Four Histories

by William Shakespeare

Book annotation not available for this Four Shakespeare, Penguin Group USAPublication 1995/05/01Number of Binding PAPERBACKLibrary of 95159573

Genres: Classics, Plays, Shakespeare, Fiction, Literature, Historical Fiction, Drama

880 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1599

About the author

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".

Reviews

[Anisha Inkspill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve managed to put off reading this one for as long as I could, I was expecting this to be a difficult read.

Shakespeare history plays has a lot of characters, who tend to have more than one name, so keeping a track of who’s who and who is doing what to who is not easy.

To help me, I got this book on kindle – it has all 4 plays, and each each play has an Introduction essay, Notes, An Account of the Text and a list of Further Reading. Richard II, Henry IV part one and Henry V also have a genealogical table, and Henry IV part two includes a separate section for songs with sheet music. However, I knew it would not be enough, so I also listened to audio plays and listened to some lectures on YouTube.

With the number of resources there are available on the internet, this book is almost made redundant. I like reading, seeing the words on the page and trying to make sense of Shakespeare’s story layers myself, but this was tough, and reading the essays I could see there were points I missed (like Richard the II is drawn out as a character to sympathise with and in the end root for). Without the notes (and the understanding I’m slowly building of how to read Shakespeare plays) I would have struggled to connect with the comedy in Henry IV part one, and the suspense in Richard II. Henry IV part two would have been a tougher read if read alone, and Henry V wasn’t as a gripping read for me as reading the screenplay Film Script One: Henry V / The Big Sleep / A Streetcar Named Desire.

Thinking of how we read stories today, I was also puzzled by Henry IV’s minor role in two of these plays where the title is his name, fortunately, the one of the intro essays addressed this, pointing out that Henry IV has the same number of lines as his son Hal. What I liked the most about including all four plays is being able to follow Hal’s journey, where the themes that follow in the three Henry plays are foreshadowed in Richard II. I’m glad I read this book rather than the plays individually, I’m not going to say I understood it all but the additions in this book made it easier than it otherwise would have been.

Also, afterwards, I realised how little I know the history of the Plantagenets, where really I just about scrape by on Tudor History, so wanting to change this I listened to A History of Britain Vol 1 (At the Edge of the World? 3500 BC-AD 1603) and am currently reading The Plantagenets .



(side note: read dates showing when I started and finished reading this are an approximation as this was read sometime between July and August 2021)

[Hannah Polley · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took me a while to get through this and did feel like a long slog. I have been rereading all of the Shakespeare plays that I own and this was the last one but I am looking forward to the break now.

I did quite enjoy Richard II, I thought it was a good play and would have given it 3 stars. I thought it had a lot of suspense.

For me, the other 3 plays (Henry IV Part 1 & Henry IV Part 2 & Henry V) were just a lot of battles and it got quite tiring.

[Jason Wilson]

Various dramatisations

[Il Giudizio Universale · Rating 5 out of 5]

These four plays, more than any other Shakespeare's other works, are my favorites of his.

[Larissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

All the lapidary dialogue that you would expect from Shakespeare, dosed with a surprising amount of early modern ethnic humor (those Welsh and their leeks, ha ha!) I also found the scenes with Falstaff and his fellow tavern denizens to be more grim then funny - on the page, Sir John comes across more like a scheming bully than a jovial buffoon, although it's easy to imagine an actor making the character more likeable onstage. The cycle as a whole doesn't quite stand up to all-time greats like Hamlet or Macbeth, but is still mightily impressive.

[E. G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richard II

Introduction
Further Reading
An Account of the Text
Genealogical Table

--King Richard the Second

Henry IV, Part One

Introduction
Further Reading
An Account of the Text
Genealogical Table

--The First Part of King Henry the Fourth

Henry IV, Part Two

Introduction
Further Reading
An Account of the Text
The Songs

--The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth

Henry V

Introduction
Further Reading
An Account of the Text
Genealogical Tables

--King Henry the Fifth

[Trey]

I had to read this for a Shakespeare In Film class, and it was the first time I'd ever read any of his histories. I really fell in love, though. I was already a fan of the guy's, but I didn't expect so much from what I was sure would be tedious subject matter.

[Spencer Reynolds · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to meet more Henriad stans. As a complete package, it's up there with Hamlet for me. Bursting with heart, wit, wisdom, and scope. The poetry is divine, the characters are excellent, and it's possibly the first great coming of age story.

[Sasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kindof a placeholder for all Shakespeare's histories, which I spent the summer of 2010 reading. Individual reviews for most of them are...around here somewhere.

[Gwen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot express how much I love Shakespeare's histories. Henry V has been my favorite for a while, but I thoroughly enjoyed all of them together.

[Maximilian Nightingale · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first time reading this Henriad straight through, and how well do the plays form a whole! Richard II was still not very impressive, though it is a necessary set up for what follows, where one sees the guilt of Henry IV in taking the crown and even how he embodies the same lust for the crown that Richard shows at the end of the first play, unable to renounce it peacefully. There is also more rhyme in Richard II than any other Shakespeare play, if I am not mistaken.

Then come the two parts of Henry IV. There are the hilarious dialogues between Falstaff and Hal, but things take a much more serious turn in Part II. Only this time did I appreciate how Falstaff signifies the flesh, in being both despicable and alluring. The moral excellence of Hal is seen, not so much in turning out his former friends, but most of all in his cautious approach to the crown. He is aware of the burden that comes with it, but assumes it well, exceeding expectations from the very beginning.

Then comes Henry V, in which the goodness of the King is almost overwhelming! Again, I think it is significant that Falstaff dies while Henry V is at his height. People love the St. Crispin's day speech, but I think his soliloquy on the worthlessness of ceremony cuts more deeply, taking the sentiments from his crown speech in 2H4 and improving them with experience. He is clever with punishing his traitors and then there is, perhaps the most beautiful scene, where he goes among his soldiers unknown, to strengthen them but also to suffer with them. This scene is reminiscent of a Henry VI play, where that king also walks around with his majesty unknown. Alas, it was not to such great effect for that latter king. One more excellent part of the play: the French scenes. I just skipped them entirely my first time reading Henry V, but this time I knew enough French to follow the meaning. The first one is Kate's attempt to learn English--this is nearly all in French, but as I read it, I recognized that it would be very intelligible on the stage, since gestures and the smattering of English words would indicate what is happening in the scene. The other two French scenes are clear enough.

Overall, I highly recommend reading these four plays as a unit! This Penguin edition was excellent, but the Folger Shakespeare or any other annotated edition would be fine. This edition in particular had the meaning of nearly every obscure word, and sometimes treated the reader with excerpts from Johnson's critique. There are also introductions to each play. I only skimmed these, but the one for 2H4 helped me pay closer attention than I would have.