# Epigraph explained — Waverley

> Chapter companion for Waverley by Walter Scott.

## What happens

The epigraph quotes Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part II, posing a question of political allegiance that foreshadows the novel's central conflict between loyalty to the Hanoverian king and the Jacobite cause.

## Themes in this chapter

### Loyalty and Allegiance

The epigraph's demand to choose a king directly introduces the theme of political allegiance that will drive the plot.

## Key lines

> Under which King, Bezonian? Speak, or die!

Declare your loyalty to one king or face death.

_This line from Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part II sets the stage for the novel's exploration of divided loyalties._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/waverley_se/chapters/epigraph
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/waverley_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/waverley_se/chapters