And while thou livest, dear Kate, take a fellow | By mine honour in true English, I love thee, of plain and uncoined constancy; for he Kate by which honour I dare not swear thon perforce must do thee right, because he hath lovest me; yet my blood begins to flatter ine not the gift to woo in other places: for these that thou dost, notwithstanding the poor and fellows of infinite tongue, that can rhyme them-untempering effect of my visage. Now be selves into ladies' favours,-they do always shrew my father's ambition! he was thinking reason themselves out again. What! a speaker of civil wars when he got me; therefore was I is but a prater; a rhynie is but a ballad. A created with a stubborn outside, with an as. good leg will fall: a straight back will stoop: pect of iron, that, when I come to woo ladies a black beard will turn white; a curled pate 1 fright them. But in faith, Kate, the elder will grow bald; a fair face will wither; a full wax, the better I shall appear: iny comfort eye will wax hollow but a good heart, Kate, is, that old age, that ill layer-up of beauty, cau is the sun and moon; or rather the sun, and do no more spoil upon my face: thou hast me, not the moon; for it shines bright, and never if thou hast me, at the worst; and thou shalt changes, but keeps his course truly. If thou wear me, if thou wear me, better and better; would have such a one, take me: And take And therefore tell me, most fair Katharine, me, take a soldier: take a soldier, take a king will you have me: Put off your maiden And what sayest thou then to my love? speak, blushes; avouch the thoughts of your heart my fair, and fairly, I pray thee. with the looks of an empress; take me by the band, and say-Harry of England, I am thine: which word thou shalt no sooner bless mine K. Hen. No; it is not possible you should ear withal, but I will tell thee aloud-England love the enemy of France, Kate: but in loving is thine, Ireland is thine, France is thine, me, you should love the friend of France; for und Henry Plantagenet is thine; who, though i I love France so well, that I will not part with speak it before his face, if he be not fellow a village of it; I will have it all mine: and, with the best king, thou shalt find the best king Kate, when France is mine, and I am your's, of good fellows. Come, your answer in brothen your's is France, and you are mine. ken music; for thy voice is music, and thy English broken therefore, queen of all, Katharine, break thy mind to me in broken Eng lish. Wilt thou have me?

Kath. Is it possible dat I should love de enemy of France ?

Kath. I cannot tell vat is dat.

K. Hen. No, Kate? I will tell thee in French; which, I am sure, will hang upon my tongue like a new-married wife about her husband's neck, hardly to be shook off. Quand j'ay la possession de France, et quand vous avez le possession de moi, (let me see, what then? Saint Dennis be my speed !)-done vostre est France, et vous estes mienne. It is as easy for me, Kate, to conquer the kingdom, as to speak so much more French: I shall never move thee in French: unless it be to laugh at me. Kath. Sauf vostre honneur, le François quevous parlez, est meilleur que l'Anglois lequel je parle.

K. Hen. No, 'faith, 'tis not, Kate: but thy speaking of my tongue, and I thine, most truly falsely, must needs be granted to be much at one. But, Kate, dost thou understand thus much English? Canst thou love me?

Kath. I connot tell.

Kath. Dat is, as it shall please de roy mon pere.

K. Hen. Nay, it will please him well, Kate; it shall please him, Kate.

Kath. Den it shall also content me.

K. Hen. Upon that I will kiss your hand, and I call you--my queen.

Kath. Laissez, mon siegneur, laissez, laissex: ma foy, je ne veux point que vous abais sez vostre grandeur, en baisant la main d'une vostre indigne serviteure; excusez moy, je vous supplie, mon tres puissant seigneur.

K. Hen. Then I will kiss your lips, Kate. Kath. Les dames, et damoiselles, pour estre baises devant leur nopces il n'est pas le coutume de France.

K. Hen. Madam, my interpreter, what says she? Atice. Dat it is not be de fashion pour les ladies of France,-I cannot tell what is baiser' en English.

K. Hen. To kiss.

Alice. Your Majesty entendre bettre que moy. K. Hen. It is not the fashion for the maids in France to kiss before they are married, would she say?

Alice. Ouz, rayment.

K. Hen. Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate? I'll ask them. Come, I know, thou lovest me and at night, when you come into your closet, you'll question this gentlewoman about me; and I know, Kate, you will, to her, dispraise those parts in me, that you love with your heart: but, good Kate, mock me mercifully; the rather, gentle princess, because I love thee cruelly. If ever thou be'st mine, K. Hen. O Kate, nice customs curt'sy to Kate, (as I have a saving faith within me, tells great kings. Dear Kate, you and I cannot be me thou shalt,) I get thee with scambling, confined within the weak list of a country's and thou must therefore needs prove a good fashion: we are the makers of manners, Kate; soldier-breeder: Shall not thou and I, be- and the liberty that follows our places, stops tween Saint Dennis and Saint George, com- the mouths of all find-faults; as I will do your's, pound a boy, half French, half English, that for upholding the nice fashion of your country, shall go to Constantinople, and take the Turkin denying me a kiss: therefore, patiently, and by the beard shall we not? what sayest thou, yielding. [Kissing her.] You have witchcraft my fair flower-de-luce?

Kath. I do not know dat.

K. Hen. No; 'tis hereafter to know, but now to promise: do but now promise, Kate, you will endeavour for your French part of such a boy; and, for my English moiety, take the word of a king and a bachelor. How answer you, la plus belle Katharine du monde mon tres chère et divine deesse?

Kath. Your majesté 'ave fausse French enough to deceive de most suge demoiselle dat is en France.

K. Hen. Now, fie upon my false French!

He means, resembling a plain piece of metal which has not yet received any impression.

Fail away.

Henry V. had been dead 31 years before the Turks became possessed of Constantinople: that event took place in 1453.

in your lips, Kate: there is more eloquence in a sugar touch of them, than in the tongues of the French Council; and they should sooner persuade Harry of England, than a general petition of monarchs. Here comes your father. Enter the FRENCH KING and QUEEN, BURGUNDY, BEDFORD, GLOSTER, EXETER, WESTMORELAND, and other French and English Lords.

Bur. God save your majesty ! my royal cousin, teach you our princess English?

K. Hen. I would have her learn, my fair cousin, how perfectly I love her; and that is good English,

Bur. Is she not apt?

• J. c. Though my face has no power to soften you. + Slight barrier.

K. Hen. Our tongne is rough, coz; and my condition is not smooth: so that, having neither the voice nor the heart of flattery about me, I cannot so conjure up the spirit of love in her, that be will appear in his true likeness.

Bur. Pardon the frankness of my mirth, if I answer you for that. If you would conjure in her you must make a circle: if conjure up love in her in his true likeness, he must appear naked and blind: Can you blame her then, being a maid yet rosed over with the virgin crimson of modesty, if she deny the appearance of a naked blind boy in her naked seeing self? It were, my lord, a hard condition for a maid to consign to.

K. Hen. Yet they do wink and yield; as love is blind, and enforces.

Bur. They are then excused, my lord, when they see not what they do.

K. Hen. Then, good my lord, teach your consin to consent to winking.

K. Hen. I pray you then, in love and deat
alliance,

Let that one article rank with the rest :
And, thereupon, give me your daughter.
Fr. King. Take her, fair son; and from her
blood raise up

Issue to me: that the contending kingdoms
Of France and England, whose very shores
look pale
[tion
With envy of each other's happiness,
May cease their hatred: and this dear conjunc
Plant neighbourhood and Christian-like accord
In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance
His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair
France.

Q. Isa. God, the best maker of all marriages,

Combine your hearts in one, your realu:s in one !

Bur. I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you will teach her to know my meaning: for maids, well summered and warm kept, are like flies at Bartholomew-tide, blind, though they As man and wife, being two, are one in love, have their eyes; and then they will endure So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal, handling, which before would not abide look-That never may ill office, or fell jealousy, Which troubles oft the bed of blessed mar ing on. riage,

K. Hen. This moral ties me over to time, and a hot summer; and so I will catch the fly, your cousin, in the latter end, and she must be blind too.

Bur. As love is, my lord, before it loves.

K. Hen. It is so: and you may, some of you, thank love for my blindness; who cannot see many a fair French city, for one fair French maid that stands in my way.

Fr. King. Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, the cities turned into a maid; for they are all girdled with maiden walls, that war hath never entered.

K. Hen. Shall Kate be my wife?
Fr. King. So please you.

K. Hen. I am content; so the maiden cities you talk of, may wait on her so the maid, that stood in the way of my wish, shall show me the way to my will.

Fr. King. We have consented to all terms of

reason.

K. Hen. Is't so, my lords of England? West. The king hath granted every article: His daughter, first; and then, in sequel all, According to their firm proposed natures.

Exe. Only, he hath not yet subscribed this :Where your majesty demands, That the king of France, having any occasion to write for matter of grant, shall name your highness in this form, and with this addition, in French,Notre tres cher filz Henry roy d'Angleterre, heretier de France; and thus in Latin, -Preclarissimus filius noster Henricus, rex Anglia, et hæres Francia.

Fr. King. Nor this I have not, brother, so denied, But your request shall make me let it pass.

• Temper.

Thrust in between the paction of these king
doms,

To make divorce of their incorporate league ;
That English may as French, French English-
Receive each other !-God speak this Amen!

men,

FIRST PART

OF

KING HENRY VI

LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTICE.

MALONE supposes this portion of Henry VI. to have been written in 1589; but doubts, with Theobald, whether the three plays comprised under the title of Henry VI, were actually composed by Shakspeare. Dr. Johnson however maintains, that they exhibit "no marks of spuriousness," and that they are declared to be genuine by the voice of Shakspeare himself. The transactions of the piece are scattered through a period of thirty years, and introduced with little regard to historical accuracy. Lord Talbot who is killed at the end of the fourth act, did not in reality fall until July 13, 1453; and the second part of Henry VI. opens with the king's marriage, which was solemnized in the year 1445, or eight years before Talbot's death. In the same part, Dame Eleanor Cobham is introduced to insult Queen Margaret; though her penance and banishment for sorcery happened three years before that princess arrived in England. ------These deviations from the page of history are of little consequence to the mere lover of dramatic literature, as they neither weaken the gratification, nor diminish the effect of the scenic narrative. Poetry appeals to the passions, and imagination, like , a true magician, lends her most powerful spells to excite or subdue them. But there are many to whom the great events of history are known only through the fascinating medium of a play or a romance; and it is frequently difficult, if not disagreeable to efface, in after life, the distorted impressions which they leave upon the memory. When viewed in the sober simplicity of historic truth, a favourite hero often loses much of his glitter, and a detested villain some portion of his turpitude. It is therefore of no little consequence to examine the 1 materials of a dramatic fabric, to separate truth from fiction, and to shew "the age and body of the time, his form and pressure:" because, in lauding the productions of Shakspeare (particularly those bistorical pieces upon which he exercised such masterly talents,) it has been the fashion to represent them not only as morally entertaining, but also as politically instructive; an attribute with which, examination shows, it is dangerous to invest them,

KING HENRY THE SIXTH.

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

DUKE OF GLOSTER, Uncle to the King, and
Protector.

DUKE OF BEDFORD, Uncle to the King, and
Regent of France.

THOMAS BEAUFORT, Duke of Exeter, great
Uncle to the King.

HENRY BEAUFORT, great Uncle to the King,
Bishop of Winchester; and after.
wards Cardinal.

JOHN BEAUFORT, Earl of Somerset; afterwards Duke.

VERNON, of the White Rose, or York Fac

tion.

BASSET, of the Red Rose, or Lancaster Fac
tion.

CHARLES, Dauphin, and afterwards King of
France.

REIGNIER, Duke of Anjou, and titular King
of Naples.

DUKE OF BURGUNDY.-DUKE OF ALENÇON.
GOVERNOR OF PARIS.-BASTARD OF ORLEANSJ
MASTER-GUNNER OF ORLEANS, and his Son.4
GENERAL OF THE FRENCH FORCES in Bour
deaux.

RICHARD PLANTAGENET, eldest son of Richard,
late Earl of Cambridge; afterwards A FRENCH SERGEANT.-A PORTER.
Duke of York.

EARL OF WARWICK.-EARL OF SALISBURY.

EARL OF SUFFOLK.

AN OLD SHEPHERD, Father to Joan le

Pucelle.

LORD TALBOT, afterwards Earl of Shrews- MARGARET, Daughter to Reignier; after

bury.

JOHN TALBOT, his Son.

EDMUND MORTIMER, Earl of March.

MORTIMER'S KEEPER, and a LAWYER.

SIR JOHN FASTOLFE.-SIR WILLIAM LUCY.

wards married to King Henry.
COUNTESS OF AUVERGNE.

JOAN, LA PUCELLE, commonly called Joan of
Arc.

SIR WILLIAM GLANSDALE, SIR THOMAS GAR-Fiends appearing to La Pucelle, Lords,

Warders of the Tower, Heralds, Officers,
Soldiers, Messengers, and several Attend-
ants both on the English and French.
and partly in France.

ACT I.

Comets, importing change of times and states, Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky; And with them scourge the bad revolting stars, That have consented unto Henry's death! Henry the fifth too famous to live long! England ne'er lost a king of so much worth. Glo. England ne'er had a king, until his time. Virtue he had, deserving to command: Bed. Hung be the heavens with black, yield His brandish'd sword did blind men with his

SCENE I-Westminster Abbey. Dead march. Corpse of King HENRY the Fifth discovered, lying in state; attended on by the Dukes of BEDFORD, GLOSTER, and EXETER; the Earl of WARWICK, the Bishop of WINCHESTER, Heralds, &c.

Mess. My honourable lords, health to you He wanted pikes to set before bis archers;

Here, there, and every where, enrag'd he slew:
The French exclaim'd, The devil was in arms;
All the whole army stood agaz'd on bìm;
His soldiers, spying his undaunted spirit,
A Talbot! a Talbot! cried out amain,
And rush'd into the bowels of the battle.
Here had the conquest fully been seal'd up,
If Sir John Fastolfe had not play'd the coward;
He being in the vaward, (plac'd behind,
With purpose to relieve and follow them,)
Cowardly fled, not having struck one stroke:

And whilst a field should be despatch'd and Hence grew the general wreck and massacre; fought,

One would have ling'ring wars, with little cost; Thrust Talbot with a spear into the back;

Whom all France, with their chief assembled | Alarums; Excursions ; afterwards a Retreat.

strength,

Darst not presume to look once in the face.

Bed. Is Talbot slain? then I will slay myself,
For living idly here, in pomp and ease,
Whilst such a worthy leader, wanting aid,
Unto his dastard foe-man is betray'd.

3 Mess. O no, he lives; but is took prisoner, And lord Scales with him, and lord Hungerford:

Most of the rest slaughter'd, or took, likewise.
Bed. His rausom there is none but I shall

pay:

I'll hale the Dauphin headlong from his throne,
His crown shall be the ransom of my friend;
Four of their lords I'll change for one
our's.-

of

Farewell, my masters; to my task will I;
Bonfires in France forthwith I am to make,
To keep our great Saint George's feast withal:
Ten thousand soldiers with me I will take,
Whose bloody deeds shall make all Europe
quake.

3 Mess. So you had need; for Orleans is be-
sieg'd;

The English ariny is grown weak and faint:
The earl of Salisbury craveth supply,
And hardly keeps his men from mutiny,
Since they, so few, watch such a multitude.
Exe. Remember, lords, your oaths to Henry

sworn:

Either to quell the Dauphin utterly,

Or bring him in obedience to your yoke.
Bed. I do remember it; and here take leave,
To go about my preparation.
[Exit.
Glo. I'll to the Tower, with all the baste I

Re-enter CHARLES, ALENGON, REIGNIER, and others.

Char. Who ever saw the like? what men have 11

Dogs! cowards! dastards;-1 would ne'er have filed,

But that they left me midst my enemies.

Reig. Salisbury is a desperate homicide;
He tighteth as one weary of his life.
The other lords, like lions wanting food,
Do rush upon us as their hungry prey.

Alen. Froissard, a countryman of our's, re-
cords,

England all Olivers and Rowlands + bred,
During the time Edward the third did reign.
More truly now may this be veritied;

For none but Samsons and Goliasses,

It sendeth forth to skirmish. One to ten!
Lean raw-bon'd rascals! who would e'er sup-
pose

They had such courage and audacity?

Char. Let's leave this town; for they are hairbrain'd slaves,

And hunger will enforce them to be more ea-
ger:

Of old I know them; rather with their teeth
The walls they'll tear down, than forsake the
siege.

Reig. I think, by some odd gimmals or de-
vice,

Their arms are set, like clocks, still to strike ou ;
Else ne'er could they hold out so, as they do.
By my consent, we'll e'en let them alone.
Alen. Be it so.

Enter the BASTARD of Orleans.
Bast. Where's the prince Dauphin, I have
news for him.

Char. Bastard of Orleans, thrice welcome to

us.

Bast. Methinks, your looks are sad, your

cheer appall'd;

Hath the late overthrow wrought this offence?
Be not dismay'd, for succour is at hand.
A holy maid hither with me I bring,
Which, by a vision sent to her from heaven,
Ordained is to raise this tedious siege,

And drive the English forth the bounds of
France.

The spirit of deep prophecy she hath,
Exceeding the nine sibyls T of old Rome;
What's past, and what's to come, she can
descry.

Speak, shall I call her in? Believe my words,
For they are certain and infallible.

Char. Go, call her in: [Exit BASTARD.] But,

first, to try her skill, Reignier, stand thou as Dauphin in my place : Question her prondly, let thy looks be stern:By this means shall we sound what skill she hath. [Retires. Enter LA PUCELLE, BASTARD of Orleans, and others.

Reig. Fair maid, is't thou wilt do these wond'rous feats ?

Puc. Reignier, is't thou that thinkest to beguile me ?

Where is the Dauphin ?-come, come from behind;

know thee well, though never seen before. Be not amaz'd, there's nothing hid from nie: In private will I talk with thee apart :