 Welles 's inspiration for Chimes at Midnight began in 1930 when he was a student at the Todd School for Boys in Woodstock , Illinois . Welles tried to stage a three @-@ and @-@ a @-@ half @-@ hour combination of several of Shakespeare 's historical plays called The Winter of Our Discontent in which he played Richard III . School officials forced him to make cuts to the production . Chimes at Midnight originated in 1939 as a stage play called Five Kings , which Welles wrote and partially staged . It was an ambitious adaptation of several Shakespeare plays that chronicled the stories of Richard II , Henry IV , Henry V , Henry VI and Richard III . Its sources were Richard II , Henry IV , Part 1 , Henry IV , Part 2 , Henry V , The Merry Wives of Windsor , Henry VI , Part 1 , Henry VI , Part 2 , Henry VI , Part 3 and Richard III — sometimes collectively called the " War of the Roses cycle " . The grouping of Henry IV , Part 1 , Henry IV , Part 2 and Henry V are often referred to as the Henriad . 
