K. Hen. To kiss. K. Hen. No, 'faith, is't not, Kate: but thy speak- | France,-I connot tell what is, baiser, en English. ing of my tongue, and I thine, most truly falsely, must needs be granted to be much at one. But, Kate, dost thou understand thus much English? Canst thou love me? Kath. I cannot tell. K. Hen. Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate? I'll ask them. Come, I know, thou lovest me: and at night when you come into your closet, you'll question this gentlewoman about me; and I know, Kate, you will, to her, dis praise those parts in me, that you love with your heart: but, good Kate, mock me mercifully; the rather, gentle princess. because I love thee cruelly. If ever thou be'st mine, Kate, (as I have a saving faith within me, tells me,-thou shalt,) I get thee with scambling, and thou must therefore needs prove a good soldier-breeder: Shall not thou and I, between Saint Dennis and Saint George, compound a boy, half French, half English, that shall go to Constantinople, and take the Turk by the beard? shall we not? what sayest thou, my fair flower-de-luce? Kath. I do not know dat. K. Hen. No; 'tis hereafter to know, but now to promise: do but now promise, Kate, you will endeavour for your French part of such a boy; and, for my English moiety, take the word of a king and a bachelor. How answer you, la plus belle Katharine du monde, mon tres chere et divine deesse? Kath. Your majesté 'ave fausse French enough to deceive de most sage damoiselle dat is en France. me, K. Hen. Now fye upon my false French! By mine honour, in true English, I love thee, Kate: by which honour I dare not swear, thou lovest me; yet my blood begins to flatter me; that thou dost, notwithstanding the poor and untempering effect of my visage. Now beshrew my father's ambition! he was thinking of civil wars when he got me; therefore was I created with a stubborn outside, with an aspect of iron, that, when I come to woo ladies, I fright them. But in faith, Kate, the elder I wax, the better I shall appear, my comfort is, that old age, that ill layer-up of beauty: can do no more spoil upon my face: thou hast me, if thou hast me, at the worst; and thou shalt wear if thou wear me, better and better; And therefore tell me, most fair Katharine, will you have me? Put off your maiden blushes; avouch the thoughts of your heart with the looks of an empress; take me by the hand, and say-Harry of England, I am thine: which word thou shalt no sooner bless mine ear withal, but I will tell thee aloud-England is thine, Ireland is thine, France is thine, and Henry Plantagenet is thine; who, though I speak it before his face, if he be not fellow with the best king, thou shalt find the best king of good fellows. Come, your answer in broken music; for thy voice is music, and thy English broken: therefore, queen of all, Katharine, break thy mind to me in broken English, Wilt thou have me? Kath. Dat is, as it shall please de roy mon pere. K. Hen. Nay, it will please him well, Kate; it shall please him, Kate. Kath. Den it shall also content me. K. Hen. Upon that I will kiss your hand, and I call you-my queen. Kath. Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez: ma foy, K. Hen. Madam my interpreter, what says she? Alice. Your majesty entendre bettre que moy. K. Hen. O Kate. nice customs curt'sy to great BEDFORD, GLOSTER, EXETER, WESTMORELAND, and other French and English Lords. Bur. God save your majesty! my royal cousin, teach you our princess English? K. Hen. I would have her learn, my fair cousin, how perfectly I love her; and that is good English. Bur. Is she not apt? K. Hen. Our tongue is rough, coz; and my condition is not smooth so that, having neither the voice nor the heart of flattery about me, I cannot so conjure up the spirit of love in her, that he will appear in his true likeness. Bur. Pardon the frankness of my mirth, if I answer you for that. If you would conjure in her you must make a circle: if conjure up love in her in his true likeness, he must appear naked, and blind: Can you blame her then, being a maid yet rosed over with the virgin crimson of modesty, if she deny the appearance of a naked blind boy in her naked seeing self? It were, my lord, a hard condition for a maid to consign to. K. Hen. Yet they do wink, and yield; as love is blind and enforces. Bur. They are then excused, my lord, when they see not what they do. K. Hen. Then, good my lord, teach your cousin to consent to winking. Bur. I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you will teach her to know my meaning: for maids, well summered and warm kept, are like flies at Bartholomew-tide, blind, though they have their eyes; and then they will endure handling, which before would not abide looking on. K. Hen. This moral ties me over to time, and a hot summer; and so I will catch the fly, your cousin, in the latter end, and she must be blind too. Bur. As love is, my lord, before it loves. K. Hen. It is so; and you may, some of you, thank love for my blindness; who cannot see many a fair French city, for one fair French maid that stands in my way. Fr. King. Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, the cities turned into a maid; for they are all girdled with maiden walls, that war hath never entered. K. Hen. Shall Kate be my wife? Fr. King. So please you. K. Hen. I am content; so the maiden cities you talk of, may wait on her: so the maid that stood in the way of my wish, shall shew me the way to my will. Fr. K. We have consented to all terms of reason His daughter, first; and then, in sequel, all, Exe. Only, he hath not yet subscribed this :Where your majesty demands,-That the king of France, having any occasion to write for matter of grant, shall name your highness in this form, and with this addition, in French,-Notre tres cher fils Henry roy d'Angleterre, heretier de France; and thus in Latin,-Præclarissimus filius noster Henricus, rex Angliæ, et hæres Francia. Fr. King. Nor this I have not, brother, so denied, But your request shall make me let it pass. K. Hen. I pray you then, in love and dear alliance, Let that one article rank with the rest : And, thereupon, give me your daughter. Fr. King. Take her, fair son; and from her blood Issue to me that the contending kingdoms [raise up Of France and England, whose very shores look pale With envy of each other's happiness, May cease their hatred; and this dear conjunction This play has many scenes of high dignity, and many of easy merriment. The character of the king is well supported, except in his courtship, where he has neither the vivacity of Hal, nor the grandeur of Henry. The humour of Fistol is very happily continued his character has perhaps been the model of all the bullies that have yet appeared on the English stage. The lines given to the Chorus have many admirers; but the truth is, that in them a little may be praised, and much must be forgiven; nor can it be easily discovered why the intelligence given by the Chorus is more necessary in this play than in many others where it is omitted. The great defect of this So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal, K. Hen. Prepare we for our marriage ;-on which Enter Chorus. Thus far, with rough, and all unable pen, Our bending author hath pursu'd the story; In little room confining mighty men, Mangling by starts the full course of their glory. Henry the sixth, in infant bands crown'd king That they lost France, and made his England bleed: Which oft our stage hath shewn; and, for their sake In your fair minds let this acceptance take. [Exit. play is the emptiness and narrowness of the last act, which a very little diligence might have easily avoided--JOHNSON, Of the general conduct of this play it may be remarked, that the interest turns altogether upon the circumstances which ac company a single battle; consequently, the poet has put forth all his strength in colouring and contrasting the situation of the two armies; and so admirably has he succeeded in this attempt, by opposing the full assurance of victory on the part of the French, their boastful clamour and impatient levity,to the conscious danger, and calm valour, of the English, that we wait the issue of the combat with an almost breathless anxiety.-Dr. DRAKE. FIRST PART OF KING HENRY VI. Of this play there is no edition extant previous to the folio, 1623. It is a miserable production; and Malone has distinctly proved, in his ingenious and elaborate Essay on the three parts of King Henry VI. that it has been unjustly ascribed to the hand of Shakspeare. In the second and third parts of King Henry V1. the pen of our great poet is easily distinguished; but in the present play there is not a single passage marked with the characters of his genius. "It may be asked," says Malone, "if the drama was not written by Shakspeare, why did Heminge and Condell print it with the rest of his works? The only way I can PERSONS REPRESENTED. KING HENRY THE SIXTH. France. DUKE OF GLOSTER, uncle to the King, and Protector. EDMUND MORTIMER, Earl of March. Sir WILLIAM GLANSDALE. Sir THOMAS GARGRAVE. account for their having done so, is by supposing, that they imagined the insertion of this historical drama was necessary to understanding the two pieces that follow it; or, that Shakspeare, for the advantage of his own theatre, having written a few lines in the first part of King Henry VI. after his own second and third parts had been played, they conceived this a sufficient warrant for attributing it, along with the others, to him, in the general collection of his works." The historical transactions contained in this play, take in the compass of about thirty years. WOODVILLE, Lieutenant of the Tower. VERNON, of the White Rose, or York faction. An old Shepherd, father to Joan la Pucelle. ACT 1. SCENE I.-Westminster Abbey. Dead march. Corpse of KING HENRY THE FIFTH discovered, lying in state; attended on by the DUKES OF BEDFORD, GLOSTER, and EXETER; the EARL OF WARWICK, the Bishop of Winchester, Heralds, &c. Bed. Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to Comets, importing change of times and states, [night! Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky; And with them scourge the bad revolting stars, That have consented unto Henry's death! Henry the fifth, too famous to live long! England ne'er lost a king of so much worth. Glo. England ne'er had a king until his time. His brandish'd sword did blind men with his beams: Exe. We mourn in black; Why mourn we not in Win. He was a king bless'd of the King of kings. Unto the French the dreadful judgment day So dreadful will not be, as was his sight. The battles of the Lord of hosts he fought: The church's prayers made him so prosperous. Glo. The church! where is it? Had not churchmen His thread of life had not so soon decay'd; [pray'd, None do you like but an effeminate prince, Whom, like a school-boy, you may over-awe. Win. Gloster, whate'er we like, thou art protector; And lookest to command the prince, and realm. Thy wife is proud; she holdeth thee in awe, More than God, or religious churchmen, may. Glo. Name not religion, for thou lov'st the flesh; And ne'er throughout the year to church thou go'st, Except it be to pray against thy foes. [peace! When at their mothers' moist eyes babes shall suck; Enter a Messenger. Mess. My honourable lords, health to you all! Sad tidings bring I to you out of France, Of loss, of slaughter, and discomfiture: Guienne, Champaigne, Rheims, Orleans, Paris, Guysors, Poictiers, are all quite lost. [corse? Bed. What say'st thou, man, before dead Henry's Speak softly; or the loss of those great towns One would have ling'ring wars, with little cost; Let not sloth dim your honours, new-begot; Exe. Wore our tears wanting to this funeral, Bed. Me they concern; regent 1 am of France:Give me my steeled coat, I'll fight for France.Away with these disgraceful wailing robes! Wounds I will lend the French, instead of eyes, To weep their intermissive miseries. Enter another Messenger. 2 Mess. Lords, view these letters, full of bad misFrance is revolted from the English quite; [chance, Except some petty towns of no import: The Dauphin Charles is crowned king in Rheims; The bastard of Orleans with him is join'd; Reignier, duke of Anjou, doth take his part; The duke of Alençon flieth to his side. Exe. The Dauphin crowned king! all fly to him! O, whither shall we fly from this reproach? Glo. We will not fly, but to our enemies' throats:Bedford, if thou be slack, I'll fight it out. : Bed. Gloster, why doubt'st thou of my forwardness? An army have I muster'd in my thoughts, Wherewith already France is over-run. Enter a third Messenger. 3 Mess. My gracious lords,-to add to your laments, Wherewith you now bedew king Henry's hearse,I must inform you of a dismal fight, Betwixt the stout lord Talbot and the French. Win. What! wherein Talbot overcame? is't so? 3 Mess. O, no; wherein lord Talbot was o'erthrown: The circumstance I'll tell you more at large. The tenth of August last, this dreadful lord, Retiring from the siege of Orleans, Having scarce six thousand in his troop, By three and twenty thousand of the French Was round encompassed and set upon : No leisure had he to enrank his men ; He wanted pikes to set before his archers; Instead whereof, sharp stakes, pluck'd out of hedges, They pitched in the ground confusedly, To keep the horsemen off from breaking in. More than three hours the fight continued; Where valiant Talbot, above human thought, Enacted wonders with his sword and lance. Hundreds he sent to hell, and none durst stand him, Here, there, and every where, enrag'd he slew: The French exclaim'd, The devil was in arms; All the whole army stood agaz'd on him: His soldiers, spying his undaunted spirit, A Talbot! a Talbot! cried out amain, And rush'd into the bowels of the battle, Here had the conquest fully been seal'd up, If sir John Falstolfe had not play'd the coward; Bed. Is Talbot slain? then I will slay myself, 3 Mess. O no, he lives; but is took prisoner, And lord Scales with him, and lord Hungerford: Most of the rest slaughter'd, or took, likewise. Bed. His ransome there is none but I shall pay : I'll hale the Dauphin headlong from his throne, His crown shall be the ransome of my friend; Four of their lords I'll change for one of ours.-—— Farewell, my masters; to my task will I; Bonfires in France forthwith I am to make, To keep our great Saint George's feast withal: Ten thousand soldiers with me will I take, Whose bloody deeds shall make all Europe quake. 3 Mess. So you had need; for Orleans is besieg'd; The English army is grown weak and faint: The earl of Salisbury craveth supply, And hardly keeps his men from mutiny, Since they, so few, watch such a multitude. Exe. Remember, lords, your oaths to Henry sworn; Either to quell the Dauphin utterly, Or bring him in obedience to your yoke. Bed. I do remember it; and here take leave, To go about my preparation. [Exit. Glo. I'll to the Tower, with all the haste I can, To view the artillery and munition; And then I will proclaim young Henry King. [Exit. Exe. To Eltham will I, where the young king is, Being ordain'd his special governor ; And for his safety there I'll best devise. [Exit. Win. Each hath his place and function to attend: I am left out; for me nothing remains. But long I will not be Jack-out-of-office; The king from Eltham I intend to send, And sit at chiefest stern of public weal. [Exit. Scene closes. SCENE II.-France. Before Orleans. Char. Mars his true moving, even as in the heavens, [beeves: Alen. They want their porridge, and their fat bullEither they must be dieted like mules, And have their provender tyed to their mouths, Or piteous they will look, like drowned mice. Reig. Let's raise the siege; Why live we idly here? Talbot is taken, whom we wont to fear: Remaineth none, but mad brain'd Salisbury; And he may well in fretting spend his gall, Nor men, nor money, hath he to make war. Him I forgive my death, that killeth me, Alarums; Excursions; afterwards a Retreat. Reig. Salisbury is a desperate homicide; Alen. Froissard, a countryman of ours, records, [slaves, Char. Let's leave this town; for they are hair-brain'd And hunger will enforce them to be more eager : Of old I know them; rather with their teeth The walls they'll tear down, than forsake the siege. Reig. I think, by some odd gimmals, or device, Their arms are set, like clocks, still to strike on; Else ne'er could they hold out so, as they do. By my consent, we'll e'en let them alone. Alen. Be it so. Enter the Bastard of Orleans. Bast. Where's the prince Dauphin? I have news for him. Char. Bastard of Orleans, thrice welcome to us. Bast. Methinks, your looks are sad, your cheer ap pall'd; Hath the late overthrow wrought this offence? [her skill, Char. Go, call her in: [Exit Bast.] But, first, to try Reignier, stand thou as Dauphin in my place :Question her proudly, let thy looks be stern:By this means shall we sound what skill she hath. [Retires. Enter LA PUCELLE, Bastard of Orleans, and others. Reig. Fair maid, is't thou wilt do these wond'rous feats! Puc. Reignier, is't thou that thinkest to beguile me! Char. Sound, sound alarum; we will rush on them. And, in a vision full of majesty, : Will'd me to leave my base vocation, And free my country from calamity: Char. Thou hast astonish'd me with thy high terms; Puc. I am prepar'd: here is my keen-edg'd sword, Deck'd with five flower-de-luces on each side; The which, at Touraine, in Saint Katharine's churchOut of a deal of old iron I chose forth. [yard, Char. Then come o' God's name, I fear no woman. Puc. And, while I live, I'll ne'er fly from a man. [They fight. Char. Stay, stay thy hands; thou art an Amazon, And fightest with the sword of Deborah. Puc. Christ's mother helps me, else I were too weak. My heart and hands thou hast at once subdu'd. Char. Mean time, look gracious on thy prostrate thrall. Reig. My lord, methinks, is very long in talk. Alen. Doubtless, he shrives this woman to her smock; Else ne'er could he so long protract his speech. Reig. Shall we disturb him, since he keeps no mean? Alen. He may mean more than we poor men do know: These women are shrewd tempters with their tongues. Reig. My lord, where are you? what devise you on? Shall we give over Orleans, or no? Puc. Why, no, I say, distrustful recreants! Char. Was Mahomet inspired with a dove? Alen. Leave off delays, and let us raise the siege. nours. Drive them from Orleans, and be immortaliz'd. Char. Presently we'll try:-Come, let's away about it: No prophet will I trust, if she prove false. [Exeunt. SCENE III.-London. Hill before the Tower. Enter, at the gates, the DUKE OF GLOSTER, with his Serving-men, in blue coats. Glo. I am come to survey the Tower this day: Since Henry's death, I fear, there is conveyance. Where be these warders, that they wait not here? Open the gates; Gloster it is that calls. [Serv. knock. 1 Ward. [Within.] Who is there that knocks so im1 Serv. It is the noble duke of Gloster. [periously? 2 Ward. [Within.] Whoe'er he be, you may not be let in. 1 Serv. Answer you so the lord protector, villains? 1 Ward. [Within.] The Lord protect him! so we anWe do no otherwise than we are will'd. [swer him: Glo. Who willed you? or whose will stands, but mine? There's none protector of the realm, but I.— Break up the gates, I'll be your warrantize : Shall I be flouted thus by dunghill grooms? Servants rush at the Tower gates. gates, WOODVILLE, the Lieutenant. Wood. [Within.] What noise is this; what traitors have we here? Enter to the Glo. Lieutenant, is it you, whose voice I hear? Open the gates; here's Gloster, that would enter. Wood. [Within.] Have patience, noble duke; I may The cardinal of Winchester forbids: [not open; From him I have express commandment, That thou, nor none of thine, shall be let in. Glo. Faint-hearted Woodville, prizest him 'fore me? Arrogant Winchester? that haughty prelate, Whom Henry, our late sovereign, ne'er could brook? Thou art no friend to God, or to the king: Open the gates, or I'll shut thee out shortly. 1 Serv. Open the gates unto the lord protector; Or we'll burst them open, if that you come not quickly Enter WINCHESTER, attended by a Train of Servants in tawny coats. Win. How now, ambitious Humphrey? what means this? Glo. Piel'd priest, dost thou command me to be shut Win. I do, thou most usurping proditor, [out? And not protector of the king or realm. Glo. Stand back, thou manifest conspirator; Win. Nay, stand thou back, I will not budge a foot; Glo. I will not slay thee, but I'll drive thee back : Thy scarlet robes, as a child's bearing cloth I'll use, to carry thee out of this place. Win. Do what thou dar'st; I beard thee to thy face. Glo. What? am I dar'd, and bearded to my face?Draw, men, for all this privileged place; Blue-coats to tawny-coats. Priest, beware your beard; [GLOSTER and his men attack the Bishop. I mean to tug it, and to cuff you soundly: Under my feet I stamp thy cardinal's hat; In spite of pope, or dignities of church, Here by the cheeks I'll drag thee up and down. Win. Gloster, thou'lt answer this before the pope. Glo. Winchester goose, I cry-a rope! a rope! Now beat them hence, Why do you let them stay?— |