SOURCE: Nichols, Nina da Vinci. “The Paper Trail to the Throne.” In Henry VI: Critical Essays, edited by Thomas A. Pendleton, pp. 97-112. New York: Routledge, 2001.

In the following essay, Nichols links the symbolic and theatrical functions of paper to themes of legality, revenge, and the legitimacy of kings in the Henry VI plays.

Right, says the fledgling playwright as he carries the script of his national epic into the theater. Players know that speech is action, but the audience had better see speech referring to something substantive—a man, an army, a crown, something visible on stage. Of course, some of this speechifying is operative language: oaths, pledges, and ceremonies authorizing allegiance. Those passages ought to work well with an audience accustomed to ritualized occasions. But what to do about all these letters, bills, proclamations, edicts, writs, and verses from the beyond? Written words are false signifiers...