Exe. Only he hath not yet subscribed this : Where your majesty demands, that the King of France, having any occasion to write for matter of grant, shall name your highness in this form and with this addition, in French, Notre très-cher fils Henri, Roi d'Angleterre, Héritier de France; and thus in Latin, Præclarissimus filius noster Henricus, Rex Angliæ, et Hæres Franciæ. Fr. King. Nor this I have not, brother, so denied, But your request shall make me let it pass.

K. Hen. I pray you then, in love and dear alliance, Let that one article rank with the rest;

And thereupon give me your daughter.

335

Fr. King. Take her, fair son, and from her blood raise

up

Issue to me; that the contending kingdoms

Of France and England, whose very shores look pale
With envy of each other's happiness,

May cease their hatred, and this dear conjunction
Plant neighbourhood and Christian-like accord

In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance
His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair France.
All.

Amen!

340

345

K. Hen. Now, welcome, Kate and bear me witness all, That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen.

Q. Isa. God, the best maker of all marriages,
Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one!
As man and wife, being two, are one in love,
So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal,

329 any] om. F3F4

332 Héritier] Heretere Ff.

Præclarissimus] Ff. Percarissimus
Rann. See note (XXIV).

334 Nor] Yet Pope.

338 me] unto me Keightley.

daughter] daughter here S. Walker

conj.

340 the] these Pope.

[Flourish.

350

341 Of France and England] England and France Pope.

345 bosoms] breasts Pope.

never] ne'er S. Walker conj. 347 All.] Rowe. Lords. Ff.

That never may ill office, or fell jealousy,
Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage,
Thrust in between the paction of these kingdoms,
To make divorce of their incorporate league;
That English may as French, French Englishmen,
Receive each other. God speak this Amen!

All. Amen!

355

360

K. Hen. Prepare we for our marriage: on which day,
My Lord of Burgundy, we 'll take your oath,
And all the peers', for surety of our leagues.

Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me;
And may our oaths well kept and prosperous be!

365

[Sennet. Exeunt.

EPILOGUE.

Enter Chorus.

Chor. Thus far, with rough and all-unable pen,
Our bending author hath pursued the story,
In little room confining mighty men,

Mangling by starts the full course of their glory.

356 paction] Theobald. pation FF2. passion F3F4.

358 That] But Capell.

French, French Englishmen] French,
Frenchmen as English or French,
French as Englishmen or English,
French as Frenchmen Vaughan
conj.

359 speak this Amen!] speed this—A-
men! Hutchesson conj. (Gent.
Mag., 1790).

360 All.] Ff.

363 peers'] Capell. Peeres Ff.

leagues] league Dyce, ed. 2 (S. Walker conj.).

365 [Sennet] Senet. F1. Sonet. FF3 F4. sonnet. Rowe. om. Pope. See note (XXV).

EPILOGUE. Enter Chorus.] Enter Chorus. Ff. Enter Chorus, as Epilogue. Collier, ed. 2 (Collier MS.). 2 bending] blending Johnson (Warburton conj.).

4 starts] struts Brae conj. (R. S. Lit.,

1873).

Small time, but in that small most greatly lived

This star of England: Fortune made his sword;
By which the world's best garden he achieved,
And of it left his son imperial lord.
Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crown'd King

Of France and England, did this king succeed;
Whose state so many had the managing,

That they lost France and made his England bleed: Which oft our stage hath shown; and, for their sake, In your fair minds let this acceptance take.

8 lord.] F. lord, F2F3F412 made] F1. make FF3F4

14 [Exit.] Capell.
Staunton.

5

10

[Exit.

om. Ff. Exeunt.

NOTES.

any

NOTE I.

DRAMATIS PERSONE. In Rowe's list, which remained uncorrected by

editor before Capell, the Duke of Clarence is introduced and the Duke of York is called 'Uncle to the king.' The list we have given differs in a few other unimportant points from that of Rowe.

In the first Folio the title of the play is The Life of Henry the Fift. The second Folio has The Life of King Henry the Fift. In the Folios the play is divided into acts, but not into scenes, although they prefix Actus Primus. Scana Prima, to the first act. The division was first made by Pope.

NOTE II.

Act II. Prologue, 31, 32. Mr Knight says, "The passage is evidently corrupt; and we believe that the two lines were intended to be erased from the author's copy; for 'the abuse of distance' is inapplicable as the lines stand." Mr Keightley proposes to read,

and we'll digest

The abuse of distance, as we forge our play.'

We have left the reading of the Folios, as no proposed emendation can be regarded as entirely satisfactory.

Mr Bulloch (5 July, 1864) suggested

'until we force

The abyss of distance, and digest a play.'

Mr Moberly would restore the text thus:

and we'll defeat

The abuse of distance. For so foul a play

The sum is paid &c.'

NOTE III.

II. 2. 139, 140. Malone misquotes the reading of Pope in this passage, and his error is repeated without correction in subsequent editions. Mr Mitford in the Gentleman's Magazine, Nov. 1844, proposes to read, To mark the full-fraught man and least inclined,' &c., quoting 'inclined' as if it were the received text. Perhaps it is a printer's error.

NOTE IV.

II. 2. 176. Mr Collier in a note which has remained uncorrected in his second edition says, "Malone, without any authority from Quartos or Folios, printed Whose ruin you three sought.'" The fact is that this is the reading of every Folio, except the first, and of every edition, without exception, which had appeared before Malone's.

II. 3. 16.

NOTE V.

Here is Pope's note on this famous passage: 'These words and a table of green fields are not to be found in the old editions of 1600 and 1608. This nonsense got into all the following editions by a pleasant mistake of the Stage-editors, who printed from the common piecemealwritten parts in the Play-house. A Table was here directed to be brought in (it being a scene in a tavern where they drink at parting) and this direction crept into the text from the margin. Greenfield was the name of the Property-man in that time who furnished implements &c. for the actors. A table of Greenfield's.'

Theobald's emendation was suggested, he says, by a marginal conjecture in an edition of Shakespeare 'by a gentleman sometime deceased.' Shakespeare Restored, p. 138.

Mr Spedding approved of talked as being nearer to the ductus literarum,