uments of war,
And by that music let us all embrace"--

are all noble.

To many, the play is remarkable because it introduces Sir John Falstaff,
the most notable figure in English comedy. Falstaff is that deeply
interesting thing, a man who is base because he is wise. Our justest,
wisest brain dwelt upon Falstaff longer than upon any other character
because he is the world and the flesh, able to endure while Hotspur
flames to his death, and the enemies of the devil are betrayed that the
devil may have power to betray others.

_The Second Part of King Henry IV._

_Written._ 1597 (?)

_Published._ 1600.

_Source of the Plot._ The play of _The Famous Victories of Henry
V_. Holinshed's _Chronicles_.

_The Fable._ Northumberland and the other conspirators against the
King learn that Hotspur, their associate, whom they failed to
support, has been defeated and killed. The King's forces are now
free to act against themselves. Northumberland retires to Scotland.
The others under a divided command, make head against the King's
troops under John of Lancaster. They are betrayed, taken and put to
death. Northumberland, venturing out from Scotland, is defeated.
King Henry's position is assured.

His safety comes too late to be pleasant to him. He is dying, and
the conduct of his son gives him anxiety. He sees no chance of
permanent peace. He counsels his son to begin a war abroad, to
distract the attention of his subjects. Having done this, he dies.

Prince Henry begins his reign as Henry V by casting off all his old
associates.

The second part of the play of _King Henry IV_ is Shakespeare's ending
of the tragedy of _Richard II_. The deposition of Richard was an act of
violence, unjust, as violence must be, and offensive, as injustice is,
to the power behind life. The blood of the dead king, and of all those
killed in fighting for him, calls upon that power, and asks justice of
it. Slowly, in many secret ways, the tide sets against the slayer, till
he is a worn, old, heart-broken, haunted man, dying with the knowledge
that all the bloodshed has been useless, because the power so hardly won
will be tossed away by his successor, the youth with "a weak mind and an
able body," the "good, shallow young fellow," who "would have made a
good pantler," who comes in noisily to his father's death-bed with news
of the beastliest of all