For a Mule of fire, that would afcend The brightest beaven of invention,
A kingdom for a ftage, Princes to act, And Monarchs to behold the fuelling Scene! Then fhould the warlike Harry, like bimself, Affume the port of Mars, and at his heels, Leafbt in like bounds, fhould famine, fword and fire Crouch for employments. Pardon, gentles all, The flat unraifed fpirit that bath dar'd On this unworthy Scaffold to bring forth So great an object. Can this Cock-pit bold The vafty field of France? or may we cram Within this wooden O, the very cafkes 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 confin'd two mighty monarchies ; Whofe bigh up-reared, and abutting fronts The perilous narrow ocean parts afunder. Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts: Into a thousand parts divide one man, And make imaginary puissance:
Think, when we talk of borfes, that you fee them Printing their proud boofs i' th' receiving earth. For 'tis your thoughts that now muft deck our Kings Carry them bere and there, jumping o'er times, Turning th' accomplishment of many years Into an hour-glafs; for the which fupply, Admit me Chorus to this hiftory; Who, prologue-like, your humble patience pray, Gently to bear, kindly to judge, our Play.
Duke of GLOUCESTER, Duke of BEDFORD, Duke of CLARENCE, Duke of YORK,
Duke of EXETER, Uncles to the King.
Earl of SALISBURY.
Earl of WESTMORLAND.
Earl of WARWICK.
Arch-Bishop of CANTERBURY. Bishop of ELY.
Earl of CAMBRIDGE,
Lord SCROOP of Mafham, Confpirators against the King.
GOWER,
FLUELLEN,
MACKMORRIS,
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.
Conftable, Orleans, Rambures, Bourbon, Grandpree, French
Governor of Harfleur.
MOUNTJOY, a Herald.
AMBASSADORS to the King of England.
ISABEL, Queen of France.
CATHARINE, Daughter to the King of France.
ALICE, a Lady attending on the Princess Catharine. Hoftefs QUICKLY, Piftol's Wife..
Lords, Meffengers, French and English Soldiers, with other Attendants.
The Scene at the beginning of the Play lyes in England, but afterwards wholly in France.
ACT I. SCENE I. An Antichamber in the English Court.
Enter the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, and Bishop of Ely. Y Lord, I'll tell you, that self bill is urg'd, Which in th' eleventh year o' th' laft King's reign
Was like, and had indeed gainst us paft, But that the fcambling and unquiet time Did push it out of farther queftion.
Ely. But how, my Lord, shall we refift it now? Cant. It must be thought on: if it pass against us,
We lose the better half of our poffeffions: 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,
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 Q. Elizabeth; and not till after Henry the Sixth had been play'd, as may be feen by the conclufion of this Play.
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 alms-houses, right well fupply'd; 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 courfes 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 celestial spirits.
Never was fuch a sudden scholar made:
Never came reformation in a flood
With fuch a heady current, fcow'ring faults: Nor ever Hydra-headed wilfulness
So foon did lofe his feat, and fall at once, As in this King.
Ely. We're bleffed in the change.
Cant. Hear him but reason in divinity, And all-admiring with an inward wish
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 battel render'd you in musick. Turn him to any cause of policy, The Gordian knot of it he will unloofe Familiar as his garter. When he speaks, The air, a charter'd libertine, is ftill, And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears, To fteal his sweet and honied fentences:
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