A COMPARISON WITH LATER PLAYS If we take the piece purely in a dramatic point of view, and consider it as a work for the stage, it affords, as we before said, an excellent lesson in its contrast to Shakespeare's general mode of proceeding. There is here no unity of action, indeed not even, as in Pericles, a unity of person. If we look strictly into the single scenes, they are so loosely united, that whole series may be expunged without injuring the piece, indeed perhaps not without improving it— an attempt which even in Pericles could not be carried far. We need only superficially perceive this, in order to feel how far removed the dramatic works of art previous to Shakespeare were from that strong and systematic inner structure, which admits of no dismemberment without distortion. If we separate all the scenes between York and Somerset, Mortimer and York, Margaret and Suffolk, and read them by themselves, we feel that we are looking upon a series of scenes which exhibit Shakespeare's style in his historical plays just in the manner in which we should have expected him to have written at the commencement of his career. We see the skilful and witty turn of speech and the germ of his figurative language; we perceive already the fine clever repartees and the more choice form of expression; in Mortimer's death-scene and in the lessons of his deeply-dissembled silent policy, which while dying he transmits to York, we see, with Hallam, all the genuine feeling and knowledge of human nature which belongs to Shakespeare in similar pathetic or political scenes in his other dramas; all, not in that abundance and masterly power which he subsequently manifested, but certainly in the germ which prefigures future perfection. These scenes contrast decidedly with the trivial, tedious war scenes and the alternate bombastic and dull disputes between Gloster and Winchester; they adhere to the common highway of historical poetry, though they have sufficient of the freshness of KING HENRY the Sixth DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, uncle to the King, and Protector DUKE OF BEDFORD, uncle to the King, and Regent of France HENRY BEAUFORT, great-uncle to the King, Bishop of Winchester, and afterwards Cardinal JOHN BEAUFORT, Earl, afterwards Duke, of Somerset RICHARD PLANTAGENET, son of Richard, late Earl of Cambridge, afterwards Duke of York EARL OF WARWICK EARL OF SALISBURY EARL OF SUFFOLK LORD TALBOT, afterwards Earl of Shrewsbury EDMUND MORTIMER, Earl of March SIR JOHN FASTOLFE SIR WILLIAM LUCY SIR WILLIAM GLANSDALE SIR THOMAS GARGRAVE Mayor of London WOODVILE, Lieutenant of the Tower VERNON, of the White-Rose or York faction BASSET, of the Red-Rose or Lancaster faction A Lawyer, Mortimer's Keepers CHARLES, Dauphin, and afterwards King, of France DUKE OF BURGUNDY DUKE OF ALENÇON Governor of Paris Master-Gunner of Orleans and his Son General of the French forces in Bordeaux An old Shepherd, father to Joan la Pucelle MARGARET, daughter to Reignier, afterwards married to King Henry COUNTESS OF AUVERGNE JOAN LA PUCELLE, commonly called Joan of Arc Lords, Warders of the Tower, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and Attendants Fiends appearing to La Pucelle SCENE: Partly in England, and partly in France SYNOPSIS ACT I By the death of the valiant King Henry V his infant son, Henry VI, succeeded to the thrones of England and France. The young King's guardians, forgetful of their country's interests, engage in quarrels with each other. The French take advantage of this weakness to regain many of their cities. Joan la Pucelle, or Joan of Arc, as she is known in history, renders valuable aid to the Dauphin of France, later Charles VII; she assists him to raise the siege of Orleans in spite of the able resistance of Talbot, the English general. ACT II The English retake Orleans by a sudden attack while the French are feasting in celebration of their victory. In England the quarrels of Richard Plantagenet, afterwards the Duke of York, and John Beaufort, Earl, afterwards the Duke, of Somerset, grow more violent and develop into the civil war known as the War of the Roses from the colors and flowers worn by either side-white roses by the Plantagenets (the House of York) and red ones by the Somersets (the House of Lancaster). ACT III Aided by La Pucelle, the French capture Rouen, but the English under Talbot retake it. Leaving a garrison in the town, Talbot and his army go to Paris, where the young monarch, Henry VI, is awaiting his coronation as King of France. The French Duke of Burgundy, who has been serving in the English army, is met by La Pucelle and the |