The Henry VI plays, written early in Shakespeare's career and succeeded by other, better plays, quickly receded to the status of minor Shakespeare, and for most of their critical lifetime, the plays labored under the further disadvantage of questions of text and authorship that diminished in-depth examination of the plays. For the last fifty years, though, the climate has been improving, and the Henry VI plays are now more discussed and more appreciated than at any time since their first appearance. In this volume, Thomas A. Pendleton presents a collection of new essays by distinguished scholars on subjects as diverse as the principle of unity in the trilogy, the tradition of illumination, textual variations, and anachronism and allegory. At long last, Henry VI: Critical Essays fills a gap in critical inquiry of these often neglected works.

Introduction; 1: Texts with Two Faces; 2: A Touch of Greene, much Nashe, and all Shakespeare; 3: Henry VI in Japan; 4: The Progress of Revenge in the First Henriad; 5: Shakespeare's Queen Margaret; 6: The Paper Trail to the Throne; 7: Folk Magic in Henry VI, Parts 1 and 2; 8: Shakespeare's Medieval Devils and Joan La Pucelle in 1 Henry VI; 9: Climbing for Place in Shakespeare's 2 Henry VI; 10: Henry VI, Part 2; 11: Theme and Design in Recent Productions of Henry VI; 12: Talking with York; 13: Henry VI; 14: Henry VI and the Art of Illustration