PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

The transactions comprized in this history take up about nine years. The action commences with the account of Hotspur's being defeated and killed [1403]; and closes with the death of King Henry IV. and the coronation of King Henry V. [1412–13.] Theobald.

This play was entered at Stationers' Hall, August 23, 1600. Steevens.

The Second Part of King Henry IV. I suppose to have been written in 1598. See An Attempt to ascertain the Order of Shakspeare's Plays, vol. ii. Malone.

Mr. Upton thinks these two plays improperly called The First and Second Parts of Henry the Fourth. The first play ends, he says, with the peaceful settlement of Henry in the kingdom by the defeat of the rebels. This is hardly true; for the rebels are not yet finally suppressed. The second, he tells us, shows Henry the Fifth in the various lights of a good-natured rake, till, on his father's death, he assumes a more manly character. This is true; but this representation gives us no idea of a dramatick action. These two plays will appear to every reader, who shall peruse them without ambition of critical discoveries, to be so connected, that the second is merely a sequel to the first; to be two only because they are too long to be one. Johnson.

Of this play there are two quartos, in Mr. Malone's Collection, both printed in the same year, 1600; but it is doubtful whether they are different editions, or only the one a corrected impression of the other, from some omissions having passed in the first. See them more particularly described in the list of quartos, vol. ii.

Mr. Steevens in a subsequent note, speaks of a third, but I have never seen it. I have referred to that which Mr. Malone supposed to be the first by the letter A. to the other, by letter B. Boswell.

PERSONS REPRESENTED. King Henry the Fourth: Henry, Prince of Wales, afterwards King Henry V; Son of King Henry the Fourth Thomas, Duke of Clarence; Son of King Henry the Fourth Prince John of Lancaster^{1 note}, afterwards (2 Henry V.) Duke of Bedford; Son of King Henry the Fourth Prince Humphrey of Gloster [Prince Humphrey of Gloucester], afterwards (2 Henry V.) Duke of Gloster [Prince Humphrey of Gloucester]; Son of King Henry the Fourth Earl of Warwick; of the King's Party. Earl of Westmoreland; of the King's Party. Gower; of the King's Party. Harcourt; of the King's Party. Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench. A Gentleman attending on the Chief Justice [Attendant]. Earl of Northumberland; Enemy to the King. Scroop; Archbishop of York; Enemy to the King. Lord Mowbray; Enemy to the King. Lord Hastings; Enemy to the King. Lord Bardolph; Enemy to the King. Sir John Colevile [Sir John Colville]; Enemy to the King. Travers, Domestick of Northumberland. Morton, Domestick of Northumberland. Falstaff [Sir John Falstaff] Baradlph [Bardolph] Pistol Page Poins, Attendant on Prince Henry. Peto, Attendant on Prince Henry. Shallow, Country Justice. Silence, Country Justice. Davy, Servant to Shallow. Mouldy, Recruit. Shallow, Recruit. Wart, Recruit. Feeble, Recruit. Bullcalf, Recruit. Fang, Sheriff's Officer. Snare, Sheriff's Officer. Rumour. A Porter. A Dancer, Speaker of the Epilogue. Lady Northumberland. Lady Percy. Hostess Quickly [Mrs. Quickly]. Doll Tear-sheet [Doll Tearsheet]. Lords and other Attendants; Officers, Soldiers, Messenger, Drawers, Beadles, Grooms, &c. [Messenger], [Groom 1], [Groom 2], [Beadle], [Drawer 1], [Drawer 2] SCENE, England.

SECOND PART OF KING HENRY IV.

INDUCTION. Warkworth. Before Northumberland's Castle. Enter Rumour^{2 note}, painted full of Tongues^{3 note}

Rum.
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^{4 note}

,
Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold
The acts commenced on this ball of earth:
Upon my tongues continual slanders ride;
The which in every language I pronounce,
Stuffing the ears of men 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 prepar'd defence;
Whilst the big year, swoln with some other grief,
Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,
And no such matter? Rumour is a pipe^{5 note}

And of so easy and so plain a stop^{6 note},
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 Hostpur, 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
Stoop'd his anointed head as low as death.
This have I rumour'd through the peasant towns
Between that royal field of Shrewsbury
And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone^{7 note}

And not a man of them brings other news
Than they have learn'd of me; From Rumour's tongues
They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true wrongs. [Exit.

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