Henry IV, part 1 (Shakespeare, Signet Classic)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451502833 ISBN 13: 9780451502834

Publisher: Signet Classics, 1965

Henry IV Part 1 is one of Shakespeare's best known histories, in which Shakespeare lays bare the irony of English history while entertaining the audience with the hilarity of Falstaff. The plain English footnotes provide new insights into Shakespeare's intentions and Shakespeare's understanding of history, and make Henry IV Part 1 easy to read and enjoy. The book is printed on quality paper that will last, and is a Shakespeare for study edition released by Austi Classics.

About the Author:

William Shakespeare was from Stratford-on-Avon England, and baptized on 26 April 1564. His family had lived in Stratford-on-Avon for generations. Shakespeare's father John Shakespeare was the Catholic mayor, and a leading figure of Augustinian Catholicism in England. In this capacity John Shakespeare was responsible for the trust funds in which British Augustinians concealed investments that would otherwise have been subject to confiscation if left in the hands of private individuals. For years William Shakespeare himself was involved in legal proceedings to determine the proceeds of such funds. Shakespeare's father was driven out of public office and into a kind of political underground by persecution organised by militant proponents of predestination in the Calvinist church and their Jesuit allies. For the first nearly two centuries after his death in 1616, William Shakespeare's plays were not performed in England. Were it not for the role of Friedrich Schiller, the great German dramatist of the late 1700s, William Shakespeare might now be unknown. Through his plays, William Shakespeare opened the mind of his audiences to the tragedy of history and realities of human behaviour, introduced in the English language the concept of irony, and metaphor. Shakespeare's work had, in Shakespeare's lifetime, an uplifting influence on the capabilities of human reason benefiting the entire population of England.