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=                          Henry_IV,_Part_2                          =
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                            Introduction
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'Henry IV, Part 2' is a history play by William Shakespeare believed
to have been written between 1596 and 1599. It is the third part of a
tetralogy, preceded by 'Richard II' and 'Henry IV, Part 1' and
succeeded by 'Henry V'.

The play is often seen as an extension of aspects of 'Henry IV, Part
1', rather than a straightforward continuation of the historical
narrative, placing more emphasis on the highly popular character of
Falstaff and introducing other comic figures as part of his entourage,
including Ancient Pistol, Doll Tearsheet, and Justice Robert Shallow.
Several scenes specifically parallel episodes in '


                             Characters
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'Of the King's party'
* King Henry IV
* Prince Hal - later King Henry V
* Prince John of Lancaster - Henry's son
* Duke of Gloucester - Henry's son
* Duke of Clarence - Henry's son
* Earl of Warwick
* Earl of Surrey
* Earl of Westmorland
* Harcourt
* Sir John Blunt

'Rebels'
* Archbishop of York
* Lord Bardolph
* Lord Mowbray - Earl Marshal
* Ralph Hastings
* John Colleville
* Earl of Northumberland
* Lady Northumberland - Northumberland's wife
* Lady Percy - widow of Henry 'Hotspur' Percy, Northumberland's son
* Travers - Northumberland's servant
* Morton - messenger
'Court'
* Lord Chief Justice
* Servant
* Gower - messenger
* Beadle
* Two Grooms

'Eastcheap'
* John Falstaff
* Falstaff's Page
* Bardolph
* Ancient Pistol
* Ned Poins
* Peto
* Mistress Quickly - hostess of the tavern
* Dorothy "Doll" Tearsheet - prostitute
* Francis - drawer at tavern
* William - drawer at tavern

'Recruits'
* Ralph Mouldy
* Simon Shadow
* Thomas Wart
* Francis Feeble
* Peter Bullcalf

'Other'
* Rumour
* Epilogue
* Robert Shallow - country justice
* Silence - country justice
* Davy - Shallow's servant
* Snare - sergeant
* Fang - sergeant
* Messengers, musicians, soldiers, attendants, etc.

'Mentioned'
* Sir John Umfreville
* Master Dommellton, a milliner
* Ursula, former paramour of John Falstaff
* Fauconbridge (ghost character)
* Master Smooth
* Goodwife Keech
* Nell Poins, sister of Ned
* Sneak, band leader (may have been an actual Renaissance band leader)
* Master Tisick, a deputy
* Master Dumbe, a minister
* Blunt (ghost character)
* William Silence, Justice Silence's son at university
* Kent (ghost character)


                              Synopsis
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The play picks up where 'Henry IV, Part 1' left off. Its focus is on
Prince Hal's journey toward kingship, and his ultimate rejection of
Falstaff. However, unlike 'Part One', Hal's and Falstaff's stories are
almost entirely separate, as the two characters meet only twice and
very briefly. The tone of much of the play is elegiac, focusing on
Falstaff's age and his closeness to death, which parallels that of the
increasingly sick king.
Falstaff is still drinking and engaging in petty criminality in the
London underworld. He first appears followed by a new character, a
young page whom Prince Hal has assigned him as a joke. Falstaff
enquires what the doctor has said about the analysis of his urine, and
the page cryptically informs him that the urine is healthier than the
patient. Falstaff delivers one of his most characteristic lines: "I am
not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men."
Falstaff promises to outfit the page in "vile apparel" (ragged
clothing). He then complains of his insolvency, blaming it on
"consumption of the purse." They go off, Falstaff vowing to find a
wife "in the stews" (i.e., the local brothels).

The Lord Chief Justice enters, looking for Falstaff. Falstaff at first
feigns deafness in order to avoid conversing with him, and when this
tactic fails pretends to mistake him for someone else. As the Chief
Justice attempts to question Falstaff about a recent robbery, Falstaff
insists on turning the subject of the conversation to the nature of
the illness afflicting the King. He then adopts the pretense of being
a much younger man than the Chief Justice: "You that are old consider
not the capacities of us that are young." Finally, he asks the Chief
Justice for one thousand pounds to help outfit a military expedition,
but is denied.


He has a relationship with Doll Tearsheet, a prostitute, who gets into
a fight with Ancient Pistol, Falstaff's ensign. After Falstaff ejects
Pistol, Doll asks him about the Prince. Falstaff is embarrassed when
his derogatory remarks are overheard by Hal, who is present disguised
as a musician. Falstaff tries to talk his way out of it, but Hal is
unconvinced. When news of a second rebellion arrives, Falstaff joins
the army again, and goes to the country to raise forces. There he
encounters an old school friend, Justice Shallow, and they reminisce
about their youthful follies. Shallow brings forward potential
recruits for the loyalist army: Mouldy, Bullcalf, Feeble, Shadow and
Wart, a motley collection of rustic yokels. Falstaff and his cronies
accept bribes from two of them, Mouldy and Bullcalf, not to be
conscripted.

In the other storyline, Hal remains an acquaintance of London lowlife
and seems unsuited to kingship. His father, King Henry IV is again
disappointed in the young prince because of that, despite reassurances
from the court. Another rebellion is launched against Henry IV, but
this time it is defeated, not by a battle, but by the duplicitous
political machinations of Hal's brother, Prince John. King Henry then
sickens and appears to die. Hal, seeing this, believes he is King and
exits with the crown. King Henry, awakening, is devastated, thinking
Hal cares only about becoming King. Hal convinces him otherwise and
the old king subsequently dies contentedly, shortly after imparting to
his son his final advice: to neutralize internal threats by waging war
abroad ("Be it thy course to busy giddy minds / With foreign
quarrels").

The two story-lines meet in the final scene, in which Falstaff, having
learned from Pistol that Hal is now King, travels to London in
expectation of great rewards. But Hal rejects him, saying that he has
now changed, and can no longer associate with such people. The London
lowlifes, expecting a paradise of thieves under Hal's governance, are
instead purged and imprisoned by the authorities.


Epilogue
==========
At the end of the play, an epilogue thanks the audience and promises
that the story will continue in a forthcoming play "with Sir John in
it, and make you merry with fair Katharine of France; where, for all I
know, Falstaff shall die of a sweat". Although Falstaff does "die of a
sweat" in the subsequent play, 'Henry V', it is in London at the
beginning of the play. His death is offstage, described by another
character and he never appears on stage. 'The Merry Wives of Windsor'
does have "Sir John in it", but cannot be the play referred to, since
the passage clearly describes the forthcoming story of Henry V and his
wooing of Katherine of France in 'Henry V'. Falstaff's role as a
cowardly soldier looking out for himself is taken by Ancient Pistol,
his braggart sidekick in 'Henry IV, Part 2' and 'Merry Wives'.

The epilogue also assures the playgoer that Falstaff is not based on
the anti-Catholic rebel Sir John Oldcastle, for "Oldcastle died
martyr, and this is not the man". Falstaff had originally been named
Oldcastle, following Shakespeare's main model, an earlier play 'The
Famous Victories of Henry V'. Shakespeare was forced to change the
name after complaints from Oldcastle's descendants. While it is
accepted by modern critics that the name was originally Oldcastle in
Part 1, it is disputed whether or not Part 2 initially retained the
name, or whether it was always "Falstaff". According to René Weis,
metrical analyses of the verse passages containing Falstaff's name
have been inconclusive.


                              Sources
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Shakespeare's primary source for 'Henry IV, Part 2', as for most of
his chronicle histories, was Raphael Holinshed's 'Chronicles'; the
publication of the second edition in 1587 provides a 'terminus a quo'
for the play. Edward Hall's 'The Union of the Two Illustrious Families
of Lancaster and York' appears also to have been consulted, and
scholars have also supposed Shakespeare to have been familiar with
Samuel Daniel's poem on the civil wars.


                           Date and text
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'Henry IV, Part 2' is believed to have been written sometime between
1596 and 1599. It is possible that Shakespeare interrupted his
composition of 'Henry IV, Part 2' somewhere around Act 3-4, so as to
concentrate on writing 'The Merry Wives of Windsor', which may have
been commissioned for an annual meeting of the Order of the Garter,
possibly the one held on 23 April 1597.

The play was entered into the Register of the Stationers' Company on
23 August 1600 by the booksellers Andrew Wise and William Aspley. The
play was published in quarto the same year (printing by Valentine
Simmes). Less popular than 'Henry IV, Part 1', this was the only
quarto edition. The play next saw print in the First Folio in 1623.

The quarto's title page states that the play had been "sundry times
publicly acted" before publication. Extant records suggest that both
parts of 'Henry IV' were acted at Court in 1612--the records rather
cryptically refer to the plays as 'Sir John Falstaff' and 'Hotspur'. A
defective record, apparently to the 'Second part of Falstaff', may
indicate a Court performance in 1619.

The earliest extant manuscript text of scenes from 'Henry IV, Part 2'
can be found in the Dering Manuscript (Folger MS V.b.34), a theatrical
abridgment of both parts of 'Henry IV' prepared around 1623.


                       Criticism and analysis
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'Part 2' is generally seen as a less successful play than 'Part 1'.
Its structure, in which Falstaff and Hal barely meet, can be
criticised as undramatic. Some critics believe that Shakespeare never
intended to write a sequel, and that he was hampered by a lack of
remaining historical material with the result that the comic scenes
come across as mere "filler". However, the scenes involving Falstaff
and Justice Shallow are admired for their touching elegiac comedy, and
the scene of Falstaff's rejection can be extremely powerful onstage.

The critic Harold Bloom has suggested the two parts of 'Henry IV'
along with the Hostess' elegy for Sir John in 'Henry V' may be
Shakespeare's greatest achievement.


                            Adaptations
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There have been three BBC television films of 'Henry IV, Part 2'. In
the 1960 mini-series 'An Age of Kings', Tom Fleming starred as Henry
IV, with Robert Hardy as Prince Hal and Frank Pettingell as Falstaff.
The 1979 BBC Television Shakespeare version starred Jon Finch as Henry
IV, David Gwillim as Prince Hal and Anthony Quayle as Falstaff. In the
2012 series 'The Hollow Crown', 'Henry IV, Part I and Part II' were
directed by Richard Eyre and starred Jeremy Irons as Henry IV, Tom
Hiddleston as Prince Hal and Simon Russell Beale as Falstaff.

Orson Welles' 'Chimes at Midnight' (1965) compiles the two 'Henry IV'
plays into a single, condensed storyline, while adding a handful of
scenes from 'Henry V' and dialogue from 'Richard II' and 'The Merry
Wives of Windsor'. The film stars Welles himself as Falstaff, John
Gielgud as King Henry, Keith Baxter as Hal, Margaret Rutherford as
Mistress Quickly and Norman Rodway as Hotspur.

BBC Television's 1995 'Henry IV' also combines the two Parts into one
adaptation. Ronald Pickup played the King, David Calder Falstaff, and
Jonathan Firth Hal.

Gus Van Sant's 1991 film 'My Own Private Idaho' is loosely based on
both parts of 'Henry IV'.

The one-man hip-hop musical 'Clay' is loosely based on 'Henry IV'.

In 2015, the Michigan Shakespeare Festival produced an award-winning
combined production, directed and adapted by Janice L. Blixt of the
two plays, focusing on the relationship between Henry IV and Prince
Hal.

In spring 2024, Robert Icke adapted and directed the play (along with
'Henry IV, Part' 'I') into a new version called 'Player Kings' which
starred Ian McKellen as John Falstaff, Toheeb Jimoh as Hal and Richard
Coyle as King Henry IV. The production ran at the Noël Coward Theatre,
in London's West End before going on a UK tour.


                            Pop culture
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The Ultimate Edition of 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' features
subtitles correlating scenes in the film to lines from the play.

The king's opening soliloquy of Act III, scene 1 concludes with the
line, "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown", which is frequently
quoted (and misquoted, as "Heavy is the head that wears the crown").
It appears in the opening frame of the movie 'The Queen'..

It also appears in the movie 'The Departed' where Jack Nicholson's
character references the misquoted version, saying "Heavy lies the
crown...sort of thing."

In 'Spider-Man: Far From Home', Nick Fury quotes 'Henry IV, Part 2'
while handing Peter Parker the glasses the late Tony Stark wanted him
to have. "Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. Stark said you
wouldn't get that cause it's not a 'Star Wars' reference." It
reinforces the film's theme of Peter feeling like he's standing in the
shadow of Tony Stark's legacy and feeling unable to live up to it.


                              See also
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* 'Chimes at Midnight'
* List of William Shakespeare screen adaptations § 'Henry IV, Part 2'
* The Dering Manuscript


                           External links
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*
* [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1518 'Henry the Fourth part 2'] at
Project Gutenberg.
*
* [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2233394/ IMDb] page


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