HENRY the FIFTH

GRANDPREE,

French Lords.

The Conftable of France.

SIR THOMAS ERPINGHAM.
MOUNTJOY, a French Herald.

BATES and WILLIAMS, English Soldiers.

WOMEN.

ISABEL, Queen of France.
CATHARINE, her Daughter.
A LADY of the French Court.

HENRY the FIFTH.

TH

ACT I. SCENE I.

HE fudden reformation of Henry Prince of Wales, upon his fucceffion to the crown, is a fact recorded in hiftory; and there have been fufficient inftances of fuch an exertion of latent virtue in mankind, upon record, to evince its not being a thing unnatural; though, fad to say it, not enough to prevent its 'being reckoned in the clafs of uncommon events. Let us but lend our own affistance, and grace will feldom be found wanting. This extraordinary character is most beautifully defcribed in the example now before us.

Canterbury and Ely, difcourfing about the King.

Canterbury. The courfes of his youth promised it not---
The breath no fooner left his father's body,

But that his wildness, mortified in him,

Seemed to die too; yea, at that very moment,
Confideration like an angel came,

And whipt the offending Adam out of him;
Leaving his body as a paradife,

To invelop and contain celeftial fpirits *.

Never came reformation in a flood,

With fuch an heady current, fcowering faults +;

Nor ever hydra-headed wilfulness ||

So foon did lofe his feat, and all at once,

As in this king.

* What a beautiful and poetical allufion is here made to the circumftance of our first parents being exiled from Eden !

Alluding to Hercules turning the courfe of a river through the Augaan

ftables.

Shakespeare having hinted at one of the labours of Hercules, a fecond immediately occurred; and I fhould not have been furprized, in the exuberance of his imagery, if he had gone through the whole dozen; if it was only for an opportunity of making this reflection, that a reformation from vice, was an harder task than them all put together.

· SCENE

SCENE II.

Here follows a fine leffon for ftates and potentates to reflect seriously upon, when they are publishing manifeftos, or meditating a war.

The King, and Canterbury, who was prefident of his council:

Henry. My learned lord, we pray you to proceed;
And justly and religiously unfold,

Why the law Salic, that they have in France,
Or fhould, or fhould not, bar us in our claim.
And, God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,
That you fhould fashion, wreft, or bow your reading,
Or nicely charge your understanding foul,
With opening titles 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

Of what your reverence shall incite us to.

Therefore take heed how you impawn your 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 guiltless drops
Are every one a woe, a fore complaint,

'Gainft him whofe wrong gives edge unto the fwords,
That make 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 washed,
As pure as fin with baptifm.

"

There is a juft description of the nature of government, given a good deal further in the fame Scene.

Canterbury and Ely.

Ely. While that the armed hand doth fight abroad,
The advised head defends itself at home;

For government, though high, and low, and lower,
Put into parts, doth keep in one confent,
Congreeing in a full and natural clofe,

Like mufic.

Both the diftinction and the fimile here made use of, are almost a literal translation of a parallel passage

• In approbation. In fupport of a caufe he had pronounced to be just. ↑ Pledge your character and conscience.

in Cicero, and there are fo many other allufions of the fame kind, to be met with throughout our author's writings, as might lead one into an opinion of his being a tolerable claffical fcholar, notwithstanding Ben Johnson's invidious line,

"Altho' thou hadst fmall Latin, and lefs Greek."

But in denying him the accomplishment of literature, he paid an higher compliment to his genius, than perhaps he meant; as this was to impute to him the greater merit of being poffeffed of the fame fancy and judgment with the beft of the Antients, without the advantages of their example or inftruction.

The fubject of the above fpeech is confidered more at large, and treated in detail, in the deduction drawn from it in the reply.

Canterbury. Therefore Heaven doth divide

The state of man in divers functions,
Setting endeavour in continual motion;
To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,
Obedience. For fo work the honey-bees;
Creatures, that by a rule in nature, teach
The art of order to a peopled kingdom.
They have a king, and officers of fort,
Where fome, like magiftrates, correct at home;
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad;
Others, like foldiers, armed in their ftings,
Make boot upon the fummer's velvet buds;
Which pillage they with merry march bring home
To the tent-royal of their emperor;
Who bufied in his majefty, furveys
The finging mafon building roofs of gold;
The civil citizen kneading up the honey;
The poor mechanic porters crowding in
Their heavy burdens, at his narrow gate;
The fad-eyed juftice with his furly hum,
Delivering o'er to executors pale,
The lazy yawning drone. I thus infer,
That many things, having full reference
To one confent, may work contrarioully.
As many arrows loofed feveral ways,

1

Come to one mark; as many ways meet in one town;
As many fresh ftreams meet in one falt fea;

As many lines clofe in the dial's center;

So