Post #6 - Memory

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The Second Part of King Henry IV, as a sequel, is necessarily framed by memory. The play's placement in the Henriad further implicates the role memory plays in its ability to bring this extended, complex story to a close. The first two plays in the series have primed the reader's understanding of certain chronic problems Shakespeare wishes to confront--the tenuousness of kingly authority, the terms of "right" rule, rank and status among subjects and how those categories do (or don't) shift in tandem with the body politic. The question, specifically for 2 Henry IV, soon becomes one of narrative arc. How much of this sequel should directly reference the preceding play? How much room does Shakespeare allow for climactic action, especially considering the fact that 2 Henry IV anticipates the last play in the series, Henry V? Though 2 Henry IV mostly becomes a series of rising actions that foreshadow the epic conclusions of Henry V, Shakespeare therein reveals memory's ability to not only reference past action, but also to inspire change. 

In an almost metafictional moment, the sequel begins with an allusion to the dangerous rhetorical trappings that undergird any retelling of events, or representation of history. In the induction Rumor states, "I speak of peace while cover enmity / Under the smile of safety wounds the world." This passage serves as an explanation of how memory can be

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warped to fit covert political agendas, how memory shapes history, and how memory (along with history) are constantly contested in Shakespeare's England. This statement of foreboding finds its demonstration in the first scene among the conspirators. Before the scene begins Rumor claims, "My office is / To noise abroad that Harry Monmouth fell / Under the wrath of noble Hotspur's sword, / And that the king before the Douglas' rage / Stooped his anointed head as low as death" (28-32). In the following scene, Northumberland is presented with conflicting retellings of the battle between his son, Hotspur, and Prince Hal. By invoking Rumor, a semi-mythological representation and not a "real" character, Shakespeare suggests that the various political motives at work in the play are so unsubstantiated that they become transparent--permeable enough that an entirely rhetorical, inhuman force can interfere with the characters' memories. Different retellings inspire different reactions as is evidenced by Northumberland's skepticism when hearing Lord Bardolph's faulty good news and his subsequent heartbreak when confronted with his son's death. Though this seems like a minor (and expected) change in demeanor, memory further shapes decision making later on in the play when Northumberland abandons the conspirators and refuses to go to war because of the devastating effects battle has already wrought on his family. 

Memory's influence on the play's (rising) action comes to a head in Prince Hal's kinging. When Harry believes his father to be dead, he says, "My due from thee is this imperial crown, / Which, as immediate from thy place and blood, / Derives itself to me" (4.5.40-42). The immediacy that Harry references here is a product of his royal upbringing. Harry's entire life, since his father usurped the crown, has led to the moment when he will assume the kingship. Harry carries with him weighty memories of his father's kingship and of the necessity for hasty action. Therefore, memory compels Harry to rapidly scoop up the crown and assume it as his own. When Henry IV truly dies, this process is only amplified as Henry V undergoes his accelerated transformation. Thus, 2 Henry IV filters into Henry V, ushering readers through expeditious change by way of memory.