King Henry VI, Part 3
1623
King Henry VI, Part 3
1623
The Wars of the Roses have reached their bloody apex. King Henry VI, weak and pietistic, watches his kingdom crumble as the House of York seizes the throne. Queen Margaret, defiant and fierce, rallies what remains of the Lancastrian forces to fight for her son's birthright. In the shadows, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, reveals himself as something far more dangerous than a mere claimant, a man who smiles while he plans murders. This is Shakespeare at his most savage: a play where victories last only until the next betrayal, where a king hallucinates flowers growing from his throne, and where a queen ends the play as a woman with nothing left but grief and fury. The third act of Shakespeare's first tetralogy strips royal ambition down to its viscera, showing what remains when dynastic war devours everything: honor, mercy, even the capacity for love. It is the dark engine that would power Richard III and the Tudor canon, but it stands alone as a study of how power doesn't corrupt, it simply reveals what was always there.
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“The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.””
— William Shakespeare
“For where thou art, there is the world itself,With every several pleasure in the world,And where thou art not, desolation.””
— William Shakespeare
“What stronger breast-plate than a heart untainted!Thrice is he arm'd, that hath his quarrel just;And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel,Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.””
— William Shakespeare
“Could I come near your beauty with my nails,I could set my ten commandments in your face.””
— William Shakespeare
“Let them obey that knows not how to rule.””
— William Shakespeare
“Well, lords, we have not got that which we have:'Tis not enough our foes are this time fled,Being opposites of such repairing nature.York:I know our safety is to follow them;For, as I hear, the king is fled to London,To call a present court of parliament.Let us pursue him ere the writs go forth.What says Lord Warwick? shall we after them?Warwick:After them! nay, before them, if we can.Now, by my faith, lords, 'twas a glorious day:Saint Alban's battle won by famous YorkShall be eternized in all age to come.Sound drums and trumpets, and to London all:And more such days as these to us befall!””
— William Shakespeare
“Deep night, dark night, the silent of the night,The time of night when Troy was set on fire;The time when screech-owls cry and ban-dogs howl,And spirits walk and ghosts break up their graves,That time best fits the work we have in hand.””
— William Shakespeare
“Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar school; and whereas, before, our forefathers had no other books but the score and the tally, thou hast caused printing to be used, and, contrary to the king, his crown, and dignity, thou hast built a paper-mill. It will be proved to thy face that thou hast men about thee that usually talk of a noun and a verb, and such abominable words as no Christian ear can endure to hear. Thou hast appointed justices of peace, to call poor men before them about matters they were not able to answer. Moreover, thou hast put them in prison, and because they could not read, thou hast hanged them; when, indeed, only for that cause they have been most worthy to live.””
— William Shakespeare
“Nothing so heavy as these woes of mine””
— William Shakespeare
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Shakespeare, William. King Henry VI, Part 3. Lex, lex-books.com/book/king-henry-vi-part-3-3e2b1cf5-fd1b-4467-8813-6fe3206a2213.Shakespeare, W. (1623). King Henry VI, Part 3. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/king-henry-vi-part-3-3e2b1cf5-fd1b-4467-8813-6fe3206a2213Shakespeare, William. King Henry VI, Part 3. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/king-henry-vi-part-3-3e2b1cf5-fd1b-4467-8813-6fe3206a2213.













































