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Plot
Summary
By
Michael J. Cummings...©
2003
Background
.......Henry
IV Part II continues the story of Henry
IV Part I. At the end of the latter play, the forces of King Henry
IV defeat a rebel army at Shrewsbury, on the Welsh-English border, in 1403
during a battle in which the king’s son, Prince Henry (Hal), distinguishes
himself by slaying the rebels’ champion, Hotspur. Henry IV Part II
focuses on the final defeat of the remaining rebel forces, the illness
and approaching death of King Henry, the further misadventures of Falstaff,
and the transition of Hal from the carefree pub-crawler that he was in
Part I to a sober-minded heir to the throne of England.
The
Plot
.......Rumor
spreads that Hotspur has killed Prince Hal and that the rebels have defeated
the royalists. However, Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, soon learns
the truth about his son Hotspur and the rebel army: It was not Hotspur
who killed Hal; it was Hal who killed Hotspur. What is more, it was not
the rebels who defeated the royalists; it was the royalists who defeated
the rebels. Nevertheless, the rebels are far from ripe for surrender. They
form a coalition that includes a defector to their cause: Richard Scroop,
the Archbishop of  York.
He is much disenchanted with the policies of Henry IV.
.......Meanwhile,
fat old Falstaff lives it up in London. He has his own page to wait on
him, compliments of Hal, and more than twenty yards of silk with which
to fashion a cape and breeches. His prodigality soon leaves him with but
eight coins in his purse. Not to worry. The gout in his big toe, which
causes him to limp, will surely qualify him for a rise in his pension.
.......Before
Falstaff leaves for battle, his landlady, Mistress Quickly, calls the law
down on him for failure to repay a loan. Even worse, he has failed to make
good on his promise to marry her. When officers attempt to arrest him,
a great ruckus ensues. In the end, Falstaff not only escapes arrest, he
persuades Mistress Quickly to lend him ten more pounds. Prince Hal happens
by, and he and Falstaff enjoy a bit of merrymaking until the time comes
for them to embark for war. In the new campaign against the rebels, Falstaff
will be under the command of Prince John of Lancaster, Hal’s younger brother.
The Earl of Northumberland will not be wielding a sword in this campaign,
for his wife and daughter-in-law have persuaded him to stand aside. However,
if the rebels gain the upper hand, Lady Percy advises, then it would be
wise for him to enter the fray.
.......Meanwhile,
at the palace in Westminster, King Henry IV, seriously ill, frets about
the state of his country. Insomnia seizes him. He says,
O sleep, O gentle sleep,
Nature’s
soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That
thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down
And
steep my senses in forgetfulness? (3. 1. 7-10)
.......In
Gaultree forest in Yorkshire, site of the insurgents’ camp, the archbishop
and other rebel leaders despair at news that Northumberland will not be
fighting at their side. Then the Earl of Westmoreland, an ambassador from
royalist forces under Prince John of Lancaster, arrives to parlay with
the rebels, telling them that John is willing to hear their grievances
and grant concessions if the grievances are just. After the rebels present
their list of complaints, Westmoreland delivers it to Lancaster.
.......Lancaster
then meets with the rebels and swears by his honor that he will speedily
redress the grievances. Taking the prince at his word, the rebel leaders
order their armies to disperse. However, as soon as the armies leave, Prince
John goes back on his word, arrests the leaders, and summarily executes
them. Then he orders the fleeing rebel troops to be run down.
.......In
another part of the forest, Falstaff somehow has managed to capture a prisoner.
When Falstaff and Lancaster meet, the prince rebukes the fat knight for
always being absent from the scene of battle and threatens to send him
to the gallows. Falstaff then proudly displays his prize, the prisoner,
saying he is a “most furious knight and valourous enemy . . . I came, I
saw, I overcame”1
(4. 3. 17).
.......After
Lancaster leaves, Falstaff says the cold, unsmiling prince is the way he
is because he has not cultivated the habit of drinking wine. In Westminster,
the king, now very sick, broods about his son Prince Hal. Will he ever
mature enough to succeed his father as King of England? Westmoreland then
arrives with excellent news: The rebels have been defeated; peace reigns.
However, the king’s condition worsens, and he realizes death stands near
to claim him. When Prince Hal arrives to comfort his father, the king offers
this advice to his son: “Be it thy course to busy giddy minds with foreign
quarrels; that action, hence borne out, may waste the memory of the former
days” (4. 5. 221-223).
.......In
other words, if England centers its attention on conflicts with foreign
countries, the people will likewise divert their attention from making
domestic mischief and focus instead on making international mischief. The
king then is carried to the palace’s Jerusalem Chamber. There he dies,
fulfilling a prophecy that he would die in Jerusalem.
.......Upon
hearing that Hal is now King Henry V, Falstaff hurriedly returns to his
friend’s side to reap the benefits of having a monarch for a bosom pal.
However, Hal, as king, becomes a different person. He is sober, solemn,
full of kingly dignity; he means business. Hal lectures Falstaff on his
unprincipled ways, then banishes him on pain of death, telling him “not
to come near our person by ten mile” (5. 5. 56). If Falstaff reforms, Hal
says, “We will, according to your strengths and qualities, give you advancement”
(5. 5. 60-61). The new king next convenes a session of parliament to discuss
war with a new enemy, France.
.
Characters
.
Rumour:
Presenter
of the play in the Induction, preceding Act I.
King Henry IV: King
of England, now ill and suffering from insomnia and guilty conscience for
usurping the throne of Richard II. The son of the
Duke of Lancaster (John of Gaunt), Henry was the first English king in
the House of Lancaster, reigning from 1399 to 1413.
Prince Henry of Wales
(Prince Hal): Son of the king who inherits the throne as Henry V. He
gives up his carefree, fun-loving lifestyle when royal duties demand his
full attention.
Prince John of Lancaster:
Son of the king who violates a peace pact and slaughter a rebel army.
Prince Humphrey of Gloucester:
Another son of the king.
Thomas, Duke of Clarence:
Another son of the king.
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Earls of Warwick and
Surrey: King's counsellors.
Earl of Westmoreland:
A leader of the king's forces.
Gower, Harcourt, Blunt:
Officers in the king's forces.
Earl of Northumberland:
A leader of the rebellion against the king.
Lady Northumberland:
Wife of Northumberland and mother of the dead Hotspur.
Other Leaders of the
Rebellion Against the King: Lord Mowbray, Lord Hastings, Lord Bardolph,
Sir John Colville, and Richard Scroop, Archbishop of York.
Lady Percy: Widow
of Hotspur
Travers, Morton:
Retainers of Northumberland.
Lord Chief-Justice of
the King's Bench: Judge appointed by Henry V (Hal).
Servant of the Chief-Justice
Sir John Falstaff: Fun-loving
companion of Prince Hal who is rejected by Hal when he becomes king.
Page of Falstaff
Bardolph, Pistol, Peto:
Falstaff's companions.
Poins: Companion
of Hal before the latter becomes king.
Shallow, Silence:
Country justices.
Davy: Shallow's servant.
Fang, Snare: Sheriff's
officers.
Doll Tearsheet: Prostitute
at the Boar's Head Tavern.
Mouldy, Shadow, Wart,
Feeble, Bullcalf: Falstaff's army recruits.
Mistress Quickly:
Hostess of the Boar's-Head Tavern in London's Eastcheap section.
Dancer: Speaker of
the epilogue.
Minor Characters: Lords,
attendants, porter, drawers (tapsters or bartenders).
.
Settings
.
Henry
IV Part II takes place in England after the Battle of Shrewsbury in
1403. The locales include London, York, Warkwarth, Westminster, Gloucestershire,
Yorkshire, Gaultree Forest.
Dates
and Sources
Date
Written: About 1597
Probable
Main Source: Shakespeare based Henry IV Part II primarily on
accounts in The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (Holinshed’s
Chronicles), by Raphael Holinshed (?-1580?), who began work on this
history under the royal printer Reginald Wolfe. The first edition of the
chronicles was published in 1577 in two volumes. There is a possibility
that Shakespeare based the character Falstaff on a boastful but cowardly
soldier named Pyrgopolynices in Miles Gloriosus, a play by Plautus
(254?-184 BC).
Type
of Play
Henry
IV Part II is a history play about the last days of King Henry IV and
the accession to the throne of his son, Prince Henry (Hal) as King Henry
V. The scenes involving Falstaff and his drinking companions are fictional.
Number
of Words in Complete Text: 27,969
Individual
Copies for Schools: Pelican
Edition (Low Cost)
Themes
Responsibility
helps cultivate maturity.
Prince Hal becomes a reliable and upright leader while executing his military
and governmental duties.
Even
the best of men sometimes have checkered pasts. Like many modern politicians,
Prince Hal has engaged in reprehensible and censurable conduct, thanks
to his association with Falstaff. In modern times, the media would surely
vilify Hal were he a candidate for president.
Domestic
violence strikes not only families but also entire kingdoms. Henry
IV uses his army to fight citizens of his own country. In modern times,
governments have often done the same, rightly or wrongly, in Russia, Northern
Ireland, Vietnam, and other countries.
Climax
The climax of the play occurs
when King Henry dies and his son, Prince Hal, accedes to the throne.
.
The
Role of Falstaff
.......Henry
IV Part I made Falstaff a popular comic character
with audiences. He even became a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I. Consequently,
in Henry IV Part II, Shakespeare devotes considerable attention
to the fat knight, perhaps more attention than he should receive in a play
that presents as the central characters a dying king and his son. However,
Falstaff’s shenanigans play a key role in the play in that they (1) demonstrate
the kind of life Prince Hal has led as a companion of Falstaff and (2)
set up the stunning scene at the end of the play when Hal, more mature,
renounces his old lifestyle and Falstaff. This scene is important because
it shows that Hal has the
spine to give up his carefree, irresponsible ways to take on the heavy
burdens of kingship. As in the first play, Falstaff eats, drinks, and makes
merry. And, of course, there is no end to his bragging, as in the following
passage in which he hyperbolizes about himself: “I would to God my name
were not so terrible to the enemy as it is: I were better to be eaten
to death with a rust than to be scoured to nothing with perpetual motion
(1. 2. 66). Falstaff, a companion of Prince Hal, even thinks himself young
like the prince, telling the Lord Chief Justice, "You that are old consider
not the capacities of us that are young; you do measure the heat of our
livers with the bitterness of your galls; and we that are in the vaward2
of our youth, I must confess, are wags too (1. 2. 66).
.......The
Lord Chief Justice, well knowing that Falstaff is little more than a wheezing
bag of wind, replies, "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? (1. 2. 66).
.......Renowned
Shakespeare critic G.B. Harrison, impressed with Shakespeare's handling
of Falstaff, wrote the falling appraisal of the character:
The
most notable person in [King Henry IV] is the fat knight, Sir John
Falstaff, the supreme comic character in all drama. In creating Falstaff,
Shakespeare used principally his own eyes and ears. Falstaff is the gross
incarnation of a type of soldier found in any army, and there were many
such–though on a lower level of greatness–swarming
in London when the play was first written, spending the profits of the
last campaign in taverns, brothels, and playhouses, while they intrigued
for a new command in the next season's campaign.... Many of them were rogues
who cheated the government and their own men on all occasions.... Though
he [Falstaff] can quote Scripture on occasion, he is a liar, a drunkard,
and a cheat; he robs the poor and flouts every civic virtue; but on the
stage at least he redeems his vices by his incomparable wit and his skill
escaping from every tight corner."–G.B. Harrison, ed. Major British
Writers. New York: Harcourt, 1967 (Page 59).
Epigrams
In the dialogue of Henry
IV Part II and other Shakespeare plays, characters sometimes speak wise
or witty sayings, or epigrams, couched in memorable language. Among the
more memorable sayings in Henry IV Part II are the following:
Uneasy lies the
head that wears the crown. (3. 1. 33)
This eight-word line, spoken by
the king, is one of the most pithy observations in all of literature about
the burdens of leadership.
How quickly nature falls
into revolt
When gold becomes her object!
(4. 5. 71-72)
King Henry, dying, speaks these
lines after Prince Hal sees his father sleeping and, believing him dead,
removes his crown and places it on his own head.
Past and to come seems best;
things present worst. (1. 3. 113)
Every human likes to reminisce about
the good old days while also entertaining the notion that “the best is
yet to come.” The here and now, however, always seems dull and wearisome.
Through the Archbishop of York, Shakespeare captures this universal truth
in nine words.
Is it not strange that desire
should so many years outlive performance? (2. 4. 114)
Poins is poking fun at old Falstaff,
but he is really speaking about everyone who discovers in old age that
his body can no longer do what his mind wishes.
Study
Questions and Essay Topics
1. In Act III, Scene I, Line
33, King Henry observes, “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” He
means that those who take on the ....responsibilities
of leadership also take on the worries that go with them. Identify several
world leaders today who are uneasy because ....they
“wear the crown” and explain why they are uneasy.
2. Prince Hal thinks his
father is dead when in reality the king is only sleeping. Hal removes the
king’s crown and places it on his own ....head.
What motivates Hal to do this? Is he overly ambitious? Is he simply trying
to demonstrate, after leading the life of a playboy, that ....he
is now mature enough to assume the awesome responsibility of kingship?
3. Has the attitude toward
war as a glorious adventure changed since the days of King Henry IV?
4. Do you believe Prince
Hal was right, at the end of the play, to scold Falstaff?
5. Which is the most admirable
character in the play? Which is the least admirable?
6. Write an essay comparing
and contrasting the Prince Hal of Henry IV Part I with the Prince Hal of
Henry IV Part II.
7. Write an essay identifying
kingly qualities in Prince Hal.
Notes
1. I came, I saw, I overcame:
These words parody the Latin words of Julius Caesar: Veni, vidi, vici,
meaning I came, I saw, I conquered. ....Caesar
wrote the words in a message to the Roman Senate after he won a victory
in the Battle of Zela (in present-day northern Turkey) ....in
47 BC.
2. Vaward: Vanguard.
.
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