152 HENRY IV PART 2
companion, might have misused
their friendship by claiming that
his sister Nell and Hal will marry.
Though Poins dismisses this as
Falstaff’s lie, there is a new unease
in Eastcheap.
Time is running out, flesh is
weak, and dreams decay. This
vulnerability to time and its
deceptions is described in the
Induction to the play, which is
spoken by the figure of Rumour,
possibly wearing a robe decorated
with tongues. He not only reveals
the lie about Hotspur’s death, but
says that the greater danger comes
from the lies we tell ourselves:
“smooth comforts false, worse than
true wrongs” (Induction.40–41).Looking back
Characters spend much time
revisiting and revising the past in
this play, and almost unthinkingly
rework history to suit the present.
For example, the barons justify
their continued rebellion with
reference to the death of Richard II,
and promises made but not fulfilled
by Henry since becoming king.
They overlook their own complicity
in Henry’s rise to power and
dangerously underestimate how far
the king will go to “wipe his tables
clean” (4.1.199). Fearful and unable
to sleep, Henry also looks back
at that time and marvels at how
easily the barons seem to switch
allegiance. In doing so, he forgets
how he, too, betrayed a king.
Meanwhile, profiting from the lie
that he killed Hotspur, Falstaff has
recast himself as a gentleman and
adopted airs and graces he can ill
afford. He is confronted in the street
by the Lord Chief Justice who is
unamused by the wit with which
the fat knight usually extricates
himself from trouble. Now Justiceitself warns Falstaff that time is
short and judgment inevitable.
At the play’s end this same Justice
will imprison Falstaff for debt.
The rebels also find that time is
not on their side. Northumberland
hears the falsehood of his son’s
victory before learning of his death,
and news of his own departure for
Scotland reaches his fellow barons
too late for remedy. Prince John
takes timely advantage of this
weakened position to spring his
trap. Although Morton is uneasy, the
other rebel leaders trust the Prince’s
word and rashly dismiss their forcesLanguage and place The Eastcheap tavern is a place
of transit through which pass
characters whom Shakespeare
identifies by their idiosyncrasies
of speech: Ensign Pistol’s empty
bombast; Mistress Quickly’s
sentimental picturing of the
past; Bardolph’s monosyllabic
utterances, and Doll’s abuse.
In contrast, Gloucestershire
folk are rooted to and identified by
place: John Doit of Staffordshire;
Will Squeal, a Cotswold man;
Clement Perkes o’th’Hill. Unlike
Eastcheap, there is a deep sense
of continuity in the country,
and of events driven more by theseasons than by man. Falstaff
contaminates this English
idyll. In a telling moment,
Feeble, a woman’s tailor,
speaks out against Falstaff’s
corrupt recruiting practices and
declares that he is proud to die
for King and country: “No man’s
too good to serve’s prince...
Faith, I’ll bear no base mind”
(3.2.234–235,238). Feeble’s
simple integrity puts Falstaff’s
enterprise to shame. It also
rejects the calculating baseness
of mind that ultimately derives
from the very king whom Feeble
would give his life for.Sir John, Sir John, I am well
acquainted with your manner
of wrenching the true cause
the false way.
Lord Chief Justice
Act 2, Scene 1God knows, my son,
By what bypaths and indirect
crook’d ways
I met this crown
King Henry
Act 4, Scene 3