More troubled and troubling than <i>King Henry IV Part 1</i>, 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.