K. H. V.

KING HENRY V.

KING HENRY the Fifth.

DUKE OF GLoucester,

DUKE OF Bedford,

brothers to the King.

DUKE OF EXETER, uncle to the King.

DUKE OF YORK, cousin to the King.
EARL OF SALISBURY.

EARL OF WESTMORELAND.

EARL OF WARWICK.

ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

BISHOP OF ELY.

EARL OF CAMBRIDGE.

LORD SCROOP.

SIR THOMAS GREY.

SIR THOMAS ERPINGHAM, GOWER, FLUELLEN, MACMORRIS,

JAMY, officers in King Henry's army.

BATES, COURT, WILLIAMS, soldiers in the same.

PISTOL.

NYM.

BARDOLPH.

Boy.

A Herald.

CHARLES the Sixth, King of France.

LEWIS, the Dauphin.

DUKE OF BURGUNDY.
DUKE OF ORLEANS.

DUKE OF BOURBON.

The Constable of France.

RAMBURES, GRANDPRÉ, French lords.

Governor of Harfleur.

MONTJOY, a French herald.

Ambassadors to the King of England.

ISABEL, Queen of France.

KATHARINE, daughter to Charles and Isabel.

ALICE, a lady attending on her.

Hostess of a tavern in Eastcheap (formerly Mistress Quickly, and now married to Pistol).

Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Citizens, Messengers, and Attendants.

Chorus.

SCENE-During the earlier part of the play in England,

afterwards in France.

KING HENRY V.

PROLOGUE.

Enter Chorus.

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,

Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire
Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all,

The flat unraised spirits that have 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 O the very casques
That did affright the air at Agincourt?
O, pardon since a crooked figure may

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ΙΟ

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Attest in little place a million 2

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,

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Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.

[Exit.

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 urged,
Which in the 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 further question.

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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

ΙΟ

Would they strip from us; being valued thus

As much as would maintain, to the king's honour,
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 almshouses 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.

Canterbury.

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'Twould drink the cup and all. 20

Ely. But what prevention?

Canterbury. The king is full of grace and fair regard. Ely. And a true lover of the holy church.