Bard. O joyful day!—I would not take a SCENE V.—A public Place near Westminster knighthood for my fortune.

Abbey.

Enter two Grooms, strewing rushes.

1 Groom. More rushes, more rushes. 2 Groom. The trumpets have sounded twice. I Groom. It will be two o'clock ere they come from the coronation: despatch, despatch. [Exeunt Grooms. Enter Falstaff, Shallow, Pistol, Bardolph, and Page.

Pist. What, I do bring good news? Fal. Carry master Silence to bed.-Master Shallow, my lord Shallow, be what thou wilt ; I am fortune's steward. Get on thy boots : we'll ride all night.-O sweet Pistol !-Away, Bardolph!-[Exit Bard.] Come, Pistol, utter more to me; and, withal, devise something to do thyself good. Boot, boot, Master Shallow: I know the young king is sick for me. Let us take any man's horses; the laws of England are at my commandment. Happy are they which have been my friends; and woe unto my lord chief justice! Pist. Let vultures vile seize on his lungs Pist. God bless thy lungs, good knight! also! Fal. Come here, Pistol; stand behind me.

Fal. Stand here by me, master Robert Shallow; I will make the king do you grace: I will leer upon him, as he comes by; and do but mark the countenance he will give me.

"Where is the life that late I led?" say they :]-[To Shallow.] O, if I had had time to have Why, here it is;-Welcome these pleasant made new liveries, I would have bestowed the days! [Exeunt. thousand pound I borrowed of you.

SCENE IV.-London. A Street. Enter Beadles, dragging in Hostess Quickly and Doll Tear-sheet.

Host. No, thou arrant knave; I would to God I might die, that I might have thee hanged; thou hast drawn my shoulder out of joint.

1 Bead. The constables have delivered her over to me; and she shall have whipping-cheer enough, I warrant her: there hath been a man or two lately killed about her.

But 'tis no matter; this poor show doth better: this doth infer the zeal I had to see him.

Shal. It doth so.

Fal. It shows my earnestness of affection.
Shal. It doth so. Fal. My devotion,-
Shal. It doth, it doth, it doth.

Fal. As it were, to ride day and night; and not to deliberate, not to remember, not to have patience to shift me.

Shal. It is most certain.

Fal. But to stand stained with travel, and sweating with desire to see him; thinking of Dol. Nut-hook, nut-hook, you lie. Come nothing else, putting all affairs else in oblivion, on; I'll tell thee what, thou damned tripe-as if there were nothing else to be done but to visaged rascal, an the child I now go with do see him. miscarry, thou hadst better thou hadst struck thy mother, thou paper-faced villain.

Host. O the Lord, that Sir John would come! he would make this a bloody day to somebody. But I pray God the fruit of her womb miscarry.

1 Bead. If it do, you shall have a dozen of cushions again; you have but eleven now. Come, I charge you both go with me; for the man is dead, that you and Pistol beat among you.

Dol. I'll tell thee what, thou thin man in a censer, I will have you as soundly swinged for this, you blue-bottle rogue! you filthy famished correctioner! if you be not swinged, I'll forswear half-kirtles.

1 Bead. Come, come, you she knight-errant,

[est:

Pist. 'Tis semper idem, for absque hoc nihil 'Tis all in every part.

Shal. 'Tis so, indeed.

Pist. My knight, I will inflame thy noble And make thee rage.

[liver,
Thy Doll, and Helen of thy noble thoughts,
Is in base durance, and contagious prison;
Haul'd thither

By most mechanical and dirty hand :-
Rouse up revenge from ebon den with fell
Alecto's snake,

For Doll is in: Pistol speaks nought but truth.
Fal. I will deliver her.

[Shouts within and trumpets sound. Pist. There roar'd the sea, and trumpetclangor sounds.

Enter the King and his train, the Chief
Justice among them.

Fal. God save thy grace, king Hal! my

vain man.

royal Hal. [most royal imp of fame! Pist. The heavens thee guard and keep, Fal. God save thee, my sweet boy! King. My lord chief justice, speak to that [what 'tis you speak? Ch. Just. Have you your wits? know you Fal. My king! my Jove! I speak to thee, my heart! King. I know thee not, old man How ill white hairs become a fool,

[prayers: fall to thy and jester !

Scene 5.

SECOND PART OF KING HENRY IV.

I have long dream'd of such a kind of man,
So surfeit-swell'd, so old, and so profane ;
But, being awake, I do despise my dream,
Make less thy body hence, and more thy grace;
Leave gormandizing; know, the grave doth

gape

For thee thrice wider than for other men.-
Reply not to me with a fool-born jest:
Presume not that I am the thing I was;

For God doth know, so shall the world per-
ceive,

That I have turn'd away my former self;
So will I those that kept me company.
When thou dost hear I am as I have been,
Approach me, and thou shalt be as thou wast,
The tutor and the feeder of my riots;
Till then, I banish thee, on pain of death,-
As I have done the rest of my misleaders,-
Not to come near our person by ten mile.
For competence of life I will allow you,
That lack of means enforce you not to evil;
And, as we hear you do reform yourselves,
We will, according to your strength and
qualities, [it your charge, my lord,
Give you advancement.-To Ch. Just.] Be
To see perform'd the tenor of our word.-
Set on.
[Exeunt King and his train.
Fal. Master Shallow, I owe you a thousand
pound.

Shal. Ay, marry, sir John; which I beseech you to let me have home with me.

Fal. That can hardly be, master Shallow. Do not you grieve at this; I shall be sent for in private to him: look you, he must seem thus to the world: fear not your advancement: I will be the man yet that shall make you great.

Shal. I cannot perceive how; unless you should give me your doublet, and stuff me out with straw. I beseech you, good sir John, let me have five hundred of my thousand.

P. John. I like this fair proceeding of the
He hath intent his wonted followers [king's:
Shall all be very well provided for ;
But all are banish'd, till their conversations
Ch. Just. And so they are. [ment, my lord.
Appear more wise and modest to the world.
P. John. The king hath called his parlia-
Ch. Just. He hath.

P. John. I will lay odds, that, ere this year
expire,

We bear our civil swords and native fire
As far as France: I heard a bird so sing,
Whose music, to my thinking, pleas'd the
king.
[Exeunt
Come, will you hence?

EPILOGUE.-Spoken by a Dancer.

First, my fear; then, my court'sy; last, my speech. My fear is, your displeasure; my court'sy, my duty; and my speech, to beg your pardons. If you look for a good speech now, you undo me: for what I have to say, is of mine own making; and what indeed I should say, will, I doubt, prove mine own marring. But to the purpose, and so to the venture.-Be it known to you, (as it is very well,) I was lately here in the end of a displeasing play, to pray your patience for it, and to promise you a better. I did mean, indeed, to pay you with this: break, and you, my gentle which, if, like an ill venture, it come unluckily home, creditors, lose. Here, I promised you, I would be, and here I commit my body to your mercies; bate me some, and I will pay you some; and, as most debtors do, promise you infinitely.

All

If my tongue cannot entreat you to acquit me, will you command me to use my legs? and yet that were but light payment,-to dance out of your debt. But a good conscience will make any possible satisfaction, and so will I. the gentlewomen here have forgiven me if the gentlemen will not, then the gentlemen do not agree with the gentlewomen, which was never din-seen before in such an assembly.

Fal. Sir, I will be as good as my word: this that you heard was but a colour. Shal. A colour, I fear, that you will die in, sir John.

Bar

Fal. Fear no colours: go with me to ner-come, lieutenant Pistol ;-come, dolph-I shall be sent for soon at night. Re-enter Prince John, the Chief Justice, Officers, &c.

Ch. Just. Go, carry sir John Falstaff to the Take all his company along with him. [Fleet: [you soon. Fal. My lord, my lord,will hear Ch. Just. I cannot now speak : Take them away. Pist. Si fortuna me tormenta, spero me contenta. [Exeunt Fal. Shal. Pist. Bard. and Page, with Officers.

One word more, I beseech you. If you be not too much cloyed with fat meat, our humble author will continue the story, with sir John in it, and make you merry with fair Katharine of France: where, for anything I know, Falstaff shall die of a sweat, unless already he be killed with your hard opinions; for Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man. My tongue is weary; when my legs are too, I bul, indeed, to pray for the will bid you good night: and so kneel denon before you: — queen.

Chor. O for a muse of fire, that would Who, prologue-like, your humble patience

The breath no sooner left his father's body,
But that his wildness, mortified in him,
Seem'd to die too; yea, at that very moment,
Consideration like an angel came,

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

To 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;
Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulness

So soon did lose his seat, and all at once,
As in this king.

Ely.

We are blessed in the change.
Cant. Hear him but reason in divinity,
And, all-admiring, with an inward wish [late:

Cant. The French ambassador upon that 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 embassy;
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.

You would desire the king were made a pre-SCENE II.-London. A Room of State in the

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
A fearful battle render'd you in music :
Turn him to any cause of policy,
The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,
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 sentences;
So that the art and practick part of life
Must be the mistress to this theorick:
Which is a wonder, how his grace should glean
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 sequestration
From open haunts and popularity.

[it,

Palace.

Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury and the
Bishop of Ely.

Cant. God, and his angels, guard your saAnd make you long become it! [cred throne, K. Hen. Sure, we thank you. [nettle, My learned lord, we pray you to proceed, Ely. The strawberry grows underneath the And justly and religiously unfold, [France, And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best,Why the law Salique, that they have in Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality: And so the prince obscur'd his contemplation Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt, Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night, Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.

Cant. It must be so; for miracles are ceas'd;
And therefore we must 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 seems indifferent ;
Or, rather, swaying more upon our part,
Than cherishing the exhibiters against us;
For I have made an offer to his majesty,—
Upon our spiritual convocation,
And in regard of causes now in hand,
Which I have open'd to his grace at large,
As touching France,-to give a greater sum

Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim :
And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,
That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your
reading,

Or nicely charge your understanding soul
With opening titles miscreate, whose right
Suits not in native colours with the truth;
For God doth know how many, now in health,
Shall drop their blood in approbation
Of what your reverence shall incite us to:
Therefore, take heed how you impawn our
person,

How you awake the 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 Are every one a woe, a sore complaint, [drops 'Gainst him whose wrongs give edge unto the swords

That make such waste in brief mortality.
Under this conjuration, speak, my lord;
And we will hear, note, and believe in heart,
That what you speak is in your conscience
As pure as sin with baptism.

King Pepin's title, and Hugh Capet's claim, King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear To hold in tight and title of the female: So do the kings of France unto this day; [wash'd, Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law, Cant. Then hear me, gracious sov'reign To bar your highness claiming from the female: and you peers, And rather choose to hide them in a net,

That owe yourselves, your lives, and services,Than amply to imbar their crooked titles
To this imperial throne.-There is no bar
To make against your highness' claim to
France,
[mond,-
But this, which they produce from Phara-
In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant,
No woman shall succeed in Salique land:"
Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze
To be the realm of France, and Pharamond
The founder of this law, and female bar.
Yet their own authors faithfully affirm,
That the land Salique is in Germany,
Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe;
Where Charles the great, having subdu'd the
Saxons,

Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.
K. Hen. May I with right and conscience
make this claim?
[vereign!

There left behind and settled certain French;
Who, holding in disdain the German women
For some dishonest manners of their life,
Establish'd then this law, -to wit, no female
Should be inheritrix in Salique land:
Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala,
Is at this day in Germany call'd Meisen.
Then doth it well appear, the Salique law
Was not devised for the realm of France:
Nor did the French possess the Salique land
Until four hundred one and twenty years
After defunction of king Pharamond,
Idly suppos'd the founder of this law;
Who died within the year of our redemption
Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the
great

Subdued the Saxons, and did seat the French
Beyond the river Sala, in the year
Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say,
King Pepin, which deposed Childerick,
Did, as heir general, being descended [Clothair,
Of Blithild, which was daughter to king
Make claim and title to the crown of France.
Hugh Capet also,-who usurp'd the crown
Of Charles the duke of Lorain, sole heir male
Of the true line and stock of Charles the great,-
To find his title with some show of truth,
(Though in pure truth, it was corrupt and
naught,)

Convey'd himself as heir to the lady Lingare,
Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son
To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son
Of Charles the great. Also king Lewis the
Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet, [tenth,
Could not keep quiet in his conscience,
Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied
The fair queen Isabel, his grandmother,
Was lineal of the lady Ermengare, [Lorain:
Daughter to Charles the foresaid duke of
By the which marriage, the line of Charles the
Was re-united to the crown of France. [great
So that, as clear as is the summer's sun,

Cant. The sin upon my head, dread so-
For in the Book of Numbers is it writ,-
When the son dies, let the inheritance
Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord,
Stand for your own; unwind your bloody flag;
Look back into your mighty ancestors:
Go, my dread lord, to your great grandsire's
tomb,
[spirit,
From whom you claim; invoke his warlike
And your great uncle's, Edward the black
prince,

Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy,
Making defeat on the full power of France,
Whiles his most mighty father on a hill
Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp
Forage in blood of French nobility.
O noble English, that could entertain
With half their forces the full pride of France,
And let another half stand laughing by,
All out of work, and cold for action!

[dead,

Ely. Awake remembrance of these valiant
And with your puissant arm renew their feats:
You are their heir; you sit upon their throne;
The blood and courage, that renowned them,
Runs in your veins: and my thrice-puissant
Is in the very May-morn of his youth,
Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises.
Exe. Your brother kings and monarchs of

the earth

liege

Do all expect that you should rouse yourself,
As did the former lions of your blood.

West. They know your grace hath cause
and means and might:

So hath your highness; never king of England
Had nobles richer, and more loyal subjects,
Whose hearts have left their bodies here in
England,

liege,

And lie pavilion'd in the fields of France.
Cant. O, let their bodies follow, my dear
[right:
With blood, and sword, and fire, to win your
In aid whereof, we of the spiritualty
Will raise your highness such a mighty sum,
As never did the clergy at one time
Bring in to any of your ancestors.

K. Hen. We must not only arm to invade
the French,

But lay down our proportions to defend
Against the Scot, who will make road upon us
With all advantages.

Cant. They of those marches, gracious so-
Shall be a wall sufficient to defend [vereign,
Our inland from the pilfering borderers.