Belsey, Catherine. "Making Histories Then and Now: Shakespeare from Richard II to Henry V." In Uses of History: Marxism, Postmodernism, and the Renaissance, edited by Francis Barker, Peter Hulme, and Margaret Iversen, pp. 24-46. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1991.

Contests the idea that Shakespeare's history plays, specifically the Lancastrian tetralogy, are to be read and understood within the "postmodern condition" as fiction, not as history, and offers a historical interpretation of the plays.

Berry, Ralph. "The Scenic Language of Henry IV" In The Elizabethan Theatre XII, edited by A. L. Magnusson and C. E. McGee, pp. 181-91. Toronto: P. D. Meany, 1993.

Argues that Shakespeare purposely constructed the Falstaff scenes in Henry IV to be more appealing to audiences than the court scenes in order to emphasize key themes in the play.

Bromley, John C. "The Gardener's King: / and 2 Henry IV." In The Shakespearean Kings, pp. 61-74. Boulder: Colorado Associated University Press, 1971.

Charges that by examining the changing nature of this wholly public and political king, one may better comprehend the character of Henry and the Henry IV plays.

Dickinson, Hugh. "The Reformation of Prince Hal." Shakespeare Quarterly XII, No. 1 (Winter 1961): 33-46.

Argues that, based on a theatrical reading of Henry IV, Hal is the protagonist and hero, and demonstrates that "the supreme attribute of kingship" is self-sacrifice, not honor.

Frye, Northrop. "The Bolingbroke Plays (Richard II, Henry IV)" In Northrop Frye on Shakespeare, edited by Robert Sandler, pp. 51-81. Markham, Ontario: Fitzhenry & White-side, 1986.

Offers an overview of the plot and themes of the first three plays in the Lancastrian tetralogy, and provides a detailed account of the historical marriages and births of the English royal family from Edward III and Henry VII, tracing the Yorkist and Lancastrian lines.

Grossman, Marc. "The Adolescent and the Strangest Fellow: Comic and Morally Serious Perspectives in 1 Henry IV" Essays in Literature XXIII, No. 2 (Fall 1995): 170-95.

Analyzes Hal's soliloquy in I.ii and offers a "fresh reading" of it which yields an understanding of Hal that differs from the two most common readings of the prince (the Machiavel and the prodigal son) and discusses at length Hal's relationship with and rejection of Falstaff.

Hart, Jonathan. "Temporality and Theatricality in Shakespeare's Lancastrian Tetralogy." Studia Neophilologica LXII, No. 1 (1991): 69-88.

Analyzes the treatment of time in the plays, focussing on the relationship between historical time and dramatic time.

Holderness, Graham. "Carnival and History: Henry IV" In Shakespeare Recycled: The Making of Historical Drama, pp. 130-77. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1992.

Examines the significance of the commingling of saturnalian customs and Renaissance literature, and maintains that when Falstaff, who functions as "carnival" in the two parts of Henry IV, is viewed from this standpoint rather than a moralistic one, he may be acknowledged as a positive figure.

Kastan, David Scott. "'The King Hath Many Marching in His Coats,' or, What Did You Do in the War Daddy?" In Shakespeare Left and Right, edited by Ivo Kamps, pp. 241-58. New York: Routledge, 1991.

Places Henry IV's struggle to "consolidate and maintain his authority" within the context of Elizabethan England's political scene, in which Queen Elizabeth similarly ruled over a divided country.

Krims, Marvin B. "Hotspur's Antifeminine Prejudice in Shakespeare's 1 Henry IV" Literature and Psychology XXXX, Nos. 1 and 2 (1994): 118-32.

Explores other sources for the dominating attitudes of Hotspur and concludes that possible reasons for Hotspur's "phallocentricty" include, not only anxiety and defensiveness, but a desire to "conceal his own femininity, fearfulness, and self-destructiveness."

Mosley, Charles W. R. D. "This Royal Throne of Kings: Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2." In Shakespeare's History Plays. Richard II to Henry V: The Making of a King, pp. 129-46. London: Penguin Books, 1988.

Offers a detailed discussion of the education of Prince Hal and the nature of kingship, which Mosley views as primary themes in the two plays.

Mullaney, Steven. "The Rehearsal of Cultures." In The Place of the Stage: License, Play, and Power in Renaissance England, pp. 60-87. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1988.

In section IV of this chapter, Mullaney focusses on a speech made by Warwick in Henry IV, Part Two (IV.iv.68-75) and discusses the roles of language and culture in the education of Prince Hal.

Pierce, Robert B. "The Henry IV Plays." In Shakespeare's History Plays: The Family and the State, pp. 171-224. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1971.

Maintains that in these plays, the structure of personal familial order in the royal family is a microcosm of political order within the country.

Ribner, Irving. "Shakespeare's Second Tetralogy." In The English History Play in the Age of Shakespeare, rev. ed., pp. 151-93. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1965.

Offers a detailed overview of the Lancastrian tetralogy, and stresses that Shakespeare's eight historical plays should not be viewed as "a single epic unit."

Richmond, H. M. "Henry IV, Part One" and "Henry IV, Part Two" In Shakespeare's Political Plays, pp. 141-58; 159-74. New York: Random House, 1967.

Discusses the reign of King Henry IV as a vindication of "the status of the Crown, which his own accession had seemed to invalidate."

Whitney, Charles. "Festivity and Topicality in the Coventry Scene of 1 Henry IV" English Literary Renaissance 24, No. 2 (Spring 1994): 410-48.

Provides a brief summary of the critical analyses of the carnivalesque in Renaissance literature in general and specifically the Henry IV plays and discusses the "Coventry scene" (IV.ii) of Henry IV, Part One within this context.

Williams, Michele. "Misconstruction in 1 Henry IV" Cahiers Elisabethains, No. 37 (April 1990): 43-57.

Argues that the while the reading which views Hal as the prodigal son is generally acknowledged to be an "incomplete reading of the play," it is in fact the view "encouraged by Shakespeare, in the same way as Hal encourages the kingdom to misconstrue him as a wastrel."