ABSTRACT
When Heminge and Condell called the First Folio 'Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies' they raised not only the first but also the basic question about the English History Plays, a question which remains unanswered to-day. Shakespeare seemed to find a particular demonstration by the supposed fact that his earliest History Plays were mere revampings of original work. For Charlton, Shakespeare is coming to see that politics is a dirty business even as he presents it, and though none of the plays actually turns on 'the sense that what is good in the world of politics is entirely unrelated to and generally the opposite of what makes for goodness in the moral life'. Rejection of Falstaff as the type of Riot cannot be taken to answer complete objections which are framed on different and still justified responses. Falstaff, swells out the present moment to a rounded forgetfulness, and casts himself as Master of Revels.
