Henry VI, Part 1

by William Shakespeare

Overview

1 Henry VI was the Rose Theatre's great draw in the spring of 1592, a dramatic tale of the lives of soldiers, diplomats, kings, and insurrectionists. It centres on the fractious instability of the court and nobility of fifteenth-century England, and their squabbles with their French counterparts. Despite its debut performance in 1592, however, 1 Henry VI does not take a printed form until its appearance some thirty years later in the 1623 Folio. There are many questions, therefore, surrounding exactly how many people wrote the play, when they did so, how it was performed, who played what part, and the nature of the manuscript behind the first performance. In his wide-ranging introduction, Michael Taylor offers answers to these questions, and discusses other key issues such as language, structure, performance history, and the role of women in the play.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781514865729
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	07/07/2015
Pages:	74
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.18(d)

About the Author

Douglas Langworthy (1959-2020) was the literary director at the Denver Center Theatre Company, where he participated in the development of many plays and musicals. Langworthy served as dramaturg and director of play development at McCarter Theatre in Princeton, NJ for two years and director of literary development and dramaturgy at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for seven.

Date of Death:

2018

Place of Birth:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Place of Death:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Read an Excerpt

The First Part of Henry the Sixth
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Henry VI, Part 1"
by .
Copyright © 2018 William Shakespeare.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

	List of Illustrations	ix
	A Note on Titles	x
	Introduction	1
	Three Plays or a Trilogy?	1
	Theatricality and Modernity	6
	Origins	27
	History and Pseudo-history	32
	The Fall of Duke Humphrey	36
	Dramatic Style: Henry and Margaret	40
	Suffolk and Margaret	44
	Jack Cade's Rebellion	50
	The Outbreak of War	57
	Date and Chronology	60
	Textual Introduction	75
	Q as a reported text	78
	Revision in the Folio text	87
	The Folio text and this edition	98
	Editorial Procedures	101
	Abbreviations and References	102
	Henry VI, Part Two	105
Appendix A	Passages from the Quarto Text	289
Appendix B	Chronicle Sources	295
Appendix C	Alterations to Lineation	307
	Index	311

Editorial Reviews

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