Flu. Much goot do you, scald knave, heartily. Nay, pray you, throw none away; the skin is goot for your proken coxcomb. When you take occasions to see leeks hereafter, I pray you, mock at 'em; that is all.

Pist. Good.

Flu. Ay, leeks is goot: hold you, there is a groat to heal your pate.

Pist. Me a groat!

Flu. Yes, verily and in truth, you shall take it; or I have another leek in my pocket, which you shall eat.

Pist. I take thy groat in earnest of revenge.

Flu. If I owe you any thing, I will pay you in cudgels: you shall be a woodmonger, and buy nothing of me but cudgels. Got b' wi' you, and keep you, and heal your pate.

Pist. All Hell shall stir for this.

[Exit.

Gow. Go, go; you are a counterfeit cowardly knave. Will you mock at an ancient tradition, - begun upon an honourable respect, and worn as a memorable trophy of predeceased valour,—and dare not avouch in your deeds any of your words? I have seen you gleeking and galling 3 at this gentleman twice or thrice. You thought, because he could not speak English in the native garb, he could not therefore handle an English cudgel: you find it otherwise; and henceforth let a Welsh correction teach you a good English condition.4 Fare ye well. [Exit.

Pist. Doth Fortune play the huswife 5 with me now? News have I, that my Nell is dead i' the spital

8 Gleeking is scoffing, flouting; and galling is here used in a kindred sense,-venting sarcasms, things that irritate.

4 Condition, as usual, for temper or disposition.

Huswife for jilt, or hussy, as we have it still in common speech.

Of malady of France;

And there my rendezvous is quite cut off.
Old I do wax; and from my weary limbs
Honour is cudgell'd. Well, bawd will I turn,
And something lean to cutpurse of quick hand.
To England will I steal, and there I'll steal :
And patches will I get unto these scars,
And swear I got them in the Gallia wars.

[Exit.

ACT V.

Enter Chorus.

Cho. Vouchsafe all those that have not read the story,

That I may prompt them: and, for such as have,

I humbly pray them to admit th' excuse

Of time, of numbers, and due course of things,
Which cannot in their huge and proper life
Be here presented. Now we bear the King
Toward Calais: grant him there; there seen,
Heave him away upon your winged thoughts
Athwart the sea. Behold, the English beach
Pales-in1 the flood with men, with wives, and boys,
Whose shouts and claps out-voice the deep-mouth'd sea,
Which, like a mighty whiffler 2 'fore the King,
Seems to prepare his way: so let him land;

1 To pale-in is to fence round or enclose with palings.

2 While is another form of whistle, and was used of a fife or pipe. As fifers or pipers commonly marched at the head of troops and processions, so whiffler came to be used of any one who went ahead of another to clear the way.

And solemnly3 see him set on to London :
So swift a pace hath thought, that even now
You may imagine him upon Blackheath.
Where-that his lords desire him to have borne
His bruised helmet and his bended sword
Before him through the city, he forbids it,
Being free from vainness and self-glorious pride;
Giving full trophy, signal, and ostent,5

Quite from himself to God. But now behold,
In the quick forge and working-house of thought,
How London doth pour out her citizens !
The Mayor and all his brethren, in best sort,—
Like to the senators of th' antique Rome,
With the plebeians swarming at their heels,—
Go forth, and fetch their conquering Cæsar in :
As, by a lower but loving likelihood,

Were now the general of our gracious Empress
As in good time he may—from Ireland coming,
Bringing rebellion broachèd on his sword,

How many would the peaceful city quit,

To welcome him! much more, and much more cause,
Did they this Harry. Now in London place him ;
(As yet the lamentation of the French

3 Solemnly is in state, or with ordered pomp and ceremony. The proper construction is, "see him set on solemnly to London."

4 Where-that is plainly equivalent to whereas.

5 Ostent is show or display. See The Merchant, page 113, note 38.

6 Broached is pierced through, transfixed.— The allusion is to the Earl of Essex, who in April, 1599, set out for Ireland, as Governor, to put down the rebellion of Tyrone. His departure was an occasion of great enthusiasm, people of all ranks thronging around him and showering benedictions upon him. But these bright anticipations were sadly disappointed. The expedition failed utterly; and the Earl's return, in September following, was unhonoured and unmarked.

Invites the King of England's stay at home;
The Emperor coming in behalf of France,
To order peace between them;) and omit
All the occurrences, whatever chanced,
Till Harry's back-return again to France:
There must we bring him; and myself have play'd
The interim, by remembering you 'tis past.
Then brook abridgement; and your eyes advance,
After your thoughts, straight back again to France.

[Exit.

SCENE I.-Troyes in Champagne. An Apartment in the French King's Palace.

Enter, from one side, King HENRY, BEDFORD, GLOSTER,
EXETER, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and other Lords;
from the other side, the French King, Queen ISABEL, the
Princess CATHARINE, ALICE, other Ladies, and Lords; the
Duke of BURGUNDY, and his Train.

K. Hen. Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are
Unto our brother France, and to our sister,
Health and fair time of day ; — joy and good wishes
To our most fair and princely cousin Catharine;
And, as a branch and member of this royalty,
By whom this great assembly is contrived,
We do salute you, Duke of Burgundy ;-

met! 1.

And, princes French, and peers, health to you all!
Fr. King. Right joyous are we to behold your face,

7 The Emperor Sigismund, who was married to Henry's second cousin, and who visited England at this time.

1 They have met together for the purpose of knitting up a peace, and the King begins by wishing peace to the meeting. "Peace, for which we are met, be to the meeting."

kitations & drecht

158

KING HENRY THE FIFTH.

ACT V.

Most worthy brother England; fairly met:-
So are you, princes English, every one.

Q. Isa. So happy be the issue, brother England,
Of this good day and of this gracious meeting,
As we are now glad to behold your eyes;
Your eyes, which hitherto have born in them
Against the French, that met them in their bent,
The fatal balls of murdering basilisks: 2

The venom of such looks, we fairly hope,
Have lost 3 their quality; and that this day
Shall change all griefs and quarrels into love.

K. Hen. To cry amen to that, thus we appear.
Q. Isa. You English princes all, I do salute you.
Bur. My duty to you both, on equal love,

Great Kings of France and England! That I've labour'd,
With all my wits, my pains, and strong endeavours,

To bring your most imperial Majesties

Unto this bar and royal interview,

Your mightiness' on both parts best can witness.
Since, then, my office hath so far prevail'd,

That, face to face and royal eye to eye,

You have congreeted, let it not disgrace me,

2 The basilisk was a serpent which, it was anciently supposed, could destroy the object of his vengeance by merely looking at it. It was also a great gun; and the allusion here is double. See King Richard the Third, page 145, note 4.

3 Here the verb is made to agree with the nearest substantive, looks, instead of with its proper nominative, venom. Shakespeare has many like instances of false concord. See page 124, note 27.

4 That is, this place of congress. Bar is a shortened form of barrier. Ordinarily, when sovereigns were to meet in the field for such purposes, a barrier was erected at the place agreed upon, as a protection of either party against the possible violence or treachery of the other. Hence bar came to be used for any place of meeting.