HISTORICAL NOTICE OF KING HENRY IV.-PART II. The composition of this play has been assigned by Malone to the year 1599, while Mr. Chalmers and Dr. Drake suppose it to have been written as early as 1596 or 1597. The play of Henry IV. is mentioned in the list of Shakspeare's works, in Meres' Wits' Treasury, 1598; and, by the Epilogue to this drama, it appears to have preceded King Henry V. which is fixed with some accuracy to 1599. It was entered at Stationers' Hall, August 23d, 1600, and the first two editions of it in quarto were published in the same year. Its action comprehends a period of nine years, commencing with Hotspur's death in 1403, and terminating with the coronation of King Henry V. in 1412-13. These two plays,' says Dr. Johnson, 'will appear to every reader, who shall peruse them without ambition of critical discoveries, to be so connected, that the second is merely a sequel to the first; to be two only because they are too long to be one.' In reading Holinshed for these plays, our poet's eye was evidently eager in quest of scattered hints of personal character, and on these, whenever he was fortunate enough to meet with them, his exuberant imagination worked with boldness. The dismissal of Falstaff, as one of Henry's dissolute companions, is con formable to the old historian, but his committal to the Fleet is an act of severity volunteered by Shakspeare. A reference to Stowe in this case would have been eminently useful to him: the prince's companions are there disposed of in a manner gratifying to the feelings of humanity, and consistent with the claims of justice. ‘After his coronation, King Henry called unto him all those young lords and gentlemen who were the followers of his young acts, to every one of whom he gave rich gifts; and then commanded, that as many as would change their manners, as he intended to do, should abide with him in his court; and to all that would persevere in their former like conversation, he gave express commandment, upon pain of their heads, never after that day to come in his presence.' 'None of Shakspeare's plays,' adds Dr. Johnson, are more read than the First and Second Parts of Henry the Fourth: perhaps no author has ever in two plays afforded so much delight. The great events are interesting, for the fate of kingdoms depends on them; the slighter occurrences are diverting, and, except one or two, sufficiently probable: the incidents are multiplied with wonderful fertility of invention; and the characters diversified with the utmost nicety of discernment, and the profoundest skill in the nature of man. The prince, who is the hero both of the comic and tragic part, is a young man of great abilities and violent passions; whose sentiments are right, though his actions are wrong; whose virtues are obscured by negligence, and whose understanding is dissipated by levity. In his idle hours he is rather loose than wicked; and when the occasion forces out his latent qualities, he is great without effort, and brave without tumult: the trifler is roused into a hero, and the hero again reposes in the trifler. This character is great, original, and just. Percy is a rugged soldier, choleric and quarrelsome, and has only the soldier's virtues, generosity and courage. 'But Falstaff, unimitated, unimitable Falstaff! how shall I describe thee? Thou compound of sense and vice; of sense which may be admired, but not esteemed; of vice which may be despised, but hardly detested. Falstaff is a character loaded with faults, and with those faults which naturally produce contempt. He is a thief and a glutton, a coward and a boaster; always ready to cheat the weak, and prey upon the poor; to terrify the timorous, and insult the defenceless. At once obsequious and malignant, he satirises in their absence those whom he lives by flattering. He is familiar with the prince only as an agent of vice; but of this familiarity he is so proud, as not only to be supercilious and haughty with common men, but to think his interest of importance to the duke of Lancaster. Yet the man thus corrupt, thus despicable, makes himself necessary to the prince that despises him, by the most pleasing of all qualities, perpetual gaiety; by an unfailing power of exciting laughter, which is the more freely indulged, as his wit is not of the splendid or ambitious kind, but consists in easy scapes and sallies of levity, which make sport, but raise no envy. It must be observed, that he is stained with no enormous or sanguinary |