CRITICISM

Caldwell, Ellen C. “Jack Cade and Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 2.” Studies in Philology 92, No. 1 (Winter 1995): 18-79.

Compares Shakespeare's representation of the Jack Cade rebellion of 1450 to an array of historical evidence regarding the uprising. Caldwell concludes that the rebellion scenes in Henry VIshould not simply be interpreted as indicative of Shakespeare's anti-populist beliefs.

Fiennes, Ralph. “Henry VI.” In Players of Shakespeare 3: Further Essays in Shakespearian Performance by Players with the Royal Shakespeare Company, edited by Russell Jackson and Robert Smallwood, pp. 99-113. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

A response to the characterization of Henry VI by the well-known British actor Fiennes.

Gutierrez, Nancy A. “Gender and Value in 1 Henry VI: The Role of Joan de Pucelle.” Theatre Journal 42, No. 2 (May 1990): 183-93.

Views Shakespeare's Joan de Pucelle as a feminine threat constructed and subsequently neutralized by patriarchy.

Hattaway, Michael. Introduction to The First Part of King Henry VI, by William Shakespeare, edited by Michael Hattaway, pp. 1-57. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Provides backgrounds and analysis of the history, structure, style, thematic content, and stage record of 1 Henry VI.

———. Introduction to The Second Part of King Henry VI, by William Shakespeare, edited by Michael Hattaway, pp. 1-69. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Continuation of the above regarding the second part of the Henry VI trilogy.

———. Introduction to The Third Part of King Henry VI, by William Shakespeare, edited by Michael Hattaway, pp. 1-61. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Further continuation focusing on the third play in the series.

Henke, James T. “The Archetypes and Henry VI.” In The Ego-King: An Archetype Approach to Elizabethan Political Thought and Shakespeare's Henry VI Plays, pp. 34-84. Salzburg: Institut für Englische Sprache, 1977.

Jungian interpretation of Henry VIprincipally concerned with the work's theme of degeneration and representation of psychoanalytic archetypes.

Hunt, Maurice. “Unnaturalness in Shakespeare's 3 Henry VI.” English Studies 80, No. 2 (April 1999): 146-67.

Claims that the motif of unnatural behavior “unifies 3 Henry VI to a degree greater than any scheme previously proposed for the play.”

Linton, David. “Shakespeare as Media Critic: Communication Theory and Historiography.” Mosaic 29, No. 2 (June 1996): 1-21.

Uses 2 Henry VI as a case study regarding Shakespeare's understanding of the media's influence on human behavior.

Longstaffe, Stephen. “Jack Cade and the Lacies.” Shakespeare Quarterly 49, No. 2 (Summer 1998): 187-90.

Examines Cade's unwitting compromise of his own legitimacy to the throne by mentioning his descent from the Lacies in 2 Henry VI.

Smith, Alan R. and Karen T. Morris. “Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part III.” Explicator 41, No. 4 (Summer 1983): 3-5.

Discusses nautical imagery and allusions to the devil and damnation in the penultimate scene of 3 Henry VI.

Stapleton, M. L. “‘Shine It Like a Comet of Revenge’: Seneca, John Studley, and Shakespeare's Joan la Pucelle.” Comparative Literature Studies 31, No. 3 (Summer 1994): 229-50.

Considers Joan la Pucelle of 1 Henry VI as an Elizabethan “cultural artifact” culled from the tragedies of Seneca via his sixteenth-century English translators.

Turner, Robert Y. “Characterization in Shakespeare's Early History Plays.” ELH 31, No. 3 (September 1964): 241-58.

Perceives the characters of Henry VIas static in comparison to the figures in Shakespeare's later works and as “shaped both by conventions of the morality tradition and by demands of the literal historical events.”