DRAMATIS PERSONÆ KING HENRY the Fifth. DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, brothers to the King. DUKE OF Bedford, DUKE OF EXETER, uncle to the King. DUKE OF YORK, cousin to the King. EARLS OF SALISBURY, WESTMORELAND, and WARWICK. BISHOP OF ELY. EARL OF CAMBRIDGE. LORD SCROOP. 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. LOUIS, the Dauphin. DUKES OF BURGUNDY, ORLEANS, and BOURBON. The Constable of France. RAMBURES and GRANDPRE, French Lords. Governor of Harfleur. MONTJOY, a French Herald. Ambassadors to the King of England. ISABEL, Queen of France. KATHARINE, daughter to Charles and Isabel. ALICE, a lady attending on her. Hostess of a tavern in Eastcheap, formerly Mistress Quickly, and now married to Pistol. Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Citizens, Messengers, and Attendants. Chorus. SCENE: England; afterwards France. KING HENRY THE FIFTH PROLOGUE. Enter Chorus. CHOR. 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! Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire And let us, ciphers to this great accompt, Suppose within the girdle of these walls Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them B ΙΟ 20 Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times, Who prologue-like your humble patience pray, ACT I. 30 [Exit. SCENE I.--London. An ante-chamber in the KING'S palace. Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, and the BISHOP OF ELY. CANT. My lord, I'll tell you; that self bill is urged, Which in the 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? 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 Would they strip from us; being valued thus: And to the coffers of the king beside, A thousand pounds by the year: thus runs the bill. CANT. 'Twould drink the cup and all. ELY. But what prevention? CANT. The king is full of grace and fair regard. CANT. The courses of his youth promised it not. The breath no sooner left his father's body, ΙΟ 20 And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him, To envelope and contain celestial spirits. Never came reformation in a flood, With such a heady currance, scouring faults; So soon did lose his seat and all at once As in this king. ELY. We are blessed in the change. 30 And all-admiring with an inward wish You would desire the king were made a prelate : 40 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 The Gordian knot of it he will unloose, 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 50 Which is a wonder how his grace should glean it, His companies unletter'd, rude and shallow, Any retirement, any sequestration ELY. The strawberry grows underneath the nettle And so the prince obscured his contemplation CANT. It must be so; for miracles are ceased; ELY. But, my good lord, 60 70 How now for mitigation of this bill Or rather swaying more upon our part And in regard of causes now in hand, ELY. How did this offer seem received, my lord? Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms ELY. What was the impediment that broke this off? CANT. Then go we in, to know his embassy; 80 91 [Exeunt. SCENE II.-The same. The presence chamber. Enter KING HENRY, GLOUCESTER, 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 resolved, Before we hear him, of some things of weight That task our thoughts, concerning us and France. |