Henry IV, Part II

Introduction

Henry IV, Part II continues where Part I left off. Prince John takes on what remains of the rebels, Hal separates himself from Falstaff and Eastcheap in order to prepare to become king, and King Henry approaches his deathbed. On his way to his own coronation as King Henry V, Hal encounters Falstaff, who expects a high office, with his friend Hal as King. But Hal rejects Falstaff outright, a scene that disturbs many readers so fond of Sir John. But his past is dead and he is now the King of England, with no time for his merry prankster life around the Boar’s Head Tavern. This breaks Falstaff’s heart and he is not long for this world. His death will be reported early on in Henry V. The rebels are pretty much a grotesque, self serving and unheroic threat by the second play and are dispensed with cunningly by Prince John. The story really focuses on Hal’s succession, with less profound comedic presence in a tragic historical drama and more focus on the grooming of one who will be a great English monarch. There is still comedy in Part II but it is darker. Falstaff has a new companion in Eastcheap, Pistol, but his health is in decline and time is running out on poor old Sir Jack. Prince Hal / King Henry V stars in three straight plays: Henry IV, Parts I and II and Henry V. The other two principle characters do not last as long: Falstaff becomes old and more feeble in Henry IV, Part II and only his death is reported in Henry V. King Henry IV dies late in Part II of his namesake play. This sequence of plays is Hal’s for nearly two plays and then Hal as King Henry V for just over one. Long live the King!

Act I

Induction

Enter Rumour

Rumour: “Open your ears, for which of you will stop the vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks? Upon my tongue continual slanders ride, stuffing the ears of men with false reports. Rumour is a pipe blown by surmises, jealousies and conjectures. The blunt monster with uncounted heads, the still-discordant wavering multitude, can play upon it. Why is Rumour here? My office is to noise abroad that Prince Harry fell under the wrath of noble Hotspur’s sword, and that the King before the Douglas’ rage stooped his anointed head as low as death. From Rumour’s tongues they bring smooth comforts false, worse than true wrongs.“

Analysis

The personification of Rumour has its roots in Ancient Greece and Rome. A very similar depiction of Rumour can be found in Virgil’s classic The Aeneid, which Shakespeare was quite familiar with. Rumour is quite aware how popular he is and how much people love what he brings. However, Rumour can also be very dangerous, hurtful and misleading, as we see when Northumberland, Hotspur’s father, is told that ‘Prince Harry fell under the wrath of noble Hotspur’s sword and that the King, before Douglas, stooped his anointed head as low as death.’ We, assuming we have read Henry IV, Part I, know this to be untrue and it is quite uncomfortable to hear this false rumour told to Northumberland about his son in the following scene (Act I, Scene i). The real culprit are the people who embrace and spread the rumours.

Act I (3 scenes)

Scene i

Enter Northumberland and Lord Bardolph

Northumberland: “What news, Lord Bardolph? The times are wild; contention madly hath broke loose and bears down all before him.“

Lord Bardolph: “I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury. The King is almost wounded to the death; and, in the fortune of my lord your son, Prince Harry slain outright; young Prince John and Westmoreland fled the field, and Prince Harry’s brawn, the hulk, Sir John, is prisoner to your son. O, such a day, so fought, so followed, and so fairly won, came not ’till now to dignify the times since Caesar’s fortunes.”

Northumberland: “How is this derived? Came you from Shrewsbury?”

Lord Bardolph: “I spoke with one, my lord, who came from hence; a gentleman well bred, who freely rendered me this news for true.”

Enter Travers

Travers: “My lord, a gentleman asked the way to Chester, and of him I did demand what news from Shrewsbury. He told me that rebellion had bad luck.”

Lord Bardolph: “My lord, if my young lord your son has not the day, upon mine honour, I’ll give up my barony. Look, here come more news.”

Enter Morton

Northumberland: “This man’s brow foretells the nature of a tragic volume. Say, Morton, did thou come from Shrewsbury?”

Morton: “I ran from Shrewsbury, my noble Lord; where hateful death put on his ugliest mask to fright our party.”

Northumberland: “How doth my son and brother? Thou trembles; and the whiteness in thy cheek is more apt than thy tongue to tell thy errand.”

Morton: “Douglas is living, and your brother, yet; but for my lord your son -“

Northumberland: “Why, he is dead. See what a ready tongue suspicion hath! He that but fears the thing he would not know hath by instinct knowledge from others’ eyes that what he feared is chanced. If he be slain, say so: the tongue offends not that reports his death.”

Lord Bardolph: “I cannot think, my lord, your son is dead.”

Morton: “I am sorry I should force you to believe that which I would to God I had not seen. These mine eyes saw him in bloody state, wearied and out-breathed, by Prince Harry, whose swift wrath beat down the never-daunted Percy to the earth, from whence with life he never more sprung up. The King hath won.”

Northumberland: “For this I shall have time enough to mourn. Now bound my brows with iron; and approach the raggedest hour that time and spite dare bring to frown upon the enraged Northumberland. Let order die and let this world no longer be a stage to feed contention in a lingering act.”

Analysis

Despite Rumours news to the contrary, Morton delivers the eyewitness account of young Hotspur’s death at the hands of Prince Hal. Lord Bardolph proclaimed the false rumour as second-hand conjecture, although he claimed to be so certain of its truth that he was prepared to surrender his status as a baron if he was wrong. Such is the unscrupulous power of rumour.

Act I

Scene ii

London. A street

Enter Falstaff with his page

Falstaff: “Men of all sorts take pride to gird at me. The brain of this foolish-compounded clay, man, is not able to invent anything that it intends to laughter, more than I invent or is invented on me. I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men.”

Enter Chief Justice and a servant

Chief Justice: “Who is he that goes there?”

Servant: “Falstaff”

Chief Justice: “He that was in question for the robbery?”

Servant: “He, my lord; but he hath since done good service at Shrewsbury, and, as I hear, is now going with some charge to the Lord John of Lancaster.”

Chief Justice: “Call him back again.”

Servant: “Sir John Falstaff!”

Falstaff: “Boy, tell him I am deaf.”

Page: “You must speak louder, my master is deaf.”

Chief Justice: “I am sure he is, to the hearing of anything good. Go pluck him by the elbow; I must speak with him.”

Servant: “Sir John!”

Chief Justice: “Sir John Falstaff, a word with you. I sent for you before your expedition to Shrewsbury. You would not come. I pray you let me speak with you. Sir John, you live in great infamy. Your means are very slender, and your waste is great.”

Falstaff: “I would it were otherwise; I would my means were greater and my waste more slender.“

Chief Justice: “You have misled the Prince; you follow him around up and down, like his ill angel.”

Falstaff: “Not so, my lord. You that are old consider not the capacities of us that are young.”

Chief Justice: “Do you set down your name in the scroll of youth? Have you not a moist eye, a dry hand, a yellow cheek, a white beard, a decreasing leg, an increasing belly? Is not your voice broken, your wind short, your chin double, your wit single, and every part about you blasted with antiquity? And you will yet call yourself young? Fie, fie, fie, Sir John.”

Falstaff: “My lord, I was born with a white head and something of a round belly.”

Chief Justice: “Well, God send the Prince a better companion!”

Falstaff: “God send the companion a better Prince! I cannot rid my hands of him.”

Chief Justice: “Well, the King has severed you. I hear you are going with Lord John of Lancaster against the Archbishop and the Earl of Northumberland.”

Falstaff: “Yea; if ye will needs say I am an old man, you should give me rest.”

Chief Justice: “Well, be honest, be honest; and God bless your expedition!”

Falstaff: “Will your lordship lend me a thousand pounds to furnish me forth?”

Chief Justice: “Not a penny, not a penny.”

Exit the Chief Justice

Falstaff: “Boy!”

Page: “Sir?”

Falstaff: “What money is in my purse?”

Page: “Seven groats and two pence.”

Falstaff: “I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse; borrowing only lingers it out, but the disease is incurable. A pox of this gout! Or, a gout of this pox! For the one or the other plays the rogue with my great toe. A good wit will make use of anything. I will turn diseases into commodity.”

Analysis

Here again is Sir John Falstaff. He reflects that while mankind does not ‘invent anything to intend laughter’, he himself on the other hand is not only witty but is also the cause of wit in others. With that comes the Chief Justice to speak with him about why he ran away from him after the robbery investigation in Henry IV, Part I, and when Falstaff claims to be deaf, the Chief Justice says he is sure it is only to the hearing of anything good. ‘Sir John, you live in great infamy… your means are slender, your waste is great and you have misled the Prince… like his ill angel.’ Naturally, Falstaff denies it all. He is off to the wars again, this time with Prince John of Lancaster. He has attained a degree of respectability following the battle at Shrewsbury, having claimed that it was he who killed the mighty Hotspur. After asking the Chief Justice for a thousand pounds, Falstaff bemoans the fact that he can find ‘no remedy against this consumption of the purse.’ As suggested in the introduction, this is a somewhat darker Falstaff. No laughing matter here, despite his polished wit, compared with the scenes between Sir John and Prince Hal in Part I. Now he is broke, separated from Hal, being sent back into battle against the remnants of the rebels and being watched over closely by the Chief Justice of the King’s government. Nonetheless he will appear in seven more scenes in this play, as Shakespeare was well aware of his immense popularity. It is sometime around the staging of Part II that Queen Elizabeth requests a new play featuring Falstaff in romantic escapades around the Boar’s Head Tavern. Naturally, Shakespeare obliged and the result was The Merry Wives of Windsor, written very quickly… and it shows. Gone is the profundity of the Falstaff from Henry IV and instead we are left with a slapstick variation of Sir John, which embarrasses many critics who admired him greatly in his previous incarnations.

Act I

Scene iii

York. The Archbishop’s palace

Enter the Archbishop, Mowbray, Hastings and Lord Bardolph

Archbishop: “Thus have you heard our cause and known our means, and my most noble friends, speak plainly your opinions of our hopes – and first, Lord Mowbray, what say you to it?”

Mowbray: “I well allow the occasion of our arms; but gladly would be better satisfied how we should advance ourselves to look bold and big enough upon the power and puissance of the King.”

Hastings: “Our present musters grow to five and twenty thousand men of choice; and our supplies live largely in the hope of great Northumberland, whose bosom burns with an incensed fire of injuries.”

Lord Bardolph: “The question then stands thus: whether our present five and twenty thousand may hold up without Northumberland?”

Hastings: “With him we may.”

Lord Bardolph: “There’s the point; but if without him we be thought too feeble, my judgment is we should not step too far till we had his assistance, for, in a theme so bloody as this aids uncertain should not be admitted.”

Archbishop: “‘Tis very true, Lord Bardolph; for indeed it was young Hotspur’s case at Shrewsbury.”

Lord Bardolph: “Great imagination led his powers to death and leapt into destruction.”

Hastings: “I think we are so a body strong enough, even as we are, to equal with the King.”

Lord Bardolph: “What, is the King but five and twenty thousand”

Hastings: “Not so much, Lord Bardolph, for his divisions are in three heads: one power against the French, and one against Glendower; perforce a third must take us up. So is the unfirm King in three divided.”

Archbishop: “That he should draw his several strengths together and come against us in full puissance need not be dreaded.”

Hastings: “If he should do so, he leaves his back unarmed, the French and Welsh baying him at the heels. Never fear that.”

Archbishop: “O thou fond many, with what loud applause did thou beat heaven with blessing Bolingbroke before he was what thou would have him be. What trust is in these times? They that, when Richard lived, would have him die are now become enamoured on his grave.”

Analysis

What remains of the rebel armies are in York, preparing their next assault on the King’s forces. In this scene they debate back and forth the advisability of going on the attack with what is left of their forces following the Battle of Shrewsbury in Part I. Northumberland is a powerful ally but he is ill and therefore unreliable. Should they continue without him becomes a paramount question. The King has divided his forces into three parts so they do, indeed, believe they are good to go. Perhaps they should have deliberated further, as we shall soon see.

Act II (4 scenes)

Scene i

London. A street

Enter Hostess and two officers, Fang and Snare

Fang: “Snare, we must arrest Sir John Falstaff.”

Snare: “It may chance cost some of us our lives, fo he will stab.”

Hostess: “Take heed of him. He stabbed me in my own house. If his weapon be out he will spare neither man, woman nor child. Good Master Fang, hold him sure. Good Master Snare, let him not escape. A hundred marks is a long one for a poor lone woman to bear; and I have borne and borne and borne. Yonder he comes; do your offices; do me your offices!”

Fang: “Sir John, I arrest you at the suit of Mistress Quickly.”

Falstaff: “Away, varlets! Draw, Bardolph.”

Hostess: “Thou bastardly rogue! Murder, murder! Will thou kill God’s officers and the King’s?

Chief Justice: “What is the matter? Keep the peace here! Sir John, are you brawling here? You should have been well on your way to York.”

Hostess: “Your Grace, I am a poor widow of Eastcheap, and he is arrested at my suit.”

Chief Justice: “For what?”

Hostess: “He hath eaten me out of house and home; he has put all my substance into that fat belly of his.”

Chief Justice: “How come this, Sir John? Are you not ashamed?”

Falstaff: “What is the gross sum I owe thee?”

Hostess: “Marry, if thou wert an honest man, thyself and the money too. Thy did swear to me, as I was washing thy wound, to marry me and make thee a lady and thy wife. And didst thou not kiss me? Deny it if thou can.”

Falstaff: “My lord, this is a poor mad soul. Poverty hath disgraced her.”

Chief Justice: “Sir John, I am well acquainted with your manner of wrenching the true cause the false way. Pay her the debt you owe her, and unpay the villainy you have done with her.”

Enter Gower

Gower: “The King, my lord, and Harry, Prince of Wales, are near at hand.”

Hostess: “You’ll pay me all together?”

Falstaff: “Will I live?”

Chief Justice: “Sir John, you loiter here too long, being you are to take soldiers up in counties as you go. Thou art a great fool.”

Analysis

Vintage Falstaff here, as he wiggles out of every corner he is pressed into. He is to be arrested for sums owed to Mistress Quickly, the hostess of the Boar’s Head Tavern. When two officers arrive to arrest him he and Bardolph fight with them. The Chief Justice arrives and attempts to make Falstaff accountable to his debts but he pulls Mistress Quickly aside and simply borrows more money from her and arranges dinner with Doll Tearsheet, his favourite prostitute. The Chief Justice warns him to get along toward the battle at York. He is insufferable and there appears no cure for his self-indulgence. Prince Hal is notably absent from this Eastcheap scene, as he is already more the warrior King-to-be than one of the Boar’s Head rascals. His transition is well under way. Falstaff’s is clearly not.

Act II

Scene ii

London. Another street

Enter Prince Henry and Poins

Prince: “Before God, I am exceeding weary.”

Poins: “Is it come to that?”

Prince: “What a disgrace it is to me to remember thy name. My heart bleeds inwardly that my father is so sick.”

Poins: “Why, because you have been so lewd and so much engraved to Falstaff?”

Prince: “And to you.”

Analysis

This is the first we see of Prince Hal in Part II. He has reformed his ways considerably since Henry IV, Part I. He is his true father’s son and has stepped back from his life with Falstaff and the crew at the Boar’s Head Tavern. Here, he concedes his desire for a small beer but then feels guilty because it reminds him too much of his earlier life as an Eastcheap rogue. He even tells Poins of what a disgrace it is to him to even remember Poin’s name. His heart bleeds that his father is so sick. Hal is clearly a transformed individual here in Act II of Henry IV, Part II. He was a rascal and a rogue in the first play (Henry IV, Part I), a true Prince to his dying father in this one (Henry IV, Part II) and a genuinely great warrior king in the one to follow (Henry V). And yet, even here, when he learns that Falstaff is dining at the Boar’s Head with Doll Tearsheet he devises a prank to spy on Sir John, dressed as a waiter. He may be moving on, but he still has at least a toe in the waters of his old world in Eastcheap.

Act II

Scene iii

Warkworth. The Castle

Enter Northumberland and Lady Percy

Lady Percy: “For God’s sake, go not to these wars! The time was, father, when your own Percy, when my heart’s dear Harry, threw many a northward look to see his father; but he did long in vain. Who then persuaded you to stay at home? There were two honours lost: yours and your son’s. O wondrous him! O miracle of men! Him did you leave – second to none, unseconded by you – to look upon the hideous god of war in disadvantage; so you left him. Let them alone. The Marshall and the Archbishop are strong. If they get ground and vantage of the King, then join you with them, like a rib of steel; but first let them try themselves. So did your son; he was so suffered; so came I a widow.”

Northumberland: “I will resolve for Scotland.”

Analysis

In Henry IV, Part I Hotspur lost his life in single combat with Prince Harry. Lady Percy, Hotspur’s wife, blames his father, Northumberland, for not sending his troops to assist the rebels. She is quite harsh with him here. The present battle is but a followup to the previous battles and Lady Percy is encouraging him to once again withhold his forces, as if there is no point in supporting the rebels at this late stage in the essentially defeated rebellion. Naturally, this does not bode well for what remains of the rebel forces.

Act II

Scene iv

London. The Boar’s Head Tavern in Eastcheap

Enter Francis and another waiter.

Francis: “Here will be the Prince and Master Poins anon, and they will put on two of our aprons; and Sir John must not know of it.”

Falstaff: “You make fat rascals, Mistress Doll.”

Doll: “Gluttony and disease make them. I make them not. Hang yourself, you muddy conger, hang yourself!”

Hostess: “You two never meet but you fall to some discord.”

Doll: “Can a weak empty vessel bear such a huge full hogshead? I’ll be friends with thee, Jack. Thou art going to the wars; and whether I shall ever see thee again or no, there is nobody cares.”

Francis: “Pistol is below and would speak with you.”

Doll: “Hang him, swaggering rascal! The foulmouth’dst rogue in England.”

Hostess: “If he swagger, let him not come here. I’ll no swaggerers. Shut the door, I pray you.”

Enter Pistol, Bardolph and page

Doll: “Away, you cut-purse rascal! You filthy bung, away! By this wine, I’ll thrust my knife in your mouldy chaps.”

Pistol: “Give me some sack.”

Doll: “For God’s sake, thrust him down the stairs.”

Falstaff: “Get you down the stairs.”

Falstaff draws his sword and drives Pistol out

Doll: “Ah, you sweet little rogue, you! Alas, poor ape, how thou sweat’st! Ah, rogue! In faith, I love thee.”

Enter Prince Hal and Poins dressed as waiters

Doll: “They say Poins has a good wit.”

Falstaff: “He’s a good wit! Hang him, baboon!”

Doll: “Why does the Prince love him so?”

Falstaff: “Because their legs are both of a bigness and they eat conger and fennel. They show weak minds and able bodies. The Prince himself is such another as Poins”

Prince: “Would not this knave have his ears cut off?”

Poins: “Let’s beat him before his whore. Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?“

Falstaff: “Kiss me, Doll.”

Doll: “By my troth, I kiss thee with a most constant heart.”

Falstaff: “I am old, I am old.”

Doll: “I love thee better than ever a scurvy young boy of them all.”

Falstaff: “Ha! A bastard son of the KIng’s? And art thou not Poins, his brother?”

Prince: “Why, thou globe of sinful continents, what a life dost thou lead!”

Falstaff: “Thou whoreson mad compound of majesty.”

Prince: “How vilely did you speak of me.”

Falstaff: “Did thou hear me?”

Prince: “You knew I was at your back, and spoke it on purpose to try my patience.”

Falstaff: “No, no, no; not so; I did not think thou was within hearing. No abuse, Hal; none, Ned, none.”

Enter Peto

Peto: “The King, your father, is at Westminster; and there are twenty weak and wearied posts knocking at the taverns, and asking everyone for John Falstaff.”

Prince: “Give me my sword and cloak. Falstaff, goodnight.”

Falstaff: “What’s the matter?”

Bardolph: “You must away to court. A dozen captains stay at the door for you.”

Falstaff: “You see, my good wenches, how men of merit are sought after. Farewell, farewell.”

Analysis

One of the finer Eastcheap scenes with Prince Hal and Poins having fun spying on Falstaff at dinner with Doll, his prostitute friend. There are actually some tender lines expressed between Sir John and his whore. We also meet Pistol, appropriately named for his violence and volatility. The hostess won’t even have him in the tavern and Falstaff uses his sword to direct him out. The Prince and Poins overhear Falstaff insulting them to Doll Tearsheet and then call him on it. Naturally he denies any offence intended. The scene is interrupted when soldiers arrive looking for Falstaff, for it is time to head to the wars. This will be the final Eastcheap scene of the play, as things are about to turn more serious, with the impending wars and the deteriorating health of the King.

Act III (2 scenes)

Scene i

Westminster Palace

Enter the King

King: “How many thousand of my poor subjects are at this hour asleep! O sleep, o gentle sleep; nature’s soft nurse, how have I frightened thee, that thou no more will weigh my eyelids down, and steep my senses in forgetfulness? Why rather, sleep, lest thou in smokey cribs, upon uneasy pallets stretching thee, and hushed with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber, than in the perfumed chambers of the great, under the canopies of costly state. Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.“

Enter Warwick

King: “They say the Bishop and Northumberland are fifty thousand strong.”

Warwick: “It cannot be, my lord. Rumour doth double, like the voice and echo, the numbers of the feared. Upon my soul, my lord, the powers that you already have sent forth shall bring this prize in very easily. To comfort you the more, Glendower is dead.”

King: “I will take your council.”

Analysis

The play takes a serious turn compared to the last scene in Eastcheap. King Henry is ill, not aging well and he cannot sleep and reflects on how sleep evades the busy minds of kings and best bestows itself on the common folks, those with fewer cares. He concludes, in one of Shakespeare’s classic lines ‘uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.’ Warwick arrives with good news that the rebel forces are considerably weaker than previously believed and that Glendower is dead. We also know that Northumberland will, once again, not bring his soldiers to the fray. King Henry is not long for this world. He will survive but one more act. His ever-present guilt over the murder of King Richard and his fears that Prince Hal will never overcome his life of debauchery with Falstaff and company in Eastcheap have aged him prematurely.

Act III

Scene ii

Gloucestershire. Justice Shallow’s house

Enter Shallow and Silence

Shallow: “How many of my old acquaintances are dead!”

Silence: “We shall all follow, cousin.”

Shallow: “Certain, ’tis certain. Death, as the Psalmist said, is certain to all; all shall die.”

Enter Bardolph

Silence: “Here comes one of Sir John Falstaff’s men, as I think.”

Bardolph: “Which is Justice Shallow?”

Shallow: “I am Robert Shallow, one of the King’s justices of the peace.”

Bardolph: “My captain, Sir John Falstaff, commends him to you.”

Enter Falstaff

Shallow: “Look, here comes good Sir John.”

Falstaff: “I am glad to see you well, master Shallow. Good Master Silence it well befits you should be of the peace. Have you provided me here half a dozen sufficient men?”

Shallow: “Where’s the roll? Let them appear as I call. Let me see, where is Mouldy?”

Mouldy: “Here.”

Shallow: “What think you, Sir John? A good limb’d fellow; young and strong.”

Falstaff: “Is thy name Mouldy?”

Mouldy: “Yea.”

Falstaff: “Prick him.”

Mouldy: “You need not to have pricked me; there are other men fitter to go out than I.”

Falstaff: “Peace, Mouldy; you shall go.”

Shallow: “Where’s Shadow?”

Shadow: “Here, sir.”

Shallow: “Do you like him, Sir John?”

Falstaff: “Shadow will serve. Prick him.”

Shallow: “Thomas Wart!”

Wart: “Here, sir.”

Falstaff: “Is thy name Wart?”

Wart: “Yea, sir.”

Falstaff: “Thou art a very ragged wart.”

Shallow: “Shall I prick him, Sir John?”

Falstaff: “Prick him no more.”

Shallow: “Francis Feeble!”

Feeble: “Here, sir.”

Falstaff: “What trade art thou, Feeble?”

Feeble: “A woman’s tailor, sir.”

Shallow: “Shall I prick him, sir?”

Falstaff: “You may; but if he had been a man’s tailor, he’d have pricked you. Wilt thou make as many holes in an enemy’s battle as thou hast done in a woman’s petticoat?”

Feeble: “I will do my good will, sir.”

Falstaff: “Well said, good woman’s tailor! Courageous Feeble! Prick the woman’s tailor.

Feeble: “I would Wart might have gone, sir.”

Falstaff: “I would thou wert a man’s tailor, that thou might mend him and make him fit to go. Who is next?”

Shallow: “Peter Bullcalf.”

Falstaff: “Yea, marry, let’s see Bullcalf.”

Bullcalf: “Here, sir.”

Falstaff: “A likely fellow! Come, prick me Bullcalf.”

Bullcalf: “O lord, sir. I am a diseased man.”

Falstaff: “What disease hast thou?”

Bullcalf: “A whoreson cold, sir, a cough, sir.”

Falstaff: “Come, thou shall go to the wars.”

Exit Falstaff and Justice Shallow

Bullcalf: “Good Master Bardolph, stand my friend. And here’s four Harry ten shillings in French crowns for you. Sir, I had as lief be hanged, sir, as go.”

Bardolph: “Go to; stand aside.”

Mouldy: “And, good Master Captain, for my old dame’s sake, stand my friend. You shall have forty, sir.”

Bardolph: “Go to; stand aside.”

Feeble: “I care not; a man can die but once. We owe God a death. No man is too good to serve the Prince; and, let it go which way it will, he that dies this year is quit for the next.”

Enter Falstaff and Justice Shallow

Falstaff: “Come sir, which men shall I have?”

Shallow: “Four of which you please.”

Bardolph: “Sir, a word with you. I have three pounds to free Mouldy and Bullcalf.”

Falstaff: “Go to; well.”

Shallow: “Come, Sir John, which four will you have?”

Falstaff: “Choose for me.”

Shallow: “Marry, then – Mouldy, Bullcalf, Feeble and Shadow.”

Falstaff: “Mouldy and Bullcalf: for you, Mouldy, stay at home till you are past service; and for your part, Bullcalf, grow till you come unto it. I will none of you. Will you tell me, Master Shallow, how to choose a man? Care I for the limb, the stature, bulk! Give me the spirit, Master Shallow. These fellows will do well. I must a dozen miles tonight. Bardolph, give the soldiers coats.”

Shallow: “Sir John, the Lord bless you; God prosper your affairs.”

Analysis

Falstaff stops here in Gloucestershire to recruit men for his army headed north to fight the rebels. The locals are a humble lot, with names characteristic of their personalities. Justice Shallow, appropriately named, presents a list of men to Falstaff for his consideration. One is more ragged than the next, as their names suggest. There is Mouldy, Shadow, Wart, Feeble, and Bullcalf. When Bullcalf and Moudy pay to have others stand in for them, Bardolph and Falstaff take the money and let them go. This is the most pitiful collection of men any army has ever seen and they are led by Falstaff, who has gained an elevated status following his rumoured and falsely concocted brave posture at the Battle of Shrewsbury in Part I.

Act IV (5 scenes)

Scene i

Yorkshire. A forest

Enter the Archbishop, Mowbray and Hastings

Archbishop: “Here stand, my lords, and send discoverers forth to know the numbers of our enemies. I have received new dated letters from Northumberland; their cold intent and substance thus: he is retired to Scotland; and concludes in hearty prayers that your attempts may overlive the hazard and fearful meeting of their opposite.”

Mowbray: “Thus do the hopes we have in him dash themselves to pieces.”

Enter a messenger

Messenger: “Scarcely off a mile, in goodly form comes on the enemy; I judge their numbers near the rate of thirty thousand.”

Enter Westmoreland

Westmoreland: “Health and fair greeting from our general, the Prince, Lord John and Duke of Lancaster.”

Archbishop: “What doth concern your coming?”

Westmoreland: “You, Lord Archbishop, wherefore do you so ill translate yourself out of the speech of peace, into the harsh and boisterous tongue of war; tuning your books to graves, your ink to blood, your pens to lances and a point of war?”

Archbishop: “Wherefore do I this? So the question stands. Briefly to this end: we are all diseased and with our surfeiting and wanton hours have brought ourselves into a burning fever, and we must bleed for it; of which disease our late King, Richard, being affected, died. Hear me more plainly. I have in equal balance justly weighed what wrongs our arms may do, what wrongs we suffer, and find our griefs heavier than our offences. When we are wronged, and would unfold our griefs, we are denied access unto his person, even by those men that most have done us wrong.”

Westmoreland: “Whenever yet was your appeal denied? Here come I from our princely general to know your griefs; he will give you audience; and wherein it shall appear that your demands are just, you shall enjoy them.”

Mowbray: “But he hath forced us to compel this offer; and it proceeds from policy, not love.”

Westmoreland: “This offer comes from mercy, not from fear.”

Mowbray: “Well, by my will we shall admit no parley.”

Westmoreland: “That argues but the shame of your offence.”

Hastings: “Hath the Prince John a full commission to hear and absolutely to determine of what conditions we shall stand upon?”

Westmoreland: “That is intended.”

Archbishop: “Then take this schedule, for this contains our general grievances.”

Westmoreland: “In sight of both our battles we may meet; and either end in peace – which God so frame – or to the place of difference call the swords which must decide it.”

Archbishop: “My lord, we will do so.”

Exit Westmoreland

Mowbray: “There is a thing within my bosom tells me that no conditions of our peace can stand.”

Hastings: “Fear you not that: our peace shall stand as firm as Rocky Mountains.”

Archbishop: “Note this: the King is weary. Be assured, if we do now make our atonement well, our peace will grow stronger.”

Mowbray: “Here is returned my Lord of Westmoreland.”

Westmoreland: “The Prince is here at hand.”

Analysis

What remains of the rebel forces has just learned that Northumberland and his army will, once again, not be participating in any future battles against the King. A messenger arrives next to say the royal army is only a mile away and thirty thousand men strong. So when Westmoreland is sent from the King’s army to offer terms of peace to the rebels they are certainly listening. Westmoreland hears their grievances and relays their concerns to Prince John. The rebels seem inclined to accept the peace offering. The rebel leader Mowbray expresses his concern that this could be a set up and they all could be killed if they parley for peace with the Prince. Hmmm. When Westmoreland returns the Prince arrives with him.

Act IV

Scene ii

Another part of the forest

Enter from one side Mowbray, the Archbishop, Hastings and others. Enter from the other side Prince John, Westmoreland, officers and others

Prince John: “My Cousin Mowbray; good day to you, gentle Lord Archbishop; and so to you, Lord Hastings, and to all. Lord Archbishop, who hath not heard it spoken how deep you were within the books of God?”

Archbishop: “Good my Lord of Lancaster. I sent your Grace the parcels and particulars of our grief, whereon this hydra son of war is born; and true obedience, of this madness cured, stoop tamely to the foot of majesty.”

Westmoreland: “Pleaseth your Grace to answer them directly how far forth you do like their articles.”

Prince John: “I like them and do allow them well; and swear here, my father’s purposes have been mistook; my lords, these griefs will be with speed redressed; upon my soul, they shall. If this may please you, discharge your powers as we will ours; and here, between the armies, let’s drink together friendly and embrace.”

Archbishop: “I take your princely word.”

Prince John: “I give it you, and will maintain my word.”

Hastings: “Go, captain, and deliver to the army this news of peace. Let them have pay, and part. I know it will well please them.”

Prince John: “The word of peace is rendered! Hark, how they shout! Go my lord, and let our army be discharged too.”

Exit Westmoreland

Hastings: “My lord Westmoreland, our army is dispersed already. Each hurries toward his home.”

Westmoreland: “Good tidings, my Lord Hastings; for the which I do arrest thee, traitor, of high treason; and you, Lord Archbishop, and you, Lord Mowbray, of capital treason I attach you both.”

Mowbray: “Is this proceeding just and honourable?”

Westmoreland: “Is your assembly so?”

Archbishop: “Will you thus break your faith?”

Prince John: “I pawned thee none. I promised you redress of these same grievances whereof you did complain; which by mine honour, I will perform with a most Christian care. But for you, rebels – look to taste the dew meet for rebellion. Guard these traitors to the block of death, treason’s true bed and yielder-up of breath.”

Analysis

So the rebels agree to sue for peace with Prince John. It all sounds so collegial and friendly. Prince John swears only that their grievances, with speed, will be redressed. ‘Let’s drink together friendly and embrace.’ It still sounds good… Hastings orders the rebel army to disperse and they do. The Archbishop accepts the word of the Prince and all is well… Then suddenly Westmoreland orders the arrest of Hastings, the Archbishop and Mowbray on charges of treason. When Mowbray asks if this is just and honourable and the Archbishop asks if the Prince will truly break his faith in this way, Prince John replies that ‘I promised you redress of the grievances whereof you did complain, which by mine honour, I will perform with a most Christian care.’ He never promised not to kill the rebel leaders.

Prince John and Westmoreland quite dishonourably pull a fast one on the rebel leaders. He did not precisely lie to the rebel leaders but it certainly appears underhanded and dishonourable. It may be argued, one must assume, that the Prince committed a wrong in order to right a previous wrong. Such are the ways of preserving power against rebellion in the 15th Century. No doubt, Queen Elizabeth would have been heartily impressed by this scene of royal, if not treacherous, preservation. Oh Shakespeare!

Act IV

Scene iii

Another part of the forest

Enter Falstaff and Colville

Falstaff: “What’s your name, sir?”

Colville: “I am a knight and my name is Colville.”

Falstaff: “Colville shall be still your name, a traitor your degree, and the dungeon your place. Here comes our general.”

Enter Prince John and Westmoreland

Prince John “Now, Falstaff, where have you been all this while? When everything is ended, then you come. These tardy tricks of yours will, on my life, one time or other break some gallow’s back.”

Falstaff: “I have speeded hither within the very extremist inch of possibility; I have taken Sir John Colville, a most furious knight and valorous enemy. He saw me and yielded – I came, saw and overcame.”

Prince John: “It was more of his courtesy than your deserving.”

Falstaff: “I know not. Here he is, and here I yield him.”

Prince John: “Send Colville, with his confederates, to York and present execution. I hear the King my father is sore sick. Our news shall go before us to his Majesty, which Cousin Westmoreland, you shall bear to comfort him. Fare you well, Falstaff. I shall better speak of you than you deserve.”

Exit all but Falstaff

Falstaff: “I would you had but the wit; this same young sober-blooded boy doth not love me; nor a man cannot make him laugh; he drinks no wine. A good sherry-sack hath a twofold operation in it. It ascends me into the brain; dries me there all the foolish and dull and crude vapours which environ it; makes it apprehensive, quick, forgetful, full of nimble, fiery, and delectable shapes; which delivered over to the voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes excellent wit. The second property of your excellent sherry is the warming of the blood; which before, cold and settled, left the liver white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity and cowardice; but the sherry warms it, and makes it course from the inwards to the parts extremes, it illuminates the face, which as a beacon, gives warning to all the rest of this little kingdom, man, to arm. This valour comes from sherry. So that skill in the weapon is nothing without sack. If I had a thousand sons, the first human principle I would teach them should be to addict themselves to sack.“

Enter Bardolph

Falstaff: “How now, Bardolph!”

Bardolph: “The army is discharged.”

Falstaff: “Let them go.”

Analysis

This is Sir John Falstaff’s last truly comedic scene, wherein he manages to capture Colville. Prince John has little patience for Falstaff and asks him why he shows up once all the conflict has been resolved. ‘These tardy tricks of yours will, on my life, break some gallow’s back.’ Falstaff claims that Coleville, his prisoner, is a ‘furious knight and a valorous enemy’, but Prince John is having none of it. Once Falstaff is alone he gives this classic speech about the benefits of sack and how Prince John is so tightly wound with absolutely no sense of humour because he does not drink sack. Falstaff will appear in three different scenes of Act V but in a much subdued manner.

Act IV

Scene iv

Westminster. The Jerusalem Chamber

Enter the King, Prince Clarence, Gloucester and Warwick

King: “Now Lords, if God doth give successful end to this debate that bleedeth at our doors, we will draw no swords. Our power is collected and everything lies level to our wish. Only we want a little personal strength. Humphrey, my son of Gloucester, where is the Prince your brother?”

Gloucester: “I think he’s gone to hunt, my lord, at Windsor.”

King: “Is not his brother, Thomas of Clarence, with him?”

Gloucester: “No, my good lord. He is present here.”

King: “Thomas of Clarence, how chance thou art not with the Prince thy brother? He loves thee, and thou dost neglect him, Thomas. Thou hast a better place in his affection than all thy brothers; cherish it, my boy, and noble offices thou may effect after I am dead. Therefore omit him not; blunt not his love.”

Clarence: “I shall observe him with all care and love.”

King: “Why art thou not at Windsor with him, Thomas?”

Clarence: “He dines in London.”

King: ” And how accompanied?”

Clarence: “With Poins, and others of his continual followers.”

King: “Therefore my grief stretches itself beyond the hour of death. The blood weeps from my heart when I do shape, in forms imaginary, the unguided days and rotten times that you shall look upon when I am sleeping with my ancestors.”

Warwick: “My gracious lord, you look beyond him quite. The Prince but studies his companions. He will, in the perfectness of time, cast off his followers, turning past evils to advantages.”

Enter Westmoreland

Westmoreland: “Health to my sovereign, and new happiness added to that that I am to deliver! Prince John, your son, doth kiss your Grace’s hand. Mowbray, the Archbishop, Hastings, and all, are brought to the correction of your law. There is not now a rebel’s sword unsheathed, but peace puts forth her olive branch everywhere.”

King: “O Westmoreland, thou art a summer bird.”

Enter Harcourt

Harcourt: “The Earl of Northumberland and the Lord Bardolph, with a great power of English and Scots, are by the shrive of Yorkshire overthrown.”

King: “And wherefore should this good news make me sick? Will fortune never come with both hands full, but write her fair words still in foulest letters? She either gives a stomach and no food – such are the poor – or else a feast, and takes away the stomach – such are the rich who have abundance but enjoy it not. I should rejoice now at the happy news; and now my sight fails, and my brain is giddy. O me! Come near me now, for I am much ill.”

Gloucester: “Comfort, your Majesty!”

Clarence: “O my royal father!”

Westmoreland: “My sovereign lord, cheer up.”

Warwick: “Be patient, Princes; you do know these fits are with his Highness very ordinary. Give him air; he’ll straight be well.”

Clarence: “No, no; he cannot long hold out these pangs.”

Gloucester: “This apoplexy will certainly be his end.”

King: “I pray you take me up, and bear me hence into some other chamber. Softly, pray.”

Analysis

The King is clearly dying. The civil wars are ending and he has his sons Gloucester and Clarence with him. His only remaining wish is to have a little more strength. He implores Clarence to embrace Prince Hal. It seems many at court have given up on Hal, for obvious reasons. Even now he is in London with Poins and other Eastcheap followers. This breaks the King’s heart, as it is nearly time for Prince Harry to assume the throne. He predicts ruinous times ahead with Harry as King of England. It is Warwick who reminds the King that Prince Hal only studies his companions and will cast them off ‘in the perfection of time’. Westmoreland and Harcourt bring wonderful news to the King, that the rebel cause is bereft and the civil war is over. ‘Wherefore should this good news make me sick’, the King ponders. King Henry IV has one scene remaining and it is one of Shakespeare’s finest, up next, to round off Act IV.

Act IV

Scene v

Westminster. Another chamber

Enter the King, lying on a sickbed, Clarence, Gloucester, Warwick and others

King: “Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends, unless some dull and favourable hand will whisper music to my weary spirit. Set me the crown upon my pillow here.”

Clarence: “He eye is hollow.”

Warwick: “Less noise; less noise!”

Enter Prince Henry

Prince: “How doth the King?”

Gloucester: “Exceedingly ill.”

Prince: “Heard he the good news yet?”

Gloucester: “He altered much upon the hearing of it.”

Prince: “If he be sick with joy, he’ll recover.”

Warwick: “The King, your father, is disposed to sleep.”

Clarence: “Let us withdraw into the other room.”

Warwick: “Will it please your Grace to go along with us?”

Prince: “No; I will sit and watch here by the King.”

Exit all but the Prince and the King

Prince: “Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow, being so troublesome a bedfellow? O polished perturbation! Golden care that keeps the ports of slumber open wide to many a watchful night! Sleep with it now! O majesty! My gracious lord! My father! This sleep is sound indeed; this is a sleep that hath divorced so many English kings. Thy due from me is tears and heavy sorrows, which nature, love and filial tenderness shall, o dear father, pay thee plenteously. My due from thee is this imperial crown.“

Prince Henry puts on the crown and exits he room. The King awakens

King: “Warwick! Gloucester! Clarence!”

Enter Warwick, Gloucester and Clarence

King: “Why did you leave me here alone, my lords?”

Clarence: “We left the Prince my brother here who undertook to sit and watch by you.”

King: “The Prince of Wales! Where is he? Let me see him. He is not here.”

Warwick: “This door is open; he has gone this way.”

King: “Where is the crown? Who took it from my pillow?“

Warwick: “We left it here.”

King: “The Prince hath taken it hence. Go, seek him out. Is he so hasty that he doth suppose my sleep my death? Find him, chide him hither. This helps to end me. See sons, what things you are! How quickly nature falls into revolt when gold becomes her object!“

Warwick: “My lord, I found the Prince in the next room, washing with kindly tears his gentle cheeks with such a deep demeanour in great sorrow. He is coming hither.”

King: “But wherefore did he take away the crown?”

Enter Prince Henry

King: “Come hither to me, Harry. Leave us here alone.”

Exit all but the King and Prince Henry

Prince: “I never thought to hear you speak again.”

King: “Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought. I stay too long by thee, I weary thee. Dost thou so hunger for mine empty chair that thou wilt needs invest thee with my honours before thy hour be ripe? O foolish youth! Thou seek’st the greatness that will overwhelm thee. My day is dim. Thou hast stolen that which , after some few hours, were thine without offence; and at my death thou hast sealed up my expectation. Thy life did manifest thou loved me not, and thou wilt have me die assured of it. Thou hid’st a thousand daggers in thy thoughts, which thou hast whetted on thy stoney heart, to stab at half an hour of my life. What, can’st thou not forebear me half an hour? Then get thee gone, and dig my grave thyself; and bid the merry bells ring to thine ear that thou art crowned. Let all the tears that should bedew my hearse be drops of balm to sanctify thy head; only compound me with forgotten dust; give that which gave thee life unto the worms. Pluck down my officers, break my decrees; for now Harry the Fifth is crowned. Up, vanity: down, royal state. And to the English court assembled under him now, apes of idleness, you have a ruffian who will swear, drink, dance, revel the night, rob, murder, and commit the oldest sins in the newest kind of ways. England shall give him office, honour, might; for the fifth Harry plucks the muzzle of restraint, and the wild dog shall flesh his tooth on every innocent. O my poor kingdom, sick with civil blows! When that my care could not withhold thy riots, what wilt thou do when riot is thy care? O, thou wilt be a wilderness again, peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants!“

Prince: “O pardon me, my liege! God witness with me, when I here came in and found no course of breath within your Majesty, how cold it struck my heart! Coming to look on you, thinking you dead – and dead almost, my liege, to think you were – I spake unto this crown as having sense, and thus upbraided it: ‘the care on thee hath fed upon the body of my father; therefore thou best of gold art worst of gold’. Thus, my royal liege, accusing it, I put it on my head, to try with it – as with an enemy that had before my face murdered my father. But if it did infect my body with joy, or swell my thoughts to any strain of pride; if any rebel or vain spirit of mine did with the least affection of a welcome give entertainment to the might of it, let God ever keep it from my head.“

King: “O my son; God put it in thy mind to take it hence that thou might win the more thy father’s love. Come hither, Harry; sit thou by my bed, and hear, I think, the very latest counsel that ever I shall breathe. God knows, my son, by what by-paths and indirect crooked ways I met this crown; and I myself know well how troublesome it sat upon my head: to thee it shall descend with better quiet, better opinion, better confirmation. It seemed in me but as an honour snatched with boisterous hand; and I had many living to upbraid my gain of it by their assistances; which daily grew to quarrel and to bloodshed, wounding supposed peace. All my reign hath been but as a scene acting that argument. And now my death changes the mood; for what in me was purchased falls upon thee in a more fairer sort; so thou the garland wears successively. Yet, though thou stands more sure than I could do, thou art not firm enough, and all my friends, which thou must make thy friends, have but their stings and teeth newly taken out. Therefore, my Harry, be it thy course to busy giddy minds with foreign quarrels, that action, hence borne out, may waste the memory of the former days. How I came by the crown, O God, forgive; and grant it may with thee in true peace live!“

Prince: “My gracious liege, you won it, wore it, kept it, gave it me; then plain and right must my possession be; which I against all the world will rightfully maintain.“

Enter Prince John and Warwick

King: “Look, look, here comes my John of Lancaster.”

Prince John: “Health, peace and happiness to my royal father!”

King: “Thou brings me happiness and peace, son John; but health, alack, with youthful wings is flown from this bare withered trunk. Upon thy sight my worldly business makes a period. Does any name particular belong unto the lodging where I first did swoon?”

Warwick: “‘Tis called Jerusalem, my noble lord.”

King: “Lord be to God! Even there my life must end. It hath been prophesied to me many years, I should not die but in Jerusalem; which vainly I supposed the Holy Land. But bear me to that chamber; there I’ll lie; In that Jerusalem shall Harry die.”

Analysis

One of the finest scenes in all of Shakespeare, this is a touching encounter between the dying king and his wayward son. The King sleeps and Hal sits by his sit and thinks him dead. ‘This is the sleep that hath divorced so many English kings.’ He places the crown on his own head and moves into the next room to think. The king awakens and calls for his men. It appears to him that Hal has seized the crown disrespectfully. ‘This helps to end me.’ However, Warwick finds Hal in another room crying. The King dismisses everyone else to conference with Prince Harry. He chides him with accusations of wanting his father dead. ‘I weary thee.’ He prophesies about the dire future in store for England when the Prince is king. ‘It will be peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants.’ It is a fabulous speech by the King and a tremendous rebuttal by the Prince about his deep love for his father. The King hopes that Harry will hold and maintain the crown with more ease since he is receiving it by proper succession, unlike the King himself, who forced his hand against King Richard. King Henry always intended to beg forgiveness for how he acquired the crown by doing penance in the Holy Land. But the civil wars and his ill health prevented it. However, he learns that the room in Westminster where he fell asleep is the Jerusalem Room, and he asks to be taken there to die… in Jerusalem.

Act V

Scene i

Gloucester. Shallow’s house

Enter Shallow and Falstaff.

Shallow: “You shall not away tonight.”

Falstaff: “But you must excuse me, master Shallow.”

Shallow: “I will not excuse you; you shall not be excused; excuses shall not be admitted; there is no excuse will serve; you shall not be excused.”

Falstaff: “I’ll follow you, good Master Shallow.”

Exit Shallow

Falstaff: “I will devise matter enough out of this Shallow to keep Prince Harry in continual laughter.”

Analysis

In this short introduction scene to Act V Justice Shallow is hosting a dinner for a gathering of men following the resolution of the civil war against the rebels. He orders his servants around and Falstaff finds it all funny enough, he hopes, to ‘keep Prince Hal in continual laughter’. What he doesn’t know yet is that his days of laughing with Prince Hal are over. This is one of those scenes of everyday life amongst the common people that Shakespeare loves to include in his plays.”

Act V

Scene ii

Westminster. The palace

Enter Warwick and the Chief Justice

Chief Justice: “How doth the King?“

Warwick: “Exceeding well: his cares are now all ended. He lives no more.“

Chief Justice: “O God, I fear all will be overturned.”

Enter King Henry the Fifth

King: “This new and gorgeous garment, majesty, sits not so easy on me as you think. Brothers, you mix your sadness with some fear. This is the English and not the Turkish court. By heaven, I bid you be assured, I’ll be your brother and your father too. You all look strangely on me, assured I love you not. Chief Justice, you shall be as a father to my youth; and Princes, all believe me, my father is gone and in his tomb lies my affections. Now call we our high court of parliament; and let us choose such limbs of noble counsel.”

Analysis

The great transition scene, as one king dies and another assumes the throne. Hal knows that Henry IV’s court is highly suspicious of him due to his years of crawling drunk around Eastcheap with Falstaff and company. He tries to reassure everyone of his love. The irony here is that Henry V will be one of the finest kings in all of English history. His father’s last word of advice was to ‘busy giddy minds with foreign quarrels.’ In fact, much of the reign of King Henry V will be spent re-capturing lands previously lost in France. But that is our next play. We still have the final three scenes of Henry IV, Part II to complete, and our last encounters with the aging Falstaff.

Act V

Scene iii

Gloucestershire. Shallow’s orchard

Shallow: “I have drunk too much sack.”

Enter Davey

Davey: “Pistol has come from court with news.”

Enter Pistol

Pistol: “Sweet knight, thou art now one of the greatest men in this realm.”

Falstaff: “What is thy news?”

Pistol: “Sir John, thy tender lambkin now is King. Harry the Fifth ‘s the man. I speak the truth.”

Falstaff: “What, is the old king dead?”

Pistol: “As a nail in a door.”

Falstaff: “Bardolph, saddle my horse. I am fortune’s steward. I know the young King is sick for me. The laws of England are at my commandment. Blessed are they who have been my friends.”

Analysis

Falstaff is pleasantly surprised when Shallow gets quite drunk at the dinner he hosts. Pistol’s news is correct. The old King is dead and Falstaff’s ‘lambkin’ is King. Falstaff is ecstatic, which only makes our final two scenes of the play even more difficult to witness and digest. Yet, here they come.

Act V

Scene iv

London. A Street

Enter an officer, Hostess Quickly and Doll Tearsheet

Officer: “There hath been a man or two lately killed about thee two.”

Doll: “You lie.”

Hostess: “O lord, that Sir John would come.”

Officer: “I charge you both to come with me; for the man is dead that you and Pistol beat.”

Doll: “I will have you swing for this, you bottle-rogue, you filthy famished correction.”

Officer: “Come, come, you she-errant, come.”

Doll: “Come you rogue; bring us to a justice.”

Hostess: “You starved bloodhound!”

Analysis

An officer arrives to arrest Hostess Quickly and Doll Tearsheet after a man Pistol beat up in their company has died. They wish Sir John were here to save them but alas they are hauled off to jail cursing the officer. Life in Eastcheap is changing fast, as Hal is no longer a part of the scene and these two women are dragged off. Now on to our final scene, which will separate Hal from Falstaff and Eastcheap forever. Get the handkerchiefs ready…

Act V

Scene v

Westminster. Near the Abbey

Enter Falstaff, Pistol, Shallow and Bardolph

Falstaff: “Stand here by me, Master Shallow; I will make the King do you grace; do but mark the countenance that he will give me.”

Pistol: “God bless thy lungs, good knight.”

Falstaff: “Come here, Pistol; Stand by me. I stand stained with travel, and sweating with desire to see him; thinking of nothing else, putting all affairs else in oblivion, as if there were nothing else to be done but to see him.”

Pistol: “My knight, I will inflame thy noble liver and make thee rage. Thy Doll is in base contagious prison.”

Falstaff: “I will deliver her.”

Sounds of shouts and trumpets. Enter King Henry V and his procession

Falstaff: “God save thy Grace, King Hal; my royal Hal! God save thee, sweet boy!”

King: “My Lord Chief Justice, speak to that vain man.”

Chief Justice: “Have you your wits? Know you what you speak?”

Falstaff: “My King! My Jove! I speak to thee, my heart.”

King: “I know thee not, old man. Fall to thy prayers. How ill white hairs become a fool and jester! I have long dreamt of such a man, so old and so profane; but, being awakened, I do despise my dream. Know the grave doth gape for thee thrice wide than for other men. Presume not that I am the thing I was, for God doth know, so shall the world perceive, that I have turned away my former self, so will I those that kept me company. I banish thee, on pain of death, not to come near our person by ten miles. For competence of life I will allow you, that lack of means enforce you not to evils; and, as we hear you do reform yourselves, we will, according to your strengths and qualities, give you advancement.”

Exit the King

Falstaff: “Master Shallow. Do not grieve at this. I shall be sent for in private to him. Look here, he must seem thus to the world. I will be the man yet that shall make you great.”

Shallow: “I cannot perceive how.”

Falstaff: “This that you heard was but a colour.”

Shallow: “A colour that I fear you will die in, Sir John.”

Falstaff: “I shall be sent for soon at night.”

Enter Prince John and the Chief Justice

Chief Justice: “Go, carry Sir John Falstaff to the jail; take all his company along with him. Take them away.”

Prince John: “I like this fair proceeding of the King’s. He hath intent his wanton followers shall all be very well provided for; but all are banished till their conversations appear more wise and modest to the world. I will lay odds that this year we bear our civil swords as far as France.”

Analysis

Falstaff and his crew have just arrived from Gloucestershire and are awaiting the royal procession. Sir John is terribly excited that he will be an exalted member of King Hal’s inner circle and boasts that he will take exceedingly good care of his friends. When the King passes Falstaff cries out as though they were inseparable. Then comes the shocker: King Henry V claims to not even know Falstaff and insults his white hair as that of a fool. He tells him to fall on his prayers. He claims to have dreamed of such a man as Falstaff, but upon awakening he despises the dream. Then he banishes Falstaff, on pain of death, to not come within ten miles of the King. He also provides them an income so that their poverty will not encourage a further life of crime. Falstaff will not believe it and still insists he will be sent for in private, as the King simply must appear to be thus to the world at large. The Chief Justice then leads Falstaff and his cohorts off to jail. This is the last we ever see of Falstaff, unless you consider the ill regarded ditty Shakespeare was commissioned to write for Queen Elizabeth, titled The Merry Wives of Windsor. In Henry V we merely receive a report of his death.

As shocking as it is, Hal’s rejection of Falstaff was expected and necessary. Hal always claimed that the time would come when he would shake off his old life and assume the responsibilities of kingship. Yet this rejection is harsh and bitter, and since we have come to admire and appreciate much about Sir John it is a difficult scene to stomach for many readers. His verbal dexterity and exuberance for life is unparalleled in all of Shakespeare. The wittiest of rogues, Sir John is only matched by Hamlet in terms of compelling stage presence. The play ends with Prince John betting that England will soon bear their civil swords in France. This is Shakespeare transitioning us toward his next play, where Henry V will indeed fight to recapture France.

Epilogue

“Be it known to you, I was lately here in the end of a displeasing play, to pray your patience for it and to promise you a better. I meant, indeed, to pay you with this. So I kneel down before you – but, indeed, to pray for the Queen. One word more: our humble author will continue the story, with Sir John in it, and make you merry with fair Katherine of France. My tongue is weary; when my legs are too, I will bid you good night.”

Analysis

Such an epilogue was quite typical of Elizabethan drama. The actor portraying Falstaff would have come out to apologize for this ‘displeasing play’ and promise a better one. He then kneels in prayer for Queen Elizabeth and addresses a future play that will continue this story and make the audience merry with more of Sir John and Katherine of France. He seems to be referencing both Merry Wives of Windsor (make the audience ‘merry’ with more Sir John) and Henry V (Katherine of France). Finally, he clarifies that Sir John Falstaff was not actually the historical Sir John Oldcastle. It seems that Shakespeare originally used Oldcastle’s name for the character we know as Falstaff. The Oldcastle family took great offence and demanded his name be removed. Hence this clarification in the epilogue: ‘Oldcastle died a martyr and this is not the man.’

Final thoughts

Shakespeare’s source for Henry IV, Part II remains Holinshed’s Chronicles, referenced extensively throughout the histories. Queen Elizabeth began a long tradition of loving Falstaff most of all Shakespeare characters and demanded the infamous sequel, The Merry Wive of Windsor. The deeply compromised Falstaff of Merry Wives bares little resemblance to the memorable Sir John of the Henry IV plays. After Shakespeare’s death the plays were bundled together as a single piece and presented as Sir John Falstaff, a tradition that continued into the 20th Century with Orson Welles and at the Edinburgh Festival in 1974. Countless famous actors have taken on the challenge of depicting Sir John. James Henry Hackett played the role every single year from 1828 to 1871. Welles and Ralph Richardson are considered the quintessential Falstaff performances of all time. Rarely does Henry IV, Part II stand alone. It is generally played together with Part I as simply Henry IV. King George IV (1820-1830) chose Henry IV as the performance at his coronation. The Hollow Crown, as mentioned earlier, is a fabulous run through the histories from Richard II to Richard III and stars Simon Russell Beale as a very melancholic Falstaff. Brilliant stuff! Youtube has much to sift through in terms of clips and analysis and has several full productions available.