a_. But, on the other hand, the {133} mastery of original
characterization in such groups as the delicate fairies of the _Dream_,
or those who gather at the trial of _The Merchant_, might justify their
position in the second period rather than in the first. On the whole,
it is perhaps wisest to let metrical differences govern, and so to put
_Midsummer Night's Dream_, at the end of Imitation and Experiment;
while _The Merchant of Venice_ may safely usher in the great period of
comedy.

The three plays known as _The Three Parts of Henry VI_, together with
_Richard the Third_, constitute the history of the Wars of the Roses,
in which the House of York fought the House of Lancaster through the
best part of the fifteenth century, and lost the fight and the English
crown in 1485, a hundred years before Shakespeare came to London.
Although these plays have but slight appeal to us as readers, they must
have been highly popular among Elizabethan playgoers.

+The First Part of Henry the Sixth+ deals chiefly with the wars of
England and France which center about the figures of Talbot, the
English commander, and Joan of Arc, called Joan la Pucelle (the
maiden). The former is a hero of battle, who dies fighting for
England. The latter is painted according to the traditional English
view, which lasted long after Shakespeare's time, as a wicked and
impure woman, in league with devils, who fight for her against the
righteous power of England. We are glad to think that while the Talbot
scenes are probably Shakespeare's, the portrait of La Pucelle is not
from his hand, as we shall see. The deaths of these protagonists
prepares the way for the peace which Suffolk concludes, and the
marriage {134} which he arranges between Margaret of Anjou and King
Henry.

+The Second Part of Henry the Sixth+ concerns the outbreak of strife
between York and Lancaster, but chiefly the overthrow of the uncle of
the king, Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, as Protector of the Realm, and
the destruction of his opponent, the Duke of Suffolk, in his turn. The
play ends with the first battle of St. Albans (1455), resulting in the
complete triumph of Duke Richard of York, in open rebellion against
King Henry.

+The Third Part of King Henry the Sixth+ tells of the further wars of
York and Lancaster, in the course of which Richard of York is murdered,
and his sons, Edward and Richard, keep up the struggle, while Warwick,
styled the "Kingmaker," transfers his