In Mendacio Veritas

Abstract

In 1 & 2 Henry IV and Henry V, Shakespeare casts himself as a Cretan Liar, a historian, of sorts, who boldly declares: ‘All historians are liars!’ Before examining the use and abuse of history in Henry V, this article analyses the multiple levels of mendacity at work in 1 & 2 Henry IV, paying close attention to the Cretan lies of Falstaff and Rumour. Whereas any account of the past is necessarily truncated and ideologically mediated, this article contends that Shakespeare’s history writing, which takes into account its own intrinsically dishonest nature, is not without a paradoxical sort of veracity.