Henry IV, Part 2, relish of the saltness of time, blasted with antiquity, gentle sleep, Nature's soft nurse

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Henry IV, Part 2

     A tale of heart-breaking betrayal, as shocking as any on FX (Fargo, House of Cards). 

     I am not particularly interested in history, American or British aristocracy, modern or Medieval, but as usual I have read this play for the beauty of the characters and the language, the poetic images and the insights into human nature. 

   The ending was such a sorrowful shock that it struck me to the core.  How many dear friendships have I betrayed and thrown to the wayside?  Where has the innocence of my youth, with its happiness and exuberance, gone?  Who have I become?  (It reminds me of the quote, “I am not who I am.”) 

     It is no secret that Falstaff is Harold Bloom’s favorite of the hundreds of Shakespeare’s characters: his intelligence and wit, his love of life, his humor and bon ami.  His faults are forever forgivable due to his charm and loyalty.  He epitomizes Shakespeare’s “panoply of puns” that Bloom extols. 

     Below are my favorite quotes, especially on aging (decreasing leg, an increasing belly; some relish of the saltness of time; blasted with antiquity), grief, sex (desire outlives the performance), puns (in purse and in person), healing (gentle sleep, Nature’s soft nurse), war and peace (the silver hand of peace; turning your books to war, your ink to blood) and such iconic sayings as 'eating me out of house and home,' and, 'dead as a doornail'.

 

Characters:

          King Henry IV

          Prince Hal:  son of King Henry IV, who will become King Henry V.  His other names are Prince of Wales, Prince Henry, Prince of Monmouth. 

          Sir John Falstaff: the lustful, drinking buddy of Prince Hal. 

Vocabulary

Orient (East), scurvy, avoirdupois, so (seven times); treble hautboy (oboe), Erebus, Cerberus, suborned, Hydra, fear and trembling, aconitum, imputation, ebon, gormandizing, Lethe, semper diem (ever the same), obsque hoc nihil (without this, nothing), gormandizing (about Falstaff)

Quotes:

     “He hath eaten me out of house and home” Hostess about Falstaff.  2.1.75,76

     “What, is the old king dead?”  Falstaff

     “As nail in door.”  Pistol.  5.3.122,123

“from the Orient to the drooping west”  Rumor.  1.1.3

“Thou tremblest, and the whiteness in thy cheek

Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand.” 
Northumberland, upon being told that his son has been killed by Prince Hal.  1.1.68,69

(medicine)

“In poison there is physic…that would have made me sick,

Being sick, have in some measure made me well.” Northumberland.  1.1.136, 137

 

“Boy, tell him I am deaf.”  Falstaff. 

“I am sure he is – to the hearing of anything good.”  Chief Justice.  1.2. 69-72

(age)

“Your lordship…hath yet some smack of an age in you, some relish of the saltness of time in you.”  Falstaff  1.2.99-102

(poverty)

“I am as poor as Job, my lord, but not so patient.”  Falstaff.  1.2.131, 132

“Your means are very slender and your waste is great.”  Chief Justice to Falstaff. 

“I would it were otherwise.  I would my means were greater and my waist slender. “  Falstaff.  1.2.145, 148 

(age)

“You are as a candle, the better part burnt out.”  Chief Justice.  1.2.161-162

“His effect of gravy, gravy, gravy.”  Falstaff, speaking of the gravity of age.  1.2.168

“You that are old consider not the capacities of us that are young…”  Falstaff.

“Have you not a moist eye, a dry hand, a yellow cheek, a white beard, a decreasing leg, an increasing belly?  Is not your voice broken, your wind short, your chin double, your wit single, and every part about you blasted with antiquity, and will you not yet call yourself young?  Fie, fie, fie, Sir John!”  Chief Justice to Falstaff.  1.2. 180-193

“I am old, I am old.”  Falstaff.  2.4.278

(sex)

“Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?”  Poins.

“Kiss me, Doll.”  Falstaff to his girlfriend.  2.4.267-269

 

“No, no, no, not so.”  Falstaff.  2.4.317

“No abuse, Hal.  None, Ned, none.  No, faith, boys, none.”  Falstaff.  2.4.331-332

“It doth.  It doth.  It doth.”  Pistol.  5.5.20

“Where’s the roll?  Where’s the roll?  Where’s the roll?  Let me see, let me see, let me see.  So, so, so, so, so, so – so.”  Shallow to Falstaff.  3.2.100-102

(sleep)

“O gentle sleep, Nature’s soft nurse.”  King Henry IV.  3.1. 5,6

“A pox of this gout!  Or a gout of this pox!”  Falstaff.  1.2.254

“And did thou not kiss me and bid me fetch thee thirty shillings?”  Hostess about Falstaff.  2.1.103-104

“(you have) made her serve your uses both in purse and in person.”  Chief Justice about Falstaff’s relationship with the Hostess.  2.1. 119-120

(assertiveness)

“You call honorable boldness impudent sauciness.”  Falstaff.  2.1.126-127

 

“the sun In the gray vault of heaven”  Lady Percy, wife of Hotspur.  2.3.18-19

(grief)

“(I) never shall have length of life enough

To rain upon remembrance with mine eyes.”  Lady Percy’s grief about her slain husband.  2.4.58-59
 

“A good heart’s worth gold.”  Hostess.  2.4.31-32

 

“Shadow, whose son art thou?” Falstaff.

“My mother’s son, sir.”  Shadow. 

“…and thy Father’s shadow.  So the son of the female is the shadow of the male.”  Falstaff.  3/2/130-134

(retirement)

“He is retired, to ripe his growing fortunes.”  Archbishop.  4.1.23

(peace)

“Whose beard the silver hand of peace hath touched.”  Westmoreland.  4.1.43

(war)

“…the harsh and boisterous tongue of war,

Turning your books to graves, your ink to blood,

Your pens to lances, and your tongue divine

To a loud trumpet and a point of war.”  Westmoreland.  4.1.49-52

(wine)

“…nor a man cannot make him laugh.  But that’s no marvel, he drinks no wine.”  Falstaff.  4.3.90-93

 

(anger)

“…being incensed, he’s flint.”  King Henry IV.  4.4.33

(wealth)

“She either gives a stomach and no food –

Such as the poor, in health – or else a feast

And takes away the stomach – such as the rich

That have abundance and enjoy it not.”  King Henry IV.  4.4.105-108

 

(sin)

“….commit the oldest sins the newest kind of ways.”  King Henry IV.  4.5.125,126

“The tide of blood in me hath proudly flowed in vanity till now.

Now doth it turn and ebb back to the sea.”  King Henry V. 5.3.129-131

(longevity, happiness)

“And a merry heart lives long”  Silence.  5.3.49

“What wind blew you hither, Pistol?”  Falstaff.  5.3.86

(betrayal)

“I know thee not, old man.” King Henry V to Falstaff.  5.5.48