Henry VI, Parts 1, 2, and 3 (Vol. 56) - John W. Blanpied (essay date 1978)
John W. Blanpied (essay date 1978)
SOURCE: “The Henry VI Plays: In Pursuit of the Ground,” in Susquehanna University Studies, Vol. 10, 1978, pp. 197-209.
[In the essay below, Blanpied considers Shakespeare's dramatization of history in Henry VI, perceiving in the work's three parts a series of disintegrations that shape each subsequent play and ultimately culminate in the parodic figure of Richard.]
We see the ground whereon these woes do lie, But the true ground of all these piteous woes We cannot without circumstance descry.
Romeo and Juliet (V. 3. 180-2)
“In the beginning,” D. H. Lawrence begins a cosmogony myth, then pauses: “—there never was any beginning, but let it pass. We’ve got to make a start somehow.”1 Where we have got to start from is the ground, which we invent, or posit, and hope to make good on, as Shakespearean characters say, “in th’event.” Whether...
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