King HENRY V.

ACT I. SCENE I.

An Antechamber in the English Court, at Kenilworth.

Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bifhop of Ely.

M

(2) Archbishop of CANTERBURY.

Y lord, I'll tell you-That felf bill is urg'd,
Which, in th' eleventh year o' th' laft King's
reign,

Was like, and had, indeed against us paft,
But that the scambling and unquiet time
Did push it out of further queftion.

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

(1) The Life of Henry V.] This play was writ (as appears from a paffage in the chorus to the fifth act) at the time of the Earl of Effex's commanding the forces in Ireland in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and not till after Henry the VIth had been played, as may be feen by the conclufion of this play.

POPE.

The Life of K. Henry.] The Tranfactions compriz'd in this Hiftorical Play, commence about the latter end of the first, and terminate in the 8th Year of this King's reign; when he married Catharine Princess of France, and clofed up the Differences betwixt England and that Crown.

THEOBALD.

(2) Archbishop of Canterbury] This firft fcene was added fince the edition of 1608, which is much short of the present editions, wherein the speeches are generally enlarged and raised: Several whole fcenes befides, and all the chorus's alfo, were fince added by Shakespeare.

A 3

POPE.

For

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

Would they strip from us; being valu'd 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 alm-houfes, right well fupply'd;
And to the coffers of the King, befide,
A thousand pounds by th' year.
Ely. This would drink deep.

Thus runs the bill.

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 wildnefs mortify'd in him,
Seem'd to die to; yea, at that very moment,
* Confideration like an angel, came,
And whipt th' offending Adam out of him ;
Leaving his body as a Paradife,

T' invelope and contain celeftial fpirits.
Never was fuch a fudden fcholar made,
Never came reformation in a flood (3)
With fuch a heady current, fcow'ring faults;
Nor ever Hydra-headed wilfulness

So foon did lose his feat, and all at once,
As in this King.

Ely. We're bleffed in the change.

Cant. Hear him but reason in divinity, (4)

And,

* Confideration, like an angel, &c.] As paradife, when fin and Adam were driven out by the angel became the habitation of celestial fpirits, fo the king's heart, fince confideration has driven out his follies, is now the receptacle of wildom and of virtue. (3) Never came reformation like a flood-] Alluding to the method by which Hercules cleanfed the famous ftables when he turned a river through them. Hercules ftill is in our author's head when he mentions the Hydra.

(4) Hear him but reafon in divinity, &c.] This fpeech feems to have been copied from King James's prelates, fpeaking of

their

And, all admiring with an inward wish

You would defire, the King were made a Prelate.
Hear him debate of common-wealth affairs,
You'd fay it hath been all in all his ftudy.
Lift his difcourfe of war, and you fhall hear
A fearful battle render'd you in musick.
Turn him to any cause of policy,

The Gordian knot of it he will unloofe,
Familiar as his garter. When he speaks,
The air, a charter'd libertine, is ftill; (5)
And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,
To steal his fweet and hony'd fentences.
So that the Art, and practic part of life, (6)

Muft

their Solomon; when Archbishop Whitgift, who, as an eminent writer fays, died foon afterwards, and probably deated then, at the Hampton-Court conference, declared himfelt verily perfuaded that his facred Majefty fpake by the Spirit of God. And, in effect, this scene was added after King James's acceffion to the crown: So that we have no way of avoiding its being esteemed a compliment to him, but by fuppofing it was a fatire on his bifbops. WARBURTON.

Why these lines fhould be divided from the rest of the fpeech, and applied to King James, I am not able to conceive; nor why an opportunity should be fo eagerly fnatched to treat with contempt that part of his character which was least contemptible. King James's theological knowledge was not inconfiderable. To prefide at difputations is not very fuitable to a King, but to understand the questions is furely laudable. The poet, if he had James in his thoughts, was no fkilful encomiaft; for the mention of Harry's kill in war, forced upon the remembrance of his audience the great deficiency of their prefent king; who yet with all his faults, and many faults he had, was fuch that Sir Robert Cotton fays, be would be content that England should never have a better, provided that it should never have a worse.

(5) The air, &c.] This line is exquifitely beautiful.

:

(6) So that the Art, and practic part of Life,] All the Editions, if I am not deceiv'd, are guilty of a flight Corruption in this Paffage. The Archbishop has been fhewing, what a Master the King was in the Theory of Divinity, War and Policy fo that it must be expected (as I conceive, he would infer;) that the King fhould now wed that Theory to Action, and the putting the feveral Parts of his Knowledge into Practice. If this be our author's meaning, I think, we can hardly doubt but he wrote,

So that the Act, and practic, &c. Thus we have a Confonance in the Terms and Senfe. For Theory is the Art, and

Must be the mistress to this theorique.

Which is a wonder how his Grace should glean it,
Since his addiction was to courses vain ;
His companies unletter'd, rude and shallow;
His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports;
And never noted in him any study,

Any retirement, any fequeftration
From open haunts and popularity.

Ely. The Strawberry grows underneath the nettle, And wholesome berries thrive, and ripen beft, Neighbour'd by fruit of bafer quality.

And fo the Prince obfcur'd his contemplation
Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt,
Grew like the fummer grafs, fastest by night,
Unfeen, yet crefcive in his faculty. (7)

Cant. It must be fo; for miracles are ceas'd:
And therefore we muft needs admit the means,
How things are perfected.

Ely. But, my good Lord,

How now for mitigation of this bill,

Urg'd by the Commons ? doth his Majesty
Incline to it, or no?

Cant. He feems indifferent;

Or rather swaying more upon our part,
Than cherishing th' exhibiters against us.
For I have made an offer to his Majefty,
Upon our fpiritual Convocation,
And in regard of caufes now in hand
Which I have open'd to his Grace at large

Study of the Rules of any Science; and Action, the Exemplification of thofe Rules by Proof and Experiment. THEOBALD. This emendation is received by Dr. Warburton, but it appears to me founded upon a misinterpretation. The true meaning feems to be this. He difcourfes with so much skill on all fubjects, that the art and practice of life must be the mistress or teacher of his theorique, that is, that his theory must have been taught by art and practice, which, fays he, is ftrange, fince he could fee little of the true art or practice among his loofe companions, nor ever retired to digeft his practice into theory: Art is ufed by the authour for practice, as diftinguished from science or theory. (7) crefcive in his faculty.] Encreafing in its proper

power.

As

As touching France, to give a greater Sum,
Than ever at one time the Clergy yet

Did to his predeceffors part withal.

Ely. How did this offer feem receiv'd, my Lord? Cant. With good acceptance of his Majefty; Save that there was not time enough to hear As, I perceiv'd, his Grace would fain have done The feverals, and unhidden paffages (8) Of his true titles to fome certain Dukedoms, And, generally, to the Crown and feat of France, Deriv'd from Edward his great grandfather.

Ely. What was th' impediment, that broke this off?
Cant. The French Ambaffador upon that inftant
Crav'd audience, and the hour, I think, is come
To give him hearing. Is it four o'clock ?
Ely. It is.

Cant. Then go we in to know his embaffy;
Which I could with a ready guefs declare,
Before the Frenchman speaks a word of it.
Ely. I'll wait upon you, and I long to hear it.

SCENE II.

Opens to the Prefence.

[Exeunt.

Enter King Henry, Gloucefter, Bedford, Clarence, Warwick, Westmorland, and Exeter.

K. Henry. WHERE is my gracious Lord of Can

Exe. Not here in prefence..

K. Henry. Send for him, good uncle.

Weft. Shall we call in th' ambaffador, my Liege ? (9)

(8) The feverals, and unhidden paffages] This line I fufpect of corruption, though it may be fairly enough explained: the pallages of his titles are the lines of fucceffion, by which his claims defcend. Unhidden is open, clear.

(9) Shall, we call in, &c.] Here began the old play,

POPE.