Originally: The First part of the Contention betwixt the two famous Houses of Yorke and Lancaster, with the death of the good Duke Humphrey: And the banishment and death of the Duke of Suffolke, and the Tragicall end of the proud Cardinall of Winchester, with the notable Rebellion of Jacke Cade: And the Duke of Yorkes first claime unto the Crowne.
Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Richard Knowles
Pages: 507
Format: Paperback
Written: 1591
Publisher: The Arden Shakespeare, Third Series (Bloomsbury Publishing)
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Date Completed: February 19, 2025
My rating: 
Thoughts
This is my second reading in an attempt to read through the works of William Shakespeare in [somewhat] chronological order of writing/publication. I have chosen The Arden Shakespeare, Third Series, as my [quite scholarly] guide through these works. On this read-through, I’m not giving the works star ratings as I have little on which to compare them. I may come back someday to add a rating, however.
The Play: King Henry VI, Part 2, was a bit easier to follow than its predecessor. It was weird that there was no mention of Talbot or Joan of Arc since they featured so prominently before. But I guess we’re into a new story here. There is a lot of bickering in this play which isn’t as hard to follow as one might think. Actually, the whole play was much easier to follow than Part 1. Lots of folks die in this one. Not so much to the point of tragedy, but to show how difficult it was for the King to control those around him. There is so much happening that the King just can’t keep it all together. In fact, Richard, 3rd Duke of York, is vying for the throne, with the support of Suffolk and Warwick. York even enlists a guy named Jack Cade to stage a revolt to see who would support York. That took up a little too much time, in my opinion. The play ends with a big-time “to be continued” which, I have to say, has me very interested to get into Part 3. As I mentioned, this was quite the step up from Part 1. I’m looking forward to getting into Shakespeare’s even more popular works, but I’m having fun with these early ones so far.
The Arden Shakespeare: The Introduction and additional notes and materials are quite dense in this edition. Most of it was about the history of the play, which was interesting to an extent. And honestly that extent ended before the introduction did. I don’t know… I just didn’t get a lot out of it and I was mainly reading it just in case there was some mind-blowing revelation in there. There wasn’t. I do admire and appreciate the amount of research that goes into something like this. But I just got a little bored. I feel I should remind the reader at this point that I’m still a Shakespeare novice. So take my opinion on this with a grain of salt. Or a whole lot of salt. This is part of the reason I’m not rating these books right now.
Overall I enjoyed this one a little more than King Henry VI, Part 1. We’ll see how it all stacks up after I’ve read King Henry VI, Part 3 and King Richard III – rounding out the 4-part War of the Roses.
