ABSTRACT
This chapter claims that Shakespeare uses the depiction of crowd behaviour to pursue his overall strategy of taking an ambivalent stance towards the events in the play, including the class conflict at the heart of the Cade scenes. Just as Richard III is not a piece of Tudor propaganda simply portraying Richard as God's scourge, the second part of Henry VI is not a play categorically promoting empowerment of the lower orders. Within the frame, it identifies the role of writing and of literacy in general as a threatening force asserted by a hysterical belief. The part of Henry VI has received a significant amount of criticism, much of which is concerned with the scenes in which Jack Cade leads a popular rebellion. The analysis of the scenes promises insight into Shakespeare's attitude towards the common people and contemporary politics, especially because Shakespeare used a number of historical precedents of social revolt in his depiction of the rebellion.
