Page:Henry IV Part 2 (1921) Yale.djvu/159

King Henry the Fourth an admirer, perhaps a friend, of Shakespeare's, writes in a letter dated December 27, 1600 (?): "I am here so pestered with country business that I shall not be able as yet to come to London. If I stay here long in this fashion, at my return you will find me so dull that I shall be taken for Justice Shallow or Justice Silence."

(2) Dekker in Satiromastix (1602), Ad Lectorem, refers to Master Justice Shallow.

(3) Ben Jonson in Epiccene (1609), II. v., refers to Doll Tearsheet.

Of early performances and players of Henry IV, Part II, there are even fewer records than there are of Part I. James Wright in his Historia Histrionica (1699) says that 'before the wars' Lowin acted Falstaff 'with mighty applause.' Pepys, who attended at least three revivals of the first part of the play between 1660 and 1668, makes no mention of any Restoration revival of the second part. In 1700 Betterton, after a triumphant revival of Part I, undertook a revision and revival of Part II. His version held the stage for many years, and is reprinted in Lacy's Acting Edition of Old Plays. Chetwood tells an amusing anecdote concerning Betterton's interpretation of the part of Falstaff in Part II. Johnson, an actor, while playing in Dublin, had seen Baker, a master-pavior, play Falstaff. Upon his return to England he gave Mr. Betterton the manner of Baker's playing, which the great actor not only approved of, but imitated, and allowed that it was better than his own.

Betterton's arrangement of the play was as follows:

Act I begins with I. ii.; then follow the scene at the Archbishop's, and the arrest of Falstaff from Act II.

