![]() ![]() As comedy, they tell the story of a prodigal son's journey from youth to maturity and an old rogue's art of surviving by means of jokes, tall tales and the art of being not only witty in himself but the cause that wit is in other men. Shakespeare excelled in every available genre of Elizabethan drama – and the Henry IV plays are his generic full house, hitting the jackpot identified by Polonius in Hamlet: "tragical-comical-historical-pastoral."Īs history, the plays paint a panorama of England, embracing a wider social range than any previous historical drama, as the action moves from court to tavern, council-chamber to battlefield, city to country, archbishop and lord chief justice to whore and thief. ![]() A n occupational hazard for the Shakespeare scholar is that one's lectures at literary festivals and in schools are nearly always followed by the well-intended but hoary old question "Which is your favourite Shakespeare play?" In reply, I cheat, offering two for the price of one: the first and second parts of Henry IV. ![]()
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