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SCENE IV.-London.-A Street.

Erter BEADLES, dragging in Hostess QUICKLY, and DOLL TEAR-SHEET.

Host. No, thou arrant knave: I would I might die, that I might have thee hanged: thou hast drawn my shoulder out of joint.

1 Bead. The constables have delivered her over to me; and she shall have whipping-cheer enough, I warrant her: There hath been a man or two lately killed about her.

Come;

Dol. Nut-hook, nut-hook, you lie. on; I'll tell thee what, thou damned tripevisaged rascal; an the child I now go with, do miscarry, thou hadst better thou hadst struck thy mother, thou paper-faced villain.

Host. O the Lord that Sir John were come; be would make this a bloody day to somebody. But I pray God the fruit of her womb miscarry! 1 Bead. If it do, you shall have a dozen of cushions again; you have but eleven now. Come, I charge you both go with me; for the man is dead, that you and Pistol beat among you.

Dol. I'll tell thee what, thou this man in a censer! I will have you as soundly swinged for this, you blue-bottle rogue! you filthy famished correctioner if you be not swinged, I'll forswear half-kirtles.

1 Bead. Come, come, you she knight-errant,

come.

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.

Shal. 'Tis so, indeed.

Pist. My knight, I will inflame thy noble liver,
And make thee rage.

Thy Doll, and Helen of thy noble thoughts,
Is in base durance, and contagious prison;
Haul'd thither

By most mechanical and dirty hand:
Rouse up revenge from ebon den with fell
Alecto's snake,

For Doll is in; Pistol speaks nought but truth.
Fal. I will deliver her.

[Shouts within, and the Trumpets sound. Pist. There roar'd the sea, and trumpetclangor sounds.

Enter the KING and his Train, the CHIEF
JUSTICE among them,

Fal. God save thy grace, king Hal! my royal
Hal!

Pist. The heavens thee guard and keep, most royal imp of fame!

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Fal. God save thee, my sweet boy!

King. My lord chief justice, speak to that

vain man.

Ch. Just. Have you your wits? know you what 'tis you speak?

Fal. My king! my Jove! I speak to thee, my

heart!

King. I know thee, not, old man: Fall to thy
prayers;

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
ceive,

SCENE V.-A public Place near West-That I have turn'd away my former self;

minster 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.

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 quali
ties,
[lord,
Give you advancement.-Be it your charge, my
To see perform'd the tenor of our word.
[Exeunt KING, and his Train.
Fal. Master Shallow, I owe you a thousand
pound.

Set on.

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 I bor-you to let me have home with me. rowed of you. [To SHALLOw.] But 'tis no matter; this poor show doth better: this doth infer the zeal I had to see him.

Shal. Ay, marry, Sir John; which I beseech

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.

A term of reproach for a catchpoll.
To counterfeit pregnancy.

* Beadles usually wore a blue livery

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 bow; 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:-1 shall be sent for soon at night.

Re-enter Prince JOHN, the CHIEF JUSTICE,
Officers, &c.

Ch. Just. Go, carry Sir John Falstaff to the

Fleet;

Take all his company along with him.

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Scene V.

SECOND PART OF KING HENRY IV.

Fal. My lord, my lord,——

Ch. Just. I cannot now speak I will hear you [soon. Take them away. Pist. Si fortuna me tormenta, spero me contenta.

[Exeunt FAL. SHAL. PIST. BARD. PAGE, and Officers.

P. John. I like this fair proceeding of the
king's:

He hath intent, his wonted followers
Shall all be very well provided for;

But all are banish'd, till their conversations-
Appear more wise and modest to the world.
Ch. Just. And so they are.

P. John. The king hath call'd his parliament,
my lord.

Ch. Just. He hath.

437

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 infinitely.

If my tongue cannot entreat yon 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 gen

P. John. I will lay odds, that, ere this year tlewomen here have forgiven me; if the gentle

expire,

We bear our civil swords, and native fire,
As far as France: I heard a bird so sing,
Whose music, to my thinking, pleas'd the king.
Come, will you hence ?

EPILOGUE

SPOKEN BY A DANCER

[Exeunt.

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,

men 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 Rex et Regina, at the bottom of our modern play. bills.

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KING HENRY V.

LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTICE.

THE transactions comprized in this historical play commence about the latter end of the first, and terminate in the eighth, year of King Henry's reign; or with the marriage between him and Katherine, priucess of France, which reconciled the differences of the two crowns. It was written in the year 1599, at the time when Eliza beth's forces in Ireland were commanded by the Earl of Essex. Shakspeare, who had shewn the boundless foibles and dissipation of Henry, whilst a prince, was under the necessity of pourtraying the dignity and lustre of his character a monarch. In this, with one exception (the scene of his courtship) he has fully succeeded. The old woman's account of Falstaff's death is admirably written: it is simply pathetic, and naturally circumstantial: every reader must regret bidding adieu to the facetious old knight, whose jokes so in variably produced a smile. Of Pistol, Dr Johnson says, "his character has perhaps been the model of all the bullies that have yet appeared on the English stage."

KING HENRY THE FIFTH.

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

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 B.3.

BON.

The CONSTABLE of France.

EARLS OF SALISBURY, WESTMORELAND, and RAMBURES, and GRANDPREE, French Lords.

WARWICK.

ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

BISHOP OF ELY.

EARL OF CAMBRIDGE, Į Conspirators against the King.

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.

GOVERNOR OF HARFLEUR. MONTJOY, a French
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 Atta dants.

The SCENE, at the beginning of the play, lies in England; but afterwards wholly in France.

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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 up-reared and abuiting 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,
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.

• Powers of fancy.

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against us,

it

If it pass

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,

A thousand pounds by the year; Thus runs the bill.

Ely. This would drink deep.

Cant. 'Twould drink the cup and all.

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Ely. But what prevention?

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The breath no sooner left his father's body, But that his wildness, mortified in him, Seem'd to die too: yea, at that very moment, Consideration like an angel came,

And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him;
Leaving his body as a paradise,

To envelop and contain celestial spirits.
Never was such a sudden scholar made:
Never came reformation in a flood, *
With such a heady current scouring faults;
Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulness
So soon did lose his seat, and all at once,
As in this king.

it

Ely. We are blessed in the change. Cant. Hear him but reason in divinity, And, all-admiring, with an inward wish You would desire the king were made a prelate:

Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,
You would say, it hath been all-in-all his
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 companies; 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;

Allading to the method by which Hercules cleansed the Augear stable viz. turning a river through it. + Theory. Companions.

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,
Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.
Grew like summer grass, fastest by night,

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
Uig'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 again-t 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
Did to his predecessors part withal.
Than ever at one time the clergy yet

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 Crav'd audience; and the hour I think is come, instant, To give him hearing: Is it four o'clock i Ely. It is.

Cant. Then go we in to know his embassy; Which I could, with a ready guess, declare, Before the Frenchman speak a word of it. Ely. I'll wait upon you; and I long to bear it. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.-The same.-A Room of State in the same.

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.

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

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ball 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,

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 utles

'Gainst him, whose wrongs give edge unto the Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.

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.

Cunt. 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,
But this, which they produce from Phara-
mond,-

In terrum Salicam mulieres ne 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 aftrin,
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 the daughter to Clo-
thair,

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,)

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

K. Hen. May 1, with right and conscience, make this claim?

Cant. The sin upon my head, dread so
vereign ! +

For in the book of Numbers is it writ,
When the son dies, let the inheritance
Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord,
Stand for your own; unwind your blood) 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.
Ere. Your brother kings and monarchs of

the earth

Do all expect that you should roase yourself,
As did the former lious of your blood.

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

So hath your highness; never king of England
Hai nobles richer and more loyal subjects;
Whose hearts have left their bodies here in

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In aid whereof, we of the spiritualty
Will raise your highness such a mighty sum,
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 t
With all advantages.

Cant. They of those marches, gracious so-
vereign,

Of Charles the great. Also king Lewis the Shall be a wall sufficient to defend

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 marraige, the line of Charles the
great

Our inland from the petfering borderers.
K. Hen. We do not mean the coursing suat

chers only,

But fear the main intendment 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 unfurnisa'd Kingdom,
• Lay open.

4 This Chichly, archbishop of Canterbury, recom mended an attack upon France, to save the moveables of • The whole of this long speech is copied from Hollin-Mother Church --- Hume, hed. † Explain. I Make showy or specious. Cressy. Derived his title.

land.

At the battle of ♦ The borders of Englano and Scot General disposition.

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