Henry IV

Part 1

King Henry still wants to go on his crusade four years after deposing Richard II, but he has other problems to worry about first.  His fair-weather-friends the Percy family, who helped him get the throne, have decided that Henry hasn't lavished them with enough love (nooo, I'm not biased) and are beginning to rebel.  Henry's other problem is his son Hal, the crown prince, who spends his time carousing in bars with other delinquents like sir John Falstaff.  Hal secretly plans to reveal his true leadership abilities and kingliness later, but later is becoming sooner as his father and other noblemen as well as citizens lose trust in him.  As the rebellion comes to a head, Hal finally proves his worth by killing Henry Percy Jr., known as Hotspur (or "annoying, fickle little brat"), and the king's forces walk into the sunset in a perfect setup for a sequel.

Part 2

The rebels are running scared and the few tricks they have up thir sleeves aren't enough to save them. Meanwhile, Hal has fallen back into his evil life but is becoming disenchanted with it.  When King Henry gets deathly sick, Hal once again reforms, this time for good, just in time to become King Henry V.

Hal's relationship to Falstaff is often considered troublesome, since at face value Hal appears to totally reject a loyal if imperfect friend for self-serving reasons.  But that's just face value.  Yeah, Hal needs to reject Falstaff to be respected as king-but if the king is not respected, then England goes downhill.  Besides, Falstaff really isn't that great a guy.  He cheats bar owners, he cheats old buddies, he lies like a dirty rug, he talks badly about Hal himself behind his back, he looks forward to cashing in on their friendship once Hal becomes king.  The real question may be why Hal hangs out in bars in the first place.  I think he's fascinated by this world and drawn to it yet also repulsed by its realities and doesn't really know what he wants for his life until his impending kingship leaves him no choice.  Harold Bloom, who wrote "Shakespeare : The Invention of the Human" seems to think Falstaff is the wittiest character in all of Shakespeare as well as one of the smartest, next to Hamlet.  To put it kindly, I disagree-let's just leave it at that before I go on a rampage.  As you can see from the summary, I don't support the rebels-I don't think they were justified considering their complaints.  I guess at some point the conflict became personal on both sides and neither was willing to give up.  But that doesn't make the Percy family any less self-serving.  I'm also not quite sure why this was written in two parts-the first one all but says "to be continued".  The likeliest explanation I've heard is money-Shakespeare wrote the first part and then planned to write the second if the first  was profitable, which it was, thanks to Falstaff.

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