In 1619, a third edition (Q3) without date, printed by Isaac Jaggard, and including also ‘The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York,’ appeared with the following title:
The | Whole Contention | betweene the two Famous Houses, LANCASTER and | YORKE. | With the Tragicall ends of the good Duke | Humfrey, Richard Duke of Yorke, | and King Henrie the | sixt. | Diuided into two Parts: And newly corrected and | enlarged. Written by William Shake-|speare, Gent. | Printed at LONDON, for T. P. |
On the title-page of his copy of this edition, Capell has added in MS. the date ‘1619.—at the same time with the Pericles that follows; as appears by the continuation of the signatures.’ The signatures of ‘The whole Contention’ are from A to Q in fours, while in Pericles, ‘Printed for T. P. 1619,’ the first page has signature R, which shows that the two must have formed part of the same volume.
‘The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York,’ which formed the ground-work of The Third part of King Henry the Sixth, was first printed in small 8vo. in 1595, with the following title:
The | true Tragedie of Richard | Duke of Yorke, and the death of | good King Henrie the Sixt, | With the whole contention betweene | the two Houses Lancaster | and Yorke, as it was sundrie times | acted by the Right Honoura-|ble the Earle of Pem-|brooke his seruants. | Printed at London by P. S. for Thomas Milling-|ton, and are to be sold at his shoppe vnder | Saint Peters Church in | Cornwal, 1595. |
A unique copy of this edition is in the Bodleian Library (Malone, 876). Although printed in 8vo. we have quoted it as Q1, in order to avoid introducing a new notation.
The second edition (Q2) was printed in 1600, with the following title:
The | True Tragedie of | Richarde Duke of | Yorke, and the death of good | King Henrie the sixt: | With the whole contention betweene the two | Houses, Lancaster and Yorke; as it was | sundry times acted by the Right | Honourable the Earle | of Pembrooke his | seruantes. | Printed at London by W. W. for Thomas Millington, | and are to be sold at his shoppe vnder Saint | Peters Church in Cornewall. | 1600. |
Copies of this edition are in the Duke of Devonshire’s Library, the Bodleian (Malone, 36), and the British Museum. In Malone’s Shakespeare (ed. 1790, Vol. I. Pt. I. p. 235), among the ‘Dramatick Pieces on which plays were formed by Shakespeare,’ an edition of The True Tragedy is mentioned, bearing date ‘1600, V. S. for Thomas Millington,’ but in a note to the ‘Third Part of King Henry VI.’ (Vol. VI. p. 261) he confesses, ‘I have never seen the quarto copy of the Second part of The whole Contention, &c. printed by Valentine Simmes for Thomas Millington, 1600;’ and it is extremely doubtful whether such a one exists. A copy of The True Tragedy, and not, as stated in Bohn’s Lowndes, of The First Part of the Contention, printed by W. W. 1600, was sold at Rhodes’s sale in 1825 (No. 2113). The only authority therefore for the existence of an edition of The First Part of the Contention, printed by W. W. in 1600, is the MS. title-page of Malone’s copy in the Bodleian Library. Capell merely quotes it on the authority of Pope, and all that Pope says in the Table at the end of his first edition, after giving the title of The Whole Contention printed in 1619, is, ‘Since Printed under the same Title by W. W. for Tho. Millington, with the true Tragedy of Richard D. of York, and the Death of good King Henry the 6th, acted by the Earl of Pembroke his servants 1600.’ This clearly refers to the second Quarto of The True Tragedy, not to that of The First Part of the Contention, and appears to us to be the origin of the error†.
† This view is further confirmed by a manuscript note at the back of the title-page of Steevens’s copy of The True Tragedy, ed. 1600, now in the British Museum. It shews that Pope is the only authority for the statement, and is as follows: ‘This is only the third part of K. Henry VI. The second part, according to Pope, was likewise printed in 1600, by W. W. for Thos. Millington. MALONE.’