faults, as I will do yours, for upholding the nice fashion of your country in denying me a kiss: therefore, patiently, and yielding. [Kissing her.] You have witchcraft 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.

Re-enter the French King and Queen, BURGUndy, Bedford, GLOSTER, EXETER, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and other French and English Lords.

Bur. Heaven 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?

K. Hen. Our tongue 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 he will appear in his true likeness.

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 have their eyes.

K. Hen. This moral ties me over to time, and a hot summer; and so I shall 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.

K. Hen. Shall Kate be my wife?

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

With envy of each other's happiness,

May cease their hatred; and this dear conjunction

Plant neighborhood and christian-like accord

In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance

His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair France.

K. Hen. Now, welcome, Kate:-and bear me witness all,

That here I kiss her as my sovereign_queen.

[Flourish.

Prepare we for our marriage:-on which day
My lord of Burgundy, we'll take your oath,
And all the peers', for surety of our leagues.—
Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me;

And may our oaths well kept and prosperous be!

[Exeunt.

THE HISTORY OF

KING HENRY VI.

PART I.

THE "Chronicle History" of Henry VI. is divided into three parts, forming, together, authentic annals of this monarch's reign; giving a vivid picture of "the contentions of the Houses of York and Lancaster," or the "Wars of the Roses." The chronicles of Hall and Holinshed afforded the poet materials for his labors, and, bating a few errors in dates, the whole of the series may be taken as a faithful historical transcript of the times they are intended to illustrate. The first part of Henry VI. commences with the childhood of Henry, while the kingdom was under the Protectorate of his uncle, the Duke of Gloster, and ends with prepara tions for the marriage of Henry with Margaret, his future Queen, which took place in the twenty-third year of his reign, 1445.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

KING HENRY THE SIXTH.

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 afterwards Cardinal.

JOHN BEAUFORT, Earl of Somerset, afterwards Duke.

RICHARD PLANTAGENET, Eldest Son of Richard, late Earl of Cambridge; afterwards Duke of York.

EARLS OF WARWICK, SALISBURY, and SUFFOLK.
LORD TALBOT, afterwards Earl of Shrewsbury.

JOHN TALBOT, his Son.

EDMUND MORTIMER, Earl of March.

MORTIMER'S Keepers, and a Lawyer.

Sir JOHN FASTOLFE. Sir WILLIAM LUCY. Sir WILLIAM GLANSDALE. Sir

THOMAS GARGRAVE.

WOODVILLE, Lieutenant of the Tower. Mayor of London.

VERNON, of the White Rose, or York Faction.

BASSET, of the Red Rose, or Lancaster Faction.

CHARLES, Dauphin, and afterwards King, of France.
REIGNIER, Duke of Anjou, and titular King of Naples.
DUKES OF BURGUNDY and ALENCON. ORLEANS.

Governor of Paris. Master-Gunner of Orleans, and his Son.
General of the French Forces in Bourdeaux.

A French Sergeant. A Porter. An old Shepherd, Father to JOAN LA
PUCELLE.

MARGARET, Daughter to REIGNIER; afterwards married to King Henry. COUNTESS OF AUVERGNE.

JOAN LA PUCELLE, commonly called Joan of Arc.

Fiends appearing to LA PUCELLE, Lords, Warders of the Tower, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and several Attendants both on the English and French.

SCENE,-Partly in ENGLAND, and partly in FRANCE.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-Westminster Abbey.

Dead March. The Corpse of King Henry the Fifth is discovered, lying in state; attended on by the DUKES OF BEDFORD, GLOSTER, and EXETER; the EARL of WARWICK, the BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, Heralds, &c.

Bed. Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night! 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!
King 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:

His brandish'd sword did blind men with his beams;
His arms spread wider than a dragon's wings.

What should I say? his deeds exceed all speech:

He ne'er lift up his hand, but conquered.

Exe. We mourn in black: why mourn we not in blood?

Henry is dead, and never shall revive.

Win. He was a king, bless'd of the King of kings.

The battles of the Lord of hosts he fought:

The church's prayers made him so prosperous.

Glo. The church! where is it? Had not churchmen pray'd, His thread of life had not so soon decay'd: None do you like but an effeminate prince, Whom, like a school-boy, you may over-awe.

Win. Gloster, whate'er we like, thou art protector,
And lookest to command the prince, and realm.
Thy wife is proud; she holdeth thee in awe,
More than heaven or religious churchmen may.
Glo. Name not religion, for thou lov'st the flesh;
And ne'er throughout the year to church thou go'st,
Except it be to pray against thy foes.

Bed. Cease, cease these jars, and rest your minds in peace! Let's to the altar:-Heralds, wait on us:

Instead of gold, we'll offer up our arms;

Since arms avail not, now that Henry's dead.-
Henry the fifth! thy ghost I invocate;
Prosper this realm, keep it from civil broils!
Combat with adverse planets in the heavens!
A far more glorious star thy soul will make,
Than Julius Cæsar, or bright-

Enter a Messenger.

Mess. My honorable lords, health to you all!
Sad tidings bring I to you out of France,
Of loss, of slaughter, and discomfiture:
Guienne, Champaigne, Rheims, Orleans,
Paris, Guysors, Poictiers, are all quite lost.

Bed. What say'st thou, man, before dead Henry's corse? Speak softly; or the loss of those great towns

Will make him burst his lead, and rise from death.
Exe. How were they lost? what treachery was us'd?
Mess. No treachery; but want of men and money.
Among the soldiers this is muttered,-

That here you maintain several factions;

And, whilst a field should be despatch'd and fought,
You are disputing of your generals:

One would have lingering wars, with little cost;
Another would fly swift, but wanteth wings;
A third man thinks, without expense at all,
By guileful fair words peace may be obtain'd.

Exe. Were our tears wanting to this funeral,
These tidings would call forth her flowing tides.

Bed. Me they concern; regent I am of France. Give me my steeled coat! I'll fight for France. Away with these disgraceful wailing robes! Wounds will I lend the French, instead of eyes, To weep their intermissive miseries.

Enter a second Messenger.

2 Mess. Lords, view these letters, full of bad mischance. France is revolted from the English quite,

Except some petty towns of no import:

The Dauphin, Charles, is crowned king in Rheims;
The bastard of Orleans with him is join'd;
Reignier, duke of Anjou, doth take his part;
The duke of Alençon flieth to his side.

Exe. The Dauphin crowned king! all fly to him!
O, whither shall we fly from this reproach?

Glo. We will not fly, but to our enemies' throats:Bedford, if thou be slack, I'll fight it out.

Bed. Gloster, why doubt'st thou of my forwardness? An army have I muster'd in my thoughts, Wherewith already France is over-run.

Enter a third Messenger.

3 Mess. My gracious lords,-to add to your laments, Wherewith you now bedew king Henry's hearse,I must inform you of a dismal fight

Betwixt the stout lord Talbot and the French.

Win. What! wherein Talbot overcame? is't so?
3 Mess. O, no; wherein lord Talbot was o'erthrown:
The circumstance I'll tell you more at large.
The tenth of August last, this dreadful lord,
Retiring from the siege of Orleans,

Having full scarce six thousand in his troop,
By three-and-twenty thousand of the French
Was round encompassed and set upon.

A base Walloon, to win the Dauphin's grace,
Thrust Talbot with a spear into the back;

Whom all France, with their chief assembled strength,
Durst 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-men 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 ransom 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: 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 besieg'd; The English army 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.