quotes, notes, timelines & more

Home » Shakespeare's Works » Henry IV Pt 2

Henry IV Pt 2

Written: c. 1597-98; Texts: Quarto 1600, First Folio 1623 (History)
Source: Holinshed, Raphael (c. 1528-c. 1580). The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland. (2nd ed., 1587); The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth (c. 1586); Hall, Edward (1498-1547). The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancaster and York (3rd. ed., 1550); Daniel, Samuel (c.1562-1619). The Civil Wars between the Two Houses of Lancaster and York (1595-1609); William Baldwin ed. The Mirror for Magistrates (1559 ed.)
Characters: Henry IV, Prince Henry, Sir John Falstaff, Richard Scroop Archbishop of York, Earl of Westmorland, Prince John of Lancaster, Henry Percy Earl of Northumberland, Lord Chief Justice, Lord Bardoph, Shallow, Morton, Earl of Warwick, Pistol
Setting: London
Time: AD 1403-1413

Henry IV Part 2 is the second play in what scholars refer to as the Henriad, an allusion to Virgil's Aeneid. The Henriad, Shakespeare's epic account of King Henry V, includes Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2, and Henry V. Those three plays combined with their prequel, Richard II, comprise what is now known as the Second Tetralogy, written between 1597 and 1598. The First Tetralogy, written earlier between 1591 and 1595, comprises Henry VI Part 1Henry VI Part 2, Henry VI Part 3, and Richard III.

Open your ears

Read the Quote

 Enter Rumor, painted full of tongues.
Rumor 
Open your ears, for which of you will stop
The vent of hearing when loud Rumor 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.

Rumor is a pipe
Blown by surmises,
… continue reading this quote

Act 1
Scene 1
Line Induction

Source Type:

Spoken by:

Look, here comes more news

Read the Quote

Lord Bardolph
Look, here comes more news.
Northumberland 
Yea, this man’s brow, like to a title leaf,
Foretells the nature of a tragic volume.
So looks the strand whereon the imperious flood
Hath left a witnessed usurpation.—
Say, Morton, didst thou come from Shrewsbury?

Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a losing office,
… continue reading this quote

Act 1
Scene 1
Line 69

Source Type:

Spoken by:
, ,

I cannot think, my lord, your son is dead.

Read the Quote

Lord Bardolph
I cannot think, my lord, your son is dead.
Morton, to Northumberland
I am sorry I should force you to believe
That which I would to God I had not seen,
But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state,
Rend’ring faint quittance, wearied and outbreathed,
To Harry Monmouth,
… continue reading this quote

Act 1
Scene 1
Line 118

Source Type:

Spoken by:
, ,

Now bind my brows with iron

Read the Quote

Northumberland
Now bind my brows with iron, and approach
The ragged’st hour that time and spite dare bring
To frown upon th’ 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;
… continue reading this quote

Act 1
Scene 1
Line 166

Source Type:

Spoken by:
, ,

Themes:
, , ,

Men of all sorts take a pride to gird at me

Read the Quote

Falstaff
Men of all sorts take a pride to gird at me.
The brain of this foolish-compounded clay, man, is
not able to invent anything that intends to laughter
more than I invent, or is invented on me. I am not
only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in
other men. I do here walk before thee like a sow
that hath overwhelmed all her litter but one.
… continue reading this quote

Act 1
Scene 2
Line 6

Source Type:

Spoken by:
,

Well, the truth is, Sir John, you live in great infamy

Read the Quote

Chief Justice
Well, the truth is, Sir John, you live in
great infamy.
Falstaff
He that buckles himself in my belt cannot
live in less.
Chief Justice
Your means are very slender, and your
waste is great.

But since all is well, keep it so.
Wake not a sleeping wolf.
… continue reading this quote

Act 1
Scene 2
Line 139

Source Type:

Spoken by:
,

Well, the King hath severed you and Prince Harry

Read the Quote

Chief Justice
Well, the King hath severed you and
Prince Harry. I hear you are going with Lord John
of Lancaster against the Archbishop and the Earl of
Northumberland.

But it was always yet the trick of our
English nation, if they have a good
thing, to make it too common.

Falstaff
Yea,
… continue reading this quote

Act 1
Scene 2
Line 207

Spoken by:
,

The question, then, Lord Hastings, standeth thus

Read the Quote

Lord Bardolph
The question, then, Lord Hastings, standeth thus:
Whether our present five-and-twenty thousand
May hold up head without Northumberland.
Lord Hastings
With him we may.
Lord Bardolph
Yea, marry, there’s the point.
But if without him we be thought too feeble,
My judgment is we should not step too far
Till we had his assistance by the hand.
… continue reading this quote

Act 1
Scene 3
Line 16

Source Type:

Spoken by:
, ,

Let us on, And publish the occasion of our arm

Read the Quote

Let us on,
And publish the occasion of our arms.
The commonwealth is sick of their own choice.
Their over-greedy love hath surfeited.
An habitation giddy and unsure
Hath he that buildeth on the vulgar heart.

O thou fond many, with what loud applause
Didst thou beat heaven with blessing Bolingbroke
Before he was what thou wouldst have him be.
… continue reading this quote

Act 1
Scene 3
Line 89

Source Type:

Spoken by:

What is the gross sum that I owe thee?

Read the Quote

Falstaff
What is the gross sum that I owe thee?
Hostess
Marry, if thou wert an honest man, thyself
and the money too. Thou didst swear to me upon a
parcel-gilt goblet, sitting in my Dolphin chamber at
the round table by a sea-coal fire, upon Wednesday
in Wheeson week, when the Prince broke thy head
for liking his father to a singing-man of Windsor,
… continue reading this quote

Act 2
Scene 1
Line 87

Source Type:

Spoken by:
, ,

Themes:
,