THE LIFE OF KING HENRY THE FIFTH

DRAMATIS PERSONA

CHORUS

KING HENRY THE FIFTH

DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, brother to the King

DUKE OF BEDFORD, " " " "

DUKE OF EXETER, Uncle to the King

DUKE OF YORK, cousin to the King

EARL OF SALISBURY

EARL OF WESTMORELAND

EARL OF WARWICK

ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

BISHOP OF ELY

EARL OF CAMBRIDGE, conspirator against the King

LORD SCROOP, " " " "

SIR THOMAS GREY, " " " "

SIR THOMAS ERPINGHAM, officer in the King's army

GOWER, " " " " "

FLUELLEN, " " " " "

MACMORRIS, " " " " "

JAMY, " " " " "

BATES, soldier in the King's army

COURT, " " " " "

WILLIAMS, " " " " "

NYM, " " " " "

BARDOLPH, " " " " "

PISTOL, " " " " "

BOY A HERALD

CHARLES THE SIXTH, King of France

LEWIS, the Dauphin DUKE OF BURGUNDY

DUKE OF ORLEANS DUKE OF BRITAINE

DUKE OF BOURBON THE CONSTABLE OF FRANCE

RAMBURES, French Lord

GRANDPRE, " "

GOVERNOR OF HARFLEUR MONTJOY, a French herald

AMBASSADORS to the King of England

ISABEL, Queen of France

KATHERINE, daughter to Charles and Isabel

ALICE, a lady attending her

HOSTESS of the Boar's Head, Eastcheap; formerly Mrs. Quickly, now

married to Pistol

Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, Attendants

SCENE:

England and France

PROLOGUE

PROLOGUE.

Enter CHORUS

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,

Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all,

The flat unraised spirits 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

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;

Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them

Printing their proud hoofs i' th' receiving earth;

For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,

Carry them here and there, jumping o'er times,

Turning th' 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. Exit

ACT I. SCENE I.

London. An ante-chamber in the KING'S palace

Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY and the

BISHOP OF ELY

CANTERBURY. My lord, I'll tell you: that self bill is urg'd

Which in th' eleventh year of the last king's reign

Was like, and had indeed against us pass'd

But that the scambling and unquiet time

Did push it out of farther question.

ELY. But how, my lord, shall we resist it now?

CANTERBURY. It must be thought on. If it pass 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 valu'd 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 th' year: thus runs the bill.

ELY. This would drink deep.

CANTERBURY. 'T would drink the cup and all.

ELY. But what prevention?

CANTERBURY. The King is full of grace and fair regard.

ELY. And a true lover of the holy Church.

CANTERBURY. The courses of his youth promis'd it not.

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 th' offending Adam out of him,

Leaving his body as a paradise

T'envelop and contain celestial spirits.

Never was such a sudden scholar made;

Never came reformation in a flood,

With such a heady currance, scouring faults;

Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulnes

So soon did lose his seat, and all at once,

As in this king.

ELY. We are blessed in the change.

CANTERBURY. 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 rend'red 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 honey'd 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,

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 the summer grass, fastest by night,

Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.

CANTERBURY. 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?

CANTERBURY. He seems indifferent

Or rather swaying more upon our part

Than cherishing th' 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?

CANTERBURY. 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 tides to some certain dukedoms,

And generally to the crown and seat of France,

Deriv'd from Edward, his great-grandfather.

ELY. What was th' impediment that broke this off?

CANTERBURY. The French ambassador upon that instant

Crav'd audience; and the hour, I think, is come

To give him hearing: is it four o'clock?

ELY. It is.

CANTERBURY. 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 hear it. Exeunt

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