The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth — Acts I, II, III
So where were we? It’s been a month since I read Henry IV, Part One, so allow me a moment to reacquaint myself.
Got it.
Henry was king. Remember? Also, a bunch of other stuff happened.
A Prologue of Sorts
Warkworth. Before the castle. A cat named Rumour enters to tell us what we’ve missed. So here’s a nice recap, full of questionable phrasings and incoherent speech! What I gather is what I earlier gleaned from Part One, that Harry has beaten Hotspur on the battlefield at Shrewsbury and, for the moment at least, quashed his enemies in the rebellion.
Although I believe Rumour is also saying that he has gone from town to town telling people falsehoods. He’s been saying that King Henry actually died by Hotspur’s sword. I might be reading this wrong. Hopefully Act One will shed some light. Although I’d be surprised if we ever hear from Rumour again. He seems like a Prologue and done kinda guy.
Act One
Scene i
The very same! Is Rumour still here at Warwick castle? Doesn’t appear to be. Instead, here is Lord Bardolph to guide Santa’s sleigh.
Oh sorry, is it January now? Is Christmas over? Humbug!
OK yeah now I get it. Right right right right right. Rumour was talking about Harry PERCY, not Harry Henry the king. Percy was the head of the rebellion and he just so happened to share the same name as the king and the prince. Sheesh. OK then this scene is just background by way of explaining to characters on stage. One of which is Northumberland who, if I’m not mistaken, is Harry Percy’s father.
Northumberland takes the brutal news like a champ. At first, he even guesses that his son is dead, without anyone having to tell it. Then, when a dude named Morton says he was there and saw it all unfold, Northumberland resigns himself to vengeance with a truly great and rousing speech. Here’s a taste:
Now bind my brows with iron; and approach
The ragged’st hour that time and spite dare bring
To frown upon the enraged Northumberland!
Let heaven kiss earth! now let not Nature’s hand
Keep the Wild flood confined! let order die!
And let this world no longer be a stage
To feed contention in a lingering act;
But let one spirit of the first born Cain
Reign in all bosoms, that, each heart being set
On bloody courses, the rude scene may end,
And darkness be the burier of the dead!
Oh my.
Northumberland’s counsel does their right best to calm his incensed mind. They tell him that they all knew the risks of rebellion and Northumberland himself bid his son well, despite the risk. They should sit back and carefully plot their next move instead of rushing to meet Harry Percy and Hotspur in death.
Northumberland’s cooler head prevails and he listens. He says they should talk more and decide the best course of action going forward.
Interesting!
Scene ii
London. A street. Enter Falstaff.
Oh no! Not Falstaff! He’s the worst! Haha. He’s the best kind of worst though: a jackass who thinks he’s always the smartest in the room. His own farcical nature was gruesomely comical in Part One… let’s see what he’s up to now.
Welp, Falstaff is giving a Page a terrible time for seemingly very little reason. There was something about water being delivered not to his liking? And then Falstaff went off on an unintelligible tangent for too long before asking, “Where’s Bardolph?” The Page reminds him that Bardolph has gone to get Falstaff a horse…
So does Falstaff actually have some clout now? When we last saw him, he was nothing but a drunk in a bar and a scoundrel and thief. At the end of Part One, he claimed credit for killing Hotspur and Prince Harry seemed to allow him that (it was the Prince who actually killed him). Perhaps Falstaff’s illicit boasting earned him some high-ranking title? If so, he’s blowing piss all over it now.
Lord Chief-Justice comes to see Falstaff. Apparently, he’s wanted to talk to the oaf for quite some time — even before Shrewsbury. Because this Lord Chief-Justice has got Falstaff’s number. He tried to speak with him earlier about a robbery on the road but Falstaff avoided him at all costs. Even now, when he enters, Falstaff instructs his Page to tell the Lord Chief-Justice he is deaf. This is as good (or bad) an excuse as any. Lord Chief-Justice isn’t buying any of it. He even knows that Falstaff has “played the prince false” and taken credit for the killing of Hotspur. But what can you do? Falstaff is Prince Harry’s friend and if he wants to let him slide, Falstaff slides.
Lord Chief-Justice seems willing to let bygones be bygones. Besides, he says, he’s heard that the king is sending Falstaff and the Prince with Lord John of Lancaster against the Archbishop and the Earl of Northumberland. So he will be out of everyone’s hair around here for awhile anyway. Side query: Does this mean they are taking the battle directly to Northumberland? Cool.
Before they part ways, Falstaff remains true to his nature and asks Lord Chief-Justice if he will lend him a thousand pounds (which must have been an obscene amount of money back then!) for his journey. Lord Chief-Justice says, “Not a chance, brah!” and laughs his merry way away.
Falstaff calls the Page back and sends him off to deliver letters he’s writ for the Lord of Lancaster, the Earl of Westmoreland, and “old Mistress Ursula, whom I have weekly sworn to marry since I perceived the first white hair on my chin.”
Alrighty then!
Scene iii
York. The archbishop’s palace.
The archbishop of York, Lord Hastings, Mowbray, and Bardolph discuss their options in the coming war.
It is my limited understanding that these men are Northumberland’s council and they are talking about their odds of survival behind his back.
They have 25,000 men ready to fight. Wow. That seems like a lot. But will they fight if Northumberland decides not to? Why would he decide not to? Didn’t he just proclaim vengeance in Scene One? Yeah he said he’d think about it but that was only because his counsel told him to. I doubt his heart was in it.
Lord Bardolph gives a tired and tedious speech about how their next battle should be as precise as building a house. He takes the metaphor to extremes and the audience goes to sleep under the weight of exhaustive mortar and brick analogies.
Hastings says the king’s armies are split three ways: against the French, Glendower, and maybe the third in reserve to fight Northumberland. A king’s powers divided cannot stand.
Act Two
Scene i
London. A street.
Enter Mistress Quickly, Fang, and snare.
Ehhh, who, who, and who?
Mistress Quickly has set a trap for Falstaff. She wants him arrested. As it turns out, her beef with him has less to do with horse stealing and more to do with his broken promise to marry her. Does that make Mistress Quickly the “Ursula” Falstaff referred to in Act One? Who the hell knows. But he also owed her money.
Lord Chief Justice enters and everyone appeals to his sense of, er, justice. But then that is interrupted by Gower who announces the king is on his way. So all is forgotten to make quick haste of preparations.
Lord Chief-Justice calls Falstaff a “great fool” and that’s about it for Scene One.
Scene ii
London. Some other street.
Prince Henry is sleepy and wants beer. Or so he tells Poins. He is also very sad that his father, the king, is quite sick. In fact, he mentions it at least twice so maybe it’s important. Does King Henry die from some illness? That would be anticlimactic.
Prince Henry asks Poins if he would think less of him if he wept. The Prince asks if it would be hypocritical to weep for his father’s sickness. Poins says yes, that would be hypocritical because you never showed any care for the king before when you were hanging out with Falstaff and getting into trouble, you cad!
Speaking of Falstaff… a letter from him is delivered to the Prince. He laughs with Poins about how familiar Falstaff makes himself with the prince in the letter. But… they are familiar with each other, right? Prince Harry, I gather, is quite immature. It probably doesn’t help that one of his close friends is, in fact, Falstaff.
Scene iii
Warkworth. Before the castle.
Northumberland is talking with his wife and Harry Percy’s widow about going back into battle. She begs him not to go to war. She’s already lost her husband, and scores of men. But if he must go, she tells him not to forget that he was the one who sent Harry Percy to his death. Yikes.
Northumberland tells her to “Beshrew your heart, Fair daughter, you do draw my spirits from me with new lamenting oversights.”
I’m a gonna go no matter what you say, so there.
Scene iv
London. The Boar’s Head Tavern in Eastcheap.
It’s 5:00 somewhere!
First Drawer and Second Drawer discuss the prince’s entrance. “Where will he sit and why are we drawers?”
Mistress Quickly and Doll Tearsheet endure Falstaff’s entrance. He is singing, surely drunk.
Someone else is coming but Mistress Quickly won’t tolerate nor abide any “swaggers.“ She says as much about a billion times.
Enter Piston who praises Falstaff, Bardolph, and a Page. Is this what sets off the women? Or do they know them? Either way, there’s an excellent run of top notch insults thrown here.
DOLL TEARSHEET
Away, you cut-purse rascal! you filthy bung, away!
by this wine, I’ll thrust my knife in your mouldy
chaps, an you play the saucy cuttle with me. Away,
you bottle-ale rascal! you basket-hilt stale juggler, you!
Superior.
As fun as this is (and it is) things get even more heated and it escalates to violence. Swords are drawn and Piston and Falstaff (quite unbelievably) fight each other. Falstaff manages to shoo Piston out of the bar, much to the liking of Doll Tearsheet who now seems to have turned her opinion around about him.
Enter Prince Henry and Poins (disguised). I don’t know why they are disguised but if I had to make an educated guess, I’d say they are there to listen in on what Falstaff has to say. Perhaps they desire to play some other trick on him? As the Prince did in Part One? Also, I’m wondering what sort of disguises they are wearing that don’t scream “Hey everyone! We’re disguised!” I mean, it’s a bar, not a Halloween party! But I guess that’s a pickle for the costumer, eh?
So what’s happening here? Falstaff shoots his mouth off about the Prince, calling him worthless, more or less. The Prince angrily reveals himself and Falstaff back pedals, saying “Oh, I knew it was you, Henry. I was just kidding! Har dee har har!” But we can all tell the prince’s feelings are hurt. This scene ends when he is called away because something is happening with the war. Ain’t that just the way?
Act Three
Scene i
Westminster. The palace.
Enter the king in his nightgown with a page.
The king talks of sleep. I think this is a favorite subject of his. He’s a sleepy king. He just wants to sleep. I hear you, brother.
Warwick enters and King Henry tells him his fears. He relates that not 10 years ago, King Richard sat on the throne and dined with Northumberland. It wasn’t long after that Northumberland betrayed Richard and killed him. Then, by some luck, Henry sat on the throne and is now at war with Northumberland. Do I have this timeline right? Am I close? I feel close. Anyway, King Henry, I think, got much more than he bargained for. He feels like he should march into battle but Warwick tells him he should get some rest. They have dispatched a small army to take care of it.
But Henry has heard that Northumberland has 50,000 men! Could it be?
Doubtful, says Warwick. Word of mouth often doubles numbers.
Henry shrugs, still uneasy, and goes nigh nigh.
Scene ii
Gloucestershire. Enter the Cheshire Cat, smiling.
Then enter Shallow. Who the fuck is Shallow? And also enter Silence, Mouldy, Shadow, Wart, Feeble, and Bullcalf. Oh and Dopey, Sneezy, Jermaine, and Tito.
OK wow. Last night I read this scene and got very little out of it. I had to cheat and go online and read a summary for this one and I’m still only about 10 percent there. These guys are all justices. I got that now. And there’s some talk about life and death and livestock. Anyway, I’m gonna give it a second read now. This scene is not a short one.
Silence and Shadow open the scene happy to see each other. They catch up and very quickly begin talking about friends of theirs who have died. Downer.
Bardolph comes in and announces that Falstaff will be coming soon. The mood is lightened again, which is odd because Falstaff is coming to discern which of these men would be suitable as soldiers. Is he enlisting them?
Bullcalf tries to get out of service by saying he has a cold, a cough. It doesn’t work.
Shallow invites Falstaff to dinner. He asks John about some woman they knew 55 years ago. Falstaff says she still lives but she’s old.
Mouldy and Bullcalf bribe Bardolph into letting them off. Feeble however, says that “a man can die but once: we owe God a death.” So I guess he’s in. Feeble wants to die for his country. Honorable.
Bardolph tells Falstaff about the bribes and he in turn, let’s them go. Mouldy doesn’t get it. Those two were the most able bodied of the lot! But Falstaff makes some excuses and picks the other men to enlist. And yeah, that’s what he’s doing for sure.
The scene ends with Falstaff giving a soliloquy that’s riddled with contempt for the men. He says he remembers Shallow from his youth and he was a weakling back then. The next time he sees Shallow, he’s going to try to steal from him.
Oh Falstaff!
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