Note return to page 1 Cibber's version of HENRY VI PART 3, which also draws on both HENRY VI PART 2 and Crowne's THE MISERY OF CIVIL-WAR, was originally published as AN HISTORICAL TRAGEDY OF THE CIVIL WARS BETWEEN THE HOUSES OF YORK AND LANCASTER IN THE REIGN OF KING HENRY VI (London, [1722 or 1723]), a title only slightly improved when the play appeared at Drury Lane in 1723 as AN HISTORICAL TRAGEDY OF THE CIVIL WARS IN THE REIGN OF KING HENRY VI. The play was intended to fill in the gap between Ambrose Philips' HUMFREY, DUKE OF GLOUCESTER and Cibber's father Colley's immensely successful adaptation of RICHARD III. However, contemporary audiences do not seem to have been very anxious to learn about the events which intervened between the actions of those two dramas, since it ran for only one performance. Readers, however, may have felt differently (or Cibber may have blamed its failure on its cumbersome title), since the play (although never revived) was republished in this second edition the following year, economically renamed KING HENRY VI.

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