Henry vi part 2, p.5
Henry VI, Part 2,
p.5
An Introduction to This Text
Henry VI, Part 2 was first printed, in a version far different from the one edited here, in 1594 as a quarto with the title The First part of the Contention betwixt the two famous Houses of Yorke and Lancaster, with the death of the good Duke Humphrey: And the banishment and death of the Duke of Suffolke, and the Tragicall end of the proud Cardinall of Winchester, with the notable Rebellion of Iacke Cade: and the Duke of Yorkes first claime vnto the Crowne. This quarto was reprinted in 1600 and again, with a half-dozen corrections that bring its text closer to the First Folio version, in 1619. In the 1623 collection of Shakespeare’s plays now known as the First Folio there appeared a much fuller and very different text, this one titled The second Part of Henry the Sixt, with the death of the Good Duke HVMFREY.
The relation between Folio and quarto texts of this play has been a matter of speculation and discussion for centuries. In the eighteenth century it came to be believed that the quarto was the non-Shakespearean source for the Folio play. Then, early in the twentieth century, the text printed in the quarto was properly recognized as being later than the text printed in the Folio, from which it was derived. However, the process of derivation remains a vexed question. Particular passages printed in the quarto—1.1.61–66; 2.1.74 SD, 127–66 SD; 2.3.60 SD–2.4.0 SD; 4.5.0 SD–4.6.6—reproduce the Folio text verbatim or nearly verbatim. Nevertheless, the closeness of the quarto to the Folio in these passages may not mean that the quarto manuscript reproduced the Folio manuscript most carefully here; instead, it may indicate that the Folio typesetters consulted the printed quarto for these passages, perhaps because they found the manuscript being used as printer’s copy deficient in these places. Some editors and critics have invoked the theory of memorial reconstruction to account for the quarto’s relationship to the Folio. However, The First part of the Contention does not differ from The second Part of Henry the Sixt in the same way that the 1602 quarto of The Merry Wives of Windsor does from the Folio text of that play—the quarto of Wives being the only one that seems in any substantial way a memorial reconstruction of its Folio counterpart. Thus memorial reconstruction seems irrelevant to the case of Henry VI, Part 2, where the nature of the quarto text remains an unresolved question.
The present edition is based directly on the First Folio text of 1623,I and resorts to the quarto only for occasional readings when the sense of the Folio breaks down. For the convenience of the reader, we have modernized the punctuation and the spelling of the Folio. Sometimes we go so far as to modernize certain old forms of words; for example, usually when a means he, we change it to he; we change mo to more, and ye to you. But it is not our practice in editing any of the plays to modernize words that sound distinctly different from modern forms. For example, when the early printed texts read sith or apricocks or porpentine, we have not modernized to since, apricots, porcupine. When the forms an, and, or and if appear instead of the modern form if, we have reduced and to an but have not changed any of these forms to their modern equivalent, if. We also modernize and, where necessary, correct passages in foreign languages, unless an apparent error in the early printed text can be reasonably explained as a joke.
Whenever we change the wording of the First Folio or add anything to its stage directions, we mark the change by enclosing it in superior half-brackets (< >). We want our readers to be immediately aware when we have intervened. (Only when we correct an obvious typographical error in the First Folio does the change not get marked.) Whenever we change either the First Folio’s wording or its punctuation so that meaning changes, we list the change in the textual notes at the back of the book, even if all we have done is fix an obvious error.
We regularize spellings of a number of the proper names in the dialogue and stage directions, as is the usual practice in editions of the play. For example, the First Folio uses the forms “Salisbury,” “Salsbury,” “Salsburie,” and “Salisburie,” but this edition uses only “Salisbury.” However, it is not our practice in this play to render all names of French characters or places in modern French. Instead, to accommodate metrical considerations in the play’s verse, we retain the First Folio’s anglicized spellings of, for example, “Alanson” for Alençon, “Orleance” for Orléans, and “Britaigne” for Brittany. (For more detail, see the longer note to 1.1.7–8.)
This edition differs from many earlier ones in its efforts to aid the reader in imagining the play as a performance rather than as a series of actual events. Thus some stage directions are edited with reference to the stage. For example, in 2.4 of Henry VI, Part 1, the prequel to Henry VI, Part 2, a group of noblemen quarrel over a case at law and divide into two parties. They identify themselves as members of their parties by plucking and wearing roses of different colors. One party is led by Richard Plantagenet, subsequently created the duke of York, and wears the white rose. His chief follower is Warwick. The opposing party is headed by the duke of Somerset, whose principal supporter is Suffolk; they wear the red rose. Once these parties have formed in this scene, thereafter in stage productions each time they enter in Henry VI, Parts 1, 2, or 3, their members square off against each other belligerently as they display the roses that signal their allegiances. To emphasize this stage presentation of factionalism in our edition, we reorganize the First Folio’s entrance directions in scenes where such factionalism is prominent so that members of each faction enter together wearing the rose appropriate to their faction. In 1.3 of Henry VI, Part 2, for example, when Suffolk enters at line 5 SD, we indicate that he is wearing the red rose, and, at line 103 SD we indicate that York and Warwick enter wearing the white rose and Somerset wearing the red. Through this intervention we hope to help our readers stage the play in their own imaginations in a way that more closely approximates an experience in the theater.
Whenever it is reasonably certain, in our view, that a speech is accompanied by a particular action, we provide a stage direction describing the action, setting the added direction in brackets to signal that it is not found in the Folio. (Occasional exceptions to this rule occur when the action is so obvious that to add a stage direction would insult the reader). Stage directions for the entrance of a character in mid-scene are, with rare exceptions, placed so that they immediately precede the character’s participation in the scene, even though these entrances may appear somewhat earlier in the early printed texts. Whenever we move a stage direction, we record this change in the textual notes. Latin stage directions (e.g., Exeunt) are translated into English (e.g., They exit).
We expand the often severely abbreviated forms of names used as speech headings in early printed texts into the full names of the characters. We also regularize the speakers’ names in speech headings, using only a single designation for each character, even though the early printed texts sometimes use a variety of designations. Such variety is evident in connection with several characters. Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, is sometimes “Glo.” and sometimes “Hum.” in the Folio speech prefixes, but always “GLOUCESTER” in this edition. One of Jack Cade’s followers in the Act 4 rebellion is Dick the butcher, who sometimes in the Folio speaks as “But.” and sometimes as “Dicke.” but speaks only as “DICK” in our edited text.
In the present edition, as well, we mark with a dash any change of address within a speech, unless a stage direction intervenes. When the -ed ending of a word is to be pronounced, we mark it with an accent. Like editors for the past two centuries, we print metrically linked lines in the following way:
KING HENRY
Uncle, how now?
GLOUCESTER Pardon me, gracious lord.
(1.1.56–57)
However, when there are a number of short verse-lines that can be linked in more than one way, we do not, with rare exceptions, indent any of them.
The Explanatory Notes
The notes that appear in the commentary at the end of the text, are designed to provide readers with the help that they may need to enjoy the play. Whenever the meaning of a word in the text is not readily accessible in a good contemporary dictionary, we offer the meaning in a note. Sometimes we provide a note even when the relevant meaning is to be found in the dictionary but when the word has acquired since Shakespeare’s time other potentially confusing meanings. In our notes, we try to offer modern synonyms for Shakespeare’s words. We also try to indicate to the reader the connection between the word in the play and the modern synonym. For example, Shakespeare sometimes uses the word head to mean source, but, for modern readers, there may be no connection evident between these two words. We provide the connection by explaining Shakespeare’s usage as follows: “head: fountainhead, source.” On some occasions, a whole phrase or clause needs explanation. Then, when space allows, we rephrase in our own words the difficult passage, and add at the end synonyms for individual words in the passage. When scholars have been unable to determine the meaning of a word or phrase, we acknowledge the uncertainty. Bible quotations are from the Geneva Bible (1560), modernized.
* * *
I. We have also consulted the computerized text of the First Folio provided by the Text Archive of the Oxford University Computing Centre, to which we are grateful.
HENRY VI
Part 2
Characters in the Play
KING HENRY VI
QUEEN MARGARET
Humphrey, Duke of GLOUCESTER, the king’s uncle, and Lord Protector
DUCHESS of Gloucester, Dame Eleanor Cobham
CARDINAL Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, the king’s great-uncle
Duke of SOMERSET
Duke of SUFFOLK, William de la Pole, earlier Marquess of SUFFOLK
BUCKINGHAM
Lord CLIFFORD
YOUNG CLIFFORD, his son
Duke of YORK, Richard Plantagenet
Earl of SALISBURY
Earl of WARWICK, Salisbury’s son
EDWARD, Earl of March
sons of the Duke of York
RICHARD
Jack CADE, leader of the Kentish rebellion
BEVIS
followers of Jack Cade
John HOLLAND
DICK the butcher
SMITH the weaver
MICHAEL
GEORGE
Lord SCALES
King Henry’s
supporters against Cade
Lord SAYE
Sir Humphrey STAFFORD
His BROTHER,
William Stafford
Sir John HUME, a priest
John SOUTHWELL, a priest
Margery JOURDAIN, a witch
Roger BOLINGBROKE, a conjurer
SPIRIT
Sir John STANLEY
custodians of the Duchess
SHERIFF
of Gloucester
Thomas HORNER, the Duke of York’s armorer
Peter THUMP, Horner the armorer’s man or prentice
Two or Three PETITIONERS
Three NEIGHBORS of Horner’s
Three PRENTICES, friends of Thump
A MAN of Saint Albans
Sander SIMPCOX, supposed recipient of a miracle
His WIFE
MAYOR of Saint Albans
A BEADLE of Saint Albans
LIEUTENANT, captain of a ship
Ship’s MASTER
Master’s MATE
Walter WHITMORE, a ship’s officer
Two GENTLEMEN, prisoners
MESSENGERS
SERVANTS
A HERALD
POST, or messenger
Two or three MURDERERS of Gloucester
VAUX
CLERK of Chartham
Two or Three CITIZENS
Alexander IDEN, a gentleman of Kent
Servants, Guards, Falconers, Attendants, Townsmen of Saint Albans, Bearers, Drummers, Commoners, Rebels, a Sawyer, Soldiers, Officers, Matthew Gough, and Others
HENRY VI
Part 2
* * *
ACT 1
ACT 1
* * *
Scene 1
Flourish of trumpets, then hautboys.
Enter King
Salisbury, Warwick, and
side; Queen
Buckingham, on the other.
SUFFOLK
As by your high imperial Majesty
1
I had in charge at my depart for France,
2
As procurator to your Excellence,
3
To marry Princess Margaret for your Grace,
4
So, in the famous ancient city Tours,
5
In presence of the Kings of France and Sicil,
6
The Dukes of Orleance, Calaber, Britaigne, and
7
Alanson,
8
Seven earls, twelve barons, and twenty reverend
9
bishops,
10
I have performed my task and was espoused;
11
And humbly now upon my bended knee,
12
In sight of England and her lordly peers,
13
Deliver up my title in the Queen
14
To your most gracious hands, that are the substance
15
Of that great shadow I did represent:
16
The happiest gift that ever marquess gave,
17
The fairest queen that ever king received.
18
KING HENRY
Suffolk, arise.—Welcome, Queen Margaret.
19
I can express no kinder sign of love
20
Than this kind kiss.
21
O Lord, that lends me life,
22
Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness!
23
For Thou hast given me in this beauteous face
24
A world of earthly blessings to my soul,
25
If sympathy of love unite our thoughts.
26
QUEEN MARGARET
Great king of England and my gracious lord,
27
The mutual conference that my mind hath had
28
By day, by night, waking and in my dreams,
29
In courtly company or at my beads,
30
With you, mine alderliefest sovereign,
31
Makes me the bolder to salute my king
32
With ruder terms, such as my wit affords
33
And overjoy of heart doth minister.
34
KING HENRY
Her sight did ravish, but her grace in speech,
35
Her words yclad with wisdom’s majesty,
36
Makes me from wond’ring fall to weeping joys,
37
Such is the fullness of my heart’s content.
38
Lords, with one cheerful voice welcome my love.
39
ALL kneel.
Long live Queen Margaret, England’s happiness!
40
QUEEN MARGARET We thank you all.
41
Flourish.
SUFFOLK,
My Lord Protector, so it please your Grace,
42
Here are the articles of contracted peace
43
Between our sovereign and the French king Charles,
44
For eighteen months concluded by consent.
45
GLOUCESTER (reads) Imprimis, it is agreed between the
46
French king Charles and William de la Pole, Mar-
47
quess of Suffolk, ambassador for Henry, King of En-
48
gland, that the said Henry shall espouse the Lady
49
Margaret, daughter unto Reignier, King of Naples,
50
Sicilia, and Jerusalem, and crown her Queen of En-
51
gland ere the thirtieth of May next ensuing. Item,
52
that the duchy of Anjou and the county of Maine
53
shall be released and delivered to the King her
