I Henry IV (Norton Critical Editions) [Paperback]

William Shakespeare (Author), Gordon McMullan (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0393979318 | ISBN-13: 978-0393979312 | Publication Date: April 1, 2003 | Edition: 3rd

The text, with few departures, is that of the First Quarto (1598) edition of the play.

Act and scene divisions are not indicated in the Quarto; those of the First Folio have been incorporated, with one exception: scene ii of Act V has been divided into two scenes, with the concluding scenes numbered accordingly. The Third Edition includes expanded annotations.

"Contexts and Sources" includes dueling arguments on the play’s completeness (one play or one half of a play?) and the naming of a central character (Falstaff or Oldcastle?).

"Criticism" includes twenty-four essays—from E. M. W. Tillyard’s classic argument of an ordered Shakespearean universe to Graham Holderness’s rebuttal to Gus Van Sant’s interview regarding 1 Henry IV as the inspiration for his cult film, My Own Private Idaho—nineteen of them new to the Third Edition.

The Selected Bibliography has been thoroughly updated.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Gordon McMullan is Reader in English at King’s College, London. His publications include The Politics of Unease in the Plays of John Fletcher, the Arden edition of Shakespeare and Fletcher’s Henry VIII, and two edited collections of essays, The Politics of Tragicomedy: Shakespeare and Renaissance Configurations: Voices/Bodies/Spaces, 1580-1690. He is currently working on a book about Shakespeare and the invention of late writing.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 3rd edition (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393979318
• ISBN-13: 978-0393979312
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #150,590 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1564, and his birth is traditionally celebrated on April 23. The facts of his life, known from surviving documents, are sparse. He was one of eight children born to John Shakespeare, a merchant of some standing in his community. William probably went to the King's New School in Stratford, but he had no university education. In November 1582, at the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, eight years his senior, who was pregnant with their first child, Susanna. She was born on May 26, 1583. Twins, a boy, Hamnet ( who would die at age eleven), and a girl, Judith, were born in 1585. By 1592 Shakespeare had gone to London working as an actor and already known as a playwright. A rival dramatist, Robert Greene, referred to him as "an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers." Shakespeare became a principal shareholder and playwright of the successful acting troupe, the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later under James I, called the King's Men). In 1599 the Lord Chamberlain's Men built and occupied the Globe Theater in Southwark near the Thames River. Here many of Shakespeare's plays were performed by the most famous actors of his time, including Richard Burbage, Will Kempe, and Robert Armin. In addition to his 37 plays, Shakespeare had a hand in others, including Sir Thomas More and The Two Noble Kinsmen, and he wrote poems, including Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. His 154 sonnets were published, probably without his authorization, in 1609. In 1611 or 1612 he gave up his lodgings in London and devoted more and more time to retirement in Stratford, though he continued writing such plays as The Tempest and Henry VII until about 1613. He died on April 23 1616, and was buried in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford. No collected edition of his plays was published during his life-time, but in 1623 two members of his acting company, John Heminges and Henry Condell, put together the great collection now called the First Folio.