Shakespeare's Tudor History: A Study of Henry IV Parts 1 and 2

Part 1 Contexts: a critical history - a masterpiece, comic history, structures, 19th-century interpretations, 20th-century interpretations - conservative Shakespeare, 20th-century interpretations - ambivalent Shakespeare; a Tudor history - present and past; rebellion, the colours of rebellion and the problem of truth, rumour's tongues, what is a man but his promise, treachery and distrust, grace and favour. Part 2 Text: time - Tudor time, Henry IV - imagery and design, the King, Esperance ma comforte - the rebels, continual laughter - Falstaff, sunlike majesty - the heir apparent; truth - oaths, perjury and language, royal duplicity - Henry and Prince John, the rebels - divided and dividing, the word of the noble - Sir John Falstaff, knight, true prince or princely hypocrite?; grace - grace and honour, a god on earth - Henry and Prince John, the king of honour - Sir Harry Percy, Sir John - the reforming knight, the ungracious boy, epilogue. Appendices: Twelfth Night and temperate mirth; swearing and forswearing in the histories from Henry VI to Richard.