Henry IV (Pirandello play)

[1] A study on madness with comic and tragic elements, it is about a man who believes himself to be Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor.

[2] An unnamed Italian aristocrat falls off his horse while playing the role of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor during carnevale festivities, which take place annually before Lent.

For the next twenty years, his family, including his sister and now his nephew, Marchese Carlo Di Nolli, maintain an elaborate charade in a remote Umbrian villa, decorated to resemble Henry's imperial palace at Goslar and staffed with servants hired to play the roles of Henry's privy councillors and simulate the eleventh-century court.

De Nolli's dying mother requests that he bring a doctor, Dionisio Genoni, who is referred to as the latest in a succession to try to cure Henry.

At the end of the act he grabs Frida, who is dressed as in the portrait in preparation for the Doctor's plan to shock Henry out of his madness.