Second Part]. 1
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This Second Part of Henry the
Fourth, like the First, has different effects, in producing
pleasure or distaste, to different auditors.
Of the number of persons who form an audience, few can appreciate the merit of Shakspeare's plays, so as to be
greatly moved, where neither love nor murder is the subject of the scene. To many
spectators, all Falstaff's humour is
comprised in his unwieldy person; nor do they cast their imaginations back to former
times, so as to feel and enjoy, as perfectly natural, those actual occurrences, and
true touches of nature, with which the plot and dialogue of this drama, as well as
its foregoing part, abound.
The classical devotee, on the other hand, admires every incident he beholds, every
line he hears, and perceives meaning in words, where, perhaps, none was
intended,—that not an atom of Shakspeare may be lost, but every sentence conduce to his amusement.
To accommodate the first class of auditors and readers, this little preface is, of
course, written; that, recalling to their memory some historical facts, previous to
either reading or seeing the play, may be the means of exciting their attention to
a
dramatic treasure.
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[Page 4]The characters here delineated, it is to be remembered, lived four
centuries ago, and the transactions exhibited took place within the space of nine
years.
The First Part of Henry the
Fourth, having ended with the death of Hotspur, and defeat of the rebels, this
following part commences at a period but little distant, and closes with the death
of
Henry the Fourth, and the
coronation of his son, the once depraved Prince of Wales.
After the three first acts have displayed the comic persons of the drama, with all
the modes and manners of the years annexed to 1400; combining, with such persons and
fashions, minds, characters, and propensities, which belong to every age—the
fourth act accurately describes the following remarkable event, taken from
history.
Holinshed, writing on the death of
Henry the Fourth, says,
"During his last sickness, he caused his crown to be set on a pillow, on his bed's
head, and suddenly, his pangs so sore troubled him, that he laie as though all his
vital spirits had been from him departed. Such as were about him thinking verily he
had been departed, covered his face with a linen cloth.—The prince his son
being hereof advertised, entered into the chamber, took away the crown."2 —Here the poet concludes, and most awfully enforces the
death-bed scene.
In the last act, the conversation of Henry the Fifth with the lord chief justice, is founded on the well-known
occurrence which took place between him and Sir William Gascoigne, in the court of
the King's [Page 5]Bench, when Henry was Prince of Wales. Sir
William was supreme judge of that court, in the reign of Henry the Fourth:—"in which
station he acquired the character of a learned, an upright, a wise, and intrepid man.
But, above all his other virtues, he is memorable for his dignified courage, in
having committed the royal heir apparent to prison, for daring to insult him in his
office."3
The discarding of his vile companions, by the newly crowned king, as this act
describes, is likewise, authenticated by history—and although such an incident
is, perhaps, the best moral which can be drawn from any part of the whole play, it
is, nevertheless, such a one, as does not come with entire welcome to the breast of
every spectator.
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