HENRY IV, PART 1

chronicle play in five acts by William Shakespeare, first performed in 1597-98 and published from "foul papers" (the author's first complete draft) in a 1598 quarto edition. Henry IV, Part 1 is the second in a sequence of four history plays (the others being Richard II, Henry IV, Part 2, and Henry V) known collectively as the "second tetralogy," treating the early phases of the power struggle between the houses of Lancaster and York. The historical facts in the play are taken primarily from Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles, but Sir John Falstaff and his Eastcheap cronies are original creations who add an element of low comedy to Henry IV that is missing in Shakespeare's earlier chronicles. Set in a kingdom plagued with rebellion, treachery, and shifting alliances in the period following the deposition of King Richard II, the two parts of Henry IV focus more on the development of Prince Hal (later Henry V) from wastrel to ruler than on the title character. Indeed, the king is often overshadowed not only by his son but also by Hotspur, the young rebel military leader, and by Hal's roguish companion Sir John Falstaff. Secondary characters (many of them comic) are numerous, and the plot shifts abruptly between scenes of low comedy and the war against the alliance of the Welsh and the rebellious Percy family of Northumberland. As Part 1 begins, Henry IV, tired of the strife that has accompanied his accession to the throne, is renewing his earlier vow to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He learns that Owen Glendower, the Welsh chieftain, has captured Edmund Mortimer, the earl of March, and that Henry Percy, known as Hotspur, son of the earl of Northumberland, has refused to release his Scottish prisoners until the king ransoms Mortimer. Henry laments that his own son is not like the fearless Hotspur. As the war escalates, Glendower, Mortimer (now married to Glendower's daughter), and Hotspur (now allied with the Welsh) conspire to divide Henry's kingdom into three equal parts. Meanwhile, Prince Hal and his cronies, including the fat, boisterous Falstaff and his red-nosed sidekick, Bardolph, have been drinking and playing childish pranks at Mistress Quickly's inn at Eastcheap. Hal, who admits in an aside that he is only consorting with these thieving rogues temporarily, is called to his father's aid in the war, and the two make peace between them. Hal proves his valour in battle, where he chides Falstaff for malingering and drunkenness and then kills Hotspur in personal combat during the Battle of Shrewsbury. Hal laments the wasteful death of his noble opponent and of Falstaff, on the ground nearby. But Falstaff was only feigning death, and when he claims to have killed Hotspur, Hal agrees to support the lie. At the play's end, the war against Glendower rages on.