# Henry IV, Part I: every role by lines, words, and stage time

> William Shakespeare. 35 speaking roles, 23,913 words, about 171 minutes of speech.

- URL: https://www.offbook.com/plays/henry-iv-part-i
- Last updated: 2026-10-08

**Falstaff** has the most to say in Henry IV, Part I: about 620 lines and 5,510 words, 23% of the play. Henry IV, Part I sets a rebellion against the king beside the tavern life of Prince Hal and Falstaff. Falstaff has the most words, at about 23%, but the Prince and Hotspur are close behind at about 18% each, so three large roles share the play. Hotspur does not appear until Act 1, Scene 3, and the King speaks in only 6 of 19 sections.

- Speaking roles: 35
- Scenes: 19
- Words: 23,913
- Speech time: 171 min

## Every role, largest first

| Role | Lines | Words | Share | Minutes | Scenes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Falstaff](https://www.offbook.com/plays/henry-iv-part-i/falstaff) | 620 | 5,510 | 23% | 39.4 | 8 |
| Prince | 549 | 4,369 | 18.3% | 31.2 | 10 |
| Hotspur | 559 | 4,318 | 18.1% | 30.8 | 8 |
| King | 341 | 2,558 | 10.7% | 18.3 | 6 |
| Worcester | 189 | 1,420 | 5.9% | 10.1 | 7 |
| Glendower | 79 | 607 | 2.5% | 4.3 | 1 |
| Poins | 78 | 548 | 2.3% | 3.9 | 3 |
| Vernon | 66 | 461 | 1.9% | 3.3 | 3 |
| Mortimer | 60 | 445 | 1.9% | 3.2 | 1 |
| Hostess | 51 | 412 | 1.7% | 2.9 | 2 |
| Lady | 47 | 365 | 1.5% | 2.6 | 1 |
| Douglas | 46 | 341 | 1.4% | 2.4 | 5 |
| Gadshill | 43 | 341 | 1.4% | 2.4 | 3 |
| Blunt | 41 | 299 | 1.3% | 2.1 | 4 |
| Westmoreland | 42 | 296 | 1.2% | 2.1 | 3 |
| Archbishop | 34 | 259 | 1.1% | 1.9 | 1 |
| Bardolph | 28 | 199 | 0.8% | 1.4 | 4 |
| First Carrier | 21 | 176 | 0.7% | 1.3 | 1 |
| Northumberland | 26 | 170 | 0.7% | 1.2 | 1 |
| Chamberlain | 18 | 148 | 0.6% | 1.1 | 1 |
| Second Carrier | 16 | 139 | 0.6% | 1.0 | 1 |
| Francis | 15 | 83 | 0.3% | 0.6 | 1 |
| Peto | 10 | 67 | 0.3% | 0.5 | 2 |
| Lancaster | 8 | 64 | 0.3% | 0.5 | 2 |
| Messenger | 8 | 64 | 0.3% | 0.5 | 2 |
| Sheriff | 8 | 59 | 0.2% | 0.4 | 1 |
| Lady Percy | 10 | 53 | 0.2% | 0.4 | 1 |
| Sir Michael | 8 | 53 | 0.2% | 0.4 | 1 |
| Vintner | 4 | 31 | 0.1% | 0.2 | 1 |
| First Traveller | 2 | 19 | 0.1% | 0.1 | 1 |
| Servant | 3 | 19 | 0.1% | 0.1 | 1 |
| Travellers | 2 | 13 | 0.1% | 0.1 | 1 |
| Carrier | 1 | 4 | 0% | 0.0 | 1 |
| Ostler | 1 | 2 | 0% | 0.0 | 1 |
| Thieves | 1 | 1 | 0% | 0.0 | 1 |

## Who speaks in which scene

Words each role speaks in each scene (scene: words). Scenes: 1.1 = Act 1, Scene 1; 1.2 = Act 1, Scene 2; 1.3 = Act 1, Scene 3; 2.1 = Act 2, Scene 1; 2.2 = Act 2, Scene 2; 2.3 = Act 2, Scene 3; 2.4 = Act 2, Scene 4; 3.1 = Act 3, Scene 1; 3.2 = Act 3, Scene 2; 3.3 = Act 3, Scene 3; 4.1 = Act 4, Scene 1; 4.2 = Act 4, Scene 2; 4.3 = Act 4, Scene 3; 4.4 = Act 4, Scene 4; 5.1 = Act 5, Scene 1; 5.2 = Act 5, Scene 2; 5.3 = Act 5, Scene 3; 5.4 = Act 5, Scene 4; 5.5 = Act 5, Scene 5.

- **Falstaff**: 1.2 (707), 2.2 (474), 2.4 (2,002), 3.3 (1,005), 4.2 (531), 5.1 (186), 5.3 (220), 5.4 (385)
- **Prince**: 1.2 (668), 2.2 (207), 2.4 (1,766), 3.2 (339), 3.3 (313), 4.2 (62), 5.1 (212), 5.3 (67), 5.4 (622), 5.5 (113)
- **Hotspur**: 1.3 (1,280), 2.3 (606), 3.1 (802), 4.1 (599), 4.3 (542), 5.2 (298), 5.3 (59), 5.4 (132)
- **King**: 1.1 (578), 1.3 (339), 3.2 (971), 5.1 (354), 5.4 (136), 5.5 (180)
- **Worcester**: 1.3 (447), 3.1 (117), 4.1 (171), 4.3 (27), 5.1 (370), 5.2 (264), 5.5 (24)
- **Glendower**: 3.1 (607)
- **Poins**: 1.2 (392), 2.2 (63), 2.4 (93)

## The longest speeches

| Speech | Scene | Words | Lines |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| King: “God pardon thee! yet let me wonder, Harry,” | Act 3, Scene 2 | 464 | 63 |
| Hotspur: ““But for mine own part, my lord, I could be well contented to be there, in respect of the love I bear your house.” He could be contented: why is he not, then? In respect of the love he bears our house: he shows in this, he loves his own barn better than he loves our house. Let me see some more. “The purpose you undertake is dangerous;”—why, that’s certain: ’tis dangerous to take a cold, to sleep, to drink; but I tell you, my lord fool, out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety. “The purpose you undertake is dangerous; the friends you have named uncertain; the time itself unsorted; and your whole plot too light for the counterpoise of so great an opposition.” Say you so, say you so? I say unto you again, you are a shallow cowardly hind, and you lie. What a lack-brain is this! By the Lord, our plot is a good plot as ever was laid; our friends true and constant: a good plot, good friends, and full of expectation; an excellent plot, very good friends. What a frosty-spirited rogue is this! Why, my lord of York commends the plot and the general course of action. ’Zounds, an I were now by this rascal, I could brain him with his lady’s fan. Is there not my father, my uncle and myself? lord Edmund Mortimer, My lord of York and Owen Glendower? is there not besides the Douglas? have I not all their letters to meet me in arms by the ninth of the next month? and are they not some of them set forward already? What a pagan rascal is this! an infidel! Ha! you shall see now in very sincerity of fear and cold heart, will he to the king and lay open all our proceedings. O, I could divide myself and go to buffets, for moving such a dish of skim milk with so honourable an action! Hang him! let him tell the king: we are prepared. I will set forward to-night.” | Act 2, Scene 3 | 355 | 36 |
| Falstaff: “If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am a soused gurnet. I have misused the king’s press damnably. I have got, in exchange of a hundred and fifty soldiers, three hundred and odd pounds. I press me none but good house-holders, yeoman’s sons; inquire me out contracted bachelors, such as had been asked twice on the banns; such a commodity of warm slaves, as had as lieve hear the devil as a drum; such as fear the report of a caliver worse than a struck fowl or a hurt wild-duck. I pressed me none but such toasts-and-butter, with hearts in their bellies no bigger than pins’ heads, and they have bought out their services; and now my whole charge consists of ancients, corporals, lieutenants, gentlemen of companies, slaves as ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth, where the glutton’s dogs licked his sores; and such as indeed were never soldiers, but discarded unjust serving-men, younger sons to younger brothers, revolted tapsters and ostlers trade-fallen, the cankers of a calm world and a long peace, ten times more dishonourable ragged than an old faced ancient: and such have I, to fill up the rooms of them that have bought out their services, that you would think that I had a hundred and fifty tattered prodigals lately come from swine-keeping, from eating draff and husks. A mad fellow met me on the way and told me I had unloaded all the gibbets and pressed the dead bodies. No eye hath seen such scarecrows. I’ll not march through Coventry with them, that’s flat: nay, and the villains march wide betwixt the legs, as if they had gyves on; for indeed I had the most of them out of prison. There’s but a shirt and a half in all my company; and the half shirt is two napkins tacked together and thrown over the shoulders like an herald’s coat without sleeves; and the shirt, to say the truth, stolen from my host at Saint Alban’s, or the red-nose innkeeper of Daventry. But that’s all one; they’ll find linen enough on every hedge.” | Act 4, Scene 2 | 350 | 35 |
| Worcester: “It pleased your majesty to turn your looks” | Act 5, Scene 1 | 334 | 42 |
| Hotspur: “My liege, I did deny no prisoners.” | Act 1, Scene 3 | 307 | 41 |
| Prince: “With three or four loggerheads amongst three or four score hogsheads. I have sounded the very base-string of humility. Sirrah, I am sworn brother to a leash of drawers; and can call them all by their christen names, as Tom, Dick, and Francis. They take it already upon their salvation, that though I be but the prince of Wales, yet I am king of courtesy; and tell me flatly I am no proud Jack, like Falstaff, but a Corinthian, a lad of mettle, a good boy, by the Lord, so they call me, and when I am king of England, I shall command all the good lads in Eastcheap. They call drinking deep, dyeing scarlet; and when you breathe in your watering, they cry “hem!” and bid you play it off. To conclude, I am so good a proficient in one quarter of an hour, that I can drink with any tinker in his own language during my life. I tell thee, Ned, thou hast lost much honour, that thou wert not with me in this sweet action. But, sweet Ned—to sweeten which name of Ned, I give thee this pennyworth of sugar, clapped even now into my hand by an under-skinker, one that never spake other English in his life than “Eight shillings and sixpence” and “You are welcome,” with this shrill addition, “Anon, anon, sir! Score a pint of bastard in the Half-Moon,” or so. But, Ned, to drive away the time till Falstaff come, I prithee, do thou stand in some by-room, while I question my puny drawer to what end he gave me the sugar; and do thou never leave calling “Francis,” that his tale to me may be nothing but “Anon.” Step aside, and I’ll show thee a precedent.” | Act 2, Scene 4 | 295 | 30 |
| Hotspur: “The king is kind; and well we know the king” | Act 4, Scene 3 | 287 | 37 |
| King: “For all the world” | Act 3, Scene 2 | 268 | 36 |
| Prince: “Do not think so; you shall not find it so:” | Act 3, Scene 2 | 250 | 31 |
| King: “So shaken as we are, so wan with care,” | Act 1, Scene 1 | 247 | 33 |

## Small roles that can be doubled

These pairs of small roles never speak in the same scene, so one actor could play both. Check entrances and silent appearances in your script before you cast it this way.

- Glendower and Poins
- Glendower and Vernon
- Glendower and Hostess
- Glendower and Lady
- Glendower and Douglas
- Glendower and Gadshill
- Glendower and Blunt
- Glendower and Westmoreland
- Glendower and Archbishop
- Glendower and Bardolph
- Glendower and First Carrier
- Glendower and Northumberland

## Roles and monologues in depth

- [How many lines does Falstaff have?](https://www.offbook.com/plays/henry-iv-part-i/falstaff)

## Questions actors ask

### Who has the most lines in Henry IV, Part I?

Falstaff, with about 620 lines and 5,510 words, 23% of everything spoken in the play. Prince is next, with about 549 lines (18.3%).

### How long is Henry IV, Part I?

The full text has 23,913 spoken words, about 171 minutes at 140 words a minute before pauses, scene changes, and cuts. Most productions cut the text, so running times vary.

### How many speaking roles are in Henry IV, Part I?

35 named roles speak in this edition, across 19 scenes. 28 of them have less than 2% of the words, which is why small parts are often doubled.

## How we count

Counts are computed from the full text of the [Standard Ebooks edition](https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/william-shakespeare/henry-iv-part-i) (public domain; retrieved 2026-10-08). Words are every spoken word, with stage directions removed. Lines are verse lines as printed, plus prose at 10 words a line, because prose has no fixed line breaks; editions differ, so other sources give slightly different line counts. Time is words at 140 words a minute, before pauses and stage business. A role is counted in a scene when it speaks there. To count a script that is not in the library, paste it into the [script line counter](https://www.offbook.com/tools/script-line-counter).