PERSONS REPRESENTED.

King HENRY the Fifth.

Duke of GLOSTER, brothers to the king,

Duke of BEDFORD, S

Duke of EXETER, uncle to the king.

Duke of YORK, cousin to the king.

Earls of SALISBURY, WESTMORELAND, and WAR

WICK.

Archbishop of CANTERBURY.

Bishop of ELY.

Earl of CAMBRIDGE,

Lord SCROOP,

Sir THOMAS GREY,

{

conspirators against the king.

Sir THOMAS ERPINGHAM, GOWER, FLUELLEN, MACMORRIS, JAMY, officers in king Henry's army. BATES, COURT, WILLIAMS, soldiers in the same. NYM, BARDOLPH, PISTOL, formerly servants to Fal

staff, now soldiers in the same. Boy, servant to them. A Herald. CHARLES the Sixth, king of France.

Lewis, the Dauphin.

Chorus.

Dukes of BURGUNDY, ORLEANS, and BOURBON.

The Constable of France.

RAMBURES, and GRANDPREE, French lords.

Governour of Harfleur. MONTJOY, a French herald.

Ambassadors to the king of England.

ISABEL, queen of France.

KATHARINE, daughter of Charles and Isabel. ALICE, a lady, attending on the princess Katharine. QUICKLY, Pistol's wife, an hostess.

Lords, Ladies, Officers, French and English Soldiers, Messengers, and Attendants.

The SCENE-at the beginning of the play, lies in England; but afterwards, wholly in France.

:

Henry. What sayest thou then to my love? Speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray

thee.

OBSERVATIONS.

THIS play was writ (as appears from a passage in the chorus to the fifth act) at the time of the earl of Essex's commanding the forces in Ireland in the reign of queen Elizabeth, and not till after Henry the Sixth had been played, as may be seen by the conclusion of this play.

POPE.

The Life of Henry V.-The transactions comprised in this historical play commence about the latter end of the first, and terminate in the eighth year of this king's reign; when he married Katharine princess of France, and closed up the differences betwixt England and that crown. THEOBALD.

This play has many scenes of high dignity, and many of easy merriment. The character of the king is well supported, except in his courtship, where he has neither the vivacity of Hal, nor the grandeur of Henry. The humour of Pistol is very happily continued: his character has perhaps been the model of all the bullies that have yet appeared on the English stage.

The lines given to the Chorus have many admirers; but the truth is, that in them a little may be praised, and much must be forgiven; nor can it be easily discovered why the intelligence given by the Chorus is more necessary in this play than in many others where it is omitted. The great defect of this play is the emptiness and narrowness of the last act, which a very little diligence might have easily avoided.

JOHNSON

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.2 But pardon, gentles all,
The flat unraised spirit, that hath dar'd,
On this unworthy scaffold, to bring forth
So great an object: Can this cock-pit hold
The vasty fields of France? or may we cram
Within this wooden 0,3 the very casques,
That did affright the air at Agincourt?
O, pardon! since a crooked figure may
Attest, in little place, a million;
And let us, cyphers to this great accompt,
On your imaginary forces work : 5
Suppose, within the girdle of these walls
Are now confin'd two mighty monarchies,
Whose high-upreared and abutting fronts
The perilous, narrow ocean parts asunder.
Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;
Into a thousand parts divide one man,
And make imaginary puissance:

Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them
Printing their proud hoofs i'the receiving earth :
For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times;
Turning the accomplishment of many years
Into an hour-glass: For the which supply,
Admit me Chorus to this history;

Who, prologue-like, your humble patience pray,
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.

[1] This goes upon the notion of the Peripatetic system, which imagined several heavens one above another; the last and highest of which was one of fire. WARB.-It alludes likewise to the aspiring nature of fire, which, by its levity, at the separation of the chaos, took the highest seat of all the elements JOHNS

[2] This image of the warlike Henry very much resembles Montfaucon's description of the Mars discovered at Bresse, who leads a lion and a lioness in couples, and crouching for employment.

TOLLET.

[3] Nothing shows more evidently the power of custom over language, than that the frequent use of calling a circle an O could so much hide the meanness of the metaphor from Shakspeare, that he has used it many times where he makes his most eager attempts at dignity of style.

JOHNS.

[4] The helmets. JOHNS.

[5] Imaginary for imaginative, your powers of fancy.

JOHNS.