William Shakespeare’s Henry IV - Part 1

Henry IV, Part 1, chronicle play in five acts by William Shakespeare, written about
1596–97 and published from a reliable authorial 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 major events
of English history in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. The historical facts in
the play were taken primarily from Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles, but Sir John Falstaff and
his Eastcheap cronies are original creations (with some indebtedness to popular traditions
about Prince Hal’s prodigal youth that had been incorporated into a play of the 1580s
called The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth) who add an element of robust comedy
to Henry IV that is missing in Shakespeare’s earlier chronicles.
Henry IV has two main plots that intersect in a dramatic battle at the end of the play.
The first plot concerns King Henry IV, his son, Prince Harry, and their strained relationship.
The second concerns a rebellion that is being plotted against King Henry by a discontented
family of noblemen in the North, the Percys, who are angry because of King Henry’s refusal
to acknowledge his debt to them. The play’s scenes alternate between these two plot strands
until they come together at the play’s end.
When the play opens, military news interrupts the aging King Henry’s plans to lead a
crusade. The Welsh rebel Glyndwr has defeated King Henry’s army in the South, and the
young Harry Percy (nicknamed Hotspur), who is supposedly loyal to King Henry, is refusing
to send to the king the soldiers whom he has captured in the North. King Henry summons
Hotspur back to the royal court so that he can explain his actions.
Meanwhile, King Henry’s son, Prince Harry, sits drinking in a bar with criminals and
highwaymen. King Henry is very disappointed in his son; it is common knowledge that
Harry, the heir to the throne, conducts himself in a manner unbefitting royalty. He spends
most of his time in taverns on the seedy side of London, hanging around with vagrants and
other shady characters. Harry’s closest friend among the crew of rascals is Falstaff, a sort of
substitute father figure. Falstaff is a worldly and fat old man who steals and lies for a living.
Falstaff is also an extraordinarily witty person who lives with great gusto. Harry claims that
his spending time with these men is actually part of a scheme on his part to impress the public
when he eventually changes his ways and adopts a more noble personality.
Falstaff’s friend Poins arrives at the inn and announces that he has plotted the robbery
of a group of wealthy travelers. Although Harry initially refuses to participate, Poins explains
to him in private that he is actually playing a practical joke on Falstaff. Poins’s plan is to hide
before the robbery occurs, pretending to ditch Falstaff. After the robbery, Poins and Harry
will rob Falstaff and then make fun of him when he tells the story of being robbed, which he
will almost certainly fabricate.
Hotspur arrives at King Henry’s court and details the reasons that his family is
frustrated with the king: the Percys were instrumental in helping Henry overthrow his
predecessor, but Henry has failed to repay the favor. After King Henry leaves, Hotspur’s
family members explain to Hotspur their plan to build an alliance to overthrow the king.
Harry and Poins, meanwhile, successfully carry out their plan to dupe Falstaff and
have a great deal of fun at his expense. As they are all drinking back at the tavern, however, a
messenger arrives for Harry. Harry’s father has received news of the civil war that is brewing
and has sent for his son; Harry is to return to the royal court the next day.
Although the Percys have gathered a formidable group of allies around them—leaders
of large rebel armies from Scotland and Wales as well as powerful English nobles and
clergymen who have grievances against King Henry—the alliance has begun to falter.
Several key figures announce that they will not join in the effort to overthrow the king, and
the danger that these defectors might alert King Henry of the rebellion necessitates going to
war at once.
Heeding his father’s request, Harry returns to the palace. King Henry expresses his
deep sorrow and anger at his son’s behavior and implies that Hotspur’s valor might actually
give him more right to the throne than Prince Harry’s royal birth. Harry decides that it is time
to reform, and he vows that he will abandon his wild ways and vanquish Hotspur in battle in
order to reclaim his good name. Drafting his tavern friends to fight in King Henry’s army,
Harry accompanies his father to the battlefront.
The civil war is decided in a great battle at Shrewsbury. Harry boldly saves his
father’s life in battle and finally wins back his father’s approval and affection. Harry also
challenges and defeats Hotspur in single combat. King Henry’s forces win, and most of the
leaders of the Percy family are put to death. Falstaff manages to survive the battle by
avoiding any actual fighting.
Powerful rebel forces remain in Britain, however, so King Henry must send his sons
and his forces to the far reaches of his kingdom to deal with them. When the play ends, the
ultimate outcome of the war has not yet been determined; one battle has been won, but
another remains to be fought.

William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale

 The Winter’s Tale, play in five acts by William Shakespeare, written about 1609–11
and produced at the Globe Theatre in London. It was published in the First Folio of 1623
from a transcript, by Ralph Crane (scrivener of the King’s Men), of an authorial manuscript
or possibly the playbook. One of Shakespeare’s final plays, The Winter’s Tale is
a romantic comedy with elements of tragedy.
King Leontes of Sicilia begs his childhood friend, King Polixenes of Bohemia, to
extend his visit to Sicilia. Polixenes protests that he has been away from his kingdom for nine
months, but after Leontes's pregnant wife, Hermione, pleads with him he relents and agrees to
stay a little longer. Leontes, meanwhile, has become possessed with jealousy—convinced that
Polixenes and Hermione are lovers, he orders his loyal retainer, Camillo, to poison the
Bohemian king. Instead, Camillo warns Polixenes of what is afoot, and the two men flee
Sicilia immediately.
Furious at their escape, Leontes now publicly accuses his wife of infidelity, and
declares that the child she is bearing must be illegitimate. He throws her in prison, over the
protests of his nobles, and sends to the Oracle of Delphi for what he is sure will be
confirmation of his suspicions. Meanwhile, the queen gives birth to a girl, and her loyal
friend Paulina brings the baby to the king, in the hopes that the sight of the child will soften
his heart. He only grows angrier, however, and orders Paulina's husband, Lord Antigonus, to
take the child and abandon it in some desolate place. While Antigonus is gone, the answer
comes from Delphi—Hermione and Polixenes are innocent, and Leontes will have no heir
until his lost daughter is found. As this news is revealed, word comes that Leontes's son,
Mamillius, has died of a wasting sickness brought on by the accusations against his mother.
Hermione, meanwhile, falls in a swoon, and is carried away by Paulina, who subsequently
reports the queen's death to her heartbroken and repentant husband.
Antigonus, meanwhile abandons the baby on the Bohemian coast, reporting that
Hermione appeared to him in a dream and bade him name the girl Perdita and leave gold and
other tokens on her person. Shortly thereafter, Antigonus is killed by a bear, and Perdita is
raised by a kindly Shepherd. Sixteen years pass, and the son of Polixenes, Prince Florizel,
falls in love with Perdita. His father and Camillo attend a sheepshearing in disguise and
watch as Florizel and Perdita are betrothed—then, tearing off the disguise, Polixenes
intervenes and orders his son never to see the Shepherd's daughter again. With the aid of
Camillo, however, who longs to see his native land again, Florizel and Perdita take ship for
Sicilia, after using the clothes of a local rogue, Autolycus, as a disguise. They are joined in
their voyage by the Shepherd and his son, a Clown, who are directed there by Autolycus.
In Sicilia, Leontes—still in mourning after all this time—greets the son of his old
friend effusively. Florizel pretends to be on a diplomatic mission from his father, but his
cover is blown when Polixenes and Camillo, too, arrive in Sicilia. What happens next is told
to us by gentlemen of the Sicilian court: the Shepherd tells everyone his story of how Perdita
was found, and Leontes realizes that she is his daughter, leading to general rejoicing. The
entire company then goes to Paulina's house in the country, where a statue of Hermione has
been recently finished. The sight of his wife's form makes Leontes distraught, but then, to
everyone's amazement, the statue comes to life—it is Hermione, restored to life. As the play
ends, Paulina and Camillo are engaged, and the whole company celebrates the miracle.

Shakespeare's Theater
In Shakespeare's time, a stage wasn't just one type of space; plays had to be versatile.
The same play might be produced in an outdoor playhouse, an indoor theater, a royal palace
—or, for a company on tour, the courtyard of an inn.
In any of these settings, men and boys played all the characters, male and female;
acting in Renaissance England was an exclusively male profession. Audiences had their
favorite performers, looked forward to hearing music with the productions, and relished the
luxurious costumes of the leading characters. The stage itself was relatively bare. For the
most part, playwrights used vivid words instead of scenery to picture the scene onstage.
During his lifetime, Shakespeare's plays were performed on stages in private theatres,
provincial theatres, and playhouses. They were acted out in the yards of bawdy inns and in
the great halls of the London Inns of Court. Although the Globe is certainly the most well
known of all the Renaissance stages associated with Shakespeare and is rightfully the primary
focus of discussion, a brief introduction to some of the other Elizabethan theatres of the time
provides a more complete picture of the world in which Shakespeare lived and worked.
We can classify Elizabethan theatres into two main groups -- those within the London
district and those located throughout the English countryside. The theatres within the London
district can be further classified as playhouses, inn yards, and private theatres.
The Globe Theatre was constructed in 1599, out of timber taken from the Theatre. It
stood next to the Rose, on the south side of the Thames, and was the most elaborate and
attractive theatre yet built. The Globe was designed and constructed for the Chamberlain's
Men by Cuthbert Burbage, son of the Theatre's creator, James Burbage. The lease for the land
on which the Globe stood was co-owned by Burbage and his brother Robert, and by a group
of five actors -- Will Kempe, Augustine Phillips, John Heminge, Thomas Pope, and William
Shakespeare. Much of Shakespeare's wealth came from his holdings in the Globe.
Shakespeare's Clowns and Fools
Appearing in most of Shakespeare's dramas, the clown or fool figure remains one of
the most intriguing stage characters in the Shakespearean oeuvre and has frequently captured
the interest of contemporary critics and modern audiences. Taking many forms,
Shakespearean fools may be generally divided into two categories: the clown, a general term
that was originally intended to designate a rustic or otherwise uneducated individual whose
dramatic purpose was to evoke laughter with his ignorance; and the courtly fool or jester, in
whom wit and pointed satire accompany low comedy.
The dramatic sources of Shakespeare's simple-minded clowns are at least as old as
classical antiquity. In the plays themselves, such figures as Bottom of A Midsummer Night's
Dream and Dogberry of Much Ado About Nothing are typically classified as clowns, their
principal function being to arouse the mirth of audiences. The history of the courtly fool or
jester in England is somewhat briefer, with these fools making early appearances in the courts
of medieval aristocracy during the twelfth century. By the time of Queen Elizabeth's reign,
courtly fools were a common feature of English society, and were seen as one of two types:
natural or artificial. The former could include misshapen or mentally-deficient individuals, or
those afflicted with dwarfism. Such fools were often considered pets—though generally
dearly loved by their masters—and appear infrequently in Shakespeare's writing. The
artificial fool, in contrast, was possessed of a verbal wit and talent for intellectual repartee.
Into this category critics place Shakespeare's intellectual or "wise-fools," notably Touchstone
of As You Like It, Feste of Twelfth Night, and King Lear's unnamed Fool.
Critical analysis of Shakespearean clowns and fools has largely explored the thematic
function of these peculiar individuals. Many commentators have observed the satirical
potential of the fool. Considered an outcast to a degree, the fool was frequently given reign to
comment on society and the actions of his social betters; thus, some Shakespearean fools
demonstrate a subversive potential. They may present a radically different worldview than
those held by the majority of a play's characters, as critic Roger Ellis (1968) has observed.
Likewise, such figures can be construed as disrupting the traditional order of society and the
meaning of conventional language, as Roberta Mullini (1985) has argued. As for so-called
clowns—including the simple "mechanicals" of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Trinculo
of The Tempest, and Launcelot Gobbo of The Merchant of Venice—most are thought
to parody the actions of other characters in the main plots of their respective plays and to
provide low humor for the entertainment of groundlings. Several critics, however, have
acknowledged the deeper, thematic functions of Shakespeare's clowns, some of whom are
said to possess a degree of wisdom within their apparent ignorance.
Other topics of critical inquiry concerning fools are varied. Several scholars have
studied the significance of certain Elizabethan actors who were thought to have initially
enacted the roles Shakespeare wrote. Preeminent among these is the comedic actor Robert
Armin, for whom several critics have suggested Shakespeare created the witty, even
philosophical, fool roles of Feste, Touchstone, and Lear's Fool. Still other critics have
focused on Shakespeare's less easily categorized clowns. Walter Kaiser (1963) has examined
Falstaff's multifaceted function in the Henriad, which he has argued bears similarities to
those of Shakespeare's other "wise fools." William Willeford (1969) has focused on the
darker side of folly by exploring the title character of Hamlet as a unique form of the
Shakespearean fool. Additionally, Catherine I. Cox (1992) has investigated Shakespeare's
characteristic blending of comedy and tragedy through the use of clowns and other purveyors
of laughter in his tragic plays.

Women in Shakespeare’s Writing

The majority of Shakespeare’s major female characters are young and involved in
romantic plots that revolve around choosing a husband. The conflict between a father and
daughter regarding who represents an ideal suitor had the potential to create serious quarrels
in families, and Shakespeare repeatedly stages such quarrels in his writing. Two of
Shakespeare’s tragedies begin with the struggle of a young female character to free herself
from male control. In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet sneaks out of her home to marry Romeo, and
then fakes her own death to escape the husband her father has chosen for her.
In Othello, Desdemona also sneaks out at night to marry the man she has chosen
against her father’s wishes. Although these heroines free themselves from their fathers, they
do not free themselves from male control altogether. Juliet loses her chosen husband when he
is drawn into the ongoing feud between the men of the Capulet and Montague families.
Desdemona remains faithful to Othello, but her history of defying male authority makes him
anxious. He comes to suspect her of adultery and ultimately murders her.
Whereas Shakespeare’s tragedies usually feature women in secondary roles, or roles
that share top billing with a man (like Juliet or Cleopatra), Shakespeare’s comedies often
feature women as main characters. As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado
About Nothing, and Twelfth Night all center on young women determined to choose their own
husbands or, like Olivia in Twelfth Night and Beatrice in Much Ado About
Nothing, determined not to marry at all. Like the tragedies, these plays show that the apparent
ability to choose a husband or to avoid marriage does not amount to much freedom after all.
In the end, both Olivia and Beatrice are persuaded to marry. Likewise, both Rosalind in As
You Like It and Viola in Twelfth Night don disguises and enjoy comic adventures that come to
an end once they take off their costumes, get married, and begin new lives in their roles as
wives. The Merchant of Venice offers a slightly more empowering ending. In that play Portia
and Nerissa disguise themselves as men and test their new husbands by tricking them into
giving up their wedding rings, a symbolic gesture which suggests both women intend to
exercise power within their marriages.
Women dress up as men in many of Shakespeare’s plays, often as a dramatic device
to further the plot. By making his female characters cross-dress, Shakespeare gave himself
the opportunity to put them in situations from which real-life women would have been
barred. In Twelfth Night, for instance, Viola disguises herself as the young man “Cesario” and
offers to help Duke Orsino woo Countess Olivia, something a noblewoman would never have
been allowed to do. Elizabethans largely believed that women lacked the intelligence,
rationality, courage, and other qualities necessary to perform roles reserved for men.
However, whenever Shakespeare’s cross-dressing women take on traditionally male roles,
they usually do a better job than their male counterparts. In The Merchant of Venice, none of
the male characters can think of a way to rescue Antonio from a contract that allows the
moneylender Shylock to take “a pound of flesh” from his body. But when Portia arrives in
court disguised as a lawyer, she demonstrates a legal savvy that no other male character
possesses. Portia brilliantly points out that Shylock may be legally entitled to a pound of
Antonio’s flesh, but that “no jot of blood” can be spilled in the process.
Although shrewd young women appear frequently in Shakespeare’s plays, mature
women are conspicuously absent. Mothers in particular are missing. In The
Tempest, Prospero lives alone with his daughter Miranda as castaways on a remote island.
When Prospero gives an account of their escape from Milan, he only references her mother
once, and only in order to confirm that Miranda is indeed his daughter: “Thy mother was a
piece of virtue / And she said thou wast my daughter” (I.ii.). Mothers are missing in plays
from across Shakespeare’s career, from Titus Andronicus to King Lear, and like The
Tempest, many of these plays focus intensely on the relationships between fathers and
daughters. Two notable exceptions to the rule of missing mothers include Gertrude
in Hamlet and Volumnia in Coriolanus, both of whom have difficult relationships with their
adult sons. The example of Gertrude also points to Shakespeare’s tendency to present mature
women as being devious, even dangerous. Hamlet believes his mother to be complicit with
the king’s assassination. Lady Macbeth provides another example of a devious older woman.
Cleopatra may offer the only example of a powerful, mature woman whom Shakespeare
portrays as being noble and dignified.