Four Great Histories

Henry IV Part I, Henry IV Part II, Henry V, and Richard III

William Shakespeare

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN:
  9780486446295
• eBook ISBN:
  9780486113227
• Topic: Letteratura
• Subtopic: Teatro britannico

Among the most studied, read, and admired works in world literature, Shakespeare's histories are unmatched for their dramatic brilliance, beauty of language, and profundity of thought. This convenient and affordable volume — ideal for students and lovers of literature — features four of the playwright's greatest historical works:
Henry IV, Part 1 masterfully combines comedy and historic events in fifteenth-century England while chronicling the rebellion within Henry's kingdom and portraying events in the life of the profligate young Prince Hal
Henry IV, Part II, highlighted by spectacular battles and tender love scenes, witnesses Hal's maturation and the development of his leadership abilities
Henry V explores the means by which the "ideal monarch" invades France, wins at Agincourt, and claims the French throne
Richard III follows the scheming Duke of Gloucester as he systematically exterminates all those who thwart his plans to succeed to the English throne

Henry IV, Part 1

Henry IV, Part 1 (c. 1596–1597) follows closely upon the action of Shakespeare’s Richard II, which ended with Henry Bolingbroke newly crowned as the King of England. Echoing the conclusion of that play, 1 Henry IV opens with the king planning to undertake a crusade to the Holy Land, in part to assuage his guilt over the death of his predecessor and in part to unify his countrymen now that civil strife within England has seemingly come to an end. His plans are soon shattered, however, by the news of rebellion in Wales and in Scotland, and of the disobedience of his former ally Henry Spencer (called Hotspur). The play thus begins with conflict, and conflict marks it throughout, from Hotspur’s early defiance of the king’s orders, to the split between the king and his old supporters, to the battle of Shrewsbury with which the action closes.

Besides being a portrait of a nation’s unrest, 1 Henry IV is a study in contrasts. Sir John Falstaff, for instance, comic and vice-ridden, acts as a foil to the careworn King Henry: the men compete as father-figures to Harry, Prince of Wales, the one leading him toward vice and folly, the other demanding the prince uphold the responsibilities of his position. The dissolute prince himself has his opposite in the other Harry, the impetuous Hotspur. It is King Henry’s regret that the one is his son and not the other, for in Hotspur he finds conduct becoming of a prince, while “riot and dishonour stain the brow / Of my young Harry.” The prince is not blind to his father’s preference, and all along he plans to redeem his father’s favor by reforming, even while reveling in the company of Falstaff; by mending his ways, he thinks, he will stand in marked contrast to his former self and win more acclaim than would have been his had he played the dutiful prince from the start. That his reformation will require him to cast off Falstaff is an unfortunate necessity; that it leads to the killing of his rival Hotspur is inevitable.

As he had for many of his history plays, Shakespeare used Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1587) as the principal source of the historical material in 1 Henry IV, and some of Holinshed’s factual errors have been carried over into this play. The anonymous play The Famous Victories of Henry V may have provided Shakespeare with the details of the young prince’s dissipated behavior, although the theme had long been a part of popular tradition. Probably composed soon after The Merchant of Venice, 1 Henry IV was first entered in the Stationers’ Register on February 25th, 1598, and was printed later that year. It has since proved to be one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, and Sir John Falstaff has become one of his best-loved creations.

ADAM FROST

Dramatis Personae

KING HENRY the Fourth.

EARL OF WESTMORELAND.
SIR WALTER BLUNT.
THOMAS PERCY, Earl of Worcester.
HENRY PERCY, Earl of Northumberland.
HENRY PERCY, surnamed HOTSPUR, his son.
EDMUND MORTIMER, Earl of March.
RICHARD SCROOP, Archbishop of York.
ARCHIBALD, Earl of DOUGLAS.
OWEN GLENDOWER.
SIR RICHARD VERNON.
SIR JOHN FALSTAFF.
SIR MICHAEL, a friend to the Archbishop of York.
POINS.
GADSHILL.
PETO.
BARDOLPH.

LADY PERCY, wife to Hotspur, and sister to Mortimer.
LADY MORTIMER, daughter to Glendower, and wife to Mortimer.
MISTRESS QUICKLY, hostess of a tavern in Eastcheap.

Lords, Officers, Sheriff, Vintner, Chamberlain, Drawers, two
Carriers, Travellers, and Attendants

SCENE: England and Wales

ACT I.

SCENE I. London. The Palace.

Enter KING HENRY, LORD JOHN of LANCASTER, the EARL of
WESTMORELAND, SIR WALTER BLUNT, and others

KING.

So shaken as we are, so wan with care,
Find we a time for frighted peace to pant,
And breathe short-winded accents of new broils
To be commenced in stronds afar remote.¹
No more the thirsty entrance of this soil
Shall daub her lips with her own children’s blood;
No more shall trenching war channel her fields,
Nor bruise her flowerets with the armed hoofs
Of hostile paces: those opposed² eyes,
Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven,
All of one nature, of one substance bred,
Did lately meet in the intestine³ shock
And furious close⁴ of civil butchery,
Shall now, in mutual well-beseeming⁵ ranks,
March all one way, and be no more opposed
Against acquaintance, kindred and allies:
The edge of war, like an ill-sheathed knife,
No more shall cut his master. Therefore, friends,
As far as to the sepulchre of Christ,
Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross
We are impressed and engaged to fight,
Forthwith a power of English shall we levy;
Whose arms were moulded in their mothers’ womb
To chase these pagans in those holy fields
Over whose acres walk’d those blessed feet,
Which fourteen hundred years ago were nail’d
For our advantage on the bitter cross.
But this our purpose now is twelve month old,
And bootless ‘tis to tell you we will go:
Therefore we ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Henry IV, Part 1
• Henry IV, Part 2
• Henry V
• Richard III
• DOVER · THRIFT · EDITIONS