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Introduction.

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THIS drama appears in the original folio collection under the title of The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, with the Death of the Duke of Yorke.' In 1595 was published The True Tragedie of Richard Duke of Yorke, and the Death of good King Henry the Sixt, with the whole Contention between the two Houses Lancaster and Yorke, as it was sundrie times acted by the Right Honourable the Earle of Pembrooke his Servants* Upon this drama is founded The Third Part of Henry VI.,' in the form in which we have received it as Shakspere's. We believe, as in the case of the two previous dramas, and of the 'Richard III.,' which is a continuation of the History, that to Shakspere belongs the original authorship. The schemes of York are successful, and he is at length in arms; but he still dissembles.

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Shakspere has given us every light and shadow of the partisanship of chivalry in his delineation of the various characters in these two wonderful dramas of the Second and Third Parts of Henry VI.' Apart and isolated from all active agencj in the quarrel stands out the remarkable creation of Henry. The poet, with his instinctive judgment, has given the king a much higher character than the chroniclers assign to him. Their relations leave little doubt upon our minds that his im

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becility was very nearly allied to utter incapacity; and that the thin partition between weakness and idiocy was sometimes wholly removed. But Shakspere has never painted Henry under this aspect: he has shown us a king with virtues unsuited to the age in which he lived; with talents unfitted for the station in which he moved; contemplative amidst friends and foes hurried along by a distempered energy; peaceful under circumstances that could have no issue but in appeals to arms; just in thought, but powerless to assert even his own sense of right amidst the contests of injustice which hemmed him in. The entire conception of the character of Henry, in connexion with the circumstances to which it was subjected, is to be found in the Parliament-scene of 'The Third Part of Henry VI.' This scene is copied from the Contention,' with scarcely the addition or alteration of a word. We may boldly affirm that none but Shakspere could have depicted with such marvellous truth the weakness, based upon a hatred of strife—the vacillation, not of imbecile cunning, but of clear-sighted candour—the assertion of power through the influence of habit, but of a power trembling even at its own authority—the glimmerings of courage utterly extinguished by the threats of " armed men," and proposing compromise even worse than war. It was weakness such as this which inevitably raised up the fiery partisans that the poet has so wonderfully depicted; the bloody Clifford—the "she-wolf of France"—the dissembling York —the haughty Warwick—the voluptuous Edward— and, last and most terrible of all, he that best explains his own character, "I am myself alone."

One by one the partisans that are thus marshalled by the poet in the Parliament-scene of London are swept away by the steady progress of that justice which rides over their violence and their subtlety. The hollow truce is broken. Margaret is ready to assail York in his castle; York is prepared for the field, having learned from the precocious sophist Richard how an "oath is of no moment." Now are let loose all the "dogs of war." The savage Clifford strikes down the innocent Rutland; the more savage Margaret dips her napkin in his blood. York perishes under the prolonged retribution that awaited the ambition that dallied with murder and rebellion. Clifford, to whom nothing is so odious as "harmful pity," falls in the field of Towton, where the son was arrayed against the father, and the father against the son; and the king, more woebegone" than the unwilling victims of ambition, moralises upon the "happy life" of the "homely swain." The great actors of the tragedy are changed. Edward and Richard have become the leaders of the Yorkists, with Warwick," the king-maker," to rest upon. Henry has fled to Scotland; Margaret to France. Then is unfolded another leaf of that Sibylline book. Edward is on the throne, careless of everything but self-gratification; despising his supporters, offending even his brothers. Warwick takes arms against him; Clarence deserts to Warwick; Richard alone remains faithful, sneering at his brother, and laughing in the concealment of his own motives for fidelity. Edward is a fugitive, and finally a captive; but Richard redeems him, and Clarence again cleaves to him. The second

revolution is accomplished. The "king-maker" yields his "body to the earth" in the field of Barnet; Margaret and her son become captives in the plains near Tewksbury. Then comes the terrible hour to the unhappy queen—that hour which she foresaw not when she gave the "bloody napkin" to the wretched York— that hour whose intensity of suffering reached its climax of expression in "You have no children." But Richard is fled,

"To make a bloody supper in the Tower."

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PERSONS REPRESENTED.

KING HENRY VI.

Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act II. sc. 2; sc. 5. Act III. sc. 1. Act IV. sc. 6; sc. 8. Act V. sc. 6.

EDWARD PRINCE OF WALES, son to Henry VI. Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act II. sc. 2; sc. 5. Act III. sc. 3. Act V. sc. 4; sc. 5.

LEWIS XI., King of France.
Appears, Act III. sc. 3.

DUKE OF SOMERSET, on King Henry's side.

Appears, Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 3; sc. 6.

sc. 2; se. 4; sc. 5.

Act V. sc. 1;

DUKE OF EXETER, on King Henry's side.
Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act II. sc. 5. Act IV. sc. 8.

EARI. OF OXFORD, on King Henry's side. Appears, Act III. sc. 3. Act IV. sc. 2; sc. 3; sc. 6; sc. 8. Act V. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 4; sc. 5.

EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND, on King Henry's side. Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 4. Act 11. sc. 2.

EARL OF WESTMORELAND, on King Henry's side. Appears, Act I. sc. 1.

LORD CLIFFORD, on King Henry's side. Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 3; sc. 4. Act II. sc. 2; sc. 4; sc. 6. RICHARD PLANTAGENET, Duke of York. Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 4.

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