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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 gormandising; 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 Heaven doth know, so shall the world perceive,
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,
Give you advancement.

-000——

KING HENRY V.

This historical play narrates the career of Henry the Fifth, from his ascent of the throne to his marriage with the Princess Katharine. At the commencement of the play, ambassadors from France arrive in England, with an insulting message from the Dauphin to the English monarch. The ambassadors are dismissed, with a defiance to France from Henry, who, at the head of his army, proceeds to Southampton, on his way to France

Here the Earl of Cambridge, Lord Scroop, and Sir Thomas Grey are detected in a conspiracy against the king, and are ordered for execution. The English army then proceeds to France, and besieges Harfleur, which is taken. The great battle of Agincourt follows, in which Henry, though his army is vastly inferior in numbers to the French, obtains a signal victory. The play concludes with an alliance between Katharine of France and Henry, and a consequent peace between the two nations. Amongst the most prominent incidents in the play are the scenes in which Henry, in disguise, visits his soldiers on the night preceding the battle of Agincourt, the description of Falstaff's death by Mrs. Quickly, and the amusing episode of Fluellen forcing the bully Pistol to eat the leek.

CHORUS.

Invocation of the Muse.

O, FOR a muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention !

A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
Assume the port of Mars; and, at his heels,
Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire,
Crouch for employment.

ACT I.

Consideration.

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

Perfections of King Henry V.

Hear him but reason in divinity,

And, all admiring, with an inward wish

You would desire the king were made a prelate :
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.

The Commonwealth of Bees

So work the honey bees;

s;

Creatures that, by a rule in nature, teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
They have a king and officers of sorts :†
Where some, like magistrates, correct at home :
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad;
Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,
Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds
Which pillage they with merry march bring home
To the tent royal of their emperor :
Who, busied in his majesty, surveys
The singing masons building roofs of gold;
The civil citizens kneading up the honey;
The poor mechanic porters crowding in
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate;
The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum,
+ Different degrees.

*Listen to.

Sober, grave.

Delivering o'er to executors* pale

The lazy yawning drone.

King Henry's defiant Message to the Dauphin of France

We are glad, the Dauphin is so pleasant with us;

for:

His present and your pains, we thank you
When we have match'd our rackets to these balls,
We will, in France, by God's grace, play a set,
Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard:
Tell him, he hath made a match with such a wrangler
That all the courts of France will be disturb'd
With chases. And we understand him well,
How he comes o'er us with our wilder days,
Not measuring what use we made of them.
We never valued this poor seat of England;
And therefore, living hence,§ did give ourself
To barbarous license; as 'tis ever common,
That men are merriest when they are from home
But tell the Dauphin,-I will keep my state;
Be like a king, and show my sail of greatness,
When I do rouse me in my throne of France:
For that I have laid by my majesty,
And plodded like a man for working-days ;
But I will rise there with so full a glory,
That I will dazzle all the eyes of France,
Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us.
And tell the pleasant prince, this mock of his
Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones; and his soul
Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance,

* Executioners.

†The Dauphin of France had, in derision of the King, sent him a box containing tennis-balls.

A term used in playing at tennis.

? Having retired from the Court.

T

That shall fly with them: for many a thousand widows Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands, Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down.

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But this lies all within the will of God,

*

To whom I do appeal; and in whose name,
Tell you the Dauphin, I am coming on,
To venge me as I may, and to put forth
My rightful hand in a well-hallow'd cause.
So get you hence in peace; and tell the Dauphin,
His jest will savour of but shallow wit,

When thousands weep, more than did laugh at it.

ACT II.

CHORUS.

Martial Spirit.

Now all the youth of England are on fire,
And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies ;
Now thrive the armourers, and honour's thought
Reigns solely in the breast of every man ;
They sell the pasture now, to buy the horse;
Following the mirror of all Christian kings,
With winged heels, as English Mercuries.
For now sits Expectation in the air;
And hides a sword, from hilt unto the point,
With crowns imperial, crowns, and coronets,
Promis'd to Harry and his followers.

Apostrophe to England.

O England!-model to thy inward greatness, Like little body with a mighty heart,—

What might'st thou do, that honour would thee do, Were all thy children kind and natural !

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