Day 1. Act I. i. London. News of the battle of Holmedon, etc. Interval: a week (?). Hotspur comes to Court. [Day 1a. Day 2. Day 3. Act I. ii. London. Falstaff, Prince Hal, etc. Act. I. iii. Interval: Rebellion of the Percys planned. some three or four weeks. Hotspur resolves to join the confederates at Bangor. Interval: a week. Hotspur and Worcester reach Bangor. [Days 2a, 3a. Act II. i. ii. iv.; (Act III. ii.)] Day 4. Day 5. Act III. i. Bangor. Interval: about a fortnight. Act III. ii. Prince Hal and his father. Interval: about a week. Day 6. Act III. iii. Prince Hal informs Falstaff of his appointment to a charge of foot for the wars. Interval: a week. Day 10. Act V. i. to v. The battle of Shrewsbury. The historic period represented ranges from the defeat of Mortimer by Glendower, 12th June, 1402, to the Battle of Shrewsbury, 21st July, 1403. (II.) The time of 2 Henry IV. occupies nine days as represented on the stage, with three extra Falstaffian days, comprising altogether a period of about two months :Act I. i. Interval. Day 1. Day 2. Act I. iii.; Act II. iii. Interval (within which fall Day 1a: Act I. ii. and Day 2a: Act II. i. ii. iv.). Day 3 (the morrow of Day 2a): Act III. i. Interval. The historic period covers from 21st July, 1403, to 9th April, 1413. The Battle of Shrewsbury. From a drawing by John Rous (c 1485) in the Life of Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick (MS. Cott. Jul. E. iv.). Critical Comments. I. Argument. I. After Bolingbroke has deposed Richard II. of England and ascended the throne as Henry IV., he seeks a time of peace to go on his long-contemplated crusade; but is dissuaded from his purpose by the news of uprisings and battles in Wales and Scotland. The Scots under the command of Douglas make an incursion and at Holmedon suffer defeat by the English. forces of Northumberland's son, Henry Percy, the famous Hotspur of history. The King no sooner hears of the victory than he demands the prisoners. These Hotspur is unwilling to give up unless the King will ransom Percy's kinsman, Mortimer. They quarrel; and Hotspur sends his prisoners home without ransom and plots with both the Scots and the Welsh to overthrow the sovereign he had so recently helped to seat. II. The madcap pranks and dissolute companions of the Prince of Wales are a source of anxiety to his father. The Prince's boon companion is a corpulent warrior, Sir John Falstaff, who wars mainly with his tongue and the wine-bottle. Falstaff and three companions rob some travellers on the highway, and are set upon in turn by the Prince and one comrade in disguise, who put them to flight; and when later Falstaff would boast of his imaginary encounter with innumerable foes the Prince has a hearty laugh at his expense. His merriment is interrupted by news from the court of Hotspur's rising in the north. III. The Prince immediately awakes to a sense of his responsibilities, assures his royal father of his intention to be more worthy of the title of Prince, and is entrusted with a wing of the army that is proceeding against Hotspur. IV. Hotspur is disadvantaged by the non-arrival of bodies of troops counted on by him from his father and from Wales. Nevertheless he encamps at Shrewsbury, and resolves on instant battle when the royal troops approach. V. The King leads his army in person, and before Shrewsbury holds parley with the rebels, to whom he promises pardon if they will lay down their arms. But Hotspur is misinformed of the terms of parley and gives battle. In the spirited and decisive contest the rebels are defeated. Hotspur is slain by the Prince-though credit for the death is claimed by the rascally Falstaff-and King Henry begins to realize the true worth of his valiant son. MCSPADDEN: Shakespearian Synopses. II. Henry, Prince of Wales. With respect to Henry's youthful follies, Shakspere deviated from all authorities known to have been accessible to him. "An extraordinary conversion was generally thought to have fallen upon the Prince on coming to the crown-insomuch that the old chroniclers could only account for the change by some miracle of grace or touch of supernatural benediction." Shakspere, it would seem, engaged now upon historical matter, and not the fantastic substance of a comedy, found something incredible in the sudden transformation of a reckless libertine (the Henry described by Caxton, by Fabyan, and others) into a character of majestic force and large practical wisdom. Rather than reproduce this incredible popular tradition concerning Henry, Shakspere preferred to attempt the difficult task of exhibiting the Prince as a sharer in the wild frolic of youth, while at the same time he was holding himself prepared for the splendid entrance upon his manhood, and stood really aloof in his inmost being from the unworthy life of his associates. The change which effected itself in the Prince, as represented by Shakspere, was no miraculous conversion, but merely the transition from boyhood to adult years, and from unchartered freedom to the solemn responsibilities of a great ruler. We must not suppose that Henry formed a deliberate plan for concealing the strength and splendour of his character, in order, afterwards, to flash forth upon men's sight and overwhelm and dazzle them. When he soliloquizes (I. ii. 205 et seq.), having bidden farewell to Poins and Falstaff, “I know you all, and will awhile uphold Who doth permit the base contagious clouds when Henry soliloquizes thus, we are not to suppose that he was quite as wise and diplomatical as he pleased to represent himself, for the time being, to his own heart and conscience. The Prince entered heartily and without reserve into the fun and frolic of his Eastcheap life; the vigour and the folly of it were delightful; to be clapped on the back, and shouted for as "Hal," was far better than the doffing of caps and crooking of knees, and delicate, unreal phraseology of the court. But Henry, at the same time, kept himself from subjugation to what was really base. He could truthfully stand before his father (III. ii.) and maintain that his nature was |