To welcome bim? much more, and much more cause, Did they this Harry. Now in London place (As yet the lamentation of the French The interim, by remembering you-'tis past. Guard. Enter FLUELLEN and GoWER. Gote. Nay, that's right; but why wear you your leek to-day? Saint Davy's day is past. Flu. Eat, I pray you: Will you have some inore sauce to your Icek? there is not enough leak to swear by. Pist. Quit thy cudgel; thou dost see 1 eat. Flu. Much goot do you, scald kuave, heartily. Nay, 'pray you, throw none away; the skin is goot for your proken coxcomb. When you take Occasions to see leeks hereafter, I pray you mock at them; that is all. Pist. Good. Flu. Ay, leeks is goot :-Hold you, there is a great to heal your pate. Pist. Me a groat! Pist. Yes, verily, and in truth, you shall take it; or 1 have another leek in my pocket, which you shall eat. Pist. I take thy groat, in earnest of revenge. Flu. If I owe you any thing, I will pay you in cudgels; you shall be a woodmonger, and buy nothing of me but cudgels. God be wi' you, and keep you, and heal your pate. [Exit. Pist. All hell shall stir for this. Gow. Go, go; you are a counterfeit cowardly knave. Will you mock at an ancient tradition, Flu. There is occasions and causes why and begun upon au honourable respect, and worn wherefore in all things: I will tell you, as my as a memorable trophy of predeceased valour,friend, captain Gower; The rascally, scald, beg-and dare not avouch in your deeds any of your garly, lowsy, pragging knave, Pistol, which you words? I have seen you gleeking and galling at and yourself, and all the 'orld, know to be no this gentleman twice or thrice. You thought, petter than a fellow, look you now, of no me because he could not speak English in the na rits, he is come to me, and prings me preadtive garb, he could not therefore handle an Eu and salt yesterday, look you, and bid me eat glish cudgel: you find it otherwise; and hencemy leek it was in a place where I could not forth let a Welsh correction teach you a good breed no contentions with him; but I will be English condition. † Fare ye well. so pold as to wear it in my cap till I see him once again, and then I will tell him a little piece of my desires. Enter PISTOL. Gow. Why, here he comes, swelling like a turkey.cock. Fl. 'Tis no matter for his swellings, nor his turkey-cocks.-Got pless you, ancient Pistol, you scurvey, lowsy knave, Got bless you! Pist. Ha! art thou Bedlam? dost thou thirst, To bave me fold up Parca's fatal web? + Flu. I peseech you heartily, scurvy, lowsy knave, at my desires, and my requests, and my petitions, to eat, look yon, this leek; because, look you, you do not love it, nor your affectious, and your appetites, aud your digestions, does not agree with it, I would desire you to eat it. Pist. Not for Cadwallader, and all his goats. Flu. There is one goat for you. [Strikes him.] Will you be so goot, scald knave, as eat it? Pist Base Trojan, thou shalt die. Flu. You say very true, scald knave, when Got's will is: I will desire you to live in the mean time, and eat your victuals; come, there is sauce for it. [Striking him again.] You called me yesterday, mountain-squire; but I will make you to day a squire of low degree. I pray you fall to; if you can mock a leek, you can eat a leek. Gow. Enough, captain; you have astonished him. Flu. I say, I will make him eat some part of my leek, or I will peat his pate four days:Pite, I pray you; it is goot for your green wound, and your ploody coxcomb. Pist. Must I bite ? Flu. Yes, certainly; and out of doubt, and out of questions too, and ambiguities. Pist. By this leck, I will most horribly revenge; I eat, and eke I swear Henry did not strike a blow in France, for two years after the decisive battle of Agincourt; but imme ately concluded a truce for that period.---Hume. Dost thou desire to have me put thee to death?" [Exit. Pist. Doth fortune play the huswife with News have 1, that my Nell is dead i'the spital § And there my rendezvous is quite cut off. [Exit. SCENE II-Troyes in Champagne.-An A- K. Hen. Peace to this meeting, wherefore we Unto our brother France, and to our sister, Fr. King. Right joyous are we to behold Most worthy brother England; fairly met: Q. Isa. So happy be the issue, brother Erg. land, Of this good day, and of this gracious meeting, bent, The fatal balls of murdering basilisks: vours, To bring your most imperial majesties And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps, Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart, Losing both beauty and utility. And as our vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges, Defective in their natures, grow to wildness; Even so our houses, and ourselves, and children, Have lost, or do not learn, for want of time, K. Hen. If, duke of Burgundy, you would the peace, You have, enschedul'd briefly, in your hands. K. Hen. Well then, the peace, ter, And take with you free power, to ratify, Haply a woman's voice may do some good, She is our capital demand, compris'd [Exeunt all but HENRY, KATHARINE, and her Gentlen oman. K. Hen. Fair Katharine, and most fair! Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms Such as will enter at a lady's ear, And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart? Kath. Your majesty shall mock at me; I can. not speak your England. K. Hen. O fair Katharine, if you will love me soundly with your French heart, I will be glad to hear you confess it brokenly with your English tongue. Do you like me, Kate ? Kath. Pardonnez moy, I cannot tell vat islike me. K. Hen. An angel is like you, Kate; and you are like an angel. Kath. Que dit-il? que jesuis semblable à les anges? Alice. Ouy, vrayment, (sauf vostre grace) ainsi dit il. K. Hen. I said so, dear Katharine; and must not blush to affirm it. Kath. O bon Dieu! les langues des hommes sont pleines des tromperies. K Hen. What says she, fair one? that the longues of men are full of deceits! Alice. Ouy; dat de tongues of de mans is be full of deceits: dat is de princess. K. Hen. The princess is the better English. woman. I'faith, Kate, my wooing is fit for thy understanding: 1 am glad thou can'st speak no better English; for, if thou could'st, thou would'st find me such a plain king, that thou would'st think I had sold my farm to buy my I know no ways to mince it in love, but directly to say-I love you: then, if you urge me further than to say-Do you in faith! I wear out my suit. Give me your answer; i'faith, do; and so clap hands and a bargain: How say you, lady? Kath. Sauf vostre honneur, me understand crown. well. K. Hen. Marry, if you would put me to verses, or to dance for your sake, Kate, why you undid me: for the one, I have neither words nor measure; and for the other, I have no strength in measure, yet a reasonable measure in strength. If I could win a lady at leapfrog, or by vaulting into my saddle with my armour on my back, under the correction of bragging be it spoken, I should quickly leap into a wife. Or, if I might buffet for any love, or bound my horse for her favours, I could lay on like a butcher, and sit like a jack-an-apes, never off but, before God, I cannot look greenly, nor gasp out my eloquence, nor I have uo cunning in protestation; only downright oaths, which I never use till urged, nor never break for urging. If thou canst love a fellow of this temper, Kate, whose face is not worth sun-burning, that never looks in his glass for And brother Clarence, and you, brother Glos-love of any thing he sees there, let thine eye be ter, thy cook. I speak to thee plain soldier: If thou canst love ine for this, take me if not, to say to thee, that I shall die, is true; but for thy love, by the Lord, no; yet I love thee too. Scene 11. And while thou livest, dear Kate, take a fellow | By mine honour in true English, I love thee, K. Hen. No; it is not possible you should K. Hen. No, Kate? I will tell thee in French; K. Hen. No, 'faith, 'tls not, Kate: but thy K. Hen. Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate? I'll ask them. Come, I know, thou lovest me: and at night, when you come into your closet, you'll question this gentlewoman about me; and I know, Kate, you will, to her, dispraise those parts in me, that you love with your heart: but, good Kate, mock me mercifully; the rather, gentle princess, because I love thee cruelly. If ever thou be'st mine, Kate, (as I have a saving faith within me, tells me thou shalt,) I get thee with scambling, and thou must therefore needs prove a good soldier-breeder: Shall not thou and I, between Saint Dennis and Saint George, compound a boy, half French, half English, that whall go to Constantinople, and take the Turkt by the beard ? shall we not? what sayest thou, may fair flower-de-luce? Kath. I do not know dat. K. Hen. No; 'tis hereafter to know, but now to promise: do but now promise, Kate, you will endeavour for your French part of such a boy; and, for my English moiety, take the word of a king and a bachelor. you, la plus belle Katharine du monde mon Kath. Your majesté 'ave fausse French -enough to deceive de most suge demoiselle dat is en France. K. Hen. Now, fie upon my false French! He means, resembling a plain piece of metal which place in 1453. K. Hen. O Kate, nice customs curt'sy to great kings. Dear Kate, you and I cannot be confined within the weak list of a country's fashion: we are the makers of manners, Kate; and the liberty that follows our places, stops the mouths of all find-faults; as I will do your's, for upholding the nice fashion of your country, in denying me a kiss: therefore, patiently, and yielding. [Kissing her.] You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate: there is more eloquence in a sugar touch of them, than in the tongues of the French Council; and they should sooner persuade Harry of England, than a general petition of monarchs. Here comes your father. Enter the FRENCH KING and QUEEN, BURGUNDY, BEDFORD, GLOSTER, EXETER, WESTMORELAND, and other French and English Lords. Bur. God save your majesty ! my royal cousin, teach you our princess English? K. Hen. I would have her learn, my fair cousin, how perfectly I love her; and that is good English, K. Hen. Our tongue is rough, coz; and my condition is not smooth: so that, having neither the voice nor the heart of Hattery about me, I cannot so conjure up the spirit of love in her, that he will appear in his true likeness. Bur. Pardon the frankness of my mirth, if I answer you for that. If you would conjure in her you must make a circle: if conjure up love in her in his true likeness, he must appear naked and blind: Can you blame her then, being a maid yet rosed over with the virgin crimson of modesty, if she deny the appearance of a naked blind boy in her naked seeing self? It were, my lord, a hard condition for a maid to consign to. K. Hen. Yet they do wink and yield; as love! is blind, and enforces. Bur. They are then excused, my lord, when they see not what they do. K. Hen. Then, good my lord, teach your cousin to consent to winking. K. Hen: 4 pray you then, in love and dea alliance, Let that one article rank with the rest: Issue to me: that the contending kingdoms All. Amen! K. Hen. Now welcome, Kate :-and bear me witness all, That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen. [Flourish. Q. Isa. God, the best maker of all marrisges, Combine your bearts in one, your realms in one! Bur. I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you will teach her to know my meaning: for maids, well summered and warm kept, are like flies at Bartholomew-tide, blind, though they As man and wife, being two, are one in love, have their eyes; and then they will endure So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal, handling, which before would not abide look-That never may ill office, or fell jealousy, ing on. Which troubles oft the bed of blessed mar• riage, K. Hen. This moral ties me over to time, and a hot summer; and so I will catch the fly, your cousin, in the latter end, and she must be blind too. Bur. As love is, my lord, before it loves. K. Hen. It is so: and you may, some of you, thank love for my blindness; who cannot see many a fair French city, for one fair French maid that stands in my way. Fr. King. Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, the cities turned into a maid; for they are all girdled with maiden walls, that war bath never entered. K. Hen. Shall Kate be my wife? K. Hen. I am content; so the maiden cities you talk of, may wait on her so the maid, that stood in the way of my wish, shail show me the way to my will. Fr. King. We have consented to all terms of reason. K. Hen. Is't so, my lords of England? West. The king hath granted every article: His daughter, first; and then, in sequel all, According to their firm proposed natures. Exc. Only, he hath not yet subscribed this :Where your majesty demands,-That the king of France, having any occasion to write for matter of grant, shall uame your highness in this form, and with this addition, in French, Notre tres cher filz Henry roy d'Angleterre, heretier de France; and thus in Latin,-Praclarissimus filius noster Henricus, rex Anglia, et hæres Francie. Fr. King. Nor this I have not, brother, so denied, But your request shall make me let it pass. • Temper. Thus far, with rough, and all unable pen, Mangling by starts the full course of their glory. bv'd Small time, but in that small, most greatly That they lost France, and made his England bleed : Which oft our stage hath shown; and, for their sake, In your fair minds let this acceptance take. [Exit. I. e. Unequal to the weight of the subject. ↑ Proper FIRST PART OF KING HENRY VI. LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTICE. MALONE supposes this portion of Henry VI. to have been written in 1589; but doubts, with Theobald, whether the three plays comprised under the title of Henry VI. were actually composed by Shakspeare. Dr. Johnson however maintains, that they exhibit “no marks of spuriousness," and that they " are declared to be genuine by the voice of Shakspeare himself. The transactions of the piece are scattered through a period of thirty years, and introduced with little regard to historical accuracy. Lord Talbot who is killed at the end of the fourth act, did not in reality fall until July 18, 1453; and the second part of Henry VI. opens with the king marriage, which was solemnized in the year 1445, or eight years before Talbot's death. In the same part, Dame Eleanor Cobham is introduced to insult Queen Margaret; though her penance and banishment for sorcery happened three years before that princess arrived in England. ------ These deviations from the page of history are of little consequence to the mere lover of dramatic literature, as they neither weaken the gratification, nor diminish the effect of the scenic narrative. Poetry appeals to the passions, and imagination, like a true magician, lends her most powerful spells to excite or subdue them. But there are many to whom the great events of history are known only through the fascinating medium of a play or a romance; and it is fre quently difficult, if not disagreeable to efface, in after life, the distorted impressions which they leave upon the memory. When viewed in the sober simplicity of historic truth, a favourite hero often loses much of his glitter, and a detested villain some portion of his turpitude. It is therefore of no little consequence to examine the materials of a dramatic fabric, to separate truth from fiction, and to shew" the age and body of the time, his form and pressure:" because, in lauding the productions of Shakspeare (particularly those historical pieces upon which he exercised such masterly talents,) it has been the fashion to represent them not only as morally entertaining, but also as politically instructive; an attribute with which, examination shows, it is dangerous to invest them. LORD TALBOT, afterwards Earl of Shrews- MARGARET, Daughter_to_Reignier; after. wards married to King Henry. JOAN LA PUCELLE, commonly called Joan of SIR WILLIAM GLANSDALE. SIR THOMAS GAR-Fiends appearing to La Pucelle, Lords, GRAVE. MAYOR OF LONDON. WOODVILLE, Lieutenant of the Tower. Warders of the Tower, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and several Attend ants both on the English and French. SCENE, partly in England, and partly in France. ACT I. SCENE I-Westminster Abbey. Dead march. Corpse of King HENRY the Fifth discovered, lying in state; attended on by the Dukes of BEDFORD, GLOSTER, and EXETER; the Earl of WARWICK, the Bishop of WINCHESTER, Heralds, &c. Bed. Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night! |