Category: 2 Henry VI

The Second Part of Henry the Sixth

• 3161 total lines; longer than average play, longer than average history (average play: 2777; average history: 3009)
• At 15 and 6 lines, respectively, Act Four Scene Six and Act Five Scene Two are the shortest of their kind in the Canon
• At 383, 223, and 83 lines, respectively, Act Three Scene One, Act Four Scene Seven, and Act Four Scene Nine are the longest of their kind in the Canon
• Act One: 666 lines; longer than average, longer than average history (average play: 590, average history: 612)
• Act Two: 518 lines; shorter than average, shorter than average history (average play: 568, average history: 621)
• Act Three: 834 lines; longer than average, longer than average history (average play: 576, average history: 632)
• Act Four: 801 lines; longer than average, longer than average history (average play: 563, average history: 651)
• Act Five: 342 lines; shorter than average, shorter than average comedy (average play: 480, average history: 493)
• 526 lines of prose (16.64% of total lines [as opposed to The Comedy of Errors: 13.31%, Titus Andronicus: 1.39%, The Taming of the Shrew: 20.82%, and 1HenryVI: 0.37%]): reflecting less aristocratic roles
• 100 rhyming lines (3.16% of total lines [as opposed to The Comedy of Errors: 20.10%, Titus Andronicus: 2.42%, The Taming of the Shrew: 3.93%, and 1HenryVI: 9.79%])
• 25 scenes; more than average (average play: 21; average history: 24)
• 67 characters (more than any other play): more than average, more than average history (average play: 36, average history: 48)

Last month, we took a day to discuss who might be the main character of 1HenryVI… and to no success, leaving us pretty unsatisfied by the play as a whole.  So this month, as we lurch toward Thanksgiving, let’s see if we can give thanks for having a protagonist in The Second Part of Henry the Sixth.

We have quite a few characters to choose from, as this play has SIXTY-SEVEN (count’em!) characters, the most of any play in the Canon.

Let’s take the major characters in order of the number of speeches each has…
Continue reading “Who, Part Two”

As we noted last month, according to most critics, the source material for most of Shakespeare’s histories (including The Second Part of Henry the Sixth) was Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland.  Holinshed was only one of a three main authors of the work (the other two being William Harrison and Richard Stanyhurst), and their work was first printed in 1577, about fifteen years before the composition of 2HenryVI.
Continue reading “Sources”

Continue reading “More Historical Inaccuracies”

In Act One, Scene One of The Second Part of Henry the Sixth, Gloucester describes Suffolk as the one who “rules the roast” (I.i.106).  I had always heard the term “rule the roost,” as in a hen-house, to describe a man who ruled over his household (but not having huge power).  It seems that the latter term is derived from the former which has the meaning “to have full sway or authority; to be master” (Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on CD-ROM [v. 4.0]).  If to rule the roast is to dominate, to sit at the head of the table of, a grand opulent palace, then to rule the roost would be much less.

of no import… just kinda interesting…