King Henry VI Part 1 Third Series

In their lively and engaging edition of this sometimes neglected early play, Cox and Rasmussen make a strong claim for it as a remarkable work, revealing a confidence and sureness that very few earlier plays can rival. They show how the young Shakespeare, working closely from his chronicle sources, nevertheless freely shaped his complex material to make it both theatrically effective and poetically innovative. The resulting work creates, in Queen Margaret, one of Shakespeares strongest female roles and is the source of the popular view of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick as kingmaker. Focusing on the history of the play both in terms of both performance and criticism, the editors open it to a wide and challenging variety of interpretative and editorial paradigms.

Edward Burns is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Liverpool. His publications include Restoration Comedy: Crises of Desire and Identity, Character: Acting and Being on the Pre-Modern Stage, Shakespeare's Richard III (forthcoming), an edition of Five British Romantic Plays (with Paul Baines), and a collection of commissioned essays entitled Reading Rochester.

List of illustrations General editor preface Acknowledgements Introduction - Harey the vj on stage at the Rose - Puzzling at Joan - Shadow and substance - What is Henry the Sixth, Part One? Controversies and (in)conclusions - Notes on editorial procedures KING HENRY VI, Part 1 Appendices 1) Names, naming and wordplay 2) Casting 3) Nineteenth- and twentieth-century adaptations 4) Military hierarchy and the conduct of war Abbreviations and References Index