ACT I.

SCENE I.-THE PAINTED CHAMBER IN THE ROYAL PALACE AT WESTMINSTER.

[Frequent reference is made in the Chronicles to the Painted Chamber, as the room wherein Henry V. held his councils.] Trumpets sound.

KING HENRY (B) discovered on his throne (CENTRE)*,
BEDFORD, (c) GLOSTER, (D) EXETER, (E) WARWICK,
WESTMORELAND, and others in attendance.

K. Hen. Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury?
Exe. (L.) Not here in presence.

K. Hen. Send for him, good uncle.

[EXETER beckons to a HERALD, who goes off, L.H. West. (L.) Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege? K. Hen. Not yet, my cousin: we would be resolv❜d, Before we hear him, of some things of weight, That task1 our thoughts, concerning us and France. Re-enter HERALD with the Archbishop of CANTERBURY,(F) and Bishop of ELY, L.H. The Bishops cross to B.C. Cant. (R.c.) Heaven and its angels guard your sacred throne,

And make you long become it!

K. Hen.
Sure, we thank you.
My learned lord, we pray you to proceed,

The

* The throne is powdered with the letter S. This decoration made its appearance in the reign of Henry IV., and has been differently accounted for. The late Sir Samuel Meyrick supposes it to be the initial letter of Henry's motto, "Souveraine." King's costume is copied from Strutt's "Regál Antiquities.” The dresses of the English throughout the play are taken from the works of Strutt, Meyrick, Shaw, and Hamilton Smith. heraldry has been kindly supplied by Thomas Willement, Esq., F.S.A. The Lord Great Chamberlain carrying the sword of state is De Vere, Earl of Oxford.

The

1 task] Keep busied with scruples and disquisitions. 2 Archbishop of Canterbury,] Henry Chichely, a Carthusian monk, recently promoted to the see of Canterbury.

3 Bishop of Ely.] John Fordham, consecrated 1388; died, 1426.

And justly and religiously unfold,

Why the law Salique, (G) that they have in France,
Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim :

And Heaven forbid, my dear and faithful lord,

4

That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading,5
Or nicely charge your understanding soul'

6

With opening titles miscreate,' whose right
Suits not in native colours with the truth.

For Heaven doth know how many, now in health,
Shall drop their blood in approbationR

Of what your reverence shall incite us to.
Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,
How you awake the sleeping sword of war:

9

We charge you, in the name of Heaven, take heed:
Under this conjuration, speak, my lord.

Cant.(R.c.)Then hear me, gracious sovereign,and you peers, That owe your lives, your faith, and services,

To this imperial throne.-There is no bar

To make against your highness' claim to France
But this, which they produce from Pharamond,
No woman shall succeed in Salique land:
Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze1o
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 subdued the Saxons, ́

4

5

wrest,] i.e., distort.

or bow your reading,] i.e., bend your interpretation.

6 Or nicely charge your understanding soul] Take heed, lest by nice and subtle sophistry you burthen your knowing soul, or knowingly burthen your soul, with the guilt of advancing a false title, or of maintaining, by specious fallacies, a claim which, if shown in its native and true colours, would appear to be false.JOHNSON.

7- miscreate,] Ill-begotten, illegitimate, spurious.

8

in approbation] i.e., in proving and supporting that title which shall be now set up.

9

impawn our person,] To engage and to pawn were in our author's time synonymous.

10 gloze] Expound, explain.

There left behind and settled certain French:
Nor did the French possess the Salique land
Until four hundred one and twenty years
After defunction of King Pharamond,
Idly supposed the founder of this law.
Besides, their writers say,

King Pepin, which deposed Childerick,
Did 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 choose to hide them in a net
Than amply to imbare their crooked titles11

Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.

K. Hen. May I with right and conscience make this claim? Cant. (R.c.) The sin upon my head, dread sovereign! For in the book of Numbers is it writ,

When the son dies, let the inheritance

Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord,
Stand for your own; unwind your bloody flag;
Look back unto your mighty ancestors:

Go, my dread lord, to your great grandsire's tomb,
From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit,
And your great uncle's, Edward the black prince,
Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy,
Making defeat on the full power of France,
Whiles his most mighty father on a hill
Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp

Forage in blood of French nobility.12

Ely. (R.c.) Awake remembrance of these valiant dead, And with your puissant arm renew their feats:

You are their heir; you sit upon their throne;

The blood and courage, that renowned them,

Runs in your veins; and my thrice-puissant liege
Is in the very May-morn of his youth,

Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises.

Exe. (L.) Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth

11 imbare their crooked titles] i. e., to lay open, to display to view.

12 In allusion to the battle of Crecy, fought 25th August, 1346.

Do all expect that you should rouse yourself,

As did the former lions of your blood.

West. (L.) They know your grace hath cause, and means and might:

So hath your highness;13 never king of England

Had nobles richer and more loyal subjects,

Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England,

And lie pavilion'd in the fields of France.

Cant. O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege, With blood, and sword, and fire to win your right: In aid whereof we of the spiritualty

Will raise your highness such a mighty sum,

As never did the clergy at one time

Bring in to any of your ancestors.

K. Hen. We must not only arm to invade the French, But lay down our proportions to defend

Against the Scot, who will make road upon us

With all advantages.

Cant. (R.c.) They of those marches,1 gracious sovereign, Shall be a wall sufficient to defend

Our inland from the pilfering borderers.

Therefore to France, my liege.

Divide your happy England into four;
Whereof take you one quarter into France,
And you withal shall make all Gallia shake.
If we, with thrice that power left at home,
Cannot defend our own door from the dog,
Let us be worried, and our nation lose

The name of hardiness and policy.

K. Hen. Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin.

[Exit HERALD with LORDS, L.H.

Now are we well resolv'd; and by Heaven's help,
And yours, the noble sinews of our power,-
France being ours, we'll bend it to our awe,
Or break it all to pieces.

13 So hath your highness;] i. e., your highness hath indeed what they think and know you have.

14 They of those marches,] The marches are the borders, the confines. Hence the Lords Marchers, i. e., the lords presidents of the marches, &c.

Re-enter HERALD and Lords, L.H., with the AMBASSADOR of FRANCE, French Bishops, Gentlemen, and Attendants carrying a treasure chest, L.H.

Now are we well prepar'd to know the pleasure

Of our fair cousin Dauphin; for we hear

Your greeting is from him, not from the king.

Amb. (L.c.) May it please your majesty to give us leave Freely to render what we have in charge;

Or shall we sparingly show you far off

The Dauphin's meaning and our embassy?

K. Hen. We are no tyrant, but a Christian king;
Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness
Tell us the Dauphin's mind.

Amb.
Thus, then, in few.15
Your highness, lately sending into France,
Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right
Of your great predecessor, King Edward the Third.
In answer of which claim, the prince our master
Says, that you savour too much of your youth;
And bids you be advis'd, there's nought in France
That can be with a nimble galliard won;16
You cannot revel into dukedoms there.
He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit,
This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this,
Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim
Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.

K. Hen. What treasure, uncle?

Exe. (Opening the chest.) Tennis-balls, my liege. (H)
K. Hen. We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us;

His present and your pains we thank you for :

When we have match'd our rackets to these balls,
We will, in France, by Heaven's grace, play a set
Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard.

And we understand him well,

How he comes o'er us with our wilder days,
Not measuring what use we made of them.

16 —a nimble galliard won;] A galliard was an ancient dance. The word is now obsolete.