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Inside Shakespeare’s mind:
Henry IV - Part 2
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‘I do commit into your hand The
unstained sword that you have used to bear’ - Act. V, Sce.II
King Henry V - Part-II |
Part-1 of King Henry IV ends when Part-2 begins with the king in full
control of his throne with his enemies being dismissed or executed.
Though Shakespeare meddled up with 23 years deficit in history during
this reign, with inaccurate historical mess-up, he is abiding closer to
history in Part-2 where King Henry IV dies in 1413. Shakespeare presents
the King as urging his son into action without the waste of memory of
the former days that was bitter experience for him.
Written in the year of 1598 and sited around England, the play is all
about high profile characters that makes up his court and the rest. The
Earl of Northumberland in his castle, learns after previous false
messages that finally Hotspur has been killed and the royal troops
commanded by Prince John of Lancaster and the Earl of Westmoreland are
advancing on him.
BETRAYAL
Elsewhere in London, the Lord Chief Justice warns Falstaff about his
behaviour and reminds him that he is to join Prince John's forces. While
at the Boar's Head Tavern, Falstaff requests for some money from Hostess
quickly. He is presently having supper with Doll Tearsheet, a whore, and
speaks badly of Prince Hal and of Points who are present disguised as
postmen and overhear all the bad remarks.
The King is told about Owen Glendower's death and Falstaff recruiting
in the Coswolds, meets an old friend, Justice Robert Shallow and another
justice, Silence:
Warwick - ... Shall bring this prize very easily, to comfort you more
I have received.
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Credits
* Henry IV - Henry IV can be darkly impressive midway because there
is such leap in his mind. But the king is not strong in character and
fails at times.
* Henry, Prince of Wales - His son, is of graver figure finding
maturity after one relapse on to another. Ambitious and impatient but
wise for his age.
* Prince John of Lancaster - The unlikable prince. Shakespeare need
not have introduced him to the play. A dull character.
* Lord Chief Justice - He is coping with Falstaff early in the play
and becomes the young king's adviser. Upholds dignity and justice.
* Sir John Falstaff - Quieter than in Part-1 but still very
sovereign. Plays straight.
* Bardolph - Presently with Falstaff in the wars and in
Gloucestershire. Yet, again Shakespeare is as careless as ever with
names. The cast includes an inconsiderable Lord Bardolph.
* Pistol - A swaggering rascal whose Marlovian histrionics are in the
Tamburlaine manner.
* Robert Shallow - The husky man who recalls his Cotswold orchard,
the care-free days he knew when he was young.
* Shallow lives for ever in our - first sight of him and in that warm
silver night-piece with silence jetting into song and Falstaff sitting
by, contemplative
* Silence - The other Gloucestershire who is more or less
unquenchable song throughout the orchestral scene.
* Feeble - The woman tailor chosen as a recruit in the first Cotswold
scene.
* Lady Percy - Her single scene used regularly to be cut is a sad
loss for the widowed Kate.
* Hostess Quickly - Talkative to the bitter end.
* Doll Tearshed - The boisterous whore from the Boar's Head Tavern
* Rumour - The Prologue or Presenter
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A certain instance that Glendower is dead, your Majesty hath been
this fortnight ill and these unseason'd hours, perforce, must add Unto
your sickness.
K Henry – I will take your counsel, And were these inward wars once
out of hand.
We would dear lords, unto the Holy Land....
- Act. III, Sce. I.
BELIEF
Without Northumberland, the northern rebels are tricked into
surrendering to Prince John's army. At Westminister the king falls ill.
When Hal finds him asleep and believing him to be dead, he takes the
crown from the pillow. Later, deeply moved Hal is rebuked by the king
when he awakes. However, they are reconciled later:
King Henry – Thou has stol'n that which after few hours, were thine
without offence; and at my death.
Thou hast seal'd up my expectations. Thy life did manifest thou lov'd
me not. And thou will have me die assur'd of it. Thou hid'st a thousand
daggers in thy thoughts.......
- Act. IV, SC IV
Falstaff who is returning to meet Shallow in Gloucestershire learns
from Pistol that the King is dead and Hal has succeeded him. Falstaff
imagining his good fortune is about to start, sets off to London with
his followers and shallow. When he calls on the new King Henry (Hal) who
is coming from coronation, he is rejected and sent to Fleet Prison along
with his party.
Henry-Part 2 is relatively autumnal and drags on behind Part-1 with
Falstaff made less active but it is the sixth longest of the play with
twice as many characters than the previous play. As King Henry V, Hal
builds up on his character despite his youth. Presently, the northern
rebellion is now a sour interlude without Hotspur.
IN PERFORMANCE
The play was not mounted between the pre-civil war and warmly in the
18th century but Drury Lane made one attempt during this time which
flopped. It was not even at a striking distance of Part-1. John Phillip
played the King at Covent Garden in 1804 and a revival in 1821 that
mocked George VI's coronation. Macready was a superb Falstaff in Part-2
with his hypnotic grandeur and Phelps at Salder's Wells contrived to
double the King and Hotspur on various occasion in 1853.
Frank Benson who was very passionate about Part-2, mounted it at
Stratford. The play was at the Birmingham Repertory for nine years until
Shakespeare's birthday. He put both parts consecutively as did
Bridges-Adamms in 1932.
This was at the opening of the present theatre at
Strafford-upon-Avon. It was a stunning production with Roy Byford as
Falstaff and Randall Ayerton as the King beneath the throne's crimson
canopy.
Old Vic and Stratford re-mounted them later in 1945 with Ralf
Richardson as Falstaff and Laurence Olivier as Shallow. Yet, again in
1964, a production by Peter Hall had John and Clifford Williams as
Falstaff and King.
Outside England, Orson Wells's Chimes at Midnight with Falstaff as
the central character in 1966 in the USA. It was an inadequate version
with the symphonic study composed by Elgar, titled FALSTAFF in 1913. |
