Part 2
_Amb._ Thus, then, in few.[15] Your highness, lately sending into France, Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right Of your great predecessor, King Edward the Third. In answer of which claim, the prince our master Says,--that you savour too much of your youth; And bids you be advis'd, there's nought in France That can be with a nimble galliard won;[16] You cannot revel into dukedoms there. He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit, This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this, Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.
_K. Hen._ What treasure, uncle?
_Exe._ (_Opening the chest._)
Tennis-balls, my liege.(H)
_K. Hen._ We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us; His present and your pains we thank you for: When we have match'd our rackets to these balls, We will, in France, by Heaven's grace, play a set Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard. And we understand him well, How he comes o'er us with our wilder days, Not measuring what use we made of them. But tell the Dauphin,--I will keep my state; Be like a king, and show my soul of greatness, When I do rouse me in my throne of France: For I will rise there with so full a glory, That I will dazzle all the eyes of France, Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us. But this lies all within the will of Heaven, To whom I do appeal; And in whose name, Tell you the Dauphin, I am coming on, To venge me as I may, and to put forth My rightful hand in a well-hallow'd cause. So, get you hence in peace; and tell the Dauphin, His jest will savour but of shallow wit, When thousands weep, more than did laugh at it.-- Convey them with safe conduct.--Fare you well.
[_Exeunt AMBASSADOR, and Attendants, L.H._
_Exe._ This was a merry message.
_K. Hen._ We hope to make the sender blush at it.
[_The KING rises._
Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour That may give furtherance to our expedition; For we have now no thought in us but France, Save those to Heaven, that run before our business. Therefore let our proportions for these wars Be soon collected, and all things thought upon That may with reasonable swiftness add More feathers to our wings; for, Heaven before, We'll chide this Dauphin at his father's door.
[_The characters group round the KING._
_Trumpets sound._
[Footnote I.1: _----task_] Keep busied with scruples and disquisitions.]
[Footnote I.2: _Archbishop of Canterbury,_] Henry Chichely, a Carthusian monk, recently promoted to the see of Canterbury.]
[Footnote I.3: _Bishop of Ely._] John Fordham, consecrated 1388; died, 1426.]
[Footnote I.4: _----wrest_,] i.e., distort.]
[Footnote I.5: _----or bow your reading_,] i.e., bend your interpretation.]
[Footnote I.6: _Or nicely charge your understanding soul_] Take heed, lest by nice and subtle sophistry you burthen your knowing soul, or _knowingly burthen your soul_, with the guilt of advancing a false title, or of maintaining, by specious fallacies, a claim which, if shown in its native and true colours, would appear to be false. --JOHNSON.]
[Footnote I.7: _----miscreate_,] Ill-begotten, illegitimate, spurious.]
[Footnote I.8: _----in approbation_] i.e., in proving and supporting that title which shall be now set up.]
[Footnote I.9: _----impawn our person_,] To engage and to pawn were in our author's time synonymous.]
[Footnote I.10: _----gloze_] Expound, explain.]
[Footnote I.11: _----+imbare+ their crooked titles_] i.e., to lay open, to display to view.]
[Footnote I.12: In allusion to the battle of Crecy, fought 25th August, 1346.]
[Footnote I.13: _So hath your highness;_] i.e., your highness hath indeed what they think and know you have.]
[Footnote I.14: _They of those +marches+,_] The _marches_ are the borders, the confines. Hence the _Lords Marchers_, i.e., the lords presidents of the _marches_, &c.]
[Footnote I.15: _----in few._] i.e., in short, brief.]
[Footnote I.16: _----a nimble +galliard+ won;_] A _galliard_ was an ancient dance. The word is now obsolete.]
## SCENE II.--EASTCHEAP, LONDON.
_Enter BARDOLPH,(I) NYM, PISTOL, MRS. QUICKLY, and BOY, L.2 E._
_Quick._ (L.C.) Pr'ythee, honey-sweet husband, let me bring thee to Staines.[17]
_Pist._ (C.) No; for my manly heart doth yearn.-- Bardolph, be blithe;--Nym, rouse thy vaunting veins; Boy, bristle thy courage up; for Falstaff he is dead, And we must yearn therefore.
_Bard._ (R.) 'Would I were with him, wheresome'er he is!
_Quick._ (C.) Sure, he's in Arthur's bosom,[18] if ever man went to Arthur's bosom. 'A made a finer end,[19] and went away, an it had been any christom child;[20] 'a parted even just between twelve and one, e'en at turning o' the tide:[21] for after I saw him fumble with the sheets,[22] and play with flowers, and smile upon his fingers' ends, I knew there was but one way; for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and a' babbled of green fields. How now, Sir John! quoth I: what, man! be of good cheer. So a' cried out--Heaven, Heaven, Heaven! three or four times. Now I, to comfort him, bid him 'a should not think of Heaven; I hoped, there was no need to trouble himself with any such thoughts yet. So 'a bade me lay more clothes on his feet: I put my hand into the bed and felt them, and they were as cold as any stone.
_Nym._ (R.C.) They say he cried out of sack.
_Quick._ Ay, that 'a did.
_Bard._ And of women.
_Quick._ Nay, that 'a did not.
_Boy._ (L.) Yes, that 'a did, and said they were devils incarnate.
_Quick._ (_crosses L.C._) 'A could never abide carnation;[23] 'twas a colour he never liked.
_Boy._ Do you not remember, 'a saw a flea stick upon Bardolph's nose, and 'a said it was a black soul burning in hell-fire?
_Bard._ Well, the fuel is gone that maintained that fire: that's all the riches I got in his service.
_Nym._ Shall we shog off?[24] the king will be gone from Southampton.
_Pist._ Come, let's away.--My love, give me thy lips. Look to my chattels and my moveables: Let senses rule;[25] the word is, _Pitch and pay_;[26] Trust none; For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes, And hold-fast is the only dog,[27] my duck: Therefore, _caveto_ be thy counsellor.[28] Go, clear thy crystals.[29]--Yoke-fellows in arms,
[_Crosses L.H._
Let us to France; like horse-leeches, my boys, To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck!
[_Crosses R.H._
_Boy._ And that is but unwholesome food, they say.
_Pitt._ Touch her soft mouth, and march.
_Bard._ Farewell, hostess.
[_Kissing her._
_Nym._ I cannot kiss, that is the humour of it; but adieu.
_Pist._ Let housewifery appear: keep close, I thee command.
_Quick._ Farewell; adieu.
[_Exeunt BARDOLPH, PISTOL, NYM, R.H., and DAME QUICKLY, L.H._
_Boy._ As young as I am, I have observed these three swashers. I am boy to them all three: but all they three, though they would serve me, could not be a man to me; for, indeed, three such anticks do not amount to a man. For Bardolph,--he is white-livered and red-faced; by the means whereof 'a faces it out, but fights not. For Pistol,--he hath a killing tongue and a quiet sword; by the means whereof 'a breaks words, and keeps whole weapons. For Nym,--he hath heard that men of few words are the best men; and therefore he scorns to say his prayers, lest 'a should be thought a coward: but his few bad words are match'd with as few good deeds; for 'a never broke any man's head but his own, and that was against a post when he was drunk. They will steal any thing, and call it--purchase. They would have me as familiar with men's pockets as their gloves or their handkerchiefs: which makes much against my manhood, if I should take from another's pocket to put into mine; for it is plain pocketing up of wrongs. I must leave them, and seek some better service: their villainy goes against my weak stomach, and therefore I must cast it up.
[_Distant March heard. Exit BOY, R.H._
END OF FIRST ACT.
[Footnote I.17: _----let me bring thee to Staines._] i.e., let me attend, or accompany thee.]
[Footnote I.18: _----Arthur's bosom,_] Dame Quickly, in her usual blundering way, mistakes Arthur for Abraham.]
[Footnote I.19: _'A made a finer end,_] To make a fine end is not an uncommon expression for making a good end. The Hostess means that Falstaff died with becoming resignation and patient submission to the will of Heaven.]
[Footnote I.20: _----an it had been any christom child;_] i.e., child that has wore the _chrysom_, or white cloth put on a new baptized child.]
[Footnote I.21: _----turning o' the tide:_] It has been a very old opinion, which Mead, _de imperio solis_, quotes, as if he believed it, that nobody dies but in the time of ebb: half the deaths in London confute the notion; but we find that it was common among the women of the poet's time. --JOHNSON.]
[Footnote I.22: _----I saw him fumble with the sheets,_] Pliny, in his chapter on _the signs of death_, makes mention of "_a fumbling and pleiting of the bed-clothes._" The same indication of approaching death is enumerated by Celsus, Lommius, Hippocrates, and Galen.]
[Footnote I.23: _'A could never abide carnation;_] Mrs. Quickly blunders, mistaking the word _incarnate_ for a colour. _In questions of Love_, published 1566, we have "_yelowe, pale, redde, blue, whyte, gray, and incarnate._"]
[Footnote I.24: _Shall we shog off?_] i.e., shall we move off--jog off?]
[Footnote I.25: _Let senses rule;_] i.e., let prudence govern you--conduct yourself sensibly.]
[Footnote I.26: _----Pitch and pay;_] A familiar expression, meaning pay down at once, pay ready money; probably throw down your money and pay.]
[Footnote I.27: _----hold-fast is the only dog,_] Alluding to the proverbial saying-- "Brag is a good dog, but Holdfast is a better."]
[Footnote I.28: _----caveto be thy counsellor._] i.e., let _prudence_ be thy counsellor.]
[Footnote I.29: _----clear thy crystals._] Dry thine eyes.]
HISTORICAL NOTE TO CHORUS--ACT FIRST
(A) _----should famine, sword, and fire, Crouch for employment._]
Holinshed states that when the people of Rouen petitioned Henry V., the king replied "that the goddess of battle, called Bellona, had three handmaidens, ever of necessity attending upon her, as blood, fire, and famine." These are probably the _dogs of war_ mentioned in Julius Caesar.
HISTORICAL NOTES TO ACT FIRST.
(B) KING HENRY _on his throne,_] King Henry V. was born at Monmouth, August 9th, 1388, from which place he took his surname. He was the eldest son of Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby, afterwards Duke of Hereford, who was banished by King Richard the Second, and, after that monarch's deposition, was made king of England, A.D. 1399. At eleven years of age Henry V. was a student at Queen's College, Oxford, under the tuition of his half-uncle, Henry Beaufort, Chancellor of that university. Richard II. took the young Henry with him in his expedition to Ireland, and caused him to be imprisoned in the castle of Trym, but, when his father, the Duke of Hereford, deposed the king and obtained the crown, he was created Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall.
In 1403 the Prince was engaged at the battle of Shrewsbury, where the famous Hotspur was slain, and there wounded in the face by an arrow. History states that Prince Henry became the companion of rioters and disorderly persons, and indulged in a course of life quite unworthy of his high station. There is a tradition that, under the influence of wine, he assisted his associates in robbing passengers on the highway. His being confined in prison for striking the Chief Justice, Sir William Gascoigne, is well known.
These excesses gave great uneasiness and annoyance to the king, his father, who dismissed the Prince from the office of President of his Privy Council, and appointed in his stead his second son, Thomas, Duke of Clarence. Henry was crowned King of England on the 9th April, 1413. We read in Stowe-- "After his coronation King Henry called unto him all those young lords and gentlemen who were the followers of his young acts, to every one of whom he gave rich gifts, and then commanded that as many as would change their manners, as he intended to do, should abide with him at court; and to all that would persevere in their former like conversation, he gave express commandment, upon pain of their heads, never after that day to come in his presence."
This heroic king fought and won the celebrated battle of Agincourt, on the 25th October, 1415; married the Princess Katherine, daughter of Charles VI. of France and Isabella of Bavaria, his queen, in the year 1420; and died at Vincennes, near Paris, in the midst of his military glory, August 31st, 1422, in the thirty-fourth year of his age, and the tenth of his reign, leaving an infant son, who succeeded to the throne under the title of Henry VI.
The famous Whittington was for the third time Lord Mayor of London in this reign, A.D. 1419. Thomas Chaucer, son of the great poet, was speaker of the House of Commons, which granted the supplies to the king for his invasion of France.
(C) _Bedford,_] John, Duke of Bedford, was the third son of King Henry IV., and his brother, Henry V., left to him the Regency of France. He died in the year 1435. This duke was accounted one of the best generals of the royal race of Plantaganet.
King Lewis XI. being counselled by certain envious persons to deface his tomb, used these, indeed, princely words:-- _"What honor shall it be to us, or you, to break this monument, and to pull out of the ground the bones of him, whom, in his life time, neither my father nor your progenitors, with all their puissance, were once able to make fly a foot backward? Who by his strength, policy, and wit, kept them all out of the principal dominions of France, and out of this noble Dutchy of Normandy? Wherefore I say first, God save his soul, and let his body now lie in rest, which, when he was alive, would have disquieted the proudest of us all; and for his tomb, I assure you, it is not so worthy or convenient as his honor and acts have deserved." --Vide Sandford's History of the Kings of England._
(D) _Gloster,_] Humphrey, Duke of Gloster, was the fourth son of King Henry IV., and on the death of his brother, Henry V., became Regent of England. It is generally supposed he was strangled. His death took place in the year 1446.
(E) _Exeter,_] Shakespeare is a little too early in giving Thomas Beaufort the title of Duke of Exeter; for when Harfleur was taken, and he was appointed governor of the town, he was only Earl of Dorset. He was not made Duke of Exeter till the year after the battle of Agincourt, November 14, 1416. Exeter was half brother to King Henry IV., being one of the sons of John of Gaunt, by Catherine Swynford.
(F) _Archbishop of Canterbury,_] The Archbishop's speech in this scene, explaining King Henry's title to the crown of France, is closely copied from Holinshed's chronicle, page 545.
"About the middle of the year 1414, Henry V., influenced by the persuasions of Chichely, Archbishop of Canterbury, by the dying injunction of his royal father, not to allow the kingdom to remain long at peace, or more probably by those feelings of ambition, which were no less natural to his age and character, than consonant with the manners of the time in which he lived, resolved to assert that claim to the crown of France which his great grandfather, King Edward the Third, had urged with such confidence and success." --_Nicolas's History of the Battle of Agincourt._
(G) _----the law Salique,_] According to this law no woman was permitted to govern or be a Queen in her own right. The title only was allowed to the wife of the monarch. This law was imported from Germany by the warlike Franks.
(H) _Tennis-balls, my liege._] Some contemporary historians affirm that the Dauphin sent Henry the contemptuous present, which has been imputed to him, intimating that such implements of play were better adapted to his dissolute character than the instruments of war, while others are silent on the subject. The circumstance of Henry's offering to meet his enemy in single combat, affords some support to the statement that he was influenced by those personal feelings of revenge to which the Dauphin's conduct would undoubtedly have given birth.
(I) _Enter BARDOLPH, NYM, PISTOL, Mrs. QUICKLY, and BOY._] These followers of Falstaff figured conspicuously through the two parts of Shakespeare's Henry IV. Pistol is a swaggering, pompous braggadocio; Nym a boaster and a coward; and Bardolph a liar, thief, and coward, who has no wit but in his nose.
_Enter CHORUS._
_Cho._ Now all the youth of England are on fire, And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies: Now thrive the armourers, and honour's thought Reigns solely in the breast of every man: They sell the pasture now to buy the horse; Following the mirror of all Christian kings, With winged heels, as English Mercuries; For now sits expectation in the air. O England!--model to thy inward greatness, Like little body with a mighty heart,-- What might'st thou do, that honour would thee do, Were all thy children kind and natural! But see thy fault! France hath in thee found out A nest of hollow bosoms, which he fills[1] With treacherous crowns; and three corrupted men,-- One, Richard earl of Cambridge;[2] and the second, Henry lord Scroop of Masham,[3] and the third, Sir Thomas Grey, knight, of Northumberland,-- Have, for the gilt of France[4] (O guilt, indeed!), Confirm'd conspiracy with fearful France;(A) And by their hands this grace of kings[5] must die, (If hell and treason hold their promises,) Ere he take ship for France, and in Southampton.
_The back scene opens and discovers a tableau, representing the three conspirators receiving the bribe from the emissaries of France._
Linger your patience on; and well digest The abuse of distance, while we force a play.[6] The sum is paid; the traitors are agreed; The king is set from London; and the scene Is now transported, gentles, to Southampton,-- There is the playhouse now, there must you sit: And thence to France shall we convey you safe, And bring you back, charming the narrow seas To give you gentle pass; for, if we may, We'll not offend one stomach[7] with our play. But, till the king come forth, and not till then,[8] Unto Southampton do we shift our scene.
[_Exit._
[Footnote IIc.1: _----which +he+ fills_] i.e., the King of France.]
[Footnote IIc.2: _----Richard, earl of Cambridge;_] Was Richard de Coninsbury, younger son of Edmund of Langley, Duke of York. He was father of Richard, Duke of York, father of Edward the Fourth.]
[Footnote IIc.3: _Henry lord Scroop of Masham,_] Was third husband of Joan Duchess of York (she had four), mother-in-law of Richard, Earl of Cambridge.]
[Footnote IIc.4: _----the +gilt+ of France,_] i.e., _golden money_.]
[Footnote IIc.5: _----this grace of kings_] i.e., he who does the greatest honor to the title. By the same phraseology the usurper in _Hamlet_ is called the _vice of kings_, i.e., the opprobrium of them.]
[Footnote IIc.6: _----while we +force a play+._] To _force a play_ is to produce a play by compelling many circumstances into a narrow compass.]
[Footnote IIc.7: _We'll not offend one stomach_] That is, you shall pass the sea without the qualms of sea-sickness.]
[Footnote IIc.8: _But, till the king come forth, and not till then,_] The meaning is, "We will not shift our scene unto Southampton till the king makes his appearance on the stage, and the scene will be at Southampton _only_ for the short time while he does appear on the stage; for, soon after his appearance, it will change to France." --MALONE.]
## ACT II.
## SCENE I.--COUNCIL CHAMBER IN SOUTHAMPTON CASTLE.
_EXETER, BEDFORD, and WESTMORELAND, discovered._
_Bed._ 'Fore Heaven, his grace is bold, to trust these traitors.
_Exe._ They shall be apprehended by and by.
_West._ How smooth and even they do bear themselves! As if allegiance in their bosoms sat, Crowned with faith and constant loyalty.
_Bed._ The king hath note of all that they intend, By interception which they dream not of.
_Exe._ Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow,(A) Whom he hath cloy'd and grac'd with princely favours,-- That he should, for a foreign purse, so sell His sovereign's life to death and treachery!
_Distant Trumpets sound. Enter King HENRY, SCROOP, CAMBRIDGE, GREY, Lords and Attendants, U.E.L.H._
_K. Hen._ Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard. My lord of Cambridge,--and my kind lord of Masham,-- And you, my gentle knight,--give me your thoughts: Think you not, that the powers we bear with us Will cut their passage through the force of France?
_Scroop._ No doubt, my liege, if each man do his best.
_K. Hen._ I doubt not that; since we are well persuaded We carry not a heart with us from hence That grows not in a fair consent with ours,[1] Nor leave not one behind that doth not wish Success and conquest to attend on us.
_Cam._ (R.) Never was monarch better fear'd and lov'd Than is your majesty: there's not, I think, a subject That sits in heart-grief and uneasiness Under the sweet shade of your government.
_Grey._ (R.) Even those that were your father's enemies Have steep'd their galls in honey, and do serve you With hearts create[2] of duty and of zeal.
_K.Hen._ (C.) We therefore have great cause of thankfulness; And shall forget the office of our hand, Sooner than quittance of desert and merit According to the weight and worthiness. Uncle of Exeter, R. Enlarge the man committed yesterday, That rail'd against our person: we consider It was excess of wine that set him on; And, on his more advice,[3] we pardon him.
_Scroop._ (R.) That's mercy, but too much security: Let him be punish'd, sovereign; lest example Breed, by his sufferance, more of such a kind.
_K. Hen._ O, let us yet be merciful.
_Cam._ So may your highness, and yet punish too.
_Grey._ Sir, you show great mercy, if you give him life, After the taste of much correction.
_K. Hen._ Alas, your too much love and care of me Are heavy orisons 'gainst this poor wretch![4] If little faults, proceeding on distemper,[5] Shall not be wink'd at, how shall we stretch our eye[6] When capital crimes, chew'd, swallow'd, and digested, Appear before us?--We'll yet enlarge that man, Though Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey,--in their dear care And tender preservation of our person,-- Would have him punish'd. And now to our French causes:
[_All take their places at Council table._
Who are the late Commissioners?[7]
_Cam._ (_R. of table._) I one, my lord: Your highness bade me ask for it to-day.
_Scroop._ (_R. of table._) So did you me, my liege.
_Grey._ (_R. of table._) And me, my royal sovereign.
_K. Hen._ Then, Richard earl of Cambridge, there is yours;-- There yours, lord Scroop of Masham;--and, sir knight, Grey of Northumberland, this same is yours:-- Read them; and know, I know your worthiness.-- My lord of Westmoreland,--and uncle Exeter,--
[_L. of table._
We will aboard to-night.
(_Conspirators start from their places._)
Why, how now, gentlemen! What see you in those papers, that you lose So much complexion?--look ye, how they change! Their cheeks are paper.--Why, what read you there, That hath so cowarded and chas'd your blood Out of appearance?
_Cam._ I do confess my fault; And do submit me to your highness' mercy.
[_Falling on his knees._
_Grey._ } To which we all appeal. [_Kneeling._ _Scroop._ }