Henry IV, Part 2 begins with a short Prologue, named the Induction, in which Rumour takes to the stage. Rather than a fully-fledged character, Rumour is, as the name suggests, the personification of rumor and “false reports”—an allegorical figure who introduces the motif of rumor, reports, and messages. 

The play is set during a period of turmoil. As well as the rebellion of his former allies and fellow Englishmen, Henry IV is dealing with threats from Wales, Scotland, and France; these are existential wars that threaten a king who himself took the throne by force. At such a time, the need for accurate information is paramount, yet false reports also spread rapidly through the nation. Many of these false rumors are benign, such as Falstaff telling people that he killed Hotspur, but others are emotionally devastating. According to Rumour, the “smooth comforts” of these false reports are “worse than true wrongs” (I.Induction.40-41). Information thus exists in an unstable, unreliable state from the opening lines of the play, creating a sense of unease and uncertainty that pervades the narrative. 

The conflicting messages that Northumberland receives about the fate of his son exemplify Rumour’s warning. When attempting to discern which reports are real, he scrutinizes Morton’s face to see the “strange confession” in his eye. He probes the messenger for emotional sincerity, hoping that this will cut through the confusion of unreliable messages. His struggle echoes throughout the play, as characters strive for a certainty and an emotional sincerity that the communications and messages they receive do not offer. The rebel lords, for example, shape their plans and communications around news of troop movements and pledges of loyalty, yet these reports are conflicting. Ultimately, they are forced into action by their circumstances rather than the news they receive. Later, they are told that their complaints will be addressed by the king, only for Prince John to arrest them for treason. Conflicting messages seal their fate.

Perhaps the only character who receives consistently positive messages is King Henry IV. Throughout the play, he is told that his enemies are being defeated. Not only does his son deal with the threat of the rebel lords, but Owen Glendower—such a big threat to England in the previous play—dies offstage. The death of the Welsh leader is conveyed in passing, revealing that a threat that was once so fearsome is now little more than a minor concern for a king with complete victory in his grasp. In spite of this slew of positive messages, the king is rarely able to enjoy the news that he receives. With his health failing and his death approaching, he begins to feel pained by each message conveying a new victory. Rather than confirming his triumph, the messages remind him how little he has accomplished. He took the throne with plans to join the Crusades to Jerusalem, only to get bogged down in domestic uprisings. His success in dealing with these uprisings only makes him feel as though his time could have been better spent. Each positive message thus becomes a symbol of time wasted and misspent. The ultimate irony of his victory is that he has won the wars that did not interest him, and each message serves as a reminder of this.