NYM

Shall we shog? the king will be gone from Southampton.

PISTOL

Come, let's away. (Crosses to Centre.)-My love, give me thy lips. (Kisses QUICKLY.)

Look to my chattels and my movables:

Let senses rule; (1) the word is “Pitch and Pay: Trust none;

For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes, And hold-fast is the only dog, my duck: Therefore, Caveto(2) be thy counsellor.

Go, clear thy crystals. (3)-Yoke-fellows in arms, Let us to France; like horse-leeches, my boys, To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck!

BOY

And that's but unwholesome food, they say.

PISTOL

Touch her soft mouth, and march.

Farewell, hostess.

BARDOLPH

(Kisses her, then exit Right.)

NYм (approaches to kiss QUICKLY. PISTOL inter

feres)

I cannot kiss, that is the humour of it; but, adieu.

Let housewifery appear: keep close, I thee command.

HOSTESS

Farewell; adieu. (Exit PISTOL Right, QUICKLY Left.)

(1) Let prudence govern you.

(2) Take care. (3) Dry thine eyes.

Box (Centre)

As young as I am, I have observed these three swashers(1). I am boy to them all three: but all they three, though they would serve me, could not be man to me; for indeed, three such antics (2) do not amount to a man. For Bardolph, he is white-livered(3), 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 matched 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 anything, and call it,-purchase. Bardolph stole a lute-case, bore it twelve leagues, and sold it for three half-pence. Nym and Bardolph are sworn brothers in filching. (4) 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. (Exit Box Right.)

The END of the FIRST ACT

(1) Bullies. (2) Buffoons, fools. (3) Cowardly. (4) Grey suggests that Shakespeare took Nym's name from the old Anglo-Saxon word nim, to filch.

of KING HENRY V

The FIRST Scene

(A Room in the Palace of CHARLES the SIXTH, at Rouen) IKING CHARLES (1) seated at Centre, the DAUPHIN, (2) the CONSTABLE of FRANCE, (3) the DUKES of ORLEANS and BOURBON from Centre to Left, RAMBURES and GRANDPRÉ and other lords on Right, with Pages on either side of the KING.

CHARLES

Thus come the English with full power upon us; And more than carefully it us concerns,

To answer royally in our defences.

Therefore the Dukes of Berry, and of Bretange,
Of Brabant and of Orleans, shall make forth,-
And you, prince Dauphin,—with all swift despatch,
To line and new repair our towns of war,
With men of courage, and with means defendant.

DAUPHIN

My most redoubted father,

It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe:

¶(1) Charles VI., surnamed the Well-Beloved, was King of France during the most disastrous period of its history. He ascended the throne in 1380, when only thirteen years of age. In 1385 he married Isabella of Bavaria, who was equally remarkable for her beauty and her depravity. The unfortunate king was subject to fits of insanity, which lasted for several months at a time. On the 21st of October, 1422, seven years after the battle of Agincourt, Charles VI. ended his unhappy life at the age of fifty-five, having reigned forty-two years. (2) Lewis, the Dauphin, was the eldest son of Charles VI. He was born 22d January, 1396, and died before his father, December 18, 1415, in his twentieth year. History says: Shortly after the Battle of Agincourt, either for melancholy that he had for the loss, or by some sudden disease, Lewis, Dovphin of Viennois, heir apparent to the French king, departed this life without issue." (3) The Constable, Charles D'Albret, commanded the French army at the battle of Agincourt, and was slain on the field.

But let us do it with no show of fear;

No, with no more, than if we heard that England
Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance (1);
For, my good liege, she is so idly king'd,
Her sceptre so fantastically borne

By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth,
That fear attends her not.

CONSTABLE

O peace, prince Dauphin!
You are too much mistaken in this king:
With what great state he heard our embassy,
How well supplied with noble counsellors,
How modest in exception, (2) and withal,
How terrible in constant resolution,-

Your grace shall find his vanities fore-spent (3)
Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus,
Covering discretion with a coat of folly.

DAUPHIN

Well, 'tis not so, my lord high constable,
But though we think it so, it is no matter :
In case of defence, 'tis best to weigh

The enemy more mighty than he seems.

Enter, from Right, MONTJOY (4), who kneels at the KING'S feet.

MONTJOY

Ambassadors from Harry, King of England,
Do crave admittance to your majesty.

(1) An ancient dance in which the performers were dressed in grotesque costume, with bells, etc. Morris from morisco or moorish.-Douce. (2) Diffident and decent in making objections. (3) Past. Refers to his rakish days when Prince of Wales. (4) Mont-joie is the title of the principal King-at-arms in France, as Garter is in England.

FRENCH KING

We'll give them present audience. Go, and bring

them.

(Exit MONTJOY, Right.)

You see this chase is hotly follow'd, friends.

DAUPHIN

Turn head, and stop pursuit: for coward dogs Most spend their mouths, (1) when what they seem to threaten

Runs far before them. Good my sovereign,

Take up the English short; and let them know
Of what a monarchy you are the head:

Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin

As self-neglecting

Re-enter, from Right, MONTJOY, the ENGLISH HERALD, the DUKE of EXETER and English Lords; they stand Right of KING.

FRENCH KING

From our brother of England?

EXETER

From him; and thus he greets your majesty.
He wills you, in the name of Heaven,
That you divest yourself and lay apart
The borrow'd glories, that by gift of Heaven,
By law of nature and of nations, 'long
To him and to his heirs; namely, the crown,
And all the wide-stretched honours that pertain
By custom and the ordinance of times.

Unto the crown of France. That you may know 'Tis no sinister nor no awkward claim,

Pick'd from the worm-holes of long vanish'd days, (1) Bark.