KING HENRY V:

PERSONS OF THE DRAMA.

Xing Henry the Fifth a widis

Boy, servant to them. A Herald. Chorus.
Duke of GLOSTER, } brothers to the king.
Duke of BEDFORD,

Charles the Sixth, king of France.
Duke of EXETER, uncle to the king.

LEWIS, the Dauphin. Duke of York, cousin to the king.

Dukes of BURGUNDY, ORLEANS, and BOURBON. Earls of SALISBURY, WESTMORELAND, and The Constable of France. WARWICK

RAMBUERIS, and GRANDPREI, French lords. Archbishop of CANTERBURY.

Governor of Harfleur. Montjoy,a French herald. Bishop of Ely.

Ambassadors to the king of England.
Earl of CAMBRIDGE, 1 conspirators against the
Lord SCROOP,

king. Sir Thomas GREY,

ISABEL, queen of France.

KATHARINE, daughter of Charles and Isabel. Sir Thomas ERPINGHAM, GOWER, FLUELLEN, Alice, a lady attending on the princess Katharine.

MACMORRIS, JAMY, officers in king Henry's Quickly, Pistoľ s wife, an hostess.

army. Bates, Court, WILLIAMS, soldiers in the same. Lords, Ladies, Officers, French and English SolNYM, BARDOLPH, Pisrol, formerly servants to diers, Messengers, and Attendants.

FALSTAFF, now soldiers in the same.

SCENE,--at the beginning of the play, lies in England; but afterwards, wholly in France.

The vasty fields of France ? or may we cram Enter CHORUS.

Within this wooden 0, the very casques, O, for a muse of fire, that would ascend That did affright the air at Agincourt ? The brightest heaven of invention !

0, pardon ! since a crooked figure may A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,

Attest, in little place, a million ;
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene ! And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, On your imaginary forces work:
Assume the port of Mars; and, at his heels, Suppose, within the girdļe of these walls
Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, are now confin'd two mighty monarchies,
and fire,

Whose high upreared and abutting fronts
Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all, The perilous, narrow ocean parts asunder.
The flat unraised spirit, that hath dar'd, Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts ;
On this unworthy scaffold, to bring forth Into a thousand parts divide one man,
So great an object : Can this cockpit hold And make imaginary puissance :

VOL. II.

A

:

Think, when we talk of horses, that you see Turning the accomplishment of many years them

into an hour-glass : For the which supply, Printing their proud hoofs i'the receiving earth: Admit me chorus to this history; For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our Who, prologue-like, your humble patience pray, kings,

Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play. Carry them here and there: jumping o'er times ;

ACT I.

SCENE I.-London. An ante-chamber in the You would desire, the king were made a prelate: King's palace.

Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,

You would say,—it hath been all-in-all his study: Enter the Archbishop of CANTERBURY, and

List his discourse of war, and you shall hear Bishop of Ely.

A fearful battle render'd

you

in music: Cant. My lord, I'll tell you,—that self bill is Turn him to any cause of policy, urg'a,

The gordian knot of it he will unloose, Which, in the eleventh year o’the last king's Familiar as his garter ; that, when he speaks, reign

The air, a charter'd libertine, is still, Was like, and had indeed against us pass'd, And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears, But that the scambling and unquiet time To steal his sweet and honeyed sentences ; Did push it out of further question.

So that the art and practick part of life Ely. But how, my lord, shall we resist it now? Must be the mistress to this theorick: Cant. It must be thought on. If it pass against Which is a wonder, how his grace should glean it, us,

Since his addiction was to courses vain ; We lose the better half of our possession : His companies unletter’d, rude, and shallow; For all the temporal lands, which men devout His hours fill’d up with riots, banquets, sports; By testament have given to the church, And never noted in him any study, Would they strip from us; being valued thus,- Any retirement, any sequestration As much as would maintain, to the king's honour, From open haunts and popularity. Fun fiti en carls, and fifteen hundred knights; Ely. The strawberry grows underneath the Six thousand and two hundred good esquires;

nettle ; And, to relief of lazars, and weak age,

And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best, Of indigent faint souls, past corporal toil, Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality : A hundred alms-houses, right well supplied ; And so the prince obscur'd his contemplation And to the coffers of the king beside,

Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt, A thousand pounds by the year: Thus runs the Grew like the summer-grass, fastest by night, bill.

Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty. Ely. This would drink deep.

Cant. It must be so: for miracles are ceas'd; Cant. 'Twould drink the cup and all.

And therefore we must needs admit the means, Ely. But what prevention ?

How things are perfected.
Cant. The king is full of grace, and fair regard. Ely. But, my good lord,
Ely. And a true lover of the holy church. Ilow now for mitigation of this bill

Cant. The courses of his youth promis'd it not. Urg'd by the commons ? Doth his majesty
The breath no sooner left his father's body, Incline to it, or no ?
But that his wildness, mortified in him,

Cant. He seems indifferent ;
Seem'd to die too : yea, at that very moment, Or, rather, swaying more upon our part,
Consideration like an angel came,

Than cherishing the exhibiters against us : And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him; For I have made an offer to his majesty,– Leaving his body as a paradise,

Upon our spiritual convocation ; To envelop and contain celestial spirits.

And in regard of causes now in hand, Never was such a sudden scholar made: Which I have open’d to his grace at large, Never came reformation in a flood,

As touching France,-to give a greater sum With such a heady currint, scouring faults; Than ever at one time the clergy yet Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulness

Did to his predecessors part withal. So soon did lose his seat, and all at once,

Ely. How did this offer seem receiv’d, my As in th's king.

lord ? Ely. We are blessed in the change.

Cant. With good acceptance of his majesty ; Cant. Hear him but reason in divinity, Save, that there was not time enough to hear An, all-admiring, with an inward wish (As, I perceiv’d, his grace would fain have done,)

same.

The severals, and unhidden passages,

Under this conjuration, speak, my lord: Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms; And we will hear, note, and believe in heart, And, generally, to the crown and seat of France, That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd Deriv'd from Edward, his great grandfather. As pure as sin with baptism. Ely. What was the impediment that broke Cunt. Then hear me, gracious sovereign, this off?

and you peers, Cant. The French ambassador, upon that in- That owe your lives, your faith, and services, stant,

To this imperial throne ;— There is no bar Crav'd audience: and the hour, I think, is come, To make against your highness' claim to France, To give him bearing: Is it four o'clock ? But this, which they produce from Pharamond, Ely. It is

In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant, Cort. Then go we in, to know his embassy ; No woman shall succeed in Salique land: Which I could, with a ready guess, declare, Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze, Before the Frenchman speak a word of it. To be the realm of France, and Pharamond Ely. 17] wait upon you; and I long to hear it. The founder of this law and female bar.

[Exeunt. Yet their own authors faithfully affirm,

That the land Salique lies in Germany, SCENE II.-The same. A room of state in the Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe :

Where Charles the great, having subdued the

Saxons, Enter King Henry, Gloster, Bedford, ESE- There left behind and settled certain French,

TE 2, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and At- Who, holding in disdain the German women, tendants.

For some dishonest manners of their life, K. Hen. Where is my gracious lord of Can- Establish'd there this law,—to wit, no female terbury?

Should be inheritrix in Salique land ; Exe. Not here in presence.

Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala, K. Hen. Send for him, good uncle.

Is at this day in Germany call’d-Meisen. West. Shall we call in the ambassador, my Thus doth it well appear, the Salique law liege?

Was not devised for the realm of France : K. Hen. Not yet, my cousin ; we would be Nor did the French possess the Salique land resolv’d,

Until four hundred one and twenty years
Before we hear him, of some things of weight, After defunction of king Pharamond,
That task our thoughts, concerning us and France. Idly suppos'd the founder of this law;

Who died within the year of our redemption Eater the Archbishop of CANTERBURY and

Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the great Bishop of Ely.

Subdued the Saxons, and did seat the French Cant. God, and his angels, guard your sacred Beyond the river Saia, in the year throne,

Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say, And make you long become it!

King Pepin, which deposed Childerick, X. Hen. Sure, we thank you.

Did, as heir general, being descended My learned lord, we pray you to proceed ;

Of Blithild, which was daughter to king Clothair, And justly and religiously unfold,

Make claim and title to the crown of France. Why the law Salique, that they have in France, Hugh Capet also,--that usurp'd the crown Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim. Of Charles the duke of Lorain, sole heir male And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord, Of the true line and stock of Charles the great, That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your To fine his title with some show of truth, reading,

(Though, in pure truth, it was corrupt and Or nicely charge your understanding soul

naught) With opening titles miscreate, whose right Convey'd himself as heir to the lady Lingare, Suits not in native colours with the truth; Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son For God doth know, how many, now in health, To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son Shall drop their blood in approbation

Of Charles the great. Also king Lewis the tenth, Of what your reverence shall incite us to : Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet, Therefore take heed how you impawn our person, Could not keep quiet in his conscience, How you awake the sleeping sword of war; Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied We charge you in the name of God, take heed : That fair queen Isabel, his grandinother, For never two such kingdoms did contend, Was lineal of the lady Ermengare, Without much fall of blood; whose guiltless Daughter to Charles the foresaid duke of Lorain: drops

By the which marriage, the line of Charles the Are every one a woe, a sore complaint,

great Gainst him, whose wrongs give edge unto the Was re-united to the crown of France. swords

So that, as clear as is the summer's sun, That make such waste in brief mortality. King Pepin's title, and Hugh Capet's claim,

King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear

Shall be a wall sufficient to defend
To hold in right and title of the female : Our inland from the pilfering borderers.
So do the kings of France unto this day;

K. Hen. We do not mean the coursing snatch«
Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law, ers only,
To har your highness claiming from the female ; But fear the main intendment of the Scot,
And rather choose to hide them in a net, Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us ;
Than amply to imbare their crooked titles, For you shall read, that my great grandfather
Usurp'd from you and your progenitors. Never went with his forces into France,
K. Hen. May I, with right and conscience, But that the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdom
make this claim ?

Came pouring, like the tide into a breach, Cant. The sin upon my head, dread sovereign! With ample and brim fulness of his force; For in the book of Numbers is it writ,- Galling the gleaned land with hot essays; When the son dies, let the inheritance

Girding with grievous siege, castles and towns; Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord, That England, being empty of defence, Stand for your own; unwind your bloody flag ; Hath shook, and trembled at the ill neighbourLook back unto your mighty ancestors :

hood. Go, my dread lord, to your great grandsire's Cant. She hath been then more fear’d thay tom',

harm’d, my liege : From whom you claim ; invoke his warlike spirit," For hear her but exampled by herself, And your great uncle's, Edward the black prince; When all her chivalry hath been in France, Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy, And she a mourning widow of her nobles, Making defeat on the full power of France ; She hath herself not only well defended, Whiles his most migbty father on a hill But taken, and impounded as a stray, Stood siniling, to behold his lion's whelp The king of Scots"; whom she did send to Forage in blood of French nobility.

France, O noble English, that could entertain

To fill king Edward's fame with prisoner kings; With half their forces the full pride of France; And make your chronicle as rich with praise, And let another half stand laughing by, As is the ooze and bottom of the sea All out of work, and cold for action!

With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries. Ely. Awake remembrance of these valiant West. But there's a saying, very old and true, dead,

If that you will France win, And with your puissant arm renew their feats :

Then with Scotland first begin : You are their heir, you sit upon their throne; For once the eagle England being in prey, The blood and courage, that renowned them, To hier unguarded nest the weasel Scot Runs in your veins ; and my thrice-puissant liege Comes sneaking, and so sucks her princely eggs; Is in the very May-morn of his youth,

Playing the mouse, in absence of the cat, Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprizes. To spoil and havock more than she can eat. Exe. Your brother kings and monarchs of the Ece. It follows then, the cat must stay at earth

home: Do all-expect that you should rouse yourself, Yet that is but a curs'd necessity ; As did the former lions of your blood.

Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries, West. They know, your grace hath cause, and And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves. means, and might;

While that the armed hand doth fight abroad, Se hath your highness; nover king of England The advised head defends itself at home: Had nobles richer, and more loyal subjects ; Forgovernment, though high, and low, and lower, Whose hearts have left their bodies here in Eng- Put into parts, doth keep in one concent; land,

Congruing in a full and natural close, And lie pavilion'd in the fields of France. Like music.

Cant. 0, let their bodies follow, my dear liege, Cant. True : therefore doth heaven divide With blood, and sword, and fire, to win your The state of man in divers functions, right:

Setting endeavour in continual motion ; In aid whereof, we of the spiritualty

To which is fixed, as an aim or butt, Will raise your highness such a mighty sum, Obedience: for so work the honey bees; As never did the clergy at one time

Creatures, that, by rule in nature, teach Bring in to any of your ancestors.

The act of order to a peopled kingdom. K. Hen. We must not only arm to invade the They have a king, and officers of sorts : French ;

Where some, like magistrates, correct at home; R:it lay down our proportions to defend Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad; Against the Scot, who will make road upon us Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings, With all alvantages.

Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds; Cunt. They of those marches, gracious sove- Which pillage they with merry march bring home .reigy,

To the tent-royal of their emperor :