If my tongue cannot entreat you to acquit me, will || much cloyed with fat meat, our humble author will you command me to use my legs? and yet that were continue the story with Sir John in it, and make you but light payment, to dance out of your debt. But a merry with fair Katharine of France; where, for any good conseience will make any possible satisfaction, thing I know, Falstaff shall die of a sweat, unless aland so will I. All the gentlewomen here have forgiv-ready he be killed with your hard opinions ; for Olden me; if the gentlemen will not, then the gentlemen | castle died a martyr, and this is not the man. My do not agree with the gentlewomen, which was never tongue is weary; when my legs are too, I will bid you xen before in such an assembly.

good night, and so kneel down before you ; but, inOpe word more, I beseeeh you. If you be not too || deed, to pray for the queen.

1

KING HENRY V.

PERSONS REPRESENTED. King Henry the Fifth.

Charles the Sixth, king of France. Duke of Gloster; {brothers to the king.

Lewis, the dauphin. Duke of Bedford,

Dukes of Burgundy, Orleans, and Bourbon. Duke of Exeter, uncle to the king.

The Constable of France.
Duke of York, cousin to the king.

Rambures, and Grandpree, French lords.
Earls of Salisbury, Westmoreland, and Warwick. Governor of Harfleur.
Archbishop of Canterbury.

Montjoy, a French herald,
Bishop of Ely.

Ambassadors to the king of England.
Earl of Cambridge,
Lord Seroop,

conspirators against the king. Isabel, queen of France. Sir Thomas Grey,

Katharine, daughter of Charles and Isabel. Sir Thomas Erpingham, Gower, Flvellen, Macmorris, Alice, a lady, attending on the princess Katharine. Jamy, offers in king Henry's army.

Quickly, Pistol's wife, an hostess.
Bates, Court, Williams, soldiers in the same.
Nym, Bardolph, Pistol, formerly servants to Falstaf]; || Lords, Ladies, Officers, French and English Soldiers,
non soldiers in the same.

Messengers, and Attendants.
Bay. servant to thein.
A Herald.

The SCENE-at the beginning of the play, lies in EngChotus.

land; but afterwards, wholly in France.

FOR a muse of fire, that would ascend SCENE 1.-London. An Ante-chamber in the King's The brightest beaven of invention!

Palacé. Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury, and A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,

Bishop of Ely.
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene !
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,

Canterbury.
Assume the port of Mars; and, at his heels,

My lord, I'll tell you, that self bill is urg'd, Leashid in, like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire, which, in the eleventh year o' the last king's reiga Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all,

Was like, and bad indeed against us passid, The flat unraised spirit, that hath dar'd,

But that the scambling and unquiet time On this unworthy scaffold, to bring forth

Did push it out of further question. so great an object: Can this cock-pit hold

Ely. But how, my lord, shall we resist it now? The vasty fields of France? Or may we cram

Cant. It must be thought on. If it pass against us, Within this wooden 0, the very casques,

We lose the better half of our possession : That did affright the air at Agincourt?

For all the temporal lands, which men devout 0, pardon! since a crooked figure may

By testament have given to the church, Attest, in little place, a million ;

Would they strip froin us; being valued thus,And let us, cypbers to this great accompt,

As much as would maintain, to the king's honour, On your imaginary forces work :

Full fifteen earls, and fifteen hundred knights; Suppose, within the girdle of these walls

Six thousand and two hundred good esquires; Are now confiu'd two mighty monarchies,

And, to relief of lazars, and weak age, Whose high-upreared and abutting fronts

Of indig nt faint souls. past corporal toil, The perilous, narrow ocean parts asunder.

A hundred alms-houses, right well supplied ; Pace out our imperfections with your thoughts ;

And to the coffers of the king beside, Imo a thousand parts divide one man,

A thousand pounds by the year: Thus runs the bill. And make imaginary puissince:

Ely. Tbis would drink deep.

Cant. Think, when we talk of horses, that you see thein

'Twould drink the cup and all. Princing their proud hoofs i'the receiving earth: Ely. But what prevention? Tor 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,

Cant. The king is full of grace, and fair regard. Carry them here and there ; jumping o'er times ;

Ely. And a true lover of the holy church. l'urning the accomplishment of many years

Card, The courses of his youth promisd it not. loco an hour-glass : For the which supply,

The breath no sooner left his father's bos, 4d mit me Chorus to this history" ;

But that his willness, morrified in him, 11 Puo, prologue-like, your humble patience prar,

Seen'd tu die to: yca, at that very moment, Gully to hear, kindly to judge, curp!!.

Considration like an angel camp,

same.

And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him; Which I could, with a ready guess, declare,
Leaving his body as a paradise,

Before the Frenchman speak a word of it.
To envelop and contain celestial spirits.

Ely. I'll wait upon you ; and I long to hear it. Never was such a sudden scholar made:

[Exeunt. Never came reformation in a flood, With such a heady current, scouring faults;

SCENE II.-The same. A Room of state in the Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulness So soon did lose luis seat, and all at once,

Enter King Henry, Gloster, Bedford, ExeAs in this king.

ter, Warwick, Westmoreland, and Attendants. Ely." We are blessed in the change.

K. Hen. Where is my gracious lord of Canterbury? Cant. Hear him but reason in divinity,

Exe. Not here in presence. And, all admiring, with an inward wish

K. Hen.

Send for him, good uncle. You would desire, the king were made a prelate:

West. Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege? Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,

K. Hen. Not yet, my cousin; we would be resold, You would say, it hath been all-in-all his study: Before we hear him, of some things of weight, List his discourse of war, and you shall hear

That task our thoughts, concerning us and France. A fearful battle render'd you in music: Turn him to any cause of policy,

Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bishop of | 'The Gorlian knot of it he will unloose,

Ely. Familiar as his garter; that, when he speaks,

Cant. God, and his angels, guard your sacred thione, The air, a charter'd libertine, is still,

And make you long become it! And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,

K. Hen.

Sure, we thank you. To steal his sweet and honeyed sentences ;

My learned lord, we pray you to proceed ; So that the art and practic part of life,

And justly and religiously unfold, Must be the mistress to this theoric:

Why the law Salique, that they have in France, Which is a wonder, how his grace should glean it, Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim. Since his addiction was to courses vain :

And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord, His companies unletter'd, rude, and shallow; That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading, His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports; Or nicely charge your understanding soul And never noted in him any study,

With opening titles miscreate, whose right Any retirement, any sequestration

Suits not in native colours with the truth;
From open haunts and popularity.

For God doth know, how many, now in health,
Ely. The strawberry grows underneath the nettle ; || Shall drop their blood in approbation
And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best, of what your reverence shall incite us to :
Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality:

Therefore take heed bow you impawn our personi, And so the prince obscur'd his contemplation

How you awake the sleeping sword of war; Under the veil of wildness ; which, no doubt, We charge you in the name of God, take heed : Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night,

For never two such kingdoms did contend, Unseen, yet crescire in his faculty.

Without much fall of blood; whose guildless drops
Cant. It must be so: for miracles are ceas'd ; Are every one a woe, a sore complaint,
And therefore we must needs admit the means, 'Gainst him, whose wrongs give edge unto the swonis
How things are perfected.

That make such waste in brief mortality.
Ely,
But, my good lord,

Under this conjuration, speak, my lord :
How now for mitigation of this bill

And we will hear, note, and believe in heart, Urg'd by the commons ? Doth his majesty

That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd lucline to it, or no?

As pure as sin with baptism.
Cant.
He seems indifferent;

Cant. Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you Or, rather, swaying more upon our part,

peers, Than cherishing the exhibiters against us:

That owe your lives, your faith, and services, For I have made an offer to his majesty,–

To this imperial throne ;-There is no bar · Upon our spiritual convocation,

To make against your highness' claim to France, And in regard of causes now in hand,

But this, which they produce from Pharamond, Which I have opend to his grace at large,

In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant, As touching France,-to give a greater sum

No woman shall succeed in Salique land: Than ever at one time the clergy yet

Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze, Did to his predecessors part withal.

To be the realm of France, and Pharamond Ely. How did this offer seemn receiv*d, my lord?, The founder of this law and female bar.

Cant. With good acceptance of his majesty; Yet their own authors faithfully affirm, Save, that there was not time enough to hear That the land Salique lies in Gerinany, (As, 1 perceiv'd, his grace would fain have done) Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe : The severals, and uphidden passages,

Where Charles the great, having subdued the Saxons, of his true titles to some certain dukedoms;

There left behind and settled certain French ; And, generally, to the crown and seat of France, Who holding in disdain the German women, Deriv'd from Edward, his great grandfather.

For some dishonest manners of their life,
Ely. What was the impediment that broke this off? Establish'd there this law,-to wit, no female

Cant. The French ambassador, upon that instant, Should be inheritrix in Salique land ;
Cravd audience: and the hour, I think, is come, Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sals,
To give him hearing: is it four o'clock?

Is at this day in Germany callid-Meisen.
Ely.

It is. Thus doth it well appear, the Salique law cant. Then go we in to know his eml assy; Was not devised for the realm of France :

Nor did the French possess the Salique lund

West. They know, your grace hath cause, and means, Until four hundred one and twenty years

and might; After defunction of king Pharamond,

So hath your highness ; never king of England Idly suppos'd the founder of this law;

Had nobles richer, and more loyal subjects ; Who died within the year of our redemption

Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England, Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the great And lie pavilion'd in the fields of France. Subdued the Saxons, and did seat the French

Cant. O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege, Beyond the river Sala, in the year

With blood, and sword, and fire, to win your right: Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say, In aid whereof, we of the spiritualty King Pepin, which deposed Childerick,

Will raise your highness such a mighty sum, Did, as heir general, being descended

As never did the clergy at one time Of Blithild, which was daughter to king Clothair, Bring in to any of your ancestors. Make claim and title to the crown of France.

K. Hen. We must not only arm to invade the Hugh Capet also,-that usurp'd the crown

French; of Charles the duke of Lorain, sole heir male But lay down our proportions to defend of the true line and stock of Charles the great, Against the Scot, who will make road upon us To fine his title with some show of truth,

With all advantages. (Though, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naughty) Cant. They of those marches, gracious sovereign, Convey'd himself as heir to the lady Lingare, Shall be a wall sufficient to defend Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son

Our inland from the pilfering borderers. To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son

K. Hen. We do not mean the coursing snatchers of Charles the great. Also king Lewis the tenth,

only, Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet,

But fear the main intendment of the Scot, Coukl not keep quiet in his conscience,

Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us; Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied

For you shall read, that my great grandfather That fair queen Isabel, his grandmother,

Never went with his forces into France,
Was lineal of the lady Ermengare,

But that the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdom
Daughter to Charles the foresaid duke of Lorain: Came pouring, like the tide into a breach,
By the which marriage, the line of Charles the great With ample and brim fulness of his force;
Was re-united to the crown of France.

Galling the gleaned land with hot essays ;
So that, as clear as is the summer's sun,

Girding with grievous siege, castles and towns; King Pepin's title, and Hugh Capet's claim,

That England, being empty of defence, King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear

Hath shook, and trembled at the ill neighbourhood. To hold in right and title of the female:

Cant. She hath been then more fear'd than harm'd, So do the kings of France unto this day;

my liege :
Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law, For hear her but exampled by herself,
To bar Four highness claiming from the female ; When all her chivalry bath been in France,
And rather choose to hide them in a net,

And she a mourning widow of her nobles,
Than amply to imbare their crooked titles

She hath herself not only well defended, Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.

But taken, and impounded as a stray, K. Hen. May I, with right and conscience, make | The king of Scots; whom she did send to France, this claim?

To fill king Edward's fame with prisoner kings;
Cant. The sin upon my head, dread sovereign ! And make your chronicle as rich with praise,
For in the book of Numbers is it writ,-

As is the ooze and bottom of the sea
When the son dies, let the inheritance

With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries. Descend unto the danghter. Gracious lord,

West. But there's a saying, very old and true, Stand for your own; unwind your bloody fiag;

If that you will France win,
Look back unto your mighty ancestors :

Then with Scotland first begin :
Go, my dread lord, to your great grandsire's tomb, For once the eagle England being in prey,
From whom you claim ; invoke his warlike spirit, To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot
And your great uncle's, Edward the black prince; Comes sneaking, and so sucks her princely eggs;
Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy, Playing the mouse, in absence of the cat,
Making defeat on the full power of France; To spoil and havoc more than she can eat.
Whiles his most mighty father on a hill

Exe. It follows then, the cat must stay at home : Stood smiling, to behold his lion's whelp

Yet that is but a cursd necessity; Forage in blood of French nobility.

Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries, O noble English, that could entertain

And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves. With half their forces the full pride of France; While that the armed hand doth fight abroad, And let another half stand laughing by,

The advised head defends itself at home : All out of work, and cold for action!

For government, though high, and low, and lower, Ely. Awake remembrance of these valiant dead, Put into parts, doth keep in one concent; And with your puissant arm renew their feats : Congruing in a full and natural close, You are their heir, you sit upon their throne;

Like music.
The blood and courage, that renowned them,

Cant. True: therefore doth heaven divide
Rons in your veins ; and my thrice-puissant liege The state of man in divers functions,
Is in the very May-morn of his youth,

Setting endeavour in continual motion ;
Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprizes.

To which is fixed, as an aim or but,
Exe. Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth Obedience: for so work the honey bees ;
Do all expect that you should rouse yourself, Creatures, that, by a role in nature, teach
As did the former lions of your blood.

The act of order to a peopled kingdom,