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by William Shakespearedirected by Bill AlexanderJanuary 20 — March 13, 2004

Henry IV, Part 1

Table of Contents Page NumberA Brief History of the Audience..………….….1About the PlaywrightOn William Shakespeare..………………...….3Elizabethan England..……………………..….4Shakespeare’s Works..………………….…....5Shakespeare’s Verse and Prose..………..….7Coined by Shakespeare………....………..….9A Timeline of World Events…………...…....10

About the PlaySynopsis of Henry IV, Part 1….……...……..11Who’s Who in Henry IV, Part 1.…...………..12The Wars of the Roses……………………...14The World of Henry IV...……...…….……….17Tavern Life and the Drunken Knight.……....20Sources and Plagiarism...…...……..……….23Classroom ConnectionsBefore the Performance ..…………….…....25

Temper, TemperWrite Like ShakespeareWhy Art?Imitating the SunStructuring Henry IV, Part 1

After the Performance ……………….….....26Cruel IntentionsTemper TantrumHistorical CharactersCrossing WorldsInterpreting History

Suggested ReadingHenry IV, Part 1 Resource List…….………..27

Welcome to The Shakespeare Theatre’sproduction of Henry IV, Part 1 by WilliamShakespeare!Each season, The Shakespeare Theatre presentsfive plays by William Shakespeare and otherclassic playwrights. The Education Departmentcontinues to work to deepen understanding,appreciation and connection to these plays andclassic theatre in learners of all ages. Oneapproach is the publication of First Folio:Teacher Curriculum Guides.In the 2003-04 season, the Education Departmentwill publish First Folio: Teacher CurriculumGuides for our productions of The Rivals, AMidsummer Night’s Dream and Henry IV, Part 1.The guides provide information and activities tohelp students form a personal connection to theplay before attending the production at TheShakespeare Theatre. First Folio is full of materialabout the playwrights, their world and the playsthey penned. Also included are differentapproaches to explore the plays and productions inthe classroom before and after the performance.First Folio is intended to serve as a resource bothfor teachers and students.The Shakespeare Theatre’s Education Departmentprovides an array of School, Community, Trainingand Audience Enrichment programs. A full listingof our programs is available on our website (www.shakespearetheatre.org/edu.html) or in ourEducation Programs Brochure. If you would likemore information on how you can participate inother Shakespeare Theatre programs, please callthe Education Hotline at 202.547.5688.Enjoy the show!Note: Throughout the articles in the Folio key words or phrases willbe underlined to highlight important ideas or concepts. Pleasereview definitions with your students.

First Folio: Teacher Curriculum Guide

A Brief History of the AudienceI can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across thisempty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that isneeded for an act of theatre to be engaged.—Peter Brook, The Empty Space

Christians called “morally inappropriate” dancing, mimes,violent spectator sports such as gladiator fights, and thepublic executions for which the Romans were famous.Romans loved violence and the audience was a livelycrowd. Because theatre was free, it was enjoyed by peopleof every social class. They were vocal, enjoyed hissing badactors off the stage and loved to watch criminals meet largeferocious animals. Soon after, audiences enjoyed watchingthose same criminals meet their deaths.The Far EastIn Asia, theatre developed in much the same way it haselsewhere, through agricultural festivals and religiousworship. Chinese and Japanese audiences have alwaysbeen tireless, mainly because their theatre forms, such asthe Japanese “Kabuki” and “Noh” plays and Chineseoperas, could last anywhere between a full day, if not threedays, beginning between six to nine in the morning! InChina, the audience was separated; the higher classes satcloser to the action of the play and the lower classes,generally a louder, more talkative bunch, would be placed installs at the back. The audience expected a superiorperformance and if it lacked in any way, the audience couldstop the production and insist on a different presentation. InJapan, theatre began with all-day rice festivals and templeplays sponsored by priests. These evolved into “streetperformances” where the performers led the audience on atrip through the village. In theatre houses, the upper classessat in constructed boxes and women in disguise (it was notconsidered proper for a respectable woman to be seen atthe theatre) and lower classes would stand below, with the“inspector” standing on a high platform in the middle,keeping a strict eye on everyone.A Couple Hundred Years Without ArtTolerance takes a holiday during the period of Europeanhistory known as the Dark Ages. During this time culture of

The nature of the audience has changed throughout history, evolving from a participatory crowd to a group of peoplesitting behind an imaginary line, silently observing the performers. The role of the audience is continually evolving. There hasalways been a need for human beings to communicate their wants, needs, perceptions and disagreements to others. Thisneed to communicate is the foundation of art and the foundation of theatre’s relationship to its audience.

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In the BeginningTheatre began as ritual, with tribal dances and festivalscelebrating the harvest, marriages, gods, war and basicallyany other event that warranted a party. People all over theworld congregated in villages. The dancers would be joinedby the villagers, because they believed that their livesdepended on a successful celebration—ensuring a bountifulharvest, victorious battle or simply to be in good graces withtheir god or gods. Sometimes these festivals would last fordays and the village proved tireless in its ability to celebrate.Many of these types of festivals survive today in the folkhistory of areas such as Scandinavia, Asia, Greece andother countries throughout Europe.It’s Greek to MeThe first recorded plays come from the Greeks (4th and 5thCenturies BCE). Their form of theatre began in much thesame way as previous forms did. It stemmed from thecelebration of the wine harvest and the gods who broughtcitizens a fruitful harvest—specifically Dionysus, the god ofwine. Spectators had a great deal of respect for their gods,and thousands would flock to the theatre to experience a fullday of celebration. The day of drama and song made for alively crowd. Staff-bearers patrolled the aisles to keep therowdies under control. While theatre was free, your seat wasdetermined by your station in life. The rich had cushionedseats at the front, while the peasants, artisans and womenwere forced to take seats at the back. After a full day ofdrink, Greek audiences were not above showing disapprovalat a less-than-spectacular performance. Stones werethrown, hissing was popular and loud groanings ofdiscontent could usher any actor into early retirement.The Romans, or the inspiration for GladiatorThe Romans took the idea of “spectator” an inch or sofurther. Their theatre (1st—3rd Centuries BCE) developed inmuch the same way as the Greeks; with comedy, tragedyand festivals, but unfortunately ended with what the

all kind goes on hiatus—most especially that frivolous,godless display of lewd and licentious behavior known astheatre. Fortunately, it reemerges with severe restrictionsduring the Middle Ages.Pageant WagonsWestern theatre further develops from the Greek andRoman traditions through the Middle Ages with “MysteryPlays” sponsored by the church. Organized theatre wasfrowned upon, as it was a place for congregation of thelower classes, encouraging disease and immoral behavior.Church leaders would allow performances of bible scenes,however, for the people who could not read. Theseproductions moved to different locations much like travelingthe “stations of the cross.” To spread the good word to thebroadest section of the population these plays left theconfines of the church building and began to travel on whatwere known as “pageant wagons.” These wagons held oneentire location and a series of wagons hooked togetherpermitted a company to tell an entire story just aboutanywhere. Troupes of actors would roam the countrysidesetting up make-shift theatres in inns, pubs, publicsquares—pretty much anywhere they could park.Within This Wooden ODuring Shakespeare’s era—the Elizabethan period—theatre companies were awarded status and privilege basedon patronage from wealthy landholders or the royal family.With patronage came money so the companies beganbuilding theatres. The theatre of Shakespeare’s day wasattended by all, was inexpensive and known to be anincredibly good time. Surrounding the stage was the “pit”where the lower classes congregated—called the“groundlings”—and above, octagonally surrounding the pit,were the stalls reserved for the upper classes. If you werestationed in the pit, it was not uncommon to have a goblet ofwine dumped on your head, to be drooled upon or spat uponby the “more civilized” people above you. Elizabethanaudiences did not know what it meant to be quiet for aperformance and would talk back to the actors. Thought tobe involved in spreading the “Black Plague,” the good timeabruptly ended with the closing of the theatres in 1592.Look at Me, Look at Me...During the Restoration, theatre became a luxury. For thealmost entirely upper class audience, the purpose of goingto the theatre was “to see and to be seen.” The stage was arectangular area between a long hallway of boxes. The bestseats in the house were often right on stage! The houselights were up full so the audience could see each otherbetter, not the action on stage. The theatre of theRestoration consisted mainly of light, fluffy comediesperformed in an oratory style—actors posing, wearing big

costumes and practically screaming over the din of theaudience. Theatre companies still existed on the patronageof the very wealthy, and often performed plays exclusively inthe salons of the rich, famous and powerful. A few hundredyears later, opera composer Richard Wagner figured outthat to focus the audience’s attention away from themselvesand onto the stage, the lights needed to be off— forcing theaudience to watch the performance. Since that time theaudience takes its cue that the performance is about tobegin when the lights overhead begin to dim. This smalladjustment in lighting effectively erected a permanent barrierbetween the action onstage and the audience.Freud...Tell me About Your MotherWhile dimming the house lights has drastically changed theoverall aesthetic of theatre, another modern movement hashad even greater impact on theatre in the 20th century.Psychoanalysis—id, ego, super-ego and subconsciousdesires—made theatre more introspective in its search fortruth. As theatre became more psychological, more arepresentation of real life, the audience felt they wereeavesdropping. 20th century theatre-goers spent a greatdeal of time and thought pondering the psychologicalmotivations of characters. There is now an imaginary wall,called the “fourth wall,” separating the performers and theaudience. It affects how we view the performance and howactors portray characters—we can observe the peopleonstage as they relate their problems, fears and desireswithout them noticing us at all.Now the Options are EndlessToday, for the audience, just about anything goes. Historyhas shared with us many types of theatre and we, thespectators, bring our own experiences and histories to theevent causing us to react differently to different productions.Unlike movies or television, the actor-audience relationshipis a “live” relationship: each is in the other’s presence, in thesame place at the same time. It is the exchange betweenthe two that gives theatre its unique quality. As audiencemembers we have an obligation to be attentive, allowing theperformers to fulfill their obligation—to entertain andenlighten us. There is always a dialogue between audienceand performer, whether visual or vocal. All individualsparticipating in the theatrical event, whether as audience orperformer, bring to it a personal background and experiencewhich becomes vital to their response to the interaction. Inthe same way, every participant leaves the performanceenriched both by their own individual experience and that ofthe larger community to which they belong for a briefmoment within the confines of the theatre walls. We mustlisten to capture and understand what the performers aretrying to communicate and, at the same time, they mustlisten to us.

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N o man’s life has been the subject of more speculationthan William Shakespeare’s. For all his fame andcelebration, Shakespeare’s personal history remains amystery. There are two primary sources for information onthe Bard—his works, and various legal and churchdocuments that have survived from Elizabethan times.Unfortunately, there are many gaps in this information andmuch room for conjecture.We know a man named William Shakespeare was baptizedat Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564 and was buried atHoly Trinity Church in Stratford on April 25, 1616. Traditionholds that he was born three days earlier, and that he diedon his birthday—April 23—but this is perhaps more romanticmyth than fact. Young William was born of JohnShakespeare, a glover and leather merchant, and MaryArden, a landed heiress. William, according to the churchregister, was the third of eight children in the Shakespearehousehold, three of whom died in childhood. We assumethat Shakespeare went to grammar school, since his fatherwas first a member of the Stratford Council and later highbailiff (the equivalent of town mayor). A grammar schooleducation would have meant that Shakespeare wasexposed to the rudiments of Latin rhetoric, logic andliterature.In 1575, John Shakespeare suddenly disappears fromStratford’s political records. Some believe that his removalfrom office necessitated his son’s quitting school and takinga position as a butcher’s apprentice. Church records tell usthat banns (announcements) were published for themarriage of a William Shakespeare to an Ann Whatley in1582 (there are no records indicating that this arrangementwas solemnized, however). On November 27 of the sameyear a marriage license was granted to eighteen-year-oldWilliam and twenty-six-year-old Anne Hathaway. Adaughter, Susanna, was born to the couple six months later.

We know that twins, Hamnetand Judith, were born soonafter, and that the twins werebaptized. We also know thatHamnet died in childhood atthe age of 11, on August 11,1596. We don’t know howthe young Shakespearecame to travel to London andhow he first came to thestage. One theory holds thatyoung Will was arrested as apoacher (one who huntsillegally on someone else’sproperty) and escaped to

On William ShakespeareL o n d o n t o a v o i dprosecution in Stratford.Another holds that he lefthome to work in the city asa school teacher. Neither isc o r r o b o r a t e d b ycontemporary testimony orpublic record. Whatever thetruth may be, it is clear thatin the years between 1582a n d 1 5 9 2 W i l l i a mShakespeare did becomeinvolved in the Londontheatre scene as a principalactor and playwright withone of several repertorycompanies.By 1594, Shakespeare was listed as a shareholder in theLord Chamberlain’s Men, one of the most popular actingcompanies in London. He was a member of this companyfor the rest of his career, which lasted until approximately1611. When James I came to the throne in 1603, he issueda royal license to Shakespeare and his fellow players,inviting them to call themselves the King’s Men. In 1608, theKing’s Men leased the Blackfriar’s Theatre in London. Thistheatre, which had artificial lighting and was probablyheated, served as their winter playhouse. The famous GlobeTheatre was their summer performance space.In 1616 Shakespeare’s daughter Judith married ThomasQuiney, the son of a neighbor in Stratford. Her father revisedhis will six weeks later; within a month he had died. Therevised version of William Shakespeare’s will bequeathedhis house and all the goods therein to his daughter and hernew husband; his wife, who survived him, received thecouple’s second best bed.In the years since Shakespeare’s death, he has risen to theposition of patron saint of English literature and drama. Inthe 1800s especially, his plays were so popular that manyrefused to believe that an actor from Stratford had writtenthem. To this day some believe that Sir Francis Bacon wasthe real author of the plays; others choose to believeEdward DeVere, the Earl of Oxford, was the author. Stillothers would prefer to believe Walter Raleigh or ChristopherMarlowe penned the lines attributed to Shakespeare. Whilemost people are content to believe that genius can spring upin any social class or rural setting, the gap between theknown facts and the myths that surround Shakespeare’s lifeleaves ample room for speculation.

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Portrait of Shakespeare engravedby Martin Droeshout, found on thetitle page of the First Folio edition of

T h e C h a n d o s p o r t r a i t o fShakespeare, which is the only oneknown to be produced during hislifetime.

Elizabethan England

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T he age of Shakespeare was a great time in Englishhistory. During the reign of Elizabeth I (1558—1603)England emerged as the leading naval and commercialpower of the Western world; consolidating this position withthe defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. Elizabeth I firmlyestablished the Church of England (begun by her fatherHenry VIII after a dispute with the Pope) during this time.London in the 16th century underwent a dramatictransformation; the population grew 400% between 1500and 1600, swelling to nearly 200,000 people in the cityproper and outlying region by the time an emerging artistfrom Stratford came to town. A rising merchant middle classwas carving out a productive livelihood, and the economywas booming.During Shakespeare's lifetime, England also experienced atremendous cultural revival. This so-called EnglishRenaissance found expression in architecture, music,literature and drama. Shakespeare both drew inspirationfrom and enhanced high and popular culture of the EnglishRenaissance. Popular entertainment during the 16th centurytended to be boisterous and often violent. Many men,women and children attended public executions of criminalsthat took place on a regular basis, and persons of all socialclasses and genders attended theatre performances. Thetrade of book-making flourished during the period as publiceducation fueled the appetite for great works in print.

The public theatres were located across the Thames from London proper.

During the years 1590-1593, England suffered from anoutbreak of terrible proportions; the bubonic plague or“Black Death” claimed so many lives that English societystood on the verge of collapse. Many businesses, includingtheatres, closed, in part to keep people from spreading thedisease and in part because of the labor shortage thatresulted from such widespread illness and death. Once theepidemic subsided, the theatres re-opened and quicklyregained their former popularity.This explosion of commerce and culture lasted throughoutElizabeth’s reign and into that of her successor, James I.James’ rule brought many changes to English life; the twomost pivotal were a bankrupt economy and an intensedissatisfaction from a minority religious group—the Puritans.In September 1642, the Puritan Parliament issued an edictthat forbade all stage plays and closed the theatres; an actwhich effectively brought to a close the ElizabethanRenaissance. Theatres rapidly fell into disrepair and neglectuntil the Restoration in 1660.In writing his plays and sonnets, William Shakespeare drewideas from many different sources. His keen eye for detailand his sharp understanding of human nature enabled himto create some of the most enduring works of drama andpoetry ever produced. But his work also provides aninsightful commentary on 16th-century English values, life,history and thought.

The “Dewitt” sketch of the Swan Theatre is thought to be the onlycontemporary visual account of an Elizabethan playhouse.Romeo, Timon or Macbeth, do not easily accommodateAristotle's definition. Plays are also categorized in the FirstFolio as Histories, done so because these works chronicledthe lives of English Kings. These plays tended towardtragedy (Richard II or Richard III, for instance) or comedy(the Falstaff subplots of both parts of Henry IV and thePistol-Fluellen encounters of Henry V). Through the effort tocategorize Shakespeare’s plays in publication, we can seethat his writing style mingled the antagonistic visions ofcomedy and tragedy in ways that still seem novel andstartling. The recognition of this has led scholars since thepublication of the First Folio to add additional genres—problem plays, romances, tragicomedies—to help classifythe works of Shakespeare. Still other scholars haveaugmented these genres by grouping the playschronologically, separating by time periods.The first period, pre-1594 including Richard III and TheComedy of Errors, has its roots in Roman and medievaldrama—the construction of the plays, while good, is obviousand shows the author's hand more so than his later works.The second period, 1594-1600 including Henry V and AMidsummer Night’s Dream, shows more growth in style anda less labored construction. The histories of this period areconsidered Shakespeare's best, portraying the lives ofroyalty in human terms. He also begins the interweaving of

Shakespeare’s WorksWilliam Shakespeare, in terms of both his life and bodyof work, is the most written-about author in the history ofWestern civilization. His canon includes 38 plays, 154sonnets and 2 epic narrative poems. During his lifetime,many of his plays were published in what are known asQuarto editions, frequently without receiving the playwright’spermission. The Quartos are mostly flawed versionscontaining added material or missing entire passages fromthe original works. The first collected edition ofShakespeare’s works is called the First Folio and waspublished after the playwright’s death in 1623 by twomembers of his acting company, John Heminges and HenryCondell. Since then the works of Shakespeare have beenstudied, analyzed, translated and enjoyed the world over assome of the finest masterpieces of the English language.Establishing the chronology of Shakespeare's plays is afrustrating and difficult task. It is impossible to know in whatorder the plays were written because there is no record ofthe first production date of any of his works. However,scholars have decided upon a specific play chronologybased on the following sources of information: 1) severalhistorical events and allusions to those events in the plays;2) the records of performances of the plays, taken from suchplaces as the diaries of other Shakespeare contemporaries;3) the publication dates of sources; and 4) the dates that theplays appear in print (remembering that a play wasproduced immediately after it was written in the Elizabethanage, but may not have been published for years followingthe first production). Despite the fact that we have anaccepted play chronology, we must keep in mind that thedating is conjectural, and there are many who disagree withthe order of plays listed on the next page.Drawing distinctions between Shakespeare’s plays andcategorizing his works has been a focus of scholars forhundreds of years, and the criteria used to differentiate theplays into types or genres has changed over time.The distinction between tragedy and comedy becameparticularly important during Shakespeare's life. During thattime writers of tragedy conformed to Aristotle’s definition,relating the tale of a great man or woman brought downthrough hubris or fate. Comedy in this time, much like in ourown, descended from the Roman "New Comedy" of Plautusand Terence, which kept away from politics and focused onlove, domestic troubles and family affairs.In the First Folio, some of Shakespeare’s plays are dividedby their theatrical genre—either Tragedies or Comedies—however some of the tragedies’ protagonists or heroes, like

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genres that would become one of his stylistic signatures. Hiscomedies mature in this period, developing deepercharacterization and subjects than previously.The third period, 1600-1608 including Macbeth and KingLear, includes the great tragedies—the principal workswhich would earn Shakespeare his fame in later centuries.The comedies of this period show Shakespeare at a literarycrossroads—they are often darker and without the clearcomic resolution of previous comedies—hence, the term"problem plays" to describe them. The fourth period, post-1608 including The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest,encompasses what has been referred to as the romances ortragicomedies. Shakespeare at the end of his careerseemed preoccupied with themes of redemption. The writingis more serious yet more lyrical, and the plays showShakespeare at his most symbolic. Scholars argue whetherthis period owes more to Shakespeare's maturity as aplaywright or merely signifies a changing trend inElizabethan theatre.It is important for scholars, teachers and students to keep inmind that these “genre” classifications were not determinedby Shakespeare during the writing of each play but imposedafter his death to help readers better understand his work.

Shakespeare’s PlaysFirst Performed Title1590-91 Henry VI, Part II1590-91 Henry VI, Part III1591-92 Henry VI, Part I1592-93 Richard III1592-93 The Comedy of Errors1593-94 Titus Andronicus1593-94 Taming of the Shrew1594-95 The Two Gentlemen of Verona1594-95 Love's Labour's Lost1594-95 Romeo and Juliet1595-96 Richard II1595-96 A Midsummer Night's Dream1596-97 King John1596-97 The Merchant of Venice1597-98 Henry IV, Part I1597-98 Henry IV, Part II1598-99 Much Ado About Nothing1598-99 Henry V1599-1600 Julius Caesar1599-1600 As You Like It1599-1600 Twelfth Night1600-01 Hamlet1600-01 The Merry Wives of Windsor1601-02 Troilus and Cressida1602-03 All's Well That Ends Well1604-05 Measure for Measure1604-05 Othello1605-06 King Lear1605-06 Macbeth1606-07 Antony and Cleopatra1607-08 Coriolanus1607-08 Timon of Athens1608-09 Pericles1609-10 Cymbeline1610-11 The Winter's Tale1611-12 The Tempest1612-13 Henry VIII1612-13 The Two Noble Kinsmen**The Two Noble Kinsmen is listed although a few scholars do notbelieve it is an original Shakespeare work. The majority of the playwas probably written by John Fletcher, Shakespeare's close friendwho succeeded him as foremost dramatist for the King's Men.

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First Folio title page of Hamlet.

D uring the Elizabethan period, “English” was a relativelyyoung language (only about 160 years old) combining Latin,French and Anglo-Saxon. There was no dictionary orstandardized literacy education. People in Shakespeare’sLondon spoke much more than they read, causing the rulesof grammar and spelling to be quite fluid. Writers creatednew words daily and poets expressed themselves in a newform of writing known as blank verse, first appearing in 1557in Certain Bokes of Virgiles Aenis by the Earl of Surrey:

They whistled all, with fixed face attentWhen Prince Aeneas from the royal seatThus gan to speak, O Queene, it is thy will,I should renew a woe can not be told: Book II, 1-4

That the verse was “blank” simply meant that the poetry didnot rhyme, allowing rhyme-less poets such as Virgil andOvid to be translated and Elizabethan playwrights toemulate the natural rhythms of English speech within iambicpentameter.A typical line of verse from this time contains five units ofmeter or feet. Each foot contains two syllables. When thefirst syllable is unstressed and the second syllable isstressed (dee DUM), it is an iamb (iambic meaning push,persistency or determination). The prefix penta means five,as in the five-sided shape—a pentagon. Iambic pentameteris therefore one line of poetry consisting of five forward-moving feet.

Shakespeare’s Verse and Prose

It was this new tradition of blank verse in iambic pentameterthat Shakespeare inherited as he embarked on his career asplaywright and poet. Similar to the human heartbeat, a horsegallop or the beat of a piece of music, iambic pentameterdrives and supports Shakespeare’s verse, moving thelanguage along in a forward flow that emulates the naturalspeech and rhythms of life. Here is a standard line of versein iambic pentameter from Romeo and Juliet:

But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?(II.ii.2)

If we were to say the rhythm and not the words, it wouldsound like this:

dee DUM dee DUM dee DUM dee DUM dee DUMWhen we scan a piece of text (marking it with a “ ” for theunstressed and “/“ for stressed), we simply tap out therhythm of the line, based on dee DUM dee DUM dee DUMdee DUM dee DUM, to see if the line is structured in iambicpentameter:

/ / / / /But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?

Embracing the rules of this new verse, Shakespeare’s earlywriting operated almost entirely within strict iambicpentameter.

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or feminine ending. He also utilized more and moreenjambed or run-on lines, allowing thoughts to continue fromline to line, rather than finishing a thought per line. He grewto express the inner life of his characters and the size oftheir thoughts within the structure and the scansion of thetext. In this famous passage from Hamlet, notice theoverflow in the first line of Hamlet’s huge thought beyond theregular pentameter, forming a feminine ending:

/ / / / /To be, or not to be: that is the question: (III.1.55)

With this overflow, Shakespeare expresses the enormity ofHamlet’s thought, his situation and the uneasy exploration ofthis argument. (It is important to remember, however,scanning is subjective and must be decided by the individualactor or reader.) This line might also be scanned:

/ / / / /To be, or not to be: that is the question: (III.1.55)

This creates a trochee, or an iamb of reversed stress—DEEdum.Eventually, in Othello, King Lear and Macbeth, Shakespearebecame a master of building, breaking and reinventingrhythms and language to create an entire tone or world for aplay. Continuously experimenting and exploring thecombination of form, meaning and language, he used shortand shared lines between characters more and more, as inMacbeth, allowing the speed and rhythm of characters’thoughts to meet and collide.

Lady Macbeth I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.Did not you speak?Macbeth When?Lady Macbeth Now.Macbeth As I descended?

(II.ii.15-19)By the time Shakespeare gives his final farewell in TheTempest, believed by many to be his last play, his verse isso varied and specific to character and situation that it isextremely difficult to scan. Shakespeare broke, rebuilt andreinvented the verse form so many times that he plays theequivalent of jazz in the rhythms of Cymbeline, The Winter’sTale and The Tempest. At the end of The Tempest, inProspero’s powerfully simple epilogue, Shakespeare bringshis work full circle by returning to the simplicity of regularverse. Having created almost 1,700 words, timelesscharacters and the greatest poetry in the history of theEnglish language, Shakespeare “buries his art” and returnsto the form with which he began.

Prose in Shakespeare’s work is not in iambic pentameterand relies more heavily on other literary devices for itsspeed and rhythm. These devices include: antithesis (settingopposite words against each other), lists (series of actionsor descriptive words that build to a climax) and puns (theuse or misuse of a word to mean another word).Shakespeare used prose to express conversation betweenthe lower classes, like the Mechanicals in A MidsummerNight’s Dream, or familiar or intimate scenes, as with Henryand Katherine at the end of Henry V. He also utilized proseto express madness or vulgarity, as in the nunnery scene ofHamlet. The exact meaning of a shift from verse to prose isnot constant, but it always signals a change in the situation,characters or tone of a scene. Only Much Ado AboutNothing and The Merry Wives of Windsor rely almostentirely on prose.In the following passage from The Merry Wives of Windsor,note antithesis in Ford’s comparison of himself with Pageand of other men’s possessions with Mistress Ford, see thelist of things Ford would rather trust others with than his“wife with herself” and observe the pun on “effect”:

Ford Page is an ass, a secure ass; he will trust his wife, he willnot be jealous. I will rather trust a Fleming with my butter,Parson Hugh the Welshman with my cheese, an Irishmanwith my aqua-vitae bottle, or a thief to walk my amblinggelding, than my wife with herself. Then she plots, thenshe ruminates, then she devises; and what they think intheir hearts they may effect, they will break their heartsbut they will effect. God be praised for my jealousy!

(II.2.300-314)

As his writing skill level increased, Shakespeare graduallyemployed alliteration (the repetition of a vowel or consonantin two or more words in a phrase), assonance (resemblingvowel sounds in a line) and onomatopoeia (words withsounds imitating their meaning) to create deeply poetic,vibrant images on stage for the characters and his audience.Examples of these three literary devices are found in thefollowing four lines:

Chorus From camp to camp through the foul womb of nightThe hum of either army stilly sounds,That the fixed sentinels almost receiveThe secret whispers of each other's watch.

(Henry V, IV.4-7)

The hard “C” is repeated in the first line (alliteration), the “O”is heard in “through”, “foul” and “womb” (assonance) and theword “whispers” in the last line imitates the sound whispersproduce (onomatopoeia).By the time Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, he sometimesallowed a character’s thoughts to overflow their usualpentameter lines with an extra beat, often ending with a soft

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William Shakespeare did more than just write 37 plays,154 sonnets and 6 longer poems, he also coined asignificant portion of the English language itself. Over 1,000words invented by Shakespeare are a part of our every daylanguage. Shakespearean quotes and phrases are oftenused in conversations, magazine articles, cartoons, songlyrics and even in titles to books and motion pictures.Shakespeare created many new words. The dictionary isapproximately 1,700 words larger thanks to the Bard ofAvon. Shakespeare was writing at a time when the Englishlanguage was very young—in the process of being written.English vocabulary grew more in Shakespeare’s time than inany other period of the recorded history of the language. Theliteracy rate was extremely low during the Elizabethanperiod—most people did not know how to read or write. Theylearned and used language by hearing and speaking: if theyheard a word, they used it. The theatre was a hugely popularform of entertainment for all classes, so a word or phraseused on Shakespeare’s stage reached a great number ofears. When Shakespeare’s plays were printed, they wereoften the first record of words that had never been usedbefore.Have you ever heard someone say “something is rotten inthe state of Denmark” and wondered just why Denmark is sorotten? It’s because things were pretty bad for Hamlet,Prince of Denmark, the title character of Shakespeare’s playwhose uncle killed his father and married his mother. Nowwhen a situation is fishy, people use Shakespeare’s words.When someone doesn’t understand something and says “it’sGreek to me” they are actually quoting Casca, a conspiratorfrom Julius Caesar who didn’t understand something thatwas spoken in Greek.The mother of a teenage boy might say that he will “eat usout of house and home.” The first person to be accused ofthis was Falstaff in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 2, whenMistress Quickly, the proprietress of the tavern, cries, “Hehath eaten me out of house and home; he hath put all mysubstance into that fat belly of his” (II.i.74). The phrase “deadas a doornail” was first uttered by the warrior Cade inanother history play, Henry VI, Part 2 (IV.x.41). The proverb“all that glitters is not gold” is from Shakespeare’s comedyThe Merchant of Venice (II.vii.65). Macbeth gave us thephrases “milk of human kindness” and “be-all and end-all” (I.v.17; I.vii.4-5), Romeo and Juliet gave us “wild-goosechase” (II.iv.71), As You Like It gave us “neither rhyme norreason” (III.ii.387), Othello provided “green-eyed monster” asa metaphor for jealousy (III.iii.168) and Hamlet gave us such

gems-turned-clichés as “neither a borrower nor a lender be,”“brevity is the soul of wit” and “to thine own self be true” (I.iii.75; II.ii.90; I.iii.78).Shakespeare created words in four specific ways: newspellings of old words or foreign words, adding prefixes orsuffixes to existing words, combining two words to form acompound word with a new meaning and creating newwords out of sounds. The word anchovy, the salty little fishfound on pizza, is a new spelling of the Spanish anchova. Itfirst appeared in print in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1.Another word found first in Romeo and Juliet is alligator (V.i.43), which can be traced back to the similar-soundingSpanish el lagarto, which means “lizard.” Shakespearechanged the verb lug into the noun luggage by adding asuffix. The word is first found in Henry IV, Part 1, andoriginally referred to the dead Hotspur borne on the back ofFalstaff at the end of the play. Other words Shakespearecreated by adding prefixes and suffixes are misquote,mountaineer, retirement and premeditated. Shakespearecombined words to create the new words upstairs anddownstairs; these were first used in Henry IV, Part 1 as well,when Prince Hal compliments a servant by saying “Hisindustry is up stairs and down stairs” (II.iv.99-100). Othercompound words Shakespeare coined that are currently incommon usage are skim milk, roadway, lackluster, leapfrog,watchdog, farmhouse, eyeball and moonbeam. Then thereare words that have no recognizable origin that Shakespearelikely created himself. Puke is one of those words, first usedin the play As You Like It. Jacques spoke the word,describing an infant “Mewling and puking in the nurse’sarms” (II.vii.144).Because Shakespeare’s writing is so entrenched in thevocabulary of English, you may use more Shakespeareanlanguage on a daily basis than you realize.

Coined by Shakespeare

Other words coined by Shakespeare:advertising Measure for Measurebloodstained Titus Andronicusdislocate King Learfashionable Troilus & Cressidafortune-teller Comedy of Errorsgnarled Measure for Measuregossip Comedy of Errorsinvestment Henry IV, Part 2love letter Two Gentlemen of Veronaswagger A Midsummer Night's Dreamwormhole The Rape of Lucrece

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Shakespeare’s Life and Works

1564 William Shakespeare born to John andMary Shakespeare in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

1570 John Shakespeare first applies for afamily coat of arms. His application isdenied.

1582 William Shakespeare marries AnneHathaway.1583 Shakespeare’s daughter Susanna born.1585 Shakespeare’s twins Judith and Hamnetborn.1587 Shakespeare goes to London to pursuelife in the theatre.

1593 Shakespeare writes Venus and Adonis.Also begins writing the Sonnets.1594 Shakespeare becomes a foundingmember of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men.1596 Hamnet Shakespeare dies at age 11.1597 Shakespeare purchases New Place inStratford.1599 Shakespeare’s family is granted a coatof arms.1601 Shakespeare’s father dies.

1603 The Lord Chamberlain’s Men arerenamed the King’s Men. They performat the Court of King James I more thanany other company.

1605 Shakespeare purchases more land inStratford.

1608 The King’s Men begin playing at theBlackfriars Theatre, a prominent indoortheatre.1609 Shakespeare’s Sonnets published.

1616 In March, Shakespeare, apparently ill,revises his will. On April 23rd he dies andis buried at Holy Trinity Church, Stratford.

1623 Shakespeare’s First Folio published.

Events in Western History1558 Queen Elizabeth I takes the throne.1562 A series of civil wars between Catholics

and Protestants, known as the Wars ofReligion, begins in France.1564 John Calvin, an influential Protestantleader during the Reformation, dies.An outbreak of the plague devastatesLondon.1568 A revolt of the Spanish-ruled Netherlandsagainst Phillip II, King of Spain, beginsthe Eighty Years War.

1580 Sir Frances Drake circumnavigates theEarth.1586 Mary Queen of Scots tried for treasonand executed by beheading.1588 The British Navy defeats the SpanishArmada, avoiding a long war betweenEngland and Spain.1589 The Wars of Religion end when Henryof Navarre ascends to the throne tobecome King Henry IV of France.

1598 Phillip II of Spain dies.The French Protestants are permittedto freely practice their religion by theEdict of Nantes.

1601 The Earl of Essex attempts to rebelagainst Queen Elizabeth, fails and isexecuted.1603 Sir Walter Raleigh is arrested, tried andimprisoned for disobeying the Queen bysecretly marrying one of her maids ofhonor.Queen Elizabeth dies. King James VI ofScotland, son of Mary Queen of Scots,becomes King James I of England. Theplague once again ravages London.1604 England establishes a peace treaty withSpain.1607 Jamestown, one of the first Englishcolonies in the Americas, is founded.

1610 King Henry IV of France is murdered.He is succeeded by his son, Louis XIII.

1618 The Protestant German princes and theirforeign supporters begin their struggleagainst the Holy Roman Empire. Thismarks the start of the Thirty Years War.

Events in Western Art, Science & Culture1540 Michelangelo finishes painting The LastJudgment.1543 Coperniucus’ heliocentric theory, claimingthe sun is the center of the universe, isfirst published.1564 Christopher “Kit” Marlowe born.1565 Arthur Golding translates Ovid’sMetamorphoses. The text later influencedShakespeare’s work.1567 Richard Burbage, a tragedian whoportrayed many of Shakespeare’scharacters, born.1572 Poet John Donne born.Playwright Ben Jonson born.1576 The first permanent theatre in England,The Theatre, is built.1577 Raphael Holinshed publishes TheChronicles of England, Scotland andIreland, which becomes Shakespeare’sprimary source for the history plays.1580 Thomas Middleton, a playwright whocollaboratively wrote many plays, born.1588 Marlowe’s play Dr. Faustus first produced.1590 Marlowe’s play The Jew of Malta firstproduced; it influenced Shakespeare’sThe Merchant of Venice.1592 Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy firstproduced. It influenced Shakespeare’sHamlet.1597 The Theatre permanently closes due tothe expiration of its lease.1599 The Globe Theatre is built on Banksidefrom the timbers of The Theatre.

1603 The “Scientific Revolution” begins withJohann Kepler’s recordings of planetarymovements and Galileo Galilei’s perfectionof the telescope.

1606 Ben Jonson’s play Volpone is written.1607 Burbage leases the Blackfriars Theatre

for indoor performances.

1611 The King James Bible first published.1616 Ben Jonson’s Workes published in folio.

A Timeline of Western World Events

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K ing Henry IV tenuously rules England as a man whousurped the throne and is not ordained by God. He is aruler beset with troubles: rebellion in England and attacksby Scottish forces moving across the northern border.Henry postpones his crusade to the Holy Land when helearns of the defeat and capture of his loyal Mortimer by theScottish warrior, Glendower. On another battlefront HenryPercy, nicknamed Hotspur, has quashed a Scottishuprising. Though King Henry is annoyed when Hotspurrefuses to hand over his captives to the crown, he admiresHotspur’s bravery and wishes his own son, Hal, displayedthe same noble qualities.Prince Hal prefers to spend his time frequenting thetaverns of Eastcheap with the errant knight, Falstaff.Though Prince Hal has been leading a life of drinking anddebauchery, he acknowledges that he will take up his royalduties and join his father when the time is right, therebyredeeming himself publicly and seeming more virtuous andnoble. In the meantime, however, Prince Hal plays a jokeon Falstaff: after Falstaff has committed a robbery atGadshill, he is robbed in turn by a disguised PrinceHal. At the tavern, Falstaff relates an elaborate taleof being accosted by a hundred men who stole hisbooty. When Prince Hal reveals the truth, Falstaffpretends to have known all along and insists that hedidn’t fight back because he didn’t want to harm theheir to the throne.The throne is threatened when King Henry confrontsthe Percy family over Hotspur’s refusal to hand overprisoners. Hotspur demands that the King ransomMortimer but King Henry refuses, believing Mortimerhas defected to Glendower after marrying theWelshman’s daughter. The Percys, deeply resentingthe fact that the man they helped to the throneintends to enforce absolute obedience, begin to plottheir revolt by joining with the Welsh and Scottishforces. They immediately run into problems beforethe battle when Northumberland takes ill,Glendower’s forces are delayed and quarrels breakout over the division of England once King Henry isdefeated.While Hotspur and the rebels plan their revolt, KingHenry rebukes his son for neglecting his royal dutiesat court and on the battlefield, comparing himunfavorably to the valiant Hotspur. The chastised

Prince Hal takes control of the royal army, appointingFalstaff as the leader of a company of foot soldiers. Underthis new leadership, the King’s army meets the rebels at theBattle of Shrewsbury. Glendower and Northumberland havedeserted the cause, leaving Hotspur to face Prince Hal’sforces alone. King Henry offers to pardon the rebels if theywill disband but Worcester, the messenger, refrains frominforming the others.

On the battlefield, the rebel Earl of Douglas engages KingHenry in combat, getting the better of the King until PrinceHal comes to the rescue, causing Douglas to flee. Hotspurenters the scene and clashes swords with Hal in one-on-onecombat that will determine the winner of the battle. Duringtheir fight, Douglas re-enters and wounds Falstaff, whoplays dead in an effort to avoid being killed. Hal succeeds inkilling Hotspur, but Falstaff later tries to take credit for theslaying. With the rebel forces defeated and scattered, theplay ends with King Henry and Prince Hal departing side-by-side to battle Glendower and Mortimer.

Synopsis of Henry IV, Part 1

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Orson Welles as Falstaff and Keith Baxter as Hal in the film Chimes at Midnight,(1965).

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Allies to the CrownKing Henry IV (1367 – 1413): The eldest surviving son of John of Gaunt, he was calledBolingbroke after the Castle of Bolingbroke and also Henry of Lancaster after his mother,Blanche of Lancaster. His right to succeed the king on grounds of heredity was invalid asEdmund de Mortimer had been named the heir-presumptive by Richard II.Henry, Prince of Wales (1387 – 1422): The Prince of Wales, commonly known as Hal,was the eldest son and heir to the throne of Henry IV. Contemporaries offer no witness tothe wild youth Shakespeare depicts. As Henry V, he claimed a right to the French throneby virtue of his descent from Isabel, the daughter of Philip IV of France and wife to hisgreat-grandfather Edward II. He married Catherine of France in 1420.Prince John of Lancaster (1389 – 1435): The third son of Henry IV, John became theDuke of Bedford in 1414 and fought under his brother, Henry V. As Regent of France, herelieved Orleans in 1429 and arranged for the execution of Joan la Pucelle (Joan of Arc) atRouen in 1431.Earl of Westmorland (1364 - 1425): Created the first Earl of Westmorland by Richard II, Ralph was an ally of Henry IV andthe sixth Baron Neville of Raby.Sir Walter Blount: Shakespeare casts Sir Walter Blount as an ally of Henry IV who, disguised as the king, is killed byDouglas on the battlefield. There is no historical evidence that Sir Blount existed.

Who’s Who in Henry IV, Part 1

Rebels Against the KingHenry Percy, Earl of Northumberland (1342 – 1400): The brother of the Earl of Worcester,Earl-Marshal under Richard II and father to Hotspur. He conspired with Owen Glendower andEdmund Mortimer against Henry IV and was killed on Bramham Moor. In the play Percy doesnot go to battle due to illness, leaving Hotspur to fight alone against the King’s forces.Henry Percy surnamed Hotspur (1364 – 1403): The eldest son of Percy, Earl ofNorthumberland, and at first a nobleman fighting for Henry IV, defeating the Scots atHumbledon Hill in 1402. He joined the rebellion against Henry IV when forbidden to ransom hisbrother-in-law, Sir Edmund Mortimer. Shakespeare credits Hal for killing Hotspur at the Battle ofShrewsbury, but no historical evidence supports this.Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester (1344 – 1403?): Admiral of the North Fleet under Richard IIand created Earl of Worcester in 1397. With his brother the Earl of Northumberland he rebelledagainst Henry IV. In the play, Worcester fails to inform Hotspur of King Henry's generous termsto the rebels to avoid war and is put to death after the Battle of Shrewsbury, along with SirRichard Vernon.Sir Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March (1376 – 1409?): Richard dies naming as his official heirEdmund Mortimer, who is the great-grandson of Lionel, Duke of Clarence. Edmund is named asRichard's heir because he is the son of Lionel, the next surviving son of Edward III after Edwardthe Black Prince. Shakespeare seems to confuse two Mortimers—the heir to Richard II and theman who supposedly fights Glendower on Henry IV's behalf. In the play it is later revealed tothe king that Mortimer married Glendower's daughter and led a thousand men to their deaths tojoin his “enemy.”

Portrait of Henry IV.

Statue of Henry Percy, Earl ofNorthumberland, located at theBeverly Minster in Yorkshire, England. 12

Tavern FolkSir John Falstaff: A fictional character based on the historical figure Sir John Oldcastle, who died in 1417. Oldcastle, laterLord Cobham, was probably a friend of the historical Prince Hal. He was executed for his heretical Wycliffite beliefs, later tobe designated a blessed martyr by Bale and Foxe. Shakespeare’s Falstaff is the witty leader of agang of petty thieves and close friends with Hal. Falstaff leads a group of troops against thePercy rebellion, fakes his own death and later claims that he killed the already dead Hotspur.Gadshill, Poins, Peto, Nym and Bardolph: Fictional characters in a band of petty thieveswho are associates of Falstaff and Prince Hal.Mistress Quickly: A fictional character, Mistress Quickly is the Hostess of the Boar's HeadTavern in Eastcheap.

Richard Scroop (1350 – 1405): The Archbishop of York who supported the rebellion against Henry IV and was laterexecuted for treason. At the end of the play, Scroop’s forces are gathering with those of Northumberland's for future waragainst the king.Archibald, Earl of Douglas (1376? – 1439): Guardian of Scotland and a rebel against Henry IV, Douglas was at firstHotspur’s opponent. In the play, Douglas and Hotspur join forces against the king’s army. Douglas almost kills King Henryuntil Hal drives him off, and nearly kills Falstaff. After his defeat, he was pardoned by Hal for his noble manner, though thereis no historical evidence to support this claim.Owen Glendower (1359? – 1416?): Father to Lady Mortimer and a potent figurehead of Welsh nationalism since he rose upagainst the occupying English in the early 15th century. He was of aristocratic stock and laid claim to the title of Prince ofWales. Little is known about this man depicted by Shakespeare as a magician who rebels against Henry IV. Glendower'sforces do not make it to the final battle, dooming Douglas and Hotspur to certain defeat against the king’s forces in Act V.Sir Richard Vernon (? – 1451): A rebel against Henry IV. Not much is known about the historical figure. In the play, Vernonopposes Worcester's plan to deny Hotspur any knowledge of King Henry's terms for ending the rebellion, leading to Vernon’sexecution after Hotspur’s forces have been defeated.Lady Percy (Kate) (1371 – 1417): Historically, Elizabeth Mortimer, wife to Hotspur and sister to Mortimer. She was born atMonmouth and is reported to be an ancestor of Winston Churchill.Lady Mortimer: The daughter of Glendower and wife to Mortimer. In the play, she has no scripted lines, as she speaks onlyWelsh. Not much is known about her historically.

Falstaff, an ink and watercolor sketch byGeorge Cruikshank, (1858).

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B ecoming the King of England is no easy task, butkeeping the crown once you had it was even harder in 15th-century England. During that time the Wars of the Rosestore the nation in two. Theconflict centered around twoopposing sides of the samePlantagenet family—theHouses of York andLancaster, both descendentsof King Edward III—whofought for possession of thecrown for 100 years. Thename “Wars of the Roses”comes from the traditionaluse of the red rose as asymbol for the House ofLancaster and the white roseas a symbol for the House ofYork. Shakespeare dramatizes the conflict in a series ofeight plays: Richard II, parts one and two of Henry IV, HenryV, the three parts of Henry VI and Richard III. Although thefirst battle of the war was officially fought in 1455, the rootsof the war can be traced to a question of succession in1377.The rules of succession were strict and male-oriented. Heirsto the throne were chosen according to royal bloodlines,following the concept of Divine Right of Kings. Divine Rightis based on the belief that God selected the king’s family torule England, therefore only members of the royal bloodlineor direct descendants of the king could become the nextmonarch. The order of inheritance was based onprimogeniture—the right of the eldest son to inherit hisparents’ estate. Primogeniture, the rule of inheritance forboth citizens and sovereignty, included many provisions incase an eldest son did not exist or died prematurely. Inprimogeniture’s most basic form, when a king died, thecrown passed to his eldest son. If his eldest sonpredeceased him and had no heir, the crown passed to thenext oldest son, and so on through the sons. If no male childwas born to the monarch, the crown then passed to hiseldest daughter. If the deceased monarch had no children,the crown would go to his oldest brother. If this brother diedbefore the king, the crown passed to the king’s next oldestbrother. The order of succession stretched far beyondsiblings and children to guarantee an undisputed heir to thethrone, even if the king’s entire immediate family died beforehim.

According to Divine Right, any attempt to remove a propermonarch would be seen as acting against God’s will—amortal sin deserving divine punishment. A question ofsuccession and a potential violation of Divine Right incitedthe Wars of the Roses and began with the death of EdwardIII.Edward III outlived four of his seven sons including hiseldest, who was also named Edward. Young Edward earnedthe nickname the “Black Prince” during his conquests incontinental Europe, where he overpowered armies and wonlands for England. According to Divine Right, the BlackPrince should have succeeded Edward III. When his eldestson died suddenly, the grief-stricken Edward III fell ill anddied shortly after. Even though Edward III still had survivingsons, the Black Prince had a son, Richard, who inherited thethrone (through primogeniture, the descendant of thedeceased assumes succession rights). At ten years old,some noblemen claimed Richard was not ready to assume

the throne; many supportedone of his adult uncles—Johnof Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster,or Edmund of Langley, Dukeof York, the fourth and fifthsons of Edward III. KingEdward III’s Privy Council (hisadvisory group of wealthy,powerful lords) decided thatthe boy should be crownedKing Richard II and that hisuncles should act as regents,or primary advisors. TheDukes of York and Lancasteraccepted this decision and

maintained their regent status well into Richard’s adulthood.In his thirties, King Richard II began ruling England on hisown, but failed to appease frequently feuding English lords.Political squabbles and frequent battles created chaos andunrest; eventually even Richard II’s own Privy Councilbegan to doubt his ability to rule. These negative opinions ofthe king led the descendents of Lancaster and York toconsider usurping the crown.Shakespeare’s Richard II begins at this point in history, withan unpopular Richard II beset with battling noblemen andmany enemies at court, including Henry Bolingbroke (theson of John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster), whom

The Wars of the Roses

Edward III

Richard II

14

overthrew Margaret’s army and was named Edward IV.Edward’s brother Richard Duke of Gloucester, the futureRichard III, killed Henry’s only son to ensure Edward’s claimto the throne. These battles are dramatized by Shakespearein the three parts of Henry VI.Edward IV is on the throne, but very ill, at the beginning ofShakespeare’s Richard III, and he is survived by two sons,the eldest another Edward. After the king’s death, rumors

surfaced that the young heir tothe throne was conceivedillegitimately. It remainsunclear whether Richardhimself orchestrated theseclaims to promote himself tothe throne, where he wasi n v e s t e d i n 1 4 8 3 .Shakespeare’s Richard is anevil man who usurps thethrone from his nephews andhas them murdered in theTower. This view of Richard,t h o u g h p o p u l a r , i s

unsubstantiated in history, and his path to the throneremains a cloudy one. The Wars of the Roses ended withRichard III’s defeat by Henry Tudor—a descendant of theDuke of Lancaster, son of Edward III—who claimed thethrone and married Elizabeth of York, uniting the two housesand beginning the Tudor dynasty as King Henry VII. Thecouple’s oldest son succeeded as Henry VIII, who in turnwas succeeded by his three children: Edward VI, Mary andShakespeare’s own Elizabeth I.In Shakespeare’s dramatization of the Wars of the Roseswe can see a bias beginning to form when the incompetentPlantagenet Richard II is overthrown by the bravery ofLancastrian Henry IV,followed by the schemingbloodthirsty Yorkists takingthe throne from mentally illHenry VI and ending withconquering LancastrianHenry VII killing the evilRichard III. Of course, asHenry VII is QueenElizabeth’s grandfather, it isu n s u r p r i s i n g t h a tShakespeare would havepainted history in a light thatf a v o r e d t h e s i t t i n gmonarch.

Richard exiled to France.While Bolingbroke was inexile, John of Gaunt died,and Richard illegally andunfairly claimed Bolingbroke’sinheritance for himself. Whenthe Lancastrian Bolingbrokereturned to England to claimhis inheritance, the supporthe garnered was enough toseize not only his inheritancebut also the throne itself, andhe became King Henry IV.

Richard was deposed (removed from the monarchy) andimprisoned in the Tower of London. Bolingbroke’s claim tothe throne was tenuous and certainly not as strong asRichard’s; even when Richard died childless, heirs remainedwhose right to the throne superseded Bolingbroke’s.Richard’s deposition defied Divine Right; many citizensbelieved that the newly crowned King Henry IV had goneagainst God’s will by removing Richard and God wouldeventually take revenge. Fifty years later, when the Wars ofthe Roses began, many citizens saw what they believedwas that prophecy coming true.Despite Henry IV’s troubles attaining the crown, he was acapable ruler. As we see in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1,Henry dealt with frequent uprisings during his reign fromnoblemen still contesting his usurpation. His son Henry Vhad a smooth succession to the throne when his father diedand enjoyed a successful reign during which he conqueredlands in France and married the French princess, Katherine.When he died tragically, his one-year-old son became KingHenry VI.Henry VI had a rocky andultimately unsuccessful reign;a combination of mental illnessand a domineering wifefostered much uncertaintyabout his abilities to rule, andwhen he temporarily left thethrone during a mentalbreakdown, his substituteRichard Duke of York (adescendent of Edmund ofLangley, Duke of York) wasaccused of attempting to usurpthe throne. The result of this accusation officially started thebloody battles of the Wars of the Roses—the Yorks led byRichard and the Lancasters led by Queen Margaret andHenry VI. When Richard died in battle, his son Edward tookover the fight and eventually

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Painting of Henry IV’s coronation ceremony by Jean Froissart, early 15th century.D uring the reign of Henry IV (1399-1413), Englishsociety was nearing a point of transformation that wouldmark the end of the Medieval era and 500-some years of thepolitical and economic system known as feudalism. Thefeudal system was a strict social structure in which wealthylandowners allowed farmers to work a piece of their propertyin exchange for the farmers’ pledge of loyalty to thelandowner in times of armed conflict. The lords supposedlyprovided protection to the farmers—called vassals—but theadvantage was held by the lords or “feudal principles” whoconstantly leveraged economic and political power over theirvassals. Feudalism shaped English society into a stricthierarchical structure, in which a select, privileged few heldpower and most people were left to survive as best theycould.

Society of MenHistorian Kate Mertes summarized in her essay“Aristocracy” that members of Medieval society fit into threegroups as a result of the feudal system: “men of war,” “menof prayer” and “men of work.” The rigidity of this structurewas solidified by the belief that God ordained it, placingthose who could best represent God’s work and words atthe top of the hierarchy. The “men of war” included the king,who ruled in the name of God, and the aristocracy, who“classed into” the category because they were able to pulltogether resources—human resources, an army ofvassals—to fight for king and country. This eventuallyresulted in the formation of England’s parliamentarymonarchy in the mid-15th century. Before this time, the kingconsulted only with a select group of nobles and advisors; inthe parliamentary monarchy, the monarch was required toconsult with Parliament, the legislative body, beforemandating changes in government. This ensured the

people, at least those with money, a small say in nationaldecisions. “Men of prayer” were the clergy, who assisted thepeople in finding, hearing and remaining close to the word ofGod. While not a part of the nobility, the clergy were not“men of work”—the largest grouping, which encompassedmost of the English population. Excluded from all of thesegroupings were women and merchants who had no formalvoice or standing in society.At England’s helm was one ruler—a monarch. The Englishmonarchy was part of a long tradition of single-rulergovernment systems in Europe, North Africa and West Asiain which the ruler reigned usually for life and obtained powerthrough hereditary right. This right was considered by manycultures to be of divine origin; some cultures even claimedthe monarch was a god. English monarchs were thought tobe selected by God, providing them the “divine right” to holdthe throne, which would pass on to other members of thefamily should the monarch die. In order to preserve royalfamilies’ God-given right to rule, complex laws of inheritanceand systems of succession were instituted. Challenging amonarch’s rule, therefore, questioned God’s will as well asEnglish law—making for a serious, treasonous act ofrebellion. Some say Henry IV’s rule came about throughsuch an act; he usurped the throne from Richard II in 1399.Henry’s reign was marked by numerous revolts: Richard II’ssupporters fought back after his deposition in 1400, OwenGlendower led the Welsh in an eight-year uprising, thePercy and Mortimer families—originally supporters ofHenry—rose against the king in 1403. Quelling so muchrebellion across the country greatly taxed Henry IV and leftEngland in enormous debt. His ultimate success as king—maintaining his hold on the crown—resulted in large partfrom the military prowess of his son—Prince Henry, laterHenry V.

The World of Henry IV

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From Father to SonA person’s roles andresponsibilities in daily lifewere predominant l ys h a pe d by f am i l yrelationships. Familiesfunctioned much likeEnglish society: the fatheror patriarch “ruled” thefamily and all the othermembers served him—working to uphold thefather’s name, and so thefamily’s honor. At allsocietal levels thistranslated to the continuation of the family name. Thiscreated a dire need to produce male heirs to ensure thefamily legacy and pass on the family name for generations.Ties between family name and place in society wereparticularly important for the aristocracy. Sustaining thefamily legacy was the key to securing high-standing in theEnglish social order. Law and society worked hand-in-handto ensure the hierarchy’s stability. Inheritance law wasbased on the rule of primogeniture, or the right of thefirstborn son to the entire estate of the father. For noblementhis meant money, property and social standing, and for theprince this meant the crown; in either case the family’sstanding was preserved. Primogeniture did not ensurestability inside the family however; fathers had to watchover-eager sons, sons took mothers to court when theywouldn’t relinquish the purse strings, and brother foughtbrother over the right to be next in line.The English aristocracy’s system of education was designedaround further solidifying a family’s hierarchical place. Sons,especially firstborn, were instructed in hunting and politics—two important forms of “fighting” for “men of war”—andproper behavior in court and manners, particularly diningetiquette. These physical and social skills were highlyregarded in Medieval England where might equaled right. Amore humanist education, including virtues, morals and“nobility of the mind,” was unheard of until the fall offeudalism. Men had yet to see the value in upholding thecommon good for the sake of everyone, not just themselves.An heir-apparent, like Prince Henry, received similarschooling to the sons of aristocrats—little “book learning” butplenty of combat training and royal protocol—but also hadthe educational burden of learning about his lands andpopulation. Then, as now, people wanted a leader who wasknowledgeable about domestic issues and upheld their

beliefs. Future kings were expected to travel through thecountry to become acquainted with the people and placesthey would eventually come to rule. These trips were alsodiplomatic in nature; seeing the prince assured the public ofthe monarchy’s power and stability. This component of aprince’s training was of particular importance whenquestions arose around his family’s right to rule, since a“good leader” in 15th-century England was too often definedby being the divinely ordained ruler.

Honor and LoyaltyMen were loyal to God, king and family. Honor to family andthe understanding of “God’s will” often superceded loyalty tothe king—particularly when the king’s right to the throne wasopenly questioned. The early Medieval period wasdominated by the code of chivalry: a set of principles,customs and rules of behavior tightly connected with knightsand knighthood. Honor and its preservation formed thefoundation for chivalry, giving way to certain virtues thatchivalric men were expected to uphold—bravery, valor,perseverance, righteousness, courtesy (particularly towardwomen) and dexterity with weapons. This system of honorwas linked to possession of horses. The derivation of theword chivalry is the Latin word callabus, meaning “horse,especially a riding horse or packhorse,” and chivalric menwere often dressed in complex and heavy armor, inhibitingthem to move far or quickly without the aid of a horse.Ironically, it was these iron-clad men with horses who ownedland and were in power, and so the last to actually enter intobattle.

Head of Prince Hal, painted by CharlesRobert Lesslie, (1851).

Typical 15th-century Gothic armor, c. 1475. Example of a chivalric knight.

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Armed ConflictWhen conflict arose in feudal England, it was around thestability of the hierarchy; and in the 15th century the greatestdilemma centralized on the king. People relied on having astable monarchy and a king who rightly wore the crown.Questioned claims to the throne resulted in more civil warsthan battles on foreign soil. If a king sent soldiers into othercountries, it was a two-fold tactic: to divert attention fromchallenges to his rule and solidify his claim to the thronethrough victory abroad.Battles in civil warfare were fought by attrition—each sidetrying to wear down their foe to weaken them to the point ofsurrender, or rub them out altogether. This was preferred bycommanders over the more dangerous pitched battles,during which opposite forces fought in fixed positions andpredetermined formations at close range. Men were sure todie in pitched battles. The result of a war of attritionindicated God’s will, the battle serving as a “trial by combat.”In civil wars, opponents could be neighbors, and thosefighting did not have much choice in their service. Vassalswere expected to fight for the lords who supported them.The poorest members of society were often “drafted” to besoldiers because they could not bribe or buy their way out ofservice. Soldiers were low paid, had no retirementprovisions and often turned to stealing and looting upon their

return home. Advancement within the military was extremelylimited since officers often received their positions throughfavoritism or by purchase; those in positions of powerfrequently abused it. In wartime, an English captain wasresponsible for recruiting new soldiers, which often led toabuses such as “padding the muster-rolls” or falsifying theenlistment records to collect extra salaries. Captains wouldaccept bribes from men with financial means and enroll apeasant in his place, enlist a man into two different militaryunits (known as “bands”) and pocket the additional salary,as well as neglect to report a death to scam the dead man’spaycheck.Toward the end of the 15th century, the feudal systemdeclined, and concepts of chivalry dissipated. With Tudorrule in England came great transformation in politics andreligion, and by Shakespeare’s time the English wereexperiencing a period of rebirth known as the Renaissance.This change in attitude toward society, war and fellow manis obvious when looking from Prince Hal in Henry IV, Part 1to King Henry in Henry V; the young prince matures into acaring, honorable and humble king, leading his countrymen,his brothers-in-arms.

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Pen and ink drawing of a Medieval combat with swords from a College of Arms Manuscript, (c.1565).

I n Henry IV, Part 1, Shakespeare explores thecounterculture of Elizabethan England through life in theBoar’s Head Tavern. Although the play takes place in theearly 15th century, Shakespeare is clearly also exploringissues of his own society. Drinking, for example, wascertainly the central form of entertainment in Shakespeare’sEngland, coupled with gaming, dancing and bearbaiting.The public drinking house was central to Elizabethan societyas the place that people met, socialized, did business,committed crimes or simply wiled away their free time.Though moral and social evils existed almost everywhere inElizabethan London, most of London society singled outbrothels, theatres and taverns (or alehouses) as the centersof criminal activity.As the primary socializing space of Elizabethan England,public drinking houses were divided into three differentsettings: the inn, the alehouse and the tavern. The inn wasthe most respectable of these three venues; a place wherepersons of a higher social status might spend the night andwhere people from various social levels gathered andconducted business. Inns also played a vital role in theeconomic growth of Elizabethan England as they replacedthe old open-air markets as the primary setting for trade andbusiness. They usually had a formal host, either male orfemale, welcoming and tending to guests, taking care oftheir luggage and servants upon arrival as well as fulfillingtheir every need during their stay. The inn could also offerluxuries such as drinking glasses, still fairly uncommon andcostly in Shakespeare’s time, rather than wooden cups. Dueto its higher legal, social and economic status as well as itsmostly upperclass patrons, the inn enjoyed much morefreedom from statutory controls imposed on alehouses inthe 16th century.

The alehouse, as the bottom of drinking house society,offered only the cheapest of English ale and the mostdangerous of crowds. Alehouses were dark, dirty, oftenviolent places patronized mostly by the lower classes,including their fair share of criminals and prostitutes. It wasalso, however, a place that allowed for public drinking (andtherefore socializing) by all classes and created a placewhere anyone could meet. In Shakespeare’s London,vagrancy or homelessness was at an all time high. Manymen who became members of tradesmen guilds and cameto London to practice their trade were often detached fromtheir homes in the big city. The alehouse or tavern provideda perfect “home away from home,” in which men couldgather and even sleep away the nights, giving them a senseof belonging and community. It provided cheap meals andgood company for any lonely souls in London.The tavern, just below inns and above alehouses on thesocial ladder, would invite a mix of people from both themiddle and lower classes, a place where those higher insociety could publicly mix with lower classes and lowerclasses could more easily pick the pockets of the drunkenmiddle class. Taverns offered wines instead of malt liquor,including sack, the Spanish wine enjoyed by Falstaff.The actual Boar’s Head Tavern also served as a theatre or“itinerant playhouse” before public amphitheatres becameavailable to acting companies. The portrayal of thisEastcheap tavern in Henry IV, Part 1 may therefore alsoreflect some of the history of playing venues forShakespeare’s company, from a time before they had theirfirst resident theatre. Taverns contained within them severaldifferent rooms, each delineating a different social grouping.In his Micro-Cosmographie (1628), John Earle writes that in

Tavern Life and the Drunken Knight

George Cruikshank’s illustration of Falstaff in the Boar’s Head Tavern, (1858).

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a tavern “customers are carefully segregated into roomsranging from ‘the bottom of the cellar to the great chamber’.”Notably Hal does not mix much into various groups or roomsin the play, mostly observing and enjoying other lower levelsof society but not actually intermingling with them, stickingclose, instead, to the Drunken Knight. The combination ofalehouse and tavern does, though, provide an environmentin which Hal can be exposed to a variety of social classes,from the knight Falstaff (who might not deign to enter analehouse) to Mistress Quickly (who could, presumably, befound in either an alehouse or a tavern) and Bardolph orPoins (both perhaps often found in the alehouse but neverthe inn). As in Henry IV, Part 1, Hal can also explorecriminal activity in this tavern/alehouse while remainingrelatively safe. He is able to enter the growing Elizabethansubculture of vagrants that he must explore before trulyunderstanding the country he will someday lead as king.Time had very little meaning in the alehouse, and certainlyone of the preoccupations of its inhabitants was to wastetime, a habit that began to come under attack withElizabethans’ increased awareness of time. The publicdissemination of clocks and watches—which had onlybecome compact and cheap enough for most people to ownby the end of the 16th century—had heightened theElizabethans’ sense of time and increased their ire towardsthose who sought to waste it. It also highlighted the fact thattaverns and alehouses had always been a place forspending and wasting time. Shakespeare’s use of a tavernor alehouse rather than an inn enhances our sense of Halwasting his time.Violence and theft also pervaded these alehouses andtaverns. Christopher Marlowe, Shakespeare’s fellowplaywright, was stabbed to death in a barroom brawl.Prostitution openly flourished, as the mistress or master ofthe house would hold rooms just off the main hall forprostitutes to quickly do their business with customerswithout having to leave the alehouse. Ironically, manyalehouses as well as taverns were run by women, or the“mistress” of the alehouse, such as Mistress Quickly, one ofthe few jobs open to women during Shakespeare’s time.Although women often ran them, an alehouse or tavern wasalways a male-dominated space. More often than not,running an alehouse or tavern was actually a family affair,with every member working in some way, similar to manyEnglish pubs today.As the 16th century came to a close, the culture of tavernsand alehouses clashed with the Protestant ideas of sobrietyand the work ethic embraced by Elizabethan society. Asdangerous, disorderly and subversive places, alehousesneeded to be controlled and monitored. Hal’s behavior

reflects a socialtrend in ElizabethanEngland towards anadolescence of funa n d f r e e d o m -seeking enjoymentthat is still prevalentin our society today.This subculture ofriotous and criminalb e h a v i o r i nElizabeth’s realm,h o w e v e r , w a sbecoming moreproblematic to thisemerging Protestantnation. As a kingdom

that was swiftly moving forward technologically, ideologicallyand militarily, England could no longer afford an entirepopulace of criminals and drunkards roaming the city andcountry unhindered. By the early 17th century, Englishsociety became so worried about the wasteful culture of thetavern that it passed the 1604 Act against “inordinateHaunting and Tipling in Inns, Alehouses” and other drinkingplaces and announced that the purpose of drinking houseswas for “Receit, Relief and Lodging of Wayfaring Peopletraveling from Place to Place” and “not meant forEntertainment and Harbouring of lewd and idle People tospend and consume their Money and their Time in lewd anddrunken Manner.” Although only a minor movement towardseliminating the wastefulness of tavern life from Englishsociety, this act clearly signaled the beginning of the end ofthis period in England’s social life. Life in the tavern as Haland Falstaff know it was slowly being snuffed out by theElizabethan Protestant work ethic and the growth of anempire.

Drawing by David Loggan of “Mother Louse,”an old-style alehouse keeper, (c. 1650).

Photo of Orson Welles as Falstaff from the movie Chimes at Midnight, (1965).

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Drawing of Eastcheap market from Hugh Alley’s A Caveat for the City ofLondon, (1598).

Sir John Falstolfe is recorded in English history as acowardly commander in the French wars and brieflymentioned in an earlier play by Shakespeare, Henry VI,Part 1, when his cowardice causes the wounding andcapture of a fellow commander. The Falstaff of Henry IV,Part 1, however, was originally named Sir John Oldcastle.Oldcastle first appeared in The Famous Victories of HenryIV—a rabble-rousing patriotic play that may have beenworked on by the young apprentice playwrightShakespeare around 1587—in which the young Prince Haleventually reforms and rejects his wicked companion SirJohn Oldcastle. The real Sir John Oldcastle, however, dieda Protestant martyr, and his family was not happy to seetheir famous forefather portrayed as a wicked glutton and abuffoon on the Elizabethan stage. Under pressure from thefamily, Shakespeare changed the name to Falstaff, but stillallows Hal, as an inside joke, to refer to Sir John as “my oldlad of the castle” in their first scene together. Shakespearealso protected himself from any future confusion with adisclaimer during the Epilogue of Henry IV, Part 2: “forOldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man.” As withmany of his creations, Shakespeare took what had alreadybeen written many times as Sir John Oldcastle and createda character that surpasses anything that had come beforein his language, his depth and his freedom. Sir JohnFalstaff symbolizes the freedom and fun sought byElizabethan audiences in their own time.

Eastcheap in London was the site of the Elizabethan beefmarket, an especially appropriate place for Falstaff topatronize, where domestic animals were slaughtered andheretics were burned, making a connection between the fatknight and the Protestant martyr that partially inspired thecharacter of Falstaff. His drunken revelry and laziness wouldhave allowed audiences to laugh at their own worst behaviorin the pub and at the presumed lazy lifestyles of their socialbetters. Falstaff also, however, reflected a burgeoningElizabethan society that sought to find freedom from itscurrent class system. As English critic A.C. Bradley describedhim, Falstaff is the Elizabethan dream of freedom fromconstraints:

The bliss of freedom gained in humour is the essence ofFalstaff. His humour is not directed only or chiefly againstobvious absurdities; he is the enemy of everything thatwould interfere with his ease, and therefore of anythingserious, and especially of everything respectable andmoral. For these things impose limits and obligations, andmake us the subjects of old father antic the law, and thecategorical imperative, and our station and its duties, andconscience, and reputation, and other people’s opinions,and sorts of nuisances. I say therefore he is their enemy;but I do him wrong; to say that he is their enemy impliesthat he regards them as serious and recognizes theirpower, when in truth he refuses to recognize them at all.

Tavern life and Falstaff’s lifestyle are seemingly celebrated inHenry IV, Part 1, though they are soon to be rejected anddismissed in Henry IV, Part 2. Just as England can no longerafford the wasteful hours and days spent in alehouses andtaverns, Hal can no longer afford wasting time with Falstaff.His tavern education is complete, and he must move on tolead his country, just as Elizabethan England will move on tolead the world.

Title page of John Bales’ Brief Chronicle Concerning… SirJohn Oldcastle, (1544).

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Shakespeare’s history plays can be read as a windowinto English history and culture; however, they should not betaken as strict historical fact. Shakespeare shaped historyinto fiction, fabricating scenes and altering character detailsto fashion a more dramatic account of history. In his articleThe Historical Background of the History Plays, PeterSaccio writes:

Above all, Shakespeare personalizes. Whether or nothistory is really governed by the characters and the choicesof individual men and women, the dramatist can only writeas if it were. Social conditions, cultural habits, economicforces, justice and the lack of it, all that we mean by ‘thetimes,’ must be translated into persons and passions if theyare to hold the stage.

Yet, these strategies executed by Shakespeare wereperfectly in line with historiography of the time. The practiceof changing details of historical records permeated 16th-century chronicles as rulers and writers alike recognized thepower that history could have over people. Shakespearelooked to historians of his time for inspiration, borrowingfrom several different accounts of the Wars of the Roseswhen writing his history plays. Shakespeare did not creditthese historians as we would expect today; duringShakespeare’s time this apparent act of “plagiarism” was notseen as a condemnable practice.The 16th century in England was a time of widespreadinterest in history. The country experienced change sociallyand economically, and its citizens and rulers looked to thepast for clues on how to live and rule. Historians of the timeplaced more importance on the lessons that could beascertained from history than on the actual facts. In order toinspire, historians would create pictures of brave, moralmen, hoping that the reader would aspire to the samebehavior.This interpretive or allegorical way of representing historycomplemented Medieval chroniclers’ notion that history wascompletely influenced by fate—every incident fit intofortune’s plan. This concept included the Medieval idea ofFortuna, the goddess whose whims decided who wonbattles or which nation would rise above others. This beliefcan be traced to Christianity and divine providence. It wasthought that only when events had completely played out,could the meaning of an event be understood. According toShakespeare scholar Barbara Hodgdon in Historiographyand the Uses of History, “English historians’ view of historywas teleological: seeing events as directed toward anultimate purpose, they wrote history accordingly, tracingoutcomes back to their beginnings.”

As well as providing a moral center, history also provided atool for political manipulation. English monarchs recognizedhistory’s influence and saw it as a way to authenticate theirown claim to the throne. The resulting historical accountsgenerated loyalty among citizens, ultimately resulting in anational unity that had been previously shaken by the Warsof the Roses. Henry VII sponsored the first in a string ofaccounts of England’s history with his commission of a playfrom Polydore Vergil that would trace Henry’s own ancestryback to King Arthur. Vergil’s account maintained Henry IV’sright to the throne over Richard II, supporting the Lancasterline over the York. It is the first history written that chroniclesthe Wars of the Roses, important because it set the trend ofwriting history critically—including interpretation of eventsand lessons that could be learned from these events.

Borrowing heavily on Vergil’s account is Edward Hall’sUnion which puts side by side the claims of the Lancasterswith those of the Yorks. Hall’s The Union of Two Noble andIllustre Families of Lancaster and York (1548) is seen as apossible source for Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, but it isRaphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Ireland, andScotland (1578) and Samuel Daniel’s The Civil Wars, bothof which incorporate Hall’s account, that are Shakespeare’smain sources. These works all have differing points of viewthroughout, making for an inconstant view of history duringthe Wars of the Roses. Some believe Shakespeareenforced the Tudor Myth through his treatment of theLancasters and Yorks. Since Shakespeare wrote duringQueen Elizabeth I’s reign, it is highly possible that hefavored the Lancasters in order to please his queen.Another of Shakespeare’s history sources is the anonymouswork The Famous Victories of Henry V, Shakespeare’sfoundation for the scenes with Falstaff.

Sources and Plagiarism

Title page of Holinshed’s Chronicles, (1578).

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Perhaps this fear of being seen as a heretic promptedHolinshed to cite others’ opinions rather than his own. Inany case, it is one of the few instances of a writer of thistime period giving credit to his sources; atypical, as theemphasis placed on plagiarism today was not a concern inthe 16th century.When writing Henry IV Shakespeare took liberties with hissources to instill his historical tale with dramatic qualities.One specific change from historical fact concerns Hotspur.Shakespeare makes the character of Hotspur younger in hisplay to compare the outwardly ambitious and brave Hotspurwith Hal, who possesses these qualities but withholds themfrom his father. These supposed inadequacies are amplifiedwhen compared with Hotspur. When Hal throws aside hisyouthful demeanor and takes on one of bravery andresponsibility, he is proving to the reader/audience that hecan be a capable ruler of England. By enforcing the ideathat ability, rather than inheritance, makes an able ruler,Shakespeare asserts the Tudor claim to the throne as wellas pleases his Tudor Queen.It is Shakespeare’s responsibility to instill dramatic qualitiesinto historical narrative. As a playwright, Shakespeare isgiven license to shape the historical figures into charactersof depth and meaning, giving his audience not only theheroes they desire but also creating a stronger connectionto history than narrative can create. It was understood thatthe final result of the play, and the influence it could have onthe audience, was more crucial than adherence to historicalfact.

Holinshed’s work provides the most complete account of theWars of the Roses, and it is the second edition of this workthat Shakespeare relied on for plot details. Shakespeareeven went so far as to paraphrase speeches fromHolinshed’s Chronicles in his history plays. Holinshed reliesmainly on Hall’s account, and he recognizes this in hiswriting by often acknowledging where he borrows Hall’s andother writers’ opinions. In his preface, Holinshedemphasizes that his work is assembled from many differentsources, including differing views and opinions. Rather thanforming his own opinions, Holinshed preferred to offer thoseof other historians and invite the readers to make their ownjudgments. There was a very real reason for Holinshed totake this tactic and defer to the reader, as allegations ofheresy had become widespread. Hall’s work had beenadded to the list “Prohibiting Seditious, Heretical Books” andHolinshed’s work was even censored by the Privy Council.

A depiction of the Battle of Bosworth Field found in Holinshed’sChronicles, (1578).

Derek Smith as Hal and Edward Gero as Hotspur in The Shakespeare Theatre’s 1995 Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2.

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TEMPER, TEMPERIn Henry IV, Part 1, Hotspur is known for his fiery temper,which in some instances he is able to control and at othertimes controls him. Starting with Hotspur’s first scene, I.iii,focusing on the monologue that begins “My liege, I did denyno prisoners…”, investigate how Hotspur communicates hisanger. How is he able to convey his emotions without openlystating how he feels? What words or sounds does he use toportray anger? Read the monologue aloud as a class andhave students search the text circling words or phrases thatshow Hotspur’s temper. Select a gesture to represent anger(e.g. a raised fist) then read the monologue a second timewith students gesturing when “anger words” are read.Reflect on the similarities and differences between students’choices, having them explain why they circled a particularphrase or word. STRUCTURING HENRY IV, PART 1

Shakespeare divides this play fairly evenly into two worlds:the world of King Henry, the nobles and civil strife, and theworld of Falstaff, Prince Hal and tavern life. Examine thischoice in dramatic structure with your students from twoperspectives:· How does Shakespeare make these two worlds

distinctive?· Why is it important to the story of Henry IV, Part 1 for

Shakespeare to include characters and plotlines outsideof Henry’s court?

Encourage students to consider the arrangement of theplay’s scenes—the balance of serious scenes of impendingrebellion with the more-jovial tavern scenes. Then examineeach scenes’ primary language form—verse or prose. Askstudents to imagine that they are a member of the LordChamberlain’s men and compose a letter to Shakespeareeither supporting the inclusion of Falstaff and the tavernworld or attempting to persuade the Bard to cut thosescenes from the play.

WHY ART?Ask students to discuss the role of art in society. How doesit affect, reflect, enhance a society, a culture or acommunity? What is the purpose of theatre? To entertain orto educate? Split the class in half and ask the students todebate theatre’s purpose as either entertainment oreducation. Which do they expect when they go to thetheatre? To the movies?

IMITATING THE SUNIn Henry IV, Part 1 the audience watches Prince Hal changefrom a reckless and irresponsible youth to a more matureand dependable young man. Ask students to imaginethemselves in Hal’s position: instead of living up toresponsibilities, they spend their days partying with friendsand disappointing their family. Students should write ajournal entry debating whether or not they should “grow up”and assume more responsibility in the adult world. What arethe reasons for deciding this? What will they lose? What willothers say about this transformation? After journaling, readHal’s monologue from I.ii. How does Hal’s description of hisplan compare with the students’? Do they agree with hisassessment of the situation?

WRITE LIKE SHAKESPEAREDivide students into groups. Ask each group to rewrite oneof the horoscope passages below using iambic pentameter.· Friends find you difficult to pin down for making plans.· Keep playing hard-to-get; lovers will certainly want you

more.· Get focused on money: bargain-hunting, clipping

coupons and budget highlighted.· This is your year for high hopes and big rewards.· An ex returns with apologies— it's all up to you, but call

on a friend for support.Ask each group to share in front of the class.

Classroom ConnectionsBefore the Performance

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TEMPER TANTRUMHave you ever considered how a situation might haveturned out better had you either controlled or lost yourtemper? Give students a short period of time to reflect on amoment in their lives where they either lost or controlledtheir temper, and wished in retrospect they had done theopposite. Who were the players in that situation and whatwere their relationships? What were the circumstances?What happened in the end? What might have happeneddifferently had tempers flared or been controlled? Then,working in small groups, ask students to change theoutcome of one of the following scenes: I.iii, III.i, IV.i.Analyze Hotspur’s actions in the scene using the samequestions above. Rewrite the scene and share the newresult with the class.

INTERPRETING HISTORYOver the years, there has been scholarly debate about theaccuracy of Shakespeare’s portrayal of historical figures andthe motives for reworking specific events for his historyplays. Have the class brainstorm the major events in thelives of one of the following figures:· George Washington· Martin Luther King, Jr.· Queen Elizabeth I· Napoleon· Ghandi· King ArthurDivide the class into groups to write a scene-by-sceneoutline or storyboard for a play about the life of this historicalfigure. Groups may take artistic license to adjust events andcharacter traits where necessary to fit their message. Haveeach group present their play to the class and discuss therole of the playwright as an historian.

CRUEL INTENTIONSAfter Hal and Poins reveal to Falstaff it was they who robbedhim in the woods, Falstaff informs them he knew it all along.Read aloud Falstaff’s response (II.iv.221-231) in its entirety.How truthful is his declaration? What might Falstaff befeeling? What might he want Hal and Poins to do as a resultof speaking to them about the dangers of instinct? Askstudents to imagine a time when Falstaff and Hal arereminiscing about this event. Write a monologue for Falstaffin which he reveals his true feelings about Hal robbing himand then outing Falstaff’s cover-up in front of friends at thealehouse. Have students share their monologues with theclass.

HISTORICAL CHARACTERSDistribute the names of characters in Henry IV, Part 1 fromthe court and the rebels, repeating characters if necessaryso that each student has one character. Have them write acharacter sketch/biography, describing the character’spersonality, lineage, relationship to the throne, good andbad deeds, etc. using Shakespeare’s play as the solesource. Then allow time for students to research thecharacters from a selection of historical, non-fiction sourcesfrom various time periods. Have them write anothercharacter sketch/biography using only their historicalresearch. Compare the two biographies; did students get thesame view of the character from the play as their historicalsources?

CROSSING WORLDSIn Henry IV, Part 1 Shakespeare created two unique andcontrasting worlds—the court and the tavern—andcharacters rarely crossover from one world to the other.Discuss with students how the characters from these twoworlds intermix throughout the play. How do they behavedifferently? How does their language (prose, verse) change?What happens when both worlds collide during the finalbattle scenes? In small groups have students select acharacter that exists in the play solely in one world andscript a new scene in which s/he finds her/himself in theother world (Hotspur in the tavern, Falstaff in Henry’s court).How does her/his attitude, behavior or language change?Have students read their scripts aloud to the rest of theclass upon completion.

Classroom ConnectionsAfter the Performance

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Henry IV, Part 1 Resource ListBooks or Essays on Henry IV, Part 1· Green, J. R. Town Life in the Fifteenth Century, Vol 1. Macmillan and Co, 1894.

· Hicks, Michael. English Political Culture in the Fifteenth Century. Routledge, 2002.

· Hodgdon, Barbara. The First Part of King Henry the Fourth: Texts and Contexts. Bedford Books, 1997.

· Hodges, C. Walter. Enter the Whole Army. Cambridge University Press, 1999.

· Horrox, Rosemary (Ed.). Fifteenth-Century Attitudes. Cambridge University Press, 1994.

· Meehan, F.J.G. “Contrasts in 1 Henry IV,” Readings on the Histories of William Shakespeare. Greenhaven Press, 1998.

· McFarlane, K.B. (Ed.) England in the Fifteenth Century (Essays). Hambledon Press, 1981.

· Mertes, Kate. “Aristocracy,” Fifteenth-Century Attitudes. Rosemary Horrox, ed. Cambridge University Press, 1994.

· Saccio, Peter. “The Historical Background of the History Plays,” Readings on the Histories of William Shakespeare.Greenhaven Press, 1998.

· Smallwood, R.L. “Shakespeare’s Use of History,” The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Studies. CambridgeUniversity Press, 1986.

Books on Shakespeare and Teaching Shakespeare· Asimov, Isaac. Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare. Doubleday, 1978.· Epstein, Norrie. The Friendly Shakespeare. Penguin Books, 1993.· Gibson, Janet and Rex Gibson. Discovering Shakespeare’s Language. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1999.· Gibson, Rex. Teaching Shakespeare. Cambridge University Press, 1998.· Kermode, Frank. Shakespeare’s Language. Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 2000.· Linklater, Kristin. Freeing Shakespeare’s Voice. Theatre Communications Group, 1992.· McQuain, Jeffrey and Stanley Malless. Coined by Shakespeare: Words & Meanings First Penned by the Bard. Merriam-

Webster, 1998.· Pritchard, R. E. Shakespeare’s England. Sutton Publishing Limited, 1999.· Papp, Joseph and Elizabeth Kirkland. Shakespeare Alive. Bantam Books, 1988.· Reynolds, P. Teaching Shakespeare. Oxford Univ. Press, 1992.Websites· daphne.palomar.edu/shakespeare—Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet.· www.bardweb.net—The Shakespeare Resource Center.· www.shakespeare.uiuc.edu—Shakespeare Globe USA.

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