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 Iand 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.
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.
Taylor, Neil, Henry IV Part Two (1992). Basic guide.
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.
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. 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 1945, 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. David Troughton, "Bolingbroke in Richard II, and Henry IV," in Robert Smallwood, ed., Players of Shakespeare 6 (2004).
41. Michael Billington, Country Life, 6 June 1991.
42. Janet Clare, "Henry IV Parts 1 & 2," in Keith Parsons and Pamela Mason, eds., Shakespeare in Performance (1995), p. 72.
43. Robert Speight, Shakespeare Quarterly, 15, 4 (1964).
44. London Times, 17 April 1964.
45. David E. Jones, Drama Survey, 4, 1 (Spring 1965).
46. Ronald Bryden, New Statesman, 24 April 1964.
47. Irving Wardle, London Times, 25 June 1975.
48. John Elsom, Listener, 3 June 1975.
49. Paul Taylor, Independent, 4 June 1991.
50. Taylor, Independent, 4 June 1991.
51. Allen Tate (1899-1979, American poet and critic), "Non Omnis Moriar."
52. John Peter, London Sunday Times, 2 June 1991.
53. Harold Hobson, London Sunday Times, 29 June 1975.
54. London Times, 17 April 1964.
55. Desmond Barrit, "Falstaff," in Smallwood, Players of Shakespeare 6.
56. Country Life, 6 June 1991.
57. London Sunday Times, 2 June 1991.
58. Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 3 June 1991.
59. Elsom, Listener, 3 June 1975.
60. Hobson, Sunday Times, 29 June 1975.
61. Wardle, London Times, 25 June 1975.
62. Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 2.
63. John Elsom, Listener, 3 July 1975.
64. Troughton, "Bolingbroke in Richard II, and Henry IV."
65. Peter Thomson, Shakespeare Survey, 29 (1976).
66. Clare, "Henry IV Parts 1 & 2," p. 74.
67. Taylor, Independent, 4 June 1991.
68. Emrys James, Theatre Quarterly, Vol. 7, No. 27 (Autumn 1977).
69. Peter, Sunday Times, 2 June 1991.
70. Troughton, "Bolingbroke in Richard II, and Henry IV."
71. Benedict Nightingale, New Statesman, 6 February 1976.
72. Roger Warren, Shakespeare Quarterly, 34, 1 (Spring 1983).
73. Robert Smallwood, Critical Quarterly, 25, 1 (Spring 1983).
74. Barrit, "Falstaff."
75. Kate Bassett, Daily Telegraph, 3 July 2000.
76. London Times, 4 July 2000.
77. Nightingale, New Statesman, 6 February 1976.
78. Elsom, Listener, 3 July 1975.
79. Clare, "Henry IV Parts 1 & 2," p. 78.
80. Elsom, Listener, 3 July 1975.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND
PICTURE CREDITS
Preparation of "Henry IVin 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.
Herbert Beerbohm Tree (1896) Reproduced by permission of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier (1945) John Vickers courtesy of the University of Bristol Theatre Collection
Directed by John Kidd and Anthony Quayle (1951) Angus McBean (c) Royal Shakespeare Company
Directed by Michael Attenborough (2000) John Haynes (c) Royal Shakespeare Company
Directed by Terry Hands (1975) Joe Cocks Studio Collection (c) Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
Directed by Michael Bogdanov (1987) (c) Donald Cooper/photostage.co.uk
Directed by Adrian Noble (1991) Joe Cocks Studio Collection (c) Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
Directed by Michael Boyd (2007) Ellie Kurttz (c) Royal Shakespeare Company
Reconstructed Elizabethan Playhouse (c) Charcoalblue
THE MODERN LIBRARY EDITORIAL BOARD
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2009 Modern Library Paperback Edition 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 Design are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
"Royal Shakespeare Company," "RSC," and the RSC logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of The Royal Shakespeare Company.
The version of Henry IV: Part II and the corresponding footnotes that appear in this volume 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: 978-1-58836845-4
www.modernlibrary.com
v3.0
List of parts irregular humorists lawless/disorderly men with wayward temperaments
Induction prologue. The Second Part of Henry the Fourth is continuous with The First Part, taking place immediately after the battle of Shrewsbury Rumour allegorical figure traditionally covered in painted tongues * marry by (the Virgin) Mary.
* Prithee I pray thee.
* God's liggens the precise meaning is unclear.
** By'r'lady By our lady, i.e. the Virgin Mary.
Porter gatekeeper
1 keeps guards
3 What who
4 attend wait for/wait upon
5 is has
orchard garden
6 Please it if it please
10 stratagem violent deed/scheme, plot
11 wild savage, rebellious, unruly
13 bears down tramples
15 certain definite
16 an if
will is willing, wishes it
19 your son Sir Henry Percy (Hotspur)
20 Blunts Sir Walter Blunt was killed by
Douglas in 1 Henry IV, Act 5 Scene 1; another Blunt is only mentioned in one of the play's sources 21 Prince John Prince Henry's younger brother
22 Westmorland Ralph Neville, a kinsman of the king's
Stafford in 1 Henry IV, Act 5 Scene 1, the Earl of Stafford is said to have been killed in the battle hulk big, unwieldy person (literally, large ship)
Sir John i.e. Falstaff
25 followed supported by loyal troops
27 fortunes successes
28 How...derived? What is the source of your information?
32 rendered gave, related
33 Travers his name suggests his function to contradict Lord Bardolph 35 over-rode overtook
37 haply perhaps
retail recount
39 Sir John Umfrevile either the name originally given to Lord Bardolph's character in an earlier version of the scene, or the gentleman who also gave Bardolph good news of the battle
41 Outrode rode faster than, left behind
42 forspent exhausted
43 breathe allow to rest and recover breath
bloodied i.e. from the constant digging of spurs
44 Chester town in the northwest of England
48 gave...head let him go freely, without restraint of the bridle able recovered/strong/ easy to handle
49 able capable/powerful
50 jade worn-out horse
51 rowel-head spiked wheel at the end of a spur
52 devour the way eat up the road
53 Staying waiting for
59 have...day has not won the battle
60 point lace for fastening clothing, i.e. something of small value 61 barony land held by a baron
63 instances evidence
65 hilding worthless
67 at a venture without due consideration/in a speculative manner Morton another servant of Northumberland's; his name suggests death 68 title-leaf title page of a book describing the contents 70 strand shore, beach
flood sea
71 witnessed usurpation visible signs of its invasion (left by the retreating tide) 78 apter more likely/more suitable
79 Even just
81 Drew drew aside, opened
Priam King of
Troy, killed in the Trojan war against the Greeks
curtain i.e. of his bed
83 ere before
87 Stopping filling
88 stop...indeed prevent me from ever hearing anything again, i.e. kill me 97 is chanced has happened
The Oxford Shakespeare: Henry IV, Part 2 (Oxford World's Classics) Page 22
