Earl of Salisbury.

Earl of Weftmorland.
Earl of Warwick.

Archbishop of Canterbury.
Bishop of Ely.

Earl of Cambridge,
Lord Scroop,

Sir Thomas Grey,

}

Confpirators against the King.

Sir Thomas Erpingham, Gower, Fluellen, Mackmorris, Jamy, Officers in King Henry's Army. Nym, Bardolph, Piftol, Boy, formerly Servants to Falstaff, now Soldiers in the King's Army.

Bates, Court, Williams, Soldiers.

Charles, King of France.

The Dauphin.

Duke of Burgundy.

Constable, Orleans, Rambures, Bourbon, Grandpree,

French Lords.

Governor of Harfleur.

Mountjoy, a Herald.

Ambaffadors to the King of England.

Ifabel, Queen of France.

Catharine, Daughter to the King of France.

Alice, a Lady attending on the Princess Catharine.
Quickly, Pistol's Wife, an Hoftefs.

CHORUS.

Lords, Mejengers, French and English Soldiers, with other Attendants.

The Scene, at the beginning of the Play, lies in England; but afterwards, wholly in France.

Of this play the editions are, I. 16co, Tho. Crede for Tho. Milleyton, 4to.

II. 1608, for J. P. 4to.

III. 1623, &c. Folio. I have the fecond quarto and folio. The folio edition is much enlarged,

Ό For a Mufe of fire, that would afcend

The brightest heaven of invention!

2

A kingdom for a ftage, Princes to act,
And Monarchs to behold the fwelling fcene!
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
Affume the port of Mars; and, at his heels,
Leafbt in, like hounds, fhould famine, fword and fire
Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all,
The flat unraifed fpirit, that hath dar'd,
On this unworthy Scaffold, to bring forth
So great an object. Can this Cock-pit hold
The vafty field of France? or may we cram,
3 Within this wooden Ọ, 4 the very caskes
That did affright the air, at Agincourt?
O, pardon; fince a crooked figure may
Atteft in little place a million

;

And let us, cyphers to this great accompt,
5. On your imaginary forces work.
Suppofe, within the girdle of these walls

O for a Mufe of fire, &c.] This goes upon the notion of the Peripatetic Syftem, which imagines feveral Heavens one above another; the laft and higheft of which was one of fire.

3 Within this wooden O.] No thing fhews more evidently the power of cuftom over language. than that the frequent ufe of calling a circle an O could fo much hide the meannefs of the metaphor from Shakespeare, that he has used it many times where he makes his moft eager attempts at dignity of tile.

4 The very cafkes.] The hel

mets.

5 Imaginary forces.] Imaginary for imaginative, or your powers of fancy. Active and paffive words are by this author frequently confounded.

Are

Are now confin'd two mighty monarchies ;
• Whofe high-up-reared and abutting fronts
The perillous narrow ocean parts afunder.
Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts,
Into a thoufand parts divide one man,
1 And make imaginary puissance.

Think, when we talk of horses, that you fee them
Printing their proud hoofs i' th' receiving earth.
& For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our Kings,
Carry them here and there, jumping o'er times,
Turning th' accomplishment of many years
Into an hour-glass; for the which fupply,
Admit me Chorus to this hiftory;

Who, prologue-like, your humble patience pray,
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our Play.

6 Whofe high up-reared, and
abutting fronts,

THE PERILLOUS narrow ocean

parts afunder.] Without doubt the author wrote,

Whofe high-up-reared, and abutting fronts

PERILLOUS, THE narrow ocean parts afunder ;] for his purpofe is to fhew, that the higheft danger arifes from the fhock of their meeting; and that it is but a little thing which keeps them afunder. This fenfe my einendation gives us, as the common reading gives us a contrary; for those whom a perillous ocean parts afunder, are in no danger of meeting. WARB.

7 And make imaginary puiffance.] This paffage fhews that Shake

Speare was fully fenfible of the abfurdity of fhewing battles on the theatre, which indeed is never done but tragedy becomes farce. Nothing can be reprefented to the eye but by fome. thing like it, and within a wooden O nothing very like a battle can be exhibited.

8 For 'tis your thoughts that now muft dick our Kings, Carry them here and there] We should read king for kings. The prologue relates only to this fingle play. The mistake was made by referring them to kings which belongs to thoughts. The fenfe is, your thoughts must give the king his proper greatness, carry therefore your thoughts here and there.

The

King HENRY V.

ACT I. SCENE I.

An Antechamber in the English Court, at Kenilworth.

Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bishop of Ely.

M

2 Archbishop of CANTERBURY.

Y lord, I'll tell you-That felf bill is urg'd,
Which, in th' eleventh year o' th' last King's
reign,

Was like, and had, indeed against us past,
But that the scambling and unquiet time
Did push it out of further question.

1 The Life of Henry V.] This play was writ (as appears from a paffage in the chorus to the fifth act) at the time of the Earl of Effex's commanding the forces in Ireland in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and not till after Henry the VIth had been played, as may be seen by the conclufion of this play. POPE.

The Life of K. Henry.] The Tranfactions compriz'd in this Hiftorical Play, commence about the latter end of the first, and

terminate in the 8th Year of this King's reign; when he married Catharine Princess of France, and clofed up the Differences betwixt England and that Crown. THEO.

2 Archbishop of Canterbury.] This firft fcene was added fince the edition of 1608, which is much fhort of the prefent editions, wherein the fpeeches are generally enlarged and raised: Several whole fcenes befides, and all the chorus's alfo, were fince added by Shakespeare. POPE.

Ely.

Ely. But how, my lord, fhall we refift it now?
Cant. It must be thought on; if it pafs against us,
We lofe the better half of our poffeffion;

For all the temporal lands, which men devout
By teftament have given to the Church,

Would they ftrip from us; being valu'd thus,
As much as would maintain, to the King's honour,
Full fifteen Earls and fifteen hundred Knights,
Six thousand and two hundred good Efquires;
And to relief of lazars, and weak age
Of indigent faint fouls, paft corporal toil,
A hundred alm-houses, right well supply'd;
And to the coffers of the King, befide,
A thousand pounds by th' year.
Ely. This would drink deep.

Thus runs the bill.

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 fooner left his father's body,
But that his wildness mortify'd in him,
Seem'd to die too; yea, at that very moment,
*Confideration, like an angel, came,

And whipt th' offending Adam out of him;
Leaving his body as a Paradife,

T'invelope and contain celeftial fpirits.

Never was fuch a fudden scholar made,
Never came reformation in a flood s

With fuch a heady current, fcow'ring faults;
Nor ever Hydra-headed wilfulness

Confideration, like an angel, &c.] As paradife when fin and Adam were driven out by the angel became the habitation of celestial fpirits, fo the king's heart, fince confideration has driven out his follies, is now the receptacle of wifdom and of virtue.

3 Never came reformation like

a flood] Alluding to the method by which Hercules cleanfed the famous ftables when he turned a river through them. Her cules ftill is in our authour's head when he mentions the Hydra.

So