3.3.0 SD to ... bed = F. Q = and then the curtains be drawn, and the Cardinal is discovered in his bed, raving and staring as if he were mad
4.1.0 SD a Master ... prisoners based on Q's stage direction: Alarms within, and the chambers be discharged, like as it were a fight at sea. And then enter the Captain of the ship and the Master, and the Master's Mate, and the Duke of Suffolk disguised, and others with him, and Walter Whickmore 1 SH LIEUTENANT = F. Q = Captain 6 Clip = Ed. F = Cleape 20 SH WHITMORE = Ed. In F these lines continue the Lieutenant's speech 32 death = F. Ed = thee 48 Jove ... I = Q. Not in F; justified by the Lieutenant's following line 50 Obscure ... blood = F. Editors often reassign this line to Suffolk, arguing that he is distinguishing between himself and the Lieutenant. However, F's reading can be supported as a slight on Suffolk by the Lieutenant, and by Whitmore's subsequent line in response to Suffolk's speech where he refers directly to Suffolk as "swain" lousy = F (lowsie). Ed = lowly 72 SH SUFFOLK = Ed. F = Sir; presumed compositor misreading of "Suf" or "S" or "Su" 73 SH LIEUTENANT = Ed. F = Lord; presumed compositor misreading of "Lieu" or "L" 79 shalt = Q. F = shall 87 mother's bleeding = Ed. F = Mother-bleeding 95 are = Ed. F = and 114 Thy ... me Q has an extra line at this point attributed to the "Captain," F's Lieutenant: Ay, but my deeds shall stay thy fury soon. Some editions print the following: But my deeds, Suffolk, soon shall stay thy rage. 134 SH SUFFOLK = Ed. In F this line is spoken by the Lieutenant, but Suffolk's "That" appears to refer to it as his own
4.2.0, 26 SD with long staves = Q. Not in F 28 SH DICK = Ed. F = But. 29 fail = F. Ed = fall, on the grounds that Cade is punning on his name, Latin "cadere" meaning "to fall" 40 SH SMITH = Ed. F = Weaver 74 SD Chartham = Ed. Q = Chattam. Both are places in the southeast of England 89 an = F2. F = a 97 SD Michael = F. Q = Tom. Ed = a messenger 106 Mortimer at this point in Q Cade also knights Dick the butcher
4.4.21 mourning for = F, Q. Ed = mourning 42 traitors = F. Ed = trait'rous rabble 48 hath = F. Q = hath almost 57 be betrayed = F2. F = betraid 4.6.8 SH SMITH = Ed. F = But.
4.7.7 SH HOLLAND = Ed. F = Iohn. In this edition the character labelled "John" is identified as "John Holland" and therefore assigned the speech heading "Holland," rather than identifying him as a new character, as in other editions 40 on = Q. F = in 50 Away ... Latin = F. In place of this Q has the following lines:
CADE 'Bonum terrum'. Zounds, what is that?
DICK He speaks French.
WILL No, 'tis Dutch.
NICK No, 'tis Outalian: I know it well enough.
62 Kent = F. Ed = But 80 caudle = F4. F = Candle help of = F. Ed = health o'th' 99 At this point Q adds the following detail taken from the Chronicles: to the Standard in Cheapside 100 Q again adds the following detail, again present in the Chronicles: go to Mile End Green 111 men = F. Q = Married men 113 At this point Q has the following additional lines, thought to be an authorial addition to the promptbook by some editors:
Enter Robin
ROBIN O captain, London Bridge is afire!
CADE Run to Billingsgate and fetch pitch and flax and squench it.
Enter Dick and a Sergeant
SERGEANT Justice, justice, I pray you, sir, let me have justice of this fellow here.
CADE Why, what has he done?
SERGEANT Alas, sir, he has ravished my wife.
BUTCHER Why, my lord, he would have 'rested me and I went and entered my action in his wife's paper house.
CADE Dick, follow thy suit in her common place. You whoreson villain, you are a sergeant -- you'll take any man by the throat for twelvepence, and 'rest a man when he's at dinner, and have him to prison ere the meat be out of his mouth. Go, Dick, take him hence: cut out his tongue for cogging, hough him for running, and, to conclude, brave him with his own mace.
Exit [Butcher] with the Sergeant
116 Additional lines at this point in Q for Cade: He that will lustily stand to it shall go with me and take up these commodities following: item, a gown, a kirtle, a petticoat, and a smock.
[Act 4 Scene 8] there is no scene break at this point in Q. Some editors explain the apparent scene break in F as necessary in order to waste space at the end of the page due to incorrectly cast-off copy.
4.18.12 rabble = F. Ed = rebel 31 SD They ... again = Q. Not in F
4.9.33 calmed = F4. F = calme 34 dispersed = Ed. F = dispierc'd 4.10.6 o'er = Ed. F = on 18 waning = Ed. F = warning 55 Jove = F. Q = God 5.1.10 soul = F. Ed = sword 30-1 But ... strong = F. In place of these lines Q has the following:
But York dissemble, till thou meet thy sons,
Who now in arms expect their father's sight,
And not far hence I know they cannot be.
70 trouble Q adds the following lines:
A visage stern, coal-black his curled locks,
Deep trenched furrows in his frowning brow,
Presageth warlike humours in his life.
83 wi'th'queen = Ed. F = with th'Queen 109 these = Ed. F = thee 111 sons = Q. F = sonne 113 for= F2. F = of 149 bearherd = Ed. F = Berard 194 or = Ed. F = and 201 household = Q. F = housed. F2 = house's 210 bearherd = Ed. F = Bearard 5.2.0 SD [Alarums ... battle] = Q. Not in F 62-5 As ... mine = F. Q includes a confrontation between Young Clifford and Richard in place of F's lines:
[YOUNG CLIFFORD] And thus as old Anchises' son did bear
His aged father on his manly back,
And fought with him against the bloody Greeks,
Even so will I. But stay, here's one of them,
To whom my soul hath sworn immortal hate.
Enter RICHARD, and then [YOUNG].
CLIFFORD lays down his father, fights with him, and Richard flies away again.
Out, crookback villain, get thee from my sight,
But I will after thee, and once again
When I have borne my father to his tent, I'll try my fortune better with thee yet.
Exit Young Clifford with his father
5.3.1 SH YORK York has four lines in Q which precede his speech in F:
How now, boys: fortunate this fight hath been,
I hope to us and ours, for England's good,
And our great honour, that so long we lost
Whilst faint-heart Henry did usurp our rights:
HENRY VI PART III:
KEY FACTS
MAJOR PARTS: (with percentage of lines/number of speeches/scenes onstage) Edward, Earl of March/King Edward IV (15%/132/18), Earl of Warwick (15%/99/12), Richard/Duke of Gloucester (14%/ 108/17), King Henry VI (12%/71/7), Queen Margaret (10%/53/7), Richard, Duke of York (6%/37/3), Lord Clifford (5%/35/6), George/Duke of Clarence (4%/39/12), Lady Elizabeth Grey/Queen Elizabeth (3%/31/4), King Lewis XI (2%/21/1), Edward, Prince of Wales (2%/16/6).
LINGUISTIC MEDIUM: 100% verse.
DATE: 1591? York's line "O, tiger's heart wrapt in a woman's hide!" is parodied in Greene's Groatsworth of Wit (a pamphlet prepared for the press--entered for publication September 1592--by Henry Chetile, perhaps based in part on the papers of the late dramatist Robert Greene), where Shakespeare is described as an "upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger's heart wrapped in a player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you." Pembroke's Men, who played the Octavo version, were active in 1592. The possibility of an earlier pre-Shakespearean version and a later Shakespearean revision cannot be ruled out.
SOURCES: Based primarily on Edward Hall, The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and Yorke (1548) and the second (1587) edition of Holinshed's Chronicles. In some details, the Octavo text seems to follow Hall and the Folio Holinshed, which may support the theory of revision (see below).
TEXT: A short version was published in Octavo form in 1595, entitled The true Tragedie of Richard Duke of Yorke, and the death of good King Henrie the Sixt, with the whole contention betweene the two Houses Lancaster and Yorke, as it was sundrie times acted by the Right Honourable the Earle of Pembrooke his seruants, reprinted in Quarto in 1600 and, with attribution to Shakespeare
and title combined with that of the previous play, 1619 (The Whole Contention betweene the two Famous Houses, Lancaster and Yorke). The Octavo text is a reconstruction of a playing version, but there is much dispute over whether it is a short and often poorly remembered version of the play that is preserved in full in the Folio or the text of an early version (not by Shakespeare? partly by Shakespeare?) that Shakespeare then revised into the play that was printed in the Folio. It is equally unclear whether the linguistic signs of a non-Shakespearean hand (or hands) in the Folio text are vestiges of an older version or the result of active collaboration/coauthorship. We use the Folio text, which has the authority of Flemings and Condell, though the nature of the copy from which it was set is disputed. The Octavo remains valuable for certain details of staging.
THE THIRD PART OF
HENRY THE SIXTH, WITH
THE DEATH OF THE
DUKE OF YORK
Lancastrians
KING HENRY VI
QUEEN MARGARET
PRINCE EDWARD, their son Lord CLIFFORD
Duke of EXETER
Duke of SOMERSET, adherent of both Lancaster and York Earl of NORTHUMBERLAND
Earl of WESTMORLAND
Earl of OXFORD
Henry, Earl of Richmond, the future King Henry VII
Mayor of Coventry
SOMERVILLE
A FATHER who has killed his son in battle, while fighting for Lancaster A HUNTSMAN
Yorkists
Richard Plantagenet, Duke of YORK
EDWARD, Earl of March, his eldest son, later KING EDWARD IV
GEORGE, his second son, later Duke of CLARENCE
RICHARD, his third son, later Duke of GLOUCESTER, the future King Richard III Edmund, his youngest son, Earl of RUTLAND
TUTOR to Rutland Duke of NORFOLK
Earl of WARWICK
MONTAGUE, brother to Warwick Earl of PEMBROKE
Lord STAFFORD
Lord HASTINGS
Sir JOHN MORTIMER
Sir Hugh Mortimer
Sir William STANLEY
Sir John MONTGOMERY
Elizabeth, LADY GREY, later QUEEN ELIZABETH
Lord RIVERS, her brother (adherent first of Lancaster, then of York) Prince Edward, infant son of Edward IV and Lady Grey
MAYOR of York LIEUTENANT of the Tower of London A SON who has killed his father in battle, while fighting for York NURSE of Prince Edward of York NOBLEMAN
Three WATCHMEN
The French
KING LEWIS XI of France Lady BONA of Savoy Lord Bourbon
Others
Two GAMEKEEPERS
MESSENGERS
POSTS
Two Aldermen of York
Soldiers, Drummers, Trumpeters, Colours (military flagbearers), Attendants
Act 1 Scene 1
running scene 1
Alarum. Enter Plantagenet, [the Duke of York,]. Edward, Richard, Norfolk, Montague, Warwick [with white roses in their hats,]. and Soldiers
WARWICK I wonder how the king escaped our hands.
YORK While we pursued the horsemen of the north,
He slyly stole away and left his men:
Whereat the great lord of Northumberland,
Whose warlike ears could never brook retreat5,
Cheered up the drooping6 army, and himself,
Lord Clifford and Lord Stafford, all abreast,
Charged our main battle's8 front, and breaking in,
Were by the swords of common soldiers slain.
EDWARD Lord Stafford's father, Duke of Buckingham,
Is either slain or wounded dangerous11.
I cleft his beaver with a downright12 blow.
That this is true, father, behold his blood.
MONTAGUE And, brother14, here's the Earl of Wiltshire's blood,
Whom I encountered15 as the battles joined.
Shows Somerset's head
RICHARD Speak thou16 for me and tell them what I did.
YORK Richard hath best deserved of all my sons.--
But is your grace dead, my lord of Somerset?
NORFOLK Such hope have all the line of John of Gaunt19.
RICHARD Thus do I hope to shake King Henry's head.
WARWICK And so do I.-- Victorious Prince of York,
Before22 I see thee seated in that throne
Which now the house of Lancaster usurps,
I vow by heaven these eyes shall never close.
This is the palace of the fearful25 king,
And this the regal seat: possess26 it, York,
For this is thine and not King Henry's heirs'.
YORK Assist me, then, sweet Warwick, and I will,
For hither we have broken in by force.
NORFOLK We'll all assist you, he that flies shall die.
YORK Thanks, gentle31 Norfolk.-- Stay by me, my lords,
And soldiers, stay and lodge by me this night.
They go up [to the throne]
WARWICK And when the king comes, offer33 him no violence,
Unless he seek to thrust you out perforce34.
YORK The queen this day here holds her parliament,
But little thinks we shall be of her council.
By words or blows here let us win our right.
RICHARD Armed as we are, let's stay within this house.
WARWICK The bloody parliament shall this be called,
Unless Plantagenet, Duke of York, be king,
And bashful41 Henry deposed, whose cowardice
Hath made us bywords42 to our enemies.
YORK Then leave me not, my lords: be resolute.
I mean to take possession of my right.
WARWICK Neither the king, nor he that loves him best,
The proudest he that holds up46 Lancaster,
Dares stir a wing, if Warwick shake his bells47.
I'll plant48 Plantagenet, root him up who dares.
Resolve thee, Richard: claim the English crown.
Flourish. Enter King Henry, Clifford, Northumberland, Westmorland, Exeter [with red roses in their hats,]. and the rest
KING HENRY VI My lords, look where the sturdy50 rebel sits,
Even in the chair of state: belike51 he means,
Backed by the power of Warwick, that false peer52,
To aspire unto the crown and reign as king.
Earl of Northumberland, he slew thy father,
And thine, Lord Clifford, and you both have vowed revenge
On him, his sons, his favourites and his friends.
NORTHUMBERLAND If I be not57, heavens be revenged on me!
CLIFFORD The hope thereof makes Clifford mourn in steel58.
WESTMORLAND What, shall we suffer59 this? Let's pluck him down.
My heart for anger burns. I cannot brook60 it.
KING HENRY VI Be patient, gentle Earl of Westmorland.
CLIFFORD Patience is for poltroons62, such as he.
He durst not63 sit there had your father lived.
My gracious lord, here in the parliament
Let us assail65 the family of York.
NORTHUMBERLAND Well hast thou spoken, cousin66: be it so.
KING HENRY VI Ah, know you not the city67 favours them,
And they have troops of soldiers at their beck68?
WESTMORLAND But when the duke is slain, they'll quickly fly.
KING HENRY VI Far be the thought of this from Henry's heart,
To make a shambles71 of the parliament house.--
Cousin of Exeter, frowns, words and threats
Shall be the war that Henry means to use.--
Thou factious74 Duke of York, descend my throne,
And kneel for grace and mercy at my feet.
I am thy sovereign.
YORK I am thine.
EXETER For shame, come down. He made thee Duke of York78.
YORK It was my inheritance, as the earldom79 was.
EXETER Thy father was a traitor to the crown80.
WARWICK Exeter, thou art a traitor to the crown
>
In following this usurping Henry.
CLIFFORD Whom should he follow but his natural king?
WARWICK True, Clifford, that's Richard Duke of York.
KING HENRY VI And shall I stand, and thou sit in my throne?
YORK It must and shall be so. Content thyself86.
To King Henry
WARWICK Be Duke of Lancaster, let him be king.
WESTMORLAND He is both king and Duke of Lancaster,
And that the Lord of Westmorland shall maintain89.
WARWICK And Warwick shall disprove it. You forget
That we are those which chased you from the field91
And slew your fathers, and with colours92 spread
Marched through the city to the palace gates.
NORTHUMBERLAND Yes, Warwick, I remember it to my grief.
And by his95 soul, thou and thy house shall rue it.
WESTMORLAND Plantagenet, of thee and these thy sons,
Thy kinsmen and thy friends, I'll have more lives
Than drops of blood were in my father's veins.