Note the grammatical difference between history and plays (or other literary texts): in history things tend to happen once and for all, hence we speak of them in the past tense; in plays, things are happening every time you open the text or watch a performance, hence present tense. Thus, the historical Hotspur was old enough to be Hal's father, but the two characters, Hotspur and Hal, meet on the battlefield in Act 5. Macbeth says that "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow / Creeps in this petty pace," and tomorrow he'll still be saying it, present tense. He'll probably also use the active voice.
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