Henry VI, Part 2

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.

Before leaving, he enlists a former officer of his, Jack Cade, to stage a popular revolt in order to ascertain whether the common people would support York should he make an open move for power.

[6] Only Holinshed contains information about the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, which Shakespeare used for the scenes of Cade's rebellion throughout Act 4 (for example, details such as having people killed because they could read, and promises of setting up a state with no money).

[8] The false miracle for example (dramatised in 2.1) is found only in Grafton, not in Hall or Holinshed (although a similar scene is also outlined in John Foxe's Acts and Monuments, Book of Martyrs (1563), with which Shakespeare may have been familiar).

Wilson for example, "There is no certain evidence that any dramatist before the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 dared to put upon the public stage a play based upon English history [...] so far as we know, Shakespeare was the first.

For example, the opening speech of the play is an ornate, formal declaration by Suffolk: As by your high imperial majesty I had in charge at my depart for France, As Procurator to your excellence, To marry Princess Margaret for your grace, So in the famous ancient city Tours, In presence of the Kings of France and Sicil, The Dukes of Orléans, Calabre, Bretagne, and Alençon, Seven earls, twelve barons, and twenty reverend bishops, I have performed my task and was espoused, And humbly now upon my bended knee, In sight of England and her lordly peers, Deliver up my title in the Queen To your most gracious hands, that are the substance Of that great shadow I did represent: The happiest gift that ever marquis gave, The fairest queen that ever king received.

This lengthy speech is full of classical allusions, elaborate metaphors and verbosity as Margaret moves through a litany of topics in an effort to make her point: Be woe for me, more wretched than he is.

And even with this I lost fair England's view, And bid mine eyes be packing with my heart, And called them blind and dusky spectacles, For losing ken of Albion's wishèd coast.

Some critics (such as Stanley Wells) argue that the speech, with its wordiness, abstraction, strained allusions, and lengthy metaphors, is poorly written, evidence that Shakespeare was not yet in control of his medium.

[22] In Terry Hands' 1977 production for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Margaret (played by Helen Mirren) tried to bring Henry back from the brink of madness by engaging his mind in an elaborate, difficult to follow verbal dance.

(3.1.195–199) This leads Henry to a realisation of how he has failed Gloucester, and to lament his own lack of decisiveness and resolution: And as the butcher takes away the calf, And binds the wretch, and beats it when it strains, Bearing it to the bloody slaughterhouse, Even so remorseless have they borne him hence; And as the dam runs lowing up and down, Looking the way her harmless young one went, And can do naught but wail her darling's loss, Even so myself bewails good Gloucester's case With sad unhelpful tears, and with dimmed eyes Look after him, and cannot do him good, So mighty are his vowèd enemies.

Henry thanks God for bringing Margaret to him, and exclaims "For thou hast given me in this beauteous face/A world of earthly blessing to my soul,/If sympathy of love unite our thoughts" (1.1.21–23).

Shakespeare may have taken this aspect of Henry's character from Edward Hall's description of him: "He did abhor of his own nature, all the vices, as well of the body as of the soul; and from his very infancy he was of honest conversation and pure integrity; no knower of evil, and a keeper of all goodness; a despiser of all things which were wont to cause the minds of mortal men to slide or appair.

Besides this, patience was so radicate in his heart that of all the injuries to him committed (which were no small number) he never asked vengeance nor punishment, but for that rendered to Almighty God, his Creator, hearty thanks, thinking that by this trouble and adversity his sins were to him forgotten and forgiven.

"[31] The next definite performance was in 1889, when George Osmond Tearle directed another stand-alone production at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, starring Erskine Lewis as Henry and Ellen Cranston as Margaret.

[33] In 1951, Douglas Seale directed a production at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, starring Paul Daneman as Henry, Rosalind Boxall as Margaret, John Arnatt as York and Alfred Burke as Gloucester.

Howard adopted historical details concerning the real Henry's madness into his performance, presenting the character as constantly on the brink of a mental and emotional breakdown.

Under the direction of Michael Boyd the play was presented at the Swan Theatre in Stratford in 2000, with David Oyelowo as Henry, Fiona Bell as Margaret, Clive Wood as York, and Richard Cordery as Gloucester.

Additionally, during Jack Cade's rebellion, the ghosts of Gloucester, Winchester and Suffolk all appear as rebels, and in a much lauded piece of double casting, Clayton and Bunsee also played Dick the Butcher in their respective performances.

[39][40][41] The first major American performance was in 1935 at the Pasadena Playhouse in California, directed by Gilmore Brown, as part of a production of all ten Shakespearean histories (the two tetralogies, preceded by King John and succeeded by Henry VIII).

Writing at the time of Popish Plot, Crowne, who was a devout royalist, used his adaptation to warn about the danger of allowing England to descend into another civil war, which would be the case should the Whig party rise to power.

[44] By creating this link, Crowne was aiming to enhance anti-Catholic sentiment even more and ensure the passing of the Exclusion Bill, which would prevent the Catholic James Stuart, Duke of York succeeding his brother, the Protestant Charles II.

Seale again directed, with Paul Daneman again appearing as Henry and Alfred Burke as Gloucester, alongside Barbara Jefford as Margaret and Derek Godfrey as York.

Starring Ralph Fiennes as Henry, Penny Downie as Margaret, Anton Lesser as York and David Waller as Gloucester, the production was extremely successful with both audiences and critics.

Under the title Rose Rage, Hall used a cast of only thirteen actors to portray the nearly one hundred and fifty speaking roles in the four-hour production, thus necessitating doubling and tripling of parts.

Directed by Michael Hayes and produced by Peter Dews, with a script by Eric Crozier, the production featured Terry Scully as Henry, Mary Morris as Margaret, Jack May as York and John Ringham as Gloucester.

Howell's presentation of the complete first historical tetralogy was one of the most lauded achievements of the entire BBC series, and prompted Stanley Wells to argue that the productions were "probably purer than any version given in the theatre since Shakespeare's time.

[70][71] Graham Holderness saw Howell's non-naturalistic production as something of a reaction to the BBC's adaptation of the Henriad in seasons one and two, which had been directed by David Giles in the traditional and straightforward manner favoured by then series producer Cedric Messina; "where Messina saw the history plays conventionally as orthodox Tudor historiography, and [David Giles] employed dramatic techniques which allow that ideology a free and unhampered passage to the spectator, Jane Howell takes a more complex view of the first tetralogy as, simultaneously, a serious attempt at historical interpretation, and as a drama with a peculiarly modern relevance and contemporary application.

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").

Aya Kanno's Japanese manga comic Requiem of the Rose King is a loose adaptation of the first Shakespearean historical tetralogy, covering Henry VI and Richard III.