Shal. [Within.] Sir John! Fat. I come, master Shallow; I come, master Shailow. [Exit Falstaff. SCENE II-Westminster.-A Room in the Palace. Enter WARWICK, and the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE. War. How now, my lord chief justice? Whither away?

Ch. Just. How doth the king?

most;

ended.

Ch. Justice. I hope, not dead.

War. He's walk'd the way of nature; And, to our purposes, he lives no more.

Ch. Just. I would, his majesty had call'd me with him:

The service that I truly did his life,
Hath left me open to all injuries.

War. Indeed, I think, the young king loves you

not.

Ch. Just. I know, he doth not; and do arin myself,

To welcome the condition of the time;
Which cannot look more hideously upon me
Than I have drawn it in my fantasy.
Enter Prince JOHN, Prince HUMPHREY, CLARENCE,
WESTMORELAND, and others.

War. Here come the heavy issue of dead Harry:
O, that the living Harry had the temper
Of him, the worst of these three gentlemen!
How many nobles then should hold their places,
That must strike sail to spirits of vile sort!

Ch. Just. Alas! I fear all will be overturn'd.
P. John. Good morrow, cousin Warwick.
P. Hump. Cla. Good morrow, cousin.

P. John. We meet like men that had forgot to speak.

War. We do remember; but our argument Is all too heavy to admit much talk.

P. John. Well, peace be with him that hath made us heavy!

Ch. Just. Peace be with us, lest we be heavier! P. Humph. O, good my lord, you have lost a friend, indeed;

And I dare swear you borrow not that face
Of seeming sorrow; it is, sure, your own.
P. John. Though no man be assured what grace
to find,

You stand in coldest expectation:

I am the sorrier; 'would 'twere otherwise. Cla. Well, you must now speak Sir John Falstaff fair;

Which swims against your stream of quality.

Ch. Just. I then did use the person of your fa

ther;

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 nought;
To pluck down justice from your awful bench;
That guards the peace and safety of your person:
To trip the course of law, and blunt the sword
Nay, more; to spurn at your most royal image,
And mock your workings in a second bodyt.
Question your royal thoughts, make the case yours;
Be now the father, and propose a son:
Hear your own dignity so much profaned,
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

Till

well;

Therefore still bear the balance, and the sword:
And I do wish your honours may increase,
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 1, that have a man so bold,
That dares do justice on my proper son:
And not less happy, having such a son,
That would deliver up his greatness so
Into the hands of justice.-You did commit me:
For which, I do ccmmit into your hand
The unstained sword that you have used to bear;

nour,

Led by the impartial conduct of my soul;
And never shall you see, that I will beg
A ragged and forestall'd remission.-
If truth and upright innocency fail me,
I'll to the king my master that is dead,
And tell him who hath sent me after him.
War. Here comes the prince.

Enter King HENRY V.

Ch. Just. Good morrow; and heaven save your majesty !

King. This new and gorgeous garment, majesty, Sits not so easy on me as you think.Brothers, you mix your sadness with some fear; This is the English, not the Turkish court; Not Amurath an Amurath succeeds, But Harry Harry: yet, be sad, good brothers, For, to speak truth, it very well becomes you; Sorrow so royally in you appears, That I will deeply put the fashion on, And wear it in my heart. Why then be sad: But entertain no more of it, good brothers, Than a joint burden laid upon us all. For me, by heaven, I bid you be assured, I'll be your father and your brother too; Let me but bear your love, I'll bear your cares. Yet weep, that Harry's dead; and so will I: But Harry lives, that shall convert those tears, By number, into hours of happiness.

P. John. &c. We hope no other from your majesty.

Emperor of the Turks, died in 1596; his son, which succeeded him, had all his brothers strangled.

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-practised, wise directions.--
And, princes all, believe me, I beseech you;-
My father is 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 flods,
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,)

die, that I might have thee hang'd: thou hast drawn my shoulder out of joint.

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

Dol. Nut-hook, nut-hook, you lie. Come on; I'll tell thee what, thou damn'd tripe-visaged ras cal; an the child I now go with, do miscarry, thou hadst better, thou hadst struck thy mother, thou paper-faced villain.

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!

1 Bead. If it do, you shall have a dozen of cushions again; you have but eleven now. Come, I charge you both go with me; for the man is dead, that you and Pistol beat among you.

Dol. I'll tell thee what, thou thin man in a censer! I will have you as soundly swinged for this, you blue-bottle-rogue! You filthy famish'd correctioner! If you be not swinged, I'll forswear half-kirtles §.

1 Bead. Come, come, you she knight-errant;

Enter Two GROons, strewing Rushes.

1 Groom. More rushes, more rushes. 2 Groom. The trumpets have sounded twice. 1 Groom. It will be two o'clock ere they come from the coronation :-Despatch, despatch. [Exeunt Grooms. Enter FALSTAFF, SHALLOW, PISTOL, BARDOLPH, and the PAGE.

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.-0, if I had had time to have made new liveries, I would have bestow'd the thousand pound I borrow'd of you. [To Shallow.] But 'tis no matter; this poor show doth better: this doth infer the zeal I had to see him.

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 nought but truth.
Fal. I will deliver her.

[Shouts within, and the Trumpets sound. Pist. There roar'd the sea, and trumpet-clangor sounds.

• A term of reproach for a catchpoll.

To stuff her out to counterfeit pregnancy.
Beadles usually wore a blue livery.

Short cloaks.

Tis all in all, and all in every part.

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 t, 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
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:

was:

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 qua
lities,-

Give you advancement.-Be it your charge, my
To see perform'd the tenor of our word.
lord,

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 be seech you, good Sir John, let me have five hun dred 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 at night.

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

soon.

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.

RAMBURES, and GRANDPREE, French Lords. MONTJOY, a French Ambassadors to the King of England.

Herald.

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 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 this wooden O, the very casquest,
That did affright the air at Agincourt?
O, pardon! since a crooked figure may
Attest, in little place, a million;

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

Think, when we talk of horses, that you 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,
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.

ACT I,

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. Twonld 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 promised 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,

Palace.

Enter the Archbishop of CANTERBURY, and Bishop of ELY.

Cant. My lord, I'll tell you, that self bill is urged,

Which, in the eleventh year o' the last king's reign Was like, and had indeed against us pass'd,

An allusion to the circular form of the theatre. + Helmets, Powers of fancy.

List + his discourse of war, and you shall hear
Turn him to any cause of policy,
A fearful battle render'd you in music:

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 honied sentences;
So that the art and practic part of life