Page:Henry VI Part 1 (1918) Yale.djvu/149

King Henry the Sixth than simply that this was the last part remaining unlicensed. It seems fair to assume that they so thought of it because they remembered it as the latest of Shakespeare's Henry VI plays to be produced on the stage.

Since Shakespeare's death, 1 Henry VI has had only the scantiest stage history. Most subsequent adaptations of the Henry VI cycle ignore the first part. However, J. H. Merivale's compilation, Richard, Duke of York, acted by Edmund Kean, December 22, 1817, and published the same year, opens with three scenes closely following II. iv, II. v, III. i, and IV. i of our play.

An abridgment of the three Henry VI plays ('Henry VI. A Tragedy in Five Acts. Condensed from Shakespeare, and arranged for the Stage') was prepared by the eminent actor-manager, Charles Kemble (1775-1854), and first printed from the only known copy in volume ii of the Henry Irving Shakespeare. This work begins like Merivale's with the Temple Garden scene, and like it ignores the scenes in France. 1 Henry VI furnished Kemble with the material for Act I (approximately) of his adaptation, which seems never to have been acted.

On March 13, 1738, 'by desire of several Ladies of Quality' the play of 'Henry 6th, part 1st,' was performed for the benefit of the actor Dennis Delane (died, 1750), who acted Talbot to the Suffolk of Walker and the Joan of Arc of Mrs. Hallam. The notice 'not acted fifty years,' affixed to the announcement of this performance, appears to be a most conservative under-statement. The most remarkable recent production was that given by the F. R. Benson company at the Stratford Memorial Festival in May, 1906. Mr. Benson here 'made a triumphant Talbot, and the audience seemed never weary of recalling him.' (Athenæum, May 12, 1906.)