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[Dramatis Personae
chorus
king henry the fifth
humphrey, duke of gloucester,
john, duke of bedford, the King's brothers
duke of clarence,
duke of exeter, the King's uncle
duke of york, the King's cousin
earl of salisbury
earl of westmorland
earl of warwick
earl of huntingdon
archbishop of canterbury
bishop of ely
richard, earl of cambridge, conspirators
henry, lord scroop of masham, against the King
sir thomas grey,
sir thomas erpingham,
captain gower,
captain fluellen, officers in the King's army
captain macmorris,
captain jamy,
john bates,
alexander court, soldiers in the King's army
michael williams,
An English herald
pistol,
nym, Falstaff's former tavern-mates
bardolph,
boy, formerly Falstaff's page
hostess, formerly Mistress Quickly, now married to Pistol
duke of burgundy
french king, Charles the Sixth
queen isabel of France
dauphin, Lewis
katharine, Princess of France
alice, a lady attending Katharine
duke of orleans
duke of berri
duke of bourbon
duke of brittany
constable of france
lord rambures
lord grandpre
governor of harfleur
monsieur le fer, a French soldier
montjoy, the French herald
French ambassadors to England
Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Citizens, Messengers, and Attendants
scene: England, afterwards France]
Prologue
1 Muse of fire (Of the four elements—earth, air, fire, and water—fire is the most sublime and mounting.)
2 invention poetic imagination.
4 swelling splendid, magnificent
5 like himself i.e., presented in a fashion worthy of so great a king
6 port bearing
8 gentles gentlemen and gentlewomen
9 flat unraised uninspired, lifeless. spirits i.e., actors and playwright. hath (Elizabethan usage often pairs a plural subject with a singular verb.)
10 scaffold stage
11 cockpit (Elizabethan theaters were shaped rather like arenas for animal fighting.)
12 vasty vast, spacious
13 O (Refers to a round theater such as the Globe; the play may have been performed at the Curtain Theater.) casques helmets
15 crooked figure cipher or zero (which, added to a number, will multiply its value tenfold)
16 Attest stand for
17 account (1) sum total (continuing the metaphor of crooked figure) (2) story
18 imaginary forces forces of imagination
21 abutting touching, bordering. fronts (1) frontiers, i.e., the cliffs of Dover and Calais (2) foreheads
22 perilous . . . ocean i.e., English Channel
25 puissance armed might, army.
28 deck dress, adorn
Prologue A Enter [Chorus as] Prologue.
chorus
Oh, for a Muse of fire, that would ascend 1
The brightest heaven of invention! 2
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene! 4
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, 5
Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels, 6
Leashed in like hounds, should famine, sword, and
fire
Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all, 8
The flat unraised spirits that hath dared 9
On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth 10
So great an object. Can this cockpit hold 11
The vasty fields of France? Or may we cram 12
Within this wooden O the very casques 13
That did affright the air at Agincourt?
Oh, pardon! Since a crooked figure may 15
Attest in little place a million; 16
And let us, ciphers to this great account, 17
On your imaginary forces work. 18
Suppose within the girdle of these walls
Are now confined two mighty monarchies,
Whose high upreared and abutting fronts 21
The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder. 22
Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts:
Into a thousand parts divide one man,
And make imaginary puissance. 25
Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them
Printing their proud hoofs i'th' receiving earth.
For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings, 28
31 the which supply which service
1.1 Location: England. The royal court.
1 self same
3 like likely (to have passed)
4 scambling unsettled
5 question consideration.
9 temporal used for secular purposes
14 esquires members of the gentry, ranking just below knights
15 lazars lepers
16 corporal physical
Carry them here and there, jumping o'er times,
Turning th'accomplishment of many years
Into an hourglass—for the which supply, 31
Admit me Chorus to this history,
Who, Prologue-like, your humble patience pray
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play. Exit.
1.1 * Enter the two bishops, [the Archbishop] of Canterbury and [the Bishop of] Ely.
canterbury
My lord, I'll tell you. That self bill is urged 1
Which in th'eleventh year of the last king's reign
Was like, and had indeed against us passed, 3
But that the scambling and unquiet time 4
Did push it out of farther question. 5
ely
But how, my lord, shall we resist it now?
canterbury
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 9
By testament have given to the Church
Would they strip from us, being valued thus:
As much as would maintain, to the King's honor,
Full fifteen earls and fifteen hundred knights,
Six thousand and two hundred good esquires, 14
And, to relief of lazars and weak age 15
Of indigent faint souls past corporal toil, 16
A hundred almshouses right well supplied;
And to the coffers of the King beside
A thousand pounds by th' year. Thus runs the bill.
ely This would drink deep.
canterbury 'Twould drink the cup and all.
ely But what prevention?
27 mortified killed
29 Consideration meditation, reflection
30 offending Adam original sin
35 heady currance headlong current
36 Hydra-headed i.e., many-headed. (Alludes to the Lernaean Hydra, a monster of many heads overcome by Hercules.)
37 his seat its throne
44 List Listen to
45 rendered . . . music i.e., eloquently narrated.
46 cause of policy matter of statecraft
47 Gordian knot i.e., great difficulty resolved forcefully. (It was foretold that whoever should untie the Gordian knot would rule Asia. Alexander solved the problem by cutting the knot.)
48 Familiar as offhandedly or routinely. that so that
49 chartered libertine free spirit, licensed to roam at will
50-1 the mute . . . sentences i.e., wonder makes men silent, eagerly listening to hear more of his sweetly profitable wise sayings
canterbury
The King is full of grace and fair regard.
ely
And a true lover of the holy Church.
canterbury
The courses of his youth promised it not.
The breath no sooner left his father's body
But that his wildness, mortified in him, 27
Seemed to die too; yea, at that very moment
Consideration like an angel came 29
And whipped th'offending Adam out of him, 30
Leaving his body as a paradise
T'envelop and contain celestial spirits.
Never was such a sudden scholar made;
Never came reformation in a flood
With such a heady currance, scouring faults; 35
Nor never Hydra-headed willfulness 36
So soon did lose his seat, and all at once, 37
As in this king.
ely We are blessed in the change.
canterbury
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,
You would say it hath been all in all his study.
List his discourse of war, and you shall hear 44
A fearful battle rendered you in music. 45
Turn him to any cause of policy, 46
The Gordian knot of it he will unloose, 47
Familiar as his garter, that, when he speaks, 48
The air, a chartered libertine, is still, 49
And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears 50
To steal his sweet and honeyed sentences; 51
52-3 So . . . theoric so that experience in practical life must have been the teacher by which he acquired his theoretical conception.
55 addiction inclination
56 companies companions. rude coarse
57 riots reveling. sports amusements
60 open . . . popularity places of public resort and low company.
67 crescive . . . faculty naturally inclined to grow.
68 miracles are ceased (Protestants generally believed that no miracles occurred after the revelation of Christ.)
69 means i.e., natural causes
73 indifferent impartial
75 exhibiters those who introduce bills in Parliament
77 Upon on behalf of. convocation formal assembly of the clergy
78 in hand under consideration
79 opened expounded. at large in full
82 withal with.
So that the art and practic part of life 52
Must be the mistress to this theoric. 53
Which is a wonder how His Grace should glean it,
Since his addiction was to courses vain, 55
His companies unlettered, rude, and shallow, 56
His hours filled up with riots, banquets, sports, 57
And never noted in him any study,
Any retirement, any sequestration
From open haunts and popularity. 60
ely
The strawberry grows underneath the nettle,
And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best
Neighbored by fruit of baser quality;
And so the Prince obscured his contemplation
Under the veil of wildness, which, no doubt,
Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night,
Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty. 67
canterbury
It must be so, for miracles are ceased. 68
And therefore we must needs admit the means 69
How things are perfected.
ely But, my good lord,
How now for mitigation of this bill
Urged by the Commons? Doth His Majesty
Incline to it, or no?
canterbury He seems indifferent, 73
Or rather swaying more upon our part
Than cherishing th'exhibiters against us; 75
For I have made an offer to His Majesty,
Upon our spiritual convocation 77
And in regard of causes now in hand, 78
Which I have opened to His Grace at large, 79
As touching France, to give a greater sum
Than ever at one time the clergy yet
Did to his predecessors part withal. 82
86 fain gladly
87 severals details. unhidden passages clear lines of descent
89 seat throne
90 Edward Edward III
96 embassy message
1.2 Location: England. The royal court.
ely
How did this offer seem received, my lord?
canterbury
With good acceptance of His Majesty,
Save that there was not time enough to hear,
As I perceived His Grace would fain have done, 86
The severals and unhidden passages 87
Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms,
And generally to the crown and seat of France, 89
Derived from Edward, his great-grandfather. 90
ely
What was th'impediment that broke this off?
canterbury
The French ambassador upon that instant
Craved audience; and the hour I think is come
To give him hearing. Is it four o'clock?
ely It is.
canterbury
Then go we in to know his embassy, 96
Which I could with a ready guess declare
Before the Frenchman speak a word of it.
ely
I'll wait upon you, and I long to hear it. Exeunt.
[1.2] * Enter the King, Humphrey [Duke of Gloucester], Bedford, Clarence, Warwick, Westmorland, and Exeter [with attendants].
king
Where is my gracious lord of Canterbury?
exeter
Not here in presence.
King Send for him, good uncle.
4 cousin (A form of address customarily used by royalty in addressing their nobles. In this case, Westmorland is in fact related to the King by marriage.) be resolved come to a decision
6 task engage, occupy
8 become adorn, grace
11 Salic (See explanation at lines 39-45.)
12 Or either
15 nicely charge subtly and foolishly burden
16 opening titles miscreate expounding spurious claims
17 Suits . . . colors i.e., does not naturally harmonize
19 approbation support, proof
20 your reverence (1) an honorific title for an archbishop, Your Reverence (2) your sacred authority
21 impawn put under an obligation
26 woe grievance. sore severe, grievous
27 wrongs wrongdoings
28 in brief mortality i.e., among mortal, short-lived men.
29 conjuration solemn adjuration
westmorland
Shall we call in th'ambassador, my liege?
king
Not yet, my cousin. We would be resolved, 4
Before we hear him, of some things of weight
That task our thoughts, concerning us and France. 6
Enter two bishops, [the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely].
canterbury
God and his angels guard your sacred throne,
And make you long become it!
king Sure we thank you. 8
My learned lord, we pray you to proceed,
And justly and religiously unfold
Why the law Salic that they have in France 11
Or should or should not bar us in our claim. 12
And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,
That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading,
Or nicely charge your understanding soul 15
With opening titles miscreate, whose right 16
Suits not in native colors with the truth; 17
For God doth know how many now in health
Shall drop their blood in approbation 19
Of what your reverence shall incite us to. 20
Therefore take heed how you impawn our person, 21
How you awake our sleeping sword of war.
We charge you in the name of God take heed;
For never two such kingdoms did contend
Without much fall of blood, whose guiltless drops
Are every one a woe, a sore complaint 26
'Gainst him whose wrongs gives edge unto the
swords 27
That makes such waste in brief mortality. 28
Under this conjuration speak, my lord; 29
For we will hear, note, and believe in heart
37 Pharamond legendary Frankish king
40 gloze gloss
45 floods rivers
46 Charles the Great Charlemagne
49 dishonest unchaste
58 defunction death
59 Idly foolishly
65 which who. (As also in line 67.)
That what you speak is in your conscience washed
As pure as sin with baptism.
canterbury
Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers,
That owe yourselves, your lives, and services
To this imperial throne. There is no bar
To make against Your Highness' claim to France
But this, which they produce from Pharamond: 37
"In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant,"
"No woman shall succeed in Salic land."
Which Salic land the French unjustly gloze 40
To be the realm of France, and Pharamond
The founder of this law and female bar.
Yet their own authors faithfully affirm
That the land Salic is in Germany,
Between the floods of Saale and of Elbe; 45
Where, Charles the Great having subdued the Saxons, 46
There left behind and settled certain French,
Who, holding in disdain the German women
For some dishonest manners of their life, 49
Established then this law: to wit, no female
Should be inheritrix in Salic land—
Which Salic, as I said, twixt Elbe and Saale,
Is at this day in Germany called Meissen.
Then doth it well appear the Salic law
Was not devised for the realm of France;
Nor did the French possess the Salic land
Until four hundred one-and-twenty years
After defunction of King Pharamond, 58
Idly supposed the founder of this law, 59
Who died within the year of our redemption
Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the Great
Subdued the Saxons, and did seat the French
Beyond the River Saale, in the year
Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say,
King Pepin, which deposed Childeric, 65
66 heir general heir through male or female line
72 find provide
74 Conveyed himself passed himself off
75 Charlemagne (Holinshed's and Hall's error, followed by Shakespeare, for Charles the Bald or Charles II, emperor of the West; Luitgard [Shakespeare's Lingard] became Charlemagne's wife after the death of Fastrada in 794.)
