The First Part of Henry VI
Still on Shakespeare. As I mentioned in my previous post about what I’m reading, I’ve read all the Pelican Shakespeares we have, so have moved on to The Riverside Shakespeare.* Since it contains a (what they think is mostly correct) chronology, I decided now to just start reading the plays in the order they were written. You might remember from my first post about starting to read all the Shakespeare plays, that the first two I read because I’d just finished watching all the episodes of Slings & Arrows on Netflix.1 After reading those, my order had been fairly random.2
So evidently the (accepted) first play is King Henry VI, Part 1.* Also evidently, it has been disputed whether Shakespeare actually wrote it.3 But according to the Riverside, there’s enough evidence to moot the dispute.
Although this is a history play, it’s in no way what I would call dull.4 There’s some intrigue, some foreshadowing of betrayal, actual betrayal, some sorcery, some witch-burning, some battles, some death and destruction, some adulterous thoughts, an anything-but-chaste Bishop…. you know… the usual Shakespeare.
Henry is a young king, and is sort of controlled by all the old guys who surround him.5 So in this, the first part, most of the action is really surrounding and involving the old guys. We don’t see too much of Henry until fairly late in the play, and even then, we still don’t see too much of him.
Well, I’m not going to use this space to write a synopsis or anything, and I kinda wanna get on with other stuff today, like running errands and having fun, so… I think I’ll just end this post here.
Happy reading!
1 I only read Hamlet* and King Lear,* but not Romeo and Juliet,* because I read R&J in high school. I’m skipping any I’ve already read for now, and reading them last… You know, in case I get hit by a bus or something, I think it’d be good if I’ve read things I haven’t already read. Call me crazy.
2 On the surface, anyway. The Pelican Shakespeares are all stacked in a pile on this shelf that’s devoted to Penguin books.2a I just grabbed the bottom one, then when I finished it, I put it on the top of the pile.
2a This is a shelf Patrick built using mostly wood that was left over from building the Hurley House store storage shelves, because he loves and collects Penguin books, and wanted a way to sort of honor them. His eventual plan is to paint the shelf in the Penguin style. I think, orange. For now it’s just raw wood.
3 Or the second part.
4 Before you get all over me about how history isn’t dull, etc., I’m not saying history is dull. But, well, it can be. Especially when it’s dully presented.
5 You can totally see how that’s gonna go, right?