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HENRY VI.

PART. I.

KING HENRY THE SIXTH.

DUKE of GLOSTER, Uncle to the King, and Protector. DUKE of BEDFORD, Uncle to the King, and Regent of France. CARDINAL BEAUFORT, Bishop of Winchester, and great

Uncle to the King. DUKE of EXETER.

DUKE of SOMERSET.

EARL of WARWICK.

EARL of SALISBURY.

EARL of SUFFOLK.

LORD TALBOT.

YOUNG TALBOT, his
Son.

RICHARD PLANTAGENET, afterwards Duke of York.

MORTIMER, Earl of March.

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VERNON, of the White Rofe, or York faction.

BASSET, of the Red Rofe, or Lancafter faction.

CHARLES, Dauphin, and afterwards King of France.
REIGNIER, Duke of Anjou, and titular King of Naples.
DUKE of BURGUNDY.

DUKE of ALENÇON.

BASTARD of ORLEANS.
GOVERNOR of PARIS.

MASTER GUNNER of ORLEANS. BOY, his Son.
AN OLD SHEPHERD, Father to Joan la Pucelle.

MARGARET, Daughter to REIGNIER, and afterwards Queen to KING HENRY.

COUNTESS of AUVERGNE.

JOAN LA PUCELLE, commonly called, JOAN of ARC; a Maid pretending to be infpir'd from heaven, and setting up for the Championefs of France.

FIENDS, attending her.

Lords, Captains, Soldiers, Meffengers, and feveral Attendants both on the English and French.

The SCENE is partly in England, and partly in France.

This play, in three parts, was probably written in the years 1591 and 2. The first part commences with the funeral of Henry V. and takes in a period of about thirty years: the fecond and third include (as their old title imports) among many other interefting particulars, "The hiftory of the contention of the two famous houfes of York and

Lancaster." The charge brought against Shakspeare of taking fome pretty extraordinary liberties with dates and facts in his arrangement of the incidents in this reign, though confeffedly true, is by no means peculiar to these performances, but may be extended, with equal juftice, to his K. John and both the Richards.

FIRST PART OF

KING HENRY

VI.

ACT I. SCENE I.

Westminster-Abbey.

the

Dead march. Enter the funeral of king Henry the Fifth, attended on by the duke of Bedford, regent of France; duke of Glofter, protector; the duke of Exeter, and the earl of Warwick; the bishop of Winchester, and the duke of Somerset, &c.

Bed. Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night!

Comets, importing change of times and states,

Brandish your crystal treffes in the sky;

And with them fcourge the bad revolting stars,
That have 'confented unto Henry's death!
Henry the fifth, too famous to live long!
England ne'er loft a king of fo much worth.

* cryftal]-bright, glittering your treffes in the cryftal fky.

b confented-concented acted in concert, confpired to form a malignant configuration to promote the death of Henry.

Glo.

Glo. England ne'er had a king, until his time.
Virtue he had, deferving to command:

His brandifh'd fword did blind men with his beams;
His arms fpread wider than a dragon's wings;
His fparkling eyes, replete with wrathful fire,
More dazzled and drove back his enemies,

Than mid-day fun, fierce bent against their faces.
What fhould I fay? his deeds exceed all speech:
He ne'er lift up his hand, but conquered.

Exe. We mourn in black; Why mourn we not in blood?

Henry is dead, and never fhall revive:

Upon a wooden coffin we attend;
And death's difhonourable victory
We with our ftately presence glorify,
Like captives bound to a triumphant car.
What? fhall we curfe the planets of mishap,
That plotted thus our glory's overthrow?
Or fhall we think the fubtle-witted French
Conjurers and forcerers, that, afraid of him,
By 'magic verfes have contriv'd his end?

Win. He was a king bleft of the King of kings.
Unto the French the dreadful judgment-day

So dreadful will not be, as was his fight.
The battles of the Lord of hofts he fought:

The church's prayers made him so profperous.

Glo. The church! where is it? Had not churchmen

pray'd,

His thread of life had not fo foon decay'd:

None do you like but an effeminate prince,
Whom, like a school-boy, you may over-awe.

magic verfes]-their efficacy was held, even in our author's days, infomuch that the Irish were then faid to kill rats by a rhyme.

Win. Glofter, whate'er we like, thou art protector;
And lookest to command the prince, and realm.
Thy wife is proud; fhe holdeth thee in awe,
More than God, or religious church-men, 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.

Bed. Ceafe, cease these jars, and reft your minds in peace!

Let's to the altar-Heralds, wait on us:

Instead of gold, we'll offer up our arms;
Since arms avail not, now that Henry's dead.-
Pofterity, await for wretched

years,

When at their mothers' moist eyes babes shall fuck
Our ifle be made a nourish of falt tears,

And none but women left to wail the dead.—
Henry the fifth! thy ghoft I invocate;
Profper this realm, keep it from civil broils!
Combat with adverfe planets in the heavens !
A far more glorious ftar thy foul will make,
Than Julius Cæfar, or bright-

Enter a Meffenger.

Meff. My honourable lords, health to you all!
Sad tidings bring I to you out of France,
Of lofs, of laughter, and difcomfiture:
Guienne, Champaigne, Roan, Rheims, Orleans,

Paris, Guyfors, Poitiers, are all quite loft.

Bed. What fay't thou, man, before dead Henry's corse?

Speak foftly; or the lofs of those great towns

Will make him burst his lead, and rife from death.

nouri-nurfe, nurfery-marisb-marfh.

or bright]-Francis Drake Bercuice.

Glo.

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