Day Two

Henry VI, Part I

1.1

SYNOPSIS
Essentially, it's a funeral procession at Westminster for the passing of Henry V, attended by Glouchester, Bedford, Exeter, Winchester.  They immediately begin myth-making, saying things like H5's “arms spread wider than dragon's wings,” then they try to understand why he died (um..war?).  Exeter blames “the planets” for it, and says, “...shall we think the subtle-witted French...by magic verses have contrived his end.”  Right, magic killed him.  Winchester, a Bishop, holds H5 in holy regard and says H5 fought on behalf of God: “king blest of the King of kings...battles of the Lord of hosts he fought...prayers made him so prosperous.”  Gloucester thinks H5 was punished by God because the English holymen didn't pray enough.  “Had not churchmen prayed, his thread of life had not so soon decayed.”

Henry VI is a baby, obviously incapable of ruling, so Gloucester is named protector... and will “command the Prince and realm.”  Gloucester then accuses Winchester himself not praying enough: “ne'er throughout the year to church thou go'st except it be to pray against thy foes”

Bedford calls for H5's ghost “thy ghost I invocate: prosper this realm, keep it from from civil broils,” etc.

Several messengers enter to relate deaths/losses to French in France, doubly awful as H5 had won them in the first place. Among the items revealed is this: during battle, John Falstaff runs away leaving Talbot to be taken hostage.

IMPRESSIONS
The first scene was surprisingly easy to read and follow along. It's interesting the contradictory views toward supernatural elements: Exeter fears French magic and blames it for H5's death, while Bedford later calls upon H5 himself to return as a ghost and bless England. I wonder why Shakespeare started at Henry VI, it's like George Lucas starting with Part IV. Did Shakespeare plan to go back and write about Henry IV? The play starts with H5's death, so I think it was intentional, as in, “I'll whet their appetites with this, go back and tell it later.” You are thrown in right in the middle of something, so you're surrounded by plot, you're surrounded by conflict and conflicting ideas and the story is self-propulsive. I'm looking forward to more.

...AND THEN SOME
It took me a while to find a stand-alone copy of Henry VI, Part I (I mean "four bookstores" while), so I eventually caved and bought a collection with all the Henry VI plays (there are two more parts) in addition to four comedies, an unlikely collection to say the least. After reading the first scene, I perused Harold Bloom's Invention of the Human, and he only dedicates about five or six pages to all three Henry VI's, and it's little wonder: he does not like it. He mentions an earlier, inferior version of Hamlet and is inclined to believe that this play was written by the same author (not necessarily our man), in which he finds some solace, but he is as inclined to relegate it to Shakespeare's Juvenilia, which still boggles my mind as it is well-written and in iambic pentameter as far as I can tell.  After reading the first scene, I am disinclined to agree with his assessment of its inferiority, but I'll hold off real judgment for now.