Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Michael Hattaway

Critical Essay by Michael Hattaway

SOURCE: An introduction to The First Part of King Henry VI, Cambridge University Press, 1990, pp. 1-57.

In this excerpt focusing on 1 Henry VI, Hattaway examines the play's style and structure, calling attention to the presentation of narrative by means of a "montage technique ": a series of pageant-like or processional scenes that sometimes idealize and sometimes demystify characters and events. The critic also suggests that in this play Shakespeare was exploring a secular or pragmatic view of history rather than endorsing the Tudor myth; he argues that 1 Henry VI depicts the course of events as shaped by human beings, not by providential design.

The Decay of Empire¹

In the second speech of 1 Henry VI, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, delivers in praise of his dead brother, King Henry V, an oration that constitutes a dramatic prologue to the sequence:

England ne'er had a king until his time:
Virtue he had, deserving...
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