Henry IV, Part I and II and Henry V (plays)

Henry IV, Part I and II and Henry V (plays), dramatic trilogy by English playwright William Shakespeare, probably written between 1597 and 1598, that chronicles the career of England’s last hero-king. The trilogy consists of Henry IV, Part I; Henry IV, Part II; and Henry V. The theme of the plays is the transformation of Henry from the wild prince Hal, already mentioned in Richard II (1595-1596) as a wastrel and haunter of taverns, into the prudent, brave, and pious conqueror of France.

Shakespeare apparently got the idea for this series of plays from an old play, The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth, which was playing on the stage about the time that Shakespeare arrived in London. The old play exploited the tradition of Henry's riotous youth and presented the historic Sir John Oldcastle as one of the prince's boon companions. Shakespeare took over both the tradition and this character, whom he renamed Falstaff. Falstaff is considered the supreme comic figure in English literature. According to tradition, Falstaff’s character was so popular during Shakespeare’s time that Queen Elizabeth I requested the return of the rowdy knight in a play showing Falstaff in love. Shakespeare complied with the comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor (1599).

In Henry IV, Part I, we see the young prince Hal (Henry V) indulging in wild pranks with Falstaff, being rebuked by his father (Henry IV), promising to reform, and making his promise good by slaying Hotspur, the leader of the rebels, in single combat. Prince Hal appears less in Henry IV, Part II until near the end, when his reconciliation with his dying father and his rejection of Falstaff point the way to his successful career as king. In the last play of the trilogy, Henry V, Henry prudently prepares to enforce his claims on the crown of France. He crushes domestic treason with stern but impartial justice, gains victory in the battle of Agincourt against enormous odds, and captures the heart of a French princess.

Hotspur and Falstaff are two of Shakespeare’s most memorable characters. They spur Henry’s maturation over the course of the first two plays. Hotspur, universally admired for his courage and integrity, serves as a foil to emphasize the prince's initial irresponsibility and his subsequent skill and valor as a warrior. At the same time, Hotspur is in himself an appealing character. Hot headed, petulant, and totally without self-insight, his romantic, impulsive nature is tellingly revealed when he speaks of honor:

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Falstaff, by comparison, is a bundle of laughable incongruities. Old, fat, and roisterous, he engages in highway robbery; an officer in the royal army, he takes bribes to let recruits escape service. He feigns death to escape danger, yet claims for himself the glory of killing Hotspur. However, he is endearing in his inexhaustible good humor and his steady flow of witty speech. Falstaff is also shrewd and realistic, as revealed by his speech on honor, so unlike Hotspur's:

Prince Hal, faced with a remote and demanding royal father and the prospect of spending his life defending an uncertain crown, understandably chooses the congenial and accessible Falstaff as a temporary second father. Upon the death of Henry IV, however, Henry becomes his own man and rejects his former drinking companion, calling him “the tutor and the feeder of my riots.” This repudiation of Falstaff is a dramatic as well as a moral necessity. Shakespeare apparently realized there was no place for this jesting mocker of honor on the battlefield of Agincourt. It is also consistent with Henry's character: For all his high spirits, the prince reveals a detached and cerebral nature early in Henry IV, Part I. In his first soliloquy, after his reputation as a wastrel has been established, Hal discloses the purpose behind his boisterous actions:

By the end of Henry IV, Part II, Henry's maturation is complete, and in Henry V, one of Shakespeare's most patriotic plays, he is an idealized figure, “the mirror of all Christian kings.” Heroic, noble, and judicious, Henry is also very human. The night before the famous battle of Agincourt, he wanders in disguise through the camp, talking with the common soldiers about the battle ahead and the nature of the king, their leader:

Henry's capacity for leadership is brilliantly revealed in his stirring speech to his handful of troops before the battle of Agincourt:

Compared with Shakespeare's earlier histories, this trilogy contains a very large proportion of prose. This is due to the great number of comic scenes and characters. In the speech of Falstaff, especially, Shakespeare reaches the height of his fluent and humorous prose. The poetry of these plays is direct, dramatic, and effective; in Henry V it often swells into grand rhetorical declamation. This dramatic presentation of Henry as prince and king is Shakespeare's crowning work in the field of the chronicle play.

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