Seven Ages

History · c. 1598

Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 2

The autumnal sequel: rebellion sputters on, the king sickens, and the great question — what happens to Falstaff when Hal becomes Henry V — moves toward its answer.

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By the Seven Ages editors2 min read

The comedy is darker, full of aging bodies, unpaid debts, and country justices remembering their wild youths mostly inaccurately.

It is a quieter, sadder play than Part 1, and some readers love it more for exactly that. The final movement, from deathbed to coronation to the new king’s reckoning with his old companion, is one of the most emotionally complicated sequences Shakespeare wrote.

Henry IV, Part 2 on stage

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Henry IV, Part 2 on screen

Typeset plate for the screen adaptation The Hollow Crown: Henry IV, Part 2 (2012), directed by Richard Eyre. A designed placeholder, not a picture of the poster.2012The HollowCrown: HenryIV, Part 2RICHARD EYRE

1The Hollow Crown: Henry IV, Part 2 (2012)

TV film · dir. Richard Eyre

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