Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

King Henry VI, Part 1
King Henry VI, Part 1
King Henry VI, Part 1
Ebook184 pages1 hour

King Henry VI, Part 1

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

()

Read preview
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJan 1, 1962
King Henry VI, Part 1
Author

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children—an older daughter Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright and poet, but also as an actor and shareholder in an acting company. Although some think that sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare retired from the theater and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616, others believe that he may have continued to work in London until close to his death.

Read more from William Shakespeare

Related to King Henry VI, Part 1

Related ebooks

Related articles

Reviews for King Henry VI, Part 1

Rating: 3.407284651655629 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

151 ratings9 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Simply awful. Very much had the feel of being thrown together which, appropriately enough, seems to have been the case. An afterthought prequel to Parts II and III. The caricature of Joan of Arc was outrageous. Even if one believed she was a lunatic, it was a bit over the top.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    William Shakespeare's "Henry VI, part one" certainly doesn't live up to the bard's later historical plays. The Henry VI series was apparently one of his first plays and it shows -- the language lacks sparkle and the writing seems a little flat. That said, I enjoyed it more than I expected to, mostly due to Joan of Arc, who is given an interesting yet fiercely anti-French portrayal as you'd expect from an Elizabethan playwright. The story starts with the unexpected death of Henry V, who leaves an infant as his heir. Powerful lords fight in the War of the Roses for control all while England and France remain at war.I'm interested to find out what happens in parts two and three.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is a confusing play, where BIG Bill follows a principal source, and then fits in some humanizing bits. It seems WS didn't write all of it, and the group of scenarists have some fights before production. Henry V being quite unexpectedly dead, the nobles of England attempt to bring the war in France to a successful conclusion. Joan of Arc, who is seriously defamed in the play, appears and re-animates the French defence. The losing English nobles fall to quarreling with each other, and we are worried about what will happen next. The play ends with Joan's execution, and the proposal of peace by the marriage of Henry VI, to Margaret a French lady the daughter of the Titular King of Jerusalem, a title with no territory to go with it. I think it's a hint that Henry will always go for form over substance, and the land will suffer for it.This play is recorded as being produced in 1592, and it's very early WS. it seems I've been over nine times, looking for good bits.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A very good - although unabashedly idiosyncratic - approach to one of the more challenging plays in the Shakespeare canon.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The more I read these history plays, the more I enjoy them. As I read them and research some of the actual history behind them, they make more sense and have a continuity.This play, in particular, had a can't-set-it-down quality to it. I had to see what was going on with Talbot, who would win the battle? What were the dastardly deeds that would work against him? Will the boy king be able to survive his "mentors?" Even though I know the answers from history, I don't know how William Shakespeare interpreted the history, so the tension of the read is still there.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The text of Henry VI, Part I is easier to interpret than that of most other Shakespearean plays I’ve read. There seems to be academic contention about how many lines of Part I are due to Shakespeare, so it’s tempting to claim the language is easy because William didn’t write very much of it.Be that as it may, Part I is rather dull. Welcome exceptions to the dullness, when excitement fills the stage, include when the nobles are plucking the white and red roses and whenever Joan la Pucelle appears. Joan of Arc must have been quite a historical figure to witness, not that we could count on impartial witness coinciding well with the Joan presented in this play. Concerning her, Part I would have benefited from changes of attitude on the part of the playwright(s). What an interesting play we then could have had. The next Henry VI, called Part II, is, in contrast to Part I, a rouser.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Shakespeare’s histories have always felt less accessible to me than his other work. But I realized the other day that it’s probably because I’m not that familiar with the people involved. What is the musical “Hamilton” if not our version of Shakespeare's histories? It’s a theatrical show based on our own country’s history. Shakespeare's histories are not as easy for us to understand because we they are covering a time period that we don’t always learn about. But during Shakespeare's time everyone knew who those dukes and kings were, just as we know names like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.Anyway, all of that to say that these three plays worked much better for me than some of the other histories of his I've tackled and I think it’s because I finally made that connection. It was also incredibly helpful to me to watch the Hollow Crown series before reading the plays. It covers all three of these plays although it's called Henry VI Part one and two, it's really a combination of parts 1, 2 and 3.They are so well done and watching those first helped me picture a face with a name while reading the place, which helped me keep all the characters straight.These plays are part of the eight plays that make up the War of the Roses. Henry VI Part 1 includes the original scene where the characters pick a white or red rose to declare their allegiance. From there it’s a constant stream of battle and betrayal as they all fight for the thrown. Poor King Henry VI is thrust into his role as monarch when he’s only a baby. The death of his father meant a life time watching others attempt to steal his throne. Almost everyone in the plays comes to a bloody end by the final curtain. A few thoughts: Margaret was such a bad ass. She was conniving, but she was strong where her husband, King Henry VI, was weak. I have to admire her and she certainly has some of the best lines. We meet the infamous Richard in these plays. I'd read and seen Richard III before, so reading these gave me a better understanding of his character's background. He’s a delicious villain and one that I loved getting to know. “Why, I can smile and murder whiles I smile,And cry 'content' to that which grieves my heart,And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,And frame my face for all occasions”BOTTOM LINE: I ended up loving them. I was surprised by how hooked I got on the War of the Roses drama, but it’s like a soap opera. It’s amazing to see how power seems to corrupt all the touch it. Even those who are not driven with a desire for power are often the easiest to steal power from, because they aren’t as vicious as others. I would definitely read part 1, 2, and 3 back-to-back because they work better as one continuous story. I also highly recommend watching the Hollow Crown series first, but just dive into the plays and enjoy them! “Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.”“For where thou art, there is the world itself,With every several pleasure in the world,And where thou art not, desolation.”“Unbidden guests are often welcomest when they are gone.”
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    For a play about Henry VI, he was barely even in it! There is quite a bit of jockeying for power that is easy to forget if you do not read this in one setting (and I did not). The first half is a bit lacking, but the back half is better. Joan of Arc (de Pucelle in the play) intrigued me, especially with her proclamations. Is she prophetic or deluded? The end is a fascinating cliffhanger, however, with hints that the move Henry is making will indeed be a bad one.

    It seems as if both Shakespeare and George R.R. Martin drew inspiration from history for their work, and I am curious to see how Shakespeare pulls me into the royal drama. On to Part II!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Great play. I am not one who loves all Shakespeare (especially the histories) but this one is very accessible. The language isn't too arcane plus it involves historical events that many will recognize (Joan of Arc, the War of the Roses, the 100 Years War etc.)

    Read as part of my Kindle edition of "The Complete Works of Shakespeare"

Book preview

King Henry VI, Part 1 - William Shakespeare

Project Gutenberg Etext of King Henry VI, Part 1, by Shakespeare

PG has multiple editions of William Shakespeare's Complete Works

Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!!

Please take a look at the important information in this header. We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this.

**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**

**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**

*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations*

Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and further information is included below. We need your donations.

King Henry VI, First Part

by William Shakespeare [Aldus edition]

October, 1998 [Etext #1500]

Project Gutenberg Etext of King Henry VI, Part 1, by Shakespeare

******This file should be named 2ws0110.txt or 2ws0110.zip******

Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, 2ws0111.txt

VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 2ws0110a.txt

This etext was prepared by the PG Shakespeare Team, a team of about twenty Project Gutenberg volunteers.

Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions, all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a copyright notice is included. Therefore, we usually do NOT! keep these books in compliance with any particular paper edition.

We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.

Please note: neither this list nor its contents are final till midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment and editing by those who wish to do so. To be sure you have an up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes in the first week of the next month. Since our ftp program has a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a new copy has at least one byte more or less.

Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)

We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 million dollars per hour this year as we release thirty-six text files per month, or 432 more Etexts in 1999 for a total of 2000+ If these reach just 10% of the computerized population, then the total should reach over 200 billion Etexts given away this year.

The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext Files by December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion] This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, which is only ~5% of the present number of computer users.

At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 3,333 Etexts unless we manage to get some real funding; currently our funding is mostly from Michael Hart's salary at Carnegie-Mellon University, and an assortment of sporadic gifts; this salary is only good for a few more years, so we are looking for something to replace it, as we don't want Project Gutenberg to be so dependent on one person.

We need your donations more than ever!

All donations should be made to Project Gutenberg/CMU: and are tax deductible to the extent allowable by law. (CMU = Carnegie- Mellon University).

For these and other matters, please mail to:

Project Gutenberg

P. O. Box 2782

Champaign, IL 61825

When all other email fails. . .try our Executive Director: Michael S. Hart hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . .

We would prefer to send you this information by email.

******

To access Project Gutenberg etexts, use any Web browser to view http://promo.net/pg. This site lists Etexts by author and by title, and includes information about how to get involved with Project Gutenberg. You could also download our past Newsletters, or subscribe here. This is one of our major sites, please email hart@pobox.com, for a more complete list of our various sites.

To go directly to the etext collections, use FTP or any Web browser to visit a Project Gutenberg mirror (mirror sites are available on 7 continents; mirrors are listed at http://promo.net/pg).

Mac users, do NOT point and click, typing works better.

Example FTP session:

ftp sunsite.unc.edu login: anonymous password: your@login cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg cd etext90 through etext99 dir [to see files] get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] GET GUTINDEX.?? [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99] GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books]

***

**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor**

(Three Pages)

***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** Why is this Small Print! statement here? You know: lawyers. They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our fault. So, among other things, this Small Print! statement disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to.

*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept this Small Print! statement. If you do not, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.

ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG- tm etexts, is a public domain work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at Carnegie-Mellon University (the Project). Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext under the Project's PROJECT GUTENBERG trademark.

To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any medium they may be on may contain Defects. Among other things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other etext medium, a computer virus,

Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1