Henry IV, Part 2 Famous Quotes

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

Henry IV awake in Act 3, Scene 1 while his kingdom sleeps — a ship-boy sleeps through a storm, he observes, while the king who ordered the ships to sea cannot. Power and rest are incompatible.

O sleep, O gentle sleep, Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee, That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down.

Henry IV in Act 3, Scene 1, addressing sleep as if it were a person who has abandoned him — the apostrophe to sleep as 'nature's soft nurse' sets up the bitter contrast with common sailors sleeping peacefully in dangerous conditions.

We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow.

Falstaff to Justice Shallow in Act 3, Scene 2, reminiscing about wild youth — the chimes at midnight mark the hour when respectable people are asleep and the disreputable are still going. Falstaff and Shallow have both been the latter.

I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men.

Falstaff in Act 1, Scene 2 — his claim is not just that he is funny but that his presence produces wit in everyone around him, which is an accurate description of how comedy works when a great character enters a scene.

A good wit will make use of any thing: I will turn diseases to commodity.

Falstaff in Act 1, Scene 2, having been told his gout and syphilis are a disgrace — his response is to plan to monetise the symptoms. The optimism is characteristic.

A man can die but once: we owe God a death.

Feeble the tailor in Act 3, Scene 2, being conscripted into Falstaff's army and accepting it with complete calm — an insignificant recruit delivers the play's most stoic line about mortality.

Let the end try the man.

Prince Hal in Act 2, Scene 2 — his response to Poins's question about his behaviour around his sick father is to defer judgement until the end. He is telling himself and Poins that his character will become clear by his actions, not his current company.

Thus we play the fools with the time, and the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds and mock us.

Prince Hal in Act 2, Scene 2, commenting on his own behaviour — the self-awareness is more uncomfortable than the foolishness. He knows what he is doing and does it anyway.

I have a whole school of tongues in this belly of mine, and not a tongue of them all speaks any other word but my name.

Falstaff in Act 4, Scene 3, arguing that his belly speaks for him — the metaphor turns his girth into evidence of reputation rather than excess. His name, he claims, is on every tongue in the kingdom.

What a disgrace is it to me to remember thy name!

Falstaff in Act 2, Scene 2, dismissing a young page who has delivered a message — the insult is that knowing the page's name at all suggests undesirable familiarity with someone beneath his notice.

Commit The oldest sins the newest kind of ways.

Henry IV to Prince Hal in Act 4, Scene 5, observing that his son's generation dresses up old ambitions in new forms — the accusation is about political method, not moral novelty.

I know thee not, old man: fall to thy prayers; How ill white hairs become a fool and jester!

Henry V rejecting Falstaff in Act 5, Scene 5 — the new king publicly refusing to know a man who defined his youth. The line was foreshadowed by Hal in the Boar's Head tavern ('I do, I will'). Falstaff heard it and did not believe it.

Presume not that I am the thing I was.

Henry V to Falstaff in Act 5, Scene 5, making the break absolute — the prince who drank and jested is the same person as the king, but is not the same king. The transformation was always planned.

Master Shallow, I owe you a thousand pound.

Falstaff in Act 5, Scene 5, immediately after being publicly rejected by the new king — his first words are not grief but acknowledgement of a debt, which may be the truest thing he says in two plays.

Certain, 'tis certain; very sure, very sure: death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all.

Shadow, one of Falstaff's conscript recruits, in Act 3, Scene 2 — a shadow of a man with a shadow of a name, accepting death with the same placid certainty as Feeble. The minor characters carry the play's real stoicism.