The Bard throws everything at the wall with this play, and what it lacks in a streamlined plot progression, it more than makes up for in the sheer magnitude of side characters, a layering of conspiracy upon mutinous conspiracy, and even a sprinkling of supernatural intrigue--there's so much "stuff" here that it's surprisingly easy to forget about the literal prophesying demon summoned spontaneously in the second act.

A foreknowledge of at least the key players in the outbreak of the War of the Roses is recommended, as Shakespeare clearly wrote for an audience that was more intimately familiar with the key players (mainly King Henry VI, along with the exploits of his father that precede the first act; Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, not to be confused with Richard of Gloucester who will become the infamous King Richard III; and the Duke of York). That said, the individual intrigues, scandals, and battles are enthralling in their own right. The difficulty is in the detours, which make trying to appreciate the story in its entirety a difficult enterprise. Still, given that this is the middle chapter in a trilogy (though it was likely performed first), maybe comprehensive wholeness was never the goal.

As perhaps Shakespeare's first history play, it a far more ambitious and successful project than either of his two preceding efforts. This kid might be going places.

I m reading the plays chronologically so everything is a little off. Here we have Henry IV as a dithering fool. Similar to Richard II. Of course we also have other characters getting their first draft such as Richard iii. John Cade is a bizarre character who is a weird thorn in the story. The way a civil war is played out in its genuine human misery with fathers killing sons etc.

Act VI and Cade were brilliant comedy

The original game of thrones: insatiable ambition, multi-layered lies, rampant murder. Life is simpler as a peasant.

And so the War of the Roses officially begins!

I've noticed that the more Shakespeare I read the easier it is to read Shakespeare. I'm getting used to the way he uses language and am better able to translate Elizabethean English into a more modern form.

Its interesting how Margaret is portrayed in this...she is both duplicitous (her affair with Suffolk) and so very much stronger than Henry...Shakespeare is getting better at creating characters with nuance and depth and you can see the talent that will later lead to plays like Hamlet and MacBeth.

Shakespeare's starting to do more than just string a few good lines together. Here he throws a bunch of shit against the wall (a pirate scene? sure, why not) and much of it sticks. Good tragic hero and a varied gallery of rogues, from merely fools to sociopaths. Only the king himself seems undercharacterized: it's the point that events overtake him and he's utterly unequipped to deal with them, but Shakespeare doesn't yet know how to express his interiority. Somehow I think he'll work it out.

MUCH more compelling than part 1, has magic ceremonies, lots of dramatic speeches and deaths, and so many characters to follow (somehow in a good way). Queen Margaret and Cade deserve more recognition as great Shakespeare roles.

More complex than the first part but interesting characters

2 Henry VI starts off moving slow. At first it seems like a rehash of Part One, with either side squabbling and trading barbs, but once Act Three hits the blood starts to spray! This play ramped up so fast that by the end I was left wondering what was left for Part Three. I am excited to see how Henry VI weasels out of this one.

Lyrically, I found this play to lack some of the brilliance and wit of other Shakespeare plays, there weren't many turns of phrase that I wanted to highlight, memorize, and quote at the end of the review, but for a lesser writer this wouldn't have been an issue. Shakespeare's unique problem is that he set the bar too high for himself. With this early work of his, quite possibly his very first (and also likely a collaboration with other writers) Shakespeare had yet to realize his full prowess, and I should ease up on him.

The Wars of the Roses pick up the steam in this play, and I'd love to see a film adaptation.