The facsimile opposite represents the title-page of the Elizabethan Club copy of the first edition of 'Henry V.' Five other copies are known. It is remarkable that none of the three quarto editions of this play bear the author's name.

THE
CRONICLE
History of Henry the fift,
With hus battell fought at Agen Court in

France. Togither with Auntient

Pistoll.

Asit hath bene sundry times playd

by the Right honorable
she Lord Chamberlaine his feruants.

LONDON
Printed by Thomas Creede, for Tho. Milling-

ton,and lohn Busby. And are to be
sold at his house in Carter Lane, next

the Powle head. 1600.

[DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

KING HENRY THE FIFTH
DUKE OF GLOUCESTER,
DUKE OF BEDFORD, Brothers to the King
DUKE OF CLARENCE,
DUKE OF EXETER, Uncle to the King
DUKE OF YORK, Cousin to the King
EARLS OF SALISBURY, WESTMORELAND, and WARWICK
ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
BISHOP OF ELY
EARL OF CAMBRIDGE
LORD SCROOP OF MASHAM
SIR THOMAS GREY
SIR THOMAS ERPINGHAM, GOWER, FLUELLEN, MACMORRIS,

JAMY, Officers in King Henry's Army
BATES, COURT, WILLIAMS, Soldiers in the Same
Pistol, NYM, BARDOLPH
Boy
A Herald

CHARLES THE SIXTH, King of France
Lewis, the Dauphin
DUKES OF BURGUNDY, ORLEANS, and BOURBON
The CONSTABLE OF FRANCE
RAMBURES and GRANDPRÉ, French Lords
MONTJOY, a French Herald
Governor of Harfleur
Ambassadors to the King of England
ISABEL, Queen of France
KATHARINE, Daughter to Charles and Isabel
Alice, a Lady attending on the Princess Katharine
Hostess of the Boar's Head Tavern, formerly Mistress

Quickly, and now married to Pistol Lords, Ladies, Officers, French and English Soldiers, Citizens, Messengers, and Attendants

Chorus
Scene: England to the close of Act II. Sc. iii;

afterwards France)

not good

The Life of Henry the Fifth

Kung

Enter Prologue
Olor 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 himselfs
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 12
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;

16
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,

20
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

24

6 port: bearing 9 unraised: unaspiring 10 scaffold: stage 11 cockpit; cf. n.

12 vasty: vast 13 the very casques: even the helmets 16 Attest: stand for; cf. n. 17 accompt: account

18 imaginary: imaginative 21 abutting: adjacent

28

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-glase: for the which supply,
Admit me. Chórus to this history;
Who prologue-like your humble patience pray,
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play. Exit.

32

[London. An Antechamber in the King's Palace]

Enter the two Bishops of Canterbury and Ely.

Cant. 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 further question.

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

Cant. 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, 12 Full fifteen earls and fifteen hundred knights, Six thousand and two hundred good esquires;

8