Air date: 2012-07-14 23:00:00

The Hollow Crown Henry IV – Part 2

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TV Show The Hollow Crown – Henry IV – Part 2

Date: Saturday, Jul 14, 2012
Air time: 04:00 PM
TV Network: BBC Two

Watch The Hollow Crown Henry IV – Part 2 S1E3 on tv. Will be shown on BBC Two at Friday, June 29, 2012 05:00 PM. You must see this tv episode. Starring Ben Whishaw, Jeremy Irons, Tom Hiddleston. Only 120 is running time of this tv serie. The Hollow Crown brings together four filmed adaptations of Shakespeare’s History Plays – Richard II, Henry IV parts 1 and 2, and Henry V. Starting in the year 1399, this continuous story of monarchy follows events during sixteen years of dynastic and political power play. Kings, with their families and followers, are threatened by rebellion and conflict.

The story takes us from the Royal Court at Westminster to battlefields in England and France. These rich films are woven with the finest of Shakespeare’s poetry and are filmed in the architecture and landscape of the period. Okay guys, don’t miss this Drama tv show, because it will be very good and full of interesting entertainment.

If you like , don’t miss this episode.

Source:
http://emaxalive.com/tv-show/the-hollow-crown/stream-online-the-hollow-crown-episode-henry-iv-part-2-14-jul-2012.html

Tags: The Hollow Crown, Henry IV – Part 2, streaming, streaming The Hollow Crown, live The Hollow Crown Henry IV – Part 2

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If you like Shakespeare, as I do, then now is as good a time as any to check out BBC’s series The Hollow Crown, which is in the middle of its 4 play series. The series adapts the plays Richard II, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V. Richard II and Henry IV Part 1 have aired already, and they are brilliant.

Richard II Review: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9365813/The-Hollow-Crown-Richard-II-BBC-Two-review.html

Henry IV P1 Review: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9382635/The-Hollow-Crown-Henry-IV-Part-1-BBC-Two-review.html

As someone who loves Shakespeare and who spent last summer watching 9 Shakespeare plays in London and Stratford-Upon-Avon (home of the Royal Shakespeare Company), this series has made my summer a lot more enjoyable in terms of entertainment. The filmography and acting are superb. Richard II has amazing scenery, and Henry IV Part I boasts some amazing acting.

And we still have Henry IV P2 and Henry V to go! And I’m sure they’ll be equally as fantastic.

Drinking Customs.

Shakespeare has given several allusions to the old customs associated with drinking, which have always varied in different countries. At the present day many of the drinking customs still observed are very curious, especially those kept up at the universities and inns-of-court. Alms-drink was a phrase in use, says Warburton, among good fellows, to signify that liquor of another’s share which his companion drank to ease him. So, in “Antony and Cleopatra” (ii. 7) one of the servants says of Lepidus: “They have made him drink alms-drink.”

By-drinkings.This was a phrase for drinkings between meals, and is used by the Hostess in “1 Henry IV.” (iii. 3), who says to Falstaff: “You owe money here besides, Sir John, for your diet, and by-drinkings.”

Hooped Pots.In olden times drinking-pots were made with hoops, so that, when two or more drank from the same tankard, no one should drink more than his share. There were generally three hoops to the pots: hence, in “2 Henry VI.” (iv. 2), Cade says: “The three-hooped pot shall have ten hoops.” In Nash’s “Pierce Pennilesse” we read: “I believe hoopes on quart pots were invented that every man should take his hoope, and no more.” The phrases “to do a man right” and “to do him reason” were, in years gone by, the common expressions in pledging healths; he who drank a bumper expected that a bumper should be drunk to his toast. To this practice alludes the scrap of a song which Silence sings in “2 Henry IV.” (v. 3): “Do me right, And dub me knight: Samingo.” He who drank, too, a bumper on his knee to the health of his mistress was dubbed a knight for the evening. The word Samingo is either a corruption of, or an intended blunder for, San Domingo, but why this saint should be the patron of topers is uncertain.

Rouse.According to Gifford, [972] a rouse was a large glass in which a health was given, the drinking of which, by the rest of the company, formed a carouse. Hamlet (i. 4) says: “The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse.” The word occurs again in the following act (1), where Polonius uses the phrase “o’ertook in’s rouse;” and in the sense of a bumper, or glass of liquor, in “Othello” (ii. 3), “they have given me a rouse already.”

Sheer Ale. This term, which is used in the “Taming of the Shrew” (Induction, sc. 2), by Sly—“Ask Marian Hacket, the fat ale-wife of Wincot, if she know me not: if she say I am not fourteen pence on the score for sheer ale”—according to some expositors, means “ale alone, nothing but ale,” rather than “unmixed ale.”

Sneak-cup. This phrase, which is used by Falstaff in “1 Henry IV.” (iii. 3)—“the prince is a Jack, a sneak-cup”—was used to denote one who balked his glass.

From Thomas Firminger Thiselton-Dyer’s indispensable volume Folk-lore of Shakespeare.

Over the weekend, clutchers of pearls everywhere reacted to a sound bite from the publicist of the new Romeo and Juliet movie. Said publicist foretold that the upcoming adaptation would be the first Romeo and Juliet specifically tailored to “the Twilight generation,” and — more appallingly — that while the dialogue would retain “Shakespeare’s flavor,” it would be spoken in “understandable iambic pentameter.”

Cue the outrage.

First, I’ve seen great performances of Shakespeare and I’ve seen awful ones, and one thing is clear: a good actor can make every single line of Shakespeare comprehensible. A bad one might occasionally get lucky, but for the most part unless you’ve read or studied the play ahead of time, you’ll need subtitles.  So whenever someone promises to “modernize” Shakespearean English, it says to me that the writer has little faith in his or her actors. Which is disappointing for a number of reasons, but mostly because if Baz Luhrmann could expect a then 21 year old Leonardo DiCaprio and a 16 year old Claire Danes to handle the full force of the pentameter, despite modernizing everything else about the story, surely we can expect a 16 year old Oscar-nominated Hailey Steinfeld to do the same in a period-specific film.

So I think we’ve covered this.

But naturally it’s the word Twilight that has purists and cynics throwing up their arms in frustration and irritation, so let’s focus on the big sparkly elephant in the room. Twilight has been such a ridiculous cash cow that any movie for the next ten years involving two young lovers will be marketed as “_____ for the Twilight generation.” People have got to disabuse themselves of the notion that Hollywood has any obligation to produce art or quality. Hollywood is a business and businesses like to make money. If art happens along the way, it’s a bonus.

Take The Hunger Games, for instance: there were rumors that the script was specifically retooled to focus more strongly on the love triangle between Katniss, Peeta and Gale so that it would appeal to Twi-hards. Yet when the movie actually premiered, the relationship aspect of things wasn’t all that much stronger than it was in the books. In short, it was a clear marketing strategy. And honestly, that’s probably the case here as well.

Whether or not the glaze of Stephanie Meyer has actually been applied to this project or not, it’s only natural that the publicist — and again, keep in mind that this was said by a publicist and not anyone actually responsible for the making of the film itself — would want to capitalize on what has unfortunately been one of the biggest pop cultural phenomenons of the 21st century so far.

But what the comparison really seeks to achieve is justification for yet another Romeo and Juliet movie, as the Zeffirelli did a great job appealing to purists by remaining period-specific while Luhrmann’s adaptation handled the update market so that both or either can be shown in classrooms year after year by bored English teachers. But even if the threats of Twilight and modernized Shakespeare weren’t looming on the horizon, the simple fact is that another movie about the world’s most famous newly-wed teenagers isn’t necessary. Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing, or the TV movie starring Tom Hiddleston as Prince Hal/Henry V, are far more worthy of our time and attention. So let’s stop worrying about the potential bastardization of Shakespeare’s most over-hyped play and get ready to enjoy some great actors doing better work in better plays instead. Deal?

Deal.

TUESDAY 11th OCTOBER 2011

After spending a few hours on Sunday with my laptop firmly fixed to me, deliberating how to put into words a modern-day version of one of Shakespeare’s plays, battling a severe case of Writer’s Block and eventually having to admit defeat and pack up, I have returned to the challenge this afternoon and, thankfully, found words flowed much more freely today. I decided upon:

* Prince Hal is living a wild life with a group of criminal friends, although his destiny – he’ll soon be King – is never far from his thoughts (Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2)

My modern-day version is based on eighteen year old Cal from a council estate, who is living the wild life although his destiny is in the police force and is never far from his thoughts:

Cal takes a long drag on the bedraggled communal spliff that has been handed to him by Rhys. The laid back hip hop beat pumping from the IPod speakers in the background also melting into his brain, the recipe allowing his thoughts to drift freely and unedited at the forefront of his mind.

It’s five am and Cal is leaning against Rhys’s living room wall, bobbing his head up and down to the music; as if he is nodding in agreement with what his brain his projecting.  All around him are strewn limbs belonging to owners who have long since passed out from the cocktail of booze and drugs.

Rhys is striking up a deal with a fellow party goer, pushing his illicit drug ways on him, hooking and reeling in yet another punter; another addict. Cal shakes his head to himself, another unsuspecting victim to the vicious drug circuit. His mind drifting to thoughts of Rhys, and how he subsides his nice little business with an income from the occasional newsagents and off licenses robbery.

Cal’s’ eighteen year residence in the Turnhill Estate has him stereotyped as born, bred and destined for a life of crime and drugs. However true this may have proven so far for Cal, he was managing to turn it around. He would still be living a life of crime and drugs; only now he would be preventing and detecting it.

Tonight was his covert last send off. He had been successful; the letter had come through from the Turnhill County Police Force announcing his start date in a couple of weeks’ time. Cal had ensured he was careful, managing to jump through hoops in order to be clean for all the drugs tests.

Tonight was his last one. He inhaled it slowly, savoring the lightheadedness and relaxing sensation pulsing through his veins.

He had managed to keep himself out of trouble all these years, his typical teen wild partying ways his only crime. He had made a promise; ever since his father had died from the gang related violence that he would get out of the estate. He wanted to make a difference, make something of his life. He thought about his poor mother, who had been left to struggle with him and his even wilder younger brother Timmy. He knew that he was going to lose friends along the way, an inevitable sacrifice of the job. He had once promised Rhys the good life that he would turn a blind eye as long as he attempted to tame it down, try and help himself to wean of his criminal ways.

Now, leaning his head against the cool fabric of the walls, his mind swimming with euphoric thoughts, paranoia niggling somewhere, he wasn’t so sure. Watching Rhys force innocent, vulnerable young people destroy their lives, he was starting to regret confiding in him. Of course he wanted to help him out and protect him, but deep down, he knew this may not be possible.

HOW THIS COUD BE PROGRESSED

From another snippet given to me last week:

Falstaff, an aging wastrel, expects to live the good life when Prince Hal becomes King; but when Hal does become King, he rejects Falstaff. (Henry IV, Part 2)

I am thinking that Rhys will want protection given to him by Cal, a blind eye turned to his criminal ways. Although Cal will have a tug of war in his head, he will know his job is to arrest Rhys when he becomes involved in one of his cases, rejecting him.

I will take this idea to Geek Club tomorrow night and see if my modern-day interpretation is any good….

Love Missuswolf xx

The first one, The Merry Wives of Windsor, screened last night, and the others are as follows:

• Henry IV Part One, Aug. 1.
• Henry IV Part Two, Aug. 18.
• Henry VIII, Sept. 15.

In Central Florida, screenings will be at the Cinemark Orlando Festival Bay and Waterford Stadium 20 in Orlando, Merritt Square 16 in Merritt Island and Rave Avenue 16 in Melbourne. Here’s the link for lots more information.

Tragedies

1. Othello

2. Hamlet

3. Julius Caesar

4. Coriolanus

5. Timon of Athens

Histories

6. Richard II

7. Henry IV, part 1

8. Henry IV, part 2

9. Henry V

Comedies (Romances)

10. As You Like It

11. Much Ado About Nothing

12. A Comedy of Errors

13. Merry Wives of Windsor

14. Love’s Labours Lost

15. All’s Well That Ends Well

Reading . . .

Henry VI, part 1 (almost finished)

Pericles, Prince of Tyre (at the beginning of Act 3)

Up next

Romeo and Juliet (following Henry VI, part 1)

Two Noble Kinsmen (following Pericles)

In the near future

Henry VI, part 2 (probably after Romeo and Juliet. I like to take short breaks between the sequels)

Measure for Mearsure (Perhaps after Romeo and Juliet. I may need more time before Henry VI, part 2)

Trolius and Cressida (Sometime after these two)

There’s the update

Darkly,

Vic Kerry

As You Like it. — I didn’t care for it that much.

Othello — Wonderful villian in Iago. Perhaps the best villian in Shakespeare.

Much Ado About Nothing — If I wasn’t so determined to get through this, I would have stopped right here.

Timon of Athens — A surprisingly enjoyable read.

The Merry Wives of Windsor — I enjoyed this one a lot.

Richard II — It was better this time that when I first read it in college.

Henry IV, part 1 — Has more Henry IV than the sequel but took a long time to get anywhere

Henry IV, part 2 — Should have been called Falstaff, with appearances by Henry IV

Hamlet — I still think its overrated but not as much as I once did.

Love’s Labour’s Lost — Better than some of the other comedies.

A Comedy of Errors — Simple but enjoyable.

Currently Reading:

Julius Caesar — Still in Act 2

Coriolanus – Reading Act 3

Up to read:

Henry V

Henry VI, part 1

Romeo and Juliet

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Rock Star

I am guilty of trying to make Shakespeare seem cool.  I use the word ‘trying’ here, though I really do avoid it when giving instructions: “Try to memorize” or, “Try to speak clearly” doesn’t sound as though I am giving my students any direction at all.  ”Do or do not, there is no try.”  But I digress.

I say I try to make Shakespeare seem cool, but the only way to really pull that off is to simply commit to the Bard without apology.  Just love him as he is.  If your students think that’s lame, no worries.  If you don’t care what they think, ‘lame’ can become ‘interesting’, and ‘interesting’ to ‘cool’ is not such a stretch.

In a bit of downtime I came up with a little ditty to put Shakespeare’s plays in order for my students.  Sadly, there is no definitive timeline for his works.  I arranged the rhyme based on performance history rather than the order in which the plays were written as there is slightly less guess-work involved.  Here it is, Bard Rap.  Please feel free to steal it if you think it would be useful:

Gonna tell you bout a boy who knew how to get a rave on,
Born in Stratford… Upon Avon.

He married girl named… Anne Hathaway:
Eight years older in a family way.

She was 26, he was just 18,
But they had to get married if you know what I mean.

They had a baby named Susannah…. that girl was a cutie.
Then twins came along named Hamnet and Judy.

Will was a bard and he knew he had to write
So he left the kids with Anne and the man took flight.

He moved to London to get his start
Where a poet could make a living at his art.

He wrote some words that got some attention,
But a guy named Greene expressed condescension.

Greene wrote a letter that gives us a clue
About the timing of the writing career of you-know-who

Shakes performed where the royalty stays.
He spent most of his time writing 39 plays.

Funny plays and dramas, romance and mystery.
They were listed as comedy, tragedy and history.

Henry VI, parts one and two were history.
Then Two Verona Dudes and Henry VI, Part 3.

Bill spent some time writing now famous poetry.
The plague meant theaters were all closed locally.

He might have used the time to write some more pages
But soon the doors were open to the London stages.

Richard the Third showed a king’s worst sins.
Then The Comedy of Errors was all about twins.

Loves Labors Lost and Titus Andronicus
Made the Bard look just like he was one of us.

Taming of the Shrew came next, it was comedy.
Then Romeo and Juliet: A masterpiece of tragedy.

The next work had a magical theme;
He called this play A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Richard Number Two was followed by King John.
Then The Merchant of Venice turned out to be a con.

Henry IV was another one of Henry’s kinzer.
Then came the silly play, Merry Wives of Windsor.

Another Henry IV (but this one is part two)
Is followed by a play nicknamed Much Ado.

Some land was purchased to build a new space
Nicknamed the Globe.  It was a popular place.

Henry V was followed by Julius Caesar.
Guess what’s next, it’s a theater teaser:

While Shakespeare was writing his poetry and plays
His only son Hamnet saw the last of his days.

Most people think that The bard got sad
Cause he wrote a play that started with a guy’s dead dad.

The play was Hamlet; best play ever penned.
But the worst part is they all die in the end.

In Twelfth Night, Viola dresses like a boy.
And Troilus and Cressida is all about Troy.

All’s Well That Ends Well is a problem play
But it still ends well or that’s what they say.

Then in As You Like It Jacque calls the world “a stage”.
He’s a little bitty crazy and a little bit sage.

Othello was a general with problems of his own
And Measure for Measure was followed by Timon.

King Lear might have been about the bard and his daughters.
The play focused on a family’s troubled waters.

Macbeth was greedy, Pericles was scarred,
But the Prince of Tyre was only partly by the Bard.

Coriolanus seeks political glory.
Antony and Cleopatra is a sad love story.

Cymbeline and Winter’s Tale leave loose ends
But both are stories told about friends.

Cardenio‘s a play we never will see.
It was lost so it won’t be on a marquee.

In The Tempest, Miranda’s dad, Prospero is torn.
And in Henry the 8th Queen Elizabeth is born.

Thirty-nine plays we attribute to the Bard.
But the reason we hold him in high regard

Is his wit, his poetry, his style were unique.
But most of all he transformed the English we speak.

His rival Ben Johnson later thought better
Of the Bard and he wrote one great big letter

That his friends included along with their praise
In the first folio containing 36 plays.

Though Willy went bald and he didn’t have a car,
Back in the Renaissance he was a rock star.

Or maybe it has to do with the subject matter.  The movie essentially covers Henry IV parts 1 and 2, with roughly 70 minutes of the former and 45 minutes of the latter (text from Richard II, Henry V and Merry Wives also appears).  Thus, it has the advantage of presenting what is probably the best STORY in the Shakespearean canon.  I spent the film re-mesmerized by the text — which while extensively abridged is always Shakespearean, excepting some narration taken from Holinshed — and all the oppositions (Hotspur/Monmouth, Falstaff/father, sun/moon, day/night, etc./etc.), and all the tenderness and revolt.

Or its reputation could be based on Orson Welles as Falstaff.  Cinema buffs may know better the legendary progression of Welles’ girth, but the dunderhead can say with assurance that this Orson Welles is even fatter than the one that killed it in Touch of Evil — a movie I wish had a Shakespeare angle to justify a review.  There is something remarkable about this hugely fat Welles subjecting himself to abuse heaped on Falstaff for his weight, for his being over the hill.  But what is really remarkable is the difficulty I think I’ll forever have now picturing Falstaff as anyone except him.  (Welles’ acting, aside from his appearance, is also phenomenal.)

(Welles also directs what felt alternately formally ambitious and sadly under-financed, though I suspect some relationship between the two.  The score was generally one dimensional, until Henry IV’s “heavy is the head” speech, when it was pitch perfect.  The dunderhead is sadly unqualified to critique the technical elements, but will note that it won an award for technique at Cannes.)

There is a great deal to appreciate in this adaptation.  Besides the obvious points just touched, the lines are delivered with a lot of speed, which made it difficult for me, and probably impossible to someone totally unfamiliar with the plays.  But it also sped things up, and demonstrating an admirable unwillingness to compromise.  Also, one has to marvel at the abridgment itself, and the success it has in telling the complete story — and capturing a lot of the emotion — in two short hours.  (Branuagh’s Hamlet, until now the gold standard, is double that.)  The acting other than Welles as Falstaff is also very compelling; I cannot think of a weak performance.

So what is not to like?  Not much, honestly.  I can almost imagine it a little more luxe, maybe 20 minutes longer, and in color.  While some of what makes it feel raw may add to its importance as a film, it also inhibits the casual viewer from full absorption.  (This was a problem with Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood as well.  Call me a philistine if you need to.)  In all events this is as near to flawless an adaptation of Shakespeare as I’ve seen, and a great movie to boot.

9 out of 10 stars.

Finally, the real Last Performance of the season. The King and Prince Hal have been reconciled – until the King finds out he’s still hanging about with Falstaff and his disreputable mates. Falstaff has been living it up, mostly on credit, by spreading the word that it was actually him that killed Hotspur (in part I), not Hal.

Falstaff gets sent off with Hal’s brother to continue the fight with the rebels, and on the way calls in at an old acquaintance, Shallow, to recruit some cannon fodder. Later on he comes back to borrow money.

Meanwhile, the King is dying. Hal rushes to his bedside, in time for the King to rally for one last rant at his son and lament for his country, which he is convinced is going to rack and ruin with Hal in charge.

Hal however is revealed to be playing a very long game – by consorting with commoners he’s been intentionally making himself popular with them and now he’s King he intends to do a proper job. In the climactic, heartbreaking scene he denounces Falstaff in a very public and humiliating manner, while courtiers comment that in order to make peace with the rebels and unite the country they bet they’ll be waging war in France within the year….

It was fascinating to see how this production has changed from when I first saw it. From small things like the King’s bed being finished and varnished to a general increased level in confidence in the actors.

Also, this (half of the) play is a bit earthier – Doll throwing up on stage (sussed out how Jade Williams did the repeat puke, very clever), Falstaff peeing in a jug, Doll and Falstaff having a hate-love-hate-love relationship.

And yes we did get speeches, and roses. One rose fell right in front of me, so another one to dry and add to the collection. And sucks-boo to the officious woman behind me who tried to convince me not to take photos of the speech as she was telling me “I work here”. Try telling that to the steward in front of me who was clicking and flashing away with his professional camera with ginormous lens… I took no notice, as you can see above!

Besides, other people get away with videoing – see below!!

It’s amazing how many YouTube videos there are where I’ve seen the back of my head:

All in all a very fitting end to a splendid season and I really really really hope they do DVDs…. I got Roger Allam withdrawal symptoms so bad I had to go to the pictures and see Tamara Drew a couple of days later. (very good too and worth seeing!)

Things get strange. The cats sleep in their beds, but sometimes one of them gets a spirit of wickedness in her. Last night, this happened: I was wandering around the house, not even thinking – but I couldn’t bear to be in my own room any longer. I went slowly downstairs to the kitchen to make a cup of camomile tea. During the day, other people will do this for me: at night, I’m on my own. As I opened the door, the cat dashed out. It wasn’t one escape; it was the first of many. Every time I caught her and put her back, she threw herself against the closed door, so that it clattered and clattered. I thought she would wake everybody else in the house. I couldn’t get into the room without her getting it. Carrying her back was like carrying a teddy bear: her fur squished itself up in my hands. She howled in the upstairs hall, right outside my parents’ bedroom. I put her down for a moment so that my hands would be free to open the kitchen door, and she was off again instantly.

Like so many things that happen in insomniac nights, there was a Dantesque quality to this. I know how ridiculous that sounds, but it’s quite true: you repeat your actions, over and over. Insomnia is very circular. Your mind becomes at once dull and stretched out, like lead to airy thinness beat.

It is hard to know whether to try and occupy yourself profitably, or whether to sink into the detached desperate exhaustion of the insomniac, to give up and give in, to lie and look at the dark room. I tend toward the former choice, being easily depressed by empty hours. I practise transcription on the Cambridge palaeography website; test my Latin vocabulary; edit poems for the collection I’ve been working on for the past few months. This morning, at 5.30 a.m., I was rewriting the curriculum vitae that I need to submit with my postgraduate applications. These are very automatic tasks, aren’t they? I don’t find the night hours useful for writing new things. My mind goes blunt, as if the sleeping pills will work on it alone – but not on me. Or not enough.

                             O sleep, O gentle sleep,
Nature’s soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down
And steep my senses in forgetfulness?

–Henry IV, part 2.

There are a few things that are disagreeable about living in a hostel: very little personal space, loud, enthusiastic young adults at 3am, mixed showers, mixed bathrooms, boys who never learned to aim effectively, the realisation that our room doesn’t seem to have central heating and it’s getting colder, mixed bathrooms, a tiny guest kitchen, people sharing your food without you knowing, mixed bathrooms… It’s enough to make you want to gnaw on a your shield…

Over the last few weeks I have discovered another slight discomfort – it’s really hard to slob around in a small room you share with 4 other people. I seem to have hurt my left foot and despite my determination to not let it affect my activities too much, after a shopping trip to White City (Westfield London) this morning, I have been sitting around, keeping off my feet and flattening the glutious maximus.

The decision to do that came mainly from fear that any other kind of exercise today will impede tomorrow’s night’s activity – Henry IV Part 2 at the Globe!  The follow up to last week’s marvellous show, this time it’s in the evening and we invited a new friend whom we met through I Knit London’s Knitting Group. I am quite excited about it, but no jumping around, due to having to keep my foot ‘fairly stiff’ and stress free. Which is a shame, because today in a WH Smiths’ I saw a Retro Space Hopper and really, really wanted to buy it. I love my hopper I had as a kid and I can imagine hopping round Hyde Park and other assorted places will be no end of fun. And eyebrow raising.

So stick around for my excitable, protracted and mixed up synopsis of Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part 2. So excited, I am prepared to not walk at all tomorrow in preparation!

Falstaff with Mistress Quickly and Bardolph, photo by John Haynes

Apart from Falstaff, these plays have no central character given to introspective soliloquies, so it is more the case of one actor playing off another, and many of the cast did this well, performing more than one role. William Gaunt and Christopher Godwin were amusing as the old duo Shallow and Silence in Part 2, while having been far more direct and vigorous as Worcester and Northumberland, and I liked Paul Rider both as Bardolph, and in his vignette as the Archbishop of York. Jade Williams as Doll Tearsheet in Part 2 showed an engaging weakness for Falstaff, throwing up most convincingly on the front corner of the stage and surprising the audience packed around there, a far cry from her refined Lady Mortimer. Barbara Marten played Lady Northumberland, as well as being a suitably indignant tavern hostess as Mistress Quickly, with her husband sitting upstairs smoking a pipe — a nice touch.

Prince Hal with Falstaff, photo by John Haynes

Oliver Cotton played the King as a serious monarch, betrayed by the rebellious vanities of others, but the principal rebel, Harry Hotspur showed a spluttering anger that failed to allow even a half-second pause in the expression of his fury. Sam Crane’s portrayal of this hothead could have used more nuance, and his re-appearance as Pistol in Part 2 had a clownish quality that seemed unsuited to this production. But Jamie Parker as Prince Hal showed nuance aplenty in his fine portrayal of youthful high spirits edged by an understanding of his future as king. Here is an actor — one of the original cast for The History Boys — who can be suitably immature as Prince Hal, yet bring into Part 2 elements of the future Henry V who will inspire and lead his army at the Battle of Agincourt. I look forward to his future portrayal of that role!

Prince Hal replaces the crown, photo by John Haynes

What makes Part 1 work so well is the brilliance of Falstaff and Prince Hal. Of course Hal is not seen much in Part 2, until he takes the crown from his father’s pillow near the end, so there isn’t quite the same energy in the second part, but Roger Allam was gloriously endearing as Falstaff — one could not imagine a better portrayal. These productions by Dominic Dromgoole give a fine understanding of the plays and are a delight to watch. I loved the convincing grubbiness of the costumes for the ordinary folk, as well as of the military vests for the nobles, and the crests hanging round the seating areas add to the authenticity. With the mummers at the beginning, starting outside the auditorium and taking their mime inside, a wonderful sense of occasion is given to these performances, and at £5 for a standing ticket in the pit there is no excuse for missing them. Six hours of Shakespeare with nary a dull moment.

Parts 1 and 2 of Henry IV continue until October 2^nd and October 3^rd respectively — for more details click here.

Review here.

Edited to include reviews at The Public Reviews and The Telegraph

Reviews of parts 1 and 2 together at What’s On Stage, London Theatre, The Stage, The Evening Standard, The Guardian, The Observer, The Independent, Londonist, Simon Schama at the FT and The Daily Mail

This was only the second performance, and the theatre was half empty! Whether it was the Wimbledon final, World Cup semi final, the fact it’s still in preview or it’s a hot Sunday afternoon I don’t know, but actually it was quite pleasant not having to deal with other people being obnoxious in the yard. Stood right at the front and leant on the stage for the first time in years. And can confirm that the drain problem still really has never been sorted out and I’d guess all the stage extensions are just an attempt to cover up those drains at the front…

Anyway – the play! Carrying on from part one with the same cast, and also carrying on at the same high standard. Following the sort of reconciliation between the King and Prince Hal at the end of part one, the Prince gradually grows up. Although the scene at the end where he rejects Falstaff was heartbreaking yet inevitable.

The play is less rumbunctious than part one and a lot more serious – although there is loads more Falstaff. Plus more bodily fluids (don’t stand near the front and centre).

Jamie Parker needs to come back next year, complete the Prince Hal trilogy and do Henry V. It would have been fourteen years since opening season, time to do it again.

But all that aside, some of what was best about this play showed up in this act, and what the dunderhead refers to specifically is the big payoff of (1) Hal’s conversion, promised since very early, and (2) his devastating rejection of poor old Sir John.  That was very sad, in the dunderhead’s opinion, the image of Falstaff riding all night drunk, showing up ragged, sleepless, burdened by repeated drunk promises of largess to everyone in sight, filled with giddy delusion of grandeur — only to be publicly shot down and humiliated right in the middle of the streets of London.  Like Falstaff, he gamely tried to put a game face on it; but for all his cynical asides the dunderhead suspects he genuinely felt for Hal, as a pal, more than just a drinking buddy or some rich kid he was trying to exploit.  I may be wrong, but I found it side.

Moving on, the dunderhead also continues to like the Lord Chief Justice, because he believes in the RULE OF LAW and tells the king so.  Like Dr. House according to Cameron in the season 1 finale, HE DOES IT BECAUSE IT’S RIGHT.  And apparently, although no one is sure or thinks it likely, it’s at least possible that the historical Henry V did continue the LCJ in his post.  The dunderhead prefers this view of history, and will stick with it.

He he, funny scenes with the hammered county esquires, particularly Silence being anything but.  We’ll go some song bits, as well as a sweet alcoholic rant from Falstaff from last act’s quotes (coming to you tonight).  In fact, it’s too good to risk losing with the rest, so I’ll frontload it for your pleasure:

Good faith, this same young sober-
blooded boy doth not love me; nor a man cannot make
him laugh; but that’s no marvel, he drinks no wine.
There’s never none of these demure boys come to any
proof; for thin drink doth so over-cool their blood,
and making many fish-meals, that they fall into a
kind of male green-sickness; and then when they
marry, they get wenches: they are generally fools
and cowards; which some of us should be too, but for
inflammation. A good sherris sack hath a two-fold
operation in it. It ascends me into the brain;
dries me there all the foolish and dull and curdy
vapours which environ it; makes it apprehensive,
quick, forgetive, full of nimble fiery and
delectable shapes, which, delivered o’er to the
voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes
excellent wit. The second property of your
excellent sherris is, the warming of the blood;
which, before cold and settled, left the liver
white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity
and cowardice; but the sherris warms it and makes
it course from the inwards to the parts extreme:
it illumineth the face, which as a beacon gives
warning to all the rest of this little kingdom,
man, to arm; and then the vital commoners and
inland petty spirits muster me all to their captain,
the heart, who, great and puffed up with this
retinue, doth any deed of courage; and this valour
comes of sherris. So that skill in the weapon is
nothing without sack, for that sets it a-work; and
learning a mere hoard of gold kept by a devil, till
sack commences it and sets it in act and use.
Hereof comes it that Prince Harry is valiant; for
the cold blood he did naturally inherit of his
father, he hath, like lean, sterile and bare land,
manured, husbanded and tilled with excellent
endeavour of drinking good and good store of fertile
sherris, that he is become very hot and valiant. If
I had a thousand sons, the first humane principle I
would teach them should be, to forswear thin
potations and to addict themselves to sack.

And that’s all I got.

Quotes (act IV)

[those pretty speeches the dunderhead likes yesterday:]

WESTMORELAND

Then, my lord,
Unto your grace do I in chief address
The substance of my speech. If that rebellion
Came like itself, in base and abject routs,
Led on by bloody youth, guarded with rags,
And countenanced by boys and beggary,
I say, if damn’d commotion so appear’d,
In his true, native and most proper shape,
You, reverend father, and these noble lords
Had not been here, to dress the ugly form
Of base and bloody insurrection
With your fair honours. You, lord archbishop,
Whose see is by a civil peace maintained,
Whose beard the silver hand of peace hath touch’d,
Whose learning and good letters peace hath tutor’d,
Whose white investments figure innocence,
The dove and very blessed spirit of peace,
Wherefore do you so ill translate ourself
Out of the speech of peace that bears such grace,
Into the harsh and boisterous tongue of war;
Turning your books to graves, your ink to blood,
Your pens to lances and your tongue divine
To a trumpet and a point of war?

ARCHBISHOP OF YORK Wherefore do I this? so the question stands.
Briefly to this end: we are all diseased,
And with our surfeiting and wanton hours
Have brought ourselves into a burning fever,
And we must bleed for it; of which disease
Our late king, Richard, being infected, died.
But, my most noble Lord of Westmoreland,
I take not on me here as a physician,
Nor do I as an enemy to peace
Troop in the throngs of military men;
But rather show awhile like fearful war,
To diet rank minds sick of happiness
And purge the obstructions which begin to stop
Our very veins of life. Hear me more plainly.
I have in equal balance justly weigh’d
What wrongs our arms may do, what wrongs we suffer,
And find our griefs heavier than our offences.
We see which way the stream of time doth run,
And are enforced from our most quiet there
By the rough torrent of occasion;
And have the summary of all our griefs,
When time shall serve, to show in articles;
Which long ere this we offer’d to the king,
And might by no suit gain our audience:
When we are wrong’d and would unfold our griefs,
We are denied access unto his person
Even by those men that most have done us wrong.
The dangers of the days but newly gone,
Whose memory is written on the earth
With yet appearing blood, and the examples
Of every minute’s instance, present now,
Hath put us in these ill-beseeming arms,
Not to break peace or any branch of it,
But to establish here a peace indeed,
Concurring both in name and quality.

[young mowbray, giving some clear-eyed sounding HISTORY:]

What thing, in honour, had my father lost,
That need to be revived and breathed in me?
The king that loved him, as the state stood then,
Was force perforce compell’d to banish him:
And then that Harry Bolingbroke and he,
Being mounted and both roused in their seats,
Their neighing coursers daring of the spur,
Their armed staves in charge, their beavers down,
Their eyes of fire sparking through sights of steel
And the loud trumpet blowing them together,
Then, then, when there was nothing could have stay’d
My father from the breast of Bolingbroke,
O when the king did throw his warder down,
His own life hung upon the staff he threw;
Then threw he down himself and all their lives
That by indictment and by dint of sword
Have since miscarried under Bolingbroke.

[hehe Falstaff is funny again:]

I have a whole school of tongues in this belly of
mine, and not a tongue of them all speaks any other
word but my name. An I had but a belly of any
indifference, I were simply the most active fellow
in Europe: my womb, my womb, my womb, undoes me.
Here comes our general.

[good point King!]

Most subject is the fattest soil to weeds…

Quotes (act V)

[shallow, giving the italian basta-youll-drink-one-more treatment:]

I will not excuse you; you shall not be excused;
excuses shall not be admitted; there is no excuse
shall serve; you shall not be excused.

[chief justice, being the man:]

Sweet princes, what I did, I did in honour,
Led by the impartial conduct of my soul:
And never shall you see that I will beg
A ragged and forestall’d remission.
If truth and upright innocency fail me,
I’ll to the king my master that is dead,
And tell him who hath sent me after him.

[King Henry V, turning the corner:]

And, princes all, believe me, I beseech you;
My father is gone wild into his grave,
For in his tomb lie my affections;
And with his spirit sadly I survive,
To mock the expectation of the world,
To frustrate prophecies and to raze out
Rotten opinion, who hath writ me down
After my seeming. The tide of blood in me
Hath proudly flow’d in vanity till now:
Now doth it turn and ebb back to the sea,
Where it shall mingle with the state of floods
And flow henceforth in formal majesty.
Now call we our high court of parliament:
And let us choose such limbs of noble counsel,
That the great body of our state may go
In equal rank with the best govern’d nation;
That war, or peace, or both at once, may be
As things acquainted and familiar to us;
In which you, father, shall have foremost hand.
Our coronation done, we will accite,
As I before remember’d, all our state:
And, God consigning to my good intents,
No prince nor peer shall have just cause to say,
God shorten Harry’s happy life one day!

[silence, wasted:]

Ah, sirrah! quoth-a, we shall
Do nothing but eat, and make good cheer,

Singing

And praise God for the merry year;
When flesh is cheap and females dear,
And lusty lads roam here and there
So merrily,
And ever among so merrily.

[pistol, swaggering:]

A foutre for the world and worldlings base!
I speak of Africa and golden joys.

[Falstaff, set up for the fall:]

But to stand stained with travel, and sweating with
desire to see him; thinking of nothing else,
putting all affairs else in oblivion, as if there
were nothing else to be done but to see him.

[and king henry V, dropping the hammer:]

I know thee not, old man: fall to thy prayers;
How ill white hairs become a fool and jester!
I have long dream’d of such a kind of man,
So surfeit-swell’d, so old and so profane;
But, being awaked, I do despise my dream.
Make less thy body hence, and more thy grace;
Leave gormandizing; know the grave doth gape
For thee thrice wider than for other men.
Reply not to me with a fool-born jest:
Presume not that I am the thing I was;
For God doth know, so shall the world perceive,
That I have turn’d away my former self;
So will I those that kept me company.
When thou dost hear I am as I have been,
Approach me, and thou shalt be as thou wast,
The tutor and the feeder of my riots:
Till then, I banish thee, on pain of death,
As I have done the rest of my misleaders,
Not to come near our person by ten mile.
For competence of life I will allow you,
That lack of means enforce you not to evil:
And, as we hear you do reform yourselves,
We will, according to your strengths and qualities,
Give you advancement. Be it your charge, my lord,
To see perform’d the tenor of our word. Set on.

I suppose three characters had strong motivations close to home, Arch-B his bro Scroop, Mowbray his exiled (but then restored?  Shouldn’t that have been mentioned?) father, and Northumberland his slain son.  But all of these characters and their motives are less than clear — later it sounds like Scroop is still alive and taken prisoner; Mowbray’s father WAS restored; and Northumberland was a no-show on his revenge trip.

The dunderhead did love the Archbishop’s domestic violence metaphor for riding out the king’s ire.  A little off-color by modern standards, but funny nonetheless.  Also liked the double-cross of the rebels by Prince John.  Screw them.  (The dunderhead actually heard himself say, “Rebel scum!” in his head.)  If they can’t articulate a clearer reason for rebelling then the dunderhead can’t really sympathize.

The dunderhead did like the domestic scene between the king and his lads, especially Prince Hal.  But wasn’t Hal lying to pops when he reimagined the speech/challenge he delivered to the crown?  Specifically, he said this:

Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow,
Being so troublesome a bedfellow?
O polish’d perturbation! golden care!
That keep’st the ports of slumber open wide
To many a watchful night! sleep with it now!
Yet not so sound and half so deeply sweet
As he whose brow with homely biggen bound
Snores out the watch of night. O majesty!
When thou dost pinch thy bearer, thou dost sit
Like a rich armour worn in heat of day,
That scalds with safety. By his gates of breath
There lies a downy feather which stirs not:
Did he suspire, that light and weightless down
Perforce must move. My gracious lord! my father!
This sleep is sound indeed, this is a sleep
That from this golden rigol hath divorced
So many English kings. Thy due from me
Is tears and heavy sorrows of the blood,
Which nature, love, and filial tenderness,
Shall, O dear father, pay thee plenteously:
My due from thee is this imperial crown,
Which, as immediate as thy place and blood,
Derives itself to me. Lo, here it sits,
Which God shall guard: and put the world’s whole strength
Into one giant arm, it shall not force
This lineal honour from me: this from thee
Will I to mine leave, as ’tis left to me.

But he told his pops he said this:

Coming to look on you, thinking you dead,
And dead almost, my liege, to think you were,
I spake unto this crown as having sense,
And thus upbraided it: ‘The care on thee depending
Hath fed upon the body of my father;
Therefore, thou best of gold art worst of gold:
Other, less fine in carat, is more precious,
Preserving life in medicine potable;
But thou, most fine, most honour’d: most renown’d,
Hast eat thy bearer up.’ Thus, my most royal liege,
Accusing it, I put it on my head,
To try with it, as with an enemy
That had before my face murder’d my father,
The quarrel of a true inheritor.
But if it did infect my blood with joy,
Or swell my thoughts to any strain of pride;
If any rebel or vain spirit of mine
Did with the least affection of a welcome
Give entertainment to the might of it,
Let God for ever keep it from my head
And make me as the poorest vassal is
That doth with awe and terror kneel to it!

A better dunderhead would compare these speeches, but the one you’ve got will just assert a discrepancy between the two.  But why?  Is the young Prince just chomping at the bit?  He wasn’t quite the reform case he promised pops he’d be last play; do we really know how Hal feels about the old man?

I guess we’ll never know for sure, since Henry IV is finally dead.  He’ll get a proper eulogy tomorrow, when you’ll also get tonight’s QUOTES in full.

————–

It is but as a body yet distemper’d;
Which to his former strength may be restored
With good advice and little medicine:
My Lord Northumberland will soon be cool’d.

God knows how much has been written about the metaphor of the body politic.  What can the dunderhead possibly add?  First, it beats the “state is a garden” trope we saw one play again.  Second, the dunderhead likes naturalistic metaphors for the state.  In this respect he prefers what he remembers of the Burke he didn’t read in high school to the Rosseau he didn’t read in high school.  That is, government is a slow, organic, evolving entity governed by the slap-dash mad-cap craziness of all life-imbued things, slow developing, better served by prudent pruning than radical replanting, and better conceptualized as such, rather than as a choice, contract, or abstractified ur-moment of comingtogetherness.  In short, the dunderhead can get down with the body metaphor and the garden metaphor.  So take that ideological self-identification and chew on it!

Speaking of naturalism, the king is an early adherent of tectonic plate theory.  He also from his perch atop the human pyramid sees the slowly sould grinding machinery and all zeroing timeline of history, and its got him a bit blue.  Late nights, set-backs, tectonic plate theory, these things lead slowly but tectonically toward deep depression.

Falstaff was Mowbray’s page?!  Twist! Twist!  The dunderhead appreciates all the Falstaff backstory.  We’ve seen enough of him in his current element; we’re still getting him crawling out of the gutter.  But it’s a whole new dimension to imagine him thin, young, honest, untarnished to begin with.  Of course it wouldn’t be him if he wasn’t a little tawdry even in the hazy glory days of yore.  But thin, brave, etc.?  Nice touch here.

And the dunderhead liked the esquires.  Can’t we all relate, in a way, to looking back on school days and imagining ourselves the man (or lady)?  Falstaff’s reaction to the apparently egregious self-aggrandisement is needless to say ironic.  Whither this outrage, though bloated blaggard, braggard and buffoon?  Of course unlike Hal, Falstaff can’t cry bullshit when he sees it.  What prevents him for behaving like the virtuous person?  His own vice?  Why?  Or is it just circumstance?  These are officials in the king’s government.  Or is crafty Falstaff just setting up a long con, as he says?  Final possibility: he’s just a coward, as he has before proven to be.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, since Falstaff is only Falstaff with that trait in tow.

What do you want?  That’s all I have.

Quotes: Act II [making up yesterday's shortfall]

[page:]

Away, you scullion!  You rampallian!  You fustilarian!  I’ll tickle your catastrophe.

[falstaff's letter, har har har:]

‘I will imitate the honourable Romans in
brevity:’ he sure means brevity in breath,
short-winded. ‘I commend me to thee, I commend
thee, and I leave thee. Be not too familiar with
Poins; for he misuses thy favours so much, that he
swears thou art to marry his sister Nell. Repent
at idle times as thou mayest; and so, farewell.
Thine, by yea and no, which is as much as to
say, as thou usest him, JACK FALSTAFF with my
familiars, JOHN with my brothers and sisters,
and SIR JOHN with all Europe.’

[a bit of swagger from the bar denizens.  pistol's threat of murdering the ruff reminded the dunderhead of tickling the catastrophe:]

PISTOL

God save you, Sir John!

FALSTAFF

Welcome, Ancient Pistol. Here, Pistol, I charge
you with a cup of sack: do you discharge upon mine hostess.

PISTOL

I will discharge upon her, Sir John, with two bullets.

FALSTAFF

She is Pistol-proof, sir; you shall hardly offend
her.

MISTRESS QUICKLY

Come, I’ll drink no proofs nor no bullets: I’ll
drink no more than will do me good, for no man’s
pleasure, I.

PISTOL

Then to you, Mistress Dorothy; I will charge you.

DOLL TEARSHEET

Charge me! I scorn you, scurvy companion. What!
you poor, base, rascally, cheating, lack-linen
mate! Away, you mouldy rogue, away! I am meat for
your master.

PISTOL

I know you, Mistress Dorothy.

DOLL TEARSHEET

Away, you cut-purse rascal! you filthy bung, away!
by this wine, I’ll thrust my knife in your mouldy
chaps, an you play the saucy cuttle with me. Away,
you bottle-ale rascal! you basket-hilt stale
juggler, you! Since when, I pray you, sir? God’s
light, with two points on your shoulder? much!

PISTOL God let me not live, but I will murder your ruff for this.

[falstaff talking shit is funny, but i'll spare you.]

Quotes: Act III

[king is tired:]

How many thousand of my poorest subjects
Are at this hour asleep! O sleep, O gentle sleep,
Nature’s soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down
And steep my senses in forgetfulness?
Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,
Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee
And hush’d with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,
Than in the perfumed chambers of the great,
Under the canopies of costly state,
And lull’d with sound of sweetest melody?
O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile
In loathsome beds, and leavest the kingly couch
A watch-case or a common ‘larum-bell?
Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast
Seal up the ship-boy’s eyes, and rock his brains
In cradle of the rude imperious surge
And in the visitation of the winds,
Who take the ruffian billows by the top,
Curling their monstrous heads and hanging them
With deafening clamour in the slippery clouds,
That, with the hurly, death itself awakes?
Canst thou, O partial sleep, give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,
And in the calmest and most stillest night,
With all appliances and means to boot,
Deny it to a king? Then happy low, lie down!
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

[king, philosophical:]

O God! that one might read the book of fate,
And see the revolution of the times
Make mountains level, and the continent,
Weary of solid firmness, melt itself
Into the sea! and, other times, to see
The beachy girdle of the ocean
Too wide for Neptune’s hips; how chances mock,
And changes fill the cup of alteration
With divers liquors! O, if this were seen,
The happiest youth, viewing his progress through,
What perils past, what crosses to ensue,
Would shut the book, and sit him down and die.

[shallow, reminiscing:]

Jesu, Jesu, the mad days that I
have spent! and to see how many of my old
acquaintance are dead!

—————————-

And that is that.  Act IV is a monster.  The dunderhead won’t realistically be able to finish it and post tomorrow.  So expect both acts IV and V this weekend, Sunday most likely.  Peace be with you, dunderheads.

• The Lord Chief Justice scenes are alright.  But what is the LCJ doing hanging around F’s hood?  Lots of bars and whorehouses.  But Falstaff and the ladies are often cute.  More on that maybe later.
• Hal and Poins is an interesting relationship; Poins seems to have some modicum of VIRTUE.  But keeping up with the Prince is difficult; he speaks in twisty turns.  Does he anticipate leaving even friend Poins behind when he ascends?
• Falstaff dumping on Poins, first in the letter, then talking at the bar, is funny.  The dunderhead’s observations for this act are r-word-ed: this is funny; that is cute; that over there is interesting.
• Elder Percy is very different from his son in terms of rushing into battle and ignoring women.
• Flapdragon reference!

Now let’s complain some more.  Scene 4 is so long!  And the dunderhead spent most of it glancing at the annotations as the wit sailed over his head.  A long slog with less pay-out than the Part 1 tavern scenes.  To be harsh, this play feels like an imitation of the first.

Speaking of which, even the Hal/Poins-disguised-Falstaff-revealed-weakling scene felt recycled.  But it’s still pretty funny, and pretty touching.  The dunderhead finds this sort of character familiar.  Falstaff is a glutton for love and approval; he’s so rapacious for it that he undermines his ability to get it.  He succeeds only by dominating even weaker people.  He’s a delightful character in part because he’s so pathetic, and funny and admirable(?) because he subsists so mightily.

Truly, a great character.  I look forward to meeting him again in the Merry W’s of W.  But this act did not do it for the dunderhead.

Quotes

[tomorrow!]

But what was the point of the Rumor introduction?  Sure, he managed to deceive Northumberland for about a quarter of scene, but so what?  Is the idea that Rumor is stirring up the common folk with false tales of rebels’ hope?  That at least would lend something to the plot.  Otherwise, the dunderhead doesn’t completely get it.  (Huh.  The dunderhead sees that some editions do not include the prologue.)

The long scene twixt Falstaff and the Lord Chief Justice is funny.

And that’s all the dunderhead has to say about this act!  Partly just Monday.  Partly just this is a short act with a lot of housekeeping.  So to fill the space, the dunderhead will follow for you the link to the wiki on the very Lord Chief Justice we meet in this act (the dunderhead is fond of lawyers):

Sir William Gascoigne (c. 1350 – December 17, 1419) was Chief Justice of England during the reign of King Henry IV. His reputation is that of a great lawyer who in times of doubt and danger asserted the principle that the head of state is subject to law, and that the traditional practice of public officers, or the expressed voice of the nation in parliament, and not the will of the monarch or any part of the legislature, must guide the tribunals of the country.

He was a descendant of an ancient Yorkshire family. The date of his birth is uncertain, and though he is said to have studied at the University of Cambridge his name is not found in any university or college records.^[1] It appears from the year-books that he practised as an advocate in the reigns of Edward III and Richard II. When Henry of Lancaster was banished by Richard II, Gascoigne was appointed one of his attorneys, and soon after Henry’s accession to the throne was made chief justice of the court of King’s Bench. After the suppression of the rising in the north in 1405, Henry eagerly pressed the chief justice to pronounce sentence upon Lord Scrope, the Archbishop of York, and the Earl Marshal Thomas Mowbray, who had been implicated in the revolt. This he absolutely refused to do, asserting the right of the prisoners to be tried by their peers. Although both were later executed, the chief justice had no part in this. It has been doubted whether Gascoigne could have displayed such independence of action without prompt punishment or removal from office.

The popular tale of his committing the Prince of Wales (the future Henry V) to prison must also be regarded as unauthentic, though it is both picturesque and characteristic. It is said that the judge had directed the punishment of one of the prince’s riotous companions, and the prince, who was present and enraged at the sentence, struck or grossly insulted the judge. Gascoigne immediately committed him to prison, and gave the prince a dressing-down that caused him to acknowledge the justice of the sentence. The king is said to have approved of the act, but it appears that Gascoigne was removed from his post or resigned soon after the accession of Henry V. He died in 1419, and was buried in All Saints’ Church, the parish church of Harewood in Yorkshire. Some biographies of the judge have stated that he died in 1412, but this is disproved by Edward Foss in his Lives of the Judges. Although it is clear that Gascoigne did not hold office long under Henry V, it is not impossible that the scene in the fifth act of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 2, (in which Henry V is crowned king, and assures Gascoigne that he shall continue to hold his post), could have some historical basis, and that the judge’s resignation shortly thereafter was voluntary.

Quotes

[northumberland, aflutter:]

What news, Lord Bardolph? every minute now
Should be the father of some stratagem:
The times are wild: contention, like a horse
Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose
And bears down all before him.

[travers, reporting the news:]

He told me that rebellion had bad luck
And that young Harry Percy’s spur was cold.

[northumberland, RAGING OUT:]

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;
But let one spirit of the first-born Cain
Reign in all bosoms, that, each heart being set
On bloody courses, the rude scene may end,
And darkness be the burier of the dead!

[falstaff, being awesome.  and a nice inversion of neil young's famous sentiment:]

Yea; I thank your pretty sweet wit for it. But look
you pray, all you that kiss my lady Peace at home,
that our armies join not in a hot day; for, by the
Lord, I take but two shirts out with me, and I mean
not to sweat extraordinarily: if it be a hot day,
and I brandish any thing but a bottle, I would I
might never spit white again. There is not a
dangerous action can peep out his head but I am
thrust upon it: well, I cannot last ever: but it
was alway yet the trick of our English nation, if
they have a good thing, to make it too common. If
ye will needs say I am an old man, you should give
me rest. I would to God my name were not so
terrible to the enemy as it is: I were better to be
eaten to death with a rust than to be scoured to
nothing with perpetual motion.

Prince Hal has spent most of his teenage years raising hell in taverns with a group of lowlife friends. His closest friend and mentor is Falstaff, a jovial, aging, witty criminal. Falstaff and some of Hal’s other friends have won wealth and power at the Battle of Shrewsbury. We watch Falstaff, now an army captain, drink in a London tavern and travel around the countryside to recruit young men to serve in the upcoming battles. Prince Hal, meanwhile, knowing that he will have to take the reins of power when his father dies, has vowed to change his ways and become responsible. He has started to spend less time with his old friends.
The rebel leaders gather their forces to battle the king at the Forest of Gaultree. They are disappointed when the powerful Earl of Northumberland does not offer soldiers to support them. (This is the second time he had refused to offer aid; the first time, at the Battle of Shrewsbury, his refusal led to his son’s death in battle.) Prince John, the king’s second son, leads the king’s army to meet them at the forest. Prince John says he will agree to all the rebels’ demands, but as soon as the relieved rebels have sent their soldiers home, he arrests them for treason. The rebels protest this injustice, but the prince has them executed.
Meanwhile, at his palace in London, King Henry IV grows increasingly sick. He is worried about what will happen when his wayward son becomes king. Prince Hal comes to the palace; his father gives him a tongue-lashing, and Prince Hal, in an eloquent speech, vows that he will be a responsible king. His father forgives him and then dies. Prince Hal, now King Henry V, tells the Lord Chief Justice, the highest law official in England, that he will now view him as a father figure.
After the rebels have been executed, Hal is formally crowned King Henry V. Falstaff and his companions come to London to greet him, but in the middle of a public street, the king rejects Falstaff, telling him he must never come within ten miles of the king or court again. He may have a pension, but the king will have nothing more to do with him. Then the young king goes to court to lay plans for an invasion of France.