King Henry the Fifth E-Book

William Shakespeare

• Herausgeber: Phoemixx Classics Ebooks
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Seitenzahl: 138

Beschreibung

King Henry the Fifth William Shakespeare - Henry V is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1599. It tells the story of King Henry V of England, focusing on events immediately before and after the Battle of Agincourt (1415) during the Hundred Years' War.

Leseprobe

William Shakespeare

King Henry the Fifth

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ACT 1

Prologue

Enter Chorus

Chorus

O for a Muse of fire, that would ascendThe brightest heaven of invention,A kingdom for a stage, princes to actAnd 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 fireCrouch for employment. But pardon, and gentles all,The flat unraised spirits that have daredOn this unworthy scaffold to bring forthSo great an object: can this cockpit holdThe vasty fields of France? or may we cramWithin this wooden O the very casquesThat did affright the air at Agincourt?O, pardon! since a crooked figure mayAttest in little place a million;And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,On your imaginary forces work.Suppose within the girdle of these wallsAre now confined two mighty monarchies,Whose high upreared and abutting frontsThe perilous narrow ocean parts asunder:Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;Into a thousand parts divide on man,And make imaginary puissance;Think when we talk of horses, that you see themPrinting 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 yearsInto 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.

Exit

Scene 1

London. An ante-chamber in the KING'S palace.

Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, and the BISHOP OF ELY

CANTERBURY

My lord, I'll tell you; that self bill is urged,Which in the eleventh year of the last king's reignWas like, and had indeed against us pass'd,But that the scambling and unquiet timeDid push it out of farther question.

ELY

But how, my lord, shall we resist it now?

CANTERBURY

It must be thought on. If it pass against us,We lose the better half of our possession:For all the temporal lands which men devoutBy testament have given to the churchWould they strip from us; being valued thus:As much as would maintain, to the king's honour,Full fifteen earls and fifteen hundred knights,Six thousand and two hundred good esquires;And, to relief of lazars and weak age,Of indigent faint souls past corporal toil.A hundred almshouses right well supplied;And to the coffers of the king beside,A thousand pounds by the year: thus runs the bill.

ELY

This would drink deep.

CANTERBURY

'Twould drink the cup and all.

ELY

But what prevention?

CANTERBURY

The king is full of grace and fair regard.

ELY

And a true lover of the holy church.

CANTERBURY

The courses of his youth promised it not.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 momentConsideration, like an angel, cameAnd 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 faultsNor never Hydra-headed wilfulnessSo soon did lose his seat and all at onceAs in this king.

ELY

We are blessed in the change.

CANTERBURY

Hear him but reason in divinity,And all-admiring with an inward wishYou 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 hearA 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 practic part of lifeMust be the mistress to this theoric:Which is a wonder how his grace should glean it,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 sequestrationFrom open haunts and popularity.

ELY

The strawberry grows underneath the nettleAnd wholesome berries thrive and ripen bestNeighbour'd by fruit of baser quality:And so the prince obscured his contemplationUnder the veil of wildness; which, no doubt,Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night,Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.

CANTERBURY

It must be so; for miracles are ceased;And therefore we must needs admit the meansHow things are perfected.

ELY

But, my good lord,How now for mitigation of this billUrged by the commons? Doth his majestyIncline to it, or no?

CANTERBURY

He seems indifferent,Or rather swaying more upon our partThan cherishing the exhibiters against us;For I have made an offer to his majesty,Upon our spiritual convocationAnd in regard of causes now in hand,Which I have open'd to his grace at large,As touching France, to give a greater sumThan ever at one time the clergy yetDid to his predecessors part withal.

ELY

How did this offer seem received, my lord?

CANTERBURY

With good acceptance of his majesty;Save that there was not time enough to hear,As I perceived his grace would fain have done,The severals and unhidden passagesOf his true titles to some certain dukedomsAnd generally to the crown and seat of FranceDerived from Edward, his great-grandfather.

ELY

What was the impediment that broke this off?

CANTERBURY

The French ambassador upon that instantCraved audience; and the hour, I think, is comeTo give him hearing: is it four o'clock?

ELY

It is.

CANTERBURY

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

Scene 2

The same. The Presence chamber.

Enter KING HENRY V, GLOUCESTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and Attendants

KING HENRY V

Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury?

EXETER

Not here in presence.

KING HENRY V

Send for him, good uncle.

WESTMORELAND

Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege?

KING HENRY V

Not yet, my cousin: we would be resolved,Before we hear him, of some things of weightThat task our thoughts, concerning us and France.

Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, and the BISHOP of ELY

CANTERBURY

God and his angels guard your sacred throneAnd make you long become it!

KING HENRY V

Sure, we thank you.My learned lord, we pray you to proceedAnd justly and religiously unfoldWhy the law Salique that they have in FranceOr 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 soulWith opening titles miscreate, whose rightSuits not in native colours with the truth;For God doth know how many now in healthShall drop their blood in approbationOf what your reverence shall incite us to.Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,How you awake our sleeping sword of war:We charge you, in the name of God, take heed;For never two such kingdoms did contendWithout much fall of blood; whose guiltless dropsAre every one a woe, a sore complaint'Gainst him whose wrong gives edge unto the swordsThat make such waste in brief mortality.Under this conjuration, speak, my lord;For we will hear, note and believe in heartThat what you speak is in your conscience wash'dAs pure as sin with baptism.

CANTERBURY

Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers,That owe yourselves, your lives and servicesTo this imperial throne. There is no barTo make against your highness' claim to FranceBut this, which they produce from Pharamond,'In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant:''No woman shall succeed in Salique land:'Which Salique land the French unjustly glozeTo be the realm of France, and PharamondThe founder of this law and female bar.Yet their own authors faithfully affirmThat the land Salique is in Germany,Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe;Where Charles the Great, having subdued the Saxons,There left behind and settled certain French;Who, holding in disdain the German womenFor some dishonest manners of their life,Establish'd then this law; to wit, no femaleShould 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 that Salique lawWas not devised for the realm of France:Nor did the French possess the Salique landUntil four hundred one and twenty yearsAfter defunction of King Pharamond,Idly supposed the founder of this law;Who died within the year of our redemptionFour hundred twenty-six; and Charles the GreatSubdued the Saxons, and did seat the FrenchBeyond the river Sala, in the yearEight hundred five. Besides, their writers say,King Pepin, which deposed Childeric,Did, as heir general, being descendedOf Blithild, which was daughter to King Clothair,Make claim and title to the crown of France.Hugh Capet also, who usurped the crownOf Charles the duke of Lorraine, sole heir maleOf the true line and stock of Charles the Great,To find his title with some shows of truth,'Through, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught,Convey'd himself as heir to the Lady Lingare,Daughter to Charlemain, who was the sonTo Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the sonOf Charles the Great. Also King Lewis the Tenth,Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet,Could not keep quiet in his conscience,Wearing the crown of France, till satisfiedThat fair Queen Isabel, his grandmother,Was lineal of the Lady Ermengare,Daughter to Charles the foresaid duke of Lorraine:By the which marriage the line of Charles the GreatWas re-united to the crown of France.So that, as clear as is the summer's sun.King Pepin's title and Hugh Capet's claim,King Lewis his satisfaction, all appearTo hold in right and title of the female:So do the kings of France unto this day;Howbeit they would hold up this Salique lawTo bar your highness claiming from the female,And rather choose to hide them in a netThan amply to imbar their crooked titlesUsurp'd from you and your progenitors.

KING HENRY V

May I with right and conscience make this claim?

CANTERBURY

The sin upon my head, dread sovereign!For in the book of Numbers is it writ,When the man dies, let the inheritanceDescend 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,From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit,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 hillStood smiling to behold his lion's whelpForage in blood of French nobility.O noble English. that could entertainWith half their forces the full Pride of FranceAnd let another half stand laughing by,All out of work and cold for action!

ELY

Awake remembrance of these valiant deadAnd with your puissant arm renew their feats:You are their heir; you sit upon their throne;The blood and courage that renowned themRuns in your veins; and my thrice-puissant liegeIs in the very May-morn of his youth,Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises.

EXETER

Your brother kings and monarchs of the earthDo all expect that you should rouse yourself,As did the former lions of your blood.

WESTMORELAND

They know your grace hath cause and means and might;So hath your highness; never king of EnglandHad nobles richer and more loyal subjects,Whose hearts have left their bodies here in EnglandAnd lie pavilion'd in the fields of France.

CANTERBURY

O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege,With blood and sword and fire to win your right;In aid whereof we of the spiritualtyWill raise your highness such a mighty sumAs never did the clergy at one timeBring in to any of your ancestors.

KING HENRY V

We must not only arm to invade the French,But lay down our proportions to defendAgainst the Scot, who will make road upon usWith all advantages.

CANTERBURY

They of those marches, gracious sovereign,Shall be a wall sufficient to defendOur inland from the pilfering borderers.

KING HENRY V

We do not mean the coursing snatchers only,But fear the main intendment of the Scot,Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us;For you shall read that my great-grandfatherNever went with his forces into FranceBut that the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdomCame pouring, like the tide into a breach,With ample and brim fulness of his force,Galling the gleaned land with hot assays,Girding with grievous siege castles and towns;That England, being empty of defence,Hath shook and trembled at the ill neighbourhood.

CANTERBURY

She hath been then more fear'd than harm'd, my liege;For hear her but exampled by herself:When all her chivalry hath been in FranceAnd she a mourning widow of her nobles,She hath herself not only well defendedBut taken and impounded as a strayThe King of Scots; whom she did send to France,To fill King Edward's fame with prisoner kingsAnd make her chronicle as rich with praiseAs is the ooze and bottom of the seaWith sunken wreck and sunless treasuries.

WESTMORELAND

But there's a saying very old and true,'If that you will France win,Then with Scotland first begin:'For once the eagle England being in prey,To her unguarded nest the weasel ScotComes sneaking and so sucks her princely eggs,Playing the mouse in absence of the cat,To tear and havoc more than she can eat.

EXETER

It follows then the cat must stay at home:Yet that is but a crush'd necessity,Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries,And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves.While that the armed hand doth fight abroad,The advised head defends itself at home;For government, though high and low and lower,Put into parts, doth keep in one consent,Congreeing in a full and natural close,Like music.

CANTERBURY

Therefore doth heaven divideThe state of man in divers functions,Setting endeavour in continual motion;To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,Obedience: for so work the honey-bees,Creatures that by a rule in nature teachThe 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 homeTo the tent-royal of their emperor;Who, busied in his majesty, surveysThe singing masons building roofs of gold,The civil citizens kneading up the honey,The poor mechanic porters crowding inTheir heavy burdens at his narrow gate,The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum,Delivering o'er to executors paleThe lazy yawning drone. I this infer,That many things, having full referenceTo one consent, may work contrariously:As many arrows, loosed several ways,Come to one mark; as many ways meet in one town;As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea;As many lines close in the dial's centre;So may a thousand actions, once afoot.End in one purpose, and be all well borneWithout defeat. Therefore to France, my liege.Divide your happy England into four;Whereof take you one quarter into France,And you withal shall make all Gallia shake.If we, with thrice such powers left at home,Cannot defend our own doors from the dog,Let us be worried and our nation loseThe name of hardiness and policy.

KING HENRY V

Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin.

Exeunt some Attendants

Now are we well resolved; and, by God's help,