ENGL 339: Shakespeare Dr. Debora B. Schwartz English Department, California Polytechnic State University     Shakespeare's Plays:  The Histories Shakespeare wrote ten plays about English kings (from John to Henry VIII), as well as several plays based upon Roman history (the most famous of these are Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra). The main source for the Roman plays was Plutarch (which Shakespeare would have studied in grammar school). For the English histories, his primary source was Holinshed's Chronicles (1587), but he also drew on other sources, e.g. the anonymous history play The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth (1598) and Hall's The Union of the Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and York (1542). The English history plays reflect the nationalism of England under Queen Elizabeth. The plays point to an English "sense of epic destiny, and the moral complexities of getting and holding on to sovereign power" (Norton Anthology of English Literature, vol. 1, 6th ed., p. 411). The Roman histories reflect the Renaissance admiration of classical Greece and Rome and taste for classical (Greek and Latin) learning. There is an audience for both Roman and English history plays in Shakespeare's time because humanists felt that "modern" (16th century) England had inherited the torch from classical antiquity. For the English humanists, Elizabeth's England is the "rebirth"of the glories of the Roman Empire (recall that the 16th century was a time of global exploration and conquest during which Britain strove to expand its empire into the New World -- themes that will be dealt with in The Tempest.) While the three parts of Henry VI and Richard III deal with relatively recent historical events, Shakespeare set the four plays of his "Second Tetralogy" in the early fifteenth century. Richard II, 1&2 Henry IV, and Henry V cover the period from the downfall of Richard II at the hands of Henry IV (1399) through Henry V's victory over France in the Battle of Agincourt (1415). Henry V, written in 1598-9, begins soon after the coronation of Henry IV's son Hal as king Henry V (recounted in 2 Henry IV). Hal, Falstaff, Bardolph, Pistol and Hostess Quickly all appear in 1&2 Henry IV. Click here for Henry V Study Guide Click here for Henry V Video Questions Contents of this and all linked pages Copyright Debora B. Schwartz, 1996-2002  Return to ENGL 339 Home Page Return to Dr. Schwartz's Teaching Page Return to Dr. Schwartz's Home Page Send me mail!