Title page THE SECOND PART OF KING HENRY VI. A TRAGEDY, by SHAKESPEARE. AN INTRODUCTION, AND NOTES CRITICAL AND ILLUSTRATIVE, ARE ADDED, BY THE AUTHORS of the DRAMATIC CENSOR. LONDON: Printed for JOHN BELL, near Exeter-Exchange, in the Strand, and C. ETHERINGTON, at York. MDCCLXXIV.

INTRODUCTION.

THE SECOND PART OF KING HENRY VI. It is one of the most difficult dramatic excellencies attainable, to associate, or continue, suitable to public taste, such a variety of characters for the stage as Shakespeare has collected in many of his plays, but particularly in the Three Parts of Henry the Sixth. The part now before us, though possessed of a sameness which in historic pieces is unavoidable, does not want considerable strength and propriety; but there are several of the characters so inadequate, several incidents so strangely abrupt, that this, like the foregoing part, is but indifferently calculated for the stage.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ. King Henry [King Henry the Sixth]. Humphrey [Gloucester]. Cardinal Beaufort [Winchester]. Richard Plantagenet [Plantagenet]. Edward, his Son. Richard, his Son. Duke of Somerset. Duke of Suffolk. Duke of Buckingham. Earl of Salisbury. Earl of Warwick. Lord Clifford, and his Son [Young Clifford]. Lord Say. Lord Scales. Sir Humphrey Stafford. Sir John Stanley. Hume, a Priest: Southwel [John Southwell], Sorcerer Bolingbroke [Roger Bolingbroke], Sorcerer: A Spirit rais'd by them. A Herald. Four Messengers. Tho. Horner [Thomas Horner]. Peter. Two Petitioners [Petitioner 1], [Petitioner 2]. Neighbours of Horner, three. Two Prentices. A Citizen. Sheriff of London. A Gentleman. Two Murtherers. Mayor, Beadle, Townsman of St. Alban's. Simpcox, an Impostor. Serv. of Gloster. Clerk of Chatham. A Sea Captain [Lieutenant], Master, Master's Mate; Walter Whitmore. Two Gentlemen [Gentlemen 1], [Gentlemen 2], Prisoners with Suffolk. George, Rebel: John, Rebel: Dick, Rebel: Will [Smith], Rebel: Michael, Rebel: another, Rebel: Jack Cade, their Leader. Iden [Alexander Iden], a Kentish Gentleman* ^note. Margaret, Queen to Henry. Eleanor, Dutchess of Gloster. Mother Jourdain [Margery Jourdain], a Witch. Wife to Simpcox. Lords, Ladies, and divers other Attendants: Soldiers of the different Armies, Citizens, &c. [Messenger], [Spirit], [Townsman], [Wife], [Neighbour 1], [Neighbour 2], [Neighbour 3], [Prentice 1], [Prentice 2], [Herald], [Murderer 1], [Murderer 2], [Gentleman], [William Stafford], [Messenger 2], [Commons], [Citizen 1] SCENE, England; dispersedly.

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