PERSONS REPRESENTED. King HENRY the Fifth. Duke of GLOSTER, brothers to the king. Duke of BEDFORD, Duke of EXETER, uncle to the king. Duke of YORK, cousin to the king. Earls of SALISBURY, WESTMOReland, and WARWICK. Archbishop of CANTERBURY. Bishop of ELY. Earl of CAMBRIdge, Lord SCROOP, Sir THOMAS GREY, conspirators against the king. Sir THOMAS ERPINGHAM, GOWER, FLUELLEN, MACMORRIS, JAMY, officers in king Henry's army. BATES, COURT, WILLIAMS, soldiers in the same. NYM, BARDOLPH, PISTOL, formerly servants to Falstaff, now soldiers in the same. Boy, servant to them. A herald. CHARLES the Sixth, king of France. LEWIS, the Dauphin. Chorus. Dukes of BURGUNDY, ORLEANS, and BOURBON. The Constable of France. RAMBURES, and GRANDPREE, French lords. Governor of Harfleur. MONTJOY, a French herald. Ambassadors to the king of England. ISABEL, queen of France. KATHARINE, daughter of Charles and Isabel. ALICE, a lady attending on the princess Katharine. QUICKLY, Pistol's wife, an hostess. Lords, Ladies, Officers, French and English Soldiers, Messengers, and Attendants. The SCENE at the beginning of the play, lies in England; but afterwards, wholly in France. Enter CHORUS. O, FOR a muse of fire, that would ascend A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, Leash'd in, like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire, [1] This goes upon the notion of the Peripatetic system, which imagined several beavens one above another; the last and highest of which was one of fire. WARBURTON. It alludes likewise to the aspiring nature of fire, which, by its levity, at the separation of the chaos, took the highest seat of all the elements. JOHNSON. [2] This image of the warlike Henry very much resembles Montfaucon's description of the Mars discovered at Bresse, who leads a lion and a lioness in couples, and crouching for employment. TOLLET. [3] Nothing shows more evidently the power of custom over language, than that the frequent use of calling a circle an O could so much hide the meanness of the metaphor from Shakespeare, that he has used it many times where he makes his most eager attempts at dignity of style. JOHNSON. [4] The helmets. JOHNSON. [5] Imaginary for imaginative, your powers of fancy. JOHNSON. Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them Into an hour-glass; For the which supply, Who, prologue-like, your humble patience pray, ACT I. SCENE I.-London. An Ante-chamber in the King's Palace. Enter the Archbishop of CANTERBURY, and Bishop of ELY. Canterbury. My lord, I'll tell you, that self bill is urg'd, But that the scambling and unquiet time Did push it out of further question. Ely. But how, my lord, shall we resist it now? A hundred alms-houses, right well supplied; And to the coffers of the king beside, A thousand pounds by th' 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. And whipp'd th' offending Adam out of him; To envelop and contain celestial spirits." So soon did lose his seat, and all at once, Ely. We are blessed in the change. You would desire, the king were made a prelate : The Gordian knot of it he will unloose, And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears, 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, His companies unletter'd, rude, and shallow; Any retirement, any sequestration From open haunts and popularity.' Ely. The strawberry grows underneath the nettle; And so the prince obscur'd his contemplation [5] As paradise, when sin and Adam were driven out by the angel, became the babitation of celestial spirits, so the king's heart, since consideration has driven out his follies, is now the receptacle of wisdom and of virtue. JOHNSON. [6] Alluding to the method by which Hercules cleansed the famous stables, when be turned a river through them. Hercules is still in our author's head when he mentions the Hydra. JOHNSON. This line is exquisitely beautiful. JOHNSON. Theoric is what terminates in speculation. STEEVENS. That is plebeian intercourse. STEEVENS. |