A Leg up on the Canon, Book 1: Adaptations of Shakespeare’S History Plays and Marlowe’S Edward Ii

By Jim McGahern

Shakespeare had extraordinary intelligence, unheard-of powers of observation and interpretation, a soaring imagination, a way with words that defies description, and a defining interest in the theater. He brought kings, queens, heroes, and peasantry to the stage so they could be seen in a more realistic fashion. Even so, in modern times, assistance is often needed to interpret Shakespeares work.

In A Leg Up on the Canon, author Jim McGahern provides an extensive biography of Shakespeare and offers an introductory guide to his histories, comedies, tragedies, romances, and poems. McGahern presents summaries of the texts, explanations of difficult passages, extensive historical context, and glossaries of terms no longer in use. In each volume, he outlines the plot of plays in that category and then delivers a one-act play with inclusive commentary. McGahern includes pertinent remarks and important speeches and soliloquies interlaced with brief explanations and descriptions of the actions on stage as well as plot developments.

A Leg Up on the Canon, a four-volume series, provides insights into the word music of the talented man from Stratford.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Sep 14, 2012
• ISBN: 9781475945164

Jim McGahern

Jim McGahern immigrated to New York from Ireland in 1953. He earned a PhD in organic chemistry and worked at Brooklyn Poly and Lederle laboratories in Pearl River, where he wrote more than fifty publications in chemical literature and generated seventeen US patents. Now retired, he lives in New Jersey.

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A Leg Up On The Canon

Book 1

Adaptations of Shakespeare’s History Plays

and Marlowe’s Edward II

image_72.jpg

Jim McGahern

iUniverse, Inc.

Bloomington

A Leg Up On The Canon Book 1

Adaptations of Shakespeare’s History Plays and Marlowe’s Edward II

Copyright © 2012 Jim McGahern

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ISBN: 978-1-4759-4514-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-4515-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-4516-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012915021

iUniverse rev. date: 8/15/2012

Contents

Why Another Book About Shakespeare?

Acknowledgements

Author Bio

Introduction To The History Plays

The Chronology Of The Wars Of The Roses

Seven Vials Of His Sacred Blood

The Plantagenets

Henry VI Part I

Henry VI Part II

Henry VI Part III

The Tragedy Of Richard III

Richard II

King John

Henry IV Part I

Henry IV Part II

Henry V

Henry VIII

Marlowe And Shakespeare

Edward II

Christopher Marlowe

References

Why Another Book About Shakespeare?

After nearly a lifetime of purifying, isolating and classifying natural products which demonstrated interesting, biological activity, retirement finally came for me in 1991. Then for whatever reason, it seemed that reading, analyzing and writing about Shakespeare was a good idea.

During my early schooling years, three teachers aroused in me a great interest in Shakespeare’s tremendous body of work. In elementary school, St Joseph’s in Ballyshannon, Brother Virgilius, whom we called the big fella, occasionally read to us from Julius Caesar. In secondary school, St. Enda’s in Galway, Mr. Tom Lydon forced us to commit to memory hundreds of lines from Hamlet, Macbeth, As You Like It and Henry V. During my term at St. Patrick’s Training College in Drumcondra, Dublin, Mr. Gearoid O’Sleibhin continued with Tom Lydon’s approach to have us memorize passages from King Lear and Othello and King John. A lot of the lines from those years remained in my head and during my life’s work as a research chemist I would quote them to colleagues. It annoyed a few, but occasionally one would suggest to me that writing a book about the great man might be a worthwhile idea.

What this book contains are ten of Shakespeare’s historical plays, presented according to a simple formula. The story or plot of each is laid out in four to six pages of prose, and then the drama itself is given as a one-act play with fewer speaking parts, and an inclusive running commentary to keep the reader or audience, in touch with all that Shakespeare was concerned with.

Initially what was available to me in the way of texts was a black-covered tome called Shakespeare’s Complete Works. When my daughter, Grace, learned about my project, she presented me with her own newly-purchased the Riverside Shakespeare. It is from this tome that all the Shakespearean quotations cited in this book are taken. Around that time, my wife, Teresa, bought me a copy of Isaac Asimov’s Complete Guide to Shakespeare at an auction. After a few years, my children gave me as a Christmas gift The Arden Shakespeare, which I have used on many occasions for cross-reference. After many years of use, the Riverside tome and Asimov’s huge book now show signs of much wear and tear.

Acknowledgements

Support and encouragement from family and friends is largely responsible for any measure of success one achieves during one’s lifetime.

My wife deserves the greatest thanks. Teresa’s support, love, care, prodding and attention were crucial for any success that may accrue to me. My daughter, Grace, was always a great one to bounce ideas off of. My other daughter, Elizabeth, was priceless in her computer support. Always in the background, ready to help at the dropping of a hat, were my two solid sons, Pat and John. Among the friends who should be mentioned for their encouragement and felicitations are Bill McLaughlin, Harry Dunham, Don Lane, Don Clark, Joe Ringelstein, Barney Barber, George Pabst, Kevin McDermott, John Brennan and Paul Calabrese. The first four men mentioned have, sadly, passed away, all of whom have played poker with me once a month for lo these many years. Finally, recognition must be given to Craig Idlebrook for most helpful editorial suggestions.

Author Bio

The author was born in Ballyshannon to Anne and Patrick McGahren, the second youngest of eight children. After graduating in 1944 from St. Patrick’s Training College in Dublin, he taught in Irish schools for three years. Afterwards, he crossed the over to London in 1947 and found a job as warehouseman with Holland & Lewis in Picadilly. Attendance at evening classes at Chelsea Polytechnic led to a Bachelor of Science degree in 1953. That same year, emigration to New York led to employment with Pfizer laboratories in Brooklyn. More attendance at evening courses at Brooklyn College led to a master’s degree in analytical chemistry under Prof. T. S. Ma in 1957. Night studies at Brooklyn Polytechnic from 1957 to 1964 followed, and then full-time research work on oxazolones at the same institute led to a PhD degree in organic chemistry in 1966 under the late, great Prof. Murray Goodman. From 1964 to 1991, work at Brooklyn Poly and Lederle laboratories in Pearl River gave rise to more than fifty publications in chemical literature and resulted in the generation of seventeen U.S. patents.

INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY PLAYS

Shakespeare wrote a total of ten plays dealing with the history of England, nine of which fall into a pattern that we can reasonably account for. His last play of this genre, Henry VIII, penned towards the end of his career just after he had given us his romance classics, does not readily fit this pattern, perhaps because at that stage of his career, his interests and views had changed to some extent.

It is likely that Shakespeare was in London in 1588 when patriotism was at a fever pitch, after the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Pride in English achievements was at a high point, and since he was exposed to very little history while attending school in Stratford, he delved into Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland.

I remember when I was first introduced to American history, it was the Civil War that fascinated me and not the American Revolution. Differing viewpoints on the question of slavery and the preservation of the Union put Americans at each other’s throats. I would imagine that in a similar fashion Shakespeare was drawn to the Wars of the Roses, where Englishmen were in similar political crises, hundreds of years earlier.

The Bard was gifted in a number of ways. He had extraordinary intelligence, unheard-of powers of observation and interpretation, a soaring imagination, a way with words that defies description, and, to cap it all, a defining interest in the theater. He was going to bring some of these kings, queens, heroes, and a bold peasantry, their country’s pride to the stage, so that they could be seen in a more realistic fashion, than through the dull litanies of royal names, dates, and battles, which constituted many of the history chronicles of that time. His concern was writing about events or people to the extent that it would take about two hours to read it aloud, or have actors perform it before an audience. He mentioned two hours in the prologues of Romeo and Juliet, written in 1596, and of Henry VIII, written in 1612-3.

In so far as I can tell, Harold Bloom’s chronology for the history plays makes a lot of sense. What has become known as the first tetralogy was put together between 1588 and 1593. There was then an interval, where he was fully occupied with other work. In 1596, he began work on the second tetralogy. Sandwiched in among those tetralogies he wrote Richard II and King John A decade or more then passed before he got to Henry VIII.

THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE WARS OF THE ROSES

All these plays deal with circumstances resulting from a troubling malignancy which dominated England’s monarchic system: the right of succession.

Henry VI Part I begins with the funeral of Henry V in 1422. Less than a month later, his nine-month old son is declared Henry VI of England. Very soon afterwards, there is a free-for-all between his uncle, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and his great uncle Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, for controlling power over the child King. In France, the situation was changing from one where the English were on the offensive, to one where they were desperately trying to hold on to what they already had. In this play Shakespeare personalizes the conflict between two famous people namely, Lord Talbot, the English Achilles, and the Maid of Orleans, Joan de Pucelle. Because of the military victories of Edward III, the Black Prince, and Henry V, it is understandable that Englishmen had an exaggerated opinion of their superiority over the French. When the tide seemed to be changing, they attributed it to witchcraft and sorcery, and so it was that Shakespeare characterizes the French St. Joan of Arc as a scourge of England when he has her declare, Assign’d I am to be England’s scourge.

A more reasonable explanation for the failures in France include a lack of cooperation between the English commanders, which was related to enmities at home in England between their families. Also, as time went on, the French wised up to the English strategy of using stakes buried in the ground to frustrate the French cavalry, and then wreaking havoc on the stalled cavalry men with their longbows.

Shakespeare has a neat scene in Act II, occurring in the garden of the Temple Hall in London, to explain how the civil wars became known as the Wars of the Roses. Four men move from the hall to the garden, so as not to be overheard. They are Richard Plantagenet, descendant of the first Duke of York, Edmund of Langley, and his ally, Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, and John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset and descendant of John of Ghent, and his supporter, Richard de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk. Plantagenet picks a white rose and Somerset picks a red one and afterwards, these roses become the symbols of the two major contending forces in those wars, the Yorkists and the Lancastrians. To try and explain these relationships we must go back to Edward III, who married Katherine of Hainault and produced seven sons, which are listed below under the title of Seven vials of his sacred blood which is a line from Richard II (I, ii, line 12):

SEVEN VIALS OF HIS SACRED BLOOD

1. Edward, the Black Prince (1330-76). He fathered Richard II (1367-1400) of England.

2. William of Hatfield, who died as an infant.

3. Lionel, Duke of Clarence (1338-68). His daughter, Philippa, married Edmund Mortimer, the third Earl of Marsh. Their daughter Anne Mortimer married Richard, Earl of Cambridge, who was executed in 1415 by Henry IV. Their son, Richard Plantagenet, became the third Duke of York (1411- 1460).

4. John of Gaunt (Ghent), Duke of Lancaster (1340-99). In his first marriage with Blanche of Lancaster, he fathered Henry Bolingbroke, who became Henry IV of England (1367-1413). That King’s oldest son was Henry V (1387-1422), and he in turn sired the infant King, Henry VI (1421-1471). From John of Ghent’s union with Katherine Swynford, he had Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester (d.1447), and John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset (1373?-1410), who was the father of the first Duke of Somerset (1403-44) and the second Duke of Somerset (1404-55). The first Duke of Somerset begat Margaret Beaufort, who married Henry Tudor. Their son, Henry, Earl of Richmond, became Henry VII of England. He married Elizabeth of York, thus aiding in ending of the Wars of the Roses.

5. Edmund of Langley, the first Duke of York (1341-1402). He had a son, Richard, Earl of Cambridge (exec.1415), who married Anne Mortimer. Their son, Richard Plantagenet, became the third Duke of York (1411-1460). Among his sons were Edward IV (1442-83) of England, George, Duke of Clarence (1449-1478), and Richard III (1452-85) of England.

6. Thomas of Woodstock, the first Duke of Gloucester (1355-97). His daughter, Anne, married the fifth Earl of Stafford to produce the first Duke of Buckingham (1402-60).

7. William of Windsor died in infancy.

Richard Plantagenet visits his dying uncle in the Tower. When he learns that his father, the Earl of Cambridge, was hanged without trial by Henry V in 1415, he makes up his mind to have his revenge on the house of Lancaster. He has the support of the powerful Earl of Warwick and soon afterwards, Henry VI has little choice but to make him the third Duke of York.

In France, Joan de Pucelle convinces the Duke of Burgundy to desert his English friends and join his own countrymen. Young Henry VI is crowned King of France in Paris in 1431, and that same day he makes Talbot the Earl of Shrewsbury. Talbot disgraces Sir John Falstolfe and strips the Garter insignia from his craven leg, charging him with military cowardice. Later Talbot tries to retake Bordeaux, while expecting reinforcements from York and Somerset, which the two fail to provide, largely because of their animosity towards one another. The result is that Talbot and his son, John, are killed.

The Bishop of Winchester, now Cardinal Beaufort, is commissioned by Henry VI, against the advice of Gloucester, to arrange a truce with Charles VII of France. He goes to France and a kind of truce is arranged, which neither side intends to keep. Joan de Pucelle is captured by York’s army and, as she is being led off the battlefield, Shakespeare has the Earl of Suffolk emerge with the beautiful young Margaret of Anjou as a prisoner. The real Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in1431 when Margaret was a year old. Later in London the Earl of Suffolk, much to the chagrin of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, convinces Henry VI to take Margaret of Anjou to be his wife. The Earl expects this will increase his own importance at court and, at the same time, decrease Gloucester’s influence. On that note Henry VI Part I, a somewhat bumpy play, concludes.

In Part II of this series, Henry VI marries the penniless Margaret of Anjou in 1445, covers all the expenses involved, and cedes the county of Maine to the French, which is the key area in retaining control of Normandy. Suffolk, who is raised to the level of Duke for his efforts, and the Cardinal see nothing wrong with these arrangements, but Gloucester, York, and the Earl of Warwick, consider that they are undoing all, as all had never been. The Duke of Somerset wants to be regent of France and the Duke of Buckingham wants to be Protector. York tends to be a loose cannon and he takes England’s losses in France personally; in his own mind, he hopes to raise aloft the milk-white rose and depose Henry, whose bookish rule has pull’d fair England down. In time, these feuding groups, encouraged by Margaret, the Queen, have a common goal to eliminate the good Duke Humphrey from the position of Protector. Only Henry himself has a good word to say about Gloucester.

Since Gloucester is next in line for the throne, his second wife, Eleanor, has big plans for him. She resorts to counseling from a spiritualist, John Hume, who conveniently is in the pay of Suffolk. By means of a séance, they set her up, and the Dukes of Buckingham and York catch her red-handed. At St Albans in the presence of the King, Margaret and the Cardinal confront the good Duke Humphrey with the evidence, and he is forced to state, I banish her my bed and company.

York convinces the Earl of Warwick that he has more right to be king than Henry VI. Gloucester’s wife is banished to the Isle of Man, and he himself is summoned to St Albans on short notice. Suffolk has him arrested on the charge of treason, but he knows that the evidence is flimsy, so he convinces Margaret, Somerset, the Cardinal, and York that they must get rid of the Protector, one way or the other. The Cardinal is willing to supply the murderers if Suffolk will say the word to have him killed.

They receive word of trouble in Ireland, and Suffolk and the Cardinal see this as an opportunity to get rid of the unpredictable York. Since they are going to supply him with an army, York interprets this as his chance to train and equip a large force that will strengthen him militarily later. He knows a tough character, Jack Cade, a rebel, who presents himself as a long-lost Mortimer, who is out to foment trouble in England. Whatever happens to Cade’s rebellion, he will be at hand when he returns from Ireland with an army, to quiet things, and the people will turn to him, rather than to Henry, who, without Gloucester, will be a sitting duck.

Gloucester is murdered and it becomes clear that Suffolk was involved. The Earl of Warwick forces Henry to banish him. While on a ship near the coast of Kent, he is murdered and his head is returned to his lover, Queen Margaret.

Shakespeare has his first chance to give us a glimpse of the ordinary people of that period during Cade’s rebellion. He handles their idiom and their humor very well, but he basically dislikes mobs, especially when they murder nobility, as the Cade crowd did to Lord Say and Sir James Cromer. Henry pardons the rebels, but his nobles hunt down the ringleaders. Cade is slain in Kent by Sheriff Alexander Iden.

Meanwhile York has returned from Ireland with a large army and is camped at St Albans. In answer to the question why he is there with his army, he tells Buckingham that he came to protect Henry from Somerset, only to learn that Somerset is already in prison. He then agrees to pay off his army.

Later when he spots Margaret and Somerset, openly walking together, he publicly declares that Henry is not fit to be king. He again enlists the aid of the Earl of Warwick and Somerset and Clifford to attack the Yorkists in a skirmish at St Albans in 1455, the first battle of the Wars of the Roses. Lord Clifford, the elder, is killed by York and young Clifford, his son, vows to show no quarter to any Yorkist who confronts him from that time on. Somerset is also killed, supposedly by York’s son, Richard Plantagenet. The defeated Henry VI and Queen Margaret hurry back to London to call Parliament into session, but the Earl of Warwick and York hope to be there before them.

In Henry VI Part III, we learn that Margaret had a son, Edward, in 1453, who becomes heir to the throne. Yet in parliament both the Duke of York and Henry VI, under pressure from the Earl of Warwick, swear to an agreement that leaves Henry VI King for the duration of his life, but passes the crown to York or one of his sons upon the King’s death. The Queen is understandably furious that her son is being disinherited.

Margaret, having routed and captured York at Wakefield in 1460, decides to humiliate him before killing him, by having him placed on a molehill with a paper crown on his head and common soldiers mocking him. Shakespeare gives the tortured man a great speech, where he describes the Queen as a she-wolf of France, having a tiger’s heart wrapt in the hide of a woman, before young Clifford cuts his head off and spikes it on the gates of York.

There are many more battles in this play. York’s sons, Edward and Richard, score a victory over Jasper Tudor and his Welsh partisans at Mortimer’s Cross. They are soon joined by Warwick and George Plantagenet, who have just been defeated by Margaret and Henry’s forces at the second battle of St Albans. Despite that defeat, Warwick is confident that he can take the crown from Henry’s head and make the murdered York’s son, Edward Plantagenet, the new King of England. Henry, Margaret, young Clifford, and the Earl of Northumberland, lead their army north again to York. Their soldiers, many of whom are Scots, are allowed to plunder along the way. The English people do not blame the King, but rather his French Queen, particularly after what she did to York. The Earl of Warwick and Edward Plantagenet, who also had the title of Earl of Marsh, defeat the Lancastrian army at Towton in 1461, and Henry, Margaret, and her son, Edward, flee northward to Scotland, where Henry remains for several years while Margaret and her son go for help to France.

The Earl of Warwick now is sure he can make Edward Plantagenet King of England, and they head south for his crowning in London. Before they leave Towton, Edward acts like a king by conferring the title Duke of Gloucester on his brother, Richard, and he makes his brother, George the Duke of Clarence. The Earl of Warwick goes to France to arrange a wedding between the newly crowned King and Lady Bona, sister-in-law of Louis of France.

Edward IV, with complete disregard for Warwick’s mission to France, marries a widow, Elizabeth Grey, nee Woodville. Gloucester is not happy about this marriage, and Shakespeare gives him an outstanding soliloquy, where he lets us know, that there is nothing he will not do to achieve the crown for himself. The Earl of Warwick is so enraged that he is now convinced, that if he is to retain his influence, he is better off to join Margaret and the Lancastrians, and put Henry VI back on the throne. Henry has been captured by the Yorkists and placed in the Tower. The Earl of Warwick betroths his daughter, Anne, to Margaret’s son, Edward. George, Duke of Clarence, married to his other daughter, Isabella, already supported the Earl of Warwick, having deserted his brother, Edward IV. Henry is made King again in 1470 with Warwick controlling the reins of power.

Edward IV had been captured and uncrowned, but he is poorly guarded and escapes to France, where he gets help and returns to England early in 1471. Along with his brother, Richard of Gloucester, he recaptures Henry VI, and puts him back in the Tower. Clarence changes sides once again, and rejoins his brother, Edward IV, and they defeat and slay Warwick at the Battle of Barnet in April of 1471.

A few days after that battle, Margaret and her son, Edward, arrive with a French army, and they head for the Severn, to join up with Jasper Tudor and his Welsh partisans. Edward IV, Gloucester, and Clarence, head them off and confront them at Tewkesbury in May 1471. Edward IV wins a great victory, Margaret is taken prisoner and her son Edward is murdered after the battle. Richard of Gloucester immediately repairs to the Tower and slays Henry VI. Once again Shakespeare excels in the insight he gives us on this evil man. The play ends with Edward IV firmly set as King of England, and proud of the fact that his crown has been paid for with the blood of three Dukes of Somerset, two Cliffords, two Earls of Northumberland, and one Earl of Warwick. His Queen, Elizabeth, has borne him an heir, baby Edward, who is destined for a brief period to be considered Edward V of England, and whom Gloucester and Clarence seem pleased to kiss. Margaret has been ransomed and dies in obscurity in France.

In the last play of this tetralogy, Richard III, Shakespeare has his first big theatrical hit. Here he presents to us an amoral character who has the ability to further his evil scheming and become a role-playing King, all the while pretending to be a near-saint. His opening soliloquy, Now is the winter of our discontent…, has entertained theater audiences for over four hundred years. Because of Shakespeare’s ability with words, we enjoy Richard very much until he disposes of the two young Princes, Edward V and Richard of York, the sons of Edward IV, at which point apprehension takes hold of us. His brother Clarence has a remarkable dream before his murder in the Tower, but Richard III of England becomes slightly unglued by his dreams on the night before the Battle of Bosworth Field. However, when he goes to battle the next day he is his old self again: March on, join bravely, let us to it pell-mell; if not to heaven, then hand in hand to hell.

Two of the best scenes in the play are the wooing of Anne Neville in Act I. He wins her All the world to nothing!, on the day of the re-interment of Henry VI in 1471. According to Shakespeare, she was fully aware that he had killed both her betrothed, Margaret’s son Edward, and Henry VI. As children they had spent much time together at Middleham Castle, and it is quite possible they had a childhood affection for one another. They were married in 1472 at Westminster Abbey and they had a son, Edward, in 1473, who died suddenly in 1484. Anne died of tuberculosis in 1485; the rumor that she was poisoned is highly unlikely, since there is not a shred of evidence remaining to prove it.

Shakespeare ignores all that, since it tends to weaken his case against Richard III, and one has to agree that the wooing is a wonderful theatrical fiction. In the other scene in Act IV, Richard III is not successful in trying to persuade former Queen Elizabeth to convince her daughter, Elizabeth of York, to marry him. In this instance, he is up against a mature woman who loathes him, and his expression afterwards, Relenting fool, and shallow, changing woman!, shows his frustration. With the right actress playing the part of Queen Elizabeth, we could almost be cheering for her at this stage. Richard III fights bravely at Bosworth, but he is slain and the victor, the Earl of Richmond, becomes the first Tudor King of England, Henry VII. He marries Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, and this union essentially ends the Wars of the Roses.

Richard III was such a great success that it must have crossed Shakespeare’s mind that if theatergoers loved this story about a king who was a villain, they would be even more enthralled over a king who was a hero. It is quite likely that at this stage he made up his mind to write about Henry V. However that meant spending more time with Holinshed and other historical works. While doing that during the next couple of years he wrote, among other things, two long poems, three comedies, and a gruesome tragedy, Titus Andronicus about succession problems in fourth-century Rome. Sometime in 1595 he was ready to deal with English history again, probably in three plays about three different kings.

The first of these was Richard II, his first all-poetry drama. Richard went from showing signs of having some spunk, when as a fourteen-year-old King he confronted Wat Tyler’s peasant rebellion, to being an ineffective king when this play begins. At the age of sixteen he married the seventeen year old Anne of Bohemia, a daughter of Emperor Charles IV. Eleven years later, Anne died; after her death, Richard seemed to go to pieces. To ease his distress, he went to Ireland, where he functioned reasonably well. Upon his return to England, he managed to arrange a truce with France, by agreeing to marry seven-year-old Isabella, daughter of Charles VI in 1397. His Protector, the Duke of Gloucester, disagreed with all of this. With the aid of Henry Bolingbroke, Richard had him arrested and sent to Calais, where he was murdered almost certainly on orders from Richard.

His rule in England, especially after the death of his first wife was, to put it mildly, outrageous. He had a bad temper and was given to sudden outbursts and impulsive behavior. At the same time he had lofty ideas about kingship, which Shakespeare drives home to us through great poetry. However his extravagant lifestyle gave rise to high taxation, and his caterpillar friends milked the landowners of England, to line their own pockets. When he is seriously challenged by Henry Bolingbroke, whose inheritance he had appropriated, he folds like a cheap camera. In a way, Shakespeare used his genius for lyric poetry to make Richard out to be a metaphysical poet. He was plainly an ineffective King, and the majority of his subjects deserted him in favor of Bolingbroke, who turned out to be a clear-headed, competent Henry IV.

It is never a good moment for a playwright when the audience reaches a point where many are inclined to say to the principle character, For God’s sake, man, stop all this talking and do something! This is what had to have occurred to many an audience during Richard’s long lyrical speeches on his return from Ireland. Finally, Encyclopedia Britannica says that Richard II died from the rigor of his winter imprisonment in Pontefract, and not as portrayed in this play.

Shakespeare now has to write a play about flat, competent, anxious Henry IV. This King could never carry a play by himself, but there is his rakish son, Hal, to deal with, and Shakespeare needs a figure to counterbalance the young Prince. The only available historical personage is Sir Henry Percy, who is even older than Henry IV. Using dramatic license he metamorphoses him to a much younger Hotspur, who does the job of counterbalancing beautifully. He still senses that the play needs something more. Sometime around this period, since he was mulling over succession problems at that time, he came across an old play, The Troublesome Reign of John, King of England, a play of anonymous authorship. Here was another flaky King who inherited the crown largely because of the support of William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, who argued that Arthur, the other contender, was a tool of the French and loves not England, and the urging of John’s mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Based on a single reference in Holinshed that Richard I had an illegitimate son, Philip, Shakespeare created the character Faulconbridge. It is this character, the Bastard, that carries the play The Life and Death of King John, which he probably wrote in a dilatory fashion over a two-year period. His readings on that period of English history could have led him to William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, whose life story fits fairly well with that of Faulconbridge. This penniless, pragmatic knight, sired by Richard I, appealed very much to his English audience, and it would seem reasonable that they, and Shakespeare’s acting company, clamored for more of the same. Faulconbridge becomes an English patriot in the last two acts, and appears to be much more suited for kingship than gutless John.

Shakespeare now understands how to handle the Henry V story, and probably more importantly, he will introduce another Faulconbridge-character in the Henry IV drama. This time he will give him his head, as the fat, woman-chasing, roistering iconoclast, Sir John Oldcastle, who is a master of the language. For reasons that will not be dealt with here, he later changed the name to Sir John Falstaff, a name which is recognized and known worldwide. Because of the character of this man, Shakespeare’s play Henry IV Part I is generally considered to be the best of the history plays. In addition to holding the mirror up to the goings-on at the center of power and authority, though Falstaff and his cronies were from Eastcheap, we get several close looks at the ordinary men and women of London and some of the rural areas of Elizabethan England.

Shakespeare, being a consummate man of the theater, must have realized even before he finished Henry IV, that he was dealing with a winner, and that he now had two plays for the price of one, in terms of the research efforts involved. He closed off Part I with the Battle of Shrewsbury, and launched into Part II. In this play, there is no counterbalancing character for Prince Hal and Falstaff’s social contact with him is restricted to scenes ii and iv in the second act, ending with the words, Falstaff, good night. The fat knight is then played off against the Lord Chief Justice and the Country Justices, Shallow and Simple, and this had the same kind of effect as letting air out of a perfectly-inflated tire. A degree of let-down sets in, even with perhaps the greatest wit in literature involved. The popularity of Part II was not even close to that of Part I. In the epilogue, Shakespeare was optimistic enough to promise more of Sir John in Henry V, but it was not to be. The popular ratings of the period, such as they were, convinced him otherwise.

In the third play of the second tetralogy, Henry V, he was able to give his theater audiences what he had been hoping to give them for some years: a warrior King they could cheer and be proud of.

Ever since listening to Churchill’s war speeches on the radio in the forties, I have been fascinated by this play, and indeed, committed several passages from it to memory. I find it quite disconcerting when Harold Bloom describes Henry V as an ingrate, an amiable monster, a brutal hypocrite, and worse; these judgments come largely for his desertion of Falstaff. Shakespeare had tried putting Falstaff in a different milieu in or around 1597 in The Merry Wives of Windsor, but he soon knew instinctively, that it was not the greatest idea in the world. Rather than taking the seventy-year-old Falstaff to France, he gave him one of the great send-offs in dramatic literature in Act II of Henry V. Professor Bloom does not like men who are in command in wars, no matter who they are.

Shakespeare finished his second tetralogy in 1599 and went on to a decade of work that gave us the four major tragedies. His work on the history plays had enabled him to hone his skills as a playwright, to reach a level at which he was capable of creating such masterpieces as Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear and the close runner-up, Antony and Cleopatra.

When Shakespeare had written a total of 36 plays, he retired from the Globe Theater in 1611 and went back to his hometown, Stratford-on-Avon, for good. He was to write possibly, three more plays in collaboration with his replacement with the Kings’ Men, John Fletcher. The first of these was Henry VIII, which is essentially all Shakespeare; from the number of stage directions in it we know that he wanted things done a certain way, even though he was retired. In this play he deals quite cautiously with that monstrous King, up to about the 24th year of his reign. He hardly lays a glove on the ruffian, but he does present us with three famous people who, in abject defeat, come across as noble in character, namely, the Duke of Buckingham, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, and Henry’s discarded Queen, Katherine of Aragon.

In 1608, after writing the great tragedies, Shakespeare gave us the Romance plays, Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest and Two Noble Kinsmen, where in Act V of each of them, the gods smile upon some of the main characters and alleviate their difficulties. In his final great romance, The Tempest, Prospero comes to the conclusion that prayer, forgiveness, mercy and love are necessary for redemption, all of which speak to a relationship with divine providence. Much the same pattern is followed in the ceremonial Henry VIII, where Henry, God’s anointed minister, is instrumental in bringing two great boons to England, the Elizabethan age, and the Protestant Reformed Church. Whatever his feelings about these two developments in his earlier years, it appears that as he approached the end of his career, his evaluation of them was more positive.

We do not know what exactly caused Shakespeare to start writing about the Wars of the Roses. It can be surmised that somehow he got his hands on the 1587 edition of Holinshed’s Chronicles, which got him interested in that period of English history, but whatever it was, there can be little doubt that his struggles with the history plays, had a profound effect on his growth as a playwright. Without the prior experience of creating the kings, knaves and fools of those dramas, he might never have reached the heights he achieved in the four great tragedies.

To assist the reader, an outline is shown of the English Wars of the Roses in the following chart. Two branches of the Plantagenet family namely, the Lancastrians and the Yorkists were involved in the following battles.

THE PLANTAGENETS

Plantagenet Kings of French origin ruled England from 1184 to 1485. The senior branch of the family held sway from Henry II until the disposition of Richard II in 1399. After that a junior branch, the House of Lancaster, ruled for about half a century before clashing with another branch of the family known as the House of York, in a civil strife known as the Wars of the Roses, which were made famous by Shakespeare. After three ruling Lancastrian monarchs, the Crown passed to Yorkist rulers, the last of which was Richard III, who got his lumps at Bosworth Field in 1485. There was another skirmish in 1487 where the Lancastrians continued to prevail.

Henry V was probably the most famous, Plantagenet ruler because of his extraordinary victory over a far more numerous French army at Agincourt. An earlier, noteworthy ruler was Richard I who gained fame during the First Crusade, and who was idolized in folklore as Richard the lion-hearted. The Plantagenets patronized Geoffrey Chaucer who is still known as the father of English poetry. They initiated the building of great cathedrals in England and established Parliament. They also were in power during periods of misfortune, such as when the Bubonic plague or ‘Black Death’destroyed a significant part of the people of England, resulting in upheavels leading to the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381.

HENRY VI PART I

The death of the warrior King, Henry V, has left a power vacuum in England since the heir apparent was a nine-month old infant. His funeral at Westminster Abbey was barely over before bickering broke out between the Protector of the infant heir, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and his half grand-uncle, Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, who despite Gloucester’s title of Protector intended to try and control the infant who will be crowned. Increasingly, word is coming back from France of how the French are gaining control of areas conquered by Henry V.

The Duke of Exeter, Thomas Beaufort, and a hero of Agincourt, asks how that can be happening, as it is often said that an Englishman can outfight three or four Frenchmen. One of the messengers suggests that the causes are lack of support from home and quarreling among the generals. There is also word that the Dolphin, Charles, has been crowned at Rheims and his army has been reinforced by the Bastard of Orleans, the Duke of Alanson, Reignier, the Duke of Anjou and titular King of Naples.

But the worst news of all is that the English super-warrior, Talbot, has been taken prisoner by the French, largely because of the cowardice of Sir John Falstalfe. Surely the French must have both treachery and witchcraft on their side; otherwise a man of his caliber could never have been taken by them. This news causes the Duke of Bedford, brother of Henry V, to swear, Ten thousand soldiers with me I will take, whose bloody deeds shall make all Europe quake. Gloucester says that he is going to the Tower to check on munitions, and also he must arrange to have the royal infant crowned Henry VI of England. Exeter is heading to Eltham to see to young Henry’s welfare, as he has been appointed to oversee that function. Winchester feels somewhat left out of things: Each has his place and function to attend: I am left out, but he plans to change that situation very soon.

Orleans, a town about seventy miles south-southwest of Paris and a kind of gateway to the south of France, is under siege by the English, led by mad-brained Salisbury. The besiegers are short of men and rations. The French, under the Dolphin Charles, Alanson, and Reignier, are further encouraged by news that the fearsome Talbot has been taken prisoner, so they decide to attack to raise the siege. They are beaten back with great losses by the roused-up English, who fight like biblical strongmen. Then the French receive unexpected help in the form of a holy maid brought to them by Dunois, the Bastard of Orleans. It is not too much of a stretch to suggest that this drama is dominated by the struggle between the English Achilles, Lord Talbot, and the French Maid of Orleans, Joan de Pucelle, whom Shakespeare depicts in accordance with English prejudice as a sorceress and loose woman.

She says she is a shepherd’s daughter who has been inspired by voices from heaven to free her country from calamity. Charles tests her before speaking to her by having Reignier stand in his place, but she is not fooled. The Dolphin is convinced, to some extent, that she is possessed of unusual qualities, when she bests him in one-on-one combat. Joan asserts, Assign’d I am to be England’s scourge as their run of good fortune has ended with the death of Henry V; now it is the turn of France.

In London the Protector, Gloucester, and his men in blue suits attempt to take the Tower from Woodville, who controls it in the name of the Bishop of Winchester. The Bishop and some of his followers in tawny suits arrive, and they brawl with the blue-suited folk. Insults and fists are exchanged, and just as it seems that Gloucester’s men are winning, the Mayor of London and his constables come on the scene. Both sides disperse, vowing to continue the fight later.

Talbot is exchanged for the French prisoner, Lord Ponton de Santrailles, and while he, Salisbury, and Sir Thomas Gargrave are inspecting a grate in a tower which allows them to see what is going on in Orleans, shots ring out and both Salisbury and Gargrave are mortally wounded.

Talbot immediately takes command and challenges the French: Frenchmen, I’ll be a Salisbury to you: Pucelle or puzzel, Dolphin or dogfish, your hearts I’ll stamp out with my horse’s heels. For one brief instant, Talbot and the Maid cross swords, but she takes off to bring food to her famished countrymen saying, Talbot, farewell, thy hour is not yet come. The English are driven back, de Pucelle enters Orleans and Talbot is ashamed: O would I were to die with Salisbury! The shame hereof will make me hide my head.

Charles and his men feel they have won a great victory and he gives high praise and credit to Joan saying, No longer on Saint Denis will we cry, but Joan de Pucelle shall be France’s saint. Come in and let us banquet royally, after this golden day of victory. The French celebrate a little too long and too hard. Talbot gets some reinforcements from old Bedford and the Duke of Burgundy, who was friendly with the English. The combined forces, using scaling ladders, take back Orleans. Talbot sees no sign of Joan the Maid, but Burgundy believes he saw her and Charles escaping in their night-clothes: Myself, as far as I could discern for smoke and dusty vapors of the night, am sure I scar’d the Dolphin and his trull, when arm in arm they both came swiftly running, like a pair of turtle-doves that could not live asunder night or day. The Dolphin blames everybody, including de Pucelle and Alanson for the defeat: Is this thy cunning, thou deceitful dame? Didst thou at first, to flatter us withal, make us partners of a little gain, that now our loss might be ten times so much?

Lord Talbot receives an invitation from the Countess of Auvergne to visit with her at her castle. Bedford and Burgundy advise him not to go. He decides to honor her invitation, but he makes certain arrangements with one of his trusted officers before the visit. The Countess has every intention of gaining fame by taking advantage of the famous commander. When he visits, she is disappointed in his small stature: It cannot be this weak and writhled shrimp should strike such terror in his enemies. She coolly lets him know that she is taking him prisoner to protect her country from his tyranny. Talbot confuses her with doubletalk, and by giving a pre-arranged signal to a captain, his men storm the castle and take it. Having taken control of things, Talbot charms the lady into wining and dining himself and his men.

In London at the Temple Garden, an event occurs which gives a name to the dissension that will cause the spilling of English blood for thirty some years afterwards. In the presence of Richard Beauchamp, the Earl of Warwick, Richard Plantagenet and a supporter, Vernon, choose white roses while William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, and Edmund Beaufort, Earl of Somerset, choose red roses as symbols of their causes. Henceforth, wearing the red rose signifies support for Somerset of the House of Lancaster, descendant of John of Gaunt, while having a white rose indicates a leaning towards the House of York, or those whose progenitor was Edmund of Langley, the first Duke of York. Somerset casts up to Plantagenet that his father, the Earl of Cambridge, was a traitor who was executed by Henry V. Plantagenet responds, My father was attached, not convicted, condemned to die for treason, but no traitor, and he warns both Suffolk and Somerset to watch themselves well in the future, as they are now warned.

Before they depart, the influential Warwick promises to help Plantagenet. He will have him restored to his ancestral dukedom in the up-coming parliament that has been called to establish a truce between Gloucester and Winchester: And if thou not be then created York, I will not live to be accounted Warwick.

A dying Edmund Mortimer, a prisoner in the Tower since the crowning of Henry V, is visited by his nephew, Richard Plantagenet. The young man wishes to know from his uncle why his father, the Earl of Cambridge, lost his head. The old man relates that when Henry Bolingbroke, son of John of Gaunt, deposed Richard II, he, Edmund Mortimer, through his mother, the daughter of Lionel, Duke of Clarence and third son of Edward III, was next in line, since John of Gaunt was but the fourth son of the same monarch. To secure their claim, Gaunt’s progeny jailed him in the Tower. He goes on to explain that when Henry V became King, the Earl of Cambridge, derived from Edmund Langley, Duke of York, and married to Mortimer’s sister, Anne, hoped to have him, Edmund Mortimer, installed as the rightful heir to the throne. He was, however, beheaded and the Mortimers were suppressed. The old man dies and as bearers take the body away, and Richard Plantagenet swears to wreak vengeance on the House of Lancaster for the wrongs done to the Mortimers and the insults heaped on his own name.

The Parliament which Warwick spoke of, is at last in session. The young King, Henry VI, is present, as well as the Dukes of Exeter and Gloucester, the Bishop of Winchester, the Earls of Warwick, Suffolk, Somerset, and Richard Plantagenet. Things start off with disputes, accusations, and name-calling between Gloucester and Winchester. In exasperation, the King makes quite a speech for one so young: Uncles of Gloucester and Winchester, the special watchmen of our English weal, I would prevail, if prayers might prevail, to join our hearts in love and amity. O what a scandal it is to our crown that two such noble peers as ye should jar! Believe Lords, my tender years can tell, civil dissension is a viperous worm that gnaws the bowels of the commonwealth.

The Mayor of London enters to complain that Gloucester’s blue coats, who have been forbidden to carry weapons, are now pelting stones at their opponents and, in the process, breaking shop windows and injuring shopkeepers. With Warwick’s urging, a surly peace is proclaimed between the Duke and the prelate. The session ends with Henry VI, at Warwick’s urging, conferring the title Duke on Plantagenet: Rise, Richard, like a true Plantagenet, and rise created princely Duke of York. All present hail the mighty Duke of York, but in his heart Somerset still considers him base and ignoble. Before dissolution of the gathering, Gloucester persuades the King to set out for Paris to be crowned king of France. When Parliament finishes up, Exeter on the side, refers to an old prophesy that Henry born at Monmouth should win all, and Henry born at Windsor lose all: which is so plain that Exeter doth wish his days may finish ere that hapless time.

We return to France where de Pucelle, and soldiers, disguised in corn sacks, enter Rouen as market people. Then from a tower they signal Charles and his men to attack. Talbot is furious when he realizes that de Pucelle has duped his soldiers. Rouen is taken, and from the walls de Pucelle mocks a sick and dying Bedford, as well as Talbot and Burgundy, about how they were taken in by corn-sellers. This causes Talbot to fulminate: Foul fiend of France, and hag of all despite, encompass’d with thy lustful paramours! Becomes it thee to taunt his valiant age, and twit with cowardice a man half dead? Damsel, I’ll have a bout with thee again, or else let Talbot perish with this shame.

Talbot and Burgundy resolve to retake Rouen, but Bedford must not be exposed to any further risk. The battle begins, and once again, Sir John Falstolfe flees under pressure. Nevertheless, Rouen is retaken and Bedford dies with the knowledge that his men were victorious. Talbot and Burgundy plan to re-establish English law and order in the city, give honorable burial to the body of the Duke of Bedford, and then repair to Paris for the coronation.

Joan the Maid has still another plan to defeat the English, if only Charles will bear with her. She will coax Burgundy away from the enemy with firm persuasions, mix’d with sug’red words. Burgundy is following Talbot on the way to the Paris coronation, and she gets the Dolphin’s permission to parley with him. She appeals to him to consider the good and welfare of France. He should turn his edged sword another way, rather than point it at the woeful breast of his native country, and she implores him, Return thee therefore with a flood of tears, and wash away thy country’s stained spots. Burgundy is touched by her words and her demeanor, and he agrees to join with Charles against his former friends.

In Paris, Talbot is greeted by Henry VI, Gloucester, Exeter, Winchester, York, Suffolk, Somerset, Warwick and others. The young King is thrilled to meet the famous soldier A stouter champion never handled sword and he confers on him the title Earl of Shrewsbury: We here create you Earl of Shrewsbury, and in our coronation take your place. A Yorkist, Vernon, strikes a Lancastrian, Basset, because of the barking of his saucy tongue against the Duke of Somerset. The challenge is accepted and they intend to settle their differences later