacobean years, not because of age or some personal trauma, but because there were frequent outbreaks of plague, causing the theaters to be closed for long periods. The King's Men were forced to spend many months on the road. Between November 1603 and 1608, they were to be found at various towns in the south and Midlands, though Shakespeare probably did not tour with them by this time. He had bought a large house back home in Stratford and was accumulating other property. He may indeed have stopped acting soon after the new king took the throne. With the London theaters closed so much of the time and a large repertoire on the stocks, Shakespeare seems to have focused his energies on writing a few long and complex tragedies that could have been played on demand at court: Othello, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, and Cymbeline are among his longest and poetically grandest plays. Macbeth survives only in a shorter text, which shows signs of adaptation after Shakespeare's death. The bitterly satirical Timon of Athens, apparently a collaboration with Thomas Middleton that may have failed on the stage, also belongs to this period. In comedy, too, he wrote longer and morally darker works than in the Elizabethan period, pushing at the very bounds of the form in Measure for Measure and All's Well That Ends Well.
From 1608 onward, when the King's Men began occupying the indoor Blackfriars playhouse (as a winter house, meaning that they only used the outdoor Globe in summer?), Shakespeare turned to a more romantic style. His company had a great success with a revived and altered version of an old pastoral play called Mucedorus. It even featured a bear. The younger dramatist John Fletcher, meanwhile, sometimes working in collaboration with Francis Beaumont, was pioneering a new style of tragicomedy, a mix of romance and royal-ism laced with intrigue and pastoral excursions. Shakespeare experimented with this idiom in Cymbeline, and it was presumably with his blessing that Fletcher eventually took over as the King's Men's company dramatist. The two writers apparently collaborated on three plays in the years 1612-14: a lost romance called Cardenio (based on the love-madness of a character in Cervantes' Don Quixote), Henry VIII (originally staged with the title "All Is True"), and The Two Noble Kinsmen, a dramatization of Chaucer's "Knight's Tale." These were written after Shakespeare's two final solo-authored plays, The Winter's Tale, a self-consciously old-fashioned work dramatizing the pastoral romance of his old enemy Robert Greene, and The Tempest, which at one and the same time drew together multiple theatrical traditions, diverse reading, and contemporary interest in the fate of a ship that had been wrecked on the way to the New World.
The collaborations with Fletcher suggest that Shakespeare's career ended with a slow fade rather than the sudden retirement supposed by the nineteenth-century Romantic critics who read Prospero's epilogue to The Tempest as Shakespeare's personal farewell to his art. In the last few years of his life Shakespeare certainly spent more of his time in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he became further involved in property dealing and litigation. But his London life also continued. In 1613 he made his first major London property purchase: a freehold house in the Blackfriars district, close to his company's indoor theater. The Two Noble Kinsmen may have been written as late as 1614, and Shakespeare was in London on business a little over a year before he died of an unknown cause at home in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1616, probably on his fifty-second birthday.
About half the sum of his works were published in his lifetime, in texts of variable quality. A few years after his death, his fellow actors began putting together an authorized edition of his complete Comedies, Histories and Tragedies. It appeared in 1623, in large "Folio" format. This collection of thirty-six plays gave Shakespeare his immortality. In the words of his fellow dramatist Ben Jonson, who contributed two poems of praise at the start of the Folio, the body of his work made him "a monument without a tomb":
And art alive still while thy book doth live
And we have wits to read and praise to give ...
He was not of an age, but for all time!
SHAKESPEARE'S WORKS:
A CHRONOLOGY
1589-91 ? Arden of Faversham (possible part authorship)
1589-92 The Taming of the Shrew
1589-92 ? Edward the Third (possible part authorship)
1591 The Second Part of Henry the Sixth, originally called The First Part of the Contention betwixt the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster (element ol coauthorship possible)
1591 The Third Part of Henry the Sixth, originally called The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York (element ol coauthorship probable)
1591-92 The Two Gentlemen of Verona
1591-92; perhaps revised 1594 The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus (probably cowritten with, or revising an earlier version by, George Peele)
1592 The First Part of Henry the Sixth, probably with Thomas Nashe and others
1592/94 King Richard the Third
1593 Venus and Adonis (poem)
1593-94 The Rape of Lucrece (poem)
1593-1608 Sonnets (154 poems, published 1609 with A Lover's Complaint, a poem of disputed authorship)
1592-94/1600-03 Sir Thomas More (a single scene for a play originally by Anthony Munday. with other revisions by Henry Chettle, Thomas Dekker, and Thomas Heywood)
1594 The Comedy of Errors
1595 Love's Labour's Lost
1595-97 Love's Labour's Won (a lost play, unless the original title for another comedy)
1595-96 A Midsummer Night's Dream
1595-96 The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
1595-96 King Richard the Second
1595-97 The Life and Death of King John (possibly earlier)
1596-97 The Merchant of Venice
1596-97 The First Part of Henry the Fourth
1597-98 The Second Part of Henry the Fourth
1598 Much Ado About Nothing
1598-99 The Passionate Pilgrim (20 poems, some not by Shakespeare)
1599 The Life of Henry the Fifth
1599 "To the Queen" (epilogue for a court performance)
1599 As You Like It
1599 The Tragedy of Julius Caesar
1600-01 The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (perhaps revising an earlier version)
1600-01 The Merry Wives of Windsor (perhaps revising version of 1597-99)
1601 "Let the Bird of Loudest Lay" (poem, known since 1807 as "The Phoenix and Turtle" [turtledove])
1601 Twelfth Night, or What You Will
1601-02 The Tragedy of Troilus and Cressida
1604 The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice
1604 Measure for Measure
1605 All's Well That Ends Well
1605 The Life of Timon of Athens, with Thomas Middleton
1605-06 The Tragedy of King Lear
1605-08 ? contribution to The Four Plays in One (lost, except for A Yorkshire Tragedy, mostly by Thomas Middleton)
1606 The Tragedy of Macbeth (surviving text has additional scenes by Thomas Middleton)
1606-07 The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra
1608 The Tragedy of Coriolanus
1608 Pericles, Prince of Tyre, with George Wilkins
1610 The Tragedy of Cymbeline
1611 The Winter's Tale
1611 The Tempest
1612-13 Cardenio, with John Fletcher (survives only in later adaptation
called Double Falsehood by Lewis Theobald)
1613 Henry VIII (All Is True), with John Fletcher
1613-14 The Two Noble Kinsmen, with John Fletcher
KINGS AND QUEENS OF
ENGLAND: FROM THE
HISTORY PLAYS TO
SHAKESPEARE'S LIFETIME
Life Span Reign
Angevins:
Henry II 1133-1189 1154-1189
Richard I 1157-1199 1189-1199
John 1166-1216 1199-1216
Henry III 1207-1272 1216-1272
Edward I 1239-1307 1272-1307
Edward II 1284-1327 1307-1327 deposed
Edward III 1312-1377 1327-1377
Richard II 1367-1400 1377-1399 deposed
Lancastrians:
Henry IV 1367-1413 1399-1413
Henry V 1387-1422 1413-1422
Henry VI 1421-1471 1422-1461 and 1470-1471
Yorkists:
Edward IV 1442-1483 1461-1470 and 1471-1483
Edward V 1470-1483 1483 not crowned:deposed and assassinated
Richard III 1452-1485 1483-1485
Tudors:
Henry VII 1457-1509 1485-1509
Henry VIII 1491-1547 1509-1547
Edward VI 1537-1553 1547-1553
Life Span Reign
Jane 1537-1554 1553 not crowned: deposed and executed
Mary I 1516-1558 1553-1558
Philip of Spain 1527-1598 1554-1558 co-regent with Mary
Elizabeth I 1533-1603 1558-1603
Stuart:
James I 1566-1625 1603-1625 James VI of Scotland (1567-1625)
THE HISTORY BEHIND THE
HISTORIES: A CHRONOLOGY
Square brackets indicate events that happen just outside a play's timescale but are mentioned in the play.
FURTHER READING
AND VIEWING
CRITICAL APPROACHES
Bevington, David, "1 Henry VI," in A Companion to Shakespeare's Works Volume II: The Histories, ed. Richard Dutton and Jean E. Howard (2003). Excellent introductory essay that marries consideration of the authorship of the play with engaging critical analysis of it as a piece of drama.
Cartelli, Thomas, "Suffolk and the Pirates: Disordered Relations in Shakespeare's 2 Henry VI," in A Companion to Shakespeare's Works Volume II: The Histories, ed. Richard Dutton and Jean E. Howard (2003). In-depth analysis of one of the play's major characteristics, riot and disorder.
Goy-Blanquet, Dominique, Shakespeare's Early History Plays: From Chronicle to Stage (2003). Excellent study of the plays as representations of chronicle history that takes analysis of Shakespeare's pragmatic need to structure stageworthy narratives as its starting point.
Grene, Nicholas, Shakespeare's Serial History Plays (2002). Argues that all of Shakespeare's histories were meant to be staged as a serial sequence and pursues critical links between them all accordingly: chapters 3-5 deal with the Henry VI trilogy and Richard III.
Hodgdon, Barbara, The End Crowns All: Closure and Contradiction in Shakespeare's History (1991). Magisterial study of the idea of "endings" in Shakespeare's histories: chapter 3 deals with the Henry VI trilogy.
Holderness, Graham, Shakespeare: The Histories (2000). Influential reevaluation of the historical contexts through which we might better understand Shakespeare's writing of his history plays: chapter 5 deals with Henry VI Part I.
Lull, Janis, "Plantagenets, Lancastrians, Yorkists, and Tudors: 1-3 Henry VI, Richard III, Edward III," in The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's History Plays, ed. Michael Hattaway (2002). Excellent overview of Shakespeare's early history plays.
Pendleton, Thomas A., ed., Henry VI: Critical Essays (2001). Excellent and diverse collection of essays on a range of themes spanning all three plays.
Riggs, David S., Shakespeare's Heroical Histories: Henry VI and Its Literary Tradition (1971). Excellent study contextualizing the production of the plays within early 1590s literary and dramatic culture.
Schwarz, Kathryn, "Vexed Relations: Family, State, and the Uses of Women in 3 Henry VI," in A Companion to Shakespeare's Works Volume II: The Histories, ed. Richard Dutton and Jean E. Howard (2003). Interrogates the relationships between family and state in the play, particularly the ways in which women are used in transactions of marriage to this end.
Taylor, Gary, "Shakespeare and Others: The Authorship of Henry VI Part One," in Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England, Vol. 7 (1995). Excellent and persuasive model of the coauthorship of Part I.
THE PLAY IN PERFORMANCE
Hampton-Reeves, Stuart, and Carol Chillington Rutter, Shakespeare in Performance: The Henry VI Plays (2006). Excellent study of all the major stage and screen realizations of the trilogy since the turn of the twentieth century.
Holland, Peter, English Shakespeares: Shakespeare on the English Stage in the 1990s (1997). Features analysis of the RSC's 1994 rendering of Henry VI Part III, entitled The Battle for the Throne.
Jackson, Russell, and Robert Smallwood, eds., Players of Shakespeare 3 (1993). A treasure house for those interested in the acting of these plays, featuring Ralph Fiennes on playing the role of Henry, Penny Downie on Queen Margaret, and Anton Lesser on Richard of Gloucester.
Oyelowo, David, Actors on Shakespeare: Henry VI Part 1 (2003). Intriguing rehearsal diary by Oyelowo, whose performance as Henry won widespread critical acclaim in Michael Boyd's 2000-01 productions for the RSC.
Pearson, Richard, A Band of Arrogant and United Heroes, The Story of the Royal Shakespeare Company Production of The Wars of the Roses (1990). Full account of the epic 1963 Peter Hall/John Barton saga that helped to establish the RSC as we know it today.
Smallwood, Robert, ed., Players of Shakespeare 6 (2004). A volume devoted entirely to history plays, featuring Fiona Bell and Richard Cordery on their respective roles as Queen Margaret and Humphrey Duke of Gloucester in Michael Boyd's 2000-01 productions for the RSC.
AVAILABLE ON DVD
Henry VI Parts One, Two and Three, directed by Jane Howell for the BBC Shakespeare series (1983, DVD 2005). Howell's epic trilogy is widely acclaimed as perhaps the crowning glory of the entire BBC Shakespeare canon, with the cast across the three films boasting such talent as Peter Benson (Henry), Brenda Blethyn (Joan la Pucelle), Trevor Peacock (Talbot/Jack Cade), Julia Foster (Margaret), Ron Cook (Richard of Gloucester), Bernard Hill (York), Paul Jesson (Clarence), and Brian Protheroe (Edward IV).
REFERENCES
1. In his pamphlet Greene's Groats-worth of Wit bought with a million of Repentance, Robert Greene makes the first published reference to William Shakespeare: "for there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes fac totum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey"; the line "his tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde" is an allusion, it's argued, to the description of Queen Margaret in Henry VI Part III. "O, tiger's heart wrapt in a woman's hide" (1.4.137).
2. Stratford Herald, 26 April 1889.
3. Carol Chillington Rutter and Stuart Hampton-Reeves, The Henry VI Plays (2006), p. 27.
4. Rutter and Hampton-Reeves, The Henry VI Plays, p. 30.
5. Stanley Wells, Shakespeare in the Theatre: An Anthology of Criticism (1997), p. 52.
6. Rutter and Hampton-Reeves, The Henry VI Plays, p. 36.
7. Reynolds, quoted in Wells, Shakespeare in the Theatre, pp. 52-3.
8. Birmingham Daily Mail, 24 April 1889.
9. Stratford-upon-Avon Herald, 26 April 1889.
10. Birmingham Gazette, 22 April 1899.
11. Stratford-upon-Avon Herald, 11 May 1906.
12. Rutter and Hampton-Reeves, The Henry VI Plays, p. 39.
13. Rutter and Hampton-Reeves, The Henry VI Plays, p. 53.
14. Foster Hirsch, Shakespeare Quarterly 21 (1970), pp. 477-79.
15. New York Times, 2 July 1970.
16. Alan C. Dessen, Shakespeare Quarterly 28 (1977), pp. 245-46.
> 17. Dessen, Shakespeare Quarterly 28, pp. 245-46.
18. Alan C. Dessen, Shakespeare Quarterly 29 (1978), pp. 283-85.
19. Guardian, 13 February 1989.
20. Guardian, 10 February 2001.
21. Stuart Hampton-Reeves, "Theatrical Afterlives," The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's History Plays, ed. Michael Hattaway (2002).
22. J. C. Trewin, The Illustrated London News, 3 August 1963.
23. Michael Billington, Guardian, 16 December 2000.
24. Peter Roberts, Plays and Players, 12 September 1963.
25. Michael Boyd in an interview with Maddy Costa, Guardian, 19 July 2006.
26. Hampton-Reeves, "Theatrical Afterlives."
27. Peter Hall, Introduction to The Wars of the Roses Adapted for the Royal Shakespeare Company from William Shakespeare's Henry VI, Parts I, II, III and Richard III by John Barton in collaboration with Peter Hall (1970).
28. Nicola Barker, Observer, 14 August 1994.
29. Benedict Nightingale, The Times (London), 12 August 1994.
30. Michael Billington, Guardian, 11 August 1994.
31. Peter Holland, English Shakespeares: Shakespeare on the English Stage in the 1990s (1997).
32. Barbara Hodgdon, "The RSC's 'Long Sonata of the Dead,' " in Re-Visions of Shakespeare, ed. Evelyn Gajowski (2004).
33. Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard, 14 December 2000.
34. Billington, Guardian, 16 December 2000.
35. Billington, Guardian, 16 December 2000.
36. Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 15 December 2000.
37. Hampton-Reeves, "Theatrical Afterlives."
38. Hall, Introduction to The Wars of the Roses.
39. Barton and Hall, The Wars of the Roses.
40. A Band of Arrogant and United Heroes, The Story of the Royal Shakespeare Company Production of The Wars of the Roses (1990).
41. Sally Emerson, Plays and Players, September 1977.