Henry IV
Part 1
Henry IV, Part 1 (often written as 1 Henry IV) is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written no later than 1597. The play dramatises part of the reign of King Henry IV of England, beginning with the battle at Homildon Hill late in 1402, and ending with King Henry's victory in the Battle of Shrewsbury in mid-1403. In parallel to the political conflict between King Henry and a rebellious faction of nobles, the play depicts the escapades of King Henry's son, Prince Hal (the future King Henry V), and his eventual return to court and favour.
Henry IV, Part 1 is the first of Shakespeare's two plays which deal with the reign of Henry IV (the other being Henry IV, Part 2), and the second play in the Henriad, a modern designation for the tetralogy of plays that deal with the successive reigns of Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V. From its first performance, it has been an extremely popular work both with the public and critics.
Shakespeare's primary source for Henry IV, Part 1, as for most of his chronicle histories, was the second edition (1587) of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles, which in turn drew on Edward Hall's The Union of the Two Illustrious Families of Lancaster and York. Scholars have also assumed that Shakespeare was familiar with Samuel Daniel's poem on the civil wars. Another source for this (and the following Henry plays) is the anonymous The Famous Victories of Henry V.
Excerpted from Henry IV, Part 1 on Wikipedia.
Henry IV Part 1
| Author | William Shakespeare |
| Country | England |
| Genre | Drama, History Play |
| Copyright | Public domain worldwide. |
| Book cover | Falstaff and the Dead Body of Hotspur Robert Smirke Image: wikimedia |
| Ebooks | Project Gutenberg |
| Scans | Google-digitized |
| Audio | Librivox | Internet Archive Reader: Group, Dramatic Readings 01 02 03 04 05 |
| Read online | Henry IV Part 1 |
_Royal_Shakespeare_Theatre.jpg){kind=link}