payment page
The Crown
As the object the king wears to signify his rule, the crown is the chief emblem of kingship. However, in Henry IV, Part 2 the crown carries more symbolic weight. Indeed, the crown comes to symbolize not just kingship, but the burden of kingship. The symbolism of the crown as an existential weight emerges most clearly in act 4, scene 3, when Prince Harry arrives at his father’s bedside and believes the king to be dead. He gazes upon the crown, which has been placed on the pillow beside his father’s head, and he addresses the object that has caused the king so many sleepless nights: “O polished perturbation, golden care, / That keep’st the ports of slumber open wide / To many a watchful night!” (4.3.169–71). When the king, who is in fact still alive, wakes to find that Harry has taken the crown, he curses his son’s headlong rush for power. But Harry insists that he understands the solemn responsibility conferred by the crown, and that he had bitterly “upbraided it” for having “fed upon the body of my father” (4.3.314, 316). Far from being a simple symbol of power, the crown represents power’s crushing burden.
The Executioner’s Block
The image of an executioner’s block appears at the end of act 4, scene 1, when John of Lancaster deceives three key rebels—the Archbishop of York and Lords Hastings and Mowbray—into ending hostilities. Under the false lure of peace, the rebels disperse their army, only to be arrested and executed at “the block of death” (4.1.379). The block of death is an important symbol that’s most closely related to the rebels’ treason against the king. Indeed, it’s under the charge of treason that John executes these rebel leaders. This same charge led to many other executions following the Battle at Shrewsbury, which concluded Henry IV, Part 1. In this regard, the threat of the executioner’s axe (or the hangman’s noose) has been looming over the treasonous rebel armies since the beginning of Part 2. Yet the rebels aren’t the only ones who feel the threat. John himself evidently worries that Prince Harry will have him and his brothers executed once he becomes king, thereby eliminating competition for the crown. Harry acknowledges and dispels this fear when he tells his brothers, “This is the English, not the Turkish court” (5.2.48). Even so, the executioner’s block seems to haunt enemies and allies alike.
Music
Music appears at various points in the play, in each case offering a healing sense of calm and joy that symbolically counters the play’s erstwhile emphasis on sickness and despair. Instances of music occur most frequently in the play’s “low” scenes in the tavern or in the country. For example, music figures prominently in act 2, scene 4, which takes place in the Boar’s Head Tavern. Falstaff sings a couple lines from a popular contemporary ballad called “Sir Launcelot du Lake” (2.4.33–35). Later in the scene, after the violent-tempered Ancient Pistol is forcefully removed from the tavern, a band of musicians arrive. Eager to restore a joyous atmosphere, Falstaff gleefully bids them to play. Music also plays an important role in act 5, scene 3, where Justice Silence gets drunk and sings several lusty songs. Shakespeare depicts the nobility as being equally keen on music. On his deathbed, King Henry calls for silence, “Unless some dull and favorable hand / Will whisper music to my weary spirit” (4.3.146–47). Significantly, the play ends with John of Lancaster reflecting on a singing bird, “Whose music, to my thinking, pleased the King” (5.5.109). Commoners and nobles alike look to music as a balm to ease their troubles.
