THE HISTORY OF

KING HENRY V.

THIS play was styled in the earlier editions a "Chronicle History," which it strictly is, in a dramatic form-" for it borrows nothing from mere invention in incident, and scarcely in character." The story, in all its details, is purely historical; and even the comic personages introduced are almost historical in their character, exhibiting, as they do, types or representatives of the classes of the period. The period comprised in this Dramatic History commences about the latter end of the first, and terminates in the eighth year of this king's reign; when he married Katharine of France, and closed up the differences betwixt England and that crown.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

KING HENRY THE FIFTH.

DUKE OF GLOSTER,

DUKE OF BEDford,

Brothers to the KING.

DUKE OF EXETER, Uncle to the KING.

DUKE OF YORK, Cousin to the KING.

EARLS OF SALISBURY, WESTMORELAND, and WARWICK.

ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

BISHOP OF ELY.

EARL OF CAMBRIDGE,

LORD SCROOP,

Sir THOMAS GREY,

Conspirators.

Sir THOMAS ERPINGHAM, Gower, FLUELLEN, MACMORRIS, JAMY, Officers in

KING HENRY'S Army.

BATES, COURT, WILLIAMS, Soldiers in the Same.

PISTOL, NYM, BARDOLPH.

Boy, Servant to them. A Herald.

CHARLES THE SIXTH, King of France.

LEWIS, the Dauphin.

DUKES OF BURGUNDY, ORLEANS, and BOURBON.

The Constable of France.

RAMBURES, and GRANDPRE, French Lords.

MONTJOY, a French Herald.

Governor of Harfleur.

Embassadors to England.

ISABEL, Queen of France.

KATHARINE, Daughter of CHARLES and ISABEL.

ALICE, a Lady attending on the Princess KATHARINE.

Hostess of the Boar's Head Tavern in Eastcheap; formerly Mistress QUICKLY, now wife to PISTOL.

Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Citizens, Messengers, and Attendants. SCENE,-IN ENGLAND and in FRANCE.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-London. An Ante-chamber in the KING's Palace.

Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY and the BISHOP OF ELY.

Cant. My lord, I'll tell you,-that self bill is urg'd,

Which in th' eleventh year of the last king's reign

Was like, and had indeed against us pass'd,

But that the scambling and unquiet time

Did push it out of farther question.

Ely. But how, my lord, shall we resist it now?

Cant. It must be thought on. If it pass against us,

We lose the better half of our possession:

For all the temporal lands, which men devout

By testament have given to the church,

Would they strip from us.

Ely. This would drink deep.
Cant.

Ely. But what prevention?

"Twould drink the cup and all.

Cant. The king is full of grace, and fair regard.
Ely. And a true lover of the holy church.
Cant. The courses of his youth promis'd it not.
The breath no sooner left his father's body,

But that his wildness, mortified in him,
Seem'd to die too; yea, at that very moment,
Consideration like an angel came,

And whipp'd th' offending Adam out of him,
Leaving his body as a paradise,

To envelope and contain celestial spirits.
Never was such a sudden scholar made;
Never came reformation in a flood,

With such a heady current, scouring faults;
Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulness

So soon did lose his seat, and all at once,

As in this king.

Ely.
Cant. Hear him but reason in divinity,
And, all-admiring, with an inward wish

We are blessed in the change.

You would desire the king were made a prelate :
Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,

You would say, it hath been all-in-all his study:
List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
A fearful battle render'd you in music:
Turn him to any cause of policy,

The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,
Familiar as his garter:-that, when he speaks,
The air, a charter'd libertine, is still,

And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,
To steal his sweet and honeyed sentences.

Ely. The strawberry grows underneath the nettle, And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best, Neighbor'd by fruit of baser quality:

And so the prince obscur'd his contemplation
Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt,
Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night,
Unseen, yet crescive* in his faculty.

Cant. It must be so, for miracles are ceas'd.
Ely. But, my good lord,

How now for mitigation of this bill

Urg'd by the commons? Doth his majesty
Incline to it, or no?

Cant.
Or, rather, swaying more upon our part,
Than cherishing th' exhibiters against us:
For I have made an offer to his majesty,-
Upon our spiritual convocation,

He seems indifferent;

And in regard of causes now in hand,
Which I have open'd to his grace at large,
As touching France,-to give a greater sum
Than ever at one time the clergy yet

Did to his predecessors part withal.

Ely. How did this offer seem receiv'd, my lord?
Cant. With good acceptance of his majesty;
Save, that there was not time enough to hear
The severals, and unhidden passages

Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms,
And, generally, to the crown and seat of France,
Deriv'd from Edward, his great grandfather.

Ely. What was th' impediment that broke this off?

*Crescive-increasing, growing.

Cant. The French embassador upon that instant
Crav'd audience; and the hour, I think, is come,
To give him hearing: is it four o'clock?

Ely. It is.
Cant. Then go we in, to know his embassy;
Which I could, with a ready guess, declare,
Before the Frenchman speak a word of it.
Ely. I'll wait upon you; and I long to hear it.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-London. A Room of State in the Palace. Enter KING HEnry, Gloster, BEDFORD, EXETER, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and Attendants.

K. Hen. Where is my gracious lord of Canterbury?
Exe. Not here in presence.

K. Hen.

Send for him, good uncle.

West. Shall we call in th' embassador, my liege?

K. Hen. Not yet, my cousin: we would be resolv'd, Before we hear him, of some things of weight,

That task our thoughts, concerning us and France.

Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY and the BISHOP OF ELY.

Cant. Heaven and its angels, guard your sacred throne,

And make you long become it!

K. Hen.
Sure, we thank you.
My learned lord, we pray you to proceed,
And justly and religiously unfold,

Why the law Salique, that they have in France,
Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim:
And heaven forbid, my dear and faithful lord,

That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading,
Or nicely charge your understanding soul

With opening titles miscreate, whose right
Suits not in native colors with the truth;
For heaven doth know how many, now in health,
Shall drop their blood in approbation

Of what your reverence shall incite us to.
Therefore, take heed how you impawn our person,
How you awake the sleeping sword of war:
We charge you in the name of heaven, take heed.
Under this conjuration, speak, my lord;
And we will hear, note, and believe in heart,
That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd,
As pure as sin with baptism.

Cant. Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers,
That owe yourselves, your lives, and services,

To this imperial throne.-There is no bar
To make against your highness' claim to France,
But this, which they produce from Pharamond,—
"No woman shall succeed in Salique land:"
Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze*
To be the realm of France, and Pharamond
The founder of this law, and female bar.
Yet their own authors faithfully affirm,
That the land Salique is in Germany,
Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe;

Where Charles the great, having subdued the Saxons,
There left behind and settled certain French;
Who, holding in disdain the German women
For some dishonest manners of their life,
Establish'd then this law,-to wit, no female
Should be inheritrix in Salique land.

The kings of France hold up this Salique law,
To bar your highness claiming from the female;
And rather choose to hide them in a net,
Than amply to imbar their crooked titles

Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.

K. Hen. May I with right and conscience make this claim? Cant. The sin upon my head, dread sovereign!

For in the Book of Numbers is it writ,

When the son dies, let the inheritance

Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord,
Stand for your own; unwind your bloody flag;
Look back into your mighty ancestors:

Go, my dread lord, to your great grandsire's tomb,
From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit,
And your great uncle's, Edward the black prince,
Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy,
Making defeat on the full power of France.

Ely. Awake remembrance of these valiant dead,
And with your puissant arm renew their feats.

Exe. Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth

Do all expect that you should rouse yourself,

As did the former lions of your blood.

West. They know your grace hath cause and means and might. Cant. O, let our bodies follow, my dear liege,

With blood, and sword, and fire, to win your right:

In aid whereof, we of the spiritualty

Will raise your highness such a mighty sum,

As never did the clergy at one time

Bring in to any of your ancestors.

K. Hen. We must not only arm to invade the French,

* Gloze-to palliate by specious exposition.