Pist. "is semper idem, for absque hoc nihil est: And, as we hear you do reform yourselves,
Tis all in every part. Shal 'Tis so indeed.
Pist. My knight, I will inflame thy noble liver,
Thy Doll, and Helen of thy noble thoughts,
Is in base durance, and contagious prison;
Haul'd thither
By most mechanical and dirty hand:
Rouse up revenge from ebon den with fell Alecto's snake,
For Doll is in; Pistol speaks nought but truth.
Fal. I will deliver her.
[Shouts within, and the Trumpets sound. Pist. There roar'd the sea, the trumpet-clangor sounds.
Enter the KING and his Train, the Chief Justice among them.
Fal. God save thy grace, king Hal! my royal Hal!
Pist. The heavens thee guard and keep, most royal imp of fame!
Fal. God save thee, my sweet boy!
King. My lord chief Justice, speak to that vain
Ch. Just. Have you your wits? know you what 'us you speak?
Fal. My king! my Jove! I speak to thee, my heart!
King. I know thee not, old man: Fall to thy prayers;
How ill white hairs become a fool, and jester!
I have long dream'd of such a kind of man,
So surfeit-swell'd, so old, and so profane;
But, being awake, I do despise my dream.
Make less thy body, hence, and more thy grace;
Leave gormandizing; know, the grave doth gape
For thee thrice wider than for other men:
Reply not to me with a fool-born jest;
Presume not, that I am the thing I was:
For heaven doth know, so shall the world perceive,
That I have turn'd away my former self;
So will I those that kept my company.
When thou dost hear I am as I have been,
Approach me; and thou shalt be as thou wast,
The tutor and the feeder of my riots;
Till then, I banish thee, on pain of death,-
As I have done the rest of my misleaders,-
Not to come near our person by ten miles.
For competence of life, I will allow you,
That lack of means enforce you not to evil:
We will, according to your strength, and quali
ties,Give you advancement.-Be it your charge, my lord,
To see perform'd the tenor of our word.Set on. [Exeunt KING, and his Train. Fal. Master Shallow, I owe you a thousand pound.
Shal. Ay, marry, sir John; which I beseech you to let me have home with me.
Fal. That can hardly be, master Shallow. Do not you grieve at this; I shall be sent for in private to him: look you, he must seem thus to the world. Fear not your advancement; I will be the man yet that shall make you great.
Shal. I cannot perceive how; unless you give me your doublet, and stuff me out with straw. I beseech you, good sir John, let me have five hundred of my thousand.
Fal. Sir, I will be as good as my word: this that you heard, was but a color.
Shal A color, I fear, that you will die in, sir John. Fal. Fear no colors; go with me to dinner. Come, lieutenant Pistol;-come, Bardolph:-I shall be sent for soon at night. [Exeunt
Re-enter PRINCE JOHN, the Chief Justice, Officers, &c
Ch. Just. Go, carry sir John Falstaff to the Fleet
Take all his company along with him.
Fal. My lord, my lord,-
Ch. Just. I cannot now speak: I will hear you Take them away.
Pist. Si fortuna me tormenta, spero me contenta. [Exeunt FAL., SHAL., PIST., BARD., Page, and Officers.
P. John. I like this fair proceeding of the king's He hath intent, his wonted followers Shall all be very well provided for; But all are banish'd, till their conversations Appear more wise and modest to the world. Ch. Just. And so they are.
P. John. The king hath call'd his parliament, my lord.
EPILOGUE.-Spoken by a DANCER.
FIRST, my fear; then, my court'sy; last, my speech. My fear is, your displeasure; my court'sy. my duty; and my speech, to beg your pardons. If you look for a good speech now, you undo me: for what I have to say is of mine own making; and what, indeed, i should say, will, I doubt, prove mine own marring. But to the purpose, and so to the venture:-Be it known to you, (as it is very well,) I was lately here in the end of a displeasing play, to pray your patience for it, and to promise you a better. I did mean, indeed, to pay you with this; which, if, like an ill venture, it come unluckiLy home, I break, and you, my gentle creditors, lose. flere, I promised you, I would be, and here I commit my body to your mercies: bate me some, and I will pay you some, and as most debtors do, promise you infinitely.
If my tongue cannot entreat you to acquit me, will you command me to use my legs? and yet 'Tis all in all, and all in every part. ⚫Henceforward.
that were but light payment,-to dance out of your debt. But a good conscience will make any possi ble satisfaction, and so will I. All the gentlewo men here have forgiven me; if the gentlemen will not, then the gentlemen do not agree with the gentlewomen, which was never seen before in such an assembly."
One word more, I beseech you. If you be not too much cloyed with fat meat, our humble author will continue the story, with sir John in it, and make you merry with fair Katharine of France: where, for anything I know, Falstaff shall die of a sweat, unless already he be killed with your hard opinions; for Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man. My tongue is weary; when my legs are too, I will bid you good night and so kneel down before you;-but, indeed, to pray for the queen.
7 Most of the ancient interludes conclude with a prayer for the king or queen. Hence, perhaps, the Virant R & Regina, at the bottom of our modern lay-bills T
DUKE OF EXETER, Uncle to the King.
DUKE OF YORK, Cousin to the King.
CHARLES THE SIXTH, King of France. LEWIS, the Dauphin.
EARLS OF SALISBURY, WESTMORELAND, and WAR- DUKES OF BURGUNDY, ORLEANS, and BOURBON
The SCENE, at the beginning of the play, lies in England; but afterwards wholly in France.
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!
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,
Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, and
fire,
Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all,
The flat unraised spirit, that hath dared,
On this unworthy scaffold, to bring forth
So great an object: Can this cockpit hold
The vasty fields of France, or may we cram
Within the wooden O, the very casques,"
That did affright the air at Agincourt?
O, pardon! since a crooked figure may
Attest, in little place, a million;
SCENE I.-London. An Ante-chamber in the | But that the scambling and unquiet time
Did push it out of further question.
Ely. But how, my lord, shall we resist it now? Cant. It must be thought on. If it pass agains
Full fifteen earls, and fifteen hundred knights;
Six thousand and two hundred good esquires;
And, to relief of lazars, and weak age,
Of indigent faint souls, past corporal toil,
A hundred alm-houses, right well supplied;
And to the coffers of the king beside,"
A thousand pounds by the year: Thus runs the bill.
Ely. This would drink deep.
Cant.
'Twould drink the cup and all.
Ely. But what prevention?
Cant. The king is full of grace and fair regard.
Ely. And a true lover of the holy church.
Cant. The courses of his youth promis'd it not.
The breath no sooner left his father's body,
But that his wildness, mortified in him,
Seem'd to die too: yea, that very moment,
Consideration like an angel came,
And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him;
Leaving his body as a paradise,
To envelop and contain celestial spirits.
Never was such a sudden scholar made:
Never came reformation in a flood,
With such a heady current, scouring faults;
Nor never hydra-headed willfulness
So soon did lose his seat, and all at once,
As in this king.
We are blessed in the change.
Cant. Hear him but reason in divinity,
And, all-admiring, with an inward wish
You would desire, the king were made a prelate:
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
A fearful battle render'd you in music:
Turn him to any cause of policy,
The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,
Familiar as his garter; that, when he speaks,
The air, a charter'd libertine, is still,
And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,
To steal his sweet and honeyed sentences;
So that the art and practic part of life
Must be the mistress to this theoric:
Which is a wonder, how his grace should glean it,
Since his addiction was to courses vain:
His companies unletter'd, rude, and shallow;
His hours till'd up with riots, banquets, sports;
And never noted in him any study,
Any retirement, any sequestration
From open haunts and popularity.
Ely. The strawberry grows underneath the nettle; And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best, Neighbor'd by fruit of baser quality:
And so the prince obscur'd his contemplation
Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt,
Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night,
Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.
Cant. It must be so: for miracles are ceas'd;
And therefore we must needs admit the means
How things are perfected.
But, my good lord, How now for mitigation of this bill Urged by the commons? Doth his majesty Incline to it, or no?
He seems indifferent,
Or, rather, swaying more upon our part,
Than cherishing the exhibiters against us:
For I have made an offer to his majesty,-
Upon our spiritual convocation;
And in regard of causes now in hand,
Which I have open'd to his grace at large.
As touching France,-to give a greater sum
Than ever at one time the clergy yet
Did to his predecessors part withal.
Ely. How did this offer seem receiv'd, my lord?
Cant. With good acceptance of his majesty;
Save, that there was not time enough to hear
'As, I perceiv'd, his grace would fain have done)
The severals, and unhidden passages,
Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms;
And, generally, the crown and seat of France,
Deriv'd from Edward, his great grandfather.
Ely. What was the impediment that broke this
off?
Cant. The French ambassador, upon that instant, Crav'd audience: and the hour, I think, is come, To give him hearing: Is it four o'clock? It is. $ Increasing.
Cant. Then go we in, to know his embassy; Which I could, with a ready guess, declare, Before the Frenchman spoke a word of it. Ely. I'll wait upon you: and I long to hear it [Exeun
SCENE II-A Room of State in the same.
Enter KING HENRY, GLOSTER, BEDFORD, EXETER
WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and Attendants.
K. Hen. Where is my gracious lord of Canter
bury?
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 re
Before we hear him, of some things of weight, That task our thoughts concerning us and France. Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY and BISHOP OF ELY.
Cant. God, and his 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;
And justly and religiously unfold,
Why the law Salique, that they have in France,
Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim.
And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,
That you should fashion, wrest or bow your
reading,
Or nicely charge your understanding soul
With opening titles miscreate, whose right
Suits not in native colors 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: [son,
Therefore take heed how you impawn our per-
How you awake the sleeping sword of war;
We charge you in the name of God, take heed:
For never two such kingdoms did contend,
Without much fall of blood; whose guiltless
Are every one a woe, a sore complaint,
'Gainst him, whose wrongs give edge unto the
swords
That make such waste in brief mortality.
Under this conjuration, speak, my lord:
And we will hear, note, and believe in heart,
That what you speak is in your conscience
As pure as sin with baptism.
[wash'd
Cant. Then hear me, gracious sovereign,-and
That owe your lives, your faith, and services,
To this imperial throne:-There is no bar
To make against your highness' claim to
France
[mond,-
But this which they produce from Phara-
In terram Salicam mulieres nè succedant,
No woman shall succeed in Salique land:
Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze,
To be the realm of France, and Pharamond
The founder of this law and female bar.
Yet their own authors faithfully aflirm,
That the land Salique lies in Germany,
Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe:
Where Charles the great, having subdued the
Saxons,
There left behind and settled certain French;
Who, holding in disdain the German women,
For some dishonest manners of their life,
Establish'd there this law,-to wit, no female
Should be inheretrix in Salique land;
Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala,
Is at this day in Germany call'd-Mesien.
Thus doth it well appear, the Salique law
Was not devised for the realm of France:
Nor did the French possess the Salique land
Until four hundred one-and-twenty years
After defunction of king Pharamond,
Idly suppos'd the founder of this law:
Who died within the year of our redemption-
Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the great
Subdued the Saxons, and did seat the French
Beyond the river Sala, in the year
Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say,
King Pepin, which deposed Childerick,
Did, as heir-general, being descended
Of Blithild, which was daughter to king Clothair
Make claim and title to the crown of France.
Hugh Capet also,-that usurp'd the crown
Of Charles the duke of Lorain, sole heir male
Of the true line and stock of Charles the great,-
To fine his title with some show of truth,
(Though, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught,)
Convey'd himself as heir to the lady Lingare,
Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son
To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son
Of Charles the great. Also king Lewis the tenth,
Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet,
Could not keep quiet in his conscience,
Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied
That fair queen Isabel, his grandmother,
Was lineal of the lady Ermengare,
Daughter to Charles the foresaid duke of Lorain:
By the which marriage, the line of Charles the great
Was re-united to the crown of France.
So that, as clear as is the summer's sun,
King Pepin's title, and Hugh Capet's claim,
King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear
To 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 titles
Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.
K. Hen. May I, with right and conscience, make
this claim?
Cant. The sin upon my head, dread sovereign!
For in the book of Numbers it is 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.
O noble English, that could entertain
With half their forces the full pride of France;
And let another half stand laughing by,
All out of work, and cold for action!
Ely. Awake remembrance of these valiant dead,
And with your puissant arm renew their teats;
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. Your brother kings and monarchs of the
earth
Do all expect that you should rouse yourself,
As did the former lions of your blood.
West. They know your grace hath cause, and
means, and might;
So hath your highness; never king of England
Hath 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 spirituality
Will raise your highness such a mighty sum,
As never did the clergy at one time
Bring in to any of your ancestors.
But that the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdom
Came pouring, like the tide into a breach,
With ample and brim fullness of his force;
Galling the gleaned land with hot essays;
Girding with grievous siege, castles and towns;
That England, being empty of defence,
Hath shook, and trembled at the ill neighborhood.
Cant. She hath been then more fear'd than
harm'd, my liege:
For hear her but exampled by herself,-
When all her chivalry hath been in France,
And she a mourning widow of her nobles,
She hath herself not only well defended,
But taken, and impounded as a stray,
The king of Scots, whom she did send to France,-
To fill king Edward's fame with prisoner kings
And make your chronicle as rich with praise,
As is the ooze and bo.tom of the sea
With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries.
West. But there's a saying, very old and true,→
If that you will France win,
Then with Scotland first begin:
For once the eagle England being in prey,
To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot
Comes sneaking, and so sucks her princely eggs;
Playing the mouse, in absence of the cat,
To spoil and havoc more than she can eat.
Exe. It follows then, the cat must stay at home:
Yet that is but a curs'd necessity;
Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries,
And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves.
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 concent;
Congruing in a full and natural close,
Like music.
True: therefore doth heaven divide
The state of man in divers functions,
Setting endeavor in continual motion;
To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,
Obedience: for so work the honey bees;
Creatures, that, by a rule in nature, teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
They have a king, and officers of sorts:6
Where some, like magistrates, correct at home;
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad;
Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,
Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds;
Which pillage they with merry march bring home
To the tent-royal of their emperor:
Who, busied in his majesty, surveys
The singing masons building roots of gold;
The civil citizens kneading up the honey;
The poor mechanic porters crowding in
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate;
The sad-ey'd justice, with his surly hum,
Delivering o'er to éxecutors' pale
The lazy yawning drone. I this infer,-
That many things, having full reference
To one concent, may work contrariously,
As many arrows, loosed several ways,
Fly to one mark;
As many several ways meet in one town;
As many fresh streams run in one self sea,
As many lines close in the dial's centre;
So many a thousand actions, once afoot,
End in one purpose, and be all well borne
Without defeat. Therefore to France, my liege.
Divide your happy England into four;
K. Hen. We must not only arm to invade the Whereof take you one quarter into France,
But lay down our proportions to defend
Against the Scot, who will make road upon us
With all advantages.
Cant. They of those marches, gracious sovereign,
Shall be a wall sufficient to defend
Our inland from the pilfering borderers.
K. Hen. We do not mean the coursing snatchers
only,
But fear the main intendments of the Scot,
Who hath been still a giddy neighbor to us;
For you shall read that my great grandfather
Never went with his forces into France,
7 Make showy or specious
Lay open.
Derived his title
1 At the battle of Cressy.
The borders of England and Scotland.
General disposition
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 an Attendant. The KING ascends his Throne
Now are we well resolv'd: and,-by God'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: Or there we'll sit,
Ruling in large and ample empery,
O'er France, and all her almost kingly dukedoms
Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn,
4 Frightened. Agreeing.
7 Executioners.
Different degreas
• Dominion
Tombless, with no remembrance over them:
Either our history shall, with full mouth,
Speak freely of our acts; or else our grave,
Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth,
Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph.
Enter Ambassadors of France.
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. 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;
Under whose grace our passion is a subject,
As are our wretches fetter'd in our prisons:
Therefore, with frank and with uncurbed plain-
Tell us the dauphin's mind.
Amb.
Thus then, in few.
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 savor too much of your youth;
And bids you be advis'd, there's nought in France,
That can be with a nimble galliard won;
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.
Tennis-balls, my liege. K. Hen. We are glad, the dauphin is so pleasant! with us;
His present, and our pains, we thank you for:
When we have match'd our rackets to these balls,
We will, in France, by God's grace, play a set,
Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard:1
Tell him, he hath made a match with such a
wrangler,
That all the courts of France will be disturb'd
With chaces. And we understand him well,
How he comes o'er us with our wilder days,
Not measuring what use we made of them.
We never valued this poor seat of England;
And therefore, living hence, did give ourself
To barbarous license; As 'tis ever common,
That men are merriest when they are from home.
But tell the dauphin,-I will keep my state;
Be like a king, and show my sail of greatness,
When I do rouse me in my throne of France:
For that I have laid by my majesty,
And plodded like a man for working-days;
But I will rise there with so full a glory,
That I will dazzle all the eyes of France,
Yea, strike the dauphin blind to look on us.
And tell the pleasant prince,-this mock of his
Hath turned his balls to gun-stones; and his soul
Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance
That shall fly with them: for many a thousand
widows
Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands;
Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down;
And some are yet ungotten, and unborn,
That shall have cause to curse the dauphin's scorn.
But this lies all within the will of God,
To whom I do appeal; and in whose name,
Tell you the dauphin, I am coming on,
To venge me as I may, and to put forth
My rightful hand in a well-hallow'd cause.
So, get you hence in peace; and tell the dauphin
His jest will savor but of shallow wit,
When thousands weep, more than did laugh atit.-
Convey them with sale conduct.-Fare you well.
[Exeunt Ambassadors.
Exe. This was a merry message.
K. Hen. We hope to make the sender blush at it
[Descends from his Throne
Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour,
That may give furtherance to our expedition:
For we have now no thought in us but France;
Save those to God, that run before our business.
Therefore, let our proportions for these wars
Be soon collected; and all things thought upon,
That may, with reasonable swiftness, add
More feathers to our wings; tor, God before,
We'll chide this dauphin at his father's door.
Therefore, let every man now task his thought,
That this fair action may on foot be brought.
Chor, Now all the youth of England are on fire, And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies; Now thrive the armorers, and honor's thought Reigns solely in the breast of every man: They sell the pasture now, to buy the horse; Following the mirror of all Christian kings, With winged heels, as English Mercuries. For now sits Expectation in the air; And hides a sword, from hilts unto the point, With crowns imperial, crowns, and coronets, Promis'd to Harry, and his followers. The French, advis'd by good intelligence
Of this most dreadful preparation,
Shake in their fear; and with pale policy
Seek to divert the English purposes.
O England!-model to thy inward greatness,
Like little body with a mighty heart,-
What might'st thou do, that honor would thee do,
Were all thy children kind and natural!
But see thy fault! France hath in thee found out
A nest of hollow bosoms, which he fills
With treacherous crowns: and three corrupted
One, Richard earl of Cambridge; and the second,
Henry lord Scroop of Masham; and the third,
Sir Thomas Grey, knight of Northumberland,-
Have, for the gilt of France, (O guilt, indeed!)
Confirm'd conspiracy with fearful France;
And by their hands this grace of kings must die,
If hell and treason hold their promises,)
'A piace in the tennis court, into which the ball is sometimes struck. ? A term at tennis. Gold.
Ere he take ship for France, and in Southampton
The abuse of distance, while we force a play.
Linger your patience on; and well digest
The sum is paid; the traitors are agreed;
The king is set from London; and the scene
Is now transported, gentles, to Southampton:
There is the playhouse now, there must you sit:
And thence to France shall we convey you safe,
And bring you back, charming the narrow seas
To give you gentle pass; for, if we may,
We'll not offend one stomach with our play.
But, till the king comes forth, and not till then,
Unto Southampton do we shift our scene.
SCENE 1-London. Before Quickly's House in
Eastcheap.
Enter NYM and BARDOLPH.
Bard. Well met, corporal Nym.
Nym. Good morrow, lieutenant Bardolph.
Burd. What, are ancient Pistol and you friends
Nym. For my part, I care not; I say little: but when time shall serve, there shall be smiles;-but that shall be as it may. I dare not fight; but I will wink, and hold out mine iron: It is a simple one; but what though? it will toast cheese; and it will endure cold as another man's sword will: and there's the humor of it.
Bard. I will bestow a breakfast, to make you friends; and we'll be all three sworn brothers to France; let it be so, good corporal Nym.
Nym. 'Faith, I will live so long as I may, that's the certain of it; and when I cannot live any longer
|