Machine generated contents note: The problem of being second-born -- A two-part play? -- The play in performance -- Part Two as an autonomous play -- The rise of the two-part play -- The play as part of a cycle -- Falstaff versus history -- Falstaff and his friends -- Falstaff and the decline of festivity -- Falstaff as Oldcastle -- The tavern world: wordplay as social critique -- Falstaff in Gloucestershire -- The rejection of Falstaff -- The play as chronicle history -- The Prelate's Rebellion -- The royal family saga -- The shaping of history: chronicles as sources -- The shaping of history: Famous Victories as source -- Dating the play -- The evidence: Oldcastle revisited -- The Epilogue(s) -- Editorial choices -- King Henry Iv, Part Two -- Appendix 1 The text -- The Quarto -- The Folio -- F as a literary text -- Was F indebted to Q? -- The printing of F -- Appendix 2 Performing conflated texts of Henry IV -- Appendix 3 Casting the play -- Doubling chart -- Abbreviations and references -- Abbreviations used in notes -- Works by and partly by Shakespeare -- Editions of Shakespeare collated -- Other works cited or consulted.
Summary:
"More troubled and troubling than King Henry IV Part 1, the play continues the story of King Henry's decline and Hal's reform. Though Part 2 echoes the structure of the earlier play, it is a darker and more unsettling world, in which even Falstaff's revelry is more tired and cynical, and the once-merry Hal sloughs off his tavern companions to become King Henry V. James C. Bulman's authoritative edition provides a wealth of incisive commentary on this complex history play" --
