Well, I (finally) finished Henry VI Part 2. It took forever, not because of the play itself, but a stomach bug played havoc at my house. Gentle reader, it was bad. On to more pleasant matters…like treason, betrayal, and rebellion.

First, there are a LOT of characters to keep track of in this play. I thought I might need a spreadsheet. Second, this is Part 2 of the Henry VI set of plays. Why was it written before Part 1? I used my ‘phone a friend’, and my favorite theory of the ones he shared is…a cash grab. Part 2 and Part 3 were doing well, so Shakespeare wrote a prequel. I haven’t read Part 1 yet, but I do hope it’s better than Episodes I–III of a certain franchise that shall remain nameless. Third, historian me cringed every time Henry VI listened to his wife, Margaret of Anjou, and her lover (in the play; to my knowledge, there’s no actual proof of an affair), the duke of Suffolk, about Humphrey, duke of Gloucester. I wanted to shake the king because I knew what would happen once Gloucester was out of the picture. Fourth, the duke of York in this play struck me as whiny, crafty, and very concerned with his own dignity and (imagined) slights.

Despite the creative license, the play captures the intriguing at court. The shifting loyalties, the uncertainty of allies, the rapid change of fortune…all of that is well done. I do imagine it’s easier to follow on stage when the viewer has faces to go with the parts-if I was doing the costumes, I’d probably include a visual cue, too, maybe through the use of color. I did sometimes have to go back and remind myself who belonged in which camp. The play also presents a clear juxtaposition between Henry and Margaret. He is almost saintly and other-worldly, and he’s definitely too trusting; she cares about her position and privilege and is both ambitious and willing to countenance murder to achieve her ambitions. Given what historian me knows about the Wars of the Roses, she’s going to need that strength of purpose and will.

Added to the courtly intrigue there is York’s use of Jack Cade to incite a rising in Kent, thus creating an excuse for York to return from Ireland with an armed host. While I make no claim to be an expert on Cade’s actions in 1450, I know enough about the Peasant’s Rebellion of 1381 to recognize Cade and his men echoing the complaints of that earlier rebellion, specifically the attacks on those who could read and write. The thing is, Cade’s rebellion is one of the first in which the rebels used writing. (Side note: Stephen Justice’s excellent book, Writing and Rebellion, makes some fascinating arguments about the role of writing in the 1381 rebellion.)

It’s between Cade’s death (he gets caught sneaking herbs from a garden–done in by hunger, as he bemoans before his death) and York’s arrival that the king has his best line of the play: “Thus stands my state, ‘twixt Cade and York distress’d / Like to a ship that, having scap’d a tempest / Is straightway [calm’d] and boarded with a pirate.” (King, Henry VI pt 2, IV.9) Just so.

The play ends with York making his claim to the throne, a stage littered with bodies, and the king and queen fleeing back to London. En avant to Part 3.

One play read and many more to go on my quest to become a Shakespeare completist. I finished The Taming of the Shrew yesterday afternoon, and here are my thoughts.

First, I am NOT a Shakespeare scholar or theatre or film professional of any kind. I’m a historian and my speciality is the Hundred Years War, so when I get to Henry IV and Henry V…I’ll definitely have something to say about the historical events, but that’s not my focus. Second, I’m not going to summarize the plot; there are so many websites that have summaries; you don’t need me. For the most part, these are just my thoughts and reactions as a reader and writer.

Here we go…

This was a re-read for me, and it was good to start with some familiar ground. I also played Bianca back in the day (like way back in the day). I can’t say I like her any better now. She’s a brat and a bad sister (more on that below).

Katherine is easily my favorite character. She’s witty–the banter between her and Petruchio when they first meet is so great (II.1 has really fun word play, minus the part where he threatens to hit her if she strikes him again) and seems like the only character who is honest about who they are. Bianca’s got a lovely facade, but underneath she’s spoiled and self-centered. Her suitors actively seek to deceive her father; Lucentio even pulls some poor, unsuspecting pedant in to pretend to be his father. Naturally, the REAL Vincentio shows up. While we see Katherine fight with her sister (II.1) and break a lute over Hortensio’s head (off stage), what we see is a woman who verbally gives as good as she gets, who doesn’t hide her intelligence, and who respects herself enough not to marry just anyone. Anyway, I spent most of the play angry on Katherine’s behalf because no one cares about her well-being and they all conspire to take away her choices–looking at you, Bianca’s suitors. They all want to give Bianca the opportunity to choose for herself, but not one of them acts like they think Katherine deserves choices.

Baptista, Katherine and Bianca’s father, doesn’t truly see Katherine or understand that she has feelings or notices his favoritism. He seems to care only about Bianca’s happiness and is willing to marry Katherine off to anyone with no regard for her safety, never mind her feelings or happiness (he’s not the only one). Seriously, does he feel no qualms when Petruchio shows up late to church and kitted out in a way designed to humiliate her? Granted, he does admit she has cause to be upset “For such injury would vex a very saint,” but then he adds “much more a shrew of [thy] impatient humor” (III.2) It’s just so casually cruel. He also does tell Petruchio to dress better but seems more concerned about how his clothes reflect his estate. We don’t see the wedding itself, but Gremio is shocked by Petruchio’s behavior, and Gremio is no fan of Katherine’s. What did Baptista think when Petruchio struck the priest and threw sops in the sexton’s face? Or when his daughter “trembled and shook” (III.2) as Petruchio raged at the priest and sexton? Baptista and the others make little more than a token effort to get them to stay for the wedding feast, but after Petruchio drags her away–while threatening them with swords–they give a collective shrug and go to the feast in good humor. Gremio basically says it’s good they left as quickly as they did because he “should die with laughing” (III.2). No one cares about how Petruchio might treat her, even though he’s shown violent and abusive behavior.

Where is Bianca in all this? Well…this is one of the main reasons I think she’s a bad sister. Given what happened at Katherine’s wedding and how Petruchio drags her away and despite Katherine’s clear unhappiness and trepidation, Bianca’s response is blithely unconcerned. She’ll sit in her sister’s chair at the feast and take her sister’s room, apparently with no qualms. When asked what she thinks about her sister’s situation? “That being mad herself, she’s madly mated” (III.2).

As for Petruchio…he’s abusive. He denies Katherine food, denies her sleep, acts unpredictably, destroys her things, and does the ‘if you hadn’t done X, I wouldn’t have had to do Y’ thing when it’s time to go to her sister’s wedding. He strikes his servants and verbally abuses them. He clearly takes no care of her on the journey to his home. “…her horse fell, / and she under the horse; thou shouldst have heard / in how miry a place, how she was bemoiled, how he / left her with the horse upon her, how he beat me / because her horse stumbled, how she waded / through dirt to pluck him off me, how he swore…” (IV.1). Truly a prince among men. The worst is, though, that’s it’s all deliberate and calculated to bend her to his will. He baldly states he plans to use lack of food and sleep deprivation and “[T]hat all is done in reverend care of her” (IV.1). All this is condoned and admired; Hortensio, one of Bianca’s former suitors, visits Petruchio basically to get tips, although Hortensio does seem a little uncomfortable at times during the scene with the tailor and the haberdasher. Yet his advice to Katherine is to placate Petruchio: “Say as he says, or we shall never go” (IV.5).

And she does. In the play, this is portrayed as Petruchio’s victory. He’s tamed the shrew and now has the most obedient wife. He wins the wager. What about Katherine, though? What about her? If she was a heroine a romance, this would be her first marriage, which teaches her to be afraid, to close herself off, to make herself small. The way Petruchio treats her? When she finally reveals that to the hero, it enrages him on her behalf. How dare that first husband make her small? How dare he treat her with so little regard to her health, safety, and feelings? If this was a romance, Petruchio would have wooed her (you could still keep the hasty marriage and have the wooing take place after the vows), respected her, and built her up. He could still have set boundaries and insisted on her treating him with respect, too, and he would have known that true respect in a relationship isn’t about her agreeing with him all the time.

This play isn’t a romance, and obviously the context in which Shakespeare wrote it (1580–1590 per The Royal Shakespeare Company’s chronology) is very different from 2023. I make no claim to know whether Shakespeare meant this seriously or as a cautionary tale, its origins, or how it paralleled ideas about gender and marriage in the 1580s and 1590s–I would LOVE to know what Elizabeth I thought of this one. I’m looking forward to watching some adaptations, especially the RSC’s gender-swapped one from 2019, to see how the directors and actors tackle this question.

What is your favorite adaptation of this one?

It’s been a goal of mine to be a Shakespeare ‘completist’ for some time, and this, gentle reader, is the year I’m going to do it. You are cordially invited to join in, follow along, comment on your favorite plays, share your favorite adaptations, etc.

I’m starting with The Taming of the Shrew, and I’ll be following the Royal Shakespeare Company’s chronology. One has to go in some order, and chronologically fits well with my historian’s brain.

The Taming of the Shrew will be familiar ground–read it, acted in it (Bianca), and seen the Elizabeth Taylor film adaptation. I’m curious to see what I think of it this time around.