Home > Shakespearean Criticism > Henry VI, Parts 1, 2, and 3 (Vol. 56) - Wolfgang Clemen (essay date 1980)

Henry VI, Parts 1, 2, and 3 (Vol. 56) - Wolfgang Clemen (essay date 1980)

Wolfgang Clemen (essay date 1980)

SOURCE: “Some Aspects of Style in the Henry VI Plays,” in Shakespeare's Styles: Essays in Honour of Kenneth Muir, Cambridge University Press, 1980, pp. 9-24.

[In the essay below, Clemen analyzes the language and dramatic effect of several key speeches in Henry VI, contrasting their “extraordinary clarity of utterance” with the “somewhat two-dimensional world” of the play.]

Duchess. Ah, Gloucester, teach
me to forget myself!
For whilst I think I am thy married wife
And thou a prince, Protector of this land,
Methinks I should not thus be led along,
Mailed up in shame, with papers on my back,
And followed with a rabble that rejoice
To see my tears and hear my deep-fet groans.
The ruthless flint doth cut my tender feet,
And when I start, the envious people laugh
And bid me be advisèd how I tread.
Ah, Humphrey, can I bear this shameful yoke?
Trowest thou that e’er I’ll look...

[The entire page is 7354 words long]

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