The Third Part of Henry VI

More British history lessons! Or lessons in the lack— read: non-existence—of loyalty in fifteenth-century England.

Boy, oh, boy. Talk about it. Brother betraying king brother for betrayed king then betraying betrayed king for betrayed king brother. That’s just some of it. A very small bit, actually.

I’m finding that in a lot of the Shakespeare I read, comedy, tragedy, and history alike. Loyalty and betrayal. And fickleness. Deceit. Gullibility. Kingly blindness (sometimes literal, even). But loyalty and betrayal are often at the center of all these other themes. Maybe because it’s so enduring. The theme of loyalty and betrayal. It’s at the heart of so much literature. It’s at the heart of life, even.

Until we find more works in the Pelican Shakespeare library, I’ll be using The Riverside Shakespeare* as my Shakespeare source (unless we’re travelling, in which case I use the Project Gutenberg free Complete Shakespeare for Kindle). So don’t get upset about seeing the same picture and the same link over and over again, K?