Henry IV, Part I

Introduction

Henry IV, Part I continues the story started with Richard II, who Bolingbroke overthrew and had killed and thus became King Henry IV. It then continues with Henry IV, Part II, as we see son Hal being groomed for the throne as Henry V, the great warrior king. His reign is not a long one as Henry V, and his infant son, Henry VI, assumes the throne and Shakespeare writes his story in three parts, mostly focused on the War of the Roses before the sequence is wrapped up when Henry is murdered by Richard III, who then gets his own play. This is a remarkable romp through English history from 1377 (when Richard II becomes king) until 1485 (when Richard III is killed) inclusive. The entire series was immensely popular in the 1590s, as Shakespeare’s audiences knew their recent history and enjoyed watching it staged right before their eyes.

Henry IV faced numerous rebellions, had a wayward son, Hal, as heir apparent, and experienced a lifetime of guilt for the murder of King Richard II, which threw an accusatory light on King Henry IV’s entire reign and brought about the War of the Roses during the reign of his grandson, Henry VI. Henry IV, Part I is famous for Henry IV’s son Hal and his misadventures with a pack of rogues at the Boar’s Head Tavern in Eastcheap, London, led by the infamous Shakespeare creation of Falstaff. Henry IV is deeply disappointed in Hal for much of the play. He would appear to have nothing whatsoever ‘royal’ about him at first. But that all changes, and this is as much what the play is about as anything else, as we witness first hand the grooming of a great monarch. There is a truly astonishing scene wherein Hal takes his father’s crown and puts it on his own head just as King Henry awakens and Hal proclaims himself committed to his future kingship and his fitness to rule. We must remember that Hal goes on to become King Henry V, one of England’s greatest warrior kings. But when he becomes King, Hal must turn his back on Falstaff and company from the Eastcheap tavern life. This is a very dramatic and sentimental metamorphosis , as we witness a one time ruffian and a rogue become a truly gifted king. Falstaff had been like a father to Hal and, although Hal informs us early on that he is merely playing at being a rogue and will throw off his bad behaviour one day and assume his regal responsibilities, his actual father doubts this very much. The tavern life represents a very unruly England under Henry IV’s kingship. Falstaff is the perfect leader of the Cheapside pack of rogues. He is often dark and melancholic, drinking in excess, robbing travellers of their monies, playing loose with the women and perversely lacking in morals. He is also Shakespeare’s greatest riotous wit and his humour laiden life force is over the top compared to any other Bard creation. Hamlet and Falstaff are consistently considered Shakespeare’s finest characters. The surrogate father role Falstaff plays to young Hal is the cornerstone of the play. The seamy underworld that is Eastcheap is Hal’s prerequisite tutorial on his path toward kingship. He learns the ‘common touch’ with the hooligan life and will excel at relating to the people of England throughout his reign. Hal has two father figures in this play. Falstaff is a highly intelligent fleshy wit and supreme survivor while King Henry IV is the law of the land. Hal does well to learn as much as possible from both.

Typical of the history plays, the main character is actually England itself. The country is unifying but also facing rebellions. The classes are at odds with each other and the king is very concerned about passing his crown on to his wayward son. King Henry also suffers from the horrible guilt of King Richard II’s death, and England will play a terrible price for his murder, as the War of the Roses will essentially be fought over who has the tightest claim to the throne as a result of it. And yet, there is a strong comedic element to Henry IV, Part I, mostly due to the enormous character of Falstaff, the embodiment of the irreverent sinner, who is corrupt, vulgar, witty and warm. Falstaff is an absolute show stopper. Queen Elizabeth loved him most of all of Shakespeare’s creations and she literally requested (commanded?) of Shakespeare a romantic comedy featuring Falstaff and the ladies of Eastcheap. That play would become The Merry Wives of Windsor, which Queen Elizabeth adored.

Shakespeare’s deep and extraordinary intelligence is on display throughout Henry IV, Part I and it often appears as an intelligence without limits. One of the factors that makes Falstaff so penetrating a character is how he he relishes in his own extravagance. He seemingly represents Shakespeare at the limits of his very own wit, as he speaks some of the most inspired prose in the history of our language. Falstaff is the master of wit and Hal is Falstaff’s finest creation. Shakespeare peoples his worlds with personas as seemingly real as ourselves, and to witness Falstaff and Hal play off each other is a thorough delight. They are constantly transforming their identities in each new scene with an unparalleled intelligence, exuberance and an insatiable will to live. Hamlet and Falstaff are Shakespeare’s finest creations because of how self aware they are, how teeming with consciousness compared to any other characters in all of world literature. And it was Falstaff who paved the way for Hamlet and so many others. Shakespeare’s deepest and most profound inner-characters include Falstaff, Hamlet, Rosalind, Iago, Lear and his fool, Cleopatra, Richard II, Juliet, Shylock, Hal, Brutus, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and Prospero. In these characters Shakespeare invented a rich, genuine and varied portrait of human personality so convincing that we continue to recognize ourselves in them today. Falstaff’s wit always needs an audience and he never fails to find one.

Act I (3 scenes)

Scene i

London. The palace

Enter Westmorland and King Henry IV

Westmoreland: “My liege, a post from Wales is loaded with heavy news; the noble Mortimer, fighting against wild Glendower, was by the rude hands of that Welshman taken and a thousand of his people murdered.”

King: “It seems then that the tidings of this broil break off our business with the Holy Land.”

Westmoreland: “More unwelcome news came from the north: the gallant Hotspur there, young Harry Percy, prisoners took.”

King: “Thou makes me sad with envy that Lord Northumberland should be the father of so blest a son, while I see riot and dishonour stain the brow of my young Harry. O that it could be proved that some night-tripping fairy had exchanged in cradle-clothes our children where they lay, and called mine Percy, his Plantagenet! Of the prisoners he keeps I have sent for him to answer this.”

Analysis

A few matters of note right from the start. First, there is a rebellion afoot in Wales and this will keep King Henry from fulfilling his vow to venture to the Holy Land for forgiveness in the death of King Richard II. Richard was badly disconsolate and incompetent toward the end of his reign and Henry usurped his thrown and Richard was murdered by one of Henry’s supporters. With these rebellions King Henry will never find the opportunity to travel to the Holy Land and as a result, his guilt will never ease up. As well, young Harry Hotspur is fighting bravely in the north of England against yet another rebellion and King Henry admits to being sad and envious that Lord Northumberland has such an honourable son, while riot and dishonour stain the reputation of his own son, Hal. The King admits to wishing the two infants might have been exchanged at birth. Hotspur is a foil to Prince Hal all throughout the play. Apparently, Hotspur has taken prisoners and the King has sent for him to answer to these charges.

Act I

Scene ii

London. Prince Hal’s lodgings.

Enter Hal (the Prince of Wales) and Sir John Falstaff

Falstaff: “Hal, what time of day is it, lad?“

Prince: “Thou art so fat-witted with the drinking of old sack, and unbuttoning thee after supper, and sleeping on benches after noon… what a devil hast thou to do with the time of day? Unless hours were cups of sack, and minutes capons, and clocks the tongues of bawds, and the blessed sun himself a fair hot wench, I see no reason why thou should be so superfluous to demand the time of day.“

Falstaff: “Sweet wag, when thou art king, let not us be called thieves; let us be Diana’s foresters, gentlemen of the shade, and let men say we be men of good government, being governed, by our noble and chaste mistress the moon, under whose countenance we steal.“

Prince: “Thou sayest well.“

Falstaff: “And is not my hostess of the tavern a most sweet wench, mad wag?”

Prince: “Why, what a pox have I to do with my hostess of the tavern? Did I ever call for thee to pay thy part?”

Falstaff: “No; thou hast paid all.”

Prince: “Yea, so far as my coin would stretch; and where it would not, I have used my credit.”

Falstaff: “Yea, were it not here apparent that thou art heir apparent – but, I prithee, sweet wag, shall there be gallows standing in England when thou art king? Do not, when thou art king, hang a thief. Thou hast done much harm upon me, Hal – God forgive thee for it.”

Prince: “Where shall we take a purse tomorrow? I see a good amendment of life in thee – from praying to purse-taking.”

Falstaff: “Why, Hal, ’tis my vocation; ’tis no sin for a man to labour in his vocation.“

Enter Poins

Falstaff: “Poins!”

Prince: “Good morrow, Ned.”

Poins: “Good morrow, sweet Hal. What says Monsieur Remorse? What says Sir John Sack and Sugar? Jack, how agrees the devil and thee about thy soul, that thou soldest him on Good Friday last for a cup of Madeira and a cold capon’s leg?”

Prince: “He will give the devil his due.”

Poins: “My lads, tomorrow there are pilgrims going to Canterbury with rich offerings, and traders riding to London with fat purses. If you will go, I will stuff your purses full of crowns; if you will not, tarry at home and be hanged.”

Falstaff: “Hal, will thou make one?”

Prince: “Who? – I rob, I a thief? Not I, by my faith. Come what will, I’ll tarry at home.”

Falstaff: “I’ll be a traitor then, when thou art king.”

Prince: “I care not.”

Poins: “Sir John, I prithee, leave the Prince and me alone. I will lay him down such reasons for this adventure that he shall go.”

Falstaff: “Well, God give thee the spirit of persuasion, that what he hears may be believed; that the true Prince may, for recreation sake, prove a false thief. Farewell; you shall find me in Eastcheap.”

Exit Falstaff

Poins: “Now, my good lord, ride with us tomorrow. I have a jest to execute that I cannot manage alone. The purpose of this quest will be the incomprehensible lies that this same fat rogue will tell us when we meet at supper: how thirty, at least, he fought with and what extremities he endured.”

Prince: “Well, I’ll go with thee.”

Exit Poins

Prince: (aside) “I know you all, and will awhile uphold the unyoked humour of your idleness; yet herein will I imitate the sun, who doth permit the base contagious clouds to smother up his beauty from the world, that, when he please again to be himself, being wanted, he may be more wondered at by breaking through the foul and ugly mists of vapours that did seem to strangle him. If all the year were playing holidays, to sport would be as tedious as to work. So when this loose behaviour I throw off and pay the debt I never promised, and, my reformation, glittering over my fault, shall show more goodly and attract more eyes, than that which hath no foil to set it off. I’ll so offend to make offence a skill, remembering time when men think least I will.“

Analysis

The scenes in Eastcheap with Falstaff, Hal and company are some of the finest and wittiest writing Shakespeare ever penned and here is the first such scene. Falstaff and Hal banter about with each other incessantly. Falstaff is a most complex character. He is a committed criminal, who spends his days drinking sack and making outrageous puns. Yet he is cheerful, energetic, brilliant, unembarrassed, cowardly, bursting with confidence and essentially harmless. His sense of gusto and life energy are unparalleled. He truly loves life, unlike the officials at court, who are busy fighting wars and toppling governments. Falstaff looks after Falstaff with a gusto that is rare. Prince Hal is like a student before Falstaff, learning valuable life lessons that will make him an effective king one day. Poins has a jest to play on Falstaff and Hal is all too ready to participate. A highway robbery has been set up and Poins and Hal shall witness it and then, disguised, will rob the robbers, including Falstaff, certain that the cowards will run for their lives, but then at dinner they will wait for Falstaff to declare how he single handedly fought off thirty men with swords. At the end of the scene Prince Hal reveals, in an aside, that he is only pretending to be a full participant in the Eastcheap scene. “I will awhile uphold the humour of your idleness.” With such low expectations he can then shock his father and others with his sudden emergence as ‘suitable royalty’. Now we know for the remainder of the play of his psychological plan and can anticipate his eventual revelation.

Act I

Scene iii

London. The palace

Enter the King, Hotspur, Worcester and Northumberland

Hotspur: “My liege, I did deny no prisoners. But when the fight was done and I was dry with rage and extreme toil, breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword, came there a certain lord, neat and trimly dressed, fresh as a bridegroom, and as the soldiers bore dead bodies by, he called them untaught knaves and unmannerly demanded my prisoners on your Majesty’s behalf. He made me mad to see him shine so brisk, and smell so sweet. I beseech you, let not his report come current for an accusation betwixt my love and your high Majesty.”

King: “Yet he doth deny his prisoners, that we at our own charge shall ransom straight his brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer; who, on my soul, hath willfully betrayed the lives of those that he did lead to fight against that great magician, damned Glendower. I shall never hold that man my friend whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost to ransom home revolted Mortimer!”

Hotspur: “Revolted Mortimer! He never did fall off, my sovereign liege. Let him not be slandered with revolt.”

King: “Sirrah, henceforth let me not hear you speak of Mortimer: send me the prisoners with the speediest means, or you shall hear from me as will displease you. Send us your prisoners.”

Exit King Henry

Hotspur: “And if the devil come and roar for them, I will not send them. Speak of Mortimer! Zounds, I will speak of him; and let my soul want mercy if I do not join with him. I will lift the down-trod Mortimer as high in the air as this unthankful king, as this ingrate and cankered Bolingbroke.”

Worcester: “Was not Mortimer proclaimed by Richard the next of blood?”

Hotspur: “But soft, I pray you: did King Richard proclaim my brother, Edmund Mortimer, heir to the crown?”

Northumberland: “He did: myself did hear it.”

Hotspur: “God pardon it! To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose, and plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke?”

Worcester: “Those same noble Scots that are your prisoners -“

Hotspur: “I’ll keep them all; he shall not have a Scot of them. He said he would not ransom Mortimer; forbad my tongue to speak of Mortimer; but I will find him when he lies asleep and in his ear I’ll holler ‘Mortimer!’ I’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak nothing but “Mortimer’, and give it him to keep his anger still in motion. All studies here I solemnly defy, save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke, and that same sword-and-buckler Prince of Wales – but that I think his father loves him not. I would have poisoned him with a pot of ale. I am whipped and scourged with rods, when I hear this vile politician, Bolingbroke.”

Analysis

Hotspur is a significant player in this story. He is Northumberland’s son and leads a rebellion against the king. Hotspur believes that Mortimer has a better claim to the throne than the king does, but King Henry wants to hear nothing good about Mortimer. Hotspur and King Henry will fall out of sorts completely soon and it will be Hal who steps up on his father’s behalf and confronts Hotspur in single combat. On paper it will appear that dutiful and martial Hotspur will have his way with the wayward and hedonistic Hal, but this is where we must recall that Hal is merely pretending to embrace Falstaff and company in Eastcheap, when in actuality he is preparing to rule England as Henry V. Until that combat between Hotspur and Hal, Hotspur remains a contentious figure at large and at odds with King Henry and a foil to Hal.

Act II (4 scenes)

Scene i

Rochester. An Inn yard

Enter a carrier

First Carrier: “And it be not four by the day, I’ll be hanged. And yet our horse is not packed.”

Second Carrier: “I think this be the most villainous house in all London road for fleas.”

Chamberlain: “There’s a rich landowner in Kent hath brought three hundred marks with him in gold. They are up already and will away presently.”

Analysis

This is a difficult scene to read. It is in the language of lower class uneducated folk and is far from any contemporary rendering. Shakespeare employs a vast variety of linguistic variations of English in Henry IV, Part I. There is the language of royalty, Falstaff’s immense wit, Welshmen, Scots, uneducated commoners, etc. The multiplicity of linguistic styles are all in evidence here and it is not always an easy read. In this scene the carriers are preparing for the travellers to be up and out of the inn soon. The chamberlain relates that a very rich fellow is among them. He informs Gadshill accordingly and the jest is ready to be enacted upon the unsuspected, both the travellers and Falstaff and company.

Act II

Scene ii

The highway

Enter Hal and Poins

Poins: “Come, shelter, shelter; I have removed Falstaff’s horse.”

Enter Falstaff

Falstaff: “Poins! Poins! And be hanged! Poins!”

Prince: “Peace, ye fat-kidney’d rascal; what a brawling dost thou keep!”

Falstaff: “Where’s Poins, Hal? I am accursed to rob in that thief’s company; the rascal hath removed my horse, and tied him I know not where. Well, I doubt not but to die a fair death for all this, if I escape hanging for killing that rogue. I have forsworn his company hourly any time this two and twenty years, and yet I am bewitched with the rogue’s company. Poins! Hal! A plague upon you both! A plague upon it when thieves cannot be true to one another! A plague upon you all! Give me my horse, you rogues; give me my horse and be hanged.“

Prince: “Peace, ye fat-guts! Lie down; lie thy ear close to the ground and listen if thou can hear the tread of travellers.”

Falstaff: “Have you any levers to lift me up again, being down? I prithee, good prince Hal, help me to my horse, good king’s son. Hang thyself in thine own heir-apparent garters. Let a cup of sack be my poison.”

Bardolph: “On with your visors; there’s money of the King’s coming; ’tis going to the King’s exchequer.”

Falstaff: “You lie, ye rogue; ’tis going to the King’s tavern.”

Peto: “How many be there of them?”

Gadshill: “Some eight or ten.”

Falstaff: “Zounds, will they not rob us?”

Prince: “What, a coward, Sir John Paunch?”

Falstaff: “No coward, Hal.”

Prince: “Well, we’ll leave that to the proof. (aside to Poins) Where are our disguises?”

Poins: “Here.”

Exit the Prince and Poins

Enter the travellers

Thieves: “Stand!”

Travellers: “Jesus, bless us!”

Falstaff: “Strike; down with them; cut the villain’s throats. Fleece them.”

Traveller: “O we are undone.”

Falstaff: “Hang ye!”

They rob and bind them

Re-enter the Prince and Poins in disguise

Prince: “The thieves have bound the true men. Now, could thou and I rob the thieves and go merrily to London, it would be argument for a week, laughter for a month, and a good jest forever.”

Poins: “I hear them coming.

Enter the thieves again

Falstaff: “Come, my masters, let us share.”

The Prince and Poins set upon them

Prince: “Your money!”

Poins: “Villains!”

They all run away leaving the booty behind

Prince: “The thieves are all scattered, and possessed with fear. Falstaff sweats to death and lards the lean earth as he walks along.”

Poins: “How the fat rogue roared!”

Analysis

More play among the thieves, as this jest on Falstaff is played out. Falstaff is a giant wit and is often the target of pranks by Hal. Hal is much harder on Falstaff than Sir John is on the Prince. The question of honour comes up here, as it does between Hotspur and Prince Hal throughout the play. There will come a time when Prince Hal will be done with Eastcheap, the Boor’s Head Tavern, and, yes, Falstaff. But that won’t be until Henry IV, Part II. Plenty of Hal and Falstaff to go still!

Act II

Scene iii

Warkworth Castle

Enter Hotspur and Lady Percy

Hotspur: “How now, Kate! I must leave you within these two hours.”

Lady Percy: “O my good lord, why are you thus alone? For what offence have I this fortnight been a banished woman from my Harry’s bed? What is it that takes from thee thy stomach, pleasure and thy golden sleep? Why hast thou lost the fresh blood in thy cheeks? In thy faint slumbers I heard thee murmur tales of iron wars; crying ‘Courage! To the field!’ And thou has talked of trenches, tents, cannons, prisoner’s ransoms and of soldiers slain. Thy spirit within thee hath been so at war , and thus hath so bestirr’d thee in thy sleep, thy beads of sweat have stood upon thy brow and in thy face strange motions have appeared. What portents are these? Some heavy business hath my lord in hand, and I must know it, else he loves me not. What is it carries you away?”

Hotspur: “Why, my horse, my love, my horse.”

Lady Percy: “Out, you mad-headed ape! I’ll know your business, Harry, that I will. I fear my brother Mortimer doth stir about his title and hath sent for you to line his enterprise. Do you not love me? Since you love me not, I will not love myself.”

Hotspur: “I must not have you henceforth question me wither I go, nor reason whereabout; whither I must, I must; and, to conclude, this evening must I leave you, gentle Kate. Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know, and so far will I trust thee, gentle Kate. Not an inch further.”

Analysis

Clearly, Hotspur’s business is of a clandestine nature, and not even his wife will be privy to it. This scene is reminiscent of a similar encounter between Brutus and his wife, Portia, on the eve of his assassination of Julius Caesar. Hotspur seems prepared to take on the very King himself and he is not sharing his venture with Lady Percy and is, in fact, somewhat hostile toward her.

Act II

Scene iv

Eastcheap. The Boar’s Head Tavern

Enter the Prince and Poins

Prince: “When I am King of England I shall command all the good lads in Eastcheap.”

Enter Vintner

Vintner: “My lord, old Sir John, with half a dozen more, are at the door.”

Enter Falstaff, Gadshill, Bardolph and Peto

Poins:”Welcome, Jack. Where hast thou been?”

Falstaff: “A plague of all cowards, I say, and a vengeance too! Marry and amen! Give me a cup of sack, boy. A plague of all cowards! Give me a cup of sack, rogue. There is lime in this sack! There is nothing but roguery to be found in villainous man; yet a coward is worse than a cup of sack with lime in it. There lives not three good men unhang’d in England, and one of them is fat and grows old. A bad world, I say. A plague of all cowards, I say still.“

Prince: “How now, woolsack! What mutter you?”

Falstaff: “A king’s son! You Prince of Wales!”

Prince: “Why, you whoreson round man, what’s the matter?”

Falstaff: “Are not you a coward? Answer me to that – and Poins there?”

Poins: “Zounds, ye fat paunch, and ye call me coward, by the Lord, I’ll stab thee.”

Falstaff: “I call thee coward! I’ll see thee damned ere I call thee coward. Give me a cup of sack. I am a rogue if I drank today.”

Prince: “O villain, thy lips are scarce wiped since thou drunk last.”

Falstaff: “A plague of all cowards, still say I.”

Prince: “What’s the matter?”

Falstaff: “What’s the matter! There be four of us here have taken a thousand pounds this morning.”

Prince: “Where is it, Jack? Where is it?”

Falstaff: “Where is it! Taken from us it is: a hundred upon the poor four of us.

Prince: “What, a hundred, man?”

Falstaff: “I am a rogue if I were not at halfsword with a dozen of them two hours together. I have escaped by miracle. I am eight times thrust through the doublet, four through the hose, my buckler cut through; my sword hacked like a hand-saw. I never dealt better since I was a man. A plague of all cowards!”

Gadshill: “We four set upon some dozen -“

Falstaff: “Sixteen, at least, my lord.”

Gadshill: “As we were sharing, some six or seven fresh men set upon us -“

Prince: “What, fought you with them all?”

Falstaff: “All! I know not what you call all, but if I fought not with fifty of them, I am a bunch of radish. If there were not two or three and fifty upon poor old Jack, than am I no two-legged creature.”

Prince: “Pray God, you have not murdered some of them.”

Falstaff: “Nay, that’s past praying for. Hal, if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face and call me a horse. Four came all afront, and manly thrust at me. I took all their seven points in my target, thus.”

Prince: “Seven? But there were but four even now.”

Falstaff: “Seven, by these hilts, or I am a villain else. Dost thou hear me, Hal?”

Prince: “Ay, and mark thee too, Jack.”

Falstaff: “These nine that I told thee of -“

Prince: “So, two more already.”

Falstaff: “Eleven.”

Prince: “O monstrous! Eleven men grown out of two! These lies are like their father that begets them – gross as a mountain. Why, thou clay-brained guts, thou knotted pated fool, thou whoreson, obscene, greasy tallow-catch -“

Falstaff: “What, art thou mad? Is not the truth the truth?”

Prince: “Why, how could thou know these men when it was so dark thou could not see thy hand? Come, tell us your reason.”

Poins: “Come, your reason, Jack, your reason.”

Falstaff: “What, upon compulsion? I would not tell you on compulsion.”

Prince: “I’ll be no longer guilty of this sin; this sanguine coward, this bed-presser, this horse-back-breaker, this huge hill of flesh -“

Falstaff: “‘SBlood, you starveling, you eel-skin, you dried neat’s-tongue, you bull’s pizzle, you stock-fish – O for breath to utter what is like thee! – you tailor’s yard, you sheath, you bow-case, you vile standing tuck!”

Prince: “We two saw you four set on four, and bound them. We two set on you four; and outfaced you from your prize, and have it, yea. And Falstaff, you carried your guts away as nimbly, with quick dexterity, and roared for mercy.”

Falstaff: “By the Lord, I knew ye. Was it for me to kill the heir-apparent? Why, thou knows I am as valiant as Hercules; but the lion will not touch the true Prince. But, by the Lord, lads, I am glad you have the money.”

Exit Falstaff

Prince: “Tell me now in earnest, how came Falstaff’s sword so hacked?”

Peto: “Why, he hacked it with his dagger, and said he would make you believe it was done in fight; and persuaded us to do the like.”

Bardolph: “Yea, and to tickle our noses with spear-grass to make them bleed.”

Re-enter Falstaff

Prince: “How now, my sweet creature of bombast! How long is it ago, Jack, since thou saw thine own knee?“

Falstaff: “There’s villainous news abroad. Here was Sir John Bracy from your father: you must go to the court in the morning. But, tell me, Hal, art not thou horrible afeared? Thou being heir-apparent, could the world pick thee out three such enemies again as that fiend Douglas, that spirit Percy and that devil Glendower? Art thou not horribly afraid? Does not thy blood thrill at all? Well, thou will be horribly chid tomorrow when thou comes to thy father. If thou love me, practice an answer.”

Prince: “Do thou stand for my father, and examine me upon the particulars of my life.“

Falstaff: “Shall I? Content! This dagger my sceptre, and this cushion my crown. And here is my speech. Stand aside, nobility.”

Hostess: “O Jesu, this is excellent sport, in faith! O, the father, how he holds his countenance.”

Falstaff: “Peace, good tickle-brains. Harry, I do not only marvel where thou spends thy time, but also how thou art accompanied; for youth, the more it is wasted the sooner it wears. That thou art my son I have partly thy mother’s word, partly my own opinion, but chiefly a villainous trick of thine eye. If then thou be son to me, here lies the point: shall the son of England prove a thief and take purses? And yet there is a virtuous man whom I have often noted in thy company, but I know not his name.“

Prince: “What manner of man?”

Falstaff: “A goodly portly man of a cheerful look, a pleasing eye, and a most noble carriage I remember, his name is Falstaff. If that man should be lewdly given, he decieveth me; for, Harry, I see virtue in his looks. There is virtue in that Falstaff: him keep with, the rest banish.“

Prince: “Dost thou speak like a king? Do thou stand for me, and I’ll play my father.“

Falstaff: “Depose me?”

Prince: “Well, here I am set. Now, Harry, whence come you?”

Falstaff: ” From Eastcheap.”

Prince: “The complaints I hear of thee are grievous.”

Falstaff: “My lord, they are false.”

Prince: “Henceforth never look on me. Thou art violently carried away from grace; there is a devil haunts thee in the likeness of an old fat man; a ton of man is thy companion. Why dost thou converse with that trunk of humours, that bolting-hutch of beastliness, that swollen parcel of dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, that stuffed cloak-bag of guts, that roasted ox with the pudding in his belly, that reverend vice, that grey iniquity, that father ruffian, that vanity in years? Wherein is he good, but to drink sack? Wherein cunning, but in craft? Wherein crafty but in villainy? Wherein villainous, but in all things? Wherein worthy, but in nothing.“

Falstaff: “Who means your grace?”

Prince: “That villainous abominable misleader of youth, Falstaff, that old white-bearded satan –“

Falstaff: “My lord, the man I know. But to say I know more harm in him than in myself were to say more than I know. That he is old – the more the pity – his white hairs do witness it; but that he is a whoremaster, that I utterly deny. If sack and sugar be a fault, God help the wicked! If to be old and merry be a sin, then many an old host that I know is damned; no, my good lord, banish Peto, banish Bardolph, banish Poins, but, for sweet Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff, valiant Jack Falstaff – and therefore more valiant, being, as he is, old Jack Falstaff – banish not him thy Harry’s company. Banish plump Jack and banish all the world.“

Prince: “I do, I will.“

Knocking heard

Bardolph: “O, my lord, my lord! The sheriff with a most monstrous watch is at the door.”

Hostess: “They have come to search the house.”

Falstaff: “I’ll hide me.”

Prince: “Hide thee behind the arras.”

Enter the sheriff

Prince: “Master sheriff, what is your will with me?”

Sheriff: “Certain men unto this house.”

Prince: “What men?”

Sheriff: “One of them is well known, my gracious lord – a gross fat man.”

Carrier: “As fat as butter.”

Prince: “The man, I assure you, is not here. I will, by tomorrow dinner-time, send him to answer thee, for anything he shall be charged withal; so let me entreat you to leave the house.”

Sheriff: “I will, my lord. There are two gentlemen have in this robbery lost three hundred marks.”

Prince: “If he has robbed these men he shall be answer; and so, farewell.”

Sheriff: “Good night, my noble lord.”

Exit sheriff and carrier

Peto: “Falstaff! Fast asleep behind the arras, and snorting like a horse.“

Prince: “Hark how hard he fetches breath. O monstrous! This intolerable deal of sack! There let him sleep. I’ll to the court in the morning. We must all to the wars. I’ll procure this fat rogue a charge of foot.”

Analysis

Prince Hal banters incessantly with the Boar’s Head crowd in this scene, and clearly believes this will grant him a ‘common touch’ when he is king. He has an excellent ‘go’ with Falstaff over the robbery that he and Poins orchestrated, when they robbed Falstaff and company right after they robbed the gentlemen of a significant hall of cash. Falstaff exaggerates the numbers of men and his valour, when Hal and Poins know full well that they ran like babies from Hal and Poins. The insults fly every which way and somehow in the end Falstaff seems not the least embarrassed. Word arrives that Prince Hal will have to stand before his father in the morning. The kingdom faces serious rebellion and Hal will enlist the Eastcheap gang into fighting regiments to assist his father. A classic scene emerges as Falstaff and Hal rehearse the meeting between Hal and his father, first with Falstaff as the King questioning his son’s lifestyle and friends and then with Falstaff as Hal. In each instance Falstaff is extremely generous with his own reputation, which Hal tears down aggressively. At the end of their comedic exchange is a dire prophecy proclaimed by Hal. Falstaff is arguing against being banished: “Banish plump Jack and banish all the world.” Hal’s response is chilling as well as prophetic: “I do, I will.” Oh, he will…

Act III (3 scenes)

Scene i

Wales. Glendower’s castle

Enter Hotspur, Worcester, Mortimer and Glendower

Mortimer: “These promises are fair, the parties sure, and our induction full of prosperous hope.”

Hotspur: “Lord Mortimer, and cousin Glendower, will you sit down?”

Glendower: “At my nativity the front of heaven was full of fiery shapes, and at my birth the frame and huge foundation of the earth shook like a coward.”

Hotspur: “Why, so it would have done at the same season if your mother’s cat had but kitten’d, though yourself had never been born.”

Glendower: “I say the earth did shake when I was born. The heavens were all on fire, the earth did tremble.”

Hotspur: “O, then the earth shook to see the heavens on fire, and not in fear of your nativity.”

Glendower: “Cousin, of many men I do not bear these crossings. Give me leave to tell you once again that at my birth the front of heaven was full of fiery shapes, the goats ran from the mountains. These signs have marked me extraordinary, and I am not in the roll of common men.”

Mortimer: “Peace, cousin Percy, you will make him mad.”

Glendower: “I can call spirits from the vast deep.”

Hotspur: “Why, so can I, or so can any man; but will they come when you do call for them?”

Glendower: “I can teach you, cousin, to command the devil.”

Hotspur: “And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil by telling the truth.”

Mortimer: “Come, come, no more of this unprofitable chat.”

Glendower: “Here is the map; shall we divide our right?”

Mortimer: “England, by south and east is to my part assigned; all westward, including Wales, to Owen Glendower, and, dear coz, to you the remnant northward.”

Hotspur: “Methinks my moiety, north from here, in quantity equals not one of yours.”

Glendower: “I’ll not have it altered.”

Hotspur: “Will you not? Who shall say nay to me?”

Glendower: “Why, that will I.”

Analysis

The rebels from the north (Hotspur, Douglas and Northumberland), the south (Mortimer and Worcester) and the west (Glendower) are meeting to divide up the English kingdom once Henry IV is defeated by their forces. However, there are some seriously headstrong individuals amongst these rebel leaders and we witness Hotspur and Glendower nearly come to blows over Glendower’s claim to be a mighty wizard with extraordinary magical powers. They also argue over the dividing up of the kingdom between them all. Clearly, these rebels have one thing in common: they want to defeat King Henry. But trying to envision them working together to govern England is something of a stretch. Meanwhile, in our next scene we will see King Henry form an alliance with his son, Hal, and we can begin to see where this is going. After all, there is a King Henry IV, Part II followed by a King Henry V, who we know to be Hal. Act III will lead us to the battlefields of Act IV and the culminating battle in Act V.

Act III

Scene ii

London. The palace

Enter the King and his son, Harry (Hal), the Prince of Wales

King: “Thou dost make me believe that thou art only marked for the hot vengeance and the rod of heaven to punish my mistreadings. Tell me how else could such low desires, such lewd barren pleasures as thou art matched withal and grafted to, accompany the greatness of thy blood and hold their level with thy princely heart? Let me wonder, Harry, at thy affections. Thy place in council thou hast rudely lost, and art almost an alien to the hearts of all the court and princes of my blood. The hope and expectation of thy time is ruined, and the soul of every man prophetically do forethink thy fall. By being seldom seen, like a comet, I was wondered at, that men would tell their children ‘This is he’; and then I dressed myself in such humility that I did pluck allegiance from men’s hearts. Thus did I keep my person fresh and new. Thou hast lost thy princely privilege with vile participation. Not an eye but is aweary of thy common sight, save mine, which hath desired to see thee more.“

Prince: “I shall hereafter be more myself.“

King: “Percy has more worthy interest to the state than thou the shadow of succession; for of no right he doth fill fields in the realm; turns heads against the lion’s armed jaws; and leads ancient lords and reverend bishops on to bloody battles and to bruising arms. And what say you to this? Percy, Northumberland, Douglas, Mortimer capitulate against us and are up.“

Prince: “I will redeem all of this on Percy’s head, and be bold to tell you that I am your son. And that shall be the day, this gallant Hotspur, and our unthought-of Harry chance to meet. For the time will come that I shall make this northern youth exchange his glorious deeds for my indignities. And I will call him to so strict account that he shall render every glory up, or I will tear the reckoning from his heart. In the name of God, I promise here; I do beseech your Majesty may salve the long-grown wounds of my intemperature. And I will die a hundred thousand deaths ere break the smallest parcel of this vow.“

King: “A hundred thousand rebels die in this: thou shall have charge and sovereign trust herein. On Wednesday next, Harry, you shall set forward.

Analysis

Whereas the rebels are a cantankerous bunch with one another, we see here that the King and the Prince have come together very nicely. The King levels serious charges against the Prince, but, in fact, Hal is prepared to swear off his self-indulgences with Falstaff and company in Eastcheap to live up to every expectation of leadership and loyalty to his father. This is the great turning point in the resolution of the Prince. He is poised to emerge as the successor he was always expected to be. Here is our first glimpse at the soon to be King Henry V. In fact, this next scene is the very last one set in Eastcheap, featuring Hal, Falstaff and their crew of Boar’s Head Tavern lowlifes. This part of Hal’s life is over. The time with Falstaff will never be the same. They are henceforth on two distinct trajectories.

Act III

Scene iii

Eastcheap. The Boar’s Head Tavern

Enter Falstaff and Bardolph

Falstaff: “Bardolph, am I not fallen away vilely since this last action? Do I not dwindle? I am withered. Villainous company hath been the spoil of me.”

Bardolph: “Sir John, you are so fretful you cannot live long.”

Falstaff: “Why, there is it; come, make me merry. I was as virtuously given as a gentleman needs to be. I swore a little, diced not above seven times a week, went to a bawdy-house not above once in a quarter of an hour, paid money that I borrowed – and now I live out of all order.”

Bardolph: “Why, you are so fat, Sir John, that you must needs be out of all compass.”

Falstaff: “Do thou amend thy face, and I’ll amend my life. Thou art our admiral, thou bearest the lantern, but ’tis in the nose of thee, thou art the Knight of the Burning Lamp.

Bardolph: “Why, Sir John, my face does you no harm.”

Falstaff: “No, I’ll be sworn; I make as good use of it as many a man doth of a death’s head: I never see thy face but I think upon hell-fire. I would swear by thy face. Oh, thou art an everlasting bonfire light! Thou hast saved me a thousand marks in torches, walking with thee in the night betwixt tavern and tavern.”

Enter hostess

Falstaff: “Dame Partlet, have you inquired yet who picked my pocket?”

Hostess: “Why, Sir John, do you think I keep thieves in my house?”

Falstaff: “Ye lie, hostess. I’ll be sworn my pocket was picked.”

Hostess: “Sir John, you owe me money. I bought you a dozen shirts.”

Falstaff: “Filthy dowels! I have given them away.”

Hostess: “You owe money besides, Sir John, for your diet and drinkings, and money lent you.”

Falstaff: “I’ll not pay a denier. Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn but I shall have my pocket picked? I have lost a seal-ring of my grandfather’s worth forty marks.”

Hostess: “I have heard the Prince tell that that ring was copper!”

Falstaff: “The Prince is a Jack and I would cudgel him like a dog if he would say so.”

Enter Prince Hal

Prince: “Mistress Quickly. How doth thy husband? I love him well; he is an honest man.”

Falstaff: “The other night I fell asleep here behind the arras and had my pocket picked; this house has turned bawdy-house; they pick pockets.”

Prince: “What did thou lose, Jack?”

Falstaff: “Will thou believe me, Hal? Three or four bonds of forty pounds a-piece and a seal-ring of my grandfather’s.”

Prince: “A trifle.”

Hostess: “Your grace, he speaks most vilely of you, like a foulmouthed man as he is, and said he would cudgel you.”

Prince: “What? He did not!”

Hostess: “There’s neither faith, truth or womanhood in me else.”

Falstaff: “There’s no more faith in thee than in a stewed prune. Go, you thing, go.”

Hostess: “Say, what thing? What thing? I am an honest man’s wife.”

Falstaff: “Thou art a beast.”

Hostess: “Say, what beast?”

Falstaff: “What beast? Why, an otter.”

Prince: “Why an otter?”

Falstaff:”She’s neither fish nor flesh: a man knows not where to have her.”

Prince: “He slanders thee most grossly.”

Hostess: “So he doth you, my lord. He said he would cudgel you.”

Falstaff: “Did I, Bardolph?”

Bardolph: “Indeed, Sir John, you said so.”

Falstaff: “Yea, if he said my ring was copper.”

Prince: “I say ’tis copper. Darest thou be as good as thy word now?”

Falstaff: “Why, Hal, thou knowest, as thou art but man, I dare; but as thou art prince, I fear thee.”

Prince: “There’s no room for faith, truth, nor honesty in this bosom of thine – it is all filled up with guts. Charge an honest woman with picking thy pocket! Why, thou whoreson, impudent rascal, if there were anything in thy pocket but tavern-reckonings, memorandums of bawdy-houses then I am a villain. Art thou not ashamed?“

Falstaff: “You confess, then, you picked my pocket?”

Prince: “It appears so by the story.”

Falstaff: “Hostess, I forgive thee.”

Prince: :I have procured thee, Jack, a charge of foot.”

Falstaff: “I would it had been of horse. I am heinously unprovided. Well, God be thanked for these rebels.”

Prince: “Jack, meet me tomorrow; there thou shalt know thy charge. The land is burning; Percy stands on high; and either they or we must lower lie.”

Falstaff: Rare words! Brave world! O, I could wish this tavern were my drum.”

Analysis

We get one last scene with Falstaff at the Boars Head Tavern. Here he exchanges his wit with Bardolph, about his big nose, Mistress Quickly, about money he owes her, and Prince Hal, over his insults to the hostess. But then Hal turns serious about the wars to come. He has placed Falstaff in charge of a foot brigade. Acts IV and V will be all about the wars against the rebels. Eastcheap is already forgotten by Hal.

Act IV (4 scenes)

Scene i

The rebel camp

Enter Hotspur, Worcester and Douglas

Hotspur: “By God, I cannot flatter. I do defy the tongues of soothers.”

Douglas: “Thou art the king of honour.”

Enter a messenger with letters

Hotspur: “What letters hast thou there?”

Messenger: “These letters come from your father.”

Hotspur: “Why comes he not himself?”

Messenger: “He is grievous sick.”

Hotspur: “Zounds! How has he the leisure to be sick in such a bustling time? Sick now? This sickness doth infect the very life-blood of our enterprise.”

Worchester: “Your father’s sickness is a maim to us.”

Hotspur: “A perilous gash, a very limb lopped off.”

Worchester: “I would your father had been here. It will be thought by some, that know not why he is away, that wisdom, loyalty and mere dislike of our proceedings, keep the earl from hence, and breed a kind of question in our cause; the absence of your father draws a curtain that shows the ignorant a kind of fear before not dreamt of.”

Hotspur: “You strain too far. I rather of his absence make this use: it adds a lustre and a larger dare to our great enterprise.”

Enter Sir Richard Vernon

Vernon: “The Earl of Westmorland, seven thousand strong, is marching hitherwards; with him Prince John. And further, I have learned the King himself in person is set forth with strong and mighty preparation.”

Hotspur: “He shall be welcome too. Where is his son, the nimble-footed madcap Prince of Wales, and his comrades that daff’d the world aside and bid it pass?”

Vernon: “All furnished, all in arms; full of spirit, gorgeous. I saw young Harry, like feathered Mercury…”

Hotspur: “No more, no more. Let them come. They come like sacrifices in their trim; all hot and bleeding, we will offer them. Come, who is to bear me like a thunderbolt against the bosom of the Prince of Wales? Harry to Harry shall meet, and never part ’till one drop down a corpse.”

Vernon: “There is more news. I learned that Glendower cannot draw his power this fourteen days.”

Douglas: “That’s the worst tidings that I have heard of yet.”

Worchester: “Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound.”

Hotspur: “What may the King’s whole battle reach unto?”

Vernon: “To thirty thousand.”

Hotspur: “Forty let it be. Doomsday is near; die all, die merrily.”

Douglas: “Talk not of dying.”

Analysis

A series of messages arrive to Hotspur and the rebel camp, and one piece of news is as bad as the next. First, Hotspur’s father is ill and will not arrive and neither will his soldiers they were expecting. This is an enormous blow. Next, we learn that the armies of Prince John and that of the King are approaching with upwards of thirty thousand men. Prince Hal is also in the field ‘all furnished, all in arms, full of spirit and gorgeous’. Finally, Glendower will not make it to the battle within fourteen days. The rebel alliance seems to be in peril. These are all prophetic signs pertaining the the impending battle. Hotspur is determined to fight nonetheless: ‘Doomsday is near; die all, die merrily.’ Ouch.

Act IV

Scene ii

A road near Coventry

Enter Falstaff and Bardolph

Falstaff: “Bardolph, get thee before to Coventry, and fill me a bottle of sack. If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am pickled fish. My whole charge consists of ancients, slaves as ragged as Lazarus, younger sons, discarded men, revolted tapsters, and discharged unjust serving men: the cankers of a calm world and a long peace. And such have I. No eye hath seen such scarecrows. I’ll not march through Coventry with them. I had the most of them out of prison. There’s not a shirt and a half in all my company.“

Enter Prince Hal and Westmorland

Prince: “How now, blown Jack! How now, quilt!”

Falstaff: “How now, mad wag! Tut, never fear me. I am as vigilant as a cat to steal cream.”

Prince: “I think, to steal cream indeed, for thy theft hath already made thee butter. But tell me, Jack, whose fellows are these that come after?”

Falstaff: “Mine, Hal, mine.”

Prince: “I did never see such pitiful rascals. Food for powder. They’ll fill a pit as well as better. Make haste; Percy is already in the field.”

Analysis

Falstaff’s company of men are weary to the eye. The suggestion is that he accepted bribes from any decent soldiers of means to keep them from the battle and is left with only those men who were not even capable of a bribe. So Falstaff likely made quite a bit of money but is left with a pathetic company of so called fighting men. Prince Hal calls them food for cannon powder. Thank goodness the entire King’s army is not like Falstaff’s.

Act IV

Scene iii

The rebel camp

Enter Hotspur and Worchester

Hotspur: “We’ll fight with him tonight.”

Worchester: “Good cousin, be advised, stir not tonight. The number of the King exceedeth ours. For God’s sake, cousin, stay ’till all come.”

Enter Sir Walter Blunt from the KIng

Blunt: “I come with gracious offers from the King.”

Hotspur: “Welcome, Sir Walter Blunt! Some of us love you well. But you are not of our quality, and stand against us like an enemy.“

Blunt: “But still I should stand so long as out of true rule you stand against anointed majesty! But to my charge. The King hath sent to know the nature of your griefs; and whereupon you conjure from the breast of civil peace such old hostility. He bids you name your griefs, and with all speed you should have your desires with interest, and pardon absolute for yourself and these, misled by your suggestion.“

Hotspur: “The King is kind. My father and my uncle and myself did give him that same royalty he wears; my father gave him welcome to the shore, when he heard him swear and vow to God he came but to be Duke of Lancaster.. My father swore him assistance, and performed it too. He presently steps a little higher than his vow made to my father.“

Blunt: “Tut, I came not to hear this.”

Hotspur: “Then to the point. In short time after, he deposed the King; soon after that deprived him of his life. Disgraced me in my happy victories; sought to entrap me by intelligence; in rage dismissed my father from the court; broke oath on oath, committed wrong on wrong; and in conclusion drove us to seek out and withal to pry into his title, the which we find too indirect for prolonged continuance. “

Blunt: “Shall I return this answer to the King?”

Hotspur: “Go to the King, and in the morning early shall my uncle bring him our purposes. And so, farewell.”

Analysis

Hotspur is anxious to fight and must be convinced to wait until more rebel forces arrive. Sir Walter Blunt comes with peace offerings for the rebel forces. Hotspur then lays out the charges against the King. Essentially, Henry was banished by King Richard and then returned home to secure his rightful inheritance. The Percys were instrumental is assisting Henry, provided he swore to God to be but the restored Duke of Lancaster. This he did but then proceeded to seize the crown and arrange for the murder of King Richard, which drove the rebels to oppose him. The KIng’s forces have heard all this before and Blunt dismisses it out of hand: ‘Tut, I came not to hear this.’ Occasionally we require a reminder of just what this conflict is all about. Henry usurped the crown and had King Richard II murdered. It was, in fact, more complicated and justifiable than that sounds, but usurping the crown and committing regicide is about as treasonous as it gets, which explains the immense guilt King Henry has experienced since assuming the throne and why he places such hope in his son, Hal, who will put to rest all of this talk by being an effective warrior king. It won’t be until the child-king Henry VI becomes a woefully inadequate monarch, that the various rebellions forge ahead as the War of the Roses, principally led by the House of York.

Act IV

Scene iv

York. The Archbishop’s palace

Enter the Archbishop of York and Sir Michael

Archbishop: “Tomorrow, the King meets with Lord Harry and what with the sickness of Northumberland and with Glendower’s absence, I feel the power of Percy is too weak to wage an instant rival with the King.

Sir Michael: “Why, my good lord, you need not fear; there is Douglas and Lord Mortimer.”

Archbishop: “No, Mortimer is not there.”

Sir Michael: “But there is Vernon, Lord Harry Percy and my Lord of Worchester, and a head of gallant warriors and noble gentlemen.”

Archbishop: “And so there is; but the King hath drawn the special heads of all the lands together: the Prince of Wales, Lord John of Lancaster, the noble Westmorland, and warlike Blunt; and many more dear men of estimation and command in arms.”

Sir Michael: “Doubt not, my lord, they shall be well opposed.”

Analysis

The Archbishop, allied with the rebels, is very concerned that the fractured rebel forces are not prepared to fight the King’s robust and swollen army. As Act IV ends we edge closer and closer to the decisive Battle of Shrewsbury.

Act V (5 scenes)

Scene i

The King’s camp

Enter the King, the Prince of Wales and Sir John Falstaff

King: “How bloodily the sun begins to peer above yonder hill. The day looks pale at his distemperature.”

Prince: “The wind doth play the trumpet to his purposes and foretells a tempest and a blustering day.”

King: “Then with the losers let it sympathize, for nothing can seem foul to those who win.”

Enter Worcester and Vernon

King: “My Lord of Worchester! ‘Tis not well that you and I should meet upon such terms. You have deceived our trust, and made us doff our easy robes of peace to crush our old limbs in ungentle steel; this is not well, my lord, this is not well. What say you to it? Will you again unknit this churlish knot of all-abhorred war, and move in that obedient orb again, and be no more an exhaled meteor, a prodigy of fear, and a portent of broached mischief to the unborn times?”

Worchester: “Hear me, my liege: I have not sought the day of this dislike.”

King: “You have not sought it! How comes it then?”

Falstaff: “Rebellion lay in his way, and he found it.”

Worchester: “We were the first and dearest of your friends. You swore to us that you did nothing purpose against the state, nor claim no further than your new-fallen right, the dukedom of Lancaster; to this we swore our aid. But in short space it rained down fortune showering on your head; and such a flood of greatness fell on you. From this swarm of fair advantages you took occasion to be quickly woo’d, forgot your oath to us, and being led by us you used us so and grew by our feeding to such a great bulk that even our love durst not come near your sight. We were enforced, for safety sake, to fly out of your sight, and raise this present head; whereby we stand opposed by unkind usage, dangerous countenance, and violation of all faith and truth sworn to us in your younger enterprise.”

King: “These things, indeed, you have proclaimed at market-crosses, read in churches, to face the garment of rebellion with some fine colour that may please the eye of fickle changelings and poor discontents, which gape and rub the elbow at the news of hurly-burly innovation.”

Prince: “In both your armies there are many a soul shall pay dearly for this encounter, if once they join in trial. Tell your nephew the Prince of Wales doth join with all the world in praise of Harry Percy. I do not think a braver gentleman, more daring or more bold, is now alive. For my part, I may speak it to my shame, I have a truant been to chivalry; and so I hear he doth account me too. Yet I am content that he shall take the odds of this great name and estimation, and will, to save the blood on either side, try fortune with him in a single fight.”

King: “We love our people well; even those we love who are misled upon your cousin’s part; and will they take his offer of our grace, every man shall be my friend again, and I’ll be his. But if he will not yield, rebuke and dread correction wait on us, and they shall do their office. So, be gone. We offer fair. Take it advisedly.”

Exit Worchester and Vernon

King: “Hence, therefore, every leader to his charge; for, on their answer, will we set on them; and God befriend us, as our cause is just.”

Exit the King

Falstaff: “Hal, if thou see me down in the battle, ’tis a point of friendship.”

Prince: “Say thy prayers, and farewell. Thou owes God a death.”

Exit Prince Hal

Falstaff: “‘Tis not due yet; I would be loath to pay him before his day. What need I be so forward with him who calls not on me? Well, ’tis no matter; honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on? How then? Can honour set a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound? No. What is honour? A word. What is in that word? Honour. What is that honour? Air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? He that died on Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. ‘Tis insensible then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? No. Why? Detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I’ll none of it. Honour is a mere scutcheon. And so ends my catechism.“

Analysis

Before the battle Worchester and King Henry exchange perspectives and explore whether or not there is a chance to avoid bloodshed. Worchester makes the usual rebel case about Henry usurping the throne and thereby betraying the Percys and Henry has heard it before and is simply not buying it. Prince Hal instructs Worchester to inform Harry Percy, respectfully, to suggest the two Harry’s settle this war with single combat. Finally, the scene ends with Falstaff’s famous catechism on honour, which is vintage Falstaff and one of the highlights of the play. All but Falstaff and his company seem prepared for the battle to come on behalf of the King.

Act V

Scene ii

The rebel camp

Enter Worchester and Vernon

Worchester: “O, no, my nephew must not know the liberal and kind offer of the King. It is not possible the King should keep his word in loving us; he will suspect us still, and find a time to punish this offence in other faults. My nephew’s trespass may be well forgot; it hath the excuse of youth and heat of blood, and an adopted name of privilege – a hair-brained Hotspur, governed by a spleen.. And, his corruption being taken from us, we, as the spring of all, shall pay for all. Therefore, good cousin, let not Harry know, in any case, the offer of the King.”

Enter Hotspur and Douglas

Hotspur: “Uncle, what news?”

Worchester: “The King will bid you battle presently. There is no seeming mercy in the King. He calls us rebels, traitors, and will scourge with haughty arms this hateful name in us. The Prince of Wales stepped forth, nephew, and challenged you to single fight.”

Hotspur: “O, would the quarrel lay upon our heads; and that no man might draw short breath today but I and Prince Harry. Tell me, tell me: seemed it in contempt?”

Vernon: “No, by my soul, I never in my life did hear a challenge urged more modestly. He gave you all the duties of a man; spoke your deservings like a chronicle; making you ever better than his praise, which became him like a prince indeed.”

Hotspur: “Be he as he will. I will embrace him with a soldier’s arm. O gentlemen, the time of life is short! And if we live, we live to tread on kings; if die, brave death. Let each man do his best. And here I draw a sword, whose temper I intend to stain with the best blood that I can meet withal in the adventure of this perilous day. Sound all the lofty instruments of war, and by that music let us all embrace.”

Analysis

Worchester will not tell Hotspur of the King’s offer of peace because he does not believe that the King will really allow the rebels to live in peace if they accept his offer. He may forgive Hotspur, as being young, hot headed and of a privileged family. Percy is very interested in hearing about Prince Harry’s offer of single combat. In fact, the Prince was extremely generous and humble in his portrayal of Percy. Percy says that he will embrace him with a soldier’s arm and leave this short life to fate: If we live, we live to tread on kings; if we die, then brave death.’ Time to determine which it will be, as the battle is set to commence.

Act V

Scene iii

A plain between the camps

The King passes through; then enter Douglas and Sir Walter Blunt

Douglas: “My name is Douglas; some tell me that thou art a king.”

Blunt: “They tell thee true.”

They fight and Douglas kills Blunt

Enter Hotspur

Douglas: “All’s done, all’s won; here breathless lies the King.”

Hotspur: “Where?”

Douglas: “Here.”

Hotspur: This, Douglas? No: I know this face full well. A gallant knight he was, his name was Blunt; furnished like the King himself.”

Douglas: “A fool go with thy soul whither it goes! A borrowed title hast thou bought too dear; why didst thou tell me that thou wert a king?”

Hotspur: “The King hath many marching in his coats; I’ll murder all his wardrobe, piece by piece, until I meet the King.”

Exit Hotspur

Enter Falstaff

Falstaff: “Soft! Who are you? Sir Walter Blunt. There’s honour for you! God keep lead out of me! I need no more weight than my own bowels. I have led my ragamuffins where they are peppered; there’s not three of my hundred and fifty left alive. But who comes here?”

Enter Prince Hal

Prince: “What, stand’s thou idle here? Lend me thy sword. I prithee, lend me thy sword.”

Falstaff: “O Hal, I prithee give me leave to breathe awhile. Turk Gregory never did such deeds in arms as I have done this day.”

Prince: “I prithee lend me thy sword.”

Falstaff: “Take my pistol.”

Prince: “Give it me. What, is it in its case?”

The Prince draws it out of its case and finds it to be a bottle of sack

Prince: “What, is this a time to jest and dally now?”

He throws the bottle at him

Falstaff: “I like not such grinning honour as Sir Walter hath. Honour comes unlooked for, and there’s an end.”

Analysis

Typical of a battle in those days involving a fighting king, many soldiers pose as the king in the field in order to confuse the enemy in pursuit of the king. Sir Walter Blunt is killed By Douglas while disguised as King Henry. These disguises tended to be quite impressive, and Douglas is thrilled to tell Hotspur that he has killed the King. But Hotspur recognizes Blunt. Hotspur intends to kill all of the supposed kings until he finds the real one. We learn from Falstaff that not more than three of his one hundred and fifty men are still alive. And yet he has survived and is seemingly well. It really makes you wonder about the rest of his men. He offers the Prince his ‘gun’ in its case, which merely turns out to be a bottle of sack. Just as well he dispenses with the very notion of honour.

Act V

Scene iv

Another part of the field

Enter the King, the Prince of Wales, Prince John of Lancaster and Westmoreland

King: “Harry, withdraw thyself; thou bleedest too much.”

Prince: “God forgive a shallow scratch should drive the Prince of Wales from such a field as this, where stained nobility lies trodden on, and rebel’s arms triumph in massacres.”

Exit the Prince

Enter Douglas

Douglas: “Another King! They grow like Hydra’s heads. I am Douglas. What art thou, that counterfeits the person of a king?”

King: “The King himself. I will assay thee; so, defend thyself.”

They fight, the King being in danger

Re-enter the Prince

Prince: “Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art like never to hold it up again. It is the Prince of Wales that threatens thee.”

Thy fight and Douglas flees

Prince: “Cheerly, my lord, how fares your Grace?”

King: “Stay and breathe awhile. Thou hast redeemed thy lost opinion; and showed thou makes some tender of my life, in this fair rescue thou hast brought to me.”

Prince: “O God, they did me too much injury that ever said I harkened for your death! If it were so, I might have let alone the insulting hand of Douglas over you.”

Exit the King

Enter Hotspur

Hotspur: “If I mistake not, thou art Harry Monmouth. My name is Harry Percy.”

Prince: “Why, then I see a very valiant rebel. I am the Prince of Wales; and think not, Percy, to share with me in glory any more. Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere, nor can one England brook a double reign of Harry Percy and the Prince of Wales.”

Hotspur: “Nor shall it, Harry, for the hour is come to end the one of us. I can no longer brook thy vanities.”

They fight

Enter Falstaff

Falstaff: “Well said, Hal! To it, Hal!”

Re-enter Douglas. he fights with Falstaff, who falls down as if he were dead. Douglas withdraws. Hotspur is wounded and falls.

Hotspur: “O Harry, thou hast robbed me of my youth. O, I could prophesy, but that the earthy and cold hand of death lies on my tongue. No, Percy, thou art dust and food for -“

Hotspur dies

Prince: “For worms, brave Percy. Fare thee well, great heart! Ill-weaved ambition, how much art thou shrunk! Now two paces of the vilest earth is room enough. This earth that bears thee dead bears not alive so stout a gentleman. Adieu, and take thy praise with thee to heaven! Thy ignominy sleep with thee in the grave, but not remembered in thy epitaph!”

The Prince sees Falstaff on the ground, apparently dead

Prince: “What, old acquaintance! Could not all this flesh keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell! O, I should have a heavy miss of thee, if I were much in love with vanity! Death hath not struck so fat a deer today, though many dearer, in this bloody fray. Embowelled will I see thee by and by; ’till then in blood by noble Percy lie.”

Exit the Prince

Falstaff gets up

Falstaff: “Embowelled! I am no counterfeit: to die is to be a counterfeit; for he is but the counterfeit of a man who hath not the life of a man. The better part of valour is discretion; in the which better part I have saved my life. Zounds, I am afraid of this gunpowder Percy, though he be dead; how if he should counterfeit too, and rise? Therefore I’ll make him sure, and I’ll swear I killed him. Therefore, sirrah (stabbing him), with a new wound in your thigh, come you along with me.”

Falstaff takes up Hotspur on his back

Re-enter the Prince of Wales and Prince John of Lancaster

Prince John: “But soft! Whom have we hear? Did you not tell me this fat man was dead?”

Prince: “I did. I saw him dead., breathless and bleeding on the ground. Art thou alive? Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyesight? I prithee speak; we will not trust our eyes without our ears; thou art not what thou seem’st.”

Falstaff: “There is Percy (throwing the body down). If your father will do me any honour, I look to be either earl or duke, I can assure you.”

Prince: “Why, Percy, I killed myself, and saw thee dead.”

Falstaff: “Didst thou? Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying! I grant you I was down and out of breath, and so was he; but we rose both at an instant, and fought a long hour. I gave him this wound in the thigh.”

Prince John: “This is the strangest tell that I ever heard.”

Prince: “This is the strangest fellow, brother John. The trumpet sounds retreat; the day is ours. Come, brother, let us to the highest of the field, to see what friends are living and who are dead.”

Exit the Prince and the Prince of Lancaster

Falstaff: “I’ll follow, as they say, for reward. He that rewards me, God reward him! If I do grow great, I’ll grow less; for I’ll purge, and leave sack, and live cleanly, as a nobleman should do.”

Exit Falstaff

Analysis

Prince Hal overcomes his reputation by saving his father and defeating Hotspur in man to man combat. There is no turning back for the Prince now. He is the worthy heir to his father’s crown. Falstaff, on the other hand, continues to be Falstaff, and does not change, not even on the battlefield, where he feigns death at the hands of Douglas. Hal comes across him, evidently dead and dismisses him without emotion. Falstaff hopes to take credit for Hotspur’s death and gives him a further wound and carries him back to camp, claiming they fought for an hour until he slew him. No honour indeed. Although in his very last words Falstaff does suggest that if properly rewarded he may just go straight and ‘live cleanly, as a nobleman should do’. We must watch for that in Part II of this play. The battle is over and the King has prevailed over the rebels.

Act V

Scene v

Another part of the field

Enter The King, The Prince of Wales, Prince John of Lancaster, with Worcester and Vernon as prisoners

King: “Thus ever did rebellion find rebuke. Did not we send grace, pardon, and terms of love to all of you? Bear Worchester to the death, and Vernon too; other offenders we will pause upon.”

Exit Worchester and Vernon under guard

King: “How goes the field?”

Prince: “The noble Scot, Douglas, when he saw the fortune of the day quite turned from him, the noble Percy slain, and all his men upon the foot of fear, fled with the rest; he was so bruised that the pursuers took him. At my tent Dougas is. Brother John, go to Douglas, and deliver him up to his pleasure, ransom less and free; his valour shown upon our crests today have taught us how to cherish such high deeds even in the bosom of our adversaries.”

King: “Then this remains – that we divide our power. You, son John, and my cousin Westmoreland, towards York to meet Northumberland and the Archbishop, who, as we hear, are busily in arms. Myself, and you, son Harry, will toward Wales to fight with Glendower and the Earl of March. Rebellion in this land shall lose his sway, and since this business so fair is done, let us not leave ’till all our own be won.”

Analysis

So ends Part I. It has been suggested that this is not much of a conclusion and that, in fact, this is a ten act play and we are only at the half way mark. Clearly, the King’s forces have some more rebels to contend with, such as Northumberland, the Archbishop and Glendower in Scotland and Wales. But the Prince and his father are united, Harry is clearly the righteous heir to King Henry’s throne, Hotspur is dead, and Falstaff remains Falstaff. Not even the battlefield could change him, as he seems to mock both honour and death. But his thieving and drinking partner in crime is no more a resident of Eastcheap, which will result in an altered Falstaff in Henry IV, Part II, up next.

Final Thoughts

Henry IV, Part I was written around 1596 and was a huge success with Shakespeare’s audiences. The principle source for the play was Holinshed’s Chronicles (1587). It is believed that Will Kemp played the original Falstaff and Richard Burbage played Prince Hal. Soon after Shakespeare’s death the play was made into one large performance along with Henry IV, Part II and The Merry Wives of Windsor, called Sir John Falstaff, a tradition revived quite often over the ensuing centuries. The Romantics and the Victorians found Falstaff way to course for their more refined tastes and the most famous Falstaff was Orson Wells in a 1945 production. Other notable Fallstaffs include Ralph Richardson and John Goodman. Youtube has several intriguing versions available for viewing, including a performance at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and a 2017 Brussels Shakespeare Society production. There are several clips of Orson Wells in his famous portrayal of Falstaff and a host of other bits and analysis. Henry IV, Part I is Shakespeare’s most popular history play today, along with Richard III, thanks to the hilarious wit, banter and charms of John Falstaff and Prince Hal.