King Henry IV, Part 1

King Henry IV, Part 1 by William Shakespeare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am unfortunately immune to Falstaff’s charms, which makes this difficult to appreciate. Prince Hal’s calculating attitude to his own dissolution is more interesting, and the extent to which it is a rationalisation or justification for his preferences can be brought out in performance. His affection for Falstaff lives off the page – the actual lines are a litany of fat jokes that seem mean-spirited, borne out by his callow rejection of this alternate father-figure at the end.

Hal’s equivocal attitude is authentically Shakespearian, but so is Falstaff’s disreputable behaviour. On the battlefield, the cowardly knight satirises the ideals of chivalry and honour, and the broader political system they support. But that comes at the same time as he leads over 300 poor people to their deaths before running away, which feels morally outrageous. Reading Falstaff as Shakespeare’s argument for the joys of eating and drinking as opposed to fighting and conspiring is a simplification, and Shakespeare is never that clear cut. Hal abandoning Eastcheap for the demands of kingship is as finely-balanced a dramatic finale as the deposition of Richard II. Shakespeare doesn’t show us who’s right, and that’s what makes the work live on.

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