Henry IV, Part II

By William Shakespeare

"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown," laments the sleepless king of Henry IV, Part II. Despite having quelled a rebel army along the Welsh border in Part I, Henry IV faces further insurrections elsewhere in England. His woes are compounded by disturbing reminders of his own mortality as well as the wayward behavior of Prince Hal. The heir to the throne acquitted himself admirably in the battles against the Welsh rebels, but has returned to his old haunts in Eastcheap, where he carouses nightly at the Boar's Head Tavern with the notorious reprobate, Sir John Falstaff.
Renowned Shakespeare critic G. B. Harrison pronounced Falstaff "the supreme comic character in all drama . . . who redeems his vices by his incomparable wit and his skill at escaping from every tight corner." The fat knight's humorous quips and antics are balanced by the play's thought-provoking reflections on ambition, guilt, leadership, and responsibility. Rich in sparkling wordplay and historical drama, this tale sets the stage for Henry V.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Release date: Jan 19, 2015
• ISBN: 9780486790084

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, in 1564. The date of his birth is not known but is traditionally 23 April, St George's Day. Aged 18, he married a Stratford farmer's daughter, Anne Hathaway. They had three children. Around 1585 William joined an acting troupe on tour in Stratford from London, and thereafter spent much of his life in the capital. A member of the leading theatre group in London, the Chamberlain's Men, which built the Globe Theatre and frequently performed in front of Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeare wrote 36 plays and much poetry besides. He died in 1616.

Book preview

HENRY IV

PART II

William Shakespeare

DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.

Mineola, New York

DOVER THRIFT EDITIONS

GENERAL EDITOR: MARY CAROLYN WALDREP

EDITOR OF THIS VOLUME: JIM MILLER

Copyright

Copyright © 2015 by Dover Publications, Inc.

All rights reserved.

Theatrical Rights

This Dover Thrift Edition may be used in its entirety, in adaptation, or in any other way for theatrical productions, professional and amateur, in the United States, without fee, permission, or acknowledgment. TThis may not apply outside of the United States, as copyright conditions may vary.)

Bibliographical Note

This Dover edition, first published in 2015, contains the unabridged text of Henry IV, Part II as published in Volume XII of The Caxton Edition of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Caxton Publishing Company, London, n.d. The introductory Note was prepared specially for this edition, and the explanatory footnotes from the Caxton edition have been revised.

International Standard Book Number

eISBN-13: 978-0-486-79008-4

www.doverpublications.com

Note

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564–1616) was born in Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, England. Although much of his early life remains sketchy, it is known that he moved to London around 1589 to earn his way as an actor and playwright. He joined an acting company known as The Lord Chamberlain’s Men in 1594, a decision that finally enabled him to share in the financial success of his plays. Only eighteen of his thirty-seven plays were published during his lifetime, and these were usually sold directly to theater companies and printed in quartos, or single-play editions, without his approval.

Written between 1596 and 1599, Henry IV, Part II is a history play that continues the story begun in Henry IV, Part I. The focus of the drama is on the journey of Prince Henry of Wales (Hal) to the kingship. The play begins in the first years of the fifteenth century, when England is embroiled in the middle of a civil war. The King, Henry IV, is ill and aging, and his son Hal, content to spend his teenage years in taverns with friends of dubious character, finally seems to be growing up. He realizes that soon he will be King and that he must start to act like a King. The play shows Hal’s progression from wastrel to responsible adult, culminating in one of Shakespeare’s most famous scenes: the public rejection of his old friend and mentor, the lovable rogue Falstaff, by the newly crowned King Henry V.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

RU

MOUR

, the Presenter.

KI

NG HENRY

the Fourth.

EA

RL OF WARWICK

.

EA

RL OF WESTMORELAND

.

EA

RL OF SU

RRE

Y.

GO

WER

.

HARC

OUR

T

.

BLUN

T

.

Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench.

A Servant of the Chief Justice.

EA

RL OF NORTHUMBERLAND

.

SC

ROOP

, Archbishop of York.

LO

RD MOWBRAY

.

LO

RD HASTINGS

.

LO

RD BARDOLPH

.

SI

R JOHN COLVILLE

.

TR

AVER.

and MO

RTON

, retainers of Northumberland.

SI

R JOHN FALSTAFF

.

His Page.

BA

RDOLPH

.

PI

STOL

.

PO

INS

.

PE

TO

.

DA

VY

, Servant to Shallow.

MO

ULDY

, SHA

DOW

, WAR

T, FEEBLE

, and BU

LLC

ALF, recruits.

FA

NG

and SN

ARE

, sheriff’s officers.

LA

DY NORTHUMBERLAND

.

LA

DY PERCY

.

MI

STRESS QUI

CKLC, hostess of a tavern in Eastcheap.

DO

LL TEARSHE

ET.

Lords and Attendants; Porter, Drawers, Beadles, Grooms, Dc.

A Dancer, speaker of the epilogue.

SC

ENE

: England.

INDUCTION.

Warkworth. Before the Castle.

Enter R

UMOUR

, painted full of tongues

R

UMOUR

. Open your ears; For which of you will stop

The vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks?

I, from the orient to the drooping west,

Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold

The acts commenced on this ball of earth:

Upon my tongues continual slanders ride,

The which in every language I pronounce,

Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.

I speak of peace, while covert enmity

Under the smile of safety wounds the world: [10]

And who but Rumour, who but only I,

Make fearful musters and prepared defence,

Whiles the big year, swoln with some other grief,

Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,

And no such matter? Rumour is a pipe

Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures,

And of so easy and so plain a stop [17]

That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,

The still-discordant wavering multitude,

Can play upon it. But what need I thus [20]

My well-known body to anatomize

Among my household? Why is Rumour here?

I run before King Harry’s victory; [23]

Who in a bloody field by Shrewsbury

Hath beaten down young Hotspur and his troops,

Quenching the flame of bold rebellion

Even with the rebels’ blood. But what mean I

To speak so true at first? my office is

To noise abroad that Harry Monmouth fell [29]

Under the wrath of noble Hotspur’s sword, [30]

And that the king before the Douglas’ rage

Stoop’d his anointed head as low as death.

This have I rumour’d through the peasant towns

Between that royal field of Shrewsbury

And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone, [35]

Where Hotspur’s father, old Northumberland,

Lies crafty-sick: the posts come tiring on,

And not a man of them brings other news

Than they have learn’d of me: from Rumour’s tongues

They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true wrongs. [40]

[Exit.

---

Enter Rumour … tongues] Rumour figured in many Elizabethan pageants and masques, arrayed symbolically as in the present text.

17 a stop] the finger holes which regulate the sound of a pipe or flute.

23 I run … victory] The events of the play are represented as following without any interval the battle of Shrewsbury, which was fought on July 1, 1403, and news of which is now brought to Hotspur’s father, the Duke of Northumberland. The episodes with which the play deals cover the period of ten years intervening between the battle of Shrewsbury and King Henry IV’s death in 1413.

29 Harry Monmouth] Prince Henry (afterwards King Henry V), so called from Monmouth, his birthplace.

35 hold of ragged stone] stronghold of rugged stone, the castle at Warkworth.

CONTENTS

ACT I

SCENE II. London. A Street

SCENE III. York. The Archbishop’

ACT II

SCENE II. London. Another Street

SCENE III. Warkworth. Before the Castle

SCENE IV. London. The Boar’s-hea

ACT III

SCENE II. Gloucester shire. Before Justic

ACT IV

SCENE II. Another Part of the Forest

SCENE III. Another Part of the Forest

SCENE IV. Westminster. The Jerusale

SCENE V. Another Chamber

ACT V

SCENE II. Westminster. The Palace

SCENE III. Gloucestershire. Shallow’

SCENE IV. London. A Street

SCENE V. A Public Place nea

ACT I.

SCENE I. The Same.

Enter L

ORD BARDOLPH

L

ORD BARDOLPH

. Who keeps the gate here, ho?

The Porter opens the gate

Where is the earl?

P

ORT

. What shall I say you are?

L

. BARD

. Tell thou the earl

That the Lord Bardolph doth attend him here.

P

ORT

. His lordship is walk’d forth into the orchard:

Please it your honour, knock but at the gate,

And he himself will answer.

Enter NORTHUMBERLAND

[Exit Porter.

N

ORTH

. What news, Lord Bardolph? every minute now

Should be the father of some stratagem: [8]

The times are wild; contention, like a horse

Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose [10]

And bears down all before him.

I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury.

N

ORTH

. Good, an God will!

L

. BARD

. As good as heart can wish:

The king is almost wounded to the death;

And, in the fortune of my lord your son,

Prince Harry slain outright; and both the Blunts

Kill’d by the hand of Douglas; young Prince John

And Westmoreland and Stafford fled the field;

And Harry Monmouth’s brawn, the hulk Sir John,

Is prisoner to your son: O, such a day, [20]

So fought, so follow’d and so fairly won,

Came not till now to dignify the times,

Since Cæsar’s fortunes!

N

ORTH

. How is this derived?

Saw you the field? came you from Shrewsbury?

L

. BARD

. I spake with one, my lord, that came from thence,

A gentleman well bred and of good name,

That freely render’d me these news for true.

N

ORTH

. Here comes my servant Travers, whom I sent

On Tuesday last to listen after news.

Enter T

RAVER.

L

. BARD

. My lord, I over-rode him on the way; [30]

And he is furnish’d with no certainties

More than he haply may retail from me.

N

ORTH

. Now, Travers, what good tidings comes with you?

T

RA

. My lord, Sir John Umfrevile turn’d me back

With joyful tidings; and, being better horsed,

Out-rode me. After him came spurring hard

A gentleman, almost forspent with speed,

That stopp’d by me to breathe his bloodied horse.

He ask’d the way to Chester; and of him

I did demand what news from Shrewsbury: [40]

He told me that rebellion had bad luck,

And that young Harry Percy’s spur was cold.

With that, he gave his able horse the head,

And bending forward struck his armed heels

Against the panting sides of his poor jade

Up to the rowel-head, and starting so

He seem’d in running to devour the way, [47]

Staying no longer question.

Said he young Harry Percy’s spur was cold?

Of Hotspur Coldspur? that rebellion [50]

Had met ill luck?

If my young lord your son have not the day,

Upon mine honour, for a silken point [53]

I’ll give my barony: never talk of it.

NORTH

. Why should that gentleman that rode by Travers

Give then such instances of loss?

He was some hilding fellow that had stolen [57]

The horse he rode on, and, upon my life,

Spoke at a venture. Look, here comes more news.

Enter M

ORTON

N

ORTH

. Yea,

Reviews for Henry IV, Part II

[coach_of_alva · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This play is not as enjoyable as its predecessor, largely because the remaining rebels to be mopped up are foolish weasels, not the roaring lion that Hotspur was. There remains the tension between father and son, which ends in a moving deathbed reconciliation and the prince's coming-of-age as king. More interesting is the career of Sir John Falstaff in the countryside, as we are allowed to see how a man of some shrewdness and no honor survives and profits while the kingdom is in an uproar, and the introduction of Justice Shallow, who so wants to be the Elizabethan equivalent of "cool." The play ends with the new king forbidding the evil old man his presence. This is a necessity, especially considering the old fool's plans for graft and glory, but it is a sad necessity.

[katieloucks · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I'm not big into the histories

[dinadansfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This play ends with the death of Henry IV of England, and the crowning of Henry V and his dramatic rejection of Falstaff. I prefer it to the first part, and find the play has more pacing and tighter characterization. I guest I'm not that fond of Falstaff, having had to deal with the fallout from some "Lovable Rogues" in my own life. The Henry IV camp deals with the rebellion in the north, and Hotspur Percy gets killed.Read it 9 times, apparently.

[mrslee_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not a scholarly review here, just a note for myself that I read this. The drama was pretty good, but my reading mood was off and so it took me two months to finish. Not good for continuity. Even so, I was able to pick up the main characters and plot. All the side characters became rather muddled for me though. Not sure what to think of Henry V. Seems a rather calculating and mean sort of man. Used Falstaff harshly, although I don't have much sympathy or care for Falstaff, either. Not sure why people have loved him so, I found him repulsive. Possibly the language barrier? I would like to read this in a more modern language to see if it makes a difference. Loved Henry the IV's speech about sleep, or the lack thereof. Also, one of the women who gave her father-in-law (or was he her father?) what-for because he deserted her husband when he needed him most.

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Didn't actually need to read this for my course, but since it comes between Henry IV Part One and Henry V, I thought I'd read it to make sure I have all the details.

I didn't like it as much as Part One -- it doesn't seem to tie together as well, and anyway I'm not fond of the character of Falstaff. Perhaps on stage it'd be funny and worth watching, but I didn't enjoy those scenes just reading it.

[trilliams · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Falstaff has an entire speech about drinking. Of course. Not as entertaining as the first part, but acts IV and V make it worth it.

[stillatim · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Overall, I thought this was less interesting than Henry V, but that might just be because I paid more attention to HV (I have to teach it; I read this for kicks). There's not a whole lot of beautiful Shakespeare moments, the humor didn't hit me (possibly my fault, of course), and the best bit was probably the Induction, in which Rumour discourses on herself. On the upside, I learned the word 'fustilarian' and the phrase 'I'll tickle your catastrophe!', and I'm pretty sure I now understand the title of Javier Marias' 'Your Face Tomorrow': "What a disgrace it is to me to remember thy name! or to know thy face tomorrow!", says the prince in II.2. Here he's mocking/despairing over those who abandon their friends when they become famous; by the end of the play (V.5) he's the person who's abandoning his friends. This adds a fair bit to Marias' repeated question, "Can I know your face tomorrow?", which for most of the novel seems more epistemic and existential. If he got it from Henry IV, 'YFT' takes on a whole new moral overtone. I guess I should re-read it even sooner than I'd planned.

This now has nothing to do with Henry IV, which I doubt I'll re-read anytime soon.

[medievalgirl-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This play was the third in a series of 8 which together formed Shakespeare’s masterful saga of 'History' plays chronicling the turbulent final century of the Plantagenet Dynasty from the deposition of Richard II in 1399 to the death of Richard III at Bosworth field in 1485.

Altogether, they have all the high drama of an epic saga with their vivid accounts of treachery, ambition, power, betrayal, feuding and war in an age of bloody upheaval.
If all this sounds gloomy and depressing, there are also colourful well-developed and memorable characters including the 'man mountain' plump and usually tipsy John Falstaff and the heroic Henry V as well as plenty of courage, chivalry and deeds of daring-do with a smattering of romance and humour.

Whoever said Shakespeare was boring? It should be said, however, that I could not fully appreciate these plays by simply reading them- they had to be seen as well. They are not, after all, novels, and reading through them in the way one would a book can be a tedious experience.

An increasingly unstable and insecure King Henry faces yet more rebellion and opposition from within and without.
Beset by failing health and troubled all the more by his conscience and fear of divine judgement upon him and his line for his crime of the deposition and murder of the rightful King.
The Earl of Northumberland and other nobles gather together their forces to make war against the King once again, but their readiness to negotiate proves fatal.
Meanwhile, Prince Hal still frequents the taverns of London, but his old friend Falstaff has come up with a new scheme to make gain money, prestige and hopefully the favour of the King and is the source of as much humour as before.
As King Henry's troubled reign comes to an end, however, Price Hal has some must mature to accept the great responsibility which is soon to be thrust upon him, even though it comes at the price of disowning his former companions of friends.

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Falstaff is at his best in this play. Hal's abuse of him almost inspires sympathy for the blackguard. The transformation of the irresponsible Hal into a stately King is, however, rather hard to swallow.The death scene of HIV is a wonderful scene. It's easier for me to see Hal take the crown for his own head before his father is even cold (or dead for that matter) than it is for me to see Hal become a serious young man.

[amerynth · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Shakespeare's "Henry IV: Part Two" really doesn't live up to the marvelous story told in part one. I read somewhere that both parts were originally a single play and Shakespeare broke it into two... I don't know whether that's true but I find it fairly easy to believe.There isn't much of a story here-- the battle is over and everyone is just waiting for Henry III to expire so his son can take over. It's pretty slow moving and not terribly interesting.