Where Prince Hal Has an Awakening

Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 by E.A.M. Colman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I expected not to like this (or any of Shakespeare's histories, tbh) and I have been interested to find that I not only like them (and this one in particular), I like them best of all his writing.

I was surprised. But I can't entirely explain.

Most of my experience with Shakespeare is with tragedies (including teaching a couple). My schooling included fewer comedies, and no histories. Since I've lately been reading Shakespeare for my own reasons, I've realized that for me the inequality expression goes this way: Histories>comedies>sonnets>>>>>>tragedies.

(Come at me, bro. I genuinely hate Othello. And Romeo and Juliet. And... well, all of them. I hate tragic endings in any and all media. I don't know what tragedy does for other people, and I don't know why so many people like it or why they think it is a good thing for a story to end with terrible things happening. Catharsis? I never got none of that. That's fine for them, though. Whatevs. But me--it fucks me up. I just really hate it. You know what? Let those other folks try to teach young people about Othello killing his sweet wife, five times a year for many years in a row, and see what they think then. Grrrrrrr.)

(I want Shakespeare's Happy Ending Theater to be a thing--a whole series where every tragedy has a new fifth act, with Romeo and Juliet running away to Paris or something, and Othello discovering Iago's plotting in time to fix things, etc, and then everything turns out happy. I don't care who spins in whose grave. I'd love that.)

Back to Henry IV (though this play is really about his son, which is cool). Young Henry is a mess, hanging around with old thieves like Falstaff, drinking his life away, behaving like a criminal himself, and he has a kind of awakening. Henry Percy, known better as Hotspur, is another young man from an important family, but instead of drinking and hanging out is making a name for himself as a warrior and leader of men. So when Hotspur's family unites with Scots and Welsh noblemen against his father, Henry of Monmouth (eventually Henry V, someday) cleans himself up and leaves his foolishness behind and apologizes to his father and becomes a new man. He brings Falstaff with him, but starts to distance himself from the drunk.

The contrast between the two settings--the taverns and streets on the one hand, among the criminals and drunks, where they talk nonsense, play pranks and plan petty crimes; and the battlefield on the other, among nobles, serious men of good sense, who discuss strategy and take the big picture, one encompassing the whole nation--is striking, and the juxtaposition of those settings makes both stand out more. Some histories suffer by involving almost exclusively noblemen, giving a narrow view of the world, but here we get both extremes of society.

In addition, there are many parallels between, first, lowlife men of action robbing a rich man and then getting robbed in turn with, second, Bolingbroke usurping the throne from King Richard II and then facing an armed rebellion of his own. Lots to chew on there. I'm not sure what Shakespeare was saying--whether it's satire its opposite. (Since I have no teacher telling me nothing, I can think what I like. So...... I dunno what I think.)

I found the story entertaining and the telling of it clever. I wish there was less difference between Shakespeare's English and our own so that I could read it without referring to helps and supports so often, but at least those helps are available and one can still read pretty fluently. Now I'm ready to start part 2, and when I bought the plays I wondered if I could drag myself through them at all.

Turns out, yes. Happily.

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