More fun and games at Eastcheap. Two drawers (waiters) discuss a cutting insult Hal gave to Falstaff, before Quickly and Doll Tearsheet enter, both intoxicated, followed quickly by Falstaff, also heavily intoxicated. There’s some heavy mud slung about, on the issues of venereal diseases and sexual politics, before Quickly says it’s good fun, and Falstaff and Tearsheet make up, since he’s off to war soon.

Pistol arrives, also intoxicated, insults Tearsheet and into a brawl with Falstaff. For once, Sir John puts in a good showing, defending Quickly and Tearsheet– they both are very impressed.

Hal and Poins have arrived in their disguises, and plan to beat up Falstaff in front of his lady. They emerge when Falstaff asks for more wine, and trade insults in the usual way. Hal ironically praises Tearsheet, before getting the feeling he’s not doing his duty as a Prince during the rebellion, and he and Poins leave.

Back at Warkworth, Northumberland’s castle, the Earl is arguing with his wife and Lady Percy, his son’s widow. She begs him to “go not to these wars!”, claiming he shouldn’t worry about disappointing the other rebels, since he already “broke [his] word” when he didn’t enter the Battle of Shrewsbury to help his son (in 1 Henry IV, 5.3).

Northumberland feels the “new lamenting ancient oversights”, before his wife urges him to flee to Scotland, and return when the rebels have made more headway. Lady Percy agrees, but not before reminding him once more that Hotspur’s blood is on his hands.

Hal and Poins are drinking in a tavern, and they both comment on how unbecoming it is for a Prince to be drinking in a tavern– sound familiar? Hal confesses “I should be sad now my father is sick”, but he can’t bring himself to tell anyone, in light of his rebellious past.

Falstaff’s Page and Bardolph enter, and there are plenty of insults on all sides. Hal is impressed with the Page, asking “Has not the boy profited?” from Falstaff’s company. Bardolph presents a typically boisterous letter from Falstaff, and the group read it aloud together.

Hal reads out a part which claims he shouldn’t associate with Poins, since Poins has been claiming Hal is going to wed his sister– Poins gets angry at the accusation, but Hal calls time on the reading.

They decide to track Falstaff down– he’s having dinner at Quickly’s with the prostitute Doll Tearsheet. The group plans to dress up as “drawers” (waiters) and spy on Falstaff; Hal claims he’s turning from “God to a bull”.

Mistress Quickly is talking to Fang and Snare, whom she’s enlisted to arrest Falstaff, since she is planning an action (a lawsuit) against him. She warns them that he is armed, making some unintentional double entendres about Falstaff having “stabbed” her. She reveals Falstaff owes her a lot of money, before he enters, and instructs Bardolph to “cut me off the villain’s head: throw the quean in the channel.” Quickly wants to throw Falstaff in the channel, and a scuffle starts up.

The Lord Chief Justice arrives, and orders them to “keep the peace”. Quickly asks hime for help, and he tells Falstaff this is no place for a man of his repute– he should be off to York to fight the rebels. Falstaff tries to fob him off, then demands to know what he owes Quickly. She says “thyself and the money too”, meaning everything.

They talk, and in the meantime we hear the Justice and Gower discuss a letter saying the King and Hal are “close at hand”. Quickly and Falstaff emerge, and Quickly has agreed to end her “action” and led him more money. The Justice and Gower then discuss the letter further, ignoring Falstaff’s efforts to get in on the information. The King’s soldiers are marching to meet with Lancaster before they fight the rebels.

The rebels (York, Mowbray, Lord Marshall, Hastings, and Lord Bardolph) convene at the Archbishop’s palace in York. Mowbray stresses the importance of a good plan, while Hastings says they need Northumberland’s troops– the King has a 25,000 strong army. Lord Bardolph and York say they can’t count on hypothetical reinforcements, reminding the others of Hotspur being let down after Northumberland claimed to be too ill to fight in the Battle of Shrewsbury.

Hastings says there’s nothing wrong with a little hope, but Lord Bardolph disagrees, borrowing from Luke 14:28 and claiming that the rebels must carefully design their plan, like an architect would a building, to succeed. Hastings compares the rebellion to a pregnancy, and hopes that it won’t “be still-born”.

Hastings claims Henry’s forces are spread thin, with some fighting Glendower in Wales, and others in France. York remarks that Henry’s unlikely to pull them back to help with the rebellion, and they should go public with it– he says the common people have become sick after gorging themselves on Henry, and like dogs want to eat their own vomit, which takes the shape of the deposed King Richard II. Mowbray and Hastings mobilize their armies.

Bishopthorpe Palace, York, colloquially known as “the Archbishop’s Palace”, via.

Falstaff delivers a timeless opening line, asking his Page what the doctor’s verdict on his urine was. He then boasts of his insulting abilities, before laying into most people he knows, including Hal. He berates his tailor, Dumbleton, for demanding a guarantee of payment before he’ll make Falstaff’s new outfit.

Sir John then asks his page where Bardolph (not to be confused with Lord Bardolph from the opening scene) is– he’s gone to buy Falstaff a horse. He wishes he could buy a wife, as well, before his page spots the Lord Chief Justice and warns Sir John.

After Falstaff pretends to be invisible, then deaf, to avoid contact with the Lord Chief Justice, they engage in a long bout of verbal jousting, with the Justice eager for Falstaff to answer for the robbery he committed way back in 2.2 of 1 Henry IV, but Falstaff’s “service” in the battle of Shrewsbury absolves him to a large extent.

Finally, Falstaff gives his Page letters to give to Prince Hal, Westmoreland, Prince John, and his Mistress, whom he plans to marry. Alone on stage, he complains of a pain in his toe, and can’t work out if it’s gout or a venereal disease– either way, he’ll claim it was a battle wound to draw a soldiers' pension and “turn diseases to commodity”.

Written circa 1597-1598, 2 Henry IV is the third play in Shakespeare’s second tetralogy, which looks at the origins of the Wars of the Roses. Classified as a history play, it deals with the aftermath of the previous play, as finishing off the rebellion tests the resolve of King Henry.

There is an induction (synonymous with “Prologue”) from “Rumour”, an abstract personification of rumors and misinformation. He commands the audience to “Open your ears”, before saying that he’s been spreading lies about the battle of Shrewsbury: Douglas killed Henry IV and Hotspur killed Hal– in fact Douglas was captured and Hal killed Hotspur.

Sure enough, Lord Bardolph arrives at Northumberland’s castle at Warkworth claiming that Henry IV was mortally wounded, Hal killed, Falstaff captured, and Prince John, Stafford and Westmoreland have all fled– the best scenario “Since Caesar’s fortunes”. The servant Travers enters, Lord Bardolph insists he can’t tell them anything new since the two of them met outside of Warkworth, but Travers says someone rode by after saying “Harry Percy’s spur was cold.”

Lord Bardolph says to take no heed of Travers, but Morton arrives, and Northumberland can tell from “the whiteness in thy cheek” that Hotspur is dead. Lord Bardolph’s dissent causes Morton to give a long explanation of how Hal roundly defeated Hotspur and routed his army.

Northumberland is invigorated by this, donning his armor and getting ready to kill everyone in a very Hotspur-like way, referencing the way Cain killed his brother Abel in Genesis 4. He’s talked down by Lord Bardolph and Morton, who instead propose joining up with the Archbishop of York, who claims he has God on his side, and wants to punish Henry for deposing Richard II. Northumberland begins contacting potential rebel allies.

Warkworth Castle, via.

“A Rose For Emily” was first published on April 30, 1930 in Forum magazine–Faulkner’s first publication in a national magazine. A revised version was printed in his 1931 collection, These Thirteen, and also in Collected Stories.

The cover of the first edition of These Thirteen, via Wikimedia Commons.

In a non-linear narrative, we’re told of the life and times of Miss Emily Grierson, whose death opens the story, before the circumstances of her life are unraveled: she was part of a Southern aristocratic family whose fortunes dipped after the war, and never really came to terms with the death of her father. She maintains a fearsome reputation, though, and following a romance with a laborer she would have once deemed beneath her, the town is unable to confront her as she becomes reclusive and a foul smell begins to emanate from her house. Her eventual death reveals a cycle of unacceptance.

In Lion in the Garden, Faulkner wrote of the title, “A Rose for Emily”:

…that was an allegorical title; the meaning was, here was a woman who had had a tragedy, an irrevocable tragedy and nothing could be done about it, and I pitied her and this was a salute, just as if you were to make a gesture, a salute, to anyone, to a woman you would hand a rose, as you would lift a cup of sake to a man.”

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