SOURCE: “The Duke and the Beggar in Shakespeare's 2 Henry VI,” in Criticism, Vol. 41, No. 3, Summer, 1999, pp. 309-21.

In the essay below, Pearlman interprets the dramatic and theological significance of the encounter between Duke Humphrey of Gloucester and the beggar Saunder Simpcox in 2 Henry VI.

In the midst of the factious wrangling that comprises so much of the matter of Shakespeare's The Second Part of Henry the Sixth, there occurs an innovative scene in which the young playwright takes some creative liberties with the new genre of the history play.

The situation is this: the fierce rivalry between Winchester, the proud cardinal, and his half-nephew the “good Duke” Humphrey of Gloucester—a younger brother of Henry V—has led Winchester to throw down his gage most unclerically: “if thou dar’st, this Euening / On the East side of the Groue” (2.1.41-42; TLN 762-63).¹ Humphrey is enraged: “Now by Gods...