Numbers (but not overall) and More Expectations

In The First Part of Henry the Fourth, there are 18 scenes.

In The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, there are 19 (plus the Induction).
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Expectations

OK, so The First Part of Henry the Fourth gave us a rebellious Hal, a rebel Hotspur, a wild Falstaff and a pretty boring Henry. When the play ends, Hotspur is dead, Hal a hero and reunited with his father, but the rebellion is not over.

So what is our expectation for The Second Part of Henry the Fourth?
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Act Three: The Chimes at Midnight

It is only with the beginning of Act Three of The Second Part of Henry the Fourth that we finally meet our titular king. He enters in his nightgown, sending off a page to get Surrey and Warwick. This is not what we expect the king to be: he’s a dying man. But he cannot sleep:

O sleep, O gentle sleep,
Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down
And steep my senses in forgetfulness?

— III.i.5-8

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Act Two: Our Titular King is Still Missing in Action

The second act of The Second Part of Henry the Fourth takes us back to the tavern in Eastcheap, where Mistress Quickly is demanding that Officer Fang (a great name, no?) arrest Falstaff for non-payment of his bills. What follows is a mixture of Quick-Lay’s inadvertent bawdy references (“He stabbed me in mine own house” [II.i.13-14] and “my exion is entered and my case so openly known to the world” [II.i.28-29]), and Fang’s not-so-inadvertent ones (“I care not for his thrust” [II.i.18]). When Falstaff enters, the officers (now accompanied by the Chief Justice) attempt to do their duty, and he tries to talk his way out of it, only to be confronted by this new accusation by Quickly:

Thou didst swear to me then, as I was washing thy wound, to marry me and make me my lady thy wife. Canst thou deny it?

— II.i.88-90

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Act One: Rumor, Rebels, and an Old Fat Man

As I noted yesterday, The Second Part of Henry the Fourth doesn’t begin with a scene with the current king or even the next one. Instead, we get an Induction (an introduction), spoken by “Rumor, painted full of tongues” (I.induction, opening stage direction). Bizarre as it sounds, it’s a great opening: “Open your ears, for which of you will stop // The vent of hearing when loud Rumor speaks?” (I.induction.1-2). [Man, is that insight into the human condition, or what!] Rumor goes on to discuss his worldwide state, and then presents the news from the end of The First Part of Henry the Fourth, “King Harry’s victory … (at) Shrewsbury” (I.induction.23-24). Rumor then chides himself:

                                   But what mean I
To speak so true at first? my office is
To noise abroad that Harry Monmouth fell
Under the wrath of noble Hotspur's sword,
And that the king before the Douglas' rage
Stooped his anointed head as low as death.

— I.induction.28-32

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Podcast 64: The First Part of Henry the Fourth: Wrap-Up and Production Concepts

This week’s podcast concludes our month-long discussion of The First Part of Henry the Fourth with some overall final thoughts, a production concept and a possible cast for the play. Then, we’ll finish up with our usual recap of this week’s blog entries.
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The First Part of Henry the Fourth: Wrap Up

So some final thoughts… before I take the next couple of days off. I like The First Part of Henry the Fourth. A lot. I rate it just below Richard the Third as my second favorite history, and in the top five of all the Canon thus far, in my humble opinion (I still rate Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer, Titus, and of course Dickie Three ahead).

Why?
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The First Part of Henry the Fourth: Numbers Overall

The First Part of Henry the Fourth

  • 2993 total lines; longer than average play and shorter than average history (average play: 2777; average history: 3009)
  • At 532 and 850 lines respectively, Act Two, Scene Four and the entirety of Act Two are the longest of their kinds in the Canon
  • Act One: 617 lines; longer than average (average play: 590, average history: 612)
  • Act Two: 850 lines; longer than the average (average play: 568, average history: 621)
  • Act Three: 650 lines; longer than average (average play: 576, average history: 632)
  • Act Four: 369 lines; shorter than average (average play: 563, average history: 651)
  • Act Five: 507 lines; longer than average (average play: 480, average history: 493)
  • 1338 lines of prose, the most of any play thus far in the Canon (44.7% of total lines [as opposed to The Comedy of Errors: 13.31%, Titus Andronicus: 1.39%, The Taming of the Shrew: 20.82%, 1HenryVI: 0.37%, 2HenryVI: 16.64%, 3HenryVI: 0.14%, Richard III: 2.89%, Love’s Labor’s Lost: 35.08%, The Two Gentlemen of Verona: 26.81%, A Midsummer Night’s Dream: 19.75%, Romeo and Juliet: 14.18%, King John: 0.0%, The Merchant of Venice: 21.79%, and Richard the Second: 0%])
  • 31 rhyming lines, the fewest of any play thus far in the Canon (18.95% of total lines [as opposed to Comedy: 20.10%, Titus: 2.42%, Taming: 3.93%, 1HenryVI: 9.79%, 2HenryVI: 3.16%, 3HenryVI: 5.37%, Richard III: 7.55%, LLL: 40.86%, 2Gents: 35.08%, Midsummer: 43.5%, Romeo: 16.61%, King John: 6.19%, Merchant: 5.16%, and Richard II: 18.95%])
  • 19 scenes; less than average (average play: 21; average history: 24)
  • 34 characters (average play: 36, average history: 47)

Our Monthly Visit to Bawdyville (for shizzle… or is that for “pizzle”?)

[WARNING: ADULT LANGUAGE AHEAD]

The First Part of Henry the Fourth, while not as “dirty” as either the Second Part and Henry the Fifth that come after (at least according to critics… and btw, did you see what I did there?), has more bawdy references than the almost virginally clean Richard the Second.

Let’s take a gander, shall we?
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