Read the introductory lecture 1 Henry IV before commencing
discussion.
Note that I refer to particular moments in the play using a numerical shorthand. For example, 1.2.75 refers to Act One, Scene 2, line 75. If I wanted to indicate a passage of more than one line (say, lines 75-78), I would write 1.2.75-78. If there are just two numbers—e.g., 1.2—then I mean the second scene of Act One as a whole and not some particular passage. If and when you write about the play, use the same simple shorthand.
Richard II, the play that
precedes this one, concludes in a forward-looking but somber mood. A character
named Bolingbroke has secured the throne as King Henry IV, but the legality of
his rise to power is questionable (because the former king, Richard, was deposed
while still alive, then executed under suspicious circumstances).
The new king’s monologue at the opening of 1 Henry IV addresses the problems besetting the
realm since Richard’s death: namely, civil war. What is Henry’s solution to this
problem? Notice especially the religious and geographical references. Is this
familiar?
This plan to unite a divided kingdom is frustrated by
two other developments: the insubordination of the Percy clan; and the Prince of
Wales’ growing reputation as an ill-behaved and dissolute youth. These
rebellions, political and domestic, form the bases of the play’s two plots, a
duality reinforced both structurally and stylistically. Structurally, the play
alternates, scene by scene, between the two plots and their respective locales,
the court and the tavern. These worlds are stylistically differentiated: whereas
the language of the court is a stately blank verse (i.e., unrhymed iambic
pentametre), that of the tavern is strictly prose. This stylistic difference is
further reinforced by diction (i.e., word choice or vocabulary), especially in
the tavern where the characters’ speech is rich with homely references to
everyday aspects of English life among the commons.
Henry is confronted in 1.1 by disturbing developments. Hotspur (Henry Percy), son to Northumberland, fighting on Henry’s behalf, has captured and since withheld a number of important prisoners. In this he was apparently encouraged by his Uncle Worcester (pronounced “Worster”), brother to Northumberland.
But Hotspur’s act of insubordination is only part of the story of a soured relationship between Henry and the Percys. The rest becomes clearer in 1.3. By the end of this scene the Percys have hatched a full-blown rebellion plot against the king. Several questions:
(1) What is going on between Henry and Worcester?
(2) Why are the Percys rebelling?
(3) What is their legal justification for doing so?
(4) In what sense are (2) and (3) related?
Examine especially the following lines: 1-13, 77-93, 141-57, and 281-86. Try to avoid merely factual answers to the questions. Consider who these people are and what is happening here.
The Prince of Wales is first mentioned at
1.1.77-90. What is the king concerned about here? Having been explicitly
compared to the noble Hotspur, Hal appears in the following scene (1.2)
alongside his other great foil, Falstaff. What is the nature of this verbal
exchange? How would you describe their friendship? Notice that the witty
banter contains some darker undercurrents. Falstaff twice tries to raise an
important question. The first time, at 1.2.15‚ “prithee, sweet wag,
when thou art king,” he begins to ask but then digresses into more
word-play and horsing around. Along the way, Hal confronts him with two
rather unsavoury references, to the gallows and to the police constable.
What is Hal doing here and why?
Examine the exchange from the point at which
Falstaff finally asks, “shall there be gallows standing in England
when thou art king? ... hangman” (56-64). What is Falstaff really asking,
and what is Hal’s answer? What does Hal mean when he observes that Falstaff
will become “a rare hangman”?
The remainder of the scene concerns a robbery plot.
Be sure you understand the plan, particularly as it concerns a prank to be
perpetrated against Falstaff by Hal and Poins (143-68).
Examine Hal’s “sun-king” soliloquy
(183-205). Who is on the stage at this point, and how do we reconcile that
fact with the first line, “I know you all”? Who does he mean by
“you”? Now attend to lines 185-91 and list all the concrete
nouns (i.e., words representing things that can be apprehended by the
senses). These words form a series of related metaphors. They are vehicles
(concrete images) with tenors (implied meanings). What, in summary, is Hal
saying? He provides the answer, unpacks his own extended metaphor, at lines
192-205.
What are your impressions of this character early in the play?