1 ^note.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ Rumour, the Presenter. King Henry the Fourth. Henry, Prince of Wales, afterwards King Henry V., his son. Thomas, Duke of Clarence, his son. Prince John of Lancaster, his son. Prince Humphrey of Gloucester, his son. Earl of Warwick. Earl of Westmoreland. Earl of Surrey. Gower. Harcourt. Blunt. Lord Chief-Justice of the King's Bench [Lord Chief Justice]. A Servant of the Chief-Justice [Servant]. Earl of Northumberland. Scroop, Archbishop of York. Lord Mowbray. Lord Hastings. Lord Bardolph. Sir John Colville. Travers, retainer of Northumberland. Morton, retainer of Northumberland. Sir John Falstaff. His Page [Page]. Bardolph. Pistol. Poins. Peto. Shallow, country justice. Silence, country justice. Davy, Servant to Shallow. Mouldy, recruit. Shadow, recruit. Wart, recruit. Feeble, recruit. Bullcalf, recruit. Fang, sheriff's officer. Snare, sheriff's officer. Lady Northumberland. Lady Percy. Mistress Quickly, hostess of a tavern in Eastcheap [Mrs. Quickly]. Doll Tearsheet. Lords and Attendants; Porter^{2 note}, Drawers, Beadles, Grooms, &c. [Servant], [Drawer 1], [Drawer 2], [Messenger], [Beadle 1], [Groom 1], [Groom 2] A Dancer, speaker of the epilogue. Scene: England.

THE SECOND PART OF KING HENRY IV. ^note

INDUCTION. [Footnote: Warkworth. Before the castle. ^note Enter Rumour, painted full of tongues. ^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,
Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold
The acts commenced on this ball of earth:
Upon my tongues ^note continual slanders ride,
The which in every language I pronounce,
Stuffing the ears of men ^note 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 prepared defence,
Whiles ^note the big year ^note, swoln with some other grief ^note,
Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,
And no such matter? Rumour is a pipe

Blown by surmises ^note, jealousies, conjectures,
And of so easy and so plain a stop
That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
The still-discordant wavering ^note multitude,
Can play upon it. But what need I thus
My well-known body to anatomize ^note
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 Hotspur and his troops,
Quenching the flame of bold rebellion
Even with the rebels' blood. But what mean I
To speak so true ^note 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 ^note
Between that ^note royal field of Shrewsbury
And this worm-eaten hold ^note of ragged stone,
Where ^note Hotspur's father, old Northumberland,
Lies crafty-sick ^note: the posts come tiring on,
And not a man of them brings other news
Than they have learn'd of me: ^note from Rumour's tongues
They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true wrongs. [Exit. ^note

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