A variety of internal evidence suggests that the Folio’s Part One was composed after The First Part of the Contention and Richard, Duke of York, so we depart from the Folio order, though a reader wishing to read the plays in their narrative sequence will read Henry VI, Part One before the other two plays. The dates of all three are uncertain, but Part One is alluded to in 1592, when it was probably new. The First Part of the Contention probably belongs to 1590-1.

The play draws extensively on English chronicle history for its portrayal of the troubled state of England under Henry VI (1421-71). It dramatizes the touchingly weak King’s powerlessness against the machinations of his nobles, especially Richard, Duke of York, himself ambitious for the throne. Richard engineers the Kentish rebellion, led by Jack Cade, which provides some of the play’s liveliest episodes; and at the play’s end Richard seems poised to take the throne.

Historical events of ten years (11445-55) are dramatized with comparative fidelity within a coherent structure that offers a wide variety of theatrical entertainment. Though the play employs old-fashioned conventions of language (particularly the recurrent classical references) and of dramaturgy (such as the horrors of severed heads), its bold characterization, its fundamentally serious but often ironically comic presentation of moral and political issues, the powerful rhetoric of its verse, and the vivid immediacy of its prose have proved highly effective in its rare modern revivals.

THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY

Of the King’s Party

KING HENRY VI

QUEEN MARGARET

William de la Pole, Marquis, later Duke, of SUFFOLK, the Queen’s lover

Duke Humphrey of GLOUCESTER, the Lord Protector, the King’s uncle

Dame Eleanor Cobham, the DUCHESS of Gloucester

CARDINAL BEAUFORT, Bishop of Winchester, Gloucester’s uncle and the King’s great-uncle

Duke of BUCKINGHAM

Duke of SOMERSET

Old Lord CLIFFORD

YOUNG CLIFFORD, his son

Of the Duke of York’s Party

Earl of SALISBURY

Earl of WARWICK, his son

The petitions and the combat

Two or three PETITIONERS

Thomas HORNER, an armourer

PETER Thump, his man

Three NEIGHBOURS, who drink to Horner

Three PRENTICES, who drink to Peter

The conjuration

Margery Jordan, a WITCH

Roger BOLINGBROKE, a conjurer

ASNATH, a spirit

The false miracle

Simon SIMPCOX

SIMPCOX’S WIFE

The MAYOR of Saint Albans

Aldermen of Saint Albans

A BEADLE of Saint Albans

Townsmen of Saint Albans

Eleanor’s penance

Gloucester’s SERVANTS

Two SHERIFFS of London

Sir John STANLEY

HERALD

The murder of Gloucester

Two MURDERERS

COMMONS

The murder of Suffolk

CAPTAIN of a ship

MASTER of that ship

The Master’s MATE

Walter WHITMORE

Two GENTLEMEN

The Cade Rebellion

Jack CADE, a Kentishman suborned by the Duke of York

Three or four CITIZENS of London

Alexander IDEN, an esquire of Kent, who kills Cade

Others

VAUX, a messenger

APOST

MESSENGERS

A SOLDIER

Attendants, guards, servants, soldiers, falconers

The First Part of the Contention of the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster

1.1 Flourish of trumpets, then hautboys. Enter, at one door, King Henry and Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, the Duke of Somerset, the Duke of Buckingham, Cardinal Beaufort,⌈and others⌉. Enter, at the other door, the Duke of York, and the Marquis of Suffolk, and Queen Margaret, and the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick

SUFFOLK (kneeling before King Henry)

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, Calaber, 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.

KING HENRY

Suffolk, arise. Welcome, Queen Margaret.

I can express no kinder sign of love

Than this kind kiss.

He kisses her

O Lord that lends me life,

Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness!

For thou hast given me in this beauteous face

A world of earthly blessings to my soul,

If sympathy of love unite our thoughts.

QUEEN MARGARET

Th’excess of love I bear unto your grace

Forbids me to be lavish of my tongue

Lest I should speak more than beseems a woman.

Let this suffice: my bliss is in your liking,

And naught can make poor Margaret miserable

Unless the frown of mighty England’s King.

KING HENRY

Her sight did ravish, but her grace in speech,

Her words yclad with wisdom’s majesty,

Makes me from wond’ring fall to weeping joys,

Such is the fullness of my heart’s content.

Lords, with one cheerful voice, welcome my love.

LORDS (kneeling)

Long live Queen Margaret, England’s happiness.

QUEEN MARGARET We thank you all.

Flourish. ⌈They all rise⌉

SUFFOLK (to Gloucester)

My Lord Protector, so it please your grace,

Here are the articles of contracted peace

Between our sovereign and the French King Charles,

For eighteen months concluded by consent.

GLOUCESTER (reads) Imprimis: it is agreed between the French King Charles and William de la Pole, Marquis of Suffolk, ambassador for Henry, King of England, that the said Henry shall espouse the Lady Margaret, daughter unto René, King of Naples, Sicilia, and Jerusalem, and crown her Queen of England, ere the thirtieth of May next ensuing.