THE DRAMATICK WRITINGS O F WILL. SHAKSPERE, With the Notes of all the various Commentators; PRINTED COMPLETE FROM THE BEST EDITIONS OF SAM. JOHNSON and GEO. STEEVENS. Wolume the Thirteenth. CONTAINING KING HENRY VI. Part 1. LONDON: Printed for, and under the Direction of, JOHN BELL, British Library, STRAND, M DCC LXXXVIII. HENRY VI. PART I. BY WILL. SHAKSPERE: Printed Complete from the TEXT of SAM. JOHNSON and GEO. STEEVENS, And revised from the last Editions. When Learning's triumph o'er her barb'rous foes DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON. LONDON: Printed for, and under the direction of, JOHN BELL, British-Library, STRAND, Bookseller to His Royal Highness the PRINCE of WALES: MDCCLXXXVI. 9-11-41 MFP 9-10.41 OBSERVATIONS ON THE Fable AND Composition oF THE FIRST PART OF HENRY VI THE historical transactions contained in this play, take in the compass of above thirty years. I must observe, however, that our author, in the three parts of Henry VI. has not been very precise to the date and disposition of his facts; but shuffled them, backwards and forwards, out of time. For in stance; the lord Talbot is kill'd at the end of the fourth act of this play, who in reality did not fall till the 13th of July, 1453 and The Second Part of Henry VI. opens with the marriage of the king, which was solemniz'd eight years before Talbot's death, in the year 1445. Again, in the second part, dame Eleanor Cobham is introduced to insult queen Margaret; though her penance and banishment for sorcery happened three years before that princess came over to England. I could point out many other transgressions against history, as far as the order of time is concerned. Indeed, though there are feveral master-strokes in these three plays, which incontestably |