Spelling is modernized, but older forms are occasionally maintained where necessary for rhythm or aural effect.
Punctuation in Shakespeare’s time was as much rhetorical as grammatical. “Colon” was originally a term for a unit of thought in an argument. The semicolon was a new unit of punctuation (some of the Quartos lack them altogether). We have modernized punctuation throughout, but have given more weight to Folio punctuation than many editors, since, though not Shakespearean, it reflects the usage of his period. In particular, we have used the colon far more than many editors: it is exceptionally useful as a way of indicating how many Shakespearean speeches unfold clause by clause in a developing argument that gives the illusion of enacting the process of thinking in the moment. We have also kept in mind the origin of punctuation in classical times as a way of assisting the actor and orator: the comma suggests the briefest of pauses for breath, the colon a middling one, and a full stop or period a longer pause. Semi-colons, by contrast, belong to an era of punctuation that was only just coming in during Shakespeare’s time and that is coming to an end now: we have accordingly used them only where they occur in our copy texts (and not always then). Dashes are sometimes used for parenthetical interjections where the Folio has brackets. They are also used for interruptions and changes in train of thought. Where a change of addressee occurs within a speech, we have used a dash preceded by a full stop (or occasionally another form of punctuation). Often the identity of the respective addressees is obvious from the context. When it is not, this has been indicated in a marginal stage direction.
Entrances and Exits are fairly thorough in Folio, which has accordingly been followed as faithfully as possible. Where characters are omitted or corrections are necessary, this is indicated by square brackets (e.g. “[and Attendants]”). Exit is sometimes silently normalized to Exeunt and Manet anglicized to “remains.” We trust Folio positioning of entrances and exits to a greater degree than most editors.
Editorial Stage Directions such as stage business, asides, indications of addressee and of characters’ position on the gallery stage are used only sparingly in Folio. Other editions mingle directions of this kind with original Folio and Quarto directions, sometimes marking them by means of square brackets. We have sought to distinguish what could be described as directorial interventions of this kind from Folio-style directions (either original or supplied) by placing them in the right margin in a different typeface. There is a degree of subjectivity about which directions are of which kind, but the procedure is intended as a reminder to the reader and the actor that Shakespearean stage directions are often dependent upon editorial inference alone and are not set in stone. We also depart from editorial tradition in sometimes admitting uncertainty and thus printing permissive stage directions, such as an Aside? (often a line may be equally effective as an aside or as a direct address—it is for each production or reading to make its own decision) or a may exit or a piece of business placed between arrows to indicate that it may occur at various different moments within a scene.
Line Numbers in the left margin are editorial, for reference and to key the explanatory and textual notes.
Explanatory Notes at the foot of each page explain allusions and gloss obsolete and difficult words, confusing phraseology, occasional major textual cruces, and so on. Particular attention is given to non-standard usage, bawdy innuendo, and technical terms (e.g. legal and military language). Where more than one sense is given, commas indicate shades of related meaning, slashes alternative or double meanings.
Textual Notes at the end of the play indicate major departures from the Folio. They take the following form: the reading of our text is given in bold and its source given after an equals sign, with “Q” indicating that it derives from the First Quarto of 1600, “F” from the First Folio of 1623, “F2” a reading from the Second Folio of 1632, and “Ed” one that derives from the subsequent editorial tradition. The rejected Folio (“F”) reading is then given. Thus, for example, “2.4.132 With = Q. F = where” indicates that at Act 2 Scene 4 line 132, we have restored the Quarto reading “with” because we judge the Folio reading “where” to be a printer’s error.
KEY FACTS
MAJOR PARTS: (with percentage of lines/number of speeches/scenes on stage) Falstaff (20%/184/8), Prince Henry (9%/60/5), King Henry IV (9%/34/4), Shallow (6%/77/4), Lord Chief Justice (5%/56/4), Hostess Quickly (5%/49/3), Archbishop Scroop (5%/25/3), Prince John of Lancaster (3%/26/5), Westmorland (3%/21/4), Lord Bardolph (3%/18/2), Northumberland (3%/17/2), Pistol (2%/31/3), Doll Tearsheet (2%/31/2), Bardolph (2%/30/6), Poins (2%/28/2), Warwick (2%/26/4), Mowbray (2%/18/3), Hastings (2%/17/3), Morton (2%/6/1).
LINGUISTIC MEDIUM: 50% verse, 50% prose.
DATE: Around 1597–98. Must have been written after The First Part (1596–97) and before Henry V (early 1599); registered for publication August 1600. Vestiges of the name “Oldcastle” for “Falstaff” suggest that drafting may have begun before Lord Cobham’s objections led to the name change in The First Part, but the play was probably not acted before this. The double epilogue (see “Text,” below) suggests different stages of production.
SOURCES: Based on the account of the reign of Henry IV in the 1587 edition of Holinshed’s Chronicles, with some use of Samuel Daniel’s epic poem The First Four Books of the Civil Wars (1595). The intermingling of historical materials and comedy, in the context of the Prince’s riotous youth, is developed from the anonymous Queen’s Men play, The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth (performed late 1580s), which included characters who may be regarded as crude prototypes of Falstaff and company, a scene in “which a labouring man is press-ganged into the army, and a well-known encounter where the prince boxes the Lord Chief Justice on the ears.”
TEXT: Quarto 1600, in two different issues, one of which omits Act 3 Scene 1 (showing the sick and sleepless king): scholars debate whether the scene was a late Shakespearean addition to his original draft or an omission because of its politically sensitive references back to the deposition of Richard II. The Quartos are usually thought to have been printed from Shakespeare’s working manuscript. The 1623 Folio contains eight significant passages that are not in the Quarto, some relating to either the Archbishop’s insurrection or the deposition of Richard II. These are more likely to be Quarto cuts (some for reasons of censorship, others for dramatic compression) than Folio additions. The Folio text shows some signs of consultation of a theatrical manuscript, probably sometime after the 1606 “Act to Restrain the Abuses of Players” (profanity has been toned down). The most plausible explanation of the complex textual history is that Folio was typeset from a carefully prepared manuscript based on a post-1606 promptbook, perhaps collated with the first issue of the Quarto. A further complication is that the Epilogue is printed in different ways in Quarto and Folio, and seems to combine two different speeches, probably one written for public performance and the other for a staging at court in the presence of Queen Elizabeth. Most editions are based on Quarto, with the Folio-only passages inserted, whereas we respect Folio as an autonomous text, though use Quarto for the correction of manifest printer’s errors.
THE SECOND PART OF
HENRY THE FOURTH,
Containing His Death
and the Coronation of
King Henry the Fifth
SYNOPSIS OF
HENRY IV PART I
After deposing King Richard II, Henry Bullingbrook has ascended the throne as Henry IV. Guilt about the deposition troubles his conscience, and the stability of his reign is threatened by growing opposition from some of the nobles who helped him to the throne. His son, Prince Henry (also known as Harry and, by Falstaff, as Hal), is living a dissolute life, frequenting the taverns of Eastcheap in the company of Sir John Falstaff and other disreputable characters with whom he participates in a highway robbery. Opposition to the king becomes open rebellion, led by the Earl of Northumberland’s son, Henry Percy, known, for his courage and impetuous nature, as “Hotspur.” The Percy fam
ily support the claim to the throne of Hotspur’s brother-in-law, Edmund Mortimer. The rebellion brings Hal back to his father’s side, while Falstaff musters a ragged troop of soldiers. The king’s army defeats the rebels at the battle of Shrewsbury, where Hal kills Hotspur. Falstaff lives to die another day.
LIST OF PARTS
RUMOUR, the presenter
KING HENRY IV
PRINCE HENRY, later King Henry V, also known as Hal or Harry Monmouth
Prince John of LANCASTER, brother to the prince
Humphrey, Duke of GLOUCESTER, a younger brother
Thomas, Duke of CLARENCE, a younger brother
Earl of NORTHUMBERLAND, opposite against King Henry the Fourth
Scroop, ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, opposite against King Henry the Fourth
MOWBRAY, opposite against King Henry the Fourth
Lord HASTINGS, opposite against King Henry the Fourth
Lord BARDOLPH, opposite against King Henry the Fourth
Sir John COLEVILLE, opposite against King Henry the Fourth
TRAVERS, opposite against King Henry the Fourth
MORTON, opposite against King Henry the Fourth
LADY NORTHUMBERLAND, Northumberland’s wife
LADY PERCY, Northumberland’s daughter-in-law, widow of Henry Percy known as Hotspur
Northumberland’s PORTER
Earl of WARWICK, of the king’s party
Earl of SURREY, of the king’s party
Earl of WESTMORLAND, of the king’s party
HARCOURT, of the king’s party
Sir John BLUNT, of the king’s party
GOWER, of the king’s party
LORD CHIEF JUSTICE and his SERVANT
Sir John FALSTAFF, irregular humorist
BARDOLPH, irregular humorist
Edward or Ned POINS, irregular humorist
PETO, irregular humorist
Sir John’s PAGE, irregular humorist
HOSTESS QUICKLY, landlady of a tavern
DOLL TEARSHEET
FRANCIS, a drawer
WILLIAM, a drawer
SECOND DRAWER
SHALLOW, a country Justice of the Peace
SILENCE, his kinsman, another Justice of the Peace
DAVY, servant to Shallow
RALPH MOULDY, country soldier
SIMON SHADOW, country soldier
THOMAS WART, country soldier
FRANCIS FEEBLE, country soldier
PETER BULLCALF, country soldier
FANG, a constable
SNARE, his yeoman or assistant
Page to the King, Messengers, Servants, Musicians, Grooms, Beadles, Soldiers, Attendants
Speaker of the EPILOGUE
Induction
Enter Rumour
RUMOUR Open your ears, for which of you will stop
The vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks?
I, from the orient to the drooping west,
Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold
The acts commencèd on this ball of earth.
Upon my tongue continual slanders ride,
The which in every language I pronounce,
Stuffing the ears of them with false reports.
I speak of peace, while covert enmity
Under the smile of safety wounds the world.
And who but Rumour, who but only I,
Make fearful musters and prepared defence
Whilst the big year, swoll’n with some other griefs,
Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,
And no such matter? Rumour is a pipe
Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures
And of so easy and so plain a stop
That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
The still-discordant wavering multitude,
Can play upon it. But what need I thus
My well-known body to anatomize
Among my household? Why is Rumour here?
I run before King Harry’s victory,
Who in a bloody field by Shrewsbury
Hath beaten down young Hotspur and his troops,
Quenching the flame of bold rebellion
Even with the rebels’ blood. But what mean I
To speak so true at first? My office is
To noise abroad that Harry Monmouth fell
Under the wrath of noble Hotspur’s sword,
And that the king before the Douglas’ rage
Stooped his anointed head as low as death.
This have I rumoured through the peasant towns
Between the royal field of Shrewsbury
And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone,
Where Hotspur’s father, old Northumberland,
Lies crafty-sick. The posts come tiring on,
And not a man of them brings other news
Than they have learned of me. From Rumour’s tongues
They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true wrongs.
Exit
Act 1 Scene [1]
running scene 1
Location: Warkworth Castle (residence of the Earl of Northumberland)
Enter Lord Bardolph and the Porter [separately]
LORD BARDOLPH Who keeps the gate here, ho? Where is the earl?
PORTER What shall I say you are?
LORD BARDOLPH Tell thou the earl
That the lord Bardolph doth attend him here.
PORTER His lordship is walked forth into the orchard.
Please it your honour, knock but at the gate,
And he himself will answer.
Enter Northumberland
LORD BARDOLPH Here comes the earl.
[Exit Porter]
NORTHUMBERLAND What news, Lord Bardolph? Every minute now
Should be the father of some stratagem;
The times are wild: contention, like a horse
Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose
And bears down all before him.
LORD BARDOLPH Noble earl,
I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury.
NORTHUMBERLAND Good, an heaven will!
LORD BARDOLPH As good as heart can wish:
The king is almost wounded to the death
And, in the fortune of my lord your son,
Prince Harry slain outright, and both the Blunts
Killed by the hand of Douglas, young Prince John
And Westmorland and Stafford fled the field,
And Harry Monmouth’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!
Saw you the field? Came you from Shrewsbury?
LORD BARDOLPH I spake with one, my lord, that came from thence,
A gentleman well bred and of good name,
That freely rendered me these news for true.
NORTHUMBERLAND Here comes my servant Travers, whom I sent
On Tuesday last to listen after news.
Enter Travers
LORD BARDOLPH My lord, I over-rode him on the way,
And he is furnished with no certainties
More than he haply may retail from me.
NORTHUMBERLAND Now, Travers, what good tidings comes from you?
TRAVERS My lord, Sir John Umfrevile turned me back
With joyful tidings; and, being better horsed,
Outrode me. After him came spurring hard
A gentleman, almost forspent with speed,
That stopped by me to breathe his bloodied horse.
He asked the way to Chester, and of him
I did demand what news from Shrewsbury:
He told me that rebellion had ill luck
And that young Harry Percy’s spur was cold.
With that, he gave his able horse the head,
And bending forwards struck his a
ble heels
Against the panting sides of his poor jade
Up to the rowel-head, and starting so
He seemed in running to devour the way,
Staying no longer question.
NORTHUMBERLAND Ha? Again:
Said he young Harry Percy’s spur was cold?
Of Hotspur Coldspur? That rebellion
Had met ill luck?
LORD BARDOLPH My lord, I’ll tell you what:
If my young lord your son have not the day,
Upon mine honour, for a silken point
I’ll give my barony. Never talk of it.
NORTHUMBERLAND Why should the gentleman that rode by Travers
Give then such instances of loss?
LORD BARDOLPH Who, he?
He was some hilding fellow that had stolen
The horse he rode on, and, upon my life,
Spoke at a venture. Look, here comes more news.
Enter Morton
NORTHUMBERLAND Yea, this man’s brow, like to a title-leaf,
Foretells the nature of a tragic volume:
So looks the strand when the imperious flood
Hath left a witnessed usurpation.—