King Henry IV, Part 1

• Henry IV sits uneasily on the throne he usurped from Richard II. Rebellion brews from the Percy family (Hotspur, Northumberland, Worcester) • Prince Hal (the heir) spends his time in Eastcheap taverns with Sir John Falstaff — fat, old, witty, drunk, cowardly, and utterly magnificent • Hal's opening soliloquy: he KNOWS he's slumming. He'll reform when it suits him. "I'll so offend, to make offence a skill" — his transformation will look more impressive against a background of dissipation • Falstaff is the life force: "Banish plump Jack, and banish all the world." He embodies pleasure, freedom, disorder — everything a king can't be • Hotspur is Hal's mirror: young, brave, honor-obsessed, politically naive. He's everything a prince should be, except smart enough to survive • The rebels unite: Hotspur, his father Northumberland, and the Welsh wizard Glendower. But they quarrel over dividing the kingdom • The play-within-the-play at the Boar's Head tavern: Hal and Falstaff take turns playing king and prince. Comedy that rehearses the real crisis • "What is honour?" — Falstaff's catechism before battle. Honour is a word, air, nothing. The dead have it. The living don't need it • Battle of Shrewsbury: Hal kills Hotspur in single combat. Proves himself a warrior. Falstaff plays dead to survive, then claims credit for killing Hotspur • Hal lets Falstaff have the lie. But we know: the prince is becoming the king, and Falstaff's world is ending • The play's three worlds — court, tavern, rebel camp — create a complete England