OBSERVATIONS.

KING HENRY IV. PART I.] The transactions contained in this historical drama are comprised within the period of about ten months; for the action commences with the news brought of Hotspur having defeated the Scots under Archibald earl of Douglas at Holmedon, (or Halidownhill,) which battle was fought on Holy-rood day, (the 14th of September,) 1402; and it closes with the defeat and death of Hotspur at Shrewsbury; which engagement happened on Saturday the 21st of July, (the eve of Saint Mary Magdalen,) in the year 1403. THEOBALD.

This play was first entered at Stationers' Hall, Feb. 25, 1597, by Andrew Wise. Again, by M. Woolff, Jan. 9, 1598. For the piece supposed to have been its original, see Six old Plays on which Shakespeare founded, &c. published by S. Leacroft, Charing-Cross. STEEVENS.

Shakespeare has apparently designed a regular connection of these dramatic histories from Richard the Second to Henry the Fifth. King Henry, at the end of Richard the Second, declares his purpose to visit the Holy Land, which he resumes in the first speech of this play. The complaint made by King Henry in the last Act of Richard the Second, of the wildness of his son, prepares the reader for the frolics which are here to be recounted, and the characters which are now to be exhibited.

JOHNSON.

This comedy was written, I believe, in the year 1597. See An Attempt to ascertain the Order of Shakespeare's Plays, Vol. II.

MALONE.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

King HENRY the Fourth.

HENRY, Prince of Wales,

Earl of Westmoreland,

Prince JOHN of Lancaster,1

Sir WALTER Blunt,

sons to the king.

} friends to the king.

THOMAS PERCY, earl of Worcester.

HENRY PERCY, earl of Northumberland.
HENRY PERCY, surnamed Hotspur, his son.
EDMUND MORTIMER, earl of March.
SCROOP, archbishop of York.

ARCHIBALD, earl of Douglas.

OWEN GLENDOWER.

Sir RICHARD Vernon.

Sir JOHN FALSTAFF.
POINS.

GADSHILL.

PETO.

BARDOLPH.

Lady PERCY, wife to Hotspur, and sister to Mortimer.
Lady MORTIMER, daughter to Glendower, and wife to Mor-

timer.

Mrs. QUICKLY, hostess of a tavern in Eastcheap.

Lords, Officers, Sheriff, Vintner, Chamberlain, Drawers, Two Carriers, Travellers, and Attendants.

SCENE, England.

[1] The persons of the drama were originally collected by Mr. Rowe, who bas given the title of Duke of Lancaster to Prince John, a mistake which Shakespeare has no where been guilty of in the first part of this play, though in the second he has fallen into the same error. King Henry IV. was himself the last person that ever bore the title of Duke of Lancaster. But all his sons (till they had peerages, as Clarence, Bedford, Gloucester,) were distinguished by the name of the royal house, as John of Lancaster, Humphrey of Lancaster, &c. and in that proper style the present John (who became afterwards so illustrious by the title of Duke of Bedford,) is always mentioned in the play before us. STEEVENS.