Great Earl of Washford, Waterford, and Valence;
Lord Talbot of Goodrig and Urchinfield,

Lord Strange of Blackmere, Lord Verdun of Alton, Lord Cromwell of Wingfield, Lord Furnival of Shef

field,

The thrice victorious Lord of Falconbridge;

Knight of the noble order of Saint George,

Worthy Saint Michael, and the Golden Fleece;
Great Marshal to Henry the Sixth

Of all his wars within the realm of France ?
Puc. Here is a silly stately style indeed!
The Turk, that two and fifty kingdoms hath,
Writes not so tedious a style as this.
Him that thou magnifiest with all these titles,
Stinking and fly-blown, lies here at our feet.

Lucy. Is Talbot slain? the Frenchmen's only

Scourge,

Your kingdom's terror and black Nemesis?
O, were mine eye-balls into bullets turn'd,
That I in rage might shoot them at your faces!
O, that I could but call these dead to life!
It were enough to fright the realm of France.
Were but his picture left among you here,
It would amaze the proudest of you all.

Give me their bodies, that I may bear them hence,
And give them burial as beseems their worth.
Puc. I think this upstart is old Talbot's ghost,

63 Washford. Washford is an old corruption of Wexford. Malone discovered that this list of Talbot's titles is from an epitaph on his tomb in Rouen. [The books named in the preceding note do not explain where

Shakespeare, writing earlier, got his information.]

70 Marshal. In this line, Marshal and Henry have the quantity of trisyllables. In Shakespeare's early years, they were written and fully pronounced as such. (w) 84 amaze, frighten. (R)

He speaks with such a proud commanding spirit.
For God's sake let him have 'em; to keep them here,
They would but stink and putrefy the air.

Char. Go, take their bodies hence.
Lucy.

I'll bear them hence;

But from their ashes shall be rear'd

A phoenix that shall make all France afeard.

Char. So we be rid of them, do with 'em what thou wilt.

And now to Paris in this conquering vein :

All will be ours, now bloody Talbot's slain. [Exeunt.

ACT FIVE.

SCENE I. London. A Room in the Palace.

Enter King HENRY, GLOSTER, and EXETER.

KING

ING HENRY. Have you perus'd the letters from the Pope,

The Emperor, and the Earl of Armagnac?

89 let him have 'em. The old copies have, have him, which Theobald needfully corrected. The same mistake, made in the first folio, six lines below, was corrected in the same manner in the second folio. (w)

1 In the folio, this Act is mistakenly headed Scena Secunda. (w) The events of this Scene are based on the Chronicles of Hall and Holinshed, but the chronological order of events is violated for dramatic purposes. The peace was that of 1435; Eugenius IV. was the Pope (1. 1), and Sigismund the Emperor (1. 2); and

VOL. VIII.— -8

90

the conference was held at the Council of Basle. See BoswellStone, p. 234. The proffer of the Earl of Armagnac's daughter occurred historically in 1442, seven years later. Winchester had been made cardinal eight years before, in 1427, and Exeter, who in the play cries out against him, had died even one year earlier, in 1426. The Parliament scene (III. i.) had occurred in 1426; the crowning of Henry VI. (IV. i.) in 1431. It is an excellent example of the method of converting chronicle material into a play. (R)

Glo. I have, my lord; and their intent is this: They humbly sue unto your excellence,

To have a godly peace concluded of

Between the realms of England and of France.

:

K. Hen. How doth your Grace affect their motion ? Glo. Well, my good lord; and as the only means To stop effusion of our Christian blood,

And 'stablish quietness on every side.

K. Hen. Ay, marry, uncle; for I always thought
It was both impious and unnatural,

That such immanity and bloody strife
Should reign among professors of one faith.
Glo. Beside, my lord, the sooner to effect,
And surer bind this knot of amity,
The Earl of Armagnac, near kin to Charles,
A man of great authority in France,
Proffers his only daughter to your Grace

In marriage, with a large and sumptuous dowry.
K. Hen. Marriage, uncle? alas! my years

young,

And fitter is my study and my books,
Than wanton dalliance with a paramour.
Yet, call th' ambassadors; and, as you please,
So let them have their answers every one:
I shall be well content with any choice
Tends to God's glory and my country's weal.

are

Enter a Legate, and two Ambassadors, with
WINCHESTER as a cardinal.

Exe. What, is my Lord of Winchester install'd, And call'd unto a cardinal's degree?

Then, I perceive that will be verified

Henry the Fifth did sometime prophesy,

"If once he come to be a cardinal,

He'll make his cap co-equal with the crown."

K. Hen. My Lords Ambassadors, your several suits Have been consider'd and debated on.

Your purpose is both good and reasonable;

And therefore are we certainly resolv'd
To draw conditions of a friendly peace;

Which, by my Lord of Winchester, we mean
Shall be transported presently to France.

Glo. And for the proffer of my lord, your master,

I have inform'd his Highness so at large,

As - liking of the lady's virtuous gifts,
Her beauty and the value of her dower—

He doth intend she shall be England's Queen.

K. Hen. In argument and proof of which contract,

28-9 As already pointed out there is some inconsistency in the play as it stands. In III. i. and IV. i. Winchester is only a bishop and very dramatically at this point he appears as a cardinal. But in I. iii. 36-possibly in revising, - this was forgotten and the cardinal's hat was spoken of. The following lines (32, 33) are based directly on Hall's Chronicle: 66 Cardinalles Hattes shoulde not presume to bee egal with Princes." Lines 51-54,

30

40

where Winchester is sending the sum of money for his preferment, have no authority in the Chronicles, but serve the dramatic purpose of painting Winchester in blacker colours. The king at the beginning of the play was nine months old, according to history: the young years of 1. 21 were really twenty-four in number. (R)

40 presently, at once Cf. ii. 13 below. (R)

as often.

46 argument, evidence. (R)

Bear her this jewel, pledge of my affection. —
And so, my Lord Protector, see them guarded,
And safely brought to Dover; where, inshipp'd,
Commit them to the fortune of the sea.

[Exeunt King HENRY and Train; GLOSTER, EXETER, and Ambassadors.

Win. Stay, my Lord Legate: you shall first receive The sum of money which I promised

Should be deliver'd to his Holiness

For clothing me in these grave ornaments.

Legate. I will attend upon your lordship's leisure.
Win. Now, Winchester will not submit, I trow,
Or be inferior to the proudest peer.

Humphrey of Gloster, thou shalt well perceive,
That neither in birth or for authority

The bishop will be overborne by thee:

I'll either make thee stoop, and bend thy knee,
Or sack this country with a mutiny.

SCENE II. France. Plains in Anjou.

[Exeunt.

Enter CHARLES, BURGUNDY, ALENÇON, Bastard, REIGNIER, La Pucelle, and Forces marching.

Char. These news, my lords, may cheer our droop

ing spirits.

"Tis said the stout Parisians do revolt,

And turn again unto the warlike French.

Alen. Then march to Paris, royal Charles of France, And keep not back your powers in dalliance.

Puc. Peace be amongst them, if they turn to us; Else ruin combat with their palaces!

2-8 Paris was reported as lost in I. i. 61; but in IV. i. Henry is crowned there. The loss is here

50

60

Holinshed

reported once more.
places this disaster in the year
1436. (R)