Henry IV, Part I (SparkNotes Literature Guide)
By SparkNotes
()
About this ebook
Making the reading experience fun!
Created by Harvard students for students everywhere, SparkNotes is a new breed of study guide: smarter, better, faster. Geared to what today's students need to know, SparkNotes provides: chapter-by-chapter analysis
explanations of key themes, motifs, and symbols
a review quiz and essay topics
Lively and accessible, these guides are perfect for late-night studying and writing papers.
Read more from Spark Notes
King Lear: No Fear Shakespeare Deluxe Student Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Romeo and Juliet: No Fear Shakespeare Deluxe Student Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bird by Bird (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As You Like It (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Much Ado About Nothing (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Tempest (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Fear Shakespeare Audiobook: Romeo & Juliet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Macbeth: No Fear Shakespeare Deluxe Student Edition Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Measure for Measure (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Outsiders (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo Fear Shakespeare Audiobook: Julius Caesar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Richard III (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5100 Years of Solitude (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Autobiography of Malcom X (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Atlas Shrugged SparkNotes Literature Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTempest: No Fear Shakespeare Deluxe Student Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Henry V (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Merchant of Venice: No Fear Shakespeare Deluxe Student Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Winter's Tale (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Merchant of Venice (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Comedy of Errors (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Two Gentlemen of Verona (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Raisin in the Sun (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDune (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTo Kill a Mockingbird SparkNotes Literature Guide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Romeo and Juliet SparkNotes Literature Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo Fear Shakespeare Audiobook: Othello Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King Lear (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRomeo and Juliet (No Fear Shakespeare Graphic Novels) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Henry IV, Part I (SparkNotes Literature Guide)
Related ebooks
Richard III (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPolitical Animal: An Essay on the Character of Shakespeare’s Henry V Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRichard II (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGale Researcher Guide for: Shakespearean History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHenry V (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHenry V Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHenry IV, Part II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Henry VI, Part III Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Henry VI, Part I Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Henry IV, Part I Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Henry IV Part 2 (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHenry VI, Part 2 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King John Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Tragedy of Julius Caesar Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRichard III Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Henry VIII (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHenry VI, Part II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Richard II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hamlet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coriolanus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gale Researcher Guide for: Playwright as Historian: From Christopher Marlowe to David Hare Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStudy Guide to The Comedies by William Shakespeare Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHenry VI Part 1 (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStudy Guide to Richard III by William Shakespeare Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHamlet SparkNotes Literature Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStudy Guide to The Tempest by William Shakespeare Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTroilus and Cressida Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJulius Caesar: No Fear Shakespeare Deluxe Student Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Study Guide to Henry IV, Part 1 by William Shakespeare Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Man, Shakespeare - And his Tragic Life Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Book Notes For You
Summary of The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 5 AM Club Summary: Business Book Summaries Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Workbook & Summary of Becoming Supernatural How Common People Are Doing the Uncommon by Joe Dispenza: Workbooks Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEight Dates: Essential Conversations for a Lifetime of Love by John Gottman: Conversation Starters Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides: Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Summary of 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Compound Effect: Jumpstart Your Income, Your Life, Your Success by Darren Hardy: Conversation Starters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary of How to Know a Person By David Brooks: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Summary of Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez: Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson: Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Workbook for Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know by Adam Grant: Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of Ichiro Kishimi's and Fumitake Koga's book: The Courage to Be Disliked: Summary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary of Scarcity Brain By Michael Easter: Fix Your Craving Mindset and Rewire Your Habits to Thrive with Enough Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSUMMARY Of The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in Healthy Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor: Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Midnight Library: A Novel by Matt Haig: Conversation Starters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab: Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi: Summary by Fireside Reads Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Reviews for Henry IV, Part I (SparkNotes Literature Guide)
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Henry IV, Part I (SparkNotes Literature Guide) - SparkNotes
Henry IV, Part 1
William Shakespeare
© 2003, 2007 by Spark Publishing
This Spark Publishing edition 2014 by SparkNotes LLC, an Affiliate of Barnes & Noble
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (including electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.
Sparknotes is a registered trademark of SparkNotes LLC
Spark Publishing
A Division of Barnes & Noble
120 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10011
www.sparknotes.com /
ISBN-13: 978-1-4114-7551-9
Please submit changes or report errors to www.sparknotes.com/.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Context
Plot Overview
Character List
Analysis of Major Characters
Themes, Motifs & Symbols
Act I, scene i
Act I, scene ii
Act I, scene iii
Act II, scenes i-iii
Act II, scene iv
Act II, scene v
Act III, scene i
Act III, scene ii
Act III, scene iii
Act IV, scenes i-ii
Act IV, scenes iii-iv
Act V, scenes i-ii
Act V, scenes iii-v
Important Quotations Explained
Key Facts
Study Questions & Essay Topics
Review & Resources
Context
T
he most influential writer
in all of English literature, William Shakespeare was born in
1564
to a -successful middle-class glove maker in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Shakespeare attended grammar school, but his formal education proceeded no further. In
1582
he married an older woman, Anne Hathaway, and had three children with her. Around
1590
he left his family behind and traveled to London to work as an actor and playwright. Public and critical acclaim quickly followed, and Shakespeare eventually became the most popular playwright in England and part-owner of the Globe Theater. His career bridged the reigns of Elizabeth I (ruled
1558–1603
) and James I (ruled
1603
–
1625
), and he was a favorite of both monarchs. Indeed, James granted Shakespeare’s company the greatest possible compliment by bestowing upon its members the title of King’s Men. Wealthy and renowned, Shakespeare retired to Stratford and died in
1616
at the age of fifty-two. At the time of Shakespeare’s death, literary luminaries such as Ben Jonson hailed his works as timeless.
Shakespeare’s works were collected and printed in various editions in the century following his death, and by the early eighteenth century his reputation as the greatest poet ever to write in English was well established. The unprecedented admiration garnered by his works led to a fierce curiosity about Shakespeare’s life, but the dearth of biographical information has left many details of Shake-speare’s personal history shrouded in mystery. Some people have concluded from this fact and from Shakespeare’s modest education that Shakespeare’s plays were actually written by someone else—Francis Bacon and the Earl of Oxford are the two most popular candidates—but the support for this claim is overwhelmingly circumstantial, and the theory is not taken seriously by many scholars.
In the absence of credible evidence to the contrary, Shakespeare must be viewed as the author of the thirty-seven plays and
154
sonnets that bear his name. The legacy of this body of work is immense. A number of Shakespeare’s plays seem to have transcended even the category of brilliance, becoming so influential as to affect profoundly the course of Western literature and culture ever after.
Henry IV, Part
1
, more commonly referred to as
1
Henry IV, is one of Shakespeare’s history plays. It forms the second part of a tetralogy, or four-part series, that deals with the historical rise of the English royal House of Lancaster. (The tetralogy proceeds in the following order: Richard II,
1
Henry IV,
2
Henry IV—that is, Henry IV, Part
2
—and Henry V.)
1
Henry IV was probably composed in the years
1596–1597.
Set in the years
1402–1403
, the action of
1
Henry IV takes place nearly two centuries before Shakespeare’s own time. In general, it follows real events and uses historical figures, although Shakespeare significantly alters or invents history where it suits him. For instance, the historical Hotspur was not the same age as Prince Harry, and Shakespeare’s Mortimer is a conflation of two separate individuals. The play refers back to the history covered in Richard II (which can be considered its prequel), and a familiarity with the events of Richard II is helpful for understanding the motivations of various characters in
1
Henry IV.
Among Shakespeare’s most famous creations is Falstaff, Prince Harry’s fat, aged, and criminally degenerate mentor and friend. -Falstaff’s irreverent wit is legendary. He has many historical precedents: he owes much to archetypes like the figure of Vice from medieval morality plays and Gluttony from medieval pageants about the seven deadly sins. His character also draws on both the miles gloriosus figure, an arrogant soldier from classical Greek and Roman comedy, and the Lord of Misrule, the title given an -individual appointed to reign over folk festivities in medieval England. Ultimately, however, Falstaff is a Shakespearean creation, second among Shakespearean characters only to Hamlet as a subject of -critical interest.
The play mixes history and comedy innovatively, moving from lofty scenes involving kings and battles to base scenes involving ruffians drinking and engaging in robberies. Its great strengths include a remarkable richness and variety of texture, a fascinatingly ambiguous take on history and on political motivations, and a new kind of characterization, as found in the inimitable Falstaff.
Shakespeare’s History Plays: Sources and Contexts
Shakespeare’s so-called history plays are generally thought to constitute a distinct genre. They differ somewhat in tone, form, and focus from Shakespeare’s comedies, tragedies, and romances. Many of Shakespeare’s other plays are set in the historical past and even treat similar themes, such as kingship and revolution—Julius Caesar and Hamlet, for instance. However, the eight works known as the history plays have several additional things in common: they form a linked series, they are set in late medieval England, and they deal with the rise and fall of the House of Lancaster (a period that later historians often referred to as the Wars of the Roses).
Shakespeare wrote his most important history plays in two tetralogies, or sequences of four plays apiece. The first series, written near the start of his career (roughly
1589–1593
), consists of
1
Henry VI,
2
Henry VI,
3
Henry VI, and Richard III, and covers the fall of the Lancaster dynasty—that is, events in English history between about
1422
and
1485
. The second series, written at the height of Shakespeare’s career (roughly
1595
–
1599
), covers English history from around
1398
to
1420
. This series consists of Richard II and the most famous history plays of all,
1
Henry IV,
2
Henry IV, and Henry V. There are two other, less-celebrated history plays: King John, whose title figure ruled from
1199
to
1216
, and All Is Well, which takes the reign of Henry VIII (
1509
–
1547
) as its subject.
Although the events he writes about occurred some two centuries before his own time, Shakespeare expected his audience to be familiar with the characters and events he was describing. The battles among houses and the rise and fall of kings were woven into the cultural fabric of England and formed an integral part of the country’s patriotic legends and national mythology. One might compare this