Articles liés à Henry IV, Part 1 (World Classics Shakespeare Series)

Henry IV, Part 1 (World Classics Shakespeare Series) - Couverture souple

Shakespeare, William

 
9789386101761: Henry IV, Part 1 (World Classics Shakespeare Series)

Synopsis

In Henry IV, Part 1, the King is in a doubly ironic position. His rebellion against Richard II was successful, but now he himself is beset by rebels, led by the charismatic Harry Hotspur. The King's son, Prince Hal, seems to be more concerned with the pleasures of the tavern world and the company of the fat rogue, Falstaff, than with concerns of state. Eventually, however, Hal proves a courageous foe of the rebels. This history play is lively in its interplay of political intrigue and boisterous comedy, subtle in the connections between high statecraft and low craftiness, exuberant in its range of vivid characters, and memorable in its thematic concern with honour, loyalty and the quest for power.

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Biographie de l'auteur

William Shakespeare was from Stratford-on-Avon England, and baptized on 26 April 1564. His family had lived in Stratford-on-Avon for generations. Shakespeare's father John Shakespeare was the Catholic mayor, and a leading figure of Augustinian Catholicism in England. In this capacity John Shakespeare was responsible for the trust funds in which British Augustinians concealed investments that would otherwise have been subject to confiscation if left in the hands of private individuals. For years William Shakespeare himself was involved in legal proceedings to determine the proceeds of such funds. Shakespeare's father was driven out of public office and into a kind of political underground by persecution organised by militant proponents of predestination in the Calvinist church and their Jesuit allies. For the first nearly two centuries after his death in 1616, William Shakespeare's plays were not performed in England. Were it not for the role of Friedrich Schiller, the great German dramatist of the late 1700s, William Shakespeare might now be unknown. Through his plays, William Shakespeare opened the mind of his audiences to the tragedy of history and realities of human behaviour, introduced in the English language the concept of irony, and metaphor. Shakespeare's work had, in Shakespeare's lifetime, an uplifting influence on the capabilities of human reason benefiting the entire population of England.

Présentation de l'éditeur

Family relationships are at the center of Henry IV, Part 1. King Henry IV and Prince Hal form one major father-son pair, with Henry in despair because Hal lives a dissolute life. The father-son pair of Hotspur (Lord Henry Percy) and his father, the Earl of Northumberland, is in seeming contrast; the king envies Northumberland “his Harry,” wishing he could claim the gallant Hotspur as his own. Meanwhile, Hal has entered into a quasi-father-son relationship with a disreputable but amusing knight, Sir John Falstaff. Another strand of action centers on still more family relationships. Hotspur’s stand against Henry focuses on Hotspur’s brother-in-law, Mortimer. Mortimer, who fought against the Welsh magician Owen Glendower, was defeated and captured and has married Glendower’s daughter. King Henry pronounces Mortimer a traitor whom he will not ransom. Hotspur, in declaring war on Henry, sees himself as fighting for Mortimer, his wife’s brother.

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