1 [and bade the Prince "your soueraigne lorde and father, to whom ye owe double "obedience; wherfore eftsones in his name I charge you desiste "of your wilfulnes and vnlaufull entreprise, & from hensforth gyue 'good example to those whiche hereafter shall be your propre "subiects. And nowe for your contempt and disobedience go you go to the "to the prisone of the kynges benche, where vnto I committe you; "and remayne ye there prisoner vntill the pleasure of the kyng "your father be further knowen.” prison of the King's Bench.] [The Prince whereat his obeyed; servants, being laid the matter King, King With whiche wordes beinge abasshed, and also wondrynge at the meruailous grauitie of that worshipful Iustice, the noble prince, layinge his waipon aparte, doinge reuerence, departed, and wente indignant, to the kynges benche as he was commaunded. Wherat his whole seruantes, disdainyng, came and shewed to the kynge all the hole before the affaire. Whereat he a whiles studienge, after, as a man all rauisshed with [fol. 123 verso] gladnesse, holdyng his eien and handes vp towarde heuen, abrayded, sayinge with a loude voice: "O mercifull god, how moche am I, aboue all other "bounde to your infinite goodnes! specially for that ye "gyuen me a iuge who feareth nat to ministre iustice, and also obeyed a sonne who can suffre semblably and obey iustice!" Before leaving the stage Henry says (1. 134; 141, 142): Now call we our high court of parliament: Our coronation done, we wil accite (As I before remembred) all our state. Holinshed briefly notices the first Parliament of Henry V. men, Henry that answered [he was happy to have a judge who ministered haue lessly, and a justice fear son who justice.] A parlement [called by [Hol. iii. 543/2/44] Immediatlie after Easter he called a parlement, in which diuerse good statutes, and wholesome ordin- Henry V.]. 1 I then did vse the person of your father; 80 And strooke me in my very seate of iudgement; The writer of The Famovs Victories of Henry the fifth, 1598, made the Judgeto whom Prince Henry had given "a boxe on the eare "-say (sc. iv. 11. 99-102, p. 14): "in striking me in this place, you greatly abuse me, and not me onely, but also your father: whose liuely person here in this place I doo represent.' This assertion has-accidentally, no doubt-the same scope as the doctrine laid down by the Court of King's Bench in regard to William de Brews's contempt: "Et quia sicut honor et reverentia qui ministris ipsius Domini Regis ratione officii sui [fiunt] ipsi Regi attribuuntur, sic dedecus et contemptus ministris suis facta eidem Regi attribuuntur."-Solly-Flood, 106. The day of king Henries coronation a very day. ances, for the preseruation and aduancement of the commonwealth were deuised and established. Act V. sc. v.-Falstaff interrupts the royal procession on its return after Henry's coronation, and is sent by the King into banishment with Henry's other "misleaders"; all of whom have been forbidden to come within "ten mile of our person'; though they are to receive pensions now for "competence of life," and "aduancement" in future, if they reform themselves (11. 67-74). Holinshed thus records Henry's coronation and altered behaviour: [Hol. iii. 543/1/54] He was crowned the ninth of Aprill, being Passion sundaie, which was a sore, ruggie, and tempestuous tempestuous day, with wind, snow, and sleet; that men greatlie maruelled thereat, making diuerse interpretations what the same might signifie. But this king euen at first appointing with himselfe, to shew that in his person priucelie honors should change publike manners, he determined to put on him the shape of a new man. For whereas aforetime he had made himselfe a companion vnto misrulie mates of dissolute order and life, he now banished them all from his presence (but not vnrewarded, or else vnpreferred); banished his inhibiting them vpon a great paine, not once to approch, lodge, or soiourne within ten miles of his court or presence: A notable example of a woorthie prince [, who, when he became King, unruly mates]. His stature. [His character.] The following sketch of Henry IV.'s character and circumstances may have afforded Shakspere some hints. [Hol. iii. 541/2/20.] This king was of a meane stature, well proportioned, and formallie compact; quicke and liuelie, and of a stout courage. In his latter daies he shewed himselfe so gentle, that he gat more loue amongst the nobles and people of this realme, than he had purchased malice and euill will in the beginning. But yet to speake a truth, by his proceedings, after he had atteined to the crowne, what with such taxes, tallages, subsidies, and exactions as he was constreined to charge the people with; and what by punishing such as, mooued with disdeine to see him vsurpe the crowne (contrarie to the oth taken at his entring into this land, vpon his returne from exile), did at sundrie times rebell against him; he wan himselfe more hatred, than in all his life time (if it had beene longer by manie yeares than it was) had beene possible for him to haue weeded out & remooued. VIII. HENRY V. HENRY V. appears to have received the Dauphin Lewis's1 gift of tennis-balls in Lent, 1414.2 This date marks the commencement of historic time in The Life of Henry the Fift; and the play ends with Katharine of Valois's betrothal in May, 1420. Act I. Prologue.— (Leasht in, like Hounds) should Famine, Sword, and Fire 8 3 A speech attributed to the "Warlike Harry" contains a parable which may have suggested the picture of these crouching hounds of Famine, Sword, and Fire. On January 2, 1419, Rouen, despairing of succour, after five months' siege, yielded to the pressure of famine so far as to open communication with Henry through ambassadors. A pre [Hol. iii. 567/1/39.] One of them, seene in the ciuill lawes, was appointed to declare the message in all their names; who, shewing himselfe more rash than wise, more arrogant than learned, sumptuous first tooke vpon him to shew wherin the glorie of victorie consisted; aduising the king not to shew his manhood in famishing a multi 1 Lewis was a contemporary of the events dramatized in Hen. V., Acts I.-IV. He died on December 18, 1415.-Mons., iii. 366; Journal, xv. 210. His brother, the Dauphin John, died on April 3 (Journal, 216) or 4 (Mons., iii. 408), 1417. During the historic time embraced by Act V. the Dauphin was Charles, who afterwards reigned as Charles VII., and is a character in 1 Hen. VI. 2 "Eodem anno [1414] in Quadragesima rege existente apud Kenilworth, Karolus [sc. Ludovicus], regis Francorum filius, Dalphinus vocatus, misit pilas Parisianas ad ludendum cum pueris."-Ott., 274. In 1414 Ash Wednesday fell on February 21. 3 A speech, similar in outline, is attributed to Henry by Redman (55). I quote from it a passage which has some resemblance to that in which Henry takes credit to himself for employing the "meekest maid" to punish Rouen: "Benigne et clementer omnia me administrare nemo est qui non intelligat, cum fame potius quam flamma, ferro, aut sanguine, Rotomagum ad deditionem perpello." The forces blockading Rouen were ordered to take up their positions on August 1, 1418.-Page, 6. On January 2, 1419, Henry gave audience to the ambassadors from Rouen.-Page, 26-28. Rouen opened her gates on January 19, 1419.-Page, 41, 42. Page was present at the siege.-Page, 1. orator. [Henry pass through assault The kings answer to this proud message. tude of poore, simple, and innocent people, but rather suffer such miserable wretches, as laie betwixt the wals of the citie and the trenches of his siege, to passe through the campe, that they might get their liuing in other places; and then, if he durst manfullie assault the citie, and by force subdue it, he should win both worldlie fame, and merit great meed at the hands of almightie God, for hauing compassion of the poore, needie, and indigent people. When this orator had said, the king, who no request lesse suspected, than that which was thus desired, began a while to muse; and, after he had well considered the craftie cautell of his enimies, with a fierce countenance, and bold spirit, he reprooued them; both for their subtill dealing with him, and their malapert presumption, in that they should seeme to go about to teach him what belonged to the dutie of a conquerour. And therefore, since it appeared that the same was vnknowne vnto them, he declared that the goddesse of battell, called Bellona, had three handmaidens, euer of necessitie attending vpon hir, as blood, fire, and famine. And whereas it laie in his choise to vse them all three, (yea, two or one of them, at his pleasure,) he had appointed onelie of Bellona's the meekest maid of those three damsels to punish them of that citie, till they were brought to reason. [He has chosen Famine the meekest handmaids to punish Rouen.] (If the people with- expelled Rouen must bear the blame.] [He will take his own course to win the city.] And whereas the gaine of a capteine, atteined by anie of the said three handmaidens, was both glorious, honourable, and woorthie of triumph: yet, of all the three, the yoongest maid, which he meant to vse at that time, was most profitable and commodious. And as for the poore people lieng in the ditches, if they died through famine, the fault was theirs, that like cruell tyrants had put them out of the towne, to the intent he should slaie them; and yet had he saued their liues, so that, if anie lacke of charitie was, it rested in them, and not in him. But to their cloked request, he meant not to gratifie them within so much; but they should keepe them still to helpe to spend their vittels. And as to assault the towne, he told them that he would they should know, he was both able and willing thereto, as he should see occasion: but the choise was in his hand, to tame them either with blood, fire, or famine, or with them all; whereof he would take the choise at his pleasure, and not at theirs. Act I. sc. i.-Henry Chichele Archbishop of Canterbury tells John Fordham Bishop of Ely1 that a bill for disendowing the Church, which nearly passed in the eleventh year of Henry IV.'s reign, has been revived. If this bill were carried, the clergy must lose "the better halfe" of their "Possession": For all the Temporall Lands, which men deuout Of indigent faint Soules, past corporall toyle, A hundred Almes-houses, right well supply'd; And to the Coffers of the King, beside, A thousand pounds by th'yeere. Thus runs the Bill. 12 16 Holinshed took from Halle (49) the following account of the renewal of this bill: 1414 [Parliament [Hol. iii. 545/2/6.] In the second yeare of his reigne, king Anno Reg. 2. Henrie called his high court of parlement, the last daie of Aprill, in the towne of Leicester; in which parlement manie profitable at Leicester. lawes were concluded, and manie petitions mooued were for that time deferred. Amongst which, one was, that a bill exhibited in the parlement holden at Westminster, in the eleuenth yeare of king Henrie the fourth (which by reason the king was then troubled with ciuill discord, came to none effect), might now with good deliberation be pondered, and brought to some good conclusion. The effect of which supplication was, that the temporall lands ▲ bill (deuoutlie giuen, and disordinatlie spent by religious, and other the parlemet spirituall persons) should be seized into the kings hands; sith the same might suffice to mainteine, to the honor of the king, and defense of the realme, fifteene earles, fifteene hundred knights, six thousand and two hundred esquiers, and a hundred almesse-houses, for reliefe onelie of the poore, impotent, and needie persons; and the king to haue cleerelie to his coffers twentie thousand pounds: with manie other prouisions and values of religious houses, which I passe ouer. exhibited to against the clergie. |