Henry IV, Part One (Bantam Classic) - Softcover

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William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1564, and his birth is traditionally celebrated on April 23. The facts of his life, known from surviving documents, are sparse. He was one of eight children born to John Shakespeare, a merchant of some standing in his community. William probably went to the King’s New School in Stratford, but he had no university education. In November 1582, at the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, eight years his senior, who was pregnant with their first child, Susanna. She was born on May 26, 1583. Twins, a boy, Hamnet ( who would die at age eleven), and a girl, Judith, were born in 1585. By 1592 Shakespeare had gone to London working as an actor and already known as a playwright. A rival dramatist, Robert Greene, referred to him as “an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers.” Shakespeare became a principal shareholder and playwright of the successful acting troupe, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (later under James I, called the King’s Men). In 1599 the Lord Chamberlain’s Men built and occupied the Globe Theater in Southwark near the Thames River. Here many of Shakespeare’s plays were performed by the most famous actors of his time, including Richard Burbage, Will Kempe, and Robert Armin. In addition to his 37 plays, Shakespeare had a hand in others, including Sir Thomas More and The Two Noble Kinsmen, and he wrote poems, including Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. His 154 sonnets were published, probably without his authorization, in 1609. In 1611 or 1612 he gave up his lodgings in London and devoted more and more time to retirement in Stratford, though he continued writing such plays as The Tempest and Henry VII until about 1613. He died on April 23 1616, and was buried in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford. No collected edition of his plays was published during his life-time, but in 1623 two members of his acting company, John Heminges and Henry Condell, put together the great collection now called the First Folio.

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A play alive with escapades and action, comedy and history, "Henry IV, Part One begins the transformation of the madcap Prince Hal into the splendid ruler King Henry. In it a rebellion against King and State is juxtaposed with another rebellion-the riotous misbehavior of Hal and his companions, principally Falstaff. A superbly funny liar, coward, lecher, and cheat, the larger-than-life character Falstaff turns this great historical drama into a masterpiece of counterpoint and design.
Each Edition Includes:
- Comprehensive explanatory notes
- Vivid introductions and the most up-to-date scholarship
- Clear, modernized spelling and punctuation, enabling contemporary readers to understand the Elizabethan English
- Completely updated, detailed bibliographies and performance histories
- An interpretive essay on film adaptations of the play, along with an extensive filmography

Aus dem Klappentext

with escapades and action, comedy and history, Henry IV, Part One begins the transformation of the madcap Prince Hal into the splendid ruler King Henry. In it a rebellion against King and State is juxtaposed with another rebellion--the riotous misbehavior of Hal and his companions, principally Falstaff. A superbly funny liar, coward, lecher, and cheat, the larger-than-life character Falstaff turns this great historical drama into a masterpiece of counterpoint and design.

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Dramatis Personae

king Henry the fourth

prince Henry,  Prince of Wales,     sons of the King

prince john of Lancaster,   

earl of Westmorland

sir Walter blunt

earl of Northumberland, Henry Percy,

Harry Percy, (hotspur), his son,

earl of Worcester, Northumberland's

younger brother,

lord Mortimer, Edmund Mortimer,

also referred to as the Earl of March,

Owen Glendower,

earl of Douglas, Archibald Douglas,

sir Richard Vernon,

archbishop of York, Richard Scroop,

sir Michael, a member of the

Archbishop's household,

lady Percy, Hotspur's wife and Mortimer's sister

lady Mortimer, Mortimer's wife and Glendower's daughter

sir john Falstaff

Ned Poins

Bardolph

Peto

Gadshill, arranger of the highway robbery

hostess of the tavern, Mistress Quickly

Francis, a drawer, or tapster

vintner, or tavern keeper

first carrier

second carrier

hostler

chamberlain

first traveler

sheriff

servant to Hotspur

messenger

second messenger

Soldiers, Travelers, Lords, Attendants

scene: England and Wales

1.1. Location: The royal court.

2 Find we let us find. frighted frightened

3 breathe short-winded accents speak, even though we are out of breath. accents words broils battles

4 strands afar remote far-off shores, i.e., of the Holy Land (to which, at the end of Richard II, Henry has pledged himself to a crusade)

5 thirsty entrance i.e., parched mouth

6 daub coat, smear

7 trenching cutting, plowing

9 paces horses' tread

12 intestine internal

13 close hand-to-hand encounter. civil (as in "civil war")

18 his its

21 impressed conscripted

22 power army

23 their mother's i.e., England's, but also suggesting their mothers'

1.1 A Enter the King, Lord John of Lancaster, [the] Earl of Westmorland, [Sir Walter Blunt,] with others.

king

So shaken as we are, so wan with care,

Find we a time for frighted peace to pant, 2

And breathe short-winded accents of new broils 3

To be commenced in strands afar remote. 4

No more the thirsty entrance of this soil 5

Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood; 6

No more shall trenching war channel her fields 7

Nor bruise her flowerets with the armed hoofs

Of hostile paces. Those opposed eyes, 9

Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven,

All of one nature, of one substance bred,

Did lately meet in the intestine shock 12

And furious close of civil butchery, 13

Shall now in mutual well-beseeming ranks

March all one way and be no more opposed

Against acquaintance, kindred, and allies.

The edge of war, like an ill-sheathed knife,

No more shall cut his master. Therefore, friends, 18

As far as to the sepulcher of Christ--

Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross

We are impressed and engaged to fight-- 21

Forthwith a power of English shall we levy, 22

Whose arms were molded in their mothers' womb 23

To chase these pagans in those holy fields

Over whose acres walked those blessed feet

Which fourteen hundred years ago were nailed

For our advantage on the bitter cross.

But this our purpose now is twelve month old,

29 bootless useless

30 Therefore . . . now That is not the reason for our present meeting.

31 Of from. gentle cousin noble kinsman

33 dear expedience urgent expedition

34 hot in question being hotly debated

35 limits . . . charge particulars of military responsibility

36 athwart at cross purposes, contrarily

37 post messenger. loaden laden

43 corpse corpses

44 transformation mutilation

49 other other news

50 uneven disconcerting, distressing

52 Holy Rood Day September 14

54 approved proved by experience

55 Holmedon Humbleton in Northumberland

57 by judging from

58 shape of likelihood likely outcome

59 them the news

And bootless 'tis to tell you we will go. 29

Therefore we meet not now. Then let me hear 30

Of you, my gentle cousin Westmorland, 31

What yesternight our council did decree

In forwarding this dear expedience. 33

Westmorland

My liege, this haste was hot in question, 34

And many limits of the charge set down 35

But yesternight, when all athwart there came 36

A post from Wales loaden with heavy news, 37

Whose worst was that the noble Mortimer,

Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight

Against the irregular and wild Glendower,

Was by the rude hands of that Welshman taken,

A thousand of his people butchered--

Upon whose dead corpse there was such misuse, 43

Such beastly shameless transformation, 44

By those Welshwomen done as may not be

Without much shame retold or spoken of.

king

It seems then that the tidings of this broil

Brake off our business for the Holy Land.

Westmorland

This matched with other did, my gracious lord; 49

For more uneven and unwelcome news 50

Came from the north, and thus it did import:

On Holy Rood Day, the gallant Hotspur there, 52

Young Harry Percy, and brave Archibald,

That ever-valiant and approved Scot, 54

At Holmedon met, where they did spend 55

A sad and bloody hour,

As by discharge of their artillery 57

And shape of likelihood the news was told; 58

For he that brought them, in the very heat 59

60 pride height

62-3 Here . . . Blunt (Whether Blunt enters at the start of the scene, or now, or possibly not at all, is not certain in the original text.)

66 smooth pleasant

67 discomfited defeated

69 Balked heaped up in balks, or ridges

71 Mordake i.e., Murdoch, son of the Earl of Albany

81 plant young tree

82 minion favorite

84 riot debauchery

86 night-tripping i.e., moving nimbly in the night

88 Plantagenet (Family name of English royalty since Henry II)

90 let him let him go. coz cousin, i.e., kinsman

And pride of their contention did take horse, 60

Uncertain of the issue any way.

king

Here is a dear, a true industrious friend, 62

Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse, 63

Stained with the variation of each soil

Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours;

And he hath brought us smooth and welcome news. 66

The Earl of Douglas is discomfited; 67

Ten thousand bold Scots, two-and-twenty knights,

Balked in their own blood, did Sir Walter see 69

On Holmedon's plains. Of prisoners, Hotspur took

Mordake, Earl of Fife and eldest son 71

To beaten Douglas, and the Earl of Atholl,

Of Murray, Angus, and Menteith.

And is not this an honorable spoil?

A gallant prize? Ha, cousin, is it not?

Westmorland

In faith, it is a conquest for a prince to boast of.

king

Yea, there thou mak'st me sad, and mak'st me sin

In envy that my lord Northumberland

Should be the father to so blest a son--

A son who is the theme of honor's tongue,

Amongst a grove the very straightest plant, 81

Who is sweet Fortune's minion and her pride, 82

Whilst I, by looking on the praise of him,

See riot and dishonor stain the brow 84

Of my young Harry. Oh, that it could be proved

That some night-tripping fairy had exchanged 86

In cradle clothes our...