SOURCE: “Stagecraft and Imagery in Shakespeare's Henry VI,” in Yearbook of English Studies, Vol. 23, 1993, pp. 65-79.

In the essay below, Dessen argues for the integrity of the Henry VI plays based upon the possibilities offered by theatrical interpretation.

When dealing with Shakespeare's Henry VI on the page or on the stage, a critic, an editor, or a director immediately confronts the question of the integrity of the three plays as they have survived in the two quartos (among the earliest of Shakespeare's works to appear in print) and the First Folio (where Part One first appears). Since the eighteenth century, scholars and theatrical professionals have shown little confidence in or enthusiasm for these histories as intact entities, worthy of analysis as discrete units, but rather have either lumped them together as one item that can be dealt with summarily or raided them so as to appropriate detachable elements...