III. SHAKESPEARE'S EARLY DRAMATIC STYLE

While discussing the problem of the authorship of Henry VI, which has been the main theme of the two previous Introductions, I have made more than one passing reference to Shakespeare's early poetic style, on the one hand, and to the chronicle sources on the other. In the present Introduction I shall endeavour to gather up these threads and to say something in conclusion on the dramatic qualities of the trilogy, especially those of Part III.

Probably the most indisputably Shakespearian scene in Henry VI is the Temple Garden scene of Part I, 2. 4. A brief examination of that will therefore form a suitable, not to say a safe, introduction to the question of Shakespeare's early dramatic style. And it is perhaps significant of his general attitude towards the chronicles that no authority has yet been discovered in them for this incident of the plucking of the Roses which he makes the opening chapter of the Wars of the Roses. Almost without doubt the scene is entirely of his own invention. Certainly his hand is evident from the outset and there is not a hint anywhere that he is revising a previous draft.