Henry V - Couverture souple

[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 serv...