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For, by my faith, it very well becomes you: 50
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'L 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.

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Princes. We hope no other from your majesty.

King. You all look strangely on me : and you most;

You are, I think, assured I love you not.

Ch. Just. I am assured, if I be measured rightly,

Your majesty hath no just cause to hate me.
King. No!

How 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. Just. 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

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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,
To trip the course of law and blunt the sword
That guards the peace and safety of your per-

son;

Nay, more, to spurn at your most royal image And mock your workings in a second body. 90 Question your royal thoughts, make the case yours;

Be now the father and propose a son,
ilear 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,
fy person, or my liege's sovereignty.

101

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

herefore still bear the balance and the sword:

and I do wish your honors may increase,

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And I will stoop and humble my intents 120
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 floods
And flow henceforth in formal majesty.
Now call we our high court of parliament:
And let us choose such limbs of noble coun-
sel,

130

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.

140

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

Shal. Nay, you shall see my orchard, where, in an arbor, we will eat a last year's pippin of my own graffing, with a dish of caraways, 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. 10

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Fal. Sil.

[Singing.
And drink unto the leman mine;
And a merry heart lives long-a. 50
Well said, Master Silence.

An we shall be merry, now comes in the sweet o' the night.

Ful. Health and long life to you, Master Silence.

Sil. Fill the cup, and let it come ; [Singing. 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 cavaleros 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, ha! will you not, Master Bardolph ? Bard. Yea, sir, in a pottle-pot.

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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
Ful. I pray thee now, deliver them like a
man of this world.

101 Pist. A foutre for the world and worldling base!

I speak of Africa and golden joys. Fal. O base Assyrian knight, what is thy news?

Let King Cophetua know the truth thereof. Sil. And Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John.

Pist.

[Singing Shall dunghill curs confront th Helicons?

And shall good news be baffled ?
Then, Pistol, lay thy head in Furies' lap. 1
Sil. Honest gentleman, I know not you
breeding.

Pist. Why then, lament therefore.

Shal. Give me pardon, sir: if, sir, vo come with news from the court, I take || there's but two ways, either to utter them, to conceal them. I am, sir, under the king, some authority.

Pist. Under which king, Besonian? speal or die.

Shal. Under King Harry.
Pist.

Harry the Fourth ? or Fifth Shal. Harry the Fourth.

Pist.
A foutre for thine office !
Sir John, thy tender lambkin now is king

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Pist. What! I do bring good news.

Fal. Carry Master Silence to bed. Master Shallow, my Lord Shallow,-be what thou wit; I am fortune's steward-get on thy boots: we'll ride all night. O sweet Pistol ! Away, Bardolph! [Exit Bard.] Come, Pistol, utter more to me; and withai 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. Blessed are they that 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! [Exeunt.

SCENE IV. London. A street.

Enter Beadles, dragging in HOSTESS QUICKLY and DOLL TEARSHEET.

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

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

Dol. Nut-hook, nut-hook, you lie. Come on; I'll tell thee what, thou damned tripevisaged rascal, an the child I now go with do misarry, thou wert better thou hadst struck thy mother, thou paper-faced villain.

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

First 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 an is dead that you and Pistol beat amongst

oa.

Dol. I'll tell you what, you thin man in a enser, I will have you as soundly swinged for is,-you blue-bottle rogue, you filthy famshed correctioner, if you be not swinged, I'll orswear half-kirtles.

First Bead. Come, come, you she knighterrant, come.

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SCENE V. A public place near Westminster Abbey.

Enter two Grooms, strewing rushes. First Groom. More rushes, more rushes. Sec. Groom. The trumpets have sounded twice.

First Groom. "Twill be two o'clock ere they come from the coronation: dispatch, dispatch. [Exeunt.

Enter FALSTAFF, SHALLOW, PISTOL, BARDOLPH, and 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. 9 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. But 'tis no matter; this poor show doth better: this doth infer the zeal

had to see him.

Shal. It doth so.

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

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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 awaked, 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 God doth know, so shall the world per-

ceive,

'That I have turn'd away my former self;

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70

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 strengths and qual-
ities,
[my ford,
Give you advancement. Be it your charge,
To see perform'd the tenor of our word.
Set on.
[Exeunt King, &c.
Fal. Master Shallow, I owe you a thousand
pound.

Shal. Yea, marry, Sir John; which I beseech you to let me have home with me. 80

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 advancements; I will be the man yet that shall make you great.

Shal. I cannot well perceive how, unless you should 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 color.

91

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

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

Re-enter PRINCE JOHN, the LORD CHIEFJUSTICE; Officers with them.

Ch. Just. Go, carry Sir John Falstaff to the Fleet:

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We bear our civil swords and native fire
As far as France: I heard a bird so sing,
Whose music, to my thinking, pleased 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 courtesy, 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 bet ter. I meant 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: hate 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 woul I. All the gentlewomen here have forgives me: if the gentlemen will not, then the gentle men do not agree with the gentlewomen, which was never seen before in such an assembly.

One word more, I beseech you. If yon 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 thing I know, Fastaff shall die of a sweat, unless already a' be killed with your hard opinions; for Oldcaste died a martyr, and this is not the man. tongue is weary; when my legs are too, I wa bid you good night: and so kneel down before you; but, indeed, to pray for the queen.

My

KING HENRY V.

WRITTEN ABOUT 1599.)

INTRODUCTION.

This play is not mentioned by Meres, and the reference in the chorus of Act V. to Essex in Ireland, and in the Prologue to "this wooden O," i.e. the Globe Theatre, built in 1599, make it probable that 1550 was the date of its production. A pirated imperfect quarto appeared in the following year. In this play Shakespeare bade farewell in trumpet tones to the history of England. It was a fitting climax to the great series of works which told of the sorrow and the glory of his country, embodyg as it did the purest patriotism of the days of Elizabeth. And as the noblest glories of England represented in this play, so it presents Shakespeare's ideal of active, practical, heroic manhood. Hamlet exhibits the dangers and weakness of the contemplative nature, and Prospero, its cala and its conquest, Henry exhibits the utmost greatness which the active nature can attain. He s not an astute politician like his father; having put every thing upon a sound substantial basis he ced not strain anxious eyes of foresight to discern and provide for contingencies arising out of coubtful deeds; for all that naturally comes within its range he has an unerring eye. A devotion to great objects outside of self fills him with a force of glorious enthusiasm. Hence his religious rit and his humility or modesty-he feels that the strength he wields comes not from any clever sposition of forces due to his own prudence, but streams into him and through him from his ple, his country, his cause, his God. He can be terrible to traitors, and his sternness is without Touch of personal revenge. In the midst of danger he can feel so free from petty heart-eating cares to enjoy a piece of honest, soldierly mirth. His wooing is as plain, frank, and true as are his acts piety. He unites around himself in loyal service, the jarring nationalities of his father's timenglishmen, Scotchicen, Welshmen, Irishmen, all are at Henry's side at Agincourt. Having preented his ideal of English kinghood, Shakespeare could turn aside from history. In this play no aracter except Henry greatly interested Shakespeare, unless it be the Welsh Fluellen, whom he res (as Scott loved the Baron of Bradwardine) for his real simplicity underlying his apparatus of xarning, and his touching faith in the theory of warfare.

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The Constable of France.

RAMBURES and GRANDPRE, French Lords.
Governor of Harfleur.

MONTJOY, a French Herald.

Ambassadors to the King of England.

ISABEL, Queen of France.

KATHARINE, daughter to Charles and Isabel
ALICE, a lady attending on her.

Hostess of a tavern in Eastcheap, formerly
Mistress Quickly, and now married to
Pistol.

Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Citizens, Mes-
sengers, and Attendants.
Chorus.

SCENE: England; afterwards France.

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