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"
mum's the word."
Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 2, Act 1, Scene 2:
“Seal up your lips and give no words but mum.”
Henry VI, Part 2 (often written as 2 Henry VI) is a history play by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 15
91 and set during the lifetime of King Henry VI of England. Whereas 1 Henry VI deals primarily with the loss of England's
French territories and the
political machinations leading up to the Wars of the Roses, and 3 Henry VI deals with the
horrors of that
conflict, 2 Henry VI focuses on the
King's inability to quell the bickering of his nobles, the death of his trusted adviser Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, the rise of the Duke of
York and the
inevitability of armed conflict. As such, the play culminates with the opening battle of the War, the First Battle of St Albans.
Henry VI, Part 2 is seen by many critics as the best of the Henry VI
trilogy.[1]
The play begins with the marriage of King Henry VI of England to the young Margaret of Anjou. Margaret is the protégée and lover of William de la Pole, 4th Earl of Suffolk, who aims to influence the king through her. The major obstacle to Suffolk and Margaret's plan is the Lord Protector; Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, who is extremely popular with the common people and deeply trusted by the King. Gloucester's wife, however, has
designs on the throne, and has been led by an agent of Suffolk to
dabble in necromancy.
She summons a spirit and demands it reveal the future to her, but its prophecies are vague and before the ritual is finished, she is interrupted and arrested. At court she is then banished, greatly to the embarrassment of Gloucester. Suffolk then conspires with Cardinal Beaufort and the Duke of Somerset to bring about Gloucester's ruin. Suffolk accuses Gloucester of treason and has him imprisoned, but before Gloucester can be tried, Suffolk sends two assassins to kill him.........
Religion is a fundamental fact of life to Henry, who is presented as truly pious....Hearing later of the false miracle, even before meeting Simpcox, Henry exclaims, "Now God be praised, that to believing souls/Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair" (2.1.
64–65).
Henry accepts the authenticity of the event without evidence, trusting in his faith that it is true and that God has performed a miracle.
After the fight between Horner and Thump, Henry announces,
For by his death we do perceive his guilt.
And God in justice hath revealed to us
The truth and innocence of this poor fellow,
Which he had thought to have murdered wrongfully.
(
2.3.101-104)
Ideas of justice are paramount throughout the play, especially the notion of where justice comes from, who determines it. When Thump first meets Henry, and Henry asks Gloucester's opinion. Gloucester says,
And let these have a day appointed them
For single combat in convenient place,
For he hath witness of his servant's malice.
This is the law, and this Duke Humphrey's doom.
(1.
3.208-211)
He returns to this notion later, again arguing that truth is a defence against death and defeat:
What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted?
Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just;
And he but naked, though locked up in steel,
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.
(
3.2.232-235)
Gloucester assures Eleanor that as long as he has truth on his side, his enemies cannot destroy him: "I must offend before I be attainted,/And had I twenty times so many foes,/And each of them had twenty times their power,/All these could not procure me any scathe/So long as I am loyal, true, and crimeless" (2.4.60–
64).
His claims prove false, however, as he is arrested on false charges and then assassinated before his trial.
The nobles
disdain for justice is
revealed more
forcibly when Henry, unaware that Gloucester is dead, asks the court to treat him fairly, and Margaret, knowing he is both innocent and dead, responds,
"God forbid any malice should prevail/That faultless may condemn a noble man" (
3.2.23–24). As Hattaway points out "In England under Henry,
law bears little relation to divinity and stands divorced from equity. The regal and judicial roles of the king's court are hopelessly confused, so that the status of the institution itself is compromised."
The lords'
failure to understand the need for an impartial and functioning judiciary is echoed in the rebellion; "
The virulent ambition and hostility to law that characterised the barons equally characterise the workmen,"[25]
suggesting there is no difference between the old order and the new. This is evident in Cade's speech after ordering the execution of Lord Saye; "The proudest peer in the realm shall not wear a head on his shoulders unless he pay me tribute. There shall not a maid be married but she shall pay to me her maidenhead ere they have it. Men shall hold of me in capite. And we charge and command that their wives be as free as heart can wish or tongue can tell" (
4.7.112–117). In this proposed
new world order, Cade envisions establishing an
autocracy where all will pay fealty to him, and where his laws, which he can make arbitrarily, stand for everyone. As such, in this political system, as in the old, law and justice seem to have little relevance.
Gloucester's death in particular is associated with the physical, as seen in Warwick's detailed description of the body;
See how the blood is settled in his face.
Oft have I seen a timely-parted ghost,
Of ashy semblance, meagre, pale, and bloodless,
Being all descended to the labouring heart,
Who in the conflict that it holds with death
Attracts the same for aidance 'gainst the enemy,
Which with the heart there cools, and ne'er returneth
To blush and beautify the cheek again.
But see, his face is black and full of blood;
His eyeballs further out than when he lived,
Staring full ghastly like a strangled man;
His hair upreared, his nostrils stretched with struggling,
His hands abroad displayed, as one that grasped
And tugged for life and was by strength subdued.
Look on the sheets: his hair, you see, is sticking;
His well-proportioned beard made rough and rugged,
Like to the summer's corn by tempest lodged.
It cannot be but he was murdered here.
The least of all these signs were probable.
(
3.2.160-178)
The
first recorded performance after Shakespeare's day was on 23
April 1864 (Shakespeare's tercentenary) at the Surrey Theatre in London, as a stand-alone performance.
2 Henry VI has not been performed as a stand-alone play since then, although Seale's production was so successful that 3 Henry VI followed in 1952,
and 1 Henry VI in 1953.
Two more adaptations followed in
1723. The first was Humfrey Duke of Gloucester by Ambrose Philips, which used about thirty lines from Acts 1–3 of 2 Henry VI and was performed at Drury Lane. In a possible comment on the politics of Crowne's adaptation, Phillips dedicated his version to William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath, a leading Whig politician. The second 1723 adaptation, also performed at Drury Lane, was Theophilus Cibber's King Henry VI: A Tragedy.
In
1817, Edmund Kean appeared in J.H. Merivale's Richard Duke of York; or the Contention of York and Lancaster, which used material from all three Henry VI plays, but removed everything not directly related to York.
Following Merivale's example, Robert Atkins adapted all three plays into a single piece for a performance at The Old Vic in
1923 as part of the celebrations for the tercentenary of the First Folio.
Another adaptation of the tetralogy by the Royal Shakespeare Company followed in
1988, performed at the Barbican. Adapted by Charles Wood and directed by Adrian Noble, the Barton/Hall structure was again followed, reducing the trilogy to two plays by dividing 2 Henry VI in the middle.
Michael Bogdanov and the English Shakespeare Company presented a different adaptation at the Swansea Grand Theatre in
1991, using the same cast as on the touring production.
In
1923, extracts from all three Henry VI plays were broadcast on BBC Radio, performed by the Cardiff Station Repertory Company as the third episode of a series of programs showcasing Shakespeare's plays, entitled
Shakespeare Night. In
1947, BBC Third Programme aired a one-hundred-and-fifty-minute adaptation of the trilogy as part of their Shakespeare's Historical Plays series.
In
1971, BBC Radio 3 presented a two-part adaptation of the trilogy by Raymond Raikes. Part 1 contained an abridged 1 Henry VI and an abridged version of the first three acts of 2 Henry VI. Part 2 presented Acts 4 and 5 and an abridged 3 Henry VI. Nigel Lambert played Henry, Barbara Jefford played Margaret and Ian McKellen played both York and Richard III. In 1977, BBC Radio 4 presented a 26-part serialisation of the eight sequential history plays under the general title Vivat Rex (Long live the King). Adapted by Martin Jenkins as part of the celebration of the
Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II, 2 Henry VI comprised episodes
17 ("
Witchcraft") and 18 ("Jack Cade").
In America, in
1936, a heavily edited adaptation of the
trilogy was broadcast as part of NBC Blue's Radio Guild series comprising of
three sixty-minute episodes aired a week apart.
In
1985,
German radio channel Sender Freies Berlin broadcast a heavily edited seventy-six-minute two-part adaptation of the octology adapted by Rolf Schneider.