Henry IV, Part Two

• After Shrewsbury, the rebellion continues. Northumberland, Archbishop Scroop, and others still threaten Henry IV • But the energy is drained. Part 2 is autumnal where Part 1 was springlike. Sickness, age, and disillusionment pervade • Falstaff recruits soldiers in Gloucestershire — the scenes with Justice Shallow are among Shakespeare's warmest and saddest. Old men remembering youth • Falstaff's recruits: a gallery of pathetic conscripts he's chosen for their willingness to pay bribes to be released • Prince Hal appears less frequently and more distantly. He's preparing to become king • The rebels are defeated not by battle but by betrayal: Prince John tricks them into disbanding their army, then arrests them. Dishonorable but effective • Henry IV is dying. The crown scene: Hal takes the crown from his sleeping father's pillow. Henry wakes. They reconcile • "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown" — Henry IV's insomnia speech, the play's defining statement • Henry IV dies. Hal becomes Henry V • The rejection of Falstaff: "I know thee not, old man." The new king publicly disowns his former companion. Falstaff is heartbroken • Falstaff is arrested and sent to the Fleet prison. The play ends with the promise of war with France • The rejection is the most emotionally complex scene Shakespeare ever wrote — necessary, cruel, inevitable, devastating