1605-06 The Tragedy of King Lear
1605-08 ? contribution to The Four Plays in One (lost, except for A Yorkshire Tragedy, mostly by Thomas Middleton)
1606 The Tragedy of Macbeth (surviving text has additional scenes by Thomas Middleton)
1606-07 The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra
1608 The Tragedy of Coriolanus
1608 Pericles, Prince of Tyre, with George Wilkins
1610 The Tragedy of Cymbeline
1611 The Winter's Tale
1611 The Tempest
1612-13 Cardenio, with John Fletcher (survives only in later adaptation called Double Falsehood by Lewis Theobald)
1613 Henry VIII (All Is True), with John Fletcher
1613-14 The Two Noble Kinsmen, with John Fletcher
KINGS AND QUEENS OF ENGLAND: FROM THE HISTORY PLAYS TO SHAKESPEARE'S LIFETIME
THE HISTORY BEHIND THE HISTORIES: A CHRONOLOGY
Square brackets indicate events that happen just outside a play's timescale but are mentioned in the play.
FURTHER READING AND VIEWING
CRITICAL APPROACHES
Barber, C. L., "Rule and Misrule in Henry IV," in his Shakespeare's Festive Comedy (1959). Superb linking to the "festive" world.
Bloom, Harold, ed., Modern Critical Interpretations: William Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 (1987). Extracts from strong twentieth-century critical approaches.
Bristol, Michael D., Carnival and Theater: Plebeian Culture and the Structure of Authority in Renaissance England (1985). Provocative Marxist reading.
Bulman, James, "Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2," in The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's History Plays, ed. Michael Hattaway (2002), pp. 158-76. Sensible overview.
Greenblatt, Stephen, "Invisible Bullets: Renaissance Authority and Its Subversion, Henry IV and Henry V," in Political Shakespeare: Essays in Cultural Materialism, ed. Jonathan Dollimore and Alan Sinfield (1985), pp. 18-47. Hugely influential "new historicist" reading. Reprinted in Greenblatt's Shakespearean Negotiations (1988).
Hodgdon, Barbara, The End Crowns All: Closure and Contradiction in Shakespeare's History (1991). Strong on structure.
Hunter, G. K., ed., Shakespeare: Henry IV Parts I and II, Macmillan Casebook series (1970). Invaluable selection of earlier criticism.
Kastan, David Scott, "'The King Hath Many Marching in His Coats,' or, What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?," in Shakespeare Left and Right, ed. Ivo Kamps (1991), pp. 241-58. Good focus on politics, duplicity, and kingship.
McAlindon, Tom, Shakespeare's Tudor History: A Study of Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 (2000). Excellent account of critical history and cultural context, with good close reading.
McLoughlin, Cathleen T., Shakespeare, Rabelais, and the Comical-Historical (2000). Fascinating intertextual reading of Henry IV plays with Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel.
Morgann, Maurice, An Essay on the Dramatic Character of Sir John Falstaff (1777, repr. 2004). Gloriously humane character criticism from the eighteenth century. Also freely available online, e.g., at www.19.5degs.com/ebook/essay-the-dramatic-character-of-sir-john-falstaff/466/read#list
Patterson, Annabel, Shakespeare and the Popular Voice (1989) and Reading Holinshed's Chronicles (1994). Two books that should be read as a pair.
Rackin, Phyllis, Stages of History: Shakespeare's English Chronicles (1990). Attentive to women and social inferiors as well as kings and nobles.
Rossiter, A. P., "Ambivalence: The Dialectic of the History Plays," in his Angel with Horns: Fifteen Lectures on Shakespeare (1961). Still one of the best things written on the play.
Saccio, Peter, Shakespeare's English Kings (1977). The best practical guide to the relationship between actual historical events in the Middle Ages, the Tudor chronicles, and Shakespeare's dramatic reshaping of history.
Wood, Nigel, ed., Henry IV Parts One and Two (1995). Sophisticated collection of theoretically informed essays--not for beginners.
THE PLAY IN PERFORMANCE
Bogdanov, Michael, and Michael Pennington, The English Shakespeare Company: the Story of the Wars of the Roses, 1986-1989 (1990). Insiders' account.
Callow, Simon, Actors on Shakespeare: Henry IV Part 1 (2002). Takes the reader through the play "from the point of view of the practitioner"--lucid, intelligent, readable account.
McMillin, Scott, Shakespeare in Performance: Henry IV Part One (1991). Discussion of five important modern productions, up to English Shakespeare Company, plus films.
Merlin, Bella, With the Rogue's Company: Henry IV at the National Theatre (2005). Detailed account of Nicholas Hytner's production.
Parsons, Keith, and Pamela Mason, eds., Shakespeare in Performance (1995). Includes a useful essay on both parts of Henry IV by Janet Clare-- luxuriously illustrated.
Smallwood, Robert, ed., Players of Shakespeare 6 (2004). Includes illuminating discussions by David Troughton on playing Bullingbrook/Henry IV and Desmond Barrit on Falstaff.
Wharton, T. F., Text and Performance: Henry the Fourth Parts 1 & 2 (1983). A good basic introduction to the play and detailed discussions of three RSC productions and the BBC television version.
AVAILABLE ON DVD
Chimes at Midnight, directed by Orson Welles (1965, DVD 2000). Condenses all the Falstaff material from both parts of Henry IV plus Henry V and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Multi-award nominated, with a star-studded cast, as eccentric and brilliant as Welles' own performance as Falstaff. One of the all-time classic Shakespeare films.
Henry the Fourth Parts 1 and 2, directed by David Giles (1979, DVD 2005). Somewhat pedestrian account for the BBC series. Anthony Quayle's Falstaff stands out.
Henry V, directed by Kenneth Branagh (1989, DVD 2002). Incorporated some flashback scenes from Henry IV with Robbie Coltrane as Falstaff.
My Own Private Idaho, directed by Gus Van Sant (1991, DVD 2005). Loosely based on the Hal-Falstaff relationship. Stars River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves as a pair of gay hustlers.
The Wars of the Roses, directed by Michael Bogdanov (1989, DVD 2005). Recording of English Shakespeare Company's eclectic and highly political stage production.
REFERENCES
1. Scott McMillin, Shakespeare in Performance: Henry IV, Part One (1991), p. 1.
2. A reference to The Second Part of Henry the Fourth or Henry V in Nicholas Breton's A Post with a Packet of Mad Letters (Part I, 1603).
3. James Wright, Historia Historionica (1699).
4. Colley Cibber, An Apology for the Life of Mr Colley Cibber (1740), p. 87.
5. Thomas Davies, Dramatic Miscellanies (1784, repr. 1971), pp. 124-8.
6. Davies, Dramatic Miscellanies, pp. 127-8.
7. Davies, Dramatic Miscellanies, pp. 136-41.
8. Davies, Dramatic Miscellanies, p. 153.
9. Davies Laurence Selenick, The Changing Room: Sex, Drag and Theatre (2000), p. 270.
10. William Hazlitt, Examiner, 13 October 1816.
11. The Athenaeum, No. 902, 8 February 1845, p. 158.
12. Harold Child, "The Stage-History of King Henry IV," in The First Part of the History of Henry IV, ed. J. Dover Wilson (1946), pp. xxix-xlvi.
13. Theatrical Journal, Vol. 7, No. 346, 1 August 1846, pp. 243-4.
14. Henry Morley, diary entry for 14 May 1864 in The Journal of a London Playgoer from 1851 to 1866 (1866), pp. 330-9.
15. Morley, diary entry for 1 October 1864, pp. 344-5.
16. William Archer, The Theatrical "World" of 1896 (1897, repr. 1971), pp. 141-50.
17. The Athenaeum, No. 3577, 16 May 1896, p. 659.
18. G. B. Shaw, The Saturday Review, London, Vol. 81, No. 2116, 16 May 1896, pp. 500-2.
19. William Butler Yeats, "At Stratford-upon-Avon" (1901), in his Essays and Introductions (1961), p. 97.
20. Herbert Farjeon, "King Henry the Fourth--Part I: Mr Robey's Falstaff," in his The Shakespearean Scene: Dramatic Criticisms (1949), p. 92.
21. Child, "The Stage-History of King Henry IV," pp. xxix-xlvi.
22. Stephen Potter, New Statesman and Nation, 6 October 1
945, p. 227.
23. Audrey Williamson, "The New Triumvirate (1944-47)," in her Old Vic Drama: A Twelve Years' Study of Plays and Players (1948), pp. 172-212.
24. Anthony Quayle, in a foreword to Shakespeare's Histories at Stratford, 1951, by J. Dover Wilson and T. C. Worsley (1970).
25. T. C. Worsley, New Statesman and Nation, 3 November 1951, pp. 489-90.
26. T. C. Worsley, Shakespeare's Histories at Stratford, 1951 (1970), p. 31.
27. Worsley, New Statesman and Nation, 3 November 1951, pp. 489-90.
28. T. C. Worsley, New Statesman and Nation, 7 May 1955, p. 646.
29. Eric Keown, Punch, 11 May 1955, pp. 593-4.
30. Michael Bogdanov and Michael Pennington, The English Shakespeare Company: The Story of the Wars of the Roses, 1986-1989 (1990), pp. 28-9, quoted in Barbara Hodgdon, Shakespeare in Performance: Henry IV, Part Two (1993), pp. 124-5.
31. Donald Malcolm, New Yorker, 30 April 1960, pp. 86-9.
32. Ben Brantley, New York Times Current Events Edition, 23 December 1993.
33. Ben Brantley, New York Times, 21 November 2003.
34. Paul Taylor, Independent, 6 May 2005.
35. Taylor, Independent, 6 May 2005.
36. Taylor, Independent, 6 May 2005.
37. McMillin, Shakespeare in Performance, p. 88.
38. McMillin, Shakespeare in Performance, p. 95.
39. McMillin, Shakespeare in Performance, p. 100.
40. Ronald Bryden, "The Education of a King," Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, RSC Programme notes, 1980.
41. McMillin, Shakespeare in Performance, p. 86.
42. McMillin, Shakespeare in Performance, p. 86.
43. T. F. Wharton, Henry the Fourth, Parts 1 & 2: Text and Performance (1983).
44. David Scott Kastan, ed., Introduction, in King Henry IV Part 1, Arden Shakespeare (2002).
45. Stanley Wells, Times Literary Supplement, 10 May 1991.
46. Michael Billington, Guardian, 18 April 1991.
47. John Peter, Sunday Times, London, 21 April 2001.
48. Desmond Barrit, "Falstaff," in Robert Smallwood, ed., Players of Shakespeare 6 (2004).
49. Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard, 20 April 2000.
50. Michael Billington, Guardian, 21 April 2000.
51. Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra, Second Part, 29.
52. Harold C. Goddard, "Henry IV," in Harold Bloom, ed., William Shakespeare: Histories and Poems (1986).
53. Goddard, "Henry IV."
54. Listener, 3 July 1975.
55. Kastan, King Henry IV Part 1, p. 97.
56. Emrys James, "On Playing Henry IV," Theatre Quarterly, Vol. 7, 1977.
57. W. Stephen Gilbert, Plays and Players, Vol. 22, No. 10, 1975.
58. Gilbert, Plays and Players.
59. Michael Coveney, Daily Mail, 21 April 2000.
60. McMillin, Shakespeare in Performance, p. 42.
61. Wharton, Henry the Fourth, Parts 1 & 2.
62. Stanley Wells, Times Literary Supplement, 10 May 1991.
63. David Troughton, "Bolingbroke in Richard II, and King Henry IV," in Smallwood, Players of Shakespeare 6.
64. Troughton, "Bolingbroke in Richard II, and King Henry IV."
65. Troughton, "Bolingbroke in Richard II, and King Henry IV."
66. Robert Smallwood, Critical Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 1, Spring, 1983.
67. Billington, Guardian, 21 April 2000.
68. Troughton, "Bolingbroke in Richard II, and King Henry IV."
69. Bryden, "The Education of a King."
70. Goddard, "Henry IV," p. 33.
71. James, "On Playing Henry IV."
72. Billington, Guardian, 21 April 2000.
73. John Peter, Sunday Times, 30 April 2000.
74. Troughton, "Bolingbroke in Richard II, and King Henry IV."
75. Kastan, King Henry IV Part 1, p. 102.
76. Peter, Sunday Times, 21 April 2001.
77. Irving Wardle, Independent on Sunday, 21 April 2001.
78. Billington, Guardian, 18 April 2001.
79. Michel de Montaigne, Essays (trans. Florio, 1603), pp. 1, 30.
80. Unsigned review, The Times, London, 17 April 1964.
81. Wharton, Henry the Fourth Parts 1 & 2.
82. David E. Jones, Drama Survey, Vol. 4, No. 1, Spring 1965.
83. Wharton, Henry the Fourth, Parts 1 & 2, p. 67.
84. Wharton, Henry the Fourth, Parts 1 & 2.
85. Desmond Barrit, "Falstaff."
86. Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 21 April 2000.
87. Peter Davison, "Henry IV," in Mark Hawkins-Dady, ed., International Dictionary of Theatre--1: Plays (1992).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND PICTURE CREDITS
Preparation of "Henry IV in Performance" was assisted by a generous grant from the CAPITAL Centre (Creativity and Performance in Teaching and Learning) of the University of Warwick for research in the RSC archive at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded a term's research leave that enabled Jonathan Bate to work on "The Director's Cut."
Picture research by Michelle Morton. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust for assistance with picture research (special thanks to Helen Hargest) and reproduction fees.
Images of RSC productions are supplied by the Shakespeare Centre Library and Archive, Stratford-upon-Avon. This Library, maintained by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, holds the most important collection of Shakespeare material in the UK, including the Royal Shakespeare Company's official archive. It is open to the public free of charge.
For more information see www.shakespeare.org.uk.
1. Herbert Beerbohm Tree (1896) Reproduced by permission of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust 2. Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier (1945) John Vickers courtesy of the University of Bristol Theatre Collection 3. Directed by John Kidd and Anthony Quayle (1951) Angus McBean (c) Royal Shakespeare Company 4. Directed by Terry Hands (1975) Joe Cocks Studio Collection (c) Shakespeare Birthplace Trust 5. Directed by Michael Attenborough (2000) John Haynes (c) Royal Shakespeare Company 6. Directed by Michael Bogdanov (1987) (c) Donald Cooper/photostage.co.uk
7. Directed by Michael Boyd (2007) Ellie Kurttz (c) Royal Shakespeare Company
8. Directed by Adrian Noble (1991) Joe Cocks Studio Collection (c) Shakespeare Birthplace Trust 9. Directed by Michael Boyd (2007) Ellie Kurttz (c) Royal Shakespeare Company
10. Reconstructed Elizabethan Playhouse (c) Charcoalblue
THE MODERN LIBRARY EDITORIAL BOARD
Maya Angelou
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A. S. Byatt
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Caleb Carr
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Christopher Cerf
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Harold Evans
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Charles Frazier
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Vartan Gregorian
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Jessica Hagedorn
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Richard Howard
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Charles Johnson
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Jon Krakauer
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Edmund Morris
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Azar Nafisi
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Joyce Carol Oates
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Elaine Pagels
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John Richardson
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Salman Rushdie
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Oliver Sacks
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Carolyn See
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Gore Vidal
Introduction copyright (c) 2007, 2009 by The Royal Shakespeare Company All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Modern Library, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
MODERN LIBRARY and the TORCHBEARER
"Royal Shakespeare Company," "RSC," and the RSC logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of The Royal Shakespeare Company.
The version of Henry IV: Part I and the corresponding footnotes that appear in this v
olume were originally published in William Shakespeare: Complete Works, edited by Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen, published in 2007 by Modern Library, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
eISBN: 978-1-58836844-7
www.modernlibrary.com
v3.0
1 we i.e. the king/the nation as a whole
wan pale, sickly
2 Find we let us find
frighted frightened
3 breathe short-winded accents speak while out of breath
broils quarrels, fighting
4 strands afar remote distant shores
5 entrance mouth
6 daub smear, plaster
7 trenching plowing
8 flow'rets small flowers
armed ironshod/armored
9 paces (horse's) tread/ gallop
opposed hostile, malevolent
10 meteors regarded as bad omens
12 intestine shock internal, domestic military encounter
13 close hand-to-hand fighting
14 mutual well-beseeming united and ordered
19 sepulchre of Christ Christ's tomb (at Jerusalem; Henry is planning a crusade to the Holy Land) 21 impressed conscripted
engaged pledged, committed
22 power army
levy raise, muster
23 arms upper limbs/weapons
mother's natural mother's/England's
24 fields lands/battlefields
25 blessed feet i.e. Christ's
27 bitter painful/pitiable
29 bootless pointless
31 gentle kindly/noble
cousin kinsman
32 yesternight last night
33 dear important/urgent/noble/costly
expedience expedition
34 liege lord, superior to whom feudal service was due
hot in question hotly debated
35 limits...charge responsibilities relating to the undertaking 36 But only, as recently as
athwart adversely, at odds with our business
37 post messenger
loaden weighed down
heavy sad/weighty
40 irregular...Glendower uncivilized guerrilla fighter
Glendower was leader of the Welsh rebels)
41 rude rough
43 corpse corpses
44 transformation mutilation
47 tidings news
48 Brake archaic past tense of "break"
49 matched with together with, accompanied by
50 uneven rough, unsettling
52 Holy Rood day 14 September, dedicated to the cross rood) of Christ Hotspur Henry Percy's nickname suggests that he is vigorous, hasty, and hotheaded 54 approved tried and tested (in battle)
55 Holmedon the Northumberland site of the battle