Category: 1 Henry IV

“I know you all” (I.i.188), Hal tells us, all of us, in Act One, Scene One of The First Part of Henry the Fourth. And he has the facility of becoming us, of “imitat(ing)” (I.i.190) and “falsify(ing)” (I.i.204).
Continue reading “Prince Hal: Everyman, or Just an Actor”

Prince Hal has a target on his back in The First Part of Henry the Fourth, a target placed there by himself, and one that everyone can see.
Continue reading “Wondered At”

Yesterday , we talked a little about Hotspur’s marriage. Today, let’s expand the conversation to one and a half other relationships in The First Part of Henry the Fourth.

We get to compare two marriages side-by-side in Act Three, Scene One: Hotspur and Kate, and Mortimer and the otherwise nameless Lady Mortimer, the daughter of Owen Glendower.
Continue reading “Love and Marriage, Part Two”

Just to review: Henry “Hotspur” Percy was NOT Prince Hal’s contemporary. He was, in fact, three years OLDER THAN HENRY IV.

But history never stood in the way of Shakespeare. When he saw a opportunity to tweak history for dramatic purposes, he did not hesitate. And having a gallant knight to compare with a dissolute prince is dramatic. And thus we have one of the major oppositional pairs in The First Part of Henry the Fourth.
Continue reading “Hotspur, the Incomplete Man”

The First Part of Henry the Fourth is ripe with such great characters…

A few days back , we talked a little about Falstaff and his earlier naming (and subsequent renaming). So why did the Cobhams take offense?

After all, Falstaff is the wittiest (and at times the most profound) man in The First Part of Henry the Fourth.
Continue reading “Falstaff”

Despite what Henry might think in The First Part of Henry the Fourth, he and Hal are more alike than different.

Where Henry usurped Richard in the previous play, Hal “depose(s)” (II.iv.420) Falstaff in their play-within-a-play.

While Richard had dismissed the then Bolingbroke for “wooing poor craftsmen with the craft of smiles” (Richard the Second, I.iv.28) and doffing his cap to “oyster wench(es)” (Richard the Second, I.iv.31), Hal is able to “drink wth any tinker in his own language” (II.iv.18).

If speaking like their subjects isn’t enough, the two mirror each other in the diction as well.
Continue reading “Father Issues”