Rival monarchs: The two versions of 2 Henry VI and 3 Henry VI

Abstract

Two early plays in the Shakespeare canon, 2 Henry VI and 3 Henry VI, exist in widely different versions. For many years, the standard explanation for the discrepancy was that Contention and True Tragedie were untrustworthy texts contaminated by memorial reconstruction. In this essay, I will argue that each needs to be treated in its own terms as an internally consistent play; that anomalies in the text of Contention and True Tragedie are not convincing evidence of memorial reconstruction; and that significant differences in the alternative versions can best be explained as revision and expansion, rather than as abridgement.