Henry VI Part 2 by William Shakespeare

Henry VI

Part 2

by William Shakespeare

Henry VI, Part 2 (often written as 2 Henry VI) is a history play by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1591 and set during the lifetime of King Henry VI of England. Whereas Henry VI, Part 1 deals primarily with the loss of England's French territories and the political machinations leading up to the Wars of the Roses, and Henry VI, Part 3 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 (1455). 

Although the Henry VI trilogy may not have been written in chronological order, the three plays are often grouped together with Richard III to form a tetralogy covering the entire Wars of the Roses saga, from the death of Henry V in 1422 to the rise to power of Henry VII in 1485. It was the success of this sequence of plays that firmly established Shakespeare's reputation as a playwright. 

Henry VI, Part 2 has the largest cast of all Shakespeare's plays and is seen by many critics as the best of the Henry VI trilogy. 

Shakespeare's primary source for 2 Henry VI was Edward Hall's The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancaster and York (1548). He also drew upon the second edition of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles (1587). Although Holinshed's treatment of the Wars of the Roses is derived in large part from Hall's work, even to the point of reproducing large portions of it verbatim, there are enough differences between Hall and Holinshed to establish that Shakespeare must have consulted both of them.

Excerpted from Henry VI, Part 2 on Wikipedia.

War of the Roses Saga: Henry VI Part 1, Henry VI Part 2 , Henry VI Part 3, Richard III

Henry VI Part 2

person Author	William Shakespeare
language Country	England
api Genre	Drama, History Play
copyright Copyright	Public domain worldwide.
camera_alt Book cover	-
book_online Ebooks	Project Gutenberg
description Scans	Google-digitized
headphones Audio	Librivox | Internet Archive Reader: Group, Dramatic Readings 00 01 02 03 04 05
auto_stories Read online	Henry VI Part 2