THE

PLAYS

OF

WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

VOLUME THE TWELFTH.

CONTAINING

KING HENRY IV. PART II.
KING HENRY V.

LONDON:

Printed for J. Nichols and Son; F. C. and J. Rivington; J. Stockdale;
W. Lowndes; G. Wilkie and J. Robinson; T. Egerton; J. Walker ;
Scatcherd and Letterman; W. Clarke and Sons; J. Barker; J. Cuthell;
R. Lea; Lackington and Co.; J. Deighton; J. White and Co.; B. Crosby
and Co.; W. Earle; J. Gray and Son; Longman and Co.; Cadell and
Davies; J. Harding; R. H. Evans; J. Booker; S. Bagster; J. Mawman;
Black and Co.; J. Black; J. Richardson; J. Booth; Newman and
Co.; R. Pheney; R. Scholey; J. Murray; J. Asperne; J. Faulder;
R. Baldwin; Cradock and Joy; Sharpe and Hailes; Johnson and Co.;
Gale and Co.; G. Robinson; C. Brown; and Wilson and Son, York.

* SECOND PART OF KING HENRY IV.] The transactions comprized in this history take up about nine years. The action commences with the account of Hotspur's being defeated and killed [1403]; and closes with the death of King Henry IV. and the coronation of King Henry V. [1412-13.] THEOBALD. This play was entered at Stationers' Hall, August 23, 1600.

STEEVENS.

The Second Part of King Henry IV. I suppose to have been written in 1598. See An Attempt to ascertain the Order of Shakspeare's Plays, Vol. II. MALONE.

Mr. Upton thinks these two plays improperly called The First and Second Parts of Henry the Fourth. The first play ends, he says, with the peaceful settlement of Henry in the kingdom by the defeat of the rebels. This is hardly true; for the rebels are not yet finally suppressed. The second, he tells us, shows Henry the Fifth in the various lights of a good-natured rake, till, on his father's death, he assumes a more manly character. This is true; but this representation gives us no idea of a dramatick action. These two plays will appear to every reader, who shall peruse them without ambition of critical discoveries, to be so connected, that the second is merely a sequel to the first; to be two only because they are too long to be one. JOHNSON.