Shakespeare's Henry IV Part 1

In Shakespeare’s timescale, Henry IV Part 1 begins just a year after the end of Richard II, which saw the usurper Bolingbroke – newly crowned as king but appalled at the murder of the imprisoned Richard – proclaiming:

“I’ll make a voyage to the Holy Land
To wash this blood off from my guilty hand”

Henry IV Part 1 opens with the king beleaguered by rebellions and unable to make the promised pilgrimage. While hopeful that he may find sufficient peace to make the journey, even the first lines sound far from propitious:

“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 strands afar remote.”

By the end of the scene news of fresh unrest arrives and those hopes are gone. Not only do former allies appear to be less than solidly supportive, Henry’s own son Harry – unlike the successful Harry ‘Hotspur’, son of the Duke of Northumberland – is leading a shamefully dissolute life. The scene shifts to the taverns of Eastcheap, a world undreamed of in in the poetry of Richard II, where we meet the reprobate Sir John Falstaff.

Honour, ambition, rebellion and father-son relationships form major themes throughout the so-called ‘Henriad’: Richard II, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V. Richard, heir apparent following the death of his father the Black Prince, succeeds to the throne in 1377 at the age of just ten, with his uncles John of Gaunt and Thomas of Woodstock providing guidance and regency. John of Gaunt’s son, Henry Bolingbroke, first exiled and later disinherited by Richard, goes on to depose his cousin and is crowned as Henry IV in 1399. Henry’s own son, Prince Hal, renowned for rebellious and dissolute behaviour under the influence of Falstaff, eventually redeems himself before becoming Henry V.

Richard II, written in 1595, is entirely in verse, but by 1597 when both parts of Henry IV were composed, Shakespeare is increasingly writing in prose. Almost half of Henry IV Part 1 is in prose, and when Falstaff says to Hal  “Worcester is stolen away tonight. Thy father’s beard is turned white with the news. You may buy land now as cheap as stinking mackerel” his language is far from that of the court.

There is no evidence that the eight plays Shakespeare wrote dealing with the Plantagenet era were ever performed as a cycle before the nineteenth century, or even that he himself thought of them as ‘history’ plays. His primary source material came from the chronicler Holinshed, but Shakespeare was always willing to sacrifice historical fact to dramatic expediency. So, for example, the Battle of Humbleton took place two years after the death of Richard II rather than in the year stated in the play, and Hotspur was not in fact a contemporary of Hal but three years older than Henry IV.

According to notable critic Marjorie Garber, Henry IV exists in four different dramatic worlds ‘each a vital sphere of influence’: the court ruled by King Henry; the tavern presided over by Falstaff; the world of rebels dominated by Hotspur; and Wales, a world of magic and music represented by Owen Glendower. Along with other critics, she has described the play as a ‘coming of age story’ chronicling what Hal learns from these worlds that ultimately leads to his accession as Henry V.

STUDY DETAILS:

• Eight meetings, Mondays 6.00-8.00 pm (UK time), commencing 18 September 2023
• Facilitated by Jane Wymark
• Recommended editions Henry IV, Part 1: RSC Shakespeare, ISBN ‎ 978-0230232136 or Folger Shakespeare Library, ‎ ISBN 978-1982122515
• £240.00 for eight meetings on Zoom