Where Whoever Wins Last Is King

King Henry VI, Part 3 by William Shakespeare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Man, there's a lot of plays about kings named Henry.

At least they're entertaining. This one was. I suspect I'd like it better as a movie than a play (so that you can see all the stuff that Shakespeare has take place offstage, like the fighting) but no matter how you consume it you need a book of who's who. A thousand given names to choose from and yet everybody's either Henry or Edward.

Sheesh.

If this were a novel, I'd say the author should have streamlined the plot. Too much back and forth, up and down. No one would ever believe it. He's on the throne, he's off the throne, he's on the throne, he's back off...

A lot of the message is muddied, I feel, by the randomness of the outcomes. It feels like every moral lesson is contradicted by the next act. Nobody is right; everybody is wrong. Might makes right? No. Power is transitory? Maybe. Treason is punished? Sometimes. But one sure thing: the people suffer no matter what the mighty do. One of my favorite scenes in this is in the third act, when Henry has been deposed and is in disguise in the north of England. A pair of gamekeepers recognize him and go to arrest him. The king wonders about their loyalty, since he had once been king and they had sworn allegiance to him.

King Henry: I was anointed king at nine months old;
my father and my grandfather were kings,
And you were sworn true subjects not me:
And tell me, then, have you not broke your oaths?

First keeper: No; for we were subjects but while you were king.

King Henry: Why, am I dead? Do I not breathe a man?...

First Keeper: We are true subjects to the king, King Edward.

It's clear that the opinion of the people, who they favor and who seems to have true authority over them, matters in the story; it's part of the political calculation that the schemers take into account. But just a part. Other factors can still outweigh their collective power. And individually, the people are nothing. In the end, whoever can get the power is king, and the common folk--powerless nobodies--can only be loyal to the power. That's their only choice. Anything else is too great a risk for them. So, if there's a new king, Hurrah! Long live the new king!

And it looks like the winners get fancy meals. That's what the crown will buy you.

King Edward: And now what rests but that we spend the time
With stately triumphs, mirthful comic shows,
Such as befits the pleasure of the court?
Sound drums and trumpets! Farewell sour annoy!
For here, I hope, begins our lasting joy.

I'm not sure it's worth all the scheming and fighting in the rain and murdering of old men and kids only to get feasts that you probably could have had as a duke or earl anyway. But that's just me.

I read this without the benefit of the side-by-side retelling you find in No Fear Shakespeare, and I felt the lack of it. But I don't have a test to take or an essay to write, so just reading it for general comprehension is good enough for me. I liked it and I may take another look at it in the future, maybe straighten out a few more of those Edwards and Henrys.

Now on to Richard III.

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