Earl of Salisbury.
Earl of Westmorland.
Earl of Warwick.
Archbishop of Canterbury.
Bishop of Ely.
Earl of Cambridge,
Lord Scroop,
Sir Thomas Grey,
Confpirators against the King
Sir Thomas Erpinham, Gower, Fluellen, Mackmorris Jamy,
Officers in King Henry's army.
Nym, Bardolph, Piftol, Boy, formerly Servants to Falstaff
now Soldiers in the Kings army.
Bates, Court, Williams, Soldiers.
Charles King of France.
The Dauphin,
Duke of Burgundy.
Constable, Orleans, Rambures, Bourbon, Grandpree, French
Governor of Harfleur,
Mountjoy, a Herald.
Ambafadors 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.
Lords, Meffengers, French and English Soldiers, with other
The SCENE, at the beginning of the Play, lyes
in England; but afterwards, wholly in France
OFOR a mufe of fire, that would afcend (1)
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,
Affume the port of Mars; and, at his heels,
(Leafh'd in, like hounds,) fhould famine, fword and
fire
Crouch for employment. Pardon, gentles all,
The flat unraised spirit, that hath dared,
On this unworthy fcaffold, to bring forth
So great an object. Can this cock-pit hold
The vafty field of France? or may we cram,
Within this wooden O, the very cafques
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,
On your imaginary forces work.
Suppofe, within the girdle of thefe walls
Are now confined two mighty monarchies;
Whofe high-up-reared and abutting fronts
The perilous narrow ocean parts afunder:
Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts:
(3) for a mufe of fire,] Milton, who was a zealous ad mirer, and ftudious imitator of our Author, feems to have had the fine opening of this prologue in his eye, when he began the 4th book of his Paradife Loft:
O for that warning voice, which he, who faw
The Apocalyps, heard cry in Heaven aloud,
Then, when the Dragon, put to fecond rout,
Came furious down to be revenged on men,
Woe to the inhabitants on earth!
Into a thousand parts divide one man,
And make imaginary puiffance:
Think, when we talk of hories, 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 the accomplishment of many years
Into an hour-glafs; for the which supply,
Admit me Chorus to this hiftory;
Who, prologue-like, your humble patience pray,
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.
SCENE, An anti-chamber in the English Court, at Kenilworth..
Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of
Archbishop of CANTERBURY.
Y Lord, I'll tell you; that felf bill is urged
Which, in th' eleventh year of the laftKing's
reign
Was like, and had, indeed, against us past,.
But that the fcambling and unquiet time
Did push it out of farther queftion.
Ely. But how, my Lord, fhall we refift it now?
Cant. It must be thought on: if it pass 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 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 Efquires;
(2) The Life of King Henry] The tranfactions, comprized in this hiftorical play, commence about the latter end of the firft, and terminate in the 8th year of this King's reign, when he married Catharine Princefs of France, and closed up the differences betwixt England and that crown.
And to relief of lazars, and weak
Of indigent faint fouls, past corporal toil,
A hundred alms-houfes, right well supplied;
And to the coffers of the King, befide,
A thousand pounds by th' 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 courfe of his youth promised it not.
The breath no fooner left his father's body,
But that his wildness, mortified in him,
Seemed 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 spirits.
Never was fuch a fudden scholar made :,,
Never came reformation in a flood,
With fuch a heády. current fcow'ring faults;
Nor ever Hydra-headed wilfulness
So foon did lofe his feat, and all at once,
As in this King.
Ely. We're blessed in the change.
Cant. Hear him but reafon in divinity,
And, all admiring, with an inward with
You would defire the King were made a prelate:
Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,
You'd fay, it hath been all in all his study.
Lift his difcourfe of war, and you shall hear
A fearful battle render'd you in mufic.
Turn him to any caufe of policy,.
The Gordian knot of it he will unloofe,
Familiar as his garter. When he speaks,
The air, a chartered libertine, is still;
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