Shakespearean history

Opening page of the First Folio King John

In the First Folio, the plays of William Shakespeare were grouped into three categories: comedies, histories, and tragedies. The histories—along with those of contemporary Renaissance playwrights—help define the genre of history plays.[1] The histories might be more accurately called the "English history plays" and include the outliers King John and Henry VIII as well as a continuous sequence of eight plays covering the Wars of the Roses. These last are considered to have been composed in two cycles. The so-called first tetralogy, apparently written in the early 1590s, deals with the later part of the struggle and includes Henry VI, parts one, two & three and Richard III. The second tetralogy, finished in 1599 and including Richard II, Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2 and Henry V, is frequently called the Henriad after its protagonist Prince Hal, the future Henry V.

The folio's classifications are not unproblematic. Besides proposing other categories such as romances and problem plays, many modern studies treat the histories together with those tragedies that feature historical characters. These include Macbeth, set in the mid-11th century during the reigns of Duncan I of Scotland and Edward the Confessor, and also the Roman plays Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra and the legendary King Lear.

List of Shakespeare's histories

English histories

As they are in the first folio, the plays are listed here in the sequence of their action, rather than the order of the plays' composition. Short forms of the full titles are used.

Roman histories

As noted above, the first folio groups these with the tragedies.

Other histories

As with the Roman plays, the first folio groups these with the tragedies. Although both are connected with British history, and based on similar sources, they are usually not considered part of Shakespeare's English histories.

Sources

The source for most of the English history plays, as well as for Macbeth and King Lear, is the well known Raphael Holinshed's Chronicle of English history. The source for the Roman history plays is Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans Compared Together, in the translation made by Sir Thomas North in 1579. Shakespeare's history plays focus on only a small part of the characters' lives, and also frequently omit significant events for dramatic purposes.

Politics

Shakespeare was living in the reign of Elizabeth I, the last monarch of the house of Tudor, and his history plays are often regarded as Tudor propaganda because they show the dangers of civil war and celebrate the founders of the Tudor dynasty. In particular, Richard III depicts the last member of the rival house of York as an evil monster ("that bottled spider, that foul bunchback'd toad"), a depiction disputed by many modern historians, while portraying the usurper, Henry VII in glowing terms. Political bias is also clear in Henry VIII, which ends with an effusive celebration of the birth of Elizabeth. However, Shakespeare's celebration of Tudor order is less important in these plays than his presentation of the spectacular decline of the medieval world. Some of Shakespeare's histories – and notably Richard III – point out that this medieval world came to its end when opportunism and Machiavellianism infiltrated its politics. By nostalgically evoking the late Middle Ages, these plays described the political and social evolution that had led to the actual methods of Tudor rule, so that it is possible to consider the English history plays as a biased criticism of their own country.

Lancaster, York, and Tudor myths

'Henry VII crowned at Bosworth', by Richard Caton Woodville, Jr. - a key moment in the 'Tudor myth'

Shakespeare made use of the Lancaster and York myths, as he found them in the chronicles, as well as the Tudor myth. The 'Lancaster myth' regarded Richard II's overthrow and Henry IV's reign as providentially sanctioned, and Henry V's achievements as a divine favour. The 'York myth' saw Edward IV's deposing of the ineffectual Henry VI as a providential restoration of the usurped throne to the lawful heirs of Richard II. The 'Tudor myth' formulated by the historians and poets who wrote after Henry VII's accession recognised Henry VI as a lawful king, condemned the York brothers for killing him and Prince Edward, and stressed the hand of divine providence in the Yorkist fall and in the rise of Henry Tudor, whose uniting of the houses of Lancaster and York had been prophesied by the 'saintly' Henry VI. Henry Tudor's deposing of Richard III "was justified on the principles of contemporary political theory, for Henry was not merely rebelling against a tyrant but putting down a tyrannous usurper, which The Mirror for Magistrates allowed".[2] Because Henry Tudor prayed before Bosworth Field to be God's minister of punishment, won the battle and attributed victory to Providence, the Tudor myth asserted that his rise was sanctioned by divine authority.[3]

The later chroniclers, especially Polydore Vergil, Edward Hall and Raphael Holinshed, were not interested in 'justifying' the Tudor regime by asserting the role of Providence; instead they stressed the lessons to be learned from the workings of Providence in the past, sometimes endorsing contradictory views of men and events for the sake of the different lessons these suggested, sometimes slanting their interpretations to draw a parallel with, or a moral for, their time. Consequently, though Hall in his Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancastre and Yorke (1548) saw God's curse laid upon England for the deposing and murder of Richard II, God finally relenting and sending peace in the person and dynasty of Henry Tudor, and though Holinshed's final judgement was that Richard Duke of York and his line were divinely punished for violating his oath to let Henry VI live out his reign, the chroniclers tended to incorporate elements of all three myths in their treatment of the period from Richard II to Henry VII".[4] For Shakespeare's use of the three myths, see Interpretations below.

Interpretations

Shakespeare's double tetralogy

H. A. Kelly in Divine Providence in the England of Shakespeare's Histories (1970)[5] examines political bias and assertions of the workings of Providence in (a) the contemporary chronicles, (b) the Tudor historians, and (c) the Elizabethan poets, notably Shakespeare in his two tetralogies, (in composition-order) Henry VI to Richard III and Richard II to Henry V. According to Kelly, Shakespeare's great contribution, writing as a historiographer-dramatist, was to eliminate the supposedly objective providential judgements of his sources, and to distribute them to appropriate spokesmen in the plays, presenting them as mere opinion. Thus the sentiments of the Lancaster myth are spoken by Lancastrians, the opposing myth is voiced by Yorkists, and the Tudor myth is embodied in Henry Tudor. Shakespeare "thereby allows each play to create its own ethos and mythos and to offer its own hypotheses concerning the springs of action".[6]

Where the chronicles sought to explain events in terms of divine justice, Shakespeare plays down this explanation. Richard Duke of York, for example, in his speech to Parliament about his claim, placed great stress, according to the chronicles, on providential justice; Shakespeare's failure to make use of this theme in the parliament scene at the start of 3 Henry VI, Kelly argues, "would seem to amount to an outright rejection of it".[7] In the first tetralogy, Henry VI never views his troubles as a case of divine retribution; in the second tetralogy, evidence for an overarching theme of providential punishment of Henry IV "is completely lacking".[8] Among the few allusions in the plays to hereditary providential punishment are Richard II's prediction, at his abdication, of civil war,[9] Henry IV's fear of punishment through his wayward son,[10] Henry V's fear of punishment for his father's sins,[11] and Clarence's fear of divine retribution meted out on his children.[12] Again, where the chronicles argue that God was displeased with Henry VI's marriage to Margaret and the broken vow to the Armagnac girl, Shakespeare has Duke Humphrey objects to Margaret because the match entails the loss of Anjou and Maine.[13] (Kelly dismisses the view of E. M. W. Tillyard and A. S. Cairncross of Margaret as the diabolical successor to Joan of Arc in England's punishment by God.) As for suggestions of a benevolent Providence, Shakespeare does appear to adopt the chronicles' view that Talbot's victories were due to divine aid,[14] where Joan of Arc's were down to devilish influence, but in reality he lets the audience see that "she has simply outfoxed [Talbot] by superior military strategy".[15] (Talbot's eventual defeat and death are blamed in Shakespeare not on Joan but on dissention among the English.[16]) In place of providential explanations, Shakespeare often presents events more in terms of poetic justice or Senecan dramaturgy.[17] Dreams, prophecies and curses, for example, loom large in the earlier tetralogy and "are dramatized as taking effect", among them Henry VI's prophecy about the future Henry VII.[18]

'Joan of Arc conjures demons in Shakespeare's Henry VI' (engraving by C. Warren, 1805, after J. Thurston). "Next to her, Talbot is a blundering oaf, who furiously attributes her success to sorcery, whereas the audience knows that she has simply outfoxed him by superior military strategy." - H. A. Kelly (1970)[19]

Accordingly, Shakespeare's moral characterisation and political bias, Kelly argues, change from play to play, "which indicates that he is not concerned with the absolute fixing of praise or blame", though he does achieve general consistency within each play:

Many of his changes in characterisation must be blamed upon the inconsistencies of the chroniclers before him. For this reason, the moral conflicts of each play must be taken in terms of that play, and not supplemented from the other plays.[20]

Shakespeare meant each play primarily to be self-contained. Thus in Richard II the murder of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, inaugurates the action – John of Gaunt places the guilt on Richard II – but Woodstock is forgotten in the later plays. Again, Henry IV, at the end of Richard II, speaks of a crusade as reparation for Richard's death: but in the next two plays he does not show remorse for his treatment of Richard. As for the Henry VI plays, the Yorkist view of history in 1 Henry VI differs from that in 2 Henry VI: in Part 1 the conspiracy of the Yorkist Richard Earl of Cambridge against Henry V is admitted; in Part 2 it is passed silently over.[21] Henry VI's attitude to his own claim undergoes changes. Richard III does not refer to any events prior to Henry VI's reign.[22]

Kelly finds evidence of Yorkist bias in the earlier tetralogy. 1 Henry VI has a Yorkist slant in the dying Mortimer's narration to Richard Plantagenet (later Duke of York).[23] Henry VI is weak and vacillating and overburdened by piety; neither Yorkists nor Queen Margaret think him fit to be king.[24] The Yorkist claim is put so clearly that Henry admits, aside, that his claim is weak[25] – "the first time," notes Kelly, "that such an admission is conjectured in the historical treatment of the period". Shakespeare is suggestively silent in Part 3 on the Yorkist Earl of Cambridge's treachery in Henry V's reign. Even loyal Exeter admits to Henry VI that Richard II could not have resigned the crown legitimately to anyone but the heir, Mortimer.[26] Edward (later IV) tells his father York that his oath to Henry was invalid because Henry had no authority to act as magistrate.

As for Lancastrian bias, York is presented as unrighteous and hypocritical in 2 Henry VI,[27] and while Part 2 ends with Yorkist victories and the capture of Henry, Henry still appears "the upholder of right in the play".[28] In Richard III in the long exchange between Clarence and the assassins we learn that not only Clarence but also implicitly the murderers and Edward IV himself consider Henry VI to have been their lawful sovereign. The Duchess of York's lament that her family "make war upon themselves, brother to brother, blood to blood, self against self"[29] derives from Vergil and Hall's judgment that the York brothers paid the penalty for murdering King Henry and Prince Edward. Shakespeare clearly inclines towards the Lancaster myth in the later tetralogy. He makes no mention of Edmund Mortimer, Richard's heir, in Richard II, an omission which strengthens the Lancastrian claim. The plan in Henry IV to divide the kingdom in three undermines Mortimer's credibility. The omission of Mortimer from Henry V was again quite deliberate: Shakespeare's Henry V has no doubt about his own claim.[30] Rebellion is presented as unlawful and wasteful in the second tetralogy: as Blunt says to Hotspur, "out of limit and true rule / You stand against anointed majesty".[31]

Shakespeare's retrospective verdict, however, on the reign of Henry VI, given in the epilogue to Henry V, is politically neutral: "so many had the managing" of the state that "they lost France and made his England bleed".[32] In short, though Shakespeare "often accepts the moral portraitures of the chronicles which were originally produced by political bias, and has his characters commit or confess to crimes which their enemies falsely accused them of" (Richard III being perhaps a case in point),[33] his distribution of the moral and spiritual judgements of the chronicles to various spokesmen creates, Kelly believes, a more impartial presentation of history.

Shakespearean history in the wider sense

John F. Danby in Shakespeare’s Doctrine of Nature (1949) examines the response of Shakespeare’s history plays (in the widest sense) to the vexed question: ‘When is it right to rebel?’, and concludes that Shakespeare’s thought ran through three stages: (1) In the Wars of the Roses plays, Henry VI to Richard III, Shakespeare shows a new thrustful godlessness attacking the pious medieval structure represented by Henry VI. He implies that rebellion against a legitimate and pious king is wrong, and that only a monster such as Richard of Gloucester would have attempted it. (2) In King John and the Richard II to Henry V cycle, Shakespeare comes to terms with the Machiavellianism of the times as he saw them under Elizabeth. In these plays he adopts the official Tudor ideology, by which rebellion, even against a wrongful usurper, is never justifiable. (3) From Julius Caesar onwards, Shakespeare justifies tyrannicide, but in order to do so moves away from English history to the camouflage of Roman, Danish, Scottish or Ancient British history.

'Falstaff', (Adolfo Hohenstein) – according to Danby, "in every sense, the bigger man" than Hal

Danby argues that Shakespeare’s study of the Machiavel is key to his study of history. Richard III, the Bastard in King John, Hal and Falstaff are all Machiavels, characterised in varying degrees of frankness by the pursuit of "Commodity" (i.e. advantage, profit, expediency).[34][35] Shakespeare at this point in his career pretends that the Hal-type Machiavellian prince is admirable and the society he represents historically inevitable. Hotspur and Hal are joint heirs, one medieval, the other modern, of a split Falconbridge. Danby argues, however, that when Hal rejects Falstaff he is not reforming, as is the common view,[36] but merely turning from one social level to another, from Appetite to Authority, both of which are equally part of the corrupt society of the time. Of the two, Danby argues, Falstaff is the preferable, being, in every sense, the bigger man.[37] In Julius Caesar there is a similar conflict between rival Machiavellian princes: the noble Brutus is a dupe of his Machiavellian associates, while Antony’s victorious “order”, like Hal's, is a negative thing. In Hamlet king-killing becomes a matter of private rather than public morality—the individual’s struggles with his own conscience and fallibility take centre stage. Hamlet, like Edgar in King Lear later, has to become a “machiavel of goodness”.[38] In Macbeth the interest is again public, but the public evil flows from Macbeth’s primary rebellion against his own nature. “The root of the machiavelism lies in a wrong choice. Macbeth is clearly aware of the great frame of Nature he is violating.”[39]

King Lear, in Danby's view, is Shakespeare’s finest historical allegory. The older medieval society, with its doting king, falls into error, and is threatened by the new Machiavellianism; it is regenerated and saved by a vision of a new order, embodied in the king’s rejected daughter. By the time he reaches Edmund, Shakespeare no longer pretends that the Hal-type Machiavellian prince is admirable; and in Lear he condemns the society we think historically inevitable. Against this he holds up the ideal of a transcendent community and reminds us of the “true needs” of a humanity to which the operations of a Commodity-driven society perpetually do violence. This “new” thing that Shakespeare discovers is embodied in Cordelia. The play thus offers an alternative to the feudal-Machiavellian polarity, an alternative foreshadowed in France’s speech (I.1.245–256), in Lear and Gloucester’s prayers (III.4. 28–36; IV.1.61–66), and in the figure of Cordelia. Cordelia, in the allegorical scheme, is threefold: a person; an ethical principle (love); and a community. Until that decent society is achieved, we are meant to take as role-model Edgar, the Machiavellian prince of patience, of courage and of "ripeness". After King Lear Shakespeare’s view seems to be that private goodness can be permanent only in a decent society.[40]

The chronicle play genre

Dates and themes

Chronicle plays – history-plays based on the chronicles of Polydore Vergil, Edward Hall, Raphael Holinshed and others – enjoyed great popularity from the late 1580s to c.1606. John Bale's morality play Kynge Johan (:King John), c.1547, is sometimes considered a forerunner of the genre. King John was of interest to 16th century audiences because he had opposed the Pope; two further plays were written about him in the late 16th century, including Shakespeare's Life and Death of King John. Patriotic feeling at the time of the Spanish Armada contributed to the appeal of chronicle plays on the Hundred Years' War, notably Shakespeare's Henry VI trilogy, while unease over the succession at the close of Elizabeth's reign made plays based on earlier dynastic struggles from the reign of Richard II to the Wars of the Roses topical. Plays about the deposing and killing of kings met with much interest in the 1590s; but the chronicle play always came under close scrutiny by the Elizabethan and Jacobean authorities and so ultimately endorsed the principles of 'Degree' and order and legitimate royal prerogative.[41][42]

Development

The early chronicle plays such as The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth were, like the chronicles themselves, loosely structured and episodic; battles and pageantry, spirits, dreams and curses, added to their appeal. The scholar H. B. Charlton gave some idea of their shortcomings when he spoke of "the wooden patriotism of The Famous Victories, the crude and vulgar Life and Death of Jack Straw, the flatness of The Troublesome Reign of King John, and the clumsy and libellous Edward I ".[43] Under the influence of Marlowe's Tamburlaine, however, c.1587, with its lofty poetry and its focus on a single unifying figure, of Shakespeare's Contention plays, c.1589-90, and of the machiavels of revenge tragedy, chronicle-plays rapidly became more sophisticated in characterisation, structure, and style. Marlowe himself turned to English history as a result of the success of Shakespeare's Contention.[44][45] In Edward II, c.1591, he moved from the rhetoric and spectacle of Tamburlaine to "the interplay of human character",[46] showing how bare hints in the chronicles could be turned to dramatic effect.[47] Shakespeare then took the genre further, bringing deeper insights to bear on the nature of politics, kingship, war and society. His chronicle plays, taken together in historical order, have been described as constituting a "great national epic".[48] Argument for possible Shakespearean authorship or part-authorship of Edward III and Thomas of Woodstock has in recent years sometimes led to the inclusion of these plays in the Shakespeare cycle.[49]

Uncertainty about composition-dates and authorship of the early chronicle plays makes it difficult to attribute influence or give credit for initiating the genre. Some critics believe that Shakespeare has a fair claim to have been the innovator. In 1944 E. M. W. Tillyard argued that The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth, c.1586-7, could have been a work of Shakespeare's apprenticeship,[50] a claim developed by Seymour Pitcher in 1961. Pitcher argued that annotations to a copy Edward Hall's Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancastre and Yorke that was discovered in 1940 (the volume is now in the British Library) were probably written by Shakespeare and that these are very close to passages in the play.[51][52] Again, E. B. Everitt (1965) and Eric Sams (1995) argued that The Troublesome Reign of King John, c.1588-9, was Shakespeare's early version of the play later rewritten as The Life and Death of King John (the Second Quarto, 1611, had attributed The Troublesome Reign to "W.Sh.").[53][54] Sams called The Troublesome Reign "the first modern history play".[55] Everitt and Sams also believed that two early chronicle plays based on Holinshed and dramatizing 11th century English history, Edmund Ironside, or War Hath Made All Friends, written c.1588-9 (?), and its lost sequel Hardicanute, performed in the 1590s, were by Shakespeare.[56] A rival claimant to be the first English chronicle play is The True Tragedie of Richard the Third, of unknown authorship from the same period. In practice, however, playwrights were both 'influencers' and influenced: Shakespeare's two Contention plays (1589–90), influenced by Marlowe's Tamburlaine (1587), in turn influenced Marlowe's Edward II, which itself influenced Shakespeare's Richard II.[57][58]

Of later chronicle plays, T. S. Eliot considered John Ford's Chronicle History of Perkin Warbeck "unquestionably Ford's highest achievement" and "one of the very best historical plays outside of the works of Shakespeare in the whole of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama."[59] Chronicle plays based on the history of other countries were also written during this period, among them Marlowe's The Massacre at Paris, John Webster's lost Guise, and Shakespeare's Macbeth. In some of the chronicle-based plays, as the various contemporary title-pages show, the genres of 'chronicle history' and 'tragedy' overlap.

Table A: English chronicle plays, by reign dramatized
Reign Play Playwright(s) Date(s)
Edmund Ironside Edmund Ironside, or War Hath Made All Friends Shakespeare (?)[60] written c.1588-89 (?)[61]
...
John Kynge Johan John Bale written 1540s (?)
The Troublesome Raigne of John, King of England George Peele (?) / Shakespeare (?)[62] written c.1588; published 1591
The Life and Death of King John Shakespeare written c.1595; published 1623
Henry III — — —
Edward I The Famous Chronicle of King Edward the First George Peele written 1590-91;[63] published 1593
Edward II The Troublesome Reign and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England Christopher Marlowe written c.1591-2; published 1594
Edward III The Raigne of King Edward the Third Shakespeare (?) written c.1589, revised c.1593-94;[64] published 1596
Richard II The Life and Death of Iack Straw, a Notable Rebell in England George Peele (?) published 1593
Thomas of Woodstock; or King Richard the Second, Part One Samuel Rowley (?) / Shakespeare (?) written c.1590[65]
The Tragedie of King Richard the Second / The Life and Death of King Richard the Second Shakespeare written c.1595; published 1597, later enlarged
Henry IV The Historie of Henrie the Fourth / The First Part of Henry the Fourth Shakespeare written c.1597; published 1599
The Second Part of Henrie the Fourth Shakespeare written c.1598; published 1600
Henry V The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth Samuel Rowley (?) / Shakespeare (?) written c.1586; published 1598
The Cronicle History of Henry the Fift (Quarto) Shakespeare written 1590s; published 1600
The Life of King Henry the Fift (Folio) Shakespeare written 1599, published 1623
The True and Honourable Historie of the Life of Sir John Oldcastle Anthony Munday, Michael Drayton, Richard Hathwaye and Robert Wilson published 1600
Henry VI The First Part of Henry the Sixt Shakespeare written c.1590-91;[66] published 1623
The First Part of the Contention Betwixt the Two Famous Houses of Yorke and Lancaster (Quarto) Shakespeare written c.1589-90[67] published 1594
The Second Part of Henry the Sixt (Folio) Shakespeare published 1623
Henry VI and Edward IV The True Tragedie of Richard Duke of Yorke, and the Death of Good King Henrie the Sixt (Quarto) Shakespeare written c.1589-90;[68] published 1595
The Third Part of Henry the Sixt (Folio) Shakespeare published 1623
Edward IV The First and Second Partes of King Edward the Fourth, containing His Mery Pastime with the Tanner of Tamworth, as Also His Loue to Faire Mistrisse Shoar Thomas Heywood published 1599
Edward IV, Edward V, Richard III The True Tragedie of Richard the Third Thomas Lodge (?) / George Peele (?) / Thomas Kyd (?) / Shakespeare (?) written c.1585 (?)[69] or c.1589-90 (?);[70] published 1594
The Tragedy of King Richard the Third Shakespeare written c.1591-3; published 1597
Henry VII The Chronicle History of Perkin Warbeck John Ford written c.1630; published 1634
Henry VIII All is True or The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight Shakespeare and (?) John Fletcher written c.1613; published 1623
Sir Thomas More Anthony Munday, Henry Chettle, Thomas Heywood, Thomas Dekker, Shakespeare written 1590s
The True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of Thomas Lord Cromwell Wentworth Smith (?) published 1613
When You See Me You Know Me; or The Famous Chronicle Historie of King Henrie the Eight, with the Birth and Virtuous Life of Edward Prince of Wales Samuel Rowley published 1605
Edward VI
Mary I Sir Thomas Wyatt Thomas Dekker and John Webster written c.1607
Mary I, Elizabeth I If You Know Not Me, You Know No Bodie, or The Troubles of Queene Elizabeth Thomas Heywood published 1605
Elizabeth I The Second Part of If You Know Not Me, You Know No Bodie, or The Troubles of Queene Elizabeth Thomas Heywood published 1606
Table B: English chronicle plays in conjectural composition-order
Play Playwright(s) Date(s)
The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth Samuel Rowley (?) / Shakespeare (?) written c.1586; published 1598
The True Tragedie of Richard the Third Thomas Lodge (?) / George Peele (?) / Thomas Kyd (?) / Shakespeare (?) written c.1586 (?)[71] to c.1590 (?);[72] published 1594
The Troublesome Raigne of John, King of England George Peele (?) / Shakespeare (?)[73] written c.1588 (?); published 1591
Edmund Ironside, or War Hath Made All Friends Shakespeare (?)[74] written c.1588-89 (?)[75]
The Raigne of King Edward the Third Shakespeare (?) written c.1589, revised c.1593-94 (?);[76] published 1596
The First Part of the Contention Betwixt the Two Famous Houses of Yorke and Lancaster (Quarto) Shakespeare written c.1589-90[77] published 1594
The True Tragedie of Richard Duke of Yorke, and the Death of Good King Henrie the Sixt (Quarto) Shakespeare written c.1589-90;[78] published 1595
The Second Part of Henry the Sixt (Folio) Shakespeare published 1623
The Third Part of Henry the Sixt (Folio) Shakespeare published 1623
Thomas of Woodstock; or King Richard the Second, Part One Samuel Rowley (?) / Shakespeare (?) written c.1590[79][80][81]
The Famous Chronicle of King Edward the First George Peele written 1590-91;[82] published 1593
The Life and Death of Iack Straw, a Notable Rebell in England George Peele (?) published 1593
The Troublesome Reign and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England Christopher Marlowe written c.1591-2;[83][84] published 1594
The First Part of Henry the Sixt Shakespeare written c.1591;[85] published 1623
The Cronicle History of Henry the Fift (Quarto) Shakespeare written 1590s; published 1600
The Tragedy of King Richard the Third Shakespeare written c.1591-3; published 1597
The Life and Death of King John Shakespeare written c.1595 (?); published 1623
The Tragedie of King Richard the Second / The Life and Death of King Richard the Second Shakespeare written c.1595; published 1597, later enlarged
Sir Thomas More Anthony Munday, Henry Chettle, Thomas Heywood, Thomas Dekker, Shakespeare written 1590s
The Historie of Henrie the Fourth / The First Part of Henry the Fourth Shakespeare written c.1597; published 1599
The Second Part of Henrie the Fourth Shakespeare written c.1598; published 1600
The Life of King Henry the Fift (Folio) Shakespeare written 1599, published 1623
The First and Second Partes of King Edward the Fourth, containing His Mery Pastime with the Tanner of Tamworth, as Also His Loue to Faire Mistrisse Shoar Thomas Heywood published 1599
The True and Honourable Historie of the Life of Sir John Oldcastle Anthony Munday, Michael Drayton, Richard Hathwaye and Robert Wilson published 1600
When You See Me You Know Me; or The Famous Chronicle Historie of King Henrie the Eight, with the Birth and Virtuous Life of Edward Prince of Wales Samuel Rowley published 1605
If You Know Not Me, You Know No Bodie, or The Troubles of Queene Elizabeth Thomas Heywood published 1605
The Second Part of If You Know Not Me, You Know No Bodie, or The Troubles of Queene Elizabeth Thomas Heywood published 1606
Sir Thomas Wyatt Thomas Dekker and John Webster written c.1607
All is True or The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight Shakespeare and (?) John Fletcher written c.1613; published 1623
The True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of Thomas Lord Cromwell Wentworth Smith (?) published 1613
The Chronicle History of Perkin Warbeck John Ford written c.1630; published 1634

The Roman history play genre

Late 16th and early 17th century 'Roman history' plays – English plays based on episodes in Virgil, Livy, Tacitus, Sallust, and Plutarch – were, to varying degrees, successful on stage from the late 1580s to the 1630s, on account of their exotic spectacle, their topical themes (safely detached from an English context) of civic duty versus private ambition, of ancient freedoms versus authoritarian rule; and their exploration of character and moral values (especially 'Roman values') detached from a Christian framework. Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and his pseudo-historical Titus Andronicus were among the more successful and influential of these.[88][89][90][91]

Table A: Roman history plays, in historical order of events
Period Play Playwright(s) Date(s)
Rome's origins The Tragedie of Dido, Queene of Carthage Marlowe and Nashe written c.1587-8 (?),[92] revised 1591-92 (?)[93]
The Rape of Lucrece, a true Roman Tragedy Thomas Heywood acted 1638
5th century BC The Tragedie of Coriolanus Shakespeare written c.1608-09 (?), published 1623
450 BC, Decemvirate of Appius Claudius Crassus Appius and Virginia John Webster (and [?] Thomas Heywood) written c.1626[94]
63-62 BC, Consulship of Cicero Catiline His Conspiracy Ben Jonson acted and published 1611
48-47 BC Caesar and Pompey George Chapman written c.1612-13,[95] published 1631
48-42 BC The Tragedie of Caesar and Pompey. Or, Caesar's Revenge anon. (Trinity College, Oxford origin [?])[96] written c.1594, published 1606
Pompey the Great, his Fair Cornelia Thomas Kyd's trans. of Cornélie (1574) by Robert Garnier translated c.1593
The Tragedie of Julius Caesar Sir William Alexander published 1604
44 BC The Tragedie of Julius Caesar Shakespeare written c.1599, performed 1599, published 1623
41-30 BC, Second Triumvirate The Tragedie of Anthonie, and Cleopatra Shakespeare written c.1606-07 (?); published 1623
30 AD, reign of Tiberius Sejanus His Fall. A Tragedie Ben Jonson written c.1603, revised c.1604, published 1605
90-96 AD, reign of Domitian The Roman Actor. A tragedie Philip Massinger written c.1626, published 1629
Table B: Roman history plays in conjectural composition-order
Play Playwright(s) Date(s)
The Tragedie of Dido, Queene of Carthage Marlowe and Nashe written c.1587-8 (?),[97] revised 1591-92 (?)[98]
Pompey the Great, his Fair Cornelia Thomas Kyd's trans. of Cornélie (1574) by Robert Garnier translated c.1593
The Tragedie of Caesar and Pompey. Or, Caesar's Revenge anon. (Trinity College, Oxford origin [?])[99] written c.1594, published 1606
The Tragedie of Julius Caesar Shakespeare written c.1599, performed 1599, published 1623
Sejanus His Fall. A Tragedie Ben Jonson written c.1603, revised c.1604, published 1605
The Tragedie of Julius Caesar Sir William Alexander published 1604
The Tragedie of Anthonie, and Cleopatra Shakespeare written c.1606-07 (?); published 1623
The Tragedie of Coriolanus Shakespeare written c.1608-09 (?), published 1623
Catiline His Conspiracy Ben Jonson acted and published 1611
Caesar and Pompey George Chapman written c.1612-13,[100] published 1631
Appius and Virginia John Webster (and [?] Thomas Heywood) written c.1626[101]
The Roman Actor. A tragedie Philip Massinger written c.1626, published 1629
The Rape of Lucrece, A True Roman tragedy Thomas Heywood acted 1638

The "Wars of the Roses" cycle

Henry VI (Jeffrey T. Heyer) and a young Richmond (Ashley Rose Miller) in the West Coast premiere of The Plantagenets: The Rise of Edward IV, staged by Pacific Repertory Theatre in 1993.

"The War(s) of the Roses" is a phrase used to describe the civil wars in England between the Lancastrian and Yorkist dynasties. Some of the events of these wars were dramatised by Shakespeare in the history plays: Richard II; Henry IV, Part 1; Henry IV, Part 2; Henry V; Henry VI, Part 1; Henry VI, Part 2; Henry VI, Part 3; and Richard III. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries there have been numerous stage performances, including:

  1. The first tetralogy (Henry VI parts 1 to 3 and Richard III) as a cycle;
  2. The second tetralogy (Richard II, Henry IV parts 1 and 2 and Henry V) as a cycle (which has also been referred to as the Henriad); and
  3. The entire eight plays in historical order (the second tetralogy followed by the first tetralogy) as a cycle. Where this full cycle is performed, as by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1964, the name The War(s) of the Roses has often been used for the cycle as a whole.
  4. A 10-play history cycle, which began with the newly attributed Edward III, the anonymous Thomas of Woodstock, and then the eight plays from Richard II to Richard III, was performed by Pacific Repertory Theatre under the title, Royal Blood, a phrase used throughout the works. The entire series, staged over four consecutive seasons from 2001 to 2004, was directed by PacRep founder and Artistic Director Stephen Moorer.[103]
  5. A conflation of the eight plays by Tom Wright and Benedict Andrews, under the title The War of the Roses, was performed by the Sydney Theatre Company in 2009.[104]

The tetralogies have been filmed for television five times, twice as the entire cycle:

  1. for the 1960 UK serial An Age of Kings directed by Michael Hayes. Featuring David William as Richard II, Tom Fleming as Henry IV, Robert Hardy as Henry V, Terry Scully as Henry VI, Paul Daneman as Richard III, Julian Glover as Edward IV, Mary Morris as Queen Margaret, Judi Dench as Princess Catherine, Eileen Atkins as Joan la Pucelle, Frank Pettingell as Falstaff, William Squire as The Chorus and Justice Shallow, and, shortly before he gained fame as James Bond, Sean Connery as Hotspur.
  2. for the 1965 UK serial The Wars of the Roses, based on the RSC's 1964 staging of the Second Tetralogy, which condensed the Henry VI plays into two plays called Henry VI and Edward IV. adapted by John Barton and Peter Hall; and directed by Hall. Featuring Ian Holm as Richard III, David Warner as Henry VI, Peggy Ashcroft as Margaret, Donald Sinden as York, Roy Dotrice as Edward and Jack Cade, Janet Suzman as Joan and Lady Anne and William Squire as Buckingham and Suffolk.
  3. Second Tetralogy filmed for the BBC Television Shakespeare in 1978/1979 directed by David Giles. Richard II was filmed as a stand-alone piece for the first season of the series, with the Henry IV plays and Henry V filmed as a trilogy for the second season. Featuring Derek Jacobi as Richard II, John Gielgud as John of Gaunt, Jon Finch as Henry IV, Anthony Quayle as Falstaff, David Gwillim as Henry V, Tim Pigott-Smith as Hotspur, Charles Gray as York, Wendy Hiller as the Duchess of Gloucester, Brenda Bruce as Mistress Quickly, and Michele Dotrice as Lady Percy.
  4. First Tetralogy filmed for the BBC Television Shakespeare in 1981 directed by Jane Howell, although the episodes didn't air until 1983. In the First Tetralogy, the plays are performed as if by a repertory theater company, with the same actors appearing in different parts in each play. Featuring Ron Cook as Richard III, Peter Benson as Henry VI, Brenda Blethyn as Joan, Bernard Hill as York, Julia Foster as Margaret, Brian Protheroe as Edward, Paul Jesson as Clarence, Mark Wing-Davey as Warwick, Frank Middlemass as Cardinal Beaufort, Trevor Peacock as Talbot and Jack Cade, Paul Chapman as Suffolk and Rivers, David Burke as Gloucester and Zoe Wanamaker as Lady Anne.
  5. for a straight-to-video filming, directly from the stage, of the English Shakespeare Company's 1987 production of "The Wars of the Roses" directed by Michael Bogdanov and Michael Pennington. Featuring Pennington as Richard II, Henry V, Buckingham, Jack Cade and Suffolk, Andrew Jarvis as Richard III, Hotspur and the Dauphin, Barry Stanton as Falstaff, The Duke of York and the Chorus in Henry V, Michael Cronin as Henry IV and the Earl of Warwick, Paul Brennan as Henry VI and Pistol, and June Watson as Queen Margaret and Mistress Quickly. The three Henry VI plays are condensed into two plays, bearing the subtitles Henry VI: House of Lancaster and Henry VI: House of York.
  6. Second Tetralogy filmed as The Hollow Crown for BBC2 in 2012 directed by Rupert Goold (Richard II), Richard Eyre (Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2) and Thea Sharrock (Henry V). Featuring Ben Whishaw as Richard II, Patrick Stewart as John of Gaunt, Rory Kinnear as Henry Bolingbroke (in Richard II) and Jeremy Irons as Henry IV, Tom Hiddleston as Henry V, Simon Russell Beale as Falstaff, Joe Armstrong as Hotspur, and Julie Walters as Mistress Quickly. The first tetralogy is set to be adapted in 2016.

Many of the plays have also been filmed stand-alone, outside of the cycle at large. Famous examples include Henry V, directed and starring both Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh, Richard III by Olivier and Richard Loncraine (starring Ian McKellen), and Henry IV, Part I and Part II combined into Chimes at Midnight (with some scenes from Henry V, also known as Falstaff) directed by and starring Orson Welles.

Notes

  1. ↑ Ostovich, Helen; Silcox, Mary V; Roebuck, Graham (1999). Other Voices, Other Views: Expanding the Canon in English Renaissance Studies. ISBN 978-0-87413-680-7. Retrieved 2014-08-07.
  2. ↑ Kelly, 1970, p.293
  3. ↑ Tillyard, E. M. W., Shakespeare's History Plays (London 1944), pp.89-90, 212
  4. ↑ Kelly, Henry Ansgar, Divine Providence in the England of Shakespeare's Histories (Cambridge, Mass., 1970), dust-jacket summary
  5. ↑ Kelly, Henry Ansgar, Divine Providence in the England of Shakespeare's Histories (Cambridge, Mass., 1970)
  6. ↑ Kelly, 1970, dust-jacket summary
  7. ↑ Kelly, 1970, p.262
  8. ↑ Kelly, 1970, p.216
  9. ↑ Richard II 3.3.72-120
  10. ↑ 1 Henry IV 3.2.4-17
  11. ↑ Henry V 4.1.306-322
  12. ↑ Richard III 1.4.1-75
  13. ↑ Kelly, 1970, p.252
  14. ↑ 1 Henry VI 3.2.117; 3.4.12
  15. ↑ Kelly, 1970, p.247
  16. ↑ Kelly, 1970, p.248
  17. ↑ Kelly, 1970, p.282
  18. ↑ 3 Henry VI 4.6.65-76
  19. ↑ Kelly, Henry Ansgar, Divine Providence in the England of Shakespeare's Histories (Cambridge, Mass., 1970), p.247
  20. ↑ Kelly, 1970, p.306
  21. ↑ Kelly, 1970, p.259
  22. ↑ Kelly, 1970, p.282
  23. ↑ Kelly, 1970, p.250
  24. ↑ 2 Henry VI 1.3.56-67
  25. ↑ 3 Henry VI 1.1.134
  26. ↑ 3 Henry VI 1.1.132-150
  27. ↑ Kelly, 1970, pp.253, 259
  28. ↑ Kelly, 1970, p.261
  29. ↑ Richard III 2.4.60-62
  30. ↑ Kelly, 1970, p.219
  31. ↑ 1 Henry IV 4.3.38-40
  32. ↑ Henry V, epilogue, 5-14
  33. ↑ Kelly, 1970, p.305
  34. ↑ King John, 2.1.574.
  35. ↑ John F. Danby, Shakespeare’s Doctrine of Nature – A Study of 'King Lear' (London 1949), pp.72–74.
  36. ↑ e.g. A.L.Rowse, Discovering Shakespeare (London, 1989), pp.92–93
  37. ↑ Danby, 1949, pp.57–101.
  38. ↑ Danby, 1949, p.151.
  39. ↑ Danby, 1949, p.167.
  40. ↑ John F. Danby, Shakespeare’s Doctrine of Nature – A Study of King Lear, (Faber, London, 1949)
  41. ↑ Tillyard, E. M. W., The Elizabethan World Picture (London 1943); Shakespeare's History Plays (London 1944)
  42. ↑ Campbell, L. B., Shakespeare's Histories (San Marino 1947)
  43. ↑ Charlton, H. B., Waller, R. D., eds., Marlowe: Edward II (London 1955, 1st edn.), p.54
  44. ↑ Charlton, H. B., Waller, R. D., eds., Marlowe: Edward II (London 1955, 1st edn.), Introduction
  45. ↑ Charlton, H. B., Waller, R. D., Lees, F. N., eds., Marlowe: Edward II (London 1955, 2nd edn.), Reviser's Notes
  46. ↑ Charlton, H. B., Waller, R. D., eds., Marlowe: Edward II (London 1955, 1st edn.), pp.25
  47. ↑ Ruoff, James E., Macmillan's Handbook of Elizabethan and Stuart Literature, London, 1975
  48. ↑ Gillie, Christopher, Longman Companion to English Literature, London, 1972
  49. ↑ Pacific Repertory Theatre website archives
  50. ↑ Tillyard, E. M. W Shakespeare's History Plays. New York, 1944, p. 174.
  51. ↑ Pitcher, Seymour M., The Case for Shakespeare's Authorship of 'The Famous Victories' (New York 1961, p.6.
  52. ↑ Keen, Alan; Lubbock, Roger, The Annotator; The Pursuit of an Elizabethan Reader of Halle's 'Chronicle' Involving Some Surmises About The Early Life of William Shakespeare (London 1954)
  53. ↑ Everitt, E. B., Six Early Plays Related to the Shakespeare Canon (1965)
  54. ↑ Sams, Eric, The Real Shakespeare: Retrieving the Early Years, 1564-1594 (New Haven 1995), pp.146-153
  55. ↑ Sams, Eric, 1995, p.152
  56. ↑ Sams, Shakespeare's Lost Play, Edmund Ironside, 1986
  57. ↑ Charlton, H. B., Waller, R. D., eds., Marlowe: Edward II (London 1955, 1st edn.), pp.25-7
  58. ↑ Charlton, H. B., Waller, R. D., Lees, F. N., eds., Marlowe: Edward II (London 1955, 2nd edn.), p.219
  59. ↑ Eliot, T. S., 'John Ford' in Selected Essays
  60. ↑ Sams, Shakespeare's Lost Play, Edmund Ironside, 1986
  61. ↑ Sams, Shakespeare's Lost Play, Edmund Ironside, 1986
  62. ↑ Sams, Eric, The Real Shakespeare: Retrieving the Early Years (New Haven, 1995), pp.146-153
  63. ↑ Charlton, H. B., Waller, R. D., eds., Marlowe: Edward II (London 1955, 1st edn.), p.10
  64. ↑ Sams, Shakespeare's Edward III: An Early Play Restored to the Canon, 1996
  65. ↑ Sams, Eric, The Real Shakespeare: Retrieving the Later Years, 2008, p.151
  66. ↑ Sams, 1995, p.115
  67. ↑ Sams 1995, pp.154-162;
  68. ↑ Sams 1995, pp.154-162
  69. ↑ Chambers, E. K., The Elizabethan Stage (Oxford 1923), Vol. 4, pp.43-4; Logan, Terence P., and Smith, Denzell S., eds., The Predecessors of Shakespeare: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama (Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1973), pp. 273-4
  70. ↑ Sams 1995, pp.154-162
  71. ↑ Chambers, E. K., The Elizabethan Stage, 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923; Vol. 4, p. 43-4; Terence P. Logan and Denzell S. Smith, eds., The Predecessors of Shakespeare: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama, Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1973; pp. 273-4
  72. ↑ Sams 1995, pp.154-162
  73. ↑ Sams, Eric, The Real Shakespeare: Retrieving the Early Years (New Haven, 1995), pp.146-153
  74. ↑ Sams, Shakespeare's Lost Play, Edmund Ironside, 1986
  75. ↑ Sams, Shakespeare's Lost Play, Edmund Ironside, 1986
  76. ↑ Sams, Shakespeare's Edward III: An Early Play Restored to the Canon, 1996
  77. ↑ Sams 1995, pp.154-162;
  78. ↑ Sams 1995, pp.154-162
  79. ↑ Rossiter, A. P., ed., Thomas of Woodstock (London 1946), p.63
  80. ↑ Charlton, H. B., Waller, R. D., Lees, F. N., eds., Marlowe: Edward II (London 1955, 2nd edn.), p.219
  81. ↑ Sams, Eric, The Real Shakespeare: Retrieving the Later Years, 2008, p.151
  82. ↑ Charlton, H. B., Waller, R. D., eds., Marlowe: Edward II (London 1955, 1st edn.), p.10
  83. ↑ Charlton, H. B., Waller, R. D., eds., Marlowe: Edward II (London 1955, 1st edn.), pp.25-7
  84. ↑ Charlton, H. B., Waller, R. D., Lees, F. N., eds., Marlowe: Edward II (London 1955, 2nd edn.), p.219
  85. ↑ Sams, 1995, p.115
  86. ↑ Sams, Eric, 1995 and 2008
  87. ↑ Sams 2008, p.269
  88. ↑ Leggatt, Alexander, Shakespeare's Political Drama: The History Plays and the Roman Plays (London 1988)
  89. ↑ Spencer, T. J. B., Shakespeare: The Roman Plays (London 1963)
  90. ↑ Butler, Martin, ed., Re-Presenting Ben Jonson: Text, History, Performance (Basingstoke 1999)
  91. ↑ Ruoff, James E., Macmillan's Handbook of Elizabethan and Stuart Literature, London, 1975
  92. ↑ Duncan-Jones, K., Ungentle Shakespeare (London 2001)
  93. ↑ Tucker Brooke, C. F., The Works of Christopher Marlowe (Oxford 1946), pp.387-8
  94. ↑ Gunby, David; Carnegie, David; Hammond, Antony; DelVecchio, Doreen; Jackson, MacDonald P.: editors of The Works of John Webster (3 vols, Cambridge, 1995–2007), Vol.2
  95. ↑ Chambers, E. K., The Elizabethan Stage (Oxford 1923) Vol.3, p.259
  96. ↑ Dorsch, ed., Julius Caesar (London 1955), p.xx
  97. ↑ Duncan-Jones, K., Ungentle Shakespeare (London 2001)
  98. ↑ Tucker Brooke, C. F., The Works of Christopher Marlowe (Oxford 1946), pp.387-8
  99. ↑ Dorsch, ed., Arden Julius Caesar (London 1955), p.xx
  100. ↑ Chambers, E. K., The Elizabethan Stage (Oxford 1923) Vol.3, p.259
  101. ↑ Gunby, David; Carnegie, David; Hammond, Antony; DelVecchio, Doreen; Jackson, MacDonald P.: editors of The Works of John Webster (3 vols, Cambridge, 1995–2007), Vol.2
  102. ↑ Duncan-Jones, K., Ungentle Shakespeare (London 2001), p.51
  103. ↑ Pacific Repertory Theatre website archives
  104. ↑ Review by Jack Telwes, Australian Stage, 16 January 2009
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