The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 5 of 9]

About this volume

The fifth volume of this Cambridge edition brings together Shakespeare’s three parts of Henry VI and Richard III, following political struggle through competing claims to the English crown. Military losses, family loyalties, public ceremony, and private calculation repeatedly alter the balance of power. Read in sequence, the plays show how one generation’s unfinished conflict becomes the next generation’s inheritance, while the distance between possessing authority and exercising it securely continues to widen.

This particular volume also offers a view of Shakespeare as an editorial problem. Alongside the plays stand notes and related early texts that allow readers to compare different forms of the material. It is therefore more than a convenient gathering of historical dramas: it records nineteenth-century attempts to establish and explain their wording. Readers interested in performance can follow the conflicts themselves, while those curious about the survival of dramatic literature can explore how printers, earlier editions, and later editors have affected the texts through which those conflicts reach us.

Things You May Not Know About The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 5 of 9]

• One part of a larger edition. This is volume five of a nine-volume Cambridge Shakespeare, not a complete collection of the playwright’s works on its own.
• Four connected history plays. The contents include all three parts of Henry VI followed by Richard III, creating a sustained sequence of dynastic conflict.
• Named nineteenth-century editors. The 1864 title page identifies William George Clark and William Aldis Wright as the editors responsible for this volume.
• Early versions are included. The First Part of the Contention and The True Tragedie appear beside the later familiar forms of the Henry VI material.
• Notes preserve textual alternatives. The editorial apparatus records differences in wording and earlier printing, making the book useful for comparing how the plays have been transmitted.