ACT V.

SCENE I. London. A room in the palace.

Enter King Henry, Gloster, and EXETER.

K. Hen. Have you perus'd the letters from the Pope, The emperor, and the Earl of Armagnac ?

Glo. I have, my lord: and their intent is this,— They humbly sue unto your excellence

To have a godly peace concluded of

Between the realms of England and of France.

K. Hen. How doth your grace affect their motion? Glo. Well, my good lord; and as the only means To stop effusion of our Christian blood,

And stablish quietness on every side.

K. Hen. Ay, marry, uncle; for I always thought It was both impious and unnatural

That such immanity and bloody strife

Should reign among professors of one faith.

Glo. Beside, my lord, the sooner to effect
And surer bind this knot of amity,

The Earl of Armagnac-near kin to Charles,(130)
A man of great authority in France-

Proffers his only daughter to your grace

In marriage, with a large and sumptuous dower.(181)

K. Hen. Marriage, uncle! alas, my years are young!

And fitter is my study and my books

Than wanton dalliance with a paramour.

10) The Earl of Armagnac,-near kin to Charles,] So Pope (and Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector).-The folio has “ neere knit to Charles;" a mistake evidently occasioned by the word "knot" just above. (Compare, at p. 98,

"And so the Earl of Armagnac may do,

Because he is near kinsman unto Charles.")

(131) dower.] The folio has "Dowrie."-"Read dower: the double rhyme is offensive here. So, a little below, 'the value of her dower,' and [in scene] 5 'a liberal dower,'-'A dower, my lords!' Dower-dowredourie." Walker's Crit. Exum., &c., vol. iii. p. 153.

Yet, call th' ambassadors; and, as you please,
So let them have their answers every one:
I shall be well content with any choice
Tends to God's glory and my country's weal.

Enter a Legate and two Ambassadors, with WINCHESTER, NOW Cardinal BEAUFORT, and habited accordingly.

Exe. [aside] What! is my Lord of Winchester install'd, And call'd unto a cardinal's degree? (182)

Then I perceive that will be verified

Henry the Fifth did sometime prophesy,"If once he come to be a cardinal,

He'll make his cap co-equal with the crown.

K. Hen. My lords ambassadors, your several suits

Have been consider'd and debated on.

Your purpose is both good and reasonable;
And therefore are we certainly resolv'd
To draw conditions of a friendly peace;
Which by my Lord of Winchester we mean
Shall be transported presently to France.

Glo. And for the proffer of my 1.rd your master
I have inform'd his highness so at large,

As, liking of the lady's virtuous gifts,
Her beauty, and the value of her dower,

He doth intend she shall be England's queen.

K. Hen. [to the Amb.] In argument and proof of which contract,

(32) What! is my Lord of Winchester install'd,
And call'd unto a cardinal's degree?]

"This (as Mr. Edwards has observed in his Ms. notes) argues a great forgetfulness in the poet. In the first act Gloster says (p. 18),

'I'll canvass thee in thy broad cardinal's hat :'

and it is strange that the Duke of Exeter should not know of his advancement." STEEVENS.-"It should seem, from the stage-direction prefixed to this scene [but the folio has merely "Enter Winchester, and three Ambassadors", and from the conversation between the Legate and Winchester, that the author meant it to be understood that the bishop had obtained his cardinal's hat only just before his present entry. The inaccuracy, therefore, was in making Gloster address him by that title in the beginning of the play. He in fact obtained it in the fifth year of Henry's reign." MALONE.

VOL. V.

Bear her this jewel, pledge of my affection.—
And so, my lord protector, see them guarded,
And safely brought to Dover; where, inshipp'd,
Commit them to the fortune of the sea.

[Exeunt King Henry, Gloster, Exeter, and
Ambassadors.

Car. Stay, my lord legate: you shall first receive The sum of money which I promised

Should be deliver'd to his holiness

For clothing me in these grave ornaments.

Leg. I will attend upon your lordship's leisure. Car. Now Winchester will not submit, I trow, Or be inferior to the proudest peer.

[Exit.

Humphrey of Gloster, thou shalt well perceive
That neither in birth or for authority

The bishop will be overborne by thee:

I'll either make thee stoop and bend thy knee,
Or sack this country with a mutiny.

[Exit.

SCENE II. France. Plains in Anjou.

Enter CHARLES, BURGUNDY, ALENÇON, the Bastard of Orleans, REIGNIER, LA PUCELLE, and Forces, marching.

Char. These news, my lords, may cheer our drooping spirits:

'Tis said the stout Parisians do revolt,

And turn again unto the warlike French.

Alen. Then march to Paris, royal Charles of France,

And keep not back your powers in dalliance.

Puc. Peace be amongst them, if they turn to us;

Else, ruin combat with their palaces!

Enter a Messenger.

Mess. Success unto our valiant general,

And happiness to his accomplices !

Char. What tidings send our scouts? I prithee, speak.

Mess. The English army, that divided was

Into two parts,(138) is now conjoin'd in one,
And means to give you battle presently.

Char. Somewhat too sudden, sirs, the warning is;
But we will presently provide for them.

Bur. I trust the ghost of Talbot is not there:
Now he is gone, my lord, you need not fear.

Puc. Of all base passions, fear is most accurs'd:-
Command the conquest, Charles, it shall be thine;
Let Henry fret, and all the world repine.

Char. Then on, my lords; and France be fortunate!

[Exeunt.

SCENE III. Before Angiers.

Alarums: excursions. Enter LA PUCELLE.

Puc. The regent conquers, and the Frenchmen fly.-
Now help, ye charming spells and periapts;
And ye choice spirits that admonish me,
And give me signs of future accidents,-
You speedy helpers, that are substitutes
Under the lordly monarch of the north,
Appear, and aid me in this enterprise !

Enter Fiends.

This speed and (134) quick appearance argues proof
Of your accustom'd diligence to me.

Now, ye familiar spirits, that are cull'd

Out of the powerful legions under earth,"

(133) parts,] The folio has "parties."

(185)

[Thunder.

(134) This speed and] The folio has "This speedy and."-Corrected by Walker (Crit. Exam., &c., vol. ii. p. 49).

(135) Now, ye familiar spirits, that are cull'd

Out of the powerful legions under earth,]

The folio has "Out of the powerfull Regions under earth," &c. :—and Steevens informs us that "the regions under earth' are 'the infernal regions;'" but as he has not told us what are "the powerful regions under earth,” and how fiends can be said to be "cull'd out of regions," he has, in fact, offered nothing in support of the old text. Nor is it to

Help me this once, that France may get the field.

[They walk about, and speak not.

O, hold me not with silence over-long!

Where I was wont to feed you with my blood,

I'll lop a member off, and give it you,

be defended by a line in Cymbeline, act v. sc. 4, where Jupiter addresses the Ghosts;

"No more, you petty spirits of region low," &c.—

Warburton saw that the true reading here was "powerful legions."”– Malone observes; "In a former passage [of the present play]regions' seems to have been printed instead of 'legions,' at least all the editors from the time of Mr. Rowe have there substituted the latter word instead of the former. [See p. 71,-the folio having

"To beate assayling death from his weake Regions;"

which is indubitably a mistake for " his weak legions."] The word 'cull'd,' and the epithet 'powerful,' which is applicable to the fiends themselves, but not to their place of residence, show that it has an equal title to a place in the text here. So in The Tempest [act iii, sc. 3], 'But one fiend at a time,

I'll fight their legions o'er.""

Malone might also have cited from King Henry V. act ii. sc. 2,
"If that same demon that hath gull'd thee thus
Should with his lion-gait walk the whole world,
He might return to vasty Tartar back,
And tell the legions," &c.;

from King Richard III. act i. sc. 4,

"With that, methought, a legion of foul fiends
Environ'd me," &c. ;

and from Macbeth, act iv. sc. 3,

"Not in the legions

Of horrid hell can come a devil more damn'd," &c.—

An instance of "Legion" misprinted "Region" occurs in Shelton's Don Quixote, Part Sec. p. 303, ed. 1620; "And such was his ill lucke, that two or three of the Cats got in at the window of his Cabbin, and leaping vp and downe on euery side, it seem'd to him that there were a Region of Diuels in his Chamber."-Though Grey (Notes on Shakespeare, vol. ii. p. 15) does not perceive that the true reading in our text is "legions," he yet cites a passage which tends to confirm it. "Wierus," he observes, "speaks of Pucel (whether the same or not I cannot affirm), who had forty-eight legions of spirits under direction; Pucel, dux magnus fuit de ordine potestatum, habetque in suâ potestate legiones quadraginta octo.' Pseudomonachia Dæmonum. Wier. de Præstig. Dæmonum, p. 924."-Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector lets the corruption "powerful regions" stand; but alters" that are cull'd," &c., to that are call'd," &c., though the third line of this speech might have shown him that his alteration was quite wrong;

....

"And ye choice spirits that admonish me," &c.