The history of King Henry the Fourth

by William Shakespeare

'King Henry IV Part 1' is the second play in Shakespeare's Henriad tetralogy, following on from 'King Richard II'. The play was first printed in the First Quarto of 1598 (Q1), as 'The History of Henrie the Fovrth ... '. It seems that it was an extremely popular play as it was reissued in a second edition in the same year, a rare occurrence. The Arden text is taken from Q1 and from Q0, the surviving fragment of the quarto from which Q1 appears to have been taken. The action of the play is based on part of the king's reign, from 1402-3, and deals extensively with the idea of kingship.