SOURCE: Wood, Nigel. Introduction to Henry IV, Parts One and Two, edited by Nigel Wood, pp. 1-34. Buckingham: Open University Press, 1995.

In the following excerpt, Wood surveys critical estimations of Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 and examines the relationship between Prince Hal and Falstaff.

Falstaff and Historical Order

The critical history of the Henry IV plays follows one consistent course: the resolution to make sense of Falstaff's attractiveness and Hal's obduracy in rejecting him. In Barbara Hodgdon's The End Crowns All it becomes clear that the most pressing problem posed for directors is that of whether Falstaff is damned the first time we meet him (see Hodgdon 1991: 152-61). The early stage history of the plays is so unequal, with Part 1 a stock favourite and Part 2 grudgingly billed as a sequel, as in Thomas Betterton's adaptation for Drury Lane in 1720. Even then, it was the comic Falstaff that sold the...