SOURCE: Melchiori, Giorgio. Introduction to The Second Part of King Henry IV, edited by Giorgio Melchiori, pp. 1-52. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

In the following excerpt, Melchiori identifies a number of structural components in Henry IV, Part 2, including qualities of the morality play, comedy of humors, city/country play, and psychodrama, as well as the thematic intermingling of time and disease.

The Morality Structure

The opening of a play with an Induction is a rare occurrence in Shakespeare's work. We must assume that the first stage direction of the quarto, Enter Rumour painted full of tongues, is directly derived from Shakespeare's own foul papers. He meant that Rumour—the only allegorical figure appearing in any of his plays, apart from Time in The Winter's Tale—should wear the traditional costume of Fame or Report in sixteenth-century pageants, masques or interludes: a cloak or herald's coat all painted over...