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The Turning of Trent in I Henry IV

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

William M. Jones*
Affiliation:
University of Missouri
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Extract

The first meeting on stage of the three rebels, Glendower, Hotspur, and Mortimer, occupies a central position in I Henry IV, at the beginning of Act III. In historical fact, these men's deputies met at the house of the Archdeacon of Bangor to plan the tripartite division of the realm. Shakespeare, however, brings the men themselves together and substitutes Hotspur for his father Northumberland, who was actually the man designed to receive a third part of the kingdom. By modifying these historical materials, Shakespeare creates in this pivotal scene a situation that reveals dramatically the central flaw in each of the conspirators. Hotspur's impetuosity, Glendower's superstition, and Mortimer's hesitant middle way all contributed to the eventual collapse of the conspiracy with Hotspur's death at Shrewsbury.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1964

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References

1 Holinshed, Raphael, Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (London, 1808), III, 2223 Google Scholar.

2 Entry under ‘Acontius’ in Dictionary of National Biography.

3 Calendar of State Papers, Foreign Series, 1564-1565, ed. Joseph Stevenson (London, 1870), numbers 422, 448, 468, 472, 481, 482, 512.