In Henry IV Part I Bolingbroke, the decisive usurper of Richard II has been transformed into the careworn King Henry IV, thwarted in his desire to expiate his guilt on crusade by the threat of civil war. His wayward son, Prince Hal, is entrapped by the decadent charms of SirJohn Falstaff, but triumphs in the decisive battle of Shrewsbury when he kills the charismatic Harry Hotspur. Shakespeare's penetrating study ofthe nature of kingship is a theme which recurs thrgughout his great Histories, of which this is the second.
The text of this edition is taken from the Cambridge University Press New Shakespeare, edited by Sir Arthur Quiller Couch and John Dover Wilson.