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The Debasement of Language
One of the central themes running throughout Henry IV, Part 2 pertains to the universal debasement of language. The prologue that opens the play introduces this theme through a figure named Rumor, who boasts of their ability to speak every language and thereby “[stuff] the ears of men with false reports” (Prologue.8). The deceitful manipulations of Rumor prepare the audience to attend closely to how language will be debased in the drama to come. And there are many ways in which language’s debasement comes through. Among the lower-class characters, for example, language often gets marred by malapropism and mindless repetition. Mistress Quickly constantly misuses words, such as “continuantly” instead of “continuously” (2.1.25). She also tends to repeat phrases: “I have borne, and borne, and borne, and have been fubbed off, and fubbed off, and fubbed off from this day to that day” (2.1.32–34). Justice Shallow shares this propensity for inane repetition, reflecting a shallowness that’s enshrined in his name. And indeed, names in this play—for example, Silence, Fang, Snare, Mouldy, Wart, Feeble—often have a flattening function, reducing minor characters to personality traits and “humors.”
But perhaps the most important signs of the debasement of language are the instances where language is either hollowed out of meaning or else wielded like a weapon. Ancient Pistol offers a good example of empty speech. His manner of speaking features a garbled hybrid of refined literary allusions and vulgar sex jokes. No one in the play ever seems to understand him completely. Even Falstaff, the greatest wit in the entire play, derides the speech of his ensign, declaring: “he do nothing but speak nothing” (2.4.194–95). Though harmless in itself, Pistol’s hollow speech reflects something of the man’s “swaggering” personality, which is easily excited to violence. This connection between language and violence becomes much clearer in act 4, scene 1, where John of Lancaster defeats the rebels with a deceitful promise. Pledging to address their grievances, he convinces the rebel leaders to dismantle their army. Once done, however, he immediately arrests the leaders and orders their execution, breaking his word in the cruelest way imaginable. Significantly, John is acting as the king’s deputy in this matter. As such, his deceitful manipulation of language reflects negatively on Henry, the main grievances against whom are also related to broken promises.
The Burden of the Past
As the third play in a series of four, the burden of the past weighs heavily in Henry IV, Part 2. For audiences familiar with the previous two plays in the tetralogy (Richard II and Henry IV, Part 1), it will be clear how heavily past events, rivalries, and betrayals weigh on the current drama. Foremost among these past events is King Henry IV’s deposition of Richard II, and his subsequent tendency to break the oaths he made to those who enabled his rise to the throne. The animosity occasioned by Henry’s careless treatment of his former allies has led to the rebellion and civil war that’s already in progress as the play opens. In the opening scene, we witness Northumberland learn the bitter news of the death of his son, Hotspur, which was depicted in Part 1. Likewise, we observe the fearful deference shown to Falstaff based on the fabricated story that he was Hotspur’s killer, also depicted in Part 1. These and many other past events echo throughout Part 2, which infuses the play with the apocalyptic sense of one historical era coming to an end and another about to begin.
Of all the characters in the play, the one who feels the burden of the past most acutely is King Henry IV himself. So wracked is he by the stress and anxiety of his position that he has fallen gravely ill with an unspecified sickness that seems to have plagued all of England with a spiritual disease. Indeed, references to sickness and disease abound in the play, establishing an important motif that pertains to commoners and nobles alike. But symbolically, the sickness originates with Henry and what he himself refers to as the “bypaths and indirect crook’d ways / I met this crown” (4.3.342–43). It is the burden of these deceitful “ways” that has weighed most heavily on Henry, and he hopes to avoid passing this weight on to his son, Prince Harry. Despite frequently worrying that Harry’s rule will be disastrous, Henry ends his life with a more positive outlook. He tells Harry that, with his death, “all the soil” and dirty business that enabled his ascent to the throne “goes / With me into the earth” (4.3.347–48). Disburdened of the past in this way, the crown will sit lighter upon Harry’s head.
The Struggle to Reckon with the Present
Many of the characters in Henry IV, Part 2 struggle to make sense of the present moment in all its chaos and confusion. The Earl of Northumberland comments on this struggle in the play’s opening scene, where he laments that “the times are wild” (1.1.12). He goes on to describe how the kingdom is in a horrible muddle of various conflicts. In addition to the ongoing struggle to quell resistance movements in Wales and Scotland, the kingdom is also wracked by a rebellion that aims at deposing the current king. Matters are even more complicated for Northumberland, given his increasingly tenuous relationship with the rebellion. Northumberland has pretended to be sick to avoid leading his troops to war, which resulted in a disastrous loss at the Battle of Shrewsbury. Though dramatized at the end of Henry IV, Part 1, Northumberland will learn the full extent of the damage later in this scene—including the death of his beloved son, Hotspur. News of this loss will lead him to further confusion about whether to rejoin the rebels or withdraw completely. Northumberland’s struggle epitomizes the struggle of many in the play to see a way through the present.
In a play so thoroughly conditioned by the recent past and filled with future visions, the present moment proves the most difficult to contend with. Perhaps the most dramatic example of this challenge to reckon with the confusion of the present comes in act 4, scene 1. There, the Earl of Westmoreland and John of Lancaster convince the rebel leaders to surrender under false premises. To achieve this deceit, Westmoreland specifically urges the rebel leaders to “construe the times to their necessities,” which will reveal that “indeed it is the time / And not the King, that doth you injuries” (4.1.109–111). Westmoreland insists that the material conditions of the present have caused the rebels grief, and not the king. In saying this, however, Westmoreland in fact causes the rebels to misconstrue the times. That is, he manipulates them into misreading the present situation, where they are being deceived so as to be arrested and executed. In a moment of tragic irony, the Archbishop reflects on the conditions that make such a horrific misinterpretation possible: “The time misordered doth, in common sense, / Crowd us and crush us to this monstrous form” (4.1.278–79). The confusion of the present ultimately destroys them.
