39 BULLCALF As his name suggests, Peter Bullcalf is a young man of considerable physical prowess, and therefore the most likely recruit; but ironically, as a coward who would rather be hanged than serve, he is the first to offer Bardolph a bribe.

  40 LADY NORTHUMBERLAND Not Hotspur’s mother, Lady Northumberland was the Earl’s second wife, Maud Lucy, the widow of Gilbert Umfraville, Earl of Angus, and daughter of Lord Thomas Lucy. Her inheritance of the Lucy family estates made Northumberland the largest landowner in Cumberland. After Maud died in 1398, Northumberland did not marry again. Shakespeare thus takes poetic licence by resurrecting her for a scene (2.3) which occurs just prior to the Prelate’s Rebellion in 1405.

  41 LADY PERCY Widow of Hotspur, Elizabethan Mortimer (1371–1444?) was the older sister of Sir Edmund Mortimer, whom Shakespeare mistakenly identifies as the man Richard II had designated heir presumptive to the throne, when in fact the designated heir was Mortimer’s nephew, 5th Earl of March. She plays a larger and more comic role in 1H4, where she is called Kate, than in this play, where her stinging denunciation of Northumberland for his abandonment of Hotspur at Shrewsbury persuades him to flee to Scotland.

  42 HOSTESS Quickly proprietress of the Eastcheap tavern commonly called the Boar’s Head (see 2.2.142–3n.). In 1H4 Mistress Quickly is the wife of an honest man (3.3.93), but in 2H4 she claims to be a widow (2.1.68) whom Falstaff has sworn for the past 20 years to marry. A middle-aged woman whose tavern runs the risk of becoming known as a brothel, she yearns for the respectability that marriage to a knight – Sir John – would bring her; yet her idiosyncratic speech, full of comic malapropisms and inadvertent double entendres, reveals much of what she tries to keep hidden, including her moral laxity as a business woman and her sexual history with Falstaff.

  43 DOLL Tearsheet Falstaff’s favourite whore and apparently an employee of Mistress Quickly, Doll has a tempestuous relationship with Pistol which culminates in their allegedly beating a man to death at the tavern (5.4.15–17), for which she and the Hostess are arrested. With Falstaff, however, Doll is indulgently affectionate: their unsentimental farewell as he goes off to war (2.4) is one of the most indelible scenes in the play. Doll’s name reveals her occupation, variations having appeared in earlier works such as the Playe of Robyn Hode (c. 1560): ‘She is a trul of trust, to serve a frier at his lust, / A prycker, a prauncer, a terer of shetes’ (116–17; Ritson, 2.199. Steevens4 noted the parallel).

  44 EPILOGUE The epilogue may in fact be two discrete epilogues fused together for the publication of Q in 1600. The speaker of the first may have been Shakespeare himself; of the second, the actor who played Falstaff, possibly Will Kemp, a notable dancer. For a full account of the Epilogue.

  45 FRANCIS A drawer – that is, one who draws liquor to serve customers – at the Hostess’s tavern, Francis was the object of mean-spirited mockery by the Prince and Poins in 1H4. In 2H4, they continue to mock him by mimicking his phrase Anon, anon, sir when they disguise themselves as drawers (2.4.285).

  47 BEADLES sheriff’s officers or under-bailiffs whose job it was to punish petty offenders. The SD in Q names the pale, skeletally thin John Sincklo as the actor intended for the speaking role, suggesting its comic dimension: see 5.4.0.1–2n.

  48 STREWERS So listed in Q, but as ‘Groomes’ in F, these attendants were charged with strewing rushes on streets as a sign of deference before the passing of a royal procession.

  INDUCTION Act and scene divisions in this edition for the most part follow those in F. All variants are recorded in the textual notes. The first such variant occurs with the Induction, which F labels Scene 1 (Scena Prima), requiring subsequent scenes in Act 1 to be numbered 2, 3 and 4 (Secunda, Tertia and Quarta). The current edition adheres to scene divisions for Act 1 established by 18th-century editors; the numbers of these scenes appear in brackets to signal them as variants from F. Two other variants occur in Act 4, when this edition numbers as a separate scene (4.2) one which in F is indivisible from 4.1, requiring that the following scene also be renumbered (4.3). No act and scene divisions are provided by Q.

  The Induction serves as a prologue to the play. Capell, taking his cue from 35–7, locates the scene specifically before Warkworth Castle, the Percys’ principal seat, to which, according to Holinshed (3.524), Northumberland had retreated upon hearing news that Westmorland was advancing against him.

  0.1–2 Rumour is akin to the allegorical figures of medieval Morality plays and Tudor interludes. The original source of the figure here was probably Fama in Virgil’s Aeneid, 4.181–90, an indiscriminate reporter of fact, fiction and gossip who was depicted as having many eyes and tongues: ‘she is a vast, fearful monster, with a watchful eye miraculously set under every feather which grows on her, and for every one of them a tongue in a mouth which is loud of speech, and an ear ever alert’. As Shaaber demonstrates (Variorum, 10–11), Shakespeare’s audiences would have been familiar with the appearance of such a figure. Thomas More, in a pageant devised c. 1492 and printed in 1557, portrayed Fame ‘with tonges … compassed all rounde’ (Works, 1.5); in 1509, Fame became ‘A goodly lady, envyroned about / With tongues of fire’ in Stephen Hawes’s Pastime of Pleasure (156–7); and in a court pageant presented before Henry VIII in 1519, the figure of Report entered ‘apparelled in crimson sattin full of toongs’ (Holinshed, 3.849). By 1553, when the Revels Office paid ‘for paintinge of a cote and a Capp with Ies [eyes] tonges and eares for fame’ (Feuillerat, 142), the costume had hardened into a convention.

  1–2 stop … hearing plug up your ear. Cf. 1.1.79.

  TITLE] THE / Second part of Henrie / the fourth, continuing to his death, / and coronation of Henrie / the fift. / With the humours of sir Iohn Fal- / staffe, and swaggering / Pistoll. / As it hath been sundrie times publikely / acted by the right honourable, the Lord / Chamberlaine his seruants. Q; The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, / Containing his Death: and the Coronation / of King Henry the Fift. F

  INDUCTION] F (Actus Primus. Scoena Prima. / INDVCTION.); not in Q 0.1–2 painted … tongues] Q; not in F 1 SP] Capell; not in QF

  3 Rumour follows the course of the sun, which rises in the east (orient) and drops, or ‘droops’, in the west; drooping is a transferred epithet. By circling the earth, Rumour gains the status of a natural phenomenon.

  4 post-horse horse kept at an inn for use by post-riders or for hire by travellers. The duty of post-riders, who were stationed at regular intervals along post-roads, was to ride as quickly as possible to the next post bearing packets, messages and letters (OED sb.2 1). Equestrian imagery is continued in ride (6).

  still always, continually

  4–5 unfold / The acts unfold means to disclose, reveal or expose (OED v. 2). Metaphorically, Rumour regards itself as a theatrical producer, with acts referring to the performance of a play as well as to the actions of its characters.

  5 commenced commencèd

  6 tongues a probable reference to the tongues painted on, or affixed to, Rumour’s costume. F’s singular ‘Tongue’ may indicate a non-theatrical provenance for the F text.

  12 fearful … defence the conscription of soldiers and the preparation of defence predicated on fear. Such preparations were regularly made during 1595–7 in anticipation of a Spanish invasion that never occurred. Make and prepared, though different tenses, may be read as parallel verbs.

  13 big pregnant, as the next line makes clear

  15 And … matter. Q’s punctuation puts a full stop or period to the speculation advanced by the preceding question; F’s punctuation makes the resolution more tentative.

  15–16 pipe / Blown begins a musical metaphor in which a pipe, an archaic wind instrument akin to a recorder and consisting of a single tube made of reed, straw or wood, is said to be so simple in its fingering that anyone can play it (20). Cf. Hamlet’s use of a similar metaphor in Ham 3.2.342–63: ‘Do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you fret me you cannot play upon me’ (361–3).

  6 tongues] Q; Tongue F 8 men] Q; them F 13 Whiles] Q; Whil’st F grief] Q; griefes F 14–15 tyrant War? … matter.] Q; Tyrant, Warre, … matter? F

  16 Jealousy’s conjectures The capitalization of ‘Iealousies’ followed by the lower case ‘coniectures’ in Q, and the fact that the two words are not separated by a comma as they are in F, suggest that Jealousy is to be understood as an allegorical possessive. The conjectures prompted by Jealousy thus stand in apposition to surmises. Jealousy here may be more akin to suspicion (OED sb. 5) than to Envy, its traditional double. See 1.3.23n.

  17 stop the closing of an aperture or finger-hole in a wind instrument to change the pitch. The aural image is anticipated in ‘stop / The vent of hearing’ (1–2).

  18 blunt stupid, insensitive, obtuse (OED adj. 1)

  18–19 monster … multitude This unflattering image of the mob had proverbial force: ‘A multitude of people is a beast of many heads’ (Dent, M1308). Cf. the allusion to ‘this Hydra, son of war’ at 4.1.266. Shakespeare used the image twice in Cor: at 2.3.16–17: ‘the many-headed multitude’, and 4.1.1–2: ‘the beast / With many heads’.

  19 still discordant constantly bickering

  20 what … I what need is there for me to

  22 my household here, the theatre audience, with an implication that everyone present would be familiar with, and perhaps guilty of abusing, the ‘well-known body’ (21) of Rumour.

  23–7 I … blood Rumour summarizes events at the conclusion of 1H4 5.3–4 to set in relief the misinformation that follows.

  29 noise commonly used as a verb, meaning to report, rumour, or spread (OED v. 1)

  Harry Monmouth In 1387, Prince Henry was born in, and therefore named after, Monmouth in Wales.

  16 Jealousy’s conjectures] Oxf (Shaaber); Iealousies coniectures Q; Ielousies, Coniectures F 19 wav’ring] Q; wauering F 21 anatomize] Q (anothomize), F (Anathomize), F4 27 rebels’] Theobald2; rebels QF

  31 the Douglas’ The article before Douglas’s name distinguished him as the clan leader. The King’s Scottish antagonist in 1H4 was the same Earl of Douglas.

  33 peasant condescending term identifying the inhabitants as rude and ignorant, and presumably more susceptible to rumour

  34 royal i.e. because the King did battle there

  35 hole Theobald’s emendation, ‘Hold’, meaning a castle or fortification, is plausible in view of the frequent misreading of e as d in Elizabethan secretary hand; but the agreement of Q and F on hole, if one assumes that Q was not F’s source, would seem to have more authority here, given the imaginative association of hole with worm-eaten. A rhetorical contrast is drawn between ‘that royal field’ (34) and ‘this worm-eaten hole’ before which Rumour apparently stands.

  ragged stone denotes the rough projecting stonework typical of a fortress (Davison), but may also allude to the severe erosion of castles and city walls in Shakespeare’s day (Cam1).

  37 Lies crafty-sick feigns illness. While Holinshed (3.522), Daniel (CW, 3.97) and Shakespeare (in 1H4 4.1.16) all give ‘the sickness of Northumberland’ as the reason for his absence from Shrewsbury, none of them accuses him of deception. Nevertheless, Northumberland’s abandonment of his son at a critical moment seems strategic in 1H4, and he is rebuked for it in this play by Hotspur’s widow (2.3.10–16). Furthermore, Worcester’s claim in 1H4 that some may suspect that the Earl’s absence was prompted by ‘wisdom, loyalty, and mere dislike / Of our proceedings’ (4.1.61–4) rather than sickness introduces the possibility of craftiness – a possibility reinforced here by Lies.

  posts express couriers (see 4n.)

  tiring on riding hard, to the point of exhaustion; possibly, borrowing a term from hawking, tiring = tearing (Ard1)

  39 of … tongues Q’s punctuation, with a comma between ‘me’ and ‘from’ and another following ‘tongues’, creates a syntactic ambiguity; for the phrase ‘from Rumour’s tongues’ could function in apposition to ‘of me’ instead of introducing the clause in 40. F’s punctuation links the phrase to the final clause unambiguously.

  34 that] Q; the F 35 hole] QF; Hold Theobald 36 Where] F; When Q 39 of me. From] F; of me, from Q 40 SD] F; exit Rumours. Q

  1.1 The Induction locates this scene at a castle (35–7); historically, the Earl of Northumberland’s principal residence was Warkworth Castle in Northumberland. Shakespeare almost never specifies locations in stage directions, instead using dialogue to identify a place to the degree it might be necessary, and otherwise allowing the unlocalized empty stage to ensure fluidity of action. The most notable exception to this rule occurs in 4.1, where an opening SD identifies a precise location.

  0.1, 1 SD The nearly simultaneous entrances of Lord Bardolph and the Porter are resolved by F’s yoking them together as one entrance, but Q’s signalling the entrance of Lord Bardolph ‘at one doore’ would suggest that the Porter enters from another door in response to Lord Bardolph’s calling, not with him. The fact that Northumberland soon enters through a gate (5) at which Lord Bardolph is told to knock indicates that there may have been three points of entry. In modern productions, Northumberland is often revealed standing or sitting centre stage as the scene begins, with Lord Bardolph entering to him from upstage; and as a result, lines 2–6 are cut.

  0.1 LORD BARDOLPH here, as in Holinshed, Northumberland’s closest ally, who conspired with him against the King in 1405 (presumably the date of this scene; cf. 189–209n.) and who, as is reported at 4.3.97–9, joined him in defeat at the Battle of Bramham Moor in 1408. When, in revising 1H4, Shakespeare altered the name of Oldcastle’s lowlife companion from Sir John Russell to Bardolph, he may not have envisaged using this section of Holinshed and risking confusion by having two characters with the name Bardolph in 2H4. See 2.2.0.1n.

  2 What who

  3 attend wait for, await

  4 orchard a garden for both herbs and fruit trees (OED sb. 1a obs.)

  1.1] Pope (Act I. Scene I.); Scena Secunda. F; not in Q 0.1] Q; Enter Lord Bardolfe, and the Porter. F; Porter before the Gate; Enter Lord Bardolph. Capell; The Porter above the Gate. Enter Lord Bardolph. / Singer2 (Collier); Enter the Lord Bardolph at one door [, and the Porter at another] Cam2 BARDOLPH] QF (Bardolfe), Rowe 1 SD] this edn

  5 Please it if it would please; a stock deferential phrase

  6.1–2 Northumberland enters before Lord Bardolph has a chance to knock for him. According to 145–7, he carries a crutch and is wearing a coif – a close-fitting cap tied under the chin, often worn by men as a nightcap (OED sb. 1) – both of which suggest illness.

  8 Should … of is likely to beget. The image of paternity, used here for the first time, has relevance not only to Northumberland’s having failed his son at Shrewsbury, but to Harry’s fraught relationship with his father and his two father surrogates, Falstaff and the Lord Chief Justice.

  stratagem a violent or bloody deed; alternatively, an artifice or trick designed to outwit or surprise an enemy (OED sb. 1–3). Both senses are appropriate here.

  10 of high feeding with the eating of rich food (OED high adj. 8). The implication is that the political strife (contention) which led to war in 1H4 has been so well nourished that it is out of control.

  11 bears down tramples

  12 certain definite

  13 an God will if God is willing

  15 fortune case, situation

  16 both the Blunts evidence of garbled report or false rumour. In 1H4 Sir Walter Blunt is slain by Douglas at the Battle of Shrewsbury, where he was marching in the King’s coat (5.3.13); and although Holinshed provides discrepant accounts of Sir Walter’s death as though he were in fact two people, on the list of the slain only one Sir Walter Blunt is named (3.523). Daniel, on the other hand, reports that both Sir Walter and another Blunt, ‘the kings Standard bearer’, were killed at Shrewsbury (CW, 3.111, 112). Holinshed credits ‘an English knight, one sir Iohn Blunt’ with defending an English fortress in France in 1412 (3.540), and a John Blunt enters as a ghost character in the Qb issue of this play at 3.1.31. A Blunt is told to lead Collevile to execution in F (4.2.73) and is listed in a SD in Q (5.2.41).

  17–18 Young … field another instance of false rumour. Sources agree that Stafford did not flee but was killed at Shrewsbury, fighting (like Walter Blunt) in the King’s armour and apparel: see 1H4 5.3.7–9; Holinshed, 3.523; and Daniel, CW, 3.113. They make no mention of Prince John or Westmorland at Shrewsbury.

  6 SD1.1] Q; Enter Northumberland. F SD1.2] Oxf subst. SD2] Dyce; not in QF 7 Every] Q; Eu’ry F

  13 an God] and God Q; and heauen F

  19 brawn a swine or boar fattened for the table (OED sb. 4); cf. 1H4 2.4.106–7: ‘that damned brawn’. Appropriately, these and other epithets for Falstaff ‘recall the chief stock-in-trade of the victuallers and butchers of Eastcheap, namely, meat of all kinds’ (Wilson, Fortunes, 27).

  hulk a large merchant ship; figuratively, a big, unwieldy person (OED sb. 1, 4). For a comic expansion of the analogy, see 2.4.63–6.

  20 day! Q’s punctuation emphasizes the exclamatory nature of the phrase, though the syntax nevertheless requires day to be the subject of the sentence, as in F.

  21 The triple alliteration echoes Caesar’s ‘veni, vidi, vici’ (‘I came, I saw, I conquered’), anticipating not only the mention of Caesar’s fortunes at 23, but Falstaff’s parody and quotation of Caesar’s line at 2.2.123–4 and 4.2.41–2.

  followed supported by loyal troops

  23 fortunes victories

  How … derived? ‘What is the source of your information?’ See OED derive ppl.a.

  17+ Douglas] QF (Dowglas) 18+ Westmorland] QF (Westmerland) 20 day!] Q; Day, F

  27 freely unreservedly, of his own accord

  30 overrode Either overtook (OED over-ride v. 4) or out-rode (Cam1). How one understands the context will determine which gloss is appropriate. There are two scenarios. In the first, ‘overtook’ suggests that Lord Bardolph and Travers were riding in the same direction, towards Warkworth – the former to impart to Northumberland the news he had heard from a gentleman well bred (26) who had come from Shrewsbury, the latter to bring a less sanguine report. Travers claims to have been turned … back (34) in his quest for news about the rebels’ fate by Sir John Umfreville, possibly the same gentleman Lord Bardolph had encountered, who imparted joyful tidings (35) to him and then sped away (Out-rode me, 36). But on his ride back to Warkworth, during which he was overtaken by Lord Bardolph, Travers encountered another gentleman (37) who bore contrary news. The problem with this scenario is that Lord Bardolph claims that Travers ‘is furnished with no certainties / More than he haply may retail from me’ (31–2), which would contradict Travers’s claim that he heard the good news from Umfreville. If, however, Bardolph and Umfreville are one and the same (see 34n.), the scenario changes, and ‘out-rode’ becomes the more sensible gloss for overrode. Travers, travelling towards Shrewsbury in search of news, met Lord Bardolph on the way and was turned … back by his reports of the rebels’ success. Lord Bardolph, being better horsed (35), then out-rode Travers (who in the meantime met the second gentleman) and got to Northumberland before him. In this case, Lord Bardolph’s claim that he overrode Travers would simply anticipate, and make redundant, Travers’s report that Bardolph had outridden him. Why would Shakespeare have included this information twice, and altered the verb in the process? The second scenario is perhaps more attractive because simpler, but it relies on speculation that Shakespeare meant to change the name Umfreville to Bardolph, something which, however likely, neither Q nor F confirms. Either scenario, however, dramatizes the process by which historical fact is altered in the telling.