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, 'each your cousin to consent to winking. K. Hen. I pray you then, in love and deat alliance, Let that one article rank with the rest : Issue to me that the contending kingdoms France. All. Amen! K. Hen. Now welcome, Kate :-and bear me witness all, That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen. [Flourish. Q. Isa. God, the best maker of all marriages, Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one ! 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 As man and wife, being two, are one in love, have their eyes; and then they will endure So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal, handling, which before would not abide look-That never may ill office, or fell jealousy, ing on. Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage, 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? 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 show me the way to my will. Fr. King. We have consented to all terms of reason. K., Hen. Is't so, my lords of England ? West. The king hath granted every article: His daughter, first; and then, in sequel all, According to their firm proposed natures. 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 filz Henry roy d'Angleterre, heretier de France; and thus in Latin,-Preclarissimus filius noster Henricus, rex Anglia, et hæres Francia. Fr. King. Nor this I have not, brother, so denied, Hut your request shall make me let it pass. • Temper. Thrust in between the paction of these king doms, To make divorce of their incorporate league ; That English may as French, French Englishmen, Receive each other !-God speak this Amen! K. Hen. Prepare we for our marriage :-on which day, My lord of Burgundy, we'll take your oath, And all the peers', for surety of our leagues.Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me: And may our oaths well kept and prosp❜rous be! [Exeunt. Enter CHORUS. Thus far, with rough, and all unable pen, Mangling by starts the full course of their glory. [liv'd Small time, but in that small, most greatly This star of England: fortune made his sword; By which the world's best garden + he achiev'd, And of it left his son imperial lord. Henry the sixth, in infant bands crown'd king Of France and England did this king succeed; Whose state so many had the managing, That they lost France, and made his England bleed : Which oft our stage hath shown; and, for their sake, In your fair minds let this acceptance take., [Exit. 1. e. Unequal to the eight of the subject. † Franet. FIRST PART OF KING HENRY VI. LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTICE. MALONE supposes this portion of Henry VI. to have been written in 1589; but doubts, with Theobald, whether the three plays comprised under the title of Henry VI. were actually composed by Shakspeare. Dr. Johnson however maintains, that they exhibit "no marks of spuriousness," and that they "are declared to be genuine by the voice of Shakspeare himself. The transactions of the piece are scattered through a period of thirty years, and introduced with little regard to historical accuracy. Lord Talbot who is killed at the end of the fourth act, did not in reality fall until July 13, 1453; and the second part of Henry VI. opens with the king's marriage, which was solemnized in the year 1445, or eight years before Talbot's death. In the same part, Dame Eleanor Cobham is introduced to insult Queen Margaret; though her penance and banishment for sorcery happened three years before that princess arrived in England. ------ These deviations from the page of history are of little consequence to the mere lover of dramatic literature, as they neither weaken the gratification, nor diminish the effect of the scenic narrative. Poetry appeals to the passions, and imagination, like a true magician, lends her most powerful spells to excite or subdue them. But there are many to whom the great events of history are known only through the fascinating medium of a play or a romance; and it is frequently difficult, if not disagreeable to efface, in after life, the distorted impressions which they leave upon the memory. When viewed in the sober simplicity of historic truth, a favourite hero often loses much of his glitter, and a detested villain some portion of his turpitude. It is therefore of no little consequence to examine the materials of a dramatic fabric, to separate truth from fiction, and to shew "the age and body of the time, his form and pressure:" because, in lauding the productions of Shakspeare (particularly those historical pieces upon which he exercised such masterly talents,) it has been the fashion to represent them not only as morally entertaining, but also as politically instructive; an attribute with which, examination shows, it is dangerous to invest them. KING HENRY THE SIXTH. DRAMATIS PERSONE. DUKE OF GLOSTER, Uncle to the King, and DUKE OF BEDFORD, Uncle to the King, and THOMAS BEAUFORT, Duke of Exeter, great HENRY BEAUFORT, great Uncle to the King, JOHN BEAUFORT, Earl of Somerset ; afterwards Duke. VERNON, of the White Rose, or York Fattion. BASSET, of the Red Rose, or Lancaster Fac- CHARLES, Dauphin, and afterwards King of REIGNIER, Duke of Anjou, and titular King DUKE OF BURGUNDY.-DUKE OF ALENÇON. RICHARD PLANTAGENET, eldest son of Richard, EARL OF WARWICK.-EARL OF SALISBURY. EARL OF SUFFOLK. AN Pucelle. LORD TALBOT, afterwards Earl of Shrews MARGARET, Daughter to Reignier; after bury. JOHN TALBOT, his Son, EDMUND MORTIMER, Earl of March. SIR JOHN FASTOLFE.-SIR WILLIAM LUCY. GRAVE. MAYOR OF LONDON. WOODVILLE, Lieutenant of the Tower. wards married to King Henry. JOAN LA PUCELLE, commonly called Joan of Fiends appearing to La Pucelle, Lords, SCENE, partly in England, 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 night! Comets, importing change of times and states, Glo. England ne'er had a king, until his Virtue he had, deserving to command: His arms spread wider than a dragon's wings ; What should I say? his deeds exceed all speech: Exe. We mourn in black; Why mourn we not in blood? Henry is dead, and never shall revive: Unto the French the dreadful judgment day His thread of life had not so soon decay'd: And lookest to command the prince and realm, And ne'er throughout the year 1 church thou go'st, Except it be to pray against thy foes. Bed. Cease, cease these jars, and rest your minds in peace! Let's to the altar :-Heralds, wait on us :- Enter a MESSENGER. Bed. Me they coucern; regent I 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 mischance, France is revolted from the English quite; The bastard of Orleans with him is join'd; Exe. The Dauphin crowned king! all fy 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 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, 3 Mess. O no; wherein lord Talbot was o'er thrown: The circumstance I'll tell you more at large Mess. My honourable lords, health to you He wanted pikes to set before his archers; all! Sad tidings bring I to you out of France, Speak softly; or the loss of those great towns Will make him burst his lead, and rise from death. Glo. Is Paris lost? is Rouen yielded up? If Henry were recall'd to life again, These news would cause him once more yield the ghost. Exe. How were they lost? what treachery was ns'd? Mess. No treachery; but want of men Among the soldiers this is muttered,- fought, You are disputing of your generals. Instead whereof, sharp stakes, pluck'd out of hedges, They pitched in the ground confusedly, him; Here, there, and every where, enrag'd he slew: and A base Walloon, to win the Dauphin's grace, One would have ling'ring wars, with little cost; Thrust Talbot with a spear into the back; There was a notion long prevalent, that life might be taken away by metrical charms. f Nurse was anciently so spelt. Her, i . England's. 1. e. Their miseries wh.ch have had only a ther intermission. |