This is my first reading in attempt to read through the works of William Shakespeare in [somewhat] chronological order of writing/publication. I have chosen The Arden Shakespeare, Third Series, as my guide through these works, and based on this first reading, I think it was a good choice, albeit quite scholarly. On this read-through, I’m not giving the works star ratings as I have little on which to compare them. I may come back someday to add a rating, however.
Henry VI, Part 1
Originally: The First part of the Contention betwixt the two famous Houses of Yorke and Lancaster
Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Edward Burns
Pages: 360
Format: Paperback
Written: 1589-90
Publisher: The Arden Shakespeare, Third Series (Bloomsbury Publishing)
View on Goodreads
Date Completed: January 13, 2025
My rating: 
Thoughts
The Play: There is some controversy on who actually wrote King Henry VI, Part 1, and even as a novice Shakespeare-reader, I can tell why. It’s hard for me to put my finger on it, but the play just feels disjointed. Some parts sound as I expect Shakespeare to sound. Not necessarily the iambic pentameter, which is present. But more the lyrical quality we think of when we think of Shakespeare. Also, and this may be why some believe this was written after Parts 2 and 3, this play feels somewhat incidental. It starts with the funeral of King Henry V and Henry VI is crowned here. But it’s really not as much about Henry VI as it is about the battles between England and France. It does end with an epic cliffhanger though. After Suffolk succeeds in uniting Henry VI with Margaret (of France), he has a brief soliloquy that I imagine sets up well the events coming in Parts 2 and 3. In the end, this wasn’t my favorite Shakespeare that I’ve ever read. And even on this, the start of a read-through, it wasn’t great.
The Arden Shakespeare: This edition of King Henry VI, Part 1 is chock-full of research, essays, footnotes, footnotes to the footnotes, appendices, and much more. For a casual reader like myself, it is overkill. However, during this reading I did not read all the footnotes during the play. In fact, I read along to a performance of the play on YouTube (search Shakespeare Network Henry VI, Part I), which helped a ton! The appendices were interesting and probably helpful were one wanting to put on a performance of this work. The introduction is where it’s at in this volume though. It is [deep breath] 103 pages long and goes into a LOT of research about the play, its origins, its authorship, and a lot of history of Joan of Arc. It was fascinating to me that this, the third series of Arden Shakespeare, had so much to say that is different from the first editions. Interestingly, each Arden volume is edited by an expert with their own thoughts and opinions on the subject matter. That said, series one was published around 1899, series two in the mid-twentieth century, and series three around the year 2000. So a lot of research is done and opinions formed between each of the series.
Ultimately, if someone wanted to start their own read-through of Shakespeare and wants a lot of background and historical information to go along with it (as I do!), this is a fair one to start with.
