Host. O, that right should thus overcome might! Well; of sufferance comes ease.

Dol. Come, you rogue, come; bring me to a justice.

Host. Ay; come, you starved blood-hound. Dol. Goodman death! goodman bones! Host. Thou atomy, thou!

Dol. Come, you thin thing; come, you rascal! 1 Bead. Very well. [Exeunt. SCENE V.—A public Place near Westminster Abbey.

Enter two GROOMS, strewing Rushes.

1 Groom. More rushes, more rushes. 2 Groom. The trumpets have sounded twice. 1 Groom. It will be two o'clock ere they come from the coronation: Despatch, despatch. [Exeunt GROOMS. Enter FALSTAFF, SHALLOW, PISTOL, BARDOLPH,

and the PAGE.

Fal. Stand here by me, master Robert Shallow; I will make the king do you grace: I will leer upon him, as 'a comes by; and do but mark the countenance that he will give me.

Pist. God bless thy lungs, good knight. Fal. Come here, Pistol; stand behind me.O, if I had had time to have made new liveries, I would have bestowed the thousand pound Í borrowed of you. [To SHALLOW.] But 'tis no matter; this poor show doth better: this doth infer the zeal I had to see him.

Shal. It doth so.

Fal. It shows my earnestness of affection. Shal. It doth so.

Fal. My devotion.

Shal. It doth, it doth, it doth.

Fal. As it were, to ride day and night; and not to deliberate, not to remember, not to have patience to shift me

Shal. It is most certain.

Fal. But to stand stained with travel, and sweating with desire to see him: thinking of nothing else; putting all affairs else in oblivion; as if there were nothing else to be done, but to see him.

Pist. "Tis semper idem, for absque hoc nihil est: "Tis all in every part.

Shal. 'Tis so, indeed.

How ill white hairs become a fool, and jester!
I have long dream'd of such a kind of man,
So surfeit-swell'd, so old, and so profane;
But, being awake, I do despise my dream.
Make less thy body hence, and more thy grace;
Leave gormandizing; know, the grave doth

gape

For thee thrice wider than for other men:-
Reply not to me with a fool-born jest;
Presume not, that I am the thing I was:
For heaven doth know, so shall the world per-
That I have turn'd away my former self;
ceive,
So will I those that kept me company.
When thou dost hear I am as I have been,
Approach me; and thou shalt be as thou wast,
The tutor and the feeder of my riots:
Till then, I banish thee, on pain of death,-
As I have done the rest of my misleaders,-
Not to come near our person by ten mile.
For competence of life, I will allow you,
That lack of means enforce you not to evil:
And, as we hear you do reform yourselves,
We will,-according to your strength, and
qualities,
[lord,
Give you advancement.-Be it your charge, my
To see perform'd the tenor of our word.
Set on.
[Exeunt KING, and his Train.
Fal. Master Shallow, owe you a thousand
pound.
Shal. Ay, marry, Sir John; which I beseech
you to let me have home with me.

Fal. That can hardly be, master Shallow. Do not you grieve at this; I shall be sent for in private to him: look you, he must seem thus to the world. Fear not your advancement; I will be the man yet, that shall make you great.

Shal. I cannot perceive how; unless you give me your doublet, and stuff me out with straw. I beseech you, good Sir John, let me have five hundred of my thousand.

Fal. Sir, I will be as good as my word: this that you heard, was but a colour.

Shal. A colour, I fear, that you will die in, Sir John.

Fal. Fear no colours; go with me to dinner. Come, lieutenant Pistol;-come, Bardolph:-I shall be sent for soon at night.

Re-enter Prince JOHN, the CHIEF JUSTICE,

First, my fear; then, my court'sy; last, my speech. My fear is, your displeasure; my court'sy, my duty; and my speech, to beg your pardons. If you look for a good speech now, you undo me for what I have to say, is of mine own making; and what, indeed, I should say, will, I doubt, prove mine own marring. But to the purpose, and so to the venture.-Be it known to you, (as it is very well,) I was lately here in the end of a displeasing play, to

pray your patience for it, and to promise you a better. I did mean, indeed, to pay you with this: which, if, like an ill venture, it come unluckily home, I break, and you, my gentle creditors, lose. Here, I promised you, I would be, and here I commit my body to your mercies: bate me some, and I will pay you some, and, as most debtors do, promise you intinitely.

If my tongue cannot entreat you to acquit me, will you command me to use my legs? and yet that were but light payment,-to dance out of your debt. But a good conscience will make any possible satisfaction, and so will I. All the gentlewomen here have forgiven me; if the gentlemen will not, then the gentlemen do not agree with the gentlewomen, which was never seen before in such an assembly.

One word more, I beseech you. If you be not too much cloyed with fat meat, our humble author will continue the story, with Sir John in it, and make you merry with fair Katharine of France: where, for any thing I know, Falstaff shall die of a sweat, unless already he be killed with your hard opinions; for Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man. My tongue is weary; when my legs are too, I will bid you good night: and so kneel down before you;-but, indeed, to pray for the queen.*

*Most of the ancient interludes conclude with a prayer for the King or Queen. Hence, perhaps, the Vivant Ber et Regina, at the bottom of our modern play-bills.

KING HENRY THE FIFTH.

DUKE OF GLOSTER, Brothers to the King.

DUKE OF BEDford,

DUKE OF EXETER, Uncle to the King.

DUKE OF YORK, Cousin to the King.

CHARLES THE SIXTH, King of France.
LEWIS, the Dauphin.

DUKES OF BURGUNDY, ORLEANS, and BOURBON
The CONSTABLE of France.

RAMBURES, and GRANDPREE, French Lords.

WARWICK.

ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

BISHOP OF ELY.

Conspirators against the King.

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.
NYM, BARDOLPH, PISTOL, formerly Servants
to Falstaff, now Soldiers in the same.
Boy, Servant to them.-A HERALD.-CHORUS.

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, a Hostess.

Lords, Ladies, Officers, French and English Soldiers, Messengers, and Attendants. The SCENE, at the beginning of the Play, lies in England; but afterwards wholly in France.

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, Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword,

and fire,

[all, Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles The flat unraised spirit, that hath dar'd, 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,t That did affright the air at Agincourt? O, 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 confin'd 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: [them Think, when we talk of horses, that you see 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; [pray,
Who, prologue-like, your humble patience
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.

* An allusion to the circular form of the theatre.
+ Helmets.
+ Powers of fancy.

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 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 alms-houses, right well supplied;
And to the coffers of the king beside,
[bill.
A thousand pounds by the year: Thus runs the
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 re

gard.

Ely. And a true lover of the holy church. Cant. The courses of his youth promis'd it

not.

The breath no sooner left his father's body,

* Debate.

study:

List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
A fearful battle render'd 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 charter'd 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 this theoric:+
Which is a wonder, how his grace should

glean it,

Since his addiction was to courses vain:
His companiest unletter'd, rude, and shallow;
His hours fill'd 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,
Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality:

And so the prince obscur'd his contemplation
Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt,
Grew like summer grass, fastest by night,
Unseen, yet crescives in his faculty.
Cant. It must be so: for miracles are ceas'd;
And therefore we must needs admit the means,
How things are perfected.

Ely. But, my good lord,

How now for mitigation of this bill

Urg'd 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 open'd 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 receiv'd, my lord?

Cant. With good acceptance of his majesty ; Save, that there was not time enough to hear (As, I perceiv'd, 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,

Deriv'd from Edward, his great grandfather.

Ely. What was the impediment that broke this off?

Cant. The French ambassador, upon that in

Enter King HENRY, GLOSTER, Bedford, ExeTER, WARWICK, 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 resolv'd,

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.

Cunt. 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 approbation

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
As pure as sin with baptism.
[wash'd

Cant. Then hear me, gracious sovereign,-
and you peers,
That owe your lives, your faith, and services,
To this imperial throne;-There is no bar
To make against your highness' claim to
France,
[mond,-
But this, which they produce from Phara-
In terram Salicam mulieres nè succedant,
No woman shall succeed in Salique land:
Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze,