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Sickness
References to sickness abound in Henry IV, Part 2, and they work together to generate a sense that the entirety of England is withering from disease. Early in the play, for instance, the Lord Chief Justice confronts Falstaff about his participation in a robbery. When the rogue brilliantly evades his charges, he says, “I think you are fallen into the disease, for you hear not what I say to you” (1.2.122). Poins also identifies Falstaff with a certain sickness of the soul: “the immortal part needs a physician, but that moves him not. Though that be sick, it dies not” (2.2.102–103). Prince Harry agrees, referring to Falstaff as a “wen,” which means “tumor” (2.2.104). Though Falstaff is frequently linked to sickness, he isn’t the only one. Mowbray reckons with the poor chances for the rebellion’s success, saying: “I am on the sudden something ill” (4.1.326–27). For his part, the Archbishop of York diagnoses the entire “commonwealth” as being “sick of their own choice” (1.3.91). These and other references to sickness culminate with King Henry IV, who lies sick and dying throughout the play. As the head of state, his illness symbolizes the malady that afflicts the whole kingdom.
Gluttony
Closely related to the play’s many references to sickness are its equally numerous references to gluttony. For instance, the Archbishop of York claims that the people of England “hath surfeited” themselves with their “over-greedy love” of the new king (1.3.92). Now the commonwealth, which he calls a “beastly feeder,” has grown “so full of [Henry IV]” that it’s ready to “disgorge / [Its] glutton bosom” (1.3.99–102). In a less portentous register, characters frequently make fun of Falstaff for his gluttony. For instance, Mistress Quickly complains, “He hath eaten me out of house and home. He hath put all my substance into that fat belly of his” (2.1.76–77). Falstaff himself references gluttony in his oblique allusion to Jesus’s parable of Lazarus and the rich man: “Let him be damned like the glutton!” (1.2.35; see also Luke 16:19–31). Ironically, Falstaff implicitly casts himself not as the wealthy glutton but as the poor man who eats his crumbs. These and other references to gluttony symbolize the self-destructive and sinful nature of the commonwealth at large. In a subtler way, they may also be related to the hunger for power that many in the play—including the king—associate with Prince Harry.
Prophecies
As in the previous “Henry” plays, prophecies figure prominently in Henry IV, Part 2. Most of the prophecies uttered in the play foretell an ominous future characterized by chaos and civil violence. Already in the play’s opening scene, Northumberland entertains a vision of chaos that he believes is necessary to purify the kingdom: “let one spirit of the firstborn Cain / Reign in all bosoms, that, each heart being set / On bloody courses, the rude scene may end, / And darkness be the burier of the dead” (1.1.173–76). Later, the dying king has a vision of his own, in which he sees “the revolution of the times / Make mountains level, and the continent, / Weary of solid firmness, melt itself / Into the sea” (3.1.46–49). A similar vision aggravates Henry when he believes, mistakenly, that Harry is impatient to steal his crown: “For the fifth Harry from curbed license plucks / The muzzle of restraint, and the wild dog / Shall flesh his tooth on every innocent” (4.3.285–87). In addition to the announcement of these and other new prophecies, the play also fulfills an old one. Long prophesied to die in Jerusalem, Henry IV expires in a royal chamber that bears that name.
