The First Part of Henry the Sixth

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1. ACT FIRST

   Henry V is buried, the French rise under Joan la Pucelle, and Talbot loses and then relieves Orleans.

   1. Scene 1 — Westminster Abbey.

      At Henry V's funeral in Westminster Abbey his brothers and uncles mourn, while Gloucester and the Bishop of Winchester snipe at each other. Messengers bring a cascade of bad news from France: towns lost, the Dauphin crowned, and the valiant Talbot taken prisoner. Bedford vows to recover France, Gloucester to secure the Tower, and Winchester schemes to seize the young king.

   2. Scene 2 — France. Before Orleans

      Before Orleans the Dauphin Charles, Alencon, and Reignier marvel that the starving English still besiege them. The Bastard of Orleans brings in Joan la Pucelle, who claims a vision of the Virgin; she out-fights Charles in single combat and promises to raise the siege, and the French exalt her as a saint.

   3. Scene 3 — London. Before the Tower.

      At the Tower of London, Gloucester is barred from entry by Winchester's order; their blue-coated and tawny-coated servants brawl in the street until the Mayor of London proclaims the peace and shames the great men.

   4. Scene 4 — Orleans.

      On the walls of Orleans a French master-gunner sets a cannon against the English watch-tower. Talbot, newly ransomed, climbs the turret with Salisbury, Gargrave, and Glansdale; a shot strikes Salisbury and Gargrave down. Talbot, cradling the dying Salisbury, vows furious revenge as the French sally out under Joan.

   5. Scene 5 — The same.

      Talbot meets Joan in single combat; she fights him to a standstill, relieves Orleans, and slips away, leaving Talbot to rage that a woman and a witch have driven back English valor.

   6. Scene 6 — The Same.

      Joan and Charles stand triumphant on the recovered walls of Orleans; the Dauphin showers her with praise, promising her a statue and a holy day, and vows to share his crown with her.

2. ACT SECOND

   The English retake Orleans by surprise, Talbot eludes the Countess's trap, and at home the Temple-garden quarrel and dying Mortimer plant the seeds of dynastic war.

   1. Scene 1 — Before Orleans.

      Under cover of night the English scale the walls and storm Orleans; the French commanders flee half-dressed and bickering, blaming one another and the over-trusted Joan for the rout.

   2. Scene 2 — Orleans. Within the town.

      Within the recovered town Talbot plans a tomb for Salisbury. A messenger arrives from the Countess of Auvergne, inviting the famous warrior to her castle; Talbot accepts, but quietly arranges a safeguard.

   3. Scene 3 — Auvergne. The Countess's castle.

      The Countess of Auvergne springs her trap, gloating that she holds the terror of France prisoner; Talbot laughs that she has caught only his shadow, and winds his horn to summon the soldiers who are his 'substance.' Abashed, she feasts him instead.

   4. Scene 4 — London. The Temple-garden.

      In the Temple garden a legal quarrel turns dynastic: Richard Plantagenet plucks a white rose and Somerset a red, and the bystanders — Warwick, Suffolk, Vernon, a Lawyer — take sides. Warwick prophesies that this 'brawl' will send a thousand souls to death; the houses of York and Lancaster are born.

   5. Scene 5 — The Tower of London.

      In the Tower the imprisoned, dying Edmund Mortimer explains to his nephew Richard Plantagenet the Yorkist title to the crown, descending from Edward III's third son. Mortimer dies; Richard resolves to win restoration to his blood and, in time, his right.

3. ACT THIRD

   The Gloucester–Winchester feud erupts in Parliament; Rouen is lost and retaken as Bedford dies; Joan seduces Burgundy from his English alliance; Talbot is honored in Paris.

   1. Scene 1 — London. The Parliament-house.

      In the Parliament-house Gloucester and Winchester renew their feud until their servingmen brawl with stones; the boy-king tearfully begs peace and patches a hollow reconciliation. Richard Plantagenet is restored as Duke of York, and Henry prepares to cross to Paris for his French coronation; Exeter, left alone, foresees ruin in the lords' 'feigned' love.

   2. Scene 2 — France. Before Rouen.

      Joan and a band of French soldiers take Rouen by a market-disguise stratagem. Talbot and Burgundy storm it back the same day; the mortally sick Bedford, borne in a chair, lives just long enough to see the town recovered before he dies.

   3. Scene 3 — The plains near Rouen.

      On the plains near Rouen, Joan works on the Duke of Burgundy with a patriotic appeal — why fight for England against your own countrymen? — and persuades him to desert the English and rejoin the French.

   4. Scene 4 — Paris. The palace.

      At the palace in Paris the newly arrived king welcomes Talbot, who kneels and is created Earl of Shrewsbury. As the court withdraws, the white-rose Vernon and red-rose Basset fall to quarreling, carrying the garden feud to France.

4. ACT FOURTH

   Henry is crowned in Paris and unwittingly favors the red rose; the feud of York and Somerset strands Talbot at Bordeaux, where he and his son die together.

   1. Scene 1 — Paris. A hall of state.

      At his Paris coronation Henry learns of Burgundy's defection and strips the cowardly Fastolfe of the Garter. When Vernon and Basset beg leave to duel over their roses, the king — trying to seem impartial — pins on a red rose and gives York and Somerset joint command, blind to the favoritism that will prove fatal.

   2. Scene 2 — Before Bordeaux.

      Before Bordeaux, Talbot summons the town to yield; the French General defies him and warns that the Dauphin's army is already closing the trap. Talbot finds himself ringed by enemies.

   3. Scene 3 — Plains in Gascony.

      York, halted for want of cavalry, rages that Somerset has not sent the promised horse; Sir William Lucy pleads for the doomed Talbot, but York can only curse the rival whose spite ties his hands.

   4. Scene 4 — Other plains in Gascony.

      Somerset, just as bitter, blames York for the danger and withholds his horsemen out of pure rivalry. Lucy laments that the great men's private feud is murdering the public hero Talbot.

   5. Scene 5 — The English camp near Bordeaux.

      In the English camp Talbot urges his newly arrived son John to flee and preserve the family name; John refuses absolutely, choosing to die at his father's side rather than live in shame.

   6. Scene 6 — A field of battle.

      In the thick of battle Talbot rescues the surrounded John and again pleads with him to escape; again the boy refuses, and they fight on together.

   7. Scene 7 — Another part of the field.

      John Talbot is killed; the old hero dies with his son's body in his arms. The French exult and mock until Lucy comes to claim the corpses and recite Talbot's roll of titles; shamed, they grant the bodies honorable burial.

5. ACT FIFTH

   A peace with France is arranged through marriage; Joan is captured and condemned; Suffolk takes Margaret of Anjou and persuades Henry to wed her, meaning to rule through her.

   1. Scene 1 — London. The palace.

      Counselled toward peace, Henry agrees to marry the daughter of the Earl of Armagnac to seal a treaty with France. Winchester, now a Cardinal, privately pays the Pope's legate, plotting to make himself supreme.

   2. Scene 2 — France. Plains in Anjou.

      On the plains of Anjou, Charles and the French learn the English are upon them and resolve to give battle.

   3. Scene 3 — Before Angiers.

      Joan's attendant fiends abandon her, and she is taken prisoner by York. In the same field Suffolk captures the beautiful Margaret of Anjou and, falling for her himself, woos her in asides on the king's behalf — a match designed to let Suffolk govern Henry through his queen.

   4. Scene 4 — Camp of the Duke of York in Anjou.

      The condemned Joan cruelly disowns her shepherd father, then pleads pregnancy by one prince after another to escape the fire; her judges send her to the stake. A peace is patched: the Dauphin agrees, grudgingly, to hold France as Henry's viceroy.

   5. Scene 5 — London. The royal palace.

      Suffolk so dazzles Henry with the praise of Margaret that the young king breaks the Armagnac match and resolves to marry her, over Gloucester's and Exeter's objections. Left alone, Suffolk exults that though Margaret will rule the king, he will rule them both.

Characters

• Lord Talbot protagonist

  The fearless English general whose very name terrifies the French ('the terror of the French, the scarecrow that affrights our children'). He embodies the old chivalric England that is dying as the nobles squabble at home; abandoned without relief by the feuding York and Somerset, he and his son John are surrounded and killed at Bordeaux.

• King Henry VI major

  The boy-king who inherits the crown of the great Henry V but none of his command. Pious and peace-loving, he cannot master the nobles' quarrels; his fatal choices here — picking a red rose to please Somerset, then agreeing to marry Margaret on Suffolk's urging — plant the seeds of the Wars of the Roses.

• Duke of Gloucester major

  Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, the King's uncle and Lord Protector, the voice of the dead Henry V's England. He feuds bitterly with the Bishop of Winchester, their servants brawling in the London streets.

• Bishop of Winchester major

  Henry Beaufort, the ambitious, worldly Bishop (later Cardinal) of Winchester, great-uncle to the King. His decades-long power struggle with Gloucester divides the council and weakens the realm; he buys his cardinal's hat from the Pope's legate.

• Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York major

  Son of the executed Earl of Cambridge; restored in blood and created Duke of York. In the Temple Garden he plucks a white rose, and the dying Mortimer reveals his superior claim to the throne through Edward III's third son. His rivalry with Somerset dooms Talbot and ignites the dynastic war.

• Duke of Somerset supporting

  Leader of the red-rose (Lancastrian) faction in the Temple Garden quarrel; York's implacable rival. His refusal to send cavalry to Talbot — out of spite toward York — leaves the hero to die at Bordeaux.

• Earl of Suffolk supporting

  William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, who captures Margaret of Anjou and, smitten, woos her for King Henry so that he may rule the King through her — a piece of self-serving matchmaking that ends the play and shadows the sequels.

• Earl of Warwick supporting

  Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, who in the Temple Garden sides with York and prophesies that the rose-plucking quarrel 'shall send, between the red rose and the white, a thousand souls to death and deadly night.'

• Duke of Exeter supporting

  Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, the King's great-uncle, who serves as the play's choric voice — looking on at the nobles' feuds and foreseeing that 'this late dissension grown betwixt the peers burns under feigned ashes of forg'd love and will at last break out into a flame.'

• Duke of Bedford supporting

  John, Duke of Bedford, Regent of France and brother to the dead Henry V. He opens the play mourning his brother and dies before Rouen, borne in a chair to witness one last English victory.

• Joan la Pucelle antagonist

  Joan of Arc, the shepherd's daughter who claims a vision of the Virgin and leads the French to raise the siege of Orleans. Shakespeare's Joan is heroic in battle but is finally shown conjuring fiends and disowning her father; captured by York, she is condemned to the stake. Her scenes mix verse with French.

• Charles, the Dauphin major

  The Dauphin (later Charles VII) who leads French resistance, exalts Joan as a saint and 'Astraea's daughter,' and at the play's close accepts an uneasy peace as Henry's viceroy in France.

• Reignier, Duke of Anjou supporting

  Reignier, Duke of Anjou and titular King of Naples, a French lord whose chief value to the plot is his daughter Margaret, whom Suffolk captures and betroths to King Henry.

• Duke of Alencon supporting

  A French nobleman and one of the Dauphin's captains, skeptical and pragmatic about Joan even as he fights alongside her.

• Duke of Burgundy supporting

  The Duke of Burgundy, England's French ally, whom Joan persuades with a patriotic appeal to abandon the English and rejoin the French — a defection the English bitterly denounce as treachery.

• Bastard of Orleans minor

  A French commander who first brings Joan la Pucelle to the Dauphin, vouching for her holy mission.

• Margaret of Anjou supporting

  Reignier's daughter, captured by Suffolk in the play's final act and wooed by him on the King's behalf. Beautiful and quick-witted, she will become the formidable, ruthless queen of the three sequels.

• Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March minor

  The aged, imprisoned Earl of March, who on his deathbed in the Tower explains to his nephew Richard Plantagenet the Yorkist claim to the crown descending from Edward III's third son, Lionel of Clarence.

• John Talbot minor

  Talbot's young son, who arrives at Bordeaux just in time to die beside his father rather than flee and shame the family name.

• Earl of Salisbury minor

  Thomas Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, a veteran English commander shot through the eye by cannon-fire from the walls of Orleans early in the play.

• Sir William Lucy minor

  An English officer who pleads in vain with York and Somerset to relieve the doomed Talbot, then recovers the hero's body and recites his cascade of honorific titles over it.

• Countess of Auvergne minor

  A French noblewoman who lures Talbot to her castle meaning to take him prisoner, only to find she has trapped a shadow — his soldiers answer his horn and reveal the 'substance' of his power.

• Vernon minor

  A follower of York who wears the white rose; his quarrel with Basset over the roses revives the factional hatred before the King.

• Basset minor

  A follower of Somerset who wears the red rose and quarrels with the white-rose Vernon, begging the King for leave to fight a duel.

• Sir John Fastolfe minor

  A cowardly English knight who twice flees the field, abandoning Talbot; Talbot tears the Garter from his leg and he is banished. (A distinct character from the later comic Falstaff.)

• Shepherd minor

  Joan la Pucelle's father, who comes to bless his condemned daughter and is cruelly disowned by her; in grief he wishes the fire to consume her.

• Woodvile minor

  Lieutenant of the Tower of London, who refuses to open the gates to Gloucester without the Cardinal's warrant.

• Master Gunner of Orleans minor

  The French master-gunner of Orleans who lays the cannon that kills Salisbury and Gargrave.

• Gunner's Boy minor

  The master-gunner's son, who keeps the watch and fires the fatal shot.

• Sir Thomas Gargrave minor
• Sir William Glansdale minor
• Captain minor
• Lawyer minor

  A bystander in the Temple Garden who timidly sides with York's white rose on a point of law.

• Papal Legate minor
• French General minor

  The French general on the walls of Bordeaux who defies Talbot and warns him that the Dauphin's army is closing in.

• Messenger minor
• Mayor of London minor

  The Lord Mayor of London, who twice steps between the brawling retinues of Gloucester and Winchester to keep the peace in the city streets.

• First Warder minor
• Second Warder minor
• First Serving-man minor
• Second Serving-man minor
• Third Serving-man minor
• Serving-men ensemble
• Officer minor
• Sergeant minor
• Porter minor
• Sentinel minor
• Soldier minor
• Watch minor
• Scout minor
• Servant minor
• Jailer minor
• All ensemble

Cross-references

• Folger Shakespeare
• MIT plain text
• Wikipedia