David Scott Kastan lucidly explores the remarkable richness and the
ambitious design of King Henry IV Part 1 and shows how these complicate
any easy sense of what kind of play it is. Conventionally regarded as a
history play, much of it is in fact conspicuously invented fiction, and
Kastan argues that the non-historical, comic plot does not simply parody
the historical action but by its existence raises questions about the
very nature of history. The full and engaging introduction devotes
extensive discussion to the play's language, indicating how its
insistent economic vocabulary provides texture for the social concerns
of the play and focuses attention on the central relationship between
value and political authority.