Henry VI: Part II

This history play, among the earliest of Shakespeare's English histories and printed in quarto in 1594 as The First Part of the Contention, follows the reign of Henry VI as his court splits. Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, falls to Queen Margaret of Anjou and the Duke of Suffolk; Suffolk's fate and the rise of Richard, Duke of York, follow. Jack Cade leads a popular revolt in Kent and London. York asserts a claim through Lionel of Clarence while the king withdraws into piety. The play is the middle movement of a civil-war cycle, concerned with faction and rebellion more than with a single hero.

Quarter bound in blue Nigerian goatskin leather with marbled papers. Oxford University Press commentary volume. Blue solander box with leather label.