I enjoyed this but it had the same issue for me as Part 1: with the exception of Gloucester, all these people are terrible, and I don't care that much about any of them. Perhaps I'm supposed to feel sympathetic to Margaret, carting around her lover's severed head in front of her husband the king, but all I could do was cackle unfeelingly at her plight. Though, granted, if I were married to such a ninny I might well need a severed head for solace as well.

The stand-out scene for me was the rioting crowd, bouncing back and forth like tennis balls between Clifford and Cade. A more fickle bunch I've never seen; it was hilarious (and unlike the head, it was meant to be so I think). "Follow the king, peasants!" "Okay!" "Wait, you feckless rabble, follow me instead!" "Okay!" "But the king!" "Yay, the king!" "But the king lost France!" "That bastard!" And then the crowd puts nooses around their necks to show the ninny how sorry they are and the ring-leader gets stabbed in a garden. Frankly, I think it was a slow day in London and the masses were all out looking for a little entertainment. "What shall we do today, darling? Throw our sewage into the street, infect ourselves with cholera, eat eel pie? I know! Let's take part in this giant farce, I always was interested in street theatre. We should take time to enjoy the arts before you die in childbirth on your 14th birthday, shall we?"

Yeah.

I really do admire Shakespeare's being able to compress so much into a narrative, but Part 2 suffers a little from middle child syndrome - it doesn't have as well defined a start or finish as some of his other plays. That being said, the crowd scene and the severed head have carried the day for me.