SECOND PART of King HENRY VI.] This and The Third Part of King Henry VI. contain that troublesome period of this prince's reign which took in the whole contention betwixt the houses of York and Lancaster and under that title were these two plays first acted and published. The present scene opens with King Henry's marriage, which was in the twenty-third year of his reign [A. D. 1445:] and closes with the first battle fought at St. Albans, and won by the York faction, in the thirty-third year of his reign [A.D. 1455]: so that it comprizes the history and transactions of ten years. THEOBALD. This play was altered by Crowne, and acted in the year 1681. STLEVENS. The Contention of the Two famous Houses of Yorke and Lancaster in two parts, was published in quarto, in 1600; and the first part was entered on the Stationers' books, March 12, 1593-4. On these two plays, which I believe to have been written by some preceding author, before the year 1590, Shakespeare formed, as I conceive, this and the following drama; altering, retrenching, or amplifying, as he thought proper.-Here it is necessary to apprize the reader of the method observed in the printing of these plays. All the lines printed in the usual manner, are found in the original quarto plays (or at least with such minute variations as are not worth noticing): and those, I conceive, Shakespeare adopted as he found them. The lines to which inverted commas are prefixed, were, if my hypothesis be well-founded, retouched, and greatly improved by him; and those with asterisks were his own original production; the embroidery with which he ornamented the coarse stuff that had been aukwardly made up for the stage by some of his contemporaries. The speeches which he new-modelled, he improved, sometimes by amplification, and sometimes by retrenchment. These two pieces, I imagine, were produced in their present form in 1591. See An Attempt to ascertain the Order of Shakespeare's Plays, Vol. II. Dr. Johnson observes very justly, that these two parts were not written without a dependance on the first. Undoubtedly not; the old play of King Henry VI. (or, as it is now called, The First Part,) certainly had been exhibited before these were written in any form But it does not follow from this concession, either that The Contention of the Two Houses, &c. in two parts, was written by the author of the former play, or that Shakespeare was the author of these two pieces as they originally appeared MALONE. King HENRY the Sixth: HUMPHREY, duke of Gloster, his uncle. Cardinal BEAUfort, bishop of Winchester, great uncle to the king. Sir JOHN STanley. A Sea-capain, Master, and Master's Mate, and WALTER WHITMORE. Two Gentlemen, prisoners with Suffolk. A Herald. VAUX. HUME and SOUTHWELL, two priests. Bolingbroke, a conjurer. A Spirit raised by him. - Clerk of Chatham. SIMPCOX, an imposter. JACK CADE, a rebel. Mayor of Saint Albans. Two Murderers. GEORGE, JOHN, DICK, SMITH the Weaver, MICHAEL, &c. his followers. ALEXANDER IDEN, a Kentish gentleman. MARGARET, queen to King Henry. ELEANOR, duchess of Gloster. MARGERY JOURDAIN, a witch. Wife to Simpsox. Lords, Ladies, and Attendants; Petitioners, Aläormen, a Beadle, Sheriff, and Officers; Citizens, Prentices Falconers, Guards, Soldiers, Messengers, &c. SCENE, dispersedly in various purts of England. $ SECOND PART OF KING HENRY VI. ACT I. SCENE I.-London. A room of state in the palace. Flourish of trumpets: then hautboys. Enter, on one side, Suf. As by your high imperial majesty 1 had in charge at my depart for France, As procurator to your excellence, To marry princess Margaret for your grace; So, in the famous ancient city, Tours, In presence of the kings of France and Sicil, The dukes of Orleans, Calaber, Bretaigne, and Alençon, 1 have perform'd my task, and was espous'd: And humbly now upon my bended knee, To your most gracious hands, that are the substance 2 |