quotes, notes, timelines & more

Home » Shakespeare's Works » Henry IV Pt 1

Henry IV Pt 1

Written: c. 1596-97; Texts: Quartos 1598, 1599, 1604, 1608, 1613, 1622; First Folio 1623 (History)
Sources: Holinshed, Raphael (c. 1528-c. 1580). The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland. (2nd ed., 1587); Daniel, Samuel (c.1562-1619). The Civil Wars between the Two Houses of Lancaster and York (1595-1609); The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth (c. 1594); William Baldwin ed. The Mirror for Magistrates (1559 ed.); Stow, John (1525-c.1605) The Chronicles of England (1580)
Characters: Hotspur (Henry Percy), Prince Hal (Henry Prince of Wales), Henry IV, Thomas Percy Earl of Worcester, Sir John Falstaff, Owen Glendower
Setting: London
Time: AD 1402-1403

Henry IV Part 1 begins what scholars refer to as the Henriad, an allusion to Virgil's Aeneid. The Henriad, Shakespeare's epic account of King Henry V, includes Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2, and Henry V. Those three plays combined with their prequel, Richard II, comprise what is now known as the Second Tetralogy, written between 1597 and 1598. The First Tetralogy, written earlier between 1591 and 1595, comprises Henry VI Part 1Henry VI Part 2, Henry VI Part 3, and Richard III. Henry IV Part 1 is notable in part because it introduces one of Shakespeare's most popular characters, Sir John Falstaff. In the first productions of this play the character was called Sir Jon Oldcastle but because descendants of the actual Jon Oldcastle objected censors demanded the character's name be changed.

Tinker, Soldier, Broker, Bridegroom

Read the Note

Most metaphors are obvious, as when Buckingham speaks of Cardinal Wolsey in Henry VIII:

This butcher’s cur is venomed-mouthed, and I
Have not the power to muzzle him; therefore best
Not wake him in his slumber.” 

But Shakespeare sometimes more subtly invoked metaphor through the selective choice of vocabulary. 
… continue reading this note

Characters, Actors and Figurative Language

Read the Note

Early in Henry VIII, Anne Bullen, young and beautiful, considers the prospect of a prosperous future. In the same scene, Anne’s companion, the old lady, sardonically remarks on her lost youth and unfulfilled aspirations for wealth and position at court. The contrast of these two characters is clear, but Shakespeare uses more than casting, makeup, costumes, or even the subject matter of their opening dialogue,
… continue reading this note

You and Thee

Read the Note

In Henry IV Part 1, in the exchange between Hotspur and Owen Glendower, about calling up devils from the vasty deep, Hotspur deliberately shifts from the word you to thee when he addresses Glendower. You was often used to convey respect while thee was used when speaking to someone of inferior rank,
… continue reading this note

Wives and Troubled Husbands

Read the Note

Lady Percy’s plea to Hotspur in Henry IV, Part 1, is similar to Portia’s plea to Brutus in Julius Caesar. In both a wife is pleading with her husband to disclose the thoughts that seem to trouble him deeply. A difference, however, is that some psychologists consider Lady Percy’s speech a clinical description of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
… continue reading this note

So shaken as we are, so wan with care

Read the Quote

So shaken as we are, so wan with care,
Find we a time for frighted peace to pant
And breathe short-winded accents of new broils
To be commenced in strands afar remote.
No more the thirsty entrance of this soil
Shall daub her lips with her own children’s blood.

The edge of war, like an ill-sheathèd knife,
No more shall cut his master.
… continue reading this quote

Act 1
Scene 1
Line 1

Source Type:

Spoken by:

Here is a dear, a true-industrious friend

Read the Quote

Henry IV
Here is a dear, a true-industrious friend,
Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse,
Stained with the variation of each soil
Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours,
And he hath brought us smooth and welcome news.

O, that it could be proved
That some night-tripping fairy had exchanged
In cradle-clothes our children where they lay

The Earl of Douglas is discomfited;
… continue reading this quote

Act 1
Scene 1
Line 62

Source Type:

Spoken by:
,

Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?

Read the Quote

Falstaff
Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?
Prince Hal
Thou art so fat-witted with drinking of old
sack, and unbuttoning thee after supper, and
sleeping upon benches after noon, that thou hast
forgotten to demand that truly which thou wouldst
truly know. What a devil hast thou to do with
the time of the day?
… continue reading this quote

Act 1
Scene 2
Line 1

Source Type:

Spoken by:
,

Thou hast the most unsavory similes

Read the Quote

Falstaff
Thou hast the most unsavory similes,  and
art indeed the most comparative, rascaliest, sweet
young prince.

Before I knew thee, Hal, I knew nothing, and now
am I, if a man should speak truly, little better than
one of the wicked.

But, Hal, I prithee trouble me no
more with vanity. I would to God thou and I knew
where a commodity of good names were to be
bought.
… continue reading this quote

Act 1
Scene 2
Line 84

Source Type:

Spoken by:
,

Poins!—Now shall we know if Gadshill have set a match

Read the Quote

Falstaff
Poins!—Now shall we know if Gadshill have set a
match. O, if men were to be saved by merit, what
hole in hell were hot enough for him? This is the
most omnipotent villain that ever cried “Stand!” to
a true man.
Prince Hal
Good morrow, Ned.

Sir John stands to his word.
… continue reading this quote

Act 1
Scene 2
Line 112

Source Type:

Spoken by:
, ,

I know you all, and will awhile uphold

Read the Quote

I know you all, and will awhile uphold
The unyoked humor of your idleness.
Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To smother up his beauty from the world,
That, when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted, he may be more wondered at
By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
Of vapors that did seem to strangle him.
… continue reading this quote

Act 1
Scene 2
Line 202

Source Type:

Spoken by:

My liege, I did deny no prisoners

Read the Quote

My liege, I did deny no prisoners.
But I remember, when the fight was done,
When I was dry with rage and extreme toil,
Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,
Came there a certain lord, neat and trimly dressed,
Fresh as a bridegroom, and his chin new reaped
Showed like a stubble land at harvest home.
He was perfumèd like a milliner,
… continue reading this quote

Act 1
Scene 3
Line 30

Source Type:

Spoken by:

But soft, I pray you

Read the Quote

Hotspur
But soft, I pray you. Did King Richard then
Proclaim my brother Edmund Mortimer
Heir to the crown?
Northumberland
He did; myself did hear it.

And now I will unclasp a secret book,
And to your quick-conceiving discontents
I’ll read you matter deep and dangerous

Hotspur
Nay then,
… continue reading this quote

Act 1
Scene 3
Line 158

Source Type:

Spoken by:
, ,

Hear you, cousin, a word

Read the Quote

Worcester
Hear you, cousin, a word.
Hotspur 
All studies here I solemnly defy,
Save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke.
And that same sword-and-buckler Prince of Wales—
But that I think his father loves him not
And would be glad he met with some mischance—
I would have him poisoned with a pot of ale.
… continue reading this quote

Act 1
Scene 3
Line 235

Source Type:

Spoken by:
, ,

Sirrah, if they meet not with Saint Nicholas’ clerks

Read the Quote

Gadshill
Sirrah, if they meet not with Saint Nicholas’
clerks, I’ll give thee this neck.
Chamberlain
No, I’ll none of it. I pray thee, keep that
for the hangman, for I know thou worshipest Saint
Nicholas as truly as a man of falsehood may.
Gadshill
What talkest thou to me of the hangman?
… continue reading this quote

Act 2
Scene 1
Line 66

Source Type:

Spoken by:
,