It is during one of these that Hal reveals his plot to the audience - he is playing the part of the foolish prince so that people will not expect much of him that way, when he finally reveals himself as the great thinker and fighter he is, he will look much better by comparison.Įventually, the political tensions come to a head and the two sides face off in the Battle of Shrewsbury. Hal's best friend is the old, fat, wily Sir John Falstaff, a bombastic drunk who provides much of the play's comedy.Īs King Henry and the Percy family wage a tense political battle, Hal and Falstaff get themselves into a number of comic situations. His son, Prince Harry (known as "Hal"), is a seeming good-for-nothing lout who surrounds himself with drunkards and rogues and rejects the royal life, preferring to play pranks and chase women. Looming war isn't King Henry's only problem, though. It is not to be, as some of his former allies plot to overthrow him- chief among them the Percy family, whose son Harry (known as "Hotspur") is one of the greatest warriors in England. It actually also relates to two other Shakespearean plays- Richard II (which it follows) and Henry V (which it precedes).įollowing the events in Richard II, Henry Bolingroke, now King Henry IV, wishes to wage a crusade to cleanse himself of the sin of Richard's death. It is the first in a duology, the second being Henry IV, Part 2.
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