Prolific English dramatist and national poet William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. He lived in London for 25 years and wrote most of his plays there. The author of 37 plays and 154 sonnets, Shakespeare is considered the greatest writer in the English language and a dramatist without equal. Adept at both tragedy and comedy, the bard of Avon encompassed an incredible range of human emotions as well as mystery, magic, and romance in his plays. He wrote tragedies, comedies, and historical plays, and also performed on stage with the actors of the Lord Chamberlain’s Company. The wordsmith left an indelible mark on the English language and invented several words which are in use today. Shakespeare’s widely-adapted tragedies include Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear, and Othello and his comedies include All’s Well That Ends Well, As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, The Merchant of Venice, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” English playwright and national poet William Shakespeare is believed to have written King Henry VI, Part 2 between 1590 and 1592. It was first published in a corrupt quarto in 1594. A longer version of the five-act play appeared in the First Folio of 1623. King Henry VI, Part 2 is the second in a sequence of four history plays collectively called The First Tetralogy. The other three plays that feature in the sequence are King Henry VI, Part 1, King Henry VI, Part 3, and King Richard III. All four plays focus on the Wars of the Roses between the houses of Lancaster and York. In King Henry VI, Part 2 the fights at the court grow in intensity with the arrival of Queen Margaret of Anjou. The Queen and her lover, the Duke of Suffolk, plot against the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester. King Henry is not able to rein in the chaos and Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, emerges as a strong contender for the throne as the threat of civil war looms large on the horizon.
