HENRY IV PART TWO –The One With Rumour and a Trailer!

Henry IV Part Two starts with a very intriguing, and for Shakespeare unique, prologue. The stage direction: Enter RUMOUR, painted full of tongues really says it all. This is an innovation more associated with classical, and especially Roman, theatre –a characterization of an abstract. Shakespeare has used prologues before (for example in Romeo and Juliet) and the technique will be further continued and reach its highest narrative effect in Henry V, but unlike in those plays, Rumour here makes only this one appearance, at the beginning of a play. As a theatre technique its novelty would certainly get the audience’s attention (as it does the reader), for the image is very striking, and it magnificently sets the stage for what is to come. What I particularly like, though, is that Shakespeare is clearly eager to experiment, and try new things, new ways of bringing his audience in. It’s an avantgarde device, in an otherwise narratively quite straightforward play, though –another typically shrewd Shakespeare stroke of commercial savvy – the play ends with what can only be described as a trailer –an unashamed plug for the next ”episode” –that of Henry V. This epilogue is sometimes spoken by the ”Rumour” character of the prologue, and that would seem to satisfy a desire for neatness (and economy) on the part of a director, but it is not made explicit in the text that these two speeches are given by the same character.

The play itself continues the story of Henry IV and the events leading up to his death and the accession of his son Hal to the throne, as Henry V. Like Part One, the story is both intimate and familial, with the scenes between father and son, being particularly brilliant, and sprawling on a fairly grand scale. Thus, there are family squabbles and battles, and though the play is generally darker than part one, there are numerous scenes and moments of comedy, naturally often involving Falstaff. Yet Falstaff’s comic trajectory takes a nose-dive in this play when he is rejected by the newly crowned king, and he is left a broken man. And because we have come to love this rogue, we cannot but feel a sense of sympathy with him in the final instance, even though we may equally understand the reasons the new king (Prince Hal) must shake off his ”former self” and steer away from those who have been so much a part of his youth. Or do we? Perhaps the new king is too harsh? I have always found his behaviour a little troubling, but Shakespeare is typically brilliant in creating this sometimes unsettling ambiguity in a character who would otherwise be too ”perfect” were he without flaws. I worked quite extensively on Henry/Hal’s character when I was at drama school, and always found this particular play to be the most intriguing of the three he appears in (four if you count his very brief appearance in Richard II).

Shakespeare also shows his theatrical savy by both giving us more of what we liked in Part One, and introducing enough new characters and plot moments to keep us on our toes. Some of the new characters here had actually been introduced in The Merry Wives of Windsor, so they would be quite familar already though in a different context. Justice Shallow, is perhaps my favourite, but we also get the explosive braggart Pistol, whose trajectory will continue through into Henry V. And who can forget the wonderfully named Doll Tearsheet!

Though I admit to liking Henry IV Part One somewhat more than the follow up, that is only a personal preference; both parts compliment each other and together they present a magnificent pageant of a particular time and atmosphere that is unmatched anywhere else in Shakespeare in breadth and development of myriad characters from low to high. And whereas Part One is for me a richer play, Part Two contains more individual scenes, speeches and ”moments” that astound, delight and inspire me upon re-reading it. Of the productions I have seen, I again rate the RSC’s version of the early 1990s as the best, but I have recently been quite pleased with at least large parts of the television version presented in The Hollow Crown, though, of course, I was sad about many of the cuts. I have recently acquired an earlier BBC version of both parts of Henry IV (the published version of which forms the photograph at the top of this entry), but as yet I have not had the opportunity to see it.

Favourite Line:

Falstaff
If I had a thousand sons, the first human principle I would teach them should be to forswear thin potations, and to addict themselves to sack.
(Act IV, Sc.3)

Character I would most like to play: Falstaff or Pistol

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR –The One Requested By Queen Elizabeth!

At least that’s how the legend goes –Queen Elizabeth I was, apparently, a great fan of Falstaff and famously expressed a desire to see him in love, prompting Shakespeare to write this delightfully frothy, cheeky comedy before completing Henry IV Part Two (which again will feature Falstaff and several other characters who appear in The Merry Wives of Windsor)

Thus, it would seem Shakespeare is pandering directly to his audience, many of whom would doubtless have shared Queen Elizabeth’s wish, and what a great way to do it: Without interfering with the narrative of the historical plays in any way, he keeps it ”hot on the stove” by showing another side of its comic characters, and placing them in a suspiciously more Elizabethan world than the period of the Henry IV plays –without that really making much difference. This is Shakespeare’s first ”spin-off” play! And it’s light, bright and sharp, and wholly rewarding as a theatrical experience.

It’s also great fun to read aloud, with the opportunity to try out many different voices –for here Shakespeare has given us some really golden comic characters to sink our teeth into. And though Falstaff, as expected, dominates and is the crux and butt of the comedy, the supporting characters are no less interesting and amusing, and almost all of them could have a play unto themselves. They are each of them busily occupied with their own little strifes and concerns and pettiness in the best soap opera manner, yet brought together through various intertwining plots –at the heart of which lies the obligatory love story; in this case the wooing of the clearly very attractive and desirable Miss Page by numerous parties, both worthy and unworthy. Much of the intrigue and plot of the play is somehow connected to this endeavour.

The ”merry wives” of the title are older characters, one being Miss Page’s mother, and a great deal of the play’s comedy concerns the tricks they play on Falstaff (who is unashamedly after their money) and their own jealous husbands. But everyone seems to be playing tricks on each other in this play, or trying to get ”one-up” on a rival, and so there is much petty domestic squabbling and intrigue –which makes this play seem somehow more modern that a number other Shakespeare comedies; the people we meet are not kings and queens or even princes, but middle-class folk going about the business of living their lives, and this is reflected in that virtually the whole play is written in prose rather than verse. Thus it seems instantly more down-to-earth and accessible than some of the more refined courtly dramas of Shakespeare. Here he seems to be playing in a lighter key, allowing himself a cheeky freedom and gaiety he will not really return to in any of the plays to come. Indeed, this is perhaps the lightest and frothiest of all Shakespeare’s plays (and I don’t mean that as a criticism in any way) Though there will be more comedies to come, they will always have a touch of darkness about them (even Much Ado About Nothing has some pretty dark moments) or, increasingly, introduce elements of melancholy. In The Merry Wives of Windsor, there is none of that –but there is farce, satire, sexual innuendo, slapstick, hanky panky, scathing wit, cunning plans, arguments of words, music and folklore shenanigans –AND, I believe, Shakespeare’s only instance of a character in drag! (Falstaff has to dress as the wonderfully named ”wise woman of Brainford” in order to escape detection by a suspicious jealous husband when visiting one of the ”merry wives”)

I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting The Merry Wives of Windsor and delighted in discovering new gems in its colourful kaleidoscope of comic treasures. Many of the puns and clever twists of language are easier to appreciate when reading rather than seeing a performance when one is naturally drawn along more by all the visual information of plot, character and action. But it is primarily a play to delight in and be carried along by rather than to dwell too much on, or seek deeper meaning in, other than an appreciation of what you are presented with –skillful construction, high comedy, memorable characters, and lots and lots of fun. And I’m sure Elizabeth I must have been delighted too!

Favourite Line:

Falstaff
I cannot cog, and say thou art this and that, like a many of these lisping, hawthorn-buds that come like women in men’s apparel, and smell like Bucklersburry in simple time; I cannot; but I love thee, none but thee; and thou deserv’st it.
(Act III, Sc.3)

Character I would most like to play: Falstaff (But Ford, Doctor Caius and Sir Hugh Evans are all delightfully appealing parts too.)