SOURCE: Rowse, A. L. Introduction to The Contemporary Shakespeare Series. Vol. 7, edited by A. L. Rowse, pp. 13-18. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, Inc., 1987.

In the following essay, Rowse briefly reviews the social conditions under which Henry VI, Parts 1, 2, and 3 were written and discusses how Shakespeare's newness as a playwright is revealed in the series.

The first thing to be noticed about the trilogy of Henry VI is its sheer spaciousness. Its vast scope and planning—covering that long reign, the wars in France and its loss, the career of Joan of Arc, the Wars of the Roses in England with the malign career of Richard of Gloucester to link up with Richard III—bear out what Robert Greene foresaw and envied in the euphoric confidence of the actor with the provincial accent, who could turn his hand to anything, and was now turning dramatist to compete...