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Date and text

1 Henry IV was almost certainly in performance by 1597, given the wealth of allusions and references to the Falstaff character.^[4], the earliest recorded performance occurred on the afternoon of March 6, 1600, when the play was acted at court before the Flemish Ambassador. Other court performances followed in 1612 and 1625.

The play was entered into the Register of the Stationers Company on Feb. 25, 1598, and first printed in quarto later that year by stationer Andrew Wise. The play was Shakespeare's most popular printed text: new editions appeared in 1599, 1604, 1608, 1613, 1622, 1632, and 1639.

The Dering Manuscript

The Dering Manuscript, the earliest extant manuscript text of any Shakespearean play, provides a single-play version of both Part 1 and Part 2 of Henry IV. The consensus of Shakespeare scholars is that the Dering MS. represents a redaction prepared around 1613, perhaps for family or amateur theatrics, by Edward Dering (1598–1644), of Surrenden Manor, Pluckley, Kent, where the manuscript was discovered. A few dissenters have argued that the Dering MS. may indicate that Shakespeare's Henry IV was originally a single play, which the poet later expanded into two parts to capitalize on the popularity of the Sir John Falstaff character. The Dering MS. is part of the collection of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C.^[5]