The First Part of King Henry IV

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. This second edition of The First Part of King Henry IV offers a theatrical perspective on the origins of Shakespeare's play and the history of its interpretation. In their introduction the editors, Herbert and Judith Weil, clarify the play's de-centred dramatic structure and call attention to the effects of civil war on a broad range of relationships. Falstaff's unpredictable vitality is also explored, together with such important contemporaneous values as honour, friendship, festivity and reformation. Lexical glosses make the rich wordplay accessible, while the notes provide a thorough commentary on Shakespeare's transformation of his sources. A supplementary section by Katharine Craik focuses on important modern interpretations.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• List of illustrations (p. vi)
• Preface (p. ix)
• List of abbreviations and conventions (p. x)
• Introduction (p. 1)
• Reputation (p. 1)
• Date (p. 4)
• The design of the play (p. 7)
• Transforming the sources (p. 19)
• The appeal of Falstaff and the contexts of interpretation (p. 28)
• Stage history (p. 41)
• Recent stage, film and critical interpretations (p. 62)
• Note on the text (p. 80)
• List of characters (p. 84)
• The Play (p. 87)
• Textual analysis (p. 219)
• Appendix Shakespeare and Holinshed (p. 231)
• Reading list (p. 234)