num_pages: 400
description: David Scott Kastan lucidly explores the remarkable richness and the ambitious design of King Henry IV Part 1 and shows how these complicate any easy sense of what kind of play it is. Conventionally regarded as a history play, much of it is in fact conspicuously invented fiction, and Kastan argues that the non-historical, comic plot does not simply parody the historical action but by its existence raises questions about the very nature of history. The full and engaging introduction devotes extensive discussion to the play's language, indicating how its insistent economic vocabulary provides texture for the social concerns of the play and focuses attention on the central relationship between value and political authority.
language: English
title: King Henry IV Part 1
titlecomplete: King Henry IV Part 1
characters: Chamberlain, Elizabeth Mortimer, Baroness Camoys, Owain Glyndŵr, Henry Percy "Hotspur", Mugs (carrier), Archibald Douglas, 4th Earl of Douglas, Peto, John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, Vintner, Servant to Hotspur, Richard le Scrope, Bishop of Lichfield and Archbishop of York, 1st Traveller, Gilliams, messenger to Hotspur, Tom (carrier), Edward "Ned" Poins, Sir Walter Blount, Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, Catrin ferch Owain Glyndŵr, Ostler, Sir Richard Vernon, 8th Baron of Shipbrook, Sheriff, Henry V of England, Sir John Falstaff, 2nd Traveller, Mistress Nell Quickly, Thomas Percy, 1st Earl of Worcester, Sir Edmund Mortimer IV, Sir Michael, Francis the drawer, Bardolph, Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, Robin Ostler, Henry IV of England
genres: Fiction, Plays, Theatre, Classics, Drama, Historical, Historical Fiction, Literature, Poetry, School
ratings_count: 29553
series: Wars of the Roses, Henry IV
publisher: Arden Shakespeare