THE FIRST PART OF KING HENRY IV. THIS play, according to Malone, was probably written in 1597; according to Mr. Collier, perhaps in 1596. It was entered in the Stationers' Registers by Andrew Wise, Feb. 25th, 1597-8, as "A booke intitled the Historye of Henry the iiiith, with his battaile at Shrewsburye against Henry Hottspurre of the Northe, with the conceipted Mirth of Sir John Falstaffe;" and by him it was published in 1598, 4to.-That not only in this play, but in The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, Sir John Falstaff was originally called Sir John Oldcastle, is beyond all doubt. In Field's Amends for Ladies, 1618, we find (with an allusion to Falstaff's speech in The First Part of King Henry the Fourth, act v. sc. 2); "Did you never see The play where the fat knight, hight Oldcastle, Did tell you truly what this honour was?"— a passage first pointed out by Farmer, and which, as Mr. Halliwell observes, would show "that some of the theatres, in acting Henry IV., retained the name of Oldcastle after the author had altered it to that of Falstaff." (The Character of Sir John Falstaff, as originally exhibited by Shakespeare, &c., 1841, p. 28.) See too (id. pp. 24-6) the extract from The Meeting of Gallants at an Ordinarie, &c., 1604 (first cited by Malone), and that from The Wandering Jew, telling fortunes to Englishmen, 1640 (first cited by Reed). As to the internal evidence afforded by the two plays themselves that Falstaff was originally named Oldcastle-in The First Part, act i. sc. 2, Prince Henry calls Falstaff "my old lad of the castle;" on which Warburton remarks, "This alludes to the name Shakespeare first gave to this buffoon character, which was Sir John Oldcastle; and when he changed the name, he forgot to strike out this expression that alluded to it." In The Second Part, act iii. sc. 2, Shallow says, "Then was Jack Falstaff, now Sir John, a boy, and page to Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk :" but Oldcastle, not Falstaff, had been page to that nobleman, as Reed shows by the following lines from The Mirror of Martyrs, or The Life and Death of that thrice valiant Capitaine and most godly Martyre, Sir John Oldcastle, Knight, Lord Cobham, by J. Weever, 1601, where Oldcastle is the speaker; "Within the springtide of my flowring youth He [my father], stept into the winter of his age, And in the quarto of The Second Part, 1600, the speech of Falstaff, "Very well, my lord, very well," &c., act i. sc. 2, has the prefix “ Old.,”—which, as Theobald remarks, proves "that, the play being printed from the stagemanuscript, Oldcastle had been all along altered into Falstaff, except in this single place by an oversight; of which the printers not being aware, continued these initial traces of the original name." Compare, too, the words of the Epilogue to The Second Part; "where, for any thing I know, Falstaff shall die of a sweat, unless already 'a be killed with your hard opinions; for Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man."-From the entry in the Stationers' Registers quoted above, it is certain that Shakespeare had altered Oldcastle to Falstaff before the play was printed. Rowe mentions "that this part of Falstaff is said to have been written originally under the name of Oldcastle : some of that family being then remaining, the Queen was pleas'd to command him to alter it; upon which he made use of Falstaff" (Life of Shakespeare): and the statement is supported by Dr. James's Epistle Dedicatory to his unpublished work, The Legend and Defence of the Noble Knight and Martyr, Sir John Oldcastel; where we are told that Shakespeare changed the name Oldcastle to Falstaff, "offence beinge worthily taken by personages descended from his [Oldcastle's] title, as peradventure by manie others allso whoe ought to haue him in honourable memorie." (See Halliwell's Character of Sir John Falstaff, as originally exhibited by Shakespeare, &c. p. 20.)— It remains to be noticed, that the name which our author first gave to his inimitable knight was borrowed from an early anonymous play entitled The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth, containing the honourable battell of Agincourt: in that play one of Henry's companions is a "Sir John Oldcastle," -a personage, however, bearing no resemblance to Falstaff, and as dull as its other characters; and there, too,-crowded together and most inartificially handled,—are to be found the leading incidents of no fewer than three of Shakespeare's dramas, viz. The First and Second Parts of King Henry the Fourth and King Henry the Fifth. Utterly worthless as it is, The Famous Victories was a very popular piece, and passed through several editions. It was produced before 1588, when Richard Tarlton, who had acted in it, died. (Nichols has reprinted it among Six Old Plays, on which Shakespeare founded, &c., 1779.) SIR MICHAEL, a friend to the Archbishop of York. POINTZ. GADSHILL. PETO. BARDOLPH. LADY PERCY, wife to Hotspur, and sister to Mortimer. LADY MORTIMER, daughter to Glendower, and wife to Mortimer. Lords, Officers, Sheriff, Vintner, Chamberlain, Drawers, two Carriers, Travellers, and Attendants. SCENE-England. THE FIRST PART OF KING HENRY IV. ACT I. SCENE I. London. A room in the palace. Enter King HENRY, WESTMORELAND, Sir WALTER Blunt, K. Hen. So shaken as we are, so wan with care, |