THE SECOND PART; A HISTORICAL PLAY, IN FIVE ACTS; BY WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE. AS PERFORMED AT THE THEATRE ROYAL, COVENT GARDEN. PRINTED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE MANAGERS, FROM THE PROMPT BOOK. WITH REMARKS BY MRS INCHBALD: LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER-ROW. REMARKS. THIS Second Part of Henry the Fourth, like the First, has different effects, in producing pleasure or distaste, to different auditors. Of the number of persons who form an audience, few can appreciate the merit of Shakspeare's plays, so as to be greatly moved, where neither love nor murder is the subject of the scene. To many spectators, all Falstaff's humour is comprised in his unwieldy person; nor do they cast their imaginations back to former times, so as to feel and enjoy, as perfectly natural, those actual occurrences, and true touches of nature, with which the plot and dialogue of this drama, as well as its foregoing part, abound. The classical devotee, on the other hand, admires every incident he beholds, every line he hears, and perceives meaning in words, where, perhaps, none was intended, that not an atom of Shakspeare may be lost, but every sentence conduce to his amusement. To accommodate the first class of auditors and readers, this little preface is, of course, written; that, recalling to their memory some historical facts, previous to either reading or seeing the play, may be the means of exciting their attention to a dramatic trea sure. |