But Harry lives that shall convert those tears,
By number, into hours of happiness.

P. John, &c. We hope no other from your majesty. King. You all look strangely on me; and you most; [To the CHIEF JUSTICE. You are, I think, assur'd I love you not.

Ch. Jus. I am assur'd, if I be measur'd rightly,
Your majesty hath no just cause to hate me.
King. No!

Jlow might a prince of my great hopes forget
So great indignities you laid upon me?

What! rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prison
The immediate heir of England! Was this easy?
May this be wash'd in Lethe, and forgotten?

Ch. Jus. I then did use the person of your father;
The image of his power lay then in me:
And, in the administration of his law,
Whiles I was busy for the commonwealth,
Your highness pleased to forget my place,
The majesty and power of law and justice,
The image of the king whom I presented,
And struck me in my very seat of judgment:
Whereon, as an offender to your father,
I gave bold way to my authority,

And did commit you. If the deed were ill,
Be you contented, wearing now the garland,
To have a son set your decrees at naught;
To pluck down justice from your awful bench;
To trip the course of law, and blunt the sword
That guards the peace and safety of your person:
Nay, more; to spurn at your most royal image,
And mock your workings in a second body.
Question your royal thoughts, make the case yours:
Be now the father, and propose a son:
Hear your own dignity so much profan'd,
See your most dreadful laws so loosely slighted,
Behold yourself so by a son disdain'd;
And then imagine me taking your part,
And, in your power, soft silencing your son:
After this cold considerance, sentence me;
And, as you are a king, speak, in your state,
What I have done that misbecame my place,
My person, or my liege's sovereignty.

King. You are right, justice, and you weigh this well;

Therefore, still bear the balance and the sword:
And I do wish your honours may increase,
Till you do live to see a son of mine
Offend you, and obey you, as I did.

So shall I live to speak my father's words:-
Happy am I, that have a man so bold,
That dares do justice on my proper son!
And not less hapyy, having such a son,
That would deliver up his greatness so

Into the hands of justice.-You did commit me:
For which, I do commit into your hand
The unstain'd sword that you have us'd to bear;
With this remembrance,-That you use the same
With the like bold, just, and impartial spirit,
As you have done 'gainst me. There is my hand;
You shall be as a father to my youth:

My voice shall sound as you do prompt mine ear;
And I will stoop and humble my intents
To your well-practis'd wise directions.

And, princes all, believe me, I beseech you ;-
My father has gone wild into his grave,
For in his tomb lie my affections;
And with his spirit sadly I survive,
To mock the expectation of the world;
To frustrate prophecies; and to raze out
Rotten opinion, who hath writ me down
After my seeming. The tide of blood in me
Hath proudly flow'd in vanity till now:
Now doth it turn, and ebb back to the sea;
Where it shall mingle with the state of floods,
And flow henceforth in formal majesty.
Now call we our high court of Parliament:
And let us choose such limbs of noble counsel,
That the great body of our state may go
In equal rank with the best govern'd nation;
That war, or peace, or both at once, may be
As things acquainted and familiar to us;
In which you, father, shall have foremost hand.
[To the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE.
Our coronation done, we will accite,
As I before remember'd, all our state :
And (God consigning to my good intents)
No prince nor peer shall have just cause to say,-
Heaven shorten Harry's happy life one day.

SCENE III.-Glostershire. The Garden of Shallow's House.

Enter FALSTAFF, SHALLOW, SILENCE, BARDOLPH, the Page, and DAVY.

Shal. Nay, you shall see mine orchard; where iu an arbour, we will eat a last year's pippin of my own graffing, with a dish of carraways, and so forth.Come, cousin Silence; and then to bed.

Fal. 'Fore God, you have here a goodly dwelling and a rich.

Shal. Barren, barren, barren; beggars all, beggars all, Sir John: marry, good air. Spread, Davy, spread, Davy; well said, Davy.

Fal. This Davy serves you for good uses: he is your serving-man and your husbandman,

Shal. A good varlet, a good varlet, a very good varlet, Sir John. By the mass, I have drunk too much sack at supper. A good varlet. Now sit down, now sit down; come, cousin.

Sil. Ah, sirrah, quoth-a, we shall

Do nothing but eat, and make good cheer,
[Singing.

And praise Heaven for the merry year:
When flesh is cheap and females dear,
And lusty lads roam here and there
So merrily,

And ever among so merrily!

Fal. There's a merry heart! Good Master Silence, I'll give you a health for that anon.

Shal. Give Master Bardolph some wine, Davy. Davy. Sweet Sir, sit [seating BARDOLPH and the Page at another table.] I'll be with you anon.Most sweet sir, sit. Master Page, good Master Page, sit; proface. What you want in meat we'll have in drink. But you must bear; the heart's all. [Exit. Shal. Be merry, Master Bardolph, and my little soldier there, be merry.

Sil. Be merry, be merry, my wife's as all,

[Singing.

For women are shrews, both short and tall; 'Tis merry in hall when beards wag all,

And welcome merry Shrovetide.

Be merry, be merry, &c.

Fal. I did not think Master Silence had been a man of this mettle.

Sil. Who I? I have been merry twice and once

Sil. And we shall be merry: now comes in the sweet of the night.

Fal. Health and long life to you, Master Silence! Sil. Fill the cup, and let it come;

I'll pledge you a mile to the bottom.

Shal. Honest Bardolph, welcome. If thou wantest any thing, and wilt not call, beshrew thy heart!-Welcome, my little tiny thief [to the Page], and welcome, indeed, too. I'll drink to Master Bardolph,

and to all the cavaleroes about London.

Davy. I hope to see London once ere I die.
Bard. An I might see you there, Davy-

Shal. By the mass, you'll crack a quart together.— Ba! will you not, Master Bardolph ?

Bard. Yes, sir, in a pottle pot.

Shal. I thank thee. The knave will stick by thee,

I can assure thee that: he will not out-he is true bred.

Bard. And I'll stick by him, sir.

Shal. Why, there spoke a king. Lack nothing; he merry. [Knocking heard]. Look who's at door there. Ho! who knocks?

[Exit DAVY.

[Exeunt.

Host. O, the Lord, that Sir John were come! He would make this a bloody day to somebody. But I pray God the fruit of her womb miscarry I

Sil. Is't so? why then say an old man can do some. what.

Re-enter DAVY.

1 Bead. If it do, you shall have a dozen of cushions

Puff in thy teeth, most recreant coward base!
Sir John, I am thy Pistol and thy friend,
And helter-skelter have I rode to thee;
And tidings do I bring, and lucky joys,
And golden times, and happy news of price.

Fal. I pr'ythee, now, deliver them like a man of this world.

Pist. A foutra for the world and worldlings base. I speak of Africa and golden joys.

[Sings.

Fal. O, base Assyrian knight! what is thy news? Let king Cophetua know the truth thereof. Sil. And Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John. Pist, Shall dunghill curs confront the Helicons ? And shall good news be baffled ? Then, Pistol, lay thy head in Furies' lap.

Shal. Honest gentleman, I know not your breeding. Pist. Why, then, lament, therefore.

Shal. Give me pardou, sir: if, sir, you come with news from the court, I take it there is but two ways: either to utter them, or to conceal them. I am, sir, under the king, in some authority.

Pist. Under which king, Bezonian? Speak or die.
Shal. Under King Harry.
Pist.

Harry the Fourth or Fifth.

Shal. Harry the Fourth. Pist.

A foutra for thine office! Sir John, thy tender lambkin now is king: Harry the Fifth's the man! I speak the truth; When Pistol lies, do this: and fig me, like The bragging Spaniard.

Fal. What, is the old king dead?

Pist. As nail in door; the things I speak are just. Fal. Away, Bardolph; saddle my horse. Master Robert Shallow, choose what office thou wilt in the land-'tis thine. Pistol, I will double charge thee with dignities.

Bard. O, joyful day! I would not take a knighthood for my fortune.

Pist. What? I do bring good news?

Fal. Carry Master Silence to bed. Master Shallow, my Lord Shallow, be what thou wilt; I am fortune's steward. Get on thy boots; we'll ride all night.

, sweet Pistol! Away, Bardolph. [Exit BARD.] Come, Pistol, utter more to me; and, withal, devise something to do thyself good. Boot, boot, Master Shallow: I know the young king is sick for me.Let us take any man's horses: the laws of England are at my commandment. Happy are they which have been my friends, and woe to my Lord Chief Justice!

Pist. Let vultures vile seize on his lungs also!
Where is the life that late I led? say they:
Why, here it is! Welcome these pleasant days!

SCENE IV.-London. A Street.

[Exeunt.

Enter Beadles, dragging in Hostess QUICKLY and DOLL TEARSHEET.

Host. No, thou arrant knave; I would I might die, that I might have thee hanged; thou hast drawn my shoulder out of joint.

1 Bead. The constables have delivered her over to me, and she shall have whipping-cheer enough, I warrant her; there hath been a man or two lately killed about her.

Doll. Nut-hook, nut-hook, you lie. Come on: I'll tell thee what, thou damned tripe-visaged rascal, an the child I now go with do miscarry, thou hadst better thou hadst struck thy mother, thou paper-faced villain!

you both go with me; for the man is dead that you and Pistol beat among you.

Doll. I'll tell thee what, thou thin man in a censer! I will have you as soundly swinged for this, you bluebottle rogue! you filthy famished correctioner: if you be not swinged, I'll forswear half-kirtles.

1 Bead. Come, come, you she knight-errant, come. Host. O, that right should thus overcome might! Well, of sufferance comes ease.

Doll. Come, you rogue, come; bring me to a justice.

Host. Ay, come, you starved blood-hound.
Doll. Goodman death! goodman bones!
Host. Thou atomy thou!

Doll. Come, you thin thing; come, you rascal!
1 Bead. Very well.

[Exeunt.

Fal. Stand here by

me, Master Robert Shallow; I will make the king do you grace: I will leer upon him as 'a comes by; and do but mark the countenance that he will give me.

Pist. God bless thy lungs, good knight.

Fal. Come here, Pistol, stand behind me. O, if I had had time to have made new liveries, I would have bestowed the thousand pound I borrowed of you [to SHALLOW]. But 'tis no matter; this poor show doth better; this doth infer the zeal I had to see him. Shal. It doth so.

Fal. It shows my earnestness of affection.
Shal. It doth so.

Fal. My devotion.

Shal. It doth, it doth, it doth.

Fal. As it were, to ride day and night, and not to deliberate, not to remember, not to have patience to shift me.

Shal. It is most certain,

Fal. But to stand stained with travel, and sweating with desire to see him; thinking of nothing else; putting all affairs else in oblivion; as if there were nothing else to be done but to see him,

Pist. 'Tis semper idem, for absque hoc nihil est. 'Tis all in every part.

Shal. 'Tis so, indeed.

Pist. My knight, I will inflame thy noble liver,
And make thee rage.

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 naught but truth.
Fal. I will deliver her.

[Shouts within, and the trumpets sound. Pist. There roar'd the sea, and trumpet-clangour 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

man.

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 me 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 mile.
For competence of life I will allow you,
That lack of means enforce you not to evil;
And, as we hear you do reform yourselves,
We will, according to your strength and qualities,
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 colour.

Shal. A colour, I fear, that you will die in, Sir John.

Fal. Fear no colours: go with me to dinner.Come, Lieutenant Pistol: come, Bardolph; I shall be sent for soon to-night.

Re-enter PRINCE JOHN, the CHIEF JUSTICE,
Officers, &c.

P. John. I like this fair proceeding of the king's t 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. Jus. And so they are.

P. John. The king hath call'd his Parliament, my lord.

Ch. Jus. He hath.

P. John. I will lay odds that ere this year expire, We bear our civil swords and native fire

As far as France. I heard a bird so sing,
Whose music, to my thinking, pleas'd the king.
Come, will you hence ?
[Exeunt.

EPILOGUE.

Spoken by a Dancer.

First, my fear; then, my courtesy; 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. Here 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 that were but light payment-to dance out of your debt. But a good conscience will make any possible satisfaction, and so will I. All the gentlewomen 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 any

Fal. My lord, my lord

Ch. Jus. I cannot now speak; I will hear you

ready 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.

LEWIS, the Dauphin.

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 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 dar'd,
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 this 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;

And let us, ciphers to this great account,
On your imaginary forces work:
Suppose, within the girdle of these walls
Are now confin'd two mighty monarchies,
Whose high upreared and abutting fronts
The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder.
Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;
Into a thousand parts divide one man,
And make imaginary puissance:

Think, when we talk of horses, that ye see them
Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth:
For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times;
Turning the accomplishment of many years
Into an hour glass: for the which supply,
Admit me chorus to this history;

Who, prologue-like, your humble patience pray,
Geatly to bear, kindly to judge, our play.

Cant. My lord, I'll tell you,-that self bill is urg'd, Which, in the eleventh year of the last king's reign, Was like, and had, indeed, against us pass'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?
Cant. It must be thought on. If it pass against us,
We lose the better half of our possession:
For all the temporal lands, which men devout
By testament have given to the church,
Would they strip from us; being valued thus,—
As much as would maintain, to the king's honour,
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 alms-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, at 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 wilfulness
So soon did lose his seat, and all at once,
As in this king.
.Ely.
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 ofit 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 honey'd 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 filled 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, Neighbour'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.

Ely.

But, my good lord, How now for mitigation of this bill Urg'd by the commous? Doth his majesty

Incline to it or no?

Cant.

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 opened 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 P
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, to 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 ? Ely.

It is.

Cant. Then go we in to know his embassy Which I could, with a ready guess declare, Before the Frenchman speak a word of it. Ely. I wait upon you; and I long to hear it.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-The same. 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 Canterbury? 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 resolv'd, Before we hear him, of some things of weight, That task our thoughts, concerning us and France.

Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY and the 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 open titles miscreate, whose right Suits not in native colours 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: Therefore take heed how you impawn our person, 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 drops
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 wash'd
As pure as sin with baptism.

Cant. Then hear me, gracious sovereign,—and you, peers,

That owe your lives, your faith, and services,
To this imperial throne :-There is no bar
To make against your highness' claim to France,
But this, which they produce from Pharamond,—
In terram Sulicam mulieres ne succedant,
No woman shall succeed in Salique land:
Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze
To be the realm of France, and Pharamo nd
The founder of this law and female bar.
Yet their own authors faithfully affirm,
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 inheritrix in Salique land;
Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala,
Is at this day in Germany call'd-Meisen.
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 deffunction 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 their 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 to the Lady Ermengare,

Daughter of Charles, the aforesaid 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 is it writ,-
When the son dies, let the inheritance
Descend upon the daughter. Gracious lord,
Stand for your own; unwind your bloody flag;
Look back upon 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.

Oh! 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 feats;
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 shall rotise yourself, As did the former lions of your blood. West. They know your grace. hath cause, and might;

and

means,

So hath your highness: never king of England
Had nobles richer, and more loyal subjects;
Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England,
And lie pavilioned 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.

K. Hen. We must not only arm to invade the
French,

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 intendment of the Scot,
Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us;
For you shall read that my great grandfather
Never went with his forces into France,
But that the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdom
Came pouring, like the tide into a breach,
With ample and brim fulness of his force;
Galling the gleaned land with hot essays;
Girdling, with grievous siege, castles and towns;
That England, being empty of defence,

Hath shook, and trembled at the ill neighbourhood. 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 bottom 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 havock more than she can eat.

Exe. It follows, then, the cat must stay at home;
Yet that is but a crush'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 consent;
Congruing in a full and natural close,
Like music.

Cant. True; therefore doth heaven divide
The state of man in divers functions,
Setting endeavour 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:
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