THE SECOND PART OF

KING HENRY THE FOURTH

MOULDY, SHADOW, WART, FEEBLE, and BULLCALF,

recruits.

FANG and SNARE, sheriff's officers.

LADY NORTHUMBERLAND.

LADY PERCY.

MISTRESS QUICKLY, hostess of a tavern in Eastcheap.

DOLL TEARSHEET.

Lords and Attendants; Porter, Drawers, Beadles, Grooms, etc. A Dancer, speaker of the epilogue.

SCENE: England.

DURATION OF TIME

Historic Time.-July 21, 1403, to April 9, 1413.

Dramatic Time.-Nine historic days with three extra Falstaffian days and intervals.

THE SECOND PART OF

KING HENRY THE FOURTH

INDUCTION.

Warkworth. Before the castle.

Enter Rumour, painted full of tongues.

Rum. Open your ears; for which of you will
stop

The vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks?
I, from the orient to the drooping west,
Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold
The acts commenced on this ball of earth:
Upon my tongues continual slanders ride,
The which in every language I pronounce,
Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.
I speak of peace, while covert enmity
Under the smile of safety wounds the world:
And who but Rumour, who but only I,
Make fearful musters and prepared defence,

Ind. Rumour, painted full of tongues. 'Rumour,' thus symbolically arrayed, frequently figured in Court pageants throughout the sixteenth century. The idea

10

was ultimately derived from Vergil's picture of Fama, Aen. iv. 173 f.

2. vent, aperture.