Kindle Price: | $6.99 |
Sold by: | Simon and Schuster Digital Sales LLC Price set by seller. |
Your Memberships & Subscriptions
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
OK
Henry VI Part 2 (Folger Shakespeare Library) Kindle Edition
Henry VI, Part 2 presents a kind of story that was popular before Shakespeare began writing, tracing the fall of powerful individuals to their untimely deaths. The first to go is the Duke of Gloucester, Lord Protector of England and the most powerful man in the kingdom, who is murdered after his wife goes into exile.
Next to meet an unfortunate end is the Duke of Suffolk, the queen’s lover, who rules England through her. After Suffolk conspires with the cardinal of Winchester to kill Gloucester, he is banished and assassinated. The cardinal dies raving of his own guilt.
Ultimately, the king’s weakness lies behind these events. Preferring spiritual contemplation, he has left others to contend for power. Now his liberty is at risk as Jack Cade, and then the Duke of York, rise against him. The play leaves us in suspense about Henry’s fate by ending with the start of the Wars of the Roses—a conflict setting the white rose of the Duke of York against the red rose of King Henry, of the House of Lancaster.
This edition includes:
-Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play
-Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play
-Scene-by-scene plot summaries
-A key to the play’s famous lines and phrases
-An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language
-An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play
-Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s vast holdings of rare books
-An annotated guide to further reading
Essay by Nina Levine
The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is home to the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare’s printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit Folger.edu.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSimon & Schuster
- Publication dateOctober 15, 2014
- File size8066 KB
Customers who bought this item also bought
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Barbara A. Mowat is Director of Research emerita at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Consulting Editor of Shakespeare Quarterly, and author of The Dramaturgy of Shakespeare’s Romances and of essays on Shakespeare’s plays and their editing.
Paul Werstine is Professor of English at the Graduate School and at King’s University College at Western University. He is a general editor of the New Variorum Shakespeare and author of Early Modern Playhouse Manuscripts and the Editing of Shakespeare and of many papers and articles on the printing and editing of Shakespeare’s plays.
Product details
- ASIN : B00IWTWBJY
- Publisher : Simon & Schuster; Illustrated edition (October 15, 2014)
- Publication date : October 15, 2014
- Language : English
- File size : 8066 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Not Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 386 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #487,689 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #47 in Comic Drama & Plays
- #150 in British & Irish Drama & Plays
- #200 in Shakespearean Literature Literature
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire and was baptised on 26 April 1564. Thought to have been educated at the local grammar school, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he went on to have three children, at the age of eighteen, before moving to London to work in the theatre. Two erotic poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece were published in 1593 and 1594 and records of his plays begin to appear in 1594 for Richard III and the three parts of Henry VI. Shakespeare's tragic period lasted from around 1600 to 1608, during which period he wrote plays including Hamlet and Othello. The first editions of the sonnets were published in 1609 but evidence suggests that Shakespeare had been writing them for years for a private readership.
Shakespeare spent the last five years of his life in Stratford, by now a wealthy man. He died on 23 April 1616 and was buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. The first collected edition of his works was published in 1623.
(The portrait details: The Chandos portrait, artist and authenticity unconfirmed. NPG1, © National Portrait Gallery, London)
Paul Werstine is professor of English at King’s University College at Western University, a member of the graduate faculty at the University, editor (with Barbara A. Mowat) of the Folger Shakespeare Library editions of Shakespeare's works, and general editor (with Richard Knowles of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Eric Rasmussen of the University of Nevada--Reno) of the New Variorum Shakespeare, published by the Modern Language Association, for which he is preparing the volume on Romeo and Juliet. He has written extensively about the transmission of early modern English dramatic texts in manuscript and into print, and about the history of editing Shakespeare, including Early Modern Playhouse Manuscripts and The Editing of Shakespeare (Cambridge, 2012). Dr. Werstine holds an M.A. degree in English literature from Western University and a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of South Carolina.
Barbara A. Mowat (1934-2017) was the Director of Research Emerita at the Folger Shakespeare Library, consulting editor of Shakespeare Quarterly, and editor (with Paul Werstine) of the Folger Shakespeare Library editions of Shakespeare's works. Her major fields of research interest included Shakespeare’s dramatic romances, early modern printed dramatic texts, and Shakespeare’s reading practices. She received an M.A. degree in English literature from the University of Virginia, a Ph.D. in English literature from Auburn University, and Doctorates of Humane Letters from Amherst College, St. Johns University, and Washington College. Before coming to the Folger, she was Hollifield Professor of English Literature at Auburn University and then Dean of the College at Washington College. She served as president of the Shakespeare Association of America, president of the Southeast Renaissance Conference, chair of the MLA committee on the New Variorum Shakespeare, and was a member of the advisory board of the International Shakespeare Conference.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
The conniving Duke of York, meanwhile, is plotting to displace Henry and make himself king on the basis of some obscure genealogical claim. He has supporters within the court but needs an army. He gets an army when he is asked to put down an uprising in Ireland (is that convenient or what?). Before departing, he encourages a commoner name Jack Cade to incite a rebellion as a means of destabilizing the kingdom. Cade's ragtag army gets as far as London before being stopped, but not until one of Cade's lieutenants utters one of Shakespeare's immortal lines: "First thing we do let's kill all the lawyers."
Having put down the Irish rebellion, York returns triumphant, declares he is the true king, and the Wars of the Roses begins in earnest: Henry, Margaret, Lord Clifford and the Duke of Somerset for the House of Lancaster; York and his sons, and the Earls of Warwick and Salisbury for the House of York. The Yorkists win the battle of St. Albans where Clifford and Somerset are slain, but the battle for the English crown has only just begun.
Despite a decided lack of heroes, 2 Henry VI has a swashbuckling air about it that makes for a compelling read. The Irish dramatist Sean O'Casey described the Henry VI trilogy as "Battles, castles, and marching armies; kings, queens, knights and esquires in robes today and in armor tomorrow, shouting their soldiers to attack, or saying a last lone word before poor life gave out; of mighty men of valor joining this king and ravaging that one; of a king gaining a crown and a king losing it; of kings and knights rushing on their foes and of kings and captains flying from them." Indeed, read the Henry VI trilogy for the language and be entertained by the story.
For the Second Part, Richard Plantagenet Duke of York has a new grievance. Though King Henry returned to him the family titles lost through of the execution of his father, he is not grateful. A dying uncle tells him that as a descendant of an elder branch of Edward III's sons, he has a stronger claim to England's crown than does Henry. King Henry merely descends from the Henry IV who seized the crown from Richard II.
And so to war! Richard leads the House of York and sports a white rose. His adversaries supporting Henry VI's House of Lancaster and spurred on in the earlier play by the Duke of Somerset sport a white rose.
Meanwhile, William de la Pole returns from France with King Henry's intended bride, Margaret. William and Margaret fall in love, but the innocent royal weakling notices nothing.
Chaos ensues. Richard's tenuous claim inspires others of lesser lineage. Jack Cade, a mere butcher, decides he can do the job as well as anyone and leads a popular uprising. He takes London, King Henry and his court flee leaving behind a poor magistrate and his son. "Kill all the lawyers" screams Cade and the mob cuts off the father's head along with his son's and parades them on stage.
Cade's rebellion is put down and Cade is killed. The King's forces are still weak and Richard of York waits, poised to strike. Queen Margaret is ready to meet him. First Joan of Arc, then Margaret. What is it with these fighting French women?
Vincent Poirier, Tokyo
Top reviews from other countries
The play deals with the reign of Henry VI, whose weak leadership is confronted by the political intrigues of all of those around him. He is surrounded by a real nest of vipers with everyone against everyone. The play is very political in nature and finds an echo in our own political turbulence today. Looking back at Shakespeare's time, it also has a lot to say about the evolution of law, evidence and trials.
The Folger Library e-book is wonderful with convenient access to footnotes. This edition also contains better than average essays about the play including thought-provoking summaries of the books included in the section on Further Reading.