PERSONS REPRESENTED.

KING HENRY THE FIFTH.
Duke of Gloster, Brothers to the King.
Duke of Bedford,
Duke of Exeter, Úncle 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, Conspirators against the King.
SIR THOMAS GREY,
SIR THOMAS ERPINGHAM, )
GOWER,

Officers in King Henry's
FLUELLEN,

Army.
MACMORRIS,
JAMY,
BATES,
COURT,

Soldiers in the same.
WILLIAMS,
NYM,

(formerly servants to Falstaff, non Soldiers BARDOLPH,

in the same.
PISTOL,
Boy, Servant to them.
A Herald. Chorus.

CHARLES THE Sixth, King of France.
LEWIS, the Dauphin.
Dukes of Burgundy, Orleans, and Bourbon.
The Constable of France.
RAMBURES, French Lords.
GRANDPREE, S
Governor of Harfleur.
MONTJOY, a French Herald.
Ambassadors to the King of England.
ISABEL, Queen of France.
KATHARINE, Daughter of Charles and Isabel.
ALICE, a Lady attending on the Princess Katharine.
QUICKLY, Pistol's Wife, an Hosless.

Whose The pe Piece

Into a And I Think, Printin For 't

Carry

Lords, Ladies, Officers, French and English Soldiers,

Messengers, and Attendants.
The SCENE, at the beginning of the Play, lies in Engo

land; but afterwards wholly in France.

Turnir Into a Admit Who, Gently

(550)

KING HENRY THE FIFTH.

Enter CHORUS. O, FOR a muse of fire that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention ! A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, And monarchs to behold the swelling scene ! Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, Assume the port of Mars; and, at his heels, Leashed in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire. Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all, The flat, unraised spirit, that hath dared, On this unworthy scaffold, to bring forth So great an object. Can this cockpit hold The vasty fields of France? or may we cram Within this wooden 0, the very casques, That did affright the air at Agincourt ? 0, pardon! since a crooked figure may Attest, in little place, a million; And let us, ciphers to this great accompt, On your imaginary forces work. Suppose, within the girdle of these walls Are now confined two mighty monarchies, Whose high, upreared and abutting fronts The perilous, narrow ocean parts asunder. Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts ; Into a thousand parts divide one man, And make imaginary puissance; Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth; For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings, Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times; Turning the accomplishment of many years Into an hour-glass. For the which supply, Admit me chorus to this history; Who, prologue like, your humble patience pray Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.

ACT I.

SCENE I. London. An Antechamber in the King's

Palace. Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bishop of Ely.

Canterbury. My lord, I'll tell you,—that self bill is urged, Which in the eleventh year o'the last king's reign Was like, and had indeed against us passed, But that the scambling and unquiet time Did push it out of further 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: being valued thus,-
As much as would maintain, to the king's honor,
Full fifteen earls, and fifteen hundred knights;
Six thousand and two hundred good esquires ;
And, to relief of lazars, and weak age,
Of indigent, faint souls, past corporal toil,
A hundred alms-houses, right well supplied;
And to the coffers of the king beside,
A thousand pounds by the year. Thus runs the bill.

Ely. This would drink deep.
Cant.

'Twould drink the cup and all.
Ely. But what prevention ?
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 promised it not.
The breath no sooner left his father's body,
But that his wildness, mortified in him,
Seemed to die too; yea, at that very moment,
Consideration like an angel came,
And whipped the offending Adam out of him;
Leaving his body as a paradise,
To envelop 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.

We are blessed in the change. Cant. Hear him but reason in divinity, And, all admiring, with an inward wish, 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 rendered 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 chartered libertine, is still, And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears, To steal his sweet and honeyed sentences; So that the art and practic part of life Must be the mistress to his theoric; Which is a wonder, how his grace should glean it, Since his addiction was to courses vain; His companies unlettered, rude, and shallow; His hours filled up with riots, banquets, sports; And never noted in him any study, Any retirement, any sequestration From open haunts and popularity.

Ely. The strawberry grows underneath the nettle,
And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best,
Neighbored by fruit of baser quality.
And so the prince obscured 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 ceased
And therefore we must needs admit the means,
How things are perfected.
Ely.

But, my good lord,
How now for mitigation of this bill
Urged by the commons ? Doth his majesty
Incline to it, or no ?
Cant.

He seems indifferent;
Or, rather, swaying more upon our part,
Than cherishing the exhibiters against us.
For I have made an offer to his majesty,-
Upon our spiritual convocation;
And in regard of causes now in hand,
Which I have opened 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 received, my lord ?

Cant. With good acceptance of his majesty;
Save, that there was not time enough to hear
(As, I perceived, his grace would fain have done)
The severals, and unhidden passages
Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms;
And, generally, to the crown and seat of France,
Derived from Edward his great grandfather.

Ely. What was the impediment that broke this off?

Cant. The French ambassador upon that instant
Craved 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. [Ereunt.

SCENE II. The same. A Room of State in the same. Enter KING HENRY, GLOSTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, WAR

WICK, 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 the ambassador, my liege?

K. Hen. Not yet, my cousin; we would be resolved, Before we hear him, of some things of weight, That task our thoughts, concerning us and France. Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bishop of Ely.

Cant. God, and his 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 God 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;