Henry IV Part I A Play

by William Shakespeare, Mybook

This is one of Shakespeare's most popular plays, featuring the opportunistic, Sir John Falstaff. Part I is the second in a series of four English history plays that make up Shakespeare's major tetralogy. It continues the saga of the Bolingbrook family and the Plantagenet monarchy that begins with Henry IV's seizure of power in Richard II and the coming of age of Prince Henry. The plot shifts back and forth between the troubled realm of Henry IV's court and the vulgar world of the tavern in which Sir John Falstaff presides over his group of rascals and is joined by the fun-loving Prince Henry or Hal. The plot encompasses rebellion and the struggle for power.