Puslapio vaizdai
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Ch. Juft. And fo they are.

As far as France: I heard a bird fo fing,

Lan. The king hath call'd his parliament, my lord. Whofe mufic, to my thinking, pleas'd the king. Ch. Juft. He hath.

Come, will you hence ?

Lan. I will lay odds,-that ere this year expire,

We bear our civil fwords, and native fire,

[Excune.

EPILOGUE'.

Spoken by a DANCER.

But

FIRST, my fear; then, my court'fy; laft, my you command me to use my legs? and yet that were Speech. My fear is, your difpleasure; my court'fy, but light payment, to dance out of your debt. my duty; and my fpeech, to beg your pardons. If you a good confcience will make any poffible fatisfaction, look for a good fpeech now, you undo me: for what I and fo will I. All the gentlewomen bere have forhave to fay, is of mine own making; and what, in- given me; if the gentlemen will not, then the gentledeed, I should fay, suill, I doubt, prove mine own men do not agree with the gentlewomen, which was marring. But to the purpose, and fo to the venture.never feen before in fuch an affembly. Be it known to you (as it is very well) I was lately bere in the end of a difpleafing play, to pray your patience for it, and to promife 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, lofe. Here, I promifed you, I would be, and here I commit my body to your mercies: fame, and I will pay you fome, and, as mof

bate me

debtors do, promife you infinitely.

If my tongue cannot entreat you to acquit me, will

One word more, I beseech you. If you be not too much cloy'd with fat meat, our bumble author will continue the flory, 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 be be killed with your hard opinions; for Oldeafile 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 fo kneel down before you ;—but, indeed, to pray for the queen 2.

1 This epilogue was merely occafional, and alludes to fome theatrical tranfaction.

2 It was

the cuftom of the old players, at the end of their performance, to pray for their patrons. Almost all the ancient interludes conclude with fome folemn prayer for the king or queen, house of commons, &c. Hence, perhaps, the Vivant Rex 3 Regina, at the bottom of our modern playbills.

KING

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Lords, Meffengers, French and English Soldiers, with other Attendants.

The SCENE, at the Beginning of the Play, lies in England; but afterwards, wholly in France.

CHORUS.

For a mufe of fire2, that would afcend
> The brighteft heaven of invention !
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,
And monarchs to behold the fwelling scene!
Then thould the warlike Harry, like himself,
Affume the port of Mars; and, at his heels,

On your imaginary forces 5 work:
Suppofe, within the girdle of these walls
Are now confin'd two mighty monarchies,
Whofe high-upreared and abutting fronts
The perilous narrow 6 ocean parts afunder.
Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;

Leath'd in like hounds, fhould famine, fword, and Into a thousand parts divide one man,

fire,

[all, And make imaginary puiffance :

gentles Think, when we talk of horfes, that you fee them Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth: For 'tis your thoughts that now muft deck our kings,

Crouch for employment. But pardon,
The flat unraifed fpirit, that hath dar`d,
On this unworthy fcaffold, to bring forth
So great an object: Can this cockpit hold
The vafty field of France? or may we cram,
Within this wooden O 3, the very cafques →
That did affright the air at Agincourt ?
O, pardon fince a crooked figure may
Atteft, in little place, a million;

And let us, cyphers to this great accompt,

Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times;
Turning the accomplishment of many years
Into an hour-glafs; For the which supply,
Admit me chorus to this hiftory;

Who, prologue-like, your humble patience pray,
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.

1 The tranfactions comprifed in this hiftorical play commence about the latter end of the first, and terminate in the eighth year of this king's reign; when he married Katharine princefs of France, and clofed up the differences betwixt England and that crown. It was writ (as appears from a paffage in the chorus to the fifth act) at the time of the earl of Effex's cominanding the forces in Ireand in the reign of queen Elizabeth, and not 'till after Henry the VIth had been played, as may be feen by the conclufion of this play. 2 This goes upon the notion of the Peripatetic fyftem, which imagines feveral heavens one above another; the laft and higheft of which was one of fire. this wooden circle. 4 The helmets. 5 i. e. your powers of fancy. in burlefque and common language, meant no more than pery narrow. In old books this mode of expreflion occurs perpetually.

3 i. c. • Perilous PATTO

ACT

ACT I.

SCENE I.

An Antichamber in the English Court, at Kenelworth. Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bishop of Ely.

Cant.

M

A fearful battle render'd you in mufic:
Turn him to any cause of policy,
The Gordian knot of it he will unloofe,
Familiar as his garter; that, when he speaks,
The air, a charter'd libertine, is ftill,

Y lord, I'll tell you,-that felf bill And the mute wonder lurketh in men's cars,
is urg'd,
Tofteal his sweet and honey'd fentences;

Which, in the eleventh year o' the laft king's reign, So that the art, and practic part of life
Was like, and had indeed against us past,
But that the fcambling and unquiet time
Did push it out of further queftion.

Ely. But how, my lord, fhall we refift it now
Cant. It must be thought on. If it pafs against us,
We lofe the better half of our poffeffion:
For all the temporal lands, which men devout
By teftament have given to the church,
Would they ftrip 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 efquires;
And, to relief of lazars, and weak age,
Of indigent faint fouls, paft corporal toil,
A hundred alms-houfes, right well supply'd ;
And to the coffers of the king, befide,
A thousand pounds by the year: Thus runs the bill.
Ely. This would drink deep.
Cant. 'Twould drink the cup
Fly. But what prevention?
Cant. The king is full of grace, and fair regard.
Ely. And a true lover of the holy church.
Cant. The courfes of his youth promis'd it not.
The breath no fooner left his father's body,
But that his wildnets, mortify'd in him,
Seem'd to die too: yea, at that very moment,
Confideration like an angel came,

and all.

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

To envelop and contain celeftial fpirits.
Never was fuch a fudden scholer made:
Never came reformation in a ficod 2,
With fuch a heady current, fcouring faults;
Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulness

So foon did lofe his feat, and all at once,
As in this king.

Ely. We are bleffed in the change.
Cant. Hear him but reafon in divinity,
And, all-admiring, with an inward with
You would defire, the king were made a prelate:
Hear him debate of common-wealth affairs,
You would fay,-it hath been all-in-all his ftudy:
Lift his difcourfe of war, and you shall hear

Must be the mistress to this theorique 3:
Which is a wonder, how his grace thould glean it,
Since his addiction was to courfes vain;
His companies unletter'd, rude, and shallow;
His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, iports;
And never noted in him any ftudy,
Any retirement, any fequeftration
From open haunts and popularity.

Ely. The ftrawberry 4 grows underneath the
nettle;

And wholfome berries thrive, and ripen beft,
Neighbour'd by fruit of bafer quality:
And fo the prince obfcur'd his contemplation
Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt,
Grew like the fummer grafs, fafteft by night,
Unfeen, yet crefcive in his faculty 5.

Cant. It must be fo: for miracles are ceas'd;
And therefore we muft 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 feems indifferent;

Or, rather, fwaying more upon our part,
Than cherishing the exhibiters againít us :
For I have made an offer to his majesty,—
Upon our spiritual convocation;
And in regard of caufes now in hand,
Which I have open'd to his grace at large,
As touching France,-to give a greater fum
Than ever at one time the clergy yet
Did to his predeceffors part withal.

Ely. How did this offer feem receiv'd, my lord?
Cant. With good acceptance of his majetty:
Save, that there was not time enough to hear
(As, I perceiv'd, his grace would fain have done)
The feverals, and unhidden paffages,

Of his true titles to fome certain dukedoms;
And, generally, to the crown and feat of France,
Deriv'd from Edward, his great grandfather.
Ely. What was the impediment that broke
this off?

I Meaning, when every one feambled, i. e. fcrambled and shifted for himfelf as well as he could. 2 Alluding to the method by which Hercules cleanfed the Augean ftables when he turned a river through them. 3 That is, his theory must have been taught by art and practice. Theoric or theorique is what terminates in fpeculation. 4 i. e. The wild fruit fo called, which grows in the woods. si. e. Increating in its proper power. 6 The pages of his titles are the lines of fuccefon by which his claims defcend. Unhidden is open, clear.

Cant.

Cant. The French Ambassador, upon that inftant,
Crav'd audience: and the hour, I think, is come,
To give him hearing; Is it four o'clock ?
Ely. It is.

.

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

S C E N E II.

Opens to the prefence.

Enter King Henry, Glofter, Bedford, Warwick,
Weftmoreland, and Exeter.

K. Henry. Where is my gracious lord of Can-
terbury?

Exe. Not here in prefence.

K. Henry. Send for him, good uncle '.
Weft. Shall we call in the ambaffador, my liege
K. Henry. Not yet, my coutin; we would be
refolv'd,

Before we hear him, of fome things of weight,
That task our thoughts 2, concerning us and France.
Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bishop
of Ely.

Cant. God, and his angels, guard your facred
throne,

And make you long become it!

K. Henry. Sure, we thank you.
My learned lord, we pray you to proceed;
And juttly and religiously unfold,

Why the law Salique, that they have in France,
Or fhould, or thould not, bar us in our claim.
And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,
That you should fashion, wreft, or bow your
reading,

Or nicely charge your understanding foul
With opening titles 3 mifcreate, whofe right
Suits not in native colours with the truth;
For God doth know, how many, now in health,
Shall drop their blood in approbation 4
Of what your reverence fhall incite us to:
Therefore take heed how you impawn our perfon,
How you awake the fleeping fword of war;
We charge you in the name of God, take heed:
For never two fuch kingdoms did contend,
Without much fall of blood; whofe guiltlefs drops
Are every one a woe, a fore complaint,

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 fubdu'd the
Saxons,

There left behind and fettled certain French;
Who, holding in difdain the German women,
For fome difhoneft manners of their life,
Establish'd there this law, to wit, no female
Should be inheritrix in Salique land;
Which Salique, as I faid, 'twixt Elbe and Sala,
Is at this day in Germany call'd--Meifen.
Thus doth it well appear, the Salique law
Was not devised for the realm of France:
Nor did the French poffefs the Salique land
Until four hundred one and twenty years
After defunction of king Pharamond,
Idly fuppos'd the founder of this law;
Who died within the year of our redemption
Four hundred twenty-fix; and Charles the great
Subdu'd the Saxons, and did feat the French
Beyond the river Sala, in the year
Eight hundred five. Befides, their writers say,
King Pepin, which deposed Childerick,
Did, as heir general, being defcended

Of Blithild, which was daughter to king Clothair,
Make claim and title to the crown of France.
Hugh Capet alfo,—that ufurp'd the crown
Of Charles the duke of Lorain, fole heir male
Of the true line and stock of Charles the great,-
To fine his title with fome fhew of truth,
(Though, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught)
Convey'd bimfelf as heir to the lady Lingare,
Daughter to Charlemain, who was the fou
To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the fon
Of Charles the great. Alfo king Lewis the ninth,
Who was fole heir to the ufurper Capet,
Could not keep quict in his confcience,
Wearing the crown of France, 'till fatisfy'd
That fair queen Ifabel, his grandmother,
Was lineal of the lady Ermengare,

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

'Gainft him, whofe wrong gives edge unto the So that, as clear as is the fummer's fun,

fword

That makes fuch wafte in brief mortality.
Under this conjuration, fpeak, my lord;
For we will hear, note, and believe in heart,
That what you speak is in your confcience wath'd
As pure as fin with baptifm.

Cant. Then hear me, gracious fovereign,-and]

you peers,

That owe your lives, your faith, and fervices,
To this unperial throne;-5 There is no bar
To make against your highnefs' claim to France,
But this, which they produce from Pharamond,—
In terram Salicam mulieres ne fuccedant,
No woman shall fucceed in Salique land:

King Pepiu's title, and Hugh Capet's claim,
King Lewis his fatisfaction, 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 chufe to hide them in a net,
Than amply to imbare 7 their crooked titles,
Ufurp'd from you and your progenitors.

K. Henry. May I, with right and confcience,.
make this claim?

Cant. The fin upon my head, dread fovereign!
For in the book of Numbers is it writ-
When the fon dies, let the inheritance

2 Meaning, 31. e. ipurious. 1. c. in

John Holland, duke of Exeter, was married to Elizabeth the king's aunt. keep our mind bufied with fcruples and laborious difquifitions. proving and supporting that title which fhall be now fet up.

5 This whole fpeech is copied from

Holinthed.. e. to make it fhewy or Specious by fome appearance of justice. 71. c. lay open, di play to view.

Defcend

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