Chapter Synopsis of Henry IV Part I - Study Guide by William Shakespeare

We now witness the jocular robbery – initially of the travelers who it is hard to pity as they seem dull and pious, then secondly of the Falstaff, Bardolph and Peto by Hal and Poins. This is not a serious scene but a comic, high-spirited affair.

Act II, Scene III

Hotspur is in a castle in Warkworth and angry over a letter he has received stating that the writer will not join him in a rebellion against the King. It seems that either he does not have the support that he would like to think he has or he has approached the wrong people to ask for help. He eventually manages to convince himself that he is still the greatest and is thus placated.

His wife Lady Percy (Kate) enters, she is does not think that he is attentive enough towards her and is too preoccupied with political events. He does not humour her but instead tries to jolly her out of her low mood.

Act II, Scene IV

The scene is the Boar’s Head pub in Eastcheap, after the robbery. The Prince has been entertaining his fellow drinkers by mocking those amongst them such as a poor young boy called Francis. This does in some ways prove to us that he is not yet ready for the political responsibility that lies ahead of him – he is immature and has not realised that those who are less fortunate or sophisticated than him are not there simply for his own entertainment.

Falstaff arrives with the others and is in a very bad mood. He describes what happened to him at Gad’s Hill and how he fought with epic valour against a number of robbers and their weapons which is increasing rapidly. Hal and Poins expose the old man’s lies and he defends himself by stating that all along he knew it was them and the reason that he did not fight back was because he would not fight the King’s son.

A King’s messenger arrives with news of the rebellion for Hal, warning the Prince that he will meet with his father’s wrath the next the day. Falstaff and the Prince play out the scene in anticipation, initially Falstaff plays the King but then the roles are reversed. At this point Hal seems to go too far. He refers to Falstaff (whilst in the role of the King) as "That villainous abominable misleader of youth… that white- bearded old satan" ending on the fact that he would never let his son see his friend again:

"FALSTAFF: banish him not thy Harry’s company, banish plump Jack, and banish all the world.

HAL: I do, I will."

This is Hal’s initial rejection of his old friend (completed in Henry IV, Part II) and it a moving and essentially sentimental moment.

The sheriff and his ward arrive at the inn wanting to search for the Gad’s Hill robbers. With the unruffled authority befitting a king Hal manages to convince them they are in the wrong place and turn them away. By the end of the scene Falstaff has fallen asleep and the Prince searches his pockets, lightly mocking what he finds. He decides that he will procure him "a charge of foot" in the up and coming battle.

Act III, Scene I

We are in the archdeacon’s house in Bangor where the conspirator’s discuss their plan. It is the only time in the play that we see Lord Mortimer who was the legitimate claimant to Henry IV’s crown. Hotspur and Glendower (a Welsh Nationalist) come up against each other (In Elizabethan times the audience’s sympathies would have laid with Hotspur as Glendower would have been seen as a traitor) the English man gaining the support of both Mortimer and Worcester. Glendower eventually allows Hotspur to have his own way in the discussion of the division of England between Mortimer, Glendower and Hotspur