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THE SECOND PART;

A HISTORICAL PLAY,

IN FIVE ACTS;

BY WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

AS PERFORMED AT THE

THEATRE ROYAL, COVENT GARDEN.

PRINTED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE MANAGERS

FROM THE PROMPT BOOK.

WITH REMARKS

BY MRS. INCHBALD.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, AND ORME,

PATERNOSTER ROW.

The characters here delineated, it is to be remembered, lived four centuries ago, and the transactions exhibited took place within the space of nine years.

The First Part of Henry the Fourth, having ended with the death of Hotspur, and defeat of the rebels, this following part commences at a period but little distant, and closes with the death of Henry the Fourth, and the coronation of his son, the once depraved Prince of Wales.

After the three first acts have displayed the comic persons of the drama, with all the modes and manners of the years annexed to 1400; combining, with such persons and fashions, minds, characters, and propensities, which belong to every age the fourth act accurately describes the following remarkable event, taken from history.

Holinshed, writing on the death of Henry the Fourth, says, "During his last sickness, he caused his crown to be set on a pillow, on his bed's head, and suddenly, his pangs so sore troubled him, that he laie as though all his vital spirits had been from him departed. Such as were about him thinking verily he had been departed, covered his face with a linen cloth. The prince his son being hereof advertised, entered into the chamber, took away the crown."Here the poet concludes, and most awfully enforces the death-bed scene.

In the last act, the conversation of Henry the Fifth with the lord chief justice, is founded on the well-known occurrence which took place between him and Sir William Gascoigne, in the court of King's

Bench, when Henry was Prince of Wales. Sir William was supreme judge of that court, in the reign of Henry the Fourth :-" in which station he acquired the character of a learned, an upright, a wise, and intrepid man. But, above all his other virtues, he is memorable for his dignified courage, in having committed the royal heir apparent to prison, for daring to insult him in his office."

The discarding of his vile companions, by the newly crowned king, as this act describes, is likewise, authenticated by history—and although such an incident is, perhaps, the best moral which can be drawn from any part of the whole play, it is, nevertheless, such a one, as does not come with entire welcome to the breast of every spectator.

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