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 colours with the truth;
For God doth know, how many, now in health,
Shall drop their blood in approbationP
Of what your reverence shall incite us to:
Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,
How you awake the sleeping sword of war;
We charge you in the name of God, take heed:
For never two such kingdoms did contend,
Without much fall of blood; whose guiltless drops
Are every one a woe, a sore complaint,

'Gainst him, whose wrongs give edge unto the swords
That make such waste in brief mortality.

Under this conjuration, speak, my lord:

And we will hear, note, and believe in heart,
That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd

As pure as sin with baptism.

Cant. Then hear me, gracious sovereign,-and you peers, That owe your lives, your faith, and services,

To this imperial throne ;-There is no barr

Or nicely charge your understanding soul-] Take heed, lest by nice and subtle sophistry you burthen your knowing soul, or knowingly burthen your soul, with the guilt of advancing a faise title, or of maintaining, by specious fallacies, a claim which, if shown in its native and true colours, would appear to be false. JOHNSON.

P

4

miscreate,] i. e. Illegitimate, spurious.

in approbation of-] i. e. In proof of.

impawn-] i. e. Engage. These words, to engage and to pawn, were formerly synonymous. But impawn here seems to have the same meaning as the French phrase se commettre.-MALONE.

There is no bar, &c.] This whole speech is copied (in a manner verbatim) from Holinshed's Chronicle.-MALONE

To make against your highness' claim to France,
But this, which they produce from Pharamond,-
In terram Salicam mulieres nè succedant,

No woman shall succeed in Salique land:

Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze,
To be the realm of France, and Pharamond
The founder of this law and female bar.
Yet their own authors faithfully affirm,
That the land Salique lies in Germany,
Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe:

Where Charles the great, having subdued the Saxons,
There left behind and settled certain French;
Who, holding in disdain the German women,
For some dishonest manners of their life,
Establish'd there this law,-to wit, no female
Should be inheritrix in Salique land;
Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala,
Is at this day in Germany call'd-Meisen.
Thus doth it well appear, the Salique law
Was not devised for the realm of France;
Nor did the French possess the Salique land
Until four hundred one and twenty years
After defunction of king Pharamond,
Idly suppos'd the founder of this law;
Who died within the year of our redemption
Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the great
Subdued the Saxons, and did seat the French
Beyond the river Sala, in the year

Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say,
King Pepin, which deposed Childerick,
Did, as heir general, being descended

Of Blithild, which was daughter to king Clothair,
Make claim and title to the crown of France.
Hugh Capet also,—that usurp'd the crown
Of Charles the duke of Lorain, sole heir male
Of the true line and stock of Charles the great,-
To fine his title with some show of truth,

(Though, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught,)

gloze,] i. e. Expound, explain. To fine-] i. e. To adorn,

Convey'd himself" as heir to the lady Lingare,
Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son
To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son

Of Charles the great. Also king Lewis the tenth,'
Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet,
Could not keep quiet in his conscience,
Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied
That fair queen Isabel, his grandmother,
Was lineal of the lady Ermengare,

Daughter to Charles the foresaid duke of Lorain:
By the which marriage, the line of Charles the great
Was re-united to the crown of France.

So that, as clear as is the summer's sun,
King Pepin's title, and Hugh Capet's claim,
King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear
To hold in right and title of the female:
So do the kings of France unto this day;
Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law,
To bar your highness claiming from the female;
And rather choose to hide them in a net,
Than amply to imbare their crooked titles

Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.

K. Hen. May I, with right and conscience, make this claim?

Cant. The sin upon my head, dread sovereign!

For in the book of Numbers is it writ,

Convey'd himself—] i. e. Derived his title. Our poet found this expression in Holinshed.-MALONE.

the lady Lingare,

Daughter to Charlemain,] By Charles the Great is meant the emperor Charlemagne, son of Pepin : Charlemain is Charlechauve, or Charles the Bald, who, as well as Charles le Gros, assumed the title of Magnus. But then Charlechauve had only one daughter, named Judith, married, or, as some say, only betrothed, to our king Ethelwulf, and carried off after his death by Baldwin the forester, afterwards earl of Flanders, whom it is very certain, Hugh Capet was neither heir to, nor any way descended from. No such female as Lingare is to be met with in any French historian. In fact, these fictitious persons and pedigrees seem to have been devised by the English heralds "to fine" a corrupt "title with some show of truth." It was manifestly impossible that Henry, who had no hereditary title to his own dominions, could derive one by the same colour, to another person's. He proposes the invasion of France in prosecution of the dying advice of his father:

"

to busy giddy minds in foreign quarrels."-RITSON. Lewis the tenth,] This is a mistake into which Shakspeare was led by Holinshed. We should read Lewis the ninth.-MALONE.

2

imbare―] i. e. Lay open.

When the son dies, let the inheritance

Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord,
Stand for your own; unwind your bloody flag;
Look back unto your mighty ancestors:

Go, my dread lord, to your great grandsire's tomb,
From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit,
And your great uncle's, Edward the black prince;
Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy,
Making defeat on the full power of France;
Whiles his most mighty father on a hill
Stood smiling, to behold his lion's whelp
Forage in blood of French nobility."

O noble English, that could entertain
With half their forces the full pride of France;
And let another half stand laughing by,
All out of work, and cold for action!"

Ely. Awake remembrance of these valiant dead,
And with your puissant arm renew their feats:
You are their heir, you sit upon their throne;
The blood and courage, that renowned them,
Runs in your veins; and my thrice-puissant liege
Is in the very May-morn of his youth,

Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprizes.

Exe. Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth Do all expect that you should rouse yourself,

As did the former lions of your blood.

West. They know, your grace hath cause, and means,

and might;

So hath your highness; never king of England
Had nobles richer, and more loyal subjects;

Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England,
And lie pavilion'd in the fields of France.

Cant. O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege,
With blood, and sword, and fire, to win your right:
In aid whereof, we of the spiritualty

Will raise your highness such a mighty sum,

a Whiles his most mighty father, &c.] This alludes to Holinshed's description of the battle of Cressy. The king is there described as standing "aloft on a windmill-hill," and refusing to give any orders concerning the battle while his son was alive; "for I will that this journeye be his and the honour thereof.” b cold for action!] i. e. Cold for want of action.-STEEVENS.

As never did the clergy at one time

Bring in to any of your ancestors.

K. Hen. We must not only arm to invade the French;

But lay down our proportions to defend

Against the Scot, who will make road upon us

With all advantages.

Cant. They of those marches, gracious sovereign, Shall be a wall sufficient to defend

Our inland from the pilfering borderers.

K. Hen. We do not mean the coursing snatchers only, But fear the main intendments of the Scot, Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us; For you shall read, that my great grandfather Never went with his forces into France, But that the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdom Came pouring, like the tide into a breach, With ample and brim fulness of his force; Galling the gleaned land with hot essays; Girding with envious siege, castles and towns; That England, being empty of defence,

Hath shook, and trembled at the bruit thereof.

Cant. She hath been then more fear'd' than harm'd,

For hear her but exampled by herself,

my

[liege:

When all her chivalry hath been in France,
And she a mourning widow of her nobles,
She hath herself not only well defended,
But taken, and impounded as a stray,

The king of Scots; whom she did send to France,
To fill king Edward's fame with prisoner kings;
And make her chronicle as rich with praise,"
As is the ooze and bottom of the sea

With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries.

They of those marches,] The marches are the borders, the limits, the confines. Hence the Lords Marchers, i. e. the lords presidents of the marches, &c. -STEEVENS.

e

main intendment—] i. e. General disposition.

at the bruit thereof.] This is the reading of the quartos 1600 and 1608; the folio reads, at the ill neighbourhood.

f —fear'd—] i. e. Frightened.

And make her chronicle, &c.] The quarto reads your chronicle, the folio their chronicle, neither of which words have any propriety in the sentence; I have therefore adopted Dr. Johnson's emendation, who says, "your and their, written by contraction yr, are just alike; and her, in the old hands, is not much unlike yr."