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 Host. Ay; come, you starved blood-hound. Dol. Come, you thin thing; come, you rascal! [Exeunt. Shal. 'Tis so, indeed. Pist. My knight, I will inflame thy noble liver, Thy Doll, and Helen of thy noble thoughts, By most mechanical and dirty hand: For Doll is in; Pistol speaks nought but truth. [Shouts within, and the Trumpets sound. Pist. There roar'd the sea, and trumpetclangor sounds. Enter the KING and his Train, the CHIEF Fal. God save thy grace, king Hal! my royal Pist. The heavens thee guard and keep, most royal imp of fame! 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 How ill white hairs become a fool and jester! 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. 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. 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. * 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, Ch. Just. Go, carry Sir John Falstaff to the Fleet; Take all his company along with him. 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 He hath intent, his wonted followers But all are banish'd, till their conversations- P. John. The king hath call'd his parliament, 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, 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. 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 EXETER, Uncle to the King. DUKE OF YORK, Cousin to the King. CHARLES THE SIXTH, King of France. 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, 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 AMBASSADORS to the King of England. KATHARINE, Daughter of Charles and Isabel. ALICE, a Lady attending on the Princess 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. Attest, in little place, a million; Suppose, within the girdle of these walls Carry them here and there: jumping o'er times; • Powers of fancy. against us, it If it pass We lose the better half of our possession; Full fifteen earls, and fifteen hundred knights; Of indigent faint souls, past corporal toil, A thousand pounds by the year; Thus runs the bill. Ely. This would drink deep. Cant. 'Twould drink the cup and all. Ely. But what prevention? 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; To envelop and contain celestial spirits. 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, List his discourse of war, and you shall hear And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears, Since his addiction was to courses vain; And never noted in him any study, 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, 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 Cant. He seems indifferent; Or, rather, swaying more upon our part, And in regard of causes now in hand, 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. Why the law Salique, that they have in France, Or nicely charge your understanding soul ball drop their blood in approbation How you awake the sleeping sword of war ;- Are every one a woe, a sore complaint, Was re-united to the crown of France. 'Gainst him, whose wrongs give edge unto the Usurp'd from you and your progenitors. swords That make such waste in brief mortality. As pure as sin with baptism. Cunt. Then hear me, gracious sovereign, That owe your lives, your faith, and services, In terrum Salicam mulieres ne succedant, Where Charles the great, having subdued the There left behind and settled certain French; Is at this day in Germany call'd Meisen. great Subdued the Saxons, and did seat the French Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say, Of Blithild, which was the daughter to Clo- Make claim and title to the crown of France. To fine his title with some show of truth, naught,) Convey'd himself as heir to the lady Lingare, K. Hen. May 1, with right and conscience, make this claim? Cant. The sin upon my head, dread so For in the book of Numbers is it writ, From whom you claim; invoke his warlike And your great uncle's Edward the black Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy, Ely. Awake remembrance of these valiant dead, And with your puissant arm renew their feats: Is in the very May-morn of his youth, the earth Do all expect that you should roase yourself, West. They know your grace hath cause, and So hath your highness; never king of England In aid whereof, we of the spiritualty K. Hen. We must not only arm to invade the But lay down our proportions to defend Cant. They of those marches, gracious so- Of Charles the great. Also king Lewis the Shall be a wall sufficient to defend tenth, Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet, By the which marraige, the line of Charles the Our inland from the petfering borderers. chers only, But fear the main intendment of the Scot, 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. |