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Act 5, Scene 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Henry IV Part 2, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Lies, Honesty, Morality
Disease
The Right to the Throne
Time
Warfare
Summary
Analysis
At Justice Shallow’s estate in Gloucestershire, Falstaff, Bardolph, Justice Silence and Justice Shallow eat, drink, and joke around, making bawdy jokes and giddily toasting one another. Falstaff’s page and Davy attend them. Pistol arrives and announces the news that King Henry IV has died and King Henry V reigns. Overjoyed, Falstaff immediately prepares to ride off to London, exclaiming that everyone will have their pick of office in the new court for “[t]he laws of England are at my commandment.” He hurries to leave, sure that “the young King is sick for me.”
In Falstaff’s mind, King Henry V will be no different than his old friend Prince Hal: which is to say, immoral, fun loving, and quick to hand out favors to his friends. And Falstaff himself plans to bestow these favors on his own friends.
Themes
