Summary

The Act II Prologue opens with the Chorus on stage. He says the French know that Henry is planning to attack and they are terrified at the threat. They are looking for a way to stop the war and hire three English subjects to kill Henry. They are Richard, Earl of Cambridge; Henry, Lord Scroop of Masham; and Sir Thomas Grey, knight of Northumberland. The three have accepted money to kill King Henry. The Chorus says the audience will see scenes in Southampton and France.

Act II, Scene I, occurs in “London. A Street.” Two soldiers, Corporal Nym and Lieutenant Bardolph, enter the scene. They greet each other and Bardolph asks if Nym has reconciled his friendship with another soldier, Pistol. Bardolph says he understands that Nell Quickly was first engaged to Nym but is now married to Pistol. Just then, Pistol and...