When the word “Dauphin” appears later in the play, we use the French spelling because the anglicized Folio version, “Dolphin,” though the standard English spelling at the time, seems distractingly comic. It is important, however, to accent Dauphin on the first syllable (DAW-fin), as the Folio “DOL-phin” indicates.

  1.1.60. read on: There are discrepancies between Gloucester’s reading of the peace between the English and French and the Cardinal’s reading of it, even though they are apparently reading the same document. For example, Gloucester reads “Item, that the duchy of Anjou and the county of Maine shall be released and delivered to the King her father,” whereas the Cardinal reads “Item, it is further agreed between them that the duchies of Anjou and [omission] Maine shall be released and delivered to the King her father.” These discrepancies have troubled some editors, who have emended the play’s text so as to make Gloucester’s and the Cardinal’s readings identical; other editors, refusing to emend, have attempted to explain the discrepancies in realistic terms by suggesting that the Cardinal merely skims over, rather than reading word for word, what Gloucester has already read. Probably there is no need for either emendation or resort to realism, since early modern dramatists show little concern for exact repetition in cases such as this.

  1.1.87. true inheritance: The English traced Henry VI’s right to the throne of France to (1) his descent from Edward II, who had married Isabel, daughter of the French King Philip IV, and (2) to the Treaty of Troyes (1420), according to which Henry V or his heir (Henry VI) would inherit the French crown upon the death of the French king Charles VI. By this point in history both Henry V and Charles VI are dead, and, for the English, Henry VI is king of France. See “England’s Claim to France.”

  1.1.245–46. As . . . Calydon: When, in mythology, Meleager, prince of Calydon, was born, the Fates prophesied that he would live only as long as a brand (piece of wood) then on the hearth remained unburned. His mother, Althaea, took the brand from the fire and kept it safe until Meleager killed her two brothers in a fight. She then threw it back on the fire. (See Ovid’s Metamorphoses, book 8.)

  1.2.77. cunning witch: This phrase combines words used at the time to describe two different kinds of persons who purportedly engaged in supernatural practices. Cunning men or cunning women were sought out for their ability to find lost objects, to provide love potions, and otherwise to help out the troubled. Witches—whether male or female—reputedly dealt with evil spirits, and through them put curses on enemies, found out the future, and caused impotence and death. It is clear from the action in this scene that Margery Jourdain (a historical figure) is to be seen as a practicing witch rather than a cunning woman.

  1.3.175. Last time: In Henry VI, Part 1, 4.3, York accuses Somerset of having delayed York’s “promisèd supply / Of horsemen that were levied for this siege”—referring to Talbot’s siege of Bordeaux in 1453. Because York specifically mentions Paris, here in Part 2—“Last time I danced attendance on [Somerset’s] will / Till Paris was besieged, famished, and lost”—it is also possible that the reference is rather to the siege of Paris recorded for 1437 in Hall’s Union of the two noble and illustre famelies of Lancastre & Yorke: “the duke of Somerset . . . by all waies and meanes possible . . . bothe hindered and detracted [York], . . . causying hym to linger in Englande, without dispatche, till Paris and the floure of Fraunce, were gotten by the Frenche kyng.”

  1.4.24 SD. circle: When Christopher Marlowe has Doctor Faustus conjure, Faustus describes the circle:

  Within this circle is Jehovah’s name,

  Forward and backward anagrammatized*, *made into anagrams

  The breviated* names of holy saints, *abbreviated

  Figures of every adjunct to the heavens,

  And characters of signs and erring stars,

  By which the spirits are enforced to rise.

  (Doctor Faustus [1604] 1.3.8–13,

  ed. Bevington and Rasmussen)

  “Figures . . . stars” refers to “charts of every heavenly body fixed in the firmament and astrological symbols or diagrams of the constellations of the Zodiac and the planets.” According to Reginald Scot (The Discovery of Witchcraft), the conjurer “must make a circle . . . when that he has made, go into the circle, and close again the place, there where thou wentest in.” The circle was thought not only to force the spirit(s) to appear, as Faustus says, but also to protect, as a hallowed verge, the conjurer against the risen spirit(s).

  2.1.103. lame: For the association of lame with blind (line 83) and the North (line 91), see Jeremiah 31.8: “Behold I will bring them from the North country, and gather them from the coasts of the world, with the blind and the lame among them.”

  2.2.42–45. This Edmund . . . died: In Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, Edmund is captured by Glendower, but then becomes his ally and marries his daughter. Like his historical sources, Shakespeare may here confuse Edmund Mortimer, the fifth earl of March, with Sir Edmund Mortimer, brother to the fourth earl, Glendower’s captive. For the same probable confusion, see Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part 1, 2.5.

  2.3.96 SD. They fight, and Peter strikes him down: It would be easy for the modern reader to dismiss the trial by combat between Thump and Horner as a bit of clowning in a very dark play—as comic relief, that is. However, there is reason to question such a reading of a very complex scene. As the deadly outcome of the combat indicates, fighting with flails was a serious matter. The flail may seem a silly thing when it is described by the Folio as a “staff with a sandbag fastened to it” (line 60 SD). Yet when more properly described as a “staff with a long thin leather bag of sand attached to the end of it,” the flail seems, as it indeed looks in contemporary portrayals, as elegant as it is deadly. It was also used by infantry in war. In many ways, then, the look of the fight between Horner and Thump would not have been comic, despite Horner’s drunkenness and Thump’s terror.

  The scene’s complexity is increased by a certain amount of irony. King Henry, as usual, maintains a pious and conventional view throughout. Before the trial begins he exclaims “God defend the right!” (line 57), expressing the belief that the combat offers God the chance to intervene in the world to determine the outcome by favoring the just combatant against the treacherous one. When Thump prevails, Henry declares that “God in justice hath revealed to us / The truth and innocence of this poor fellow [Thump],” while of Horner he declares “by his death we do perceive his guilt” (lines 103–5). However, this pious response is set off against York’s comment to the victorious Thump: “Fellow, thank God and the good wine in thy master’s way” (lines 98–99), an explanation of Thump’s victory that clouds the likelihood of divine intervention. To a certain extent, then, the Thump-Horner fight can be seen as a mockery of Henry’s staunchly religious view of trial by combat.

  3.2.120. Dido: As editors observe, these lines fail accurately to represent Virgil’s Aeneid, where it is Aeneas himself, at the beginning of book 2, who tells Dido his story. Ascanius seems to make an appearance earlier, in book 1, though the figure of Ascanius is actually a disguised Cupid, sent by Aeneas’s mother, Venus, to give gifts to Dido and thereby inflame her with love for Aeneas.

  4.1.3. jades: Some editors refer to other Shakespeare plays to argue that these jades are dragons, not horses. See A Midsummer Night’s Dream 3.2.400, “night’s swift dragons,” and Cymbeline 2.2.52, “Swift, swift, you dragons of the night.”

  4.1.54. kissed thy hand: This and the following lines (55–65) seem at first to suggest that Suffolk recognizes the Lieutenant as a former servant of his, who performed many duties for him. However, it seems more likely that Suffolk is merely characterizing the Lieutenant as belonging to the same social rank as the people who once served the duke in the ways now described. If so, the duke’s words would be insulting because they would indicate that, as far as he is concerned, members of that social rank are all the same, not worthy of having any distinctions made among them.

  4.2.0 SD. Bevis: Most editors name this character “George Bevis”; they equate him with the character named “George” in 4.7, and argue that, like John Holland, George Bevis was the name of an actor. While the name “J. Holland” appears in a playhouse document from around 1590, the name “George Bevis” cannot be demonstrated to be that of an actor. Proponents of this reading point to a phrase in a version of this play published in 1594 as The First part of the Contention betwixt the two famous Houses of Yorke and Lancaster, a version that differs widely from Henry VI, Part 2 as published in the First Folio in 1623. The phrase in the Contention (here printed in italics) concludes Horner’s line at 2.3.94, which, in the Contention, reads “haue at you Peter with downright blowes, as Beuys of South-hampton fell vpon Askapart.” The name Beuys is a contemporary spelling of our Bevis and alludes to a legendary English hero. The editorial argument is that this phrase in Contention was added by an actor as wordplay on his own name—Bevis. While this supposition is not impossible—actors’ names were often added to playhouse manuscripts by theatrical personnel—it is by no means certain. Our decision is thus not to combine “Bevis” in 4.2 with “George” in 4.7. In the theater, a director may well choose to combine “George” with “Bevis.” Like “John Holland,” “George” and “Bevis” are minor characters whose parts, on the Elizabethan stage, could easily have been assigned to whichever actors were available for doubling.

  5.1.101. Achilles’ spear: During the Trojan War, Telephus was wounded, while defending Troy, by the spear of the greatest of the Greek attackers, Achilles. Telephus’s wound was subsequently healed by the application of the rust that had fallen from the spear. The incident became proverbial.

  5.2.42. premised flames of the last day: See 2 Peter 3.7–12: “But the heavens and the earth . . . are reserved unto fire against the day of judgment. . . . But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which . . . the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with heat.”

  Textual Notes

  The reading of the present text appears to the left of the square bracket. Unless otherwise noted, the reading to the left of the bracket is from F, the First Folio text (upon which this edition is based). The earliest sources of readings not in F are indicated as follows: Q is the first quarto of 1594; F2 is the Second Folio of 1632; F3 is the Third Folio of 1663–64; F4 is the Fourth Folio of 1685; Ed. is an earlier editor of Shakespeare, beginning with Rowe in 1709. No sources are given for emendations of punctuation or for corrections of obvious typographical errors, like turned letters that produce no known word. SD means stage direction; SP means speech prefix; ~ stands in place of a word already quoted before the square bracket; ^ indicates the omission of a punctuation mark.

  1.1  0. SD Queen] Ed.; The Queene F;  4. Princess] F (Princes);  19 and hereafter. SP KING HENRY] Ed.; King. F;  27 and hereafter. SP QUEEN MARGARET] Ed.; Queen. F;  34. overjoy] F (ouer ioy);  40. Queen] F (Qu.);  46. Imprimis] F (Inprimis);  47. king] F (K.);  55. father—] ~. F;  61. SP CARDINAL] Ed.; Win. F;  62. duchies] Ed.; Dutchesse F;  63. delivered] Ed.; deliuered ouer;  98. had] Ed.; hath F;  106. Razing] F (Racing);  110. peroration] preroration F;  114. roast] F (rost);  138 and hereafter in this act. SP GLOUCESTER] Ed.; Hum. F;  149. out.] ~, F;  153. SD Gloucester exits.] F (Exit Humfrey.);  184. besides] F (beside);  186. Protector] Q; Protectors F;  193. cardinal,] ~. F;  268. in] in in F

  1.2  1 and hereafter. SP DUCHESS] Ed.; Elia. F;  8. Enchased] Inehac’d F;  19. hour] Ed.; thought F;  21. world] worid F;  59. Saint] F (S.);  62. SD Gloucester exits] F (Ex. Hum) 1 line earlier;  80. promisèd:] ~^ F;  89. SD Duchess exits.] F (Exit Elianor.)

  1.3  6. SP FIRST PETITIONER] F4; Peter. F;  32. master] Ed.; Mistresse F;  43. SD They exit.] Exit. F;  70. Besides] F (Beside);  103. helm] Ed.; Helme. Exit. F;  103. SD King . . . Cardinal . . . Warwick] Ed.; the King . . . Cardinall, Buckingham, Yorke, Salisbury, Warwicke F;  116. Buckingham] Buekingham F;  133. wife’s] F (Wiues);  140. SD Gloucester exits.] F (Exit Humfrey.);  146. I’d] Q; I could F;  151. SD Eleanor . . . exits.] F (Exit Elianor.);  192 and hereafter. SP HORNER] Ed.; Armorer. F

  1.4  24. SD etc.] Ed.; &c. F;  26. SP JOURDAIN] Ed.; Witch. F;  58. SD Jourdain . . . aloft.] F (Exit.);  66. posse] Ed.; posso F;  74. lord] Ed.; Lords F

  2.1  0. SD King] Ed; the King F;  32. Lord] F4; Lords F;  54. SP CARDINAL] Ed.; Cardinall, F;  65. SD a man from St. Albans] Ed.; one F;  68 and hereafter. SP MAN] Ed.; One. F;  122. Alban] F2 (Albon); Albones F;  146. his] Q; it F;  171. them] F (th);  172. SD The . . . exit.] Ed. Exit. F

  2.2  38 and hereafter. Philippa] F (Phillip);  49. son] Ed.; not in F;  50. son] Ed.; Sonnes Sonne F;  67. SP SALISBURY, WARWICK] Ed.; Both. F

  2.3  0. SD King] Ed.; the King F;  4. sins] Ed.; sinne F;  54. therefor] F (therefore);  56. I’] F (A)

  2.4  5. o’clock] F (a Clock);  43. Sometimes] F (Sometime)

  3.1  39. lords] This ed.; Lord F;  212. strains] Ed.; strayes F;  333. SD All . . . exit.] Ed.; Exeunt. Manet Yorke. F;  336. art^] ~; F;  340. than] F (th);  387. Humphrey^] ~; F

  3.2  1 and hereafter. SP FIRST MURDERER] Ed.; 1. F;  3. SP SECOND MURDERER] Ed.; 2. F;  14. SD King Henry, Queen Margaret, Cardinal, Somerset] Ed.; the King, the Queene, Cardinall, Suffolke, Somerset F;  26. Meg] Ed.; Nell F;  33. SD swoons] F (sounds);  81, 103, 124. Margaret] Ed.; Elianor F;  138. Salisbury] Salsburie F;  152. SD Bed . . . forth] F, 2 lines earlier;  186, 189. Duke] F (D.);  274. whe’er] F (where);  310. SD All . . . exit.] Ed.; Exit. F;  319. enemies] Q; enemy F;  322. Could] Q; Would F;  330. on] F (an);  344. turn] Ed.; turnes F;  345. bade] F (bad);  363. Adventure] Aduenrure F;  380. Whither] F (Whether);  386, 387. Sometimes] F (Sometime);  419. It] Ir F

  3.3  8. SP CARDINAL] Ed.; Beau. F;  10. whe’er] F (where)

  4.1  6. Clip] F (Cleape);  10. their] theit F;  49. Jove . . . I] Q only; not in F;  49. sometimes] Q (sometime);  51. SP SUFFOLK] Q only (Suf.); not in F;  51. blood,] ~. F;  52. The] Q; Suf. The F;  72–73. SP LIEUTENANT . . . Pole!] Q (Cap. Yes Poull. | Suffolke. Poull.); not in F;  91. mother’s bleeding] Ed.; Mother-bleeding F;  99. are] Ed.; and F;  122. Walter] Ed.; Water F;  123. SP WHITMORE] Ed.; W. F;  124. Paene] Ed.; Pine F;  126 and hereafter. SP WHITMORE] Ed.; Wal. F;  140. SP SUFFOLK] Ed.; not in F;  140. can,] ~. F;  141. That] Ed.; Suf. That F;  144. Brutus’] Brutsn F;  146. SD Walter Whitmore] Ed.; Water F

  4.2  34 and hereafter until 4.7.52. SP DICK] Ed.; But. F;  35. fall] F4; faile F;  47 and hereafter until 4.7.10. SP SMITH] Ed.; Weauer. F;  88. H’as] F (Ha’s);  100. an] F2; a F;  133. this:] ~^ F;  151. Duke] F (D.);  178. SD The . . . exit.] Ed.; Exit. F

  4.4  0. SD King . . . Queen] Ed.; the King . . . the Queene F;  19. have] huae F;  28. Southwark] Southwatke F;  50. SP SECOND MESSENGER] Mess. F;  59. be betrayed] F2; betraid F

  4.5  4. Lord] F (L.)

  4.6  11. My] Ed.; Dicke. My F

  4.7  3. SP DICK] Rut. F;  7 and hereafter. SP HOLLAND] Ed.; Iohn. F;  47. on] Q; in F;  59. where] F (wher’e);  89. caudle] F4; Candle F;  108. i’] F (a)

  4.8  27. freedom] Fteedome F;  70. means] F (meane)

  4.9  35. calmed] F4; calme F

  4.10  7. o’er] Ed.; on F;  21. waning] Ed.; warning F;  27. Ah] F (A);  60. God] Q; Ioue F

  5.1  0. SD with] wih F;  47. Saint] F (S.);  74. thou] rhou F;  110. these] Ed.; thee F;  112. sons] Q; sonne F;  115. for] F2; of F;  139. arrested] atrested F;  150, 166. Salisbury] Salsbury F;  177. shame!] ~^ F;  198. or] Ed.; and F;  199, 202, 212. SP CLIFFORD] Ed.; Old Clif. F;  205. house’s] F2; housed F;  211. to] io F

  5.2  8. How] Ed.; War. How F;  18. thee] theee F;  18. SD Warwick] F (War.);  28. oeuvres] F2; eumenes F;  29. thou] F ();  31 and hereafter. SP YOUNG CLIFFORD] Q; Clif. F;  69. Saint] F (S.)

  5.3  1, 7. Salisbury] Salsbury F;  16. Now] Ed.; Sal. Now F;  17. SP SALISBURY] Ed.; not in F

  Appendices

  Authorship of Henry VI, Part 2

  Henry VI, Part 2 was first published in 1623, together with thirty-five other plays, in the first collection of Shakespeare’s plays to be issued in a single volume—the book we now call the Shakespeare First Folio. Until Lewis Theobald in 1734, no one suggested that any of the play was the work of someone else besides Shakespeare. After Theobald expressed skepticism about Shakespeare’s sole authorship, a great many editors and scholars have echoed his doubts, most influentially the renowned Shakespeare editor Edmond Malone in 1787. Others have contested Theobald’s doubts, including the respected Samuel Johnson. Beginning with Jane Lee in 1876, a number of investigators using different methods have attempted to discriminate between those parts of the play to be credited to Shakespeare and those parts to be attributed to other named playwrights of the period, including Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe, and Christopher Marlowe. These scholars have arrived at no consensus about exactly who wrote which parts.

  We do not think it impossible or even improbable that other hands may be represented in the play. It is conservatively estimated that at least half the plays from the public theater of Shakespeare’s time were collaborative efforts. We respect the labor expended and skill exhibited by attribution scholars, and, at the same time, we take seriously the limitations that they acknowledge necessarily attend their efforts. On this basis we simply set aside the question of whether Greene, Nashe, or Marlowe wrote some of Henry VI, Part 2 and contest neither those who have argued for collaboration nor those who have claimed the play for Shakespeare.