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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 his battell fought at Agin Court in
France. Togither with Auntient

Pistoll.

As it hath bene fundry times playd by the Right honorable
the Lord Chamberlaine hus feruants.

[graphic][subsumed][merged small]

Printed by Thomas Creede, for Tho. Milling-
ton,and Iohn Busby. And are to be
fold at his houfe in Carter Lane, next
the Powle head. 1600.

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. ii;
afterwards France]

The Life of Henry the Fifth

Enter Prologue

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 scène.
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

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16

20

20

24

10 scaffold: stage 12 vasty: vast 16 Attest: stand for; cf. n. 18 imaginary: imaginative

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.

28

32

Exit.

ACT FIRST

Scene One

[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,
Full fifteen earls and fifteen hundred knights,
Six thousand and two hundred good esquires;

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127

32 Chorus; cf. n. 3 like: likely (to pass) 5 question: consideration

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