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Act 5, Scene 3
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
On a London street, two beadles arrest Mistress Quickly and Doll Tearsheet, saying that the women have been involved in several murders. The women struggle violently. Doll Tearsheet claims to be pregnant and warns the beadles that they will cause her to miscarry. The beadles accuse her of stuffing her dress with cushions to feign a pregnancy. The beadles say that the man the women and Pistol beat is now dead. Doll Tearsheet demands to be brought to a judge. All exit.
A strange interlude. Though there has been no prior allusion to Mistress Quickly and Doll Tearsheet’s murders, the scene may be intended to emphasize a tightening of the law under King Henry V. If Prince Hal was endlessly indulgent of these women’s dishonest vices, King Henry V is not.
Themes
