King Henry VI Part 3 Third Series [Paperback]

In their lively and engaging edition of this sometimes neglected early play, Cox and Rasmussen make a strong claim for it as a remarkable work, revealing a confidence and sureness that very few earlier plays can rival. They show how the young Shakespeare, working closely from his chronicle sources, nevertheless freely shaped his complex material to make it both theatrically effective and poetically innovative. The resulting work creates, in Queen Margaret, one of Shakespeare's strongest female roles and is the source of the popular view of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick as `kingmaker'. Focusing on the history of the play both in terms of both performance and criticism, the editors open it to a wide and challenging variety of interpretative and editorial paradigms.

John D. Coxis the DuMez Professor of English at Hope College, Michigan. He is the author ofShakespeare and the Dramaturgy of PowerandThe Devil and the Sacred in English Drama, 1350-1642, and co-editor with David Scott Kastan ofA New History of Early English Drama.

Eric Rasmussenis Associate Professor of English at the University of Nevada, Reno. He is joint editor with David Bevington ofDoctor Faustusin the Revels Plays series and the World's Classics edition of Christopher Marlowe's plays, author ofA Textual Companion to 'Doctor Faustus', and co-editor of the forthcomingNorton Anthology of English Renaissance Drama. He writes the annual review of Editions and Textual Studies forShakespeare Survey.