Throughout Shakespeare’s Henry IV part 1, Prince Hal’s identity and education come into question. Initially, the audience is wondering why Hal is behaving in such a manner but before the conclusion of the first act we see Prince Hal’s true motives. Shakespeare is having Hal don a mask so one day he can appear than he really is by bringing down people’s expectations of him, the means Shakespeare develops Hal is not concurrent to the day, which raises the old question, does the end justify the means?
The end does justify the means; now while not actually said by Machiavelli in The Prince, the idea was probably on the mind of Shakespeare when he was crafting Prince Hal. The means Shakespeare would be thinking of is Hal’s life among the common folk. While Hal says his reasoning for interacting with the rabble is so he can look all the brighter as a king, it serves a double purpose for his overall education. Hal can now “drink with any tinker in his own language during” his life (II. iv. 15), demonstrating that he can now converse comfortably with both the nobility and the commoner. What differs Hal from anyone else with a decent speech capacity is that commoners will have a better time trusting him because he’s been there; Hal has done highway robbery, gotten in fights, slept with prostitutes, and other alluded things throughout the play. This commoner ‘mask’ would be a combination of one of the many qualities that Machiavelli alludes to in his The Prince (Machiavelli 311). This is based off of Machiavelli’s idea that the prince must have two main sides: one good and one bad to be used when necessary (Machiavelli 309). Now, not having read Henry V but examining his soliloquy (I. ii. 148-170) stating his bad side is a guise, Machiavelli would not approve of Hal becoming a loving ruler. Despite Machiavelli’s wisdom on being feared is better than being loved (Machiavelli chapter 17), Shakespeare reconciles the humanist and Machiavellian perspectives by having Hal shed his bad side and grow into his better, kingly side.
This kingly side is has all the components of a true Renaissance man. Ascham suggested that noblemen’s sons should be able to:
“to ride comely: to run fair at the tilt or ring: to play at all weapons: to shoot fair in bow, or surely in gun: to vault lustily: to run: to leap: to wrestle: to swim: To dance comely: to sing, and play of instruments cunningly: to hawk: to hunt: to play at tennis, and all pastimes generally, which be joined with labor, used in open place, and on the day light, containing either some fit exercise for war, or some pleasant pastime for peace…” (Ascham 289).
Along with learning every language Western Europe has to over and reading the Classics (Ascham). The humanist education, or lack thereof, is causing the divide between Hal and the King. The King thinks that Hal’s company is vile and that it will only send him into a downward spiral. At the time, princes primarily received military training and it was not until Shakespeare day – during the Renaissance – that it was expected for kings to be educated in all walks of life, not just military. This is partially shown when the King expresses his desire to have Hotspur as his son and not Hal because Hotspur has been obedient and fought for his family, earning both honor (I. i. 77-94)(Hodgdon 326) . Yet, having become learned in the classical manner, Hal is not educated. Hal realizes this, hence the decent into Eastcheap, but the King believes Hal is merely misbehaving and not wanting to grow up. On the contrary, Hal is growing up because he has realized that there is more to education than books and school; Hal realizes that getting a true worldly education will benefit him and his people the most. The King, following any good aristocratic nobleman at the time, reads Ascham’s The Schoolmaster and now thinks that “(l)earning teacheth more in one year than experience in twenty(.) (a)nd learning teacheth safely, when experience maketh more miserable than wise” (Ascham 287); therefore, the King not only thinks Hal is hanging out with the wrong crowd, he also believes he is learning wrong while fearing for his safety. As seen in Henry V, we know that the King is very wrong as he wanes into the shadow of his son.
Upon viewing Hal’s growth into kingdom, having risen from his lowly state in Henry IV part 1, Shakespeare is showing that Hal’s means do justify the end. Shakespeare is showing that, while acquiring a humanist education is beneficial to the state, a princely education needs to become more thorough so there can be more great kings like Henry V.

Works Cited
Ascham, Roger. The Schoolmaster. The First Part of Henry the Fourth: Texts and Contexts. By William Shakespeare. Ed. Barbara Hodgdon. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1997. 281-91. Print.
Ascham, Roger. “The Schoolmaster.” 1967.Web. .
Hodgdon, Barbara, ed.. The First Part of Henry the Fourth: Texts and Contexts. By William Shakespeare. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1997.Print.
Machiaveli, Nicolo. The Prince. The First Part of Henry the Fourth: Texts and Contexts. By William Shakespeare. Ed. Barbara Hodgdon. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1997. 309-13. Print.
Machiavelli, Nicolo. The Prince. 1532. Print.
Shakespeare, William. The First Part of King Henry the Fourth: Texts and Contrext. Ed. Barbara Hodgdon., 1997. Print.