William Shakespeare

Henry IV Part I William Shakespeare

Henry Bolingbroke has usurped his cousin, Richard II, to become King of England. News comes of a rebellion in Wales, where his cousin, Edmund Mortimer, has been taken prisoner by Owen Glendower, and in the North, where Harry Hotspur, the young son of the Earl of Northumberland, is fighting the Earl of Douglas. The king's problems mount up and he is forced to postpone his proposed participation in a crusade. Moreover, his heir, Henry, known as Hal, shows no interest in princely matters and spends all his time in the London taverns with disreputable companions, particularly one dissolute old knight, Sir John Falstaff. Falstaff will do anything to finance his eating and drinking. He carries out a robbery with two of hisfriends but Hal and Poins rob them in turn. Hal protects Falstaff from the law and returns the money to the victims.