King HENRY the Fifth.

Duke of GLOSTER,

} brothers to the King.

Duke of BEDFORD,

Duke of EXETER, uncle to the King.

Duke of YORK, coufin to the King.

Earls of SALISBURY, WESTMORELAND, and WARWICK.

Archbishop of CANTERBURY.

Bishop of ELY.

Earl of CAMBRIDGE,

}

Enter CHORUS.

O, for a mufe of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention !

A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,
And monarchs to behold the fwelling scene!
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
Affume the port of Mars; and, at his heels,
Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire,
Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all,
The flat unraised spirit, that hath dar'd,
On this unworthy scaffold, to bring forth
So great an object: Can this cockpit hold
The vafty fields of France? or may we cram,
Within this wooden O, the very cafques,
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:
Suppose within the girdle of these walls
Are now confin'd two mighty monarchies,
Whofe high upreared and abutting fronts
The perilous, narrow ocean parts asunder.
Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;
Into a thousand parts divide one man,

And make imaginary puiffance :

Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them
Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth:
For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times;

Turning

Turning the accomplishment of many years
Into an hourglass; For the which supply,
Admit me chorus to this hiftory;

Who, prologue-like, your humble patience pray,
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.

KING HENRY V.

ACT I. SCENE I.

London. An Antechamber in the King's Palace.

Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bishop of Ely.

Canterbury.

Y lord, I'll tell you,—that self bill is urg'd,

MY

Which, in the eleventh year o' the last king's reign

Was like, and had indeed against us pass'd,

But that the scambling and unquiet time

Did push it out of further question.

Ely. But how, my lord, fhall we refist it now?
Cant. It must be thought on. If it pass against us,
We lofe the better half of our poffeffion :

For all the temporal lands, which men devout
By teftament have given to the church,

Would they ftrip from us; being valued thus,-
As much as would maintain, to the king's honour,
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 almshoufes, right well supply'd;
And to the coffers of the king, befide,

A thousand pounds by the 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, mortified in him,
Seem'd to die too: yea, at that very moment,
Confideration like an angel came,

And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him;
Leaving his body as a paradise,

To envelop and contain celeftial fpirits.
Never was fuch a fudden scholar made:
Never came reformation in a flood,
With fuch a heady current, fcouring faults;
Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulness
So foon did lofe his feat, and all at once,
As in this king.

Ely.

We are blessed in the change. Cant. Hear him but reafon 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 would fay,-it hath been all-in-all his study:
Lift his difcourfe of war, and you shall hear
A fearful battle render'd you in mufick:
Turn him to any cause of policy,

The Gordian knot of it he will unloofe,
Familiar as his garter; that, when he speaks,
The air, a charter'd libertine, is still,
And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,
To steal his sweet and honey'd fentences;
So that the art and practick part of life
Must be the miftrefs to this theorick:

Which is a wonder, how his grace should glean it,