Source: In an introduction to The History of Henry IV, Part One, by William Shakespeare, edited by Maynard Mack, New American Library, 1965, pp. xxiii-xxxvi.

[Mack provides basic information about the play, discussing the dates it was written, performed, and published. In identifying the historical sources Shakespeare used to write Henry IV, Part One, Mack points out some of the historical facts that Shakespeare alters. The critic explains why topics covered in the play such as the succession of English monarchs, were of interest to Elizabethan audiences.]

The First Part of Henry IV was published in 1598; it was probably written and acted in 1596-97. There are some topical allusions in the play to these years, notably the Second Carrier's reference to the high cost of oats that killed Robin Ostler (II.i.12). Topical in a more important sense, during the whole 0 the 1590's, was the play's general subject...