Although I did admit it as a motive,
The sooner to effect what I intended.
K. Hen. Heaven quit you in its
mercy! Hear your sentence.
You have conspir'd against our royal person,
Join'd with an enemy proclaim'd, and from his coffers
Receiv'd the golden earnest of our death;

Α

Wherein you would have sold your king to slaughter,
His princes and his peers to servitude,
His subjects to oppression and contempt
And his whole kingdom into desolation.
Touching our person, seek we no revenge;
But we our kingdom's safety must so tender,
Whose ruin you have sought, that to her laws
We do deliver you. Get you therefore hence,
Poor miserable wretches, to your death:
The taste whereof, God, of his mercy, give you
Patience to endure, and true repentance
Of all your dear offences !-Bear them hence.

[Exeunt Conspirators, guarded.
Now, lords, for France; the enterprise whereof
Shall be to you, as us, like glorious

We doubt not of a fair and lucky war;

Since Heaven so graciously hath brought to light
This dangerous treason, lurking in our way,

To hinder our beginnings ;—

Then, forth, dear countrymen; let us deliver
Our puissance into the hand of God,

B

Putting it straight in expedition. P

This speech is taken from Holinshed:-"Revenge herein touching my person, though I seek not; yet for the safeguard of my dear friends, and for due preservation of all sorts, I am by office to cause example to be showed; Get ye hence, therefore, you poor miserable wretches, to the receiving of your just reward, wherein God's majesty give you grace of His mercy, and repentance of your heinous offences."

B But the grandest ship of all that went

Was that in which our good king sailed.-Old Ballad.

ACT II.-FRANCE.

SCENE 1.

A ROOM IN THE PALACE OF CHARLES

THE VI.

Enter the French KING, attended by the DAUPHIN, the Duke of BURGUNDY," the CONSTABLE, and others.

Fr. King. 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 Bretagne,

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,

E

With men of courage, and with means defendant.
Dau. And 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 :
For, my good liege, she is so idly king'd,

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 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.

DJohn, Duke of Burgundy, surnamed the Fearless, succeeded to the Dukedom in 1403. He caused the Duke of Orleans to be assassinated in the streets of Paris, and was himself murdered August 28th, 1419, on the bridge of Montereau, at an interview with the Dauphin, afterwards Charles VII. John was succeeded by his only son, who bore the title of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy.

ELewis, the Dauphin, was the eldest son of Charles VI. He was born 22nd January, 1396, and died before his father, December 18th, 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."

Her sceptre so fantastically borne

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

Con. A

O peace, prince dauphin!
You are too much mistaken in this king:
Question, your grace, the late ambassadors,-
With what great state he heard their embassy,
How well supplied with noble counsellors,
How modest in exception, and withal
How terrible in constant resolution,-
And you shall find, his vanities fore-spent
Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus,
Covering discretion with a coat of folly;
As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots
That shall first spring and be most delicate.

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

The enemy more mighty than he seems :

Enter MONTJOY, who kneels at the KING's feet.

Mont. Ambassadors from Harry, King of England,

Do crave admittance to your majesty.

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

[Exeunt MONTJOY and Lords.

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

Dau. Turn head, and stop pursuit: for coward dogs

Most spend their mouths, 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 :

Enter EXETER, attended by English Lords, preceded by

Fr. King.

MOUNTJOY.

From our brother of England?

Exe. From him; and thus he greets your majesty.

He wills you, in the name of Heaven,

AThe Constable, Charles D'Albret, commanded the French army at the battle of Agincourt, and was slain on the field.

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 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,
Nor from the dust of old oblivion rak'd,

He sends you this most memorable line,

[Gives a paper to MONTJOY, who delivers
it kneeling to the KING.

In every branch truly demonstrative;
Willing you overlook this pedigree:
And, when you find him evenly deriv'd
From his most fam'd of famous ancestors,
Edward the Third, he bids you then resign
Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held
From him the native and true challenger.

Fr. King. Or else what follows?

Exe. Bloody constraint; for if you hide the crown
Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it:

This is his claim, his threat'ning, and my message.
Unless the dauphin be in presence here,

To whom expressly I bring greeting to.

Fr. King. For us, we will consider of this further
To-morrow shall you bear our full intent
Back to our brother of England.

Dau.

For the dauphin,

I stand here for him: What to him from England?
Exe. Scorn and defiance; slight regard, contempt.

And anything that may not misbecome

The mighty sender, doth he prize you at.

Thus says my king: and, if your father's highness

Do not, in grant of all demands at large,

Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his majesty,

He'll call you to so hot an answer of it,
That caves and womby vaultages of France
Shall chide your trespass, and return your mock

In second accent of his ordinance.

Dau. Say, if my father render fair return, It is against my will: for I desire

Nothing but odds with England; to that end,"
As matching to his youth and vanity,

I did present him with the Paris balls.

Exe. He'll make your Paris Louvre shake for it.

Fr. King. To-morrow shall you know our mind at full. Ere. Despatch us with all speed, lest that our king Come here himself to question our delay;

For he is footed in this land already.

Fr. King. You shall be soon despatch'd, with fair conditions:

A night is but small breath, and little pause,

To answer matters of this consequence.

[Ecit English party with MONTJOY and others— the French Lords group round the KING.

CHORUS appears.

Thus with imagin'd wing our swift scene flies,

In motion of no less celerity

you

have seen

Than that of thought. Suppose that
'The well appointed king at Hampton pier
Embark his royalty; and his brave fleet
With silken streamers the young Phoebus fanning.
Play with your fancies; and in them behold,
Upon the hempen tackle ship-boys climbing:
Hear the shrill whistle which doth order give
To sounds confus'd: behold the threaden sails,
Borne with the invisible and creeping wind,
Draw the huge bottoms through the furrrow'd sea,
Breasting the lofty surge: O, do but think
You stand upon the rivage, and behold

Follow, follow!

A city on the inconstant billows dancing;
For so appears this fleet majestical,
Holding due course to Harfleur.
Grapple your minds to sternage of this navy;
And leave your England, as dead midnight still,
Guarded with grandsires, babies, and old women,
Either past or not arriv'd to pith and puissance :
For who is he, whose chin is but enrich'd
With one appearing hair, that will not follow