The Authorship of " King Henry VI." 195 



the king is presented as an amiable weakling of the type of Mycetes 

 in Tamhurlaine. Nothing, I think, in the personahty here displayed 

 attracts the attention of the reader, or suggests special interest on 

 the author's part. The negative virtues of humility and irresolute 

 conscientiousness made Httle appeal to Marlowe's soaring imagi- 

 nation. Thvs, the pious Henry is depicted in the Contention and 

 True Tragedy, without insight or sympathy, as a mere foil to bring 

 out the more positive and more evil characters of those who seek 

 to rule or overthrow him. 



In the texts printed in the Shakespeare Folio the impression made 

 by this figure is not only vastly deeper ; it is also quite different in 

 kind. For the first time Henry becomes important hy virtue of the 

 qualities which he possesses rather than because of those he lacks. 

 The view of life back of this later treatment of the king's character 

 is the impartial, judicial view illustrated by Shakespeare a little 

 later in the careful balancing of Bolingbroke against Richard H. 

 It involves an outlook quite foreign to the partisan view-point of 

 Marlowe. 



The change in Henry's character, tending to add vividness and 

 poetic charm to the dry stock of jMarlowe, is observable almost from 

 the very start of 2 Henry VI. The first scene of Act II of that 

 play, though otherwise not notably different from the corresponding 

 scene in the Contention, ^ increases the lines given to Henry bj' fift}' 

 percent and makes the king's words for the first time significant. 

 In the earlier version of the scene, Henry's speeches are nearly all 

 dull, reflecting no spark of sympathy on the author's part ; but in 

 2 Henry II there appears a vein of the rich meditative wisdom w^hich 

 endears to vs the figure of the equally incapable Richard II. With 

 hardly an exception, the new lines are conspicuous for poetic and 

 philosophic value ; e. g., 



" To see how God in all his creatures works ! 



Yea man and birds are fain of climbing high " ; 1. 7 f.) 



Heaven, " The treasury of everlasting joy " ; (1. 18) 



" How irksome is this music to my heart ! 



When such strings jar, what hope of harmony? " (1. 56 f.; 



" Now God be prais'd that to believing souls 

 Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair ! " (66 f.) 



^ In the Contention this scene contains 171 hnes ; in 2 Henry VI it contains 

 203. The added Hnes are almost exclusivelj' those given to King Henry. 



