Act 1 — Scene II. The same. The Presence chamber.

K. Hen. Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury? Exe. Not here in presence. K. Hen. Send for him, good uncle. West. Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege? K. Hen. Not yet, my cousin: we would be resolved, Before we hear him, of some things of weight5 That task our thoughts, concerning us and France.

Cant. God and his angels guard your sacred throne,[4541] And make you long become it! K. Hen. Sure, we thank you. My learned lord, we pray you to proceed And justly and religiously unfold10 Why the law Salique that they have in France[4542] Or 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 soul15 With opening titles miscreate, whose right Suits not in native colours with the truth; For God doth know how many now in health Shall drop their blood in approbation Of what your reverence shall incite us to.20 Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,[4543] How you awake our sleeping sword of war:[4544] We charge you, in the name of God, take heed; For never two such kingdoms did contend Without much fall of blood; whose guiltless drops[4545]25 Are every one a woe, a sore complaint 'Gainst him whose wrong gives edge unto the swords[4546][4547] That make such waste in brief mortality.[4547] Under this conjuration speak, my lord;[4548] For we will hear, note and believe in heart[4549]30 That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd As pure as sin with baptism.[4550] Cant. Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers, That owe yourselves, your lives and services[4551] To this imperial throne. There is no bar35 To make against your highness' claim to France But this, which they produce from Pharamond, 'In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant:'[4552] 'No woman shall succeed in Salique land:' Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze40 To be the realm of France, and Pharamond The founder of this law and female bar. Yet their own authors faithfully affirm That the land Salique is in Germany,[4553] Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe;[4554]45 Where Charles the Great, having subdued the Saxons, There left behind and settled certain French; Who, holding in disdain the German women For some dishonest manners of their life,[4555] Establish'd then this law; to wit, no female[4556]50 Should be inheritrix in Salique land: Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala,[4554] Is at this day in Germany call'd Meisen. Then doth it well appear the Salique law[4557] Was not devised for the realm of France;55 Nor did the French possess the Salique land Until four hundred one and twenty years After defunction of King Pharamond, Idly supposed the founder of this law; Who died within the year of our redemption60 Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the Great Subdued the Saxons, and did seat the French Beyond the river Sala, in the year Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say, King Pepin, which deposed Childeric,65 Did, as heir general, being descended Of Blithild, which was daughter to King Clothair,[4558] Make claim and title to the crown of France. Hugh Capet also, who usurp'd the crown[4559] Of Charles the duke of Lorraine, sole heir male70 Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great, To find his title with some shows of truth,[4560] Though, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught,[4561] Convey'd himself as heir to the Lady Lingare,[4562] Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son75 To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son[4563] Of Charles the Great. Also King Lewis the tenth,[4564] Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet, Could not keep quiet in his conscience, Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied80 That fair Queen Isabel, his grandmother, Was lineal of the Lady Ermengare, Daughter to Charles the foresaid duke of Lorraine:[4565] By the which marriage the line of Charles the Great[4566] Was re-united to the crown of France.85 So that, as clear as is the summer's sun, King Pepin's title and Hugh Capet's claim, King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear[4567] To hold in right and title of the female: So do the kings of France unto this day;[4568]90 Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law To bar your highness claiming from the female, And rather choose to hide them in a net Than amply to imbar their crooked titles[4569] Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.95 K. Hen. May I with right and conscience make this claim? Cant. The sin upon my head, dread sovereign! For in the book of Numbers is it writ,[4570] When the man dies, let the inheritance[4571] Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord,100 Stand for your own; unwind your bloody flag; Look back into your mighty ancestors:[4572] Go, my dread lord, to your great-grandsire's tomb,[4573] From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit, And your great-uncle's, Edward the Black Prince,[4574]105 Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy, Making defeat on the full power of France, Whiles his most mighty father on a hill[4575] Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp Forage in blood of French nobility.[4576]110 O noble English, that could entertain With half their forces the full pride of France[4577] And let another half stand laughing by, All out of work and cold for action![4578] Ely. Awake remembrance of these valiant dead115 And with your puissant arm renew their feats: You are their heir; you sit upon their throne; The blood and courage that renowned them Runs in your veins; and my thrice-puissant liege Is in the very May-morn of his youth,120 Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises. Exc. Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth Do all expect that you should rouse yourself, As did the former lions of your blood. West. They know your grace hath cause and means and might;[4579][4580]125 So hath your highness; never king of England[4580] Had nobles richer and more loyal subjects, Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England And lie pavilion'd in the fields of France.[4581] Cant. O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege,[4582]130 With blood and sword and fire to win your right;[4582][4583] In aid whereof we of the spiritualty[4584] Will raise your highness such a mighty sum As never did the clergy at one time Bring in to any of your ancestors.135 K. Hen. We must not only arm to invade the French, But lay down our proportions to defend[4585] Against the Scot, who will make road upon us With all advantages. Cant. They of those marches, gracious sovereign,[4586]140 Shall be a wall sufficient to defend Our inland from the pilfering borderers. K. Hen. We do not mean the coursing snatchers only,[4587] But fear the main intendment of the Scot, Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us;[4588]145 For you shall read that my great-grandfather Never went with his forces into France[4589] But that the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdom Came pouring, like the tide into a breach, With ample and brim fulness of his force,150 Galling the gleaned land with hot assays,[4590] Girding with grievous siege castles and towns; That England, being empty of defence, Hath shook and trembled at the ill neighbourhood.[4591] Cant. She hath been then more fear'd than harm'd, my liege;155 For hear her but exampled by herself:[4592] When all her chivalry hath been in France And she a mourning widow of her nobles, She hath herself not only well defended But taken and impounded as a stray160 The King of Scots; whom she did send to France, To fill King Edward's fame with prisoner kings[4593] And make her chronicle as rich with praise[4594] As is the ooze and bottom of the sea[4595] With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries.165 West. But there's a saying very old and true,[4596] 'If that you will France win,[4597] Then with Scotland first begin:'[4597] For once the eagle England being in prey, To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot170 Comes sneaking and so sucks her princely eggs, Playing the mouse in absence of the cat, To tear and havoc more than she can eat.[4598] Exe. It follows then the cat must stay at home:[4599] Yet that is but a crush'd necessity,[4600]175 Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries, And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves.[4601] While that the armed hand cloth fight abroad, The advised head defends itself at home; For government, though high and low and lower,[4602]180 Put into parts, cloth keep in one consent,[4603] Congreeing in a full and natural close,[4604] Like music. Cant. Therefore doth heaven divide[4605] The state of man in divers functions, Setting endeavour in continual motion;185 To which is fixed, as an aim or butt, Obedience: for so work the honey-bees, Creatures that by a rule in nature teach[4606] The act of order to a peopled kingdom.[4607] They have a king and officers of sorts;[4608]190 Where some, like magistrates, correct at home, Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad,[4609] Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings, Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds,[4610] Which pillage they with merry march bring home195 To the tent-royal of their emperor; Who, busied in his majesty, surveys[4611] The singing masons building roofs of gold,[4612] The civil citizens kneading up the honey,[4613] The poor mechanic porters crowding in200 Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate, The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum, Delivering o'er to executors pale The lazy yawning drone. I this infer, That many things, having full reference205 To one consent, may work contrariously: As many arrows, loosed several ways, Come to one mark; as many ways meet in one town;[4614] As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea;[4615] As many lines close in the dial's centre;210 So may a thousand actions, once afoot,[4616] End in one purpose, and be all well borne[4617] Without defeat. Therefore to France, my liege.[4618] Divide your happy England into four; Whereof take you one quarter into France,215 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 lose The name of hardiness and policy.220 K. Hen. Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin.[4619]

Now are we well resolved; and, by God's help, And yours, the noble sinews of our power, France being ours, we'll bend it to our awe, Or break it all to pieces: or there we'll sit,[4620]225 Ruling in large and ample empery O'er France and all her almost kingly dukedoms, Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn, Tombless, with no remembrance over them: Either our history shall with full mouth[4621]230 Speak freely of our acts, or else our grave, Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth,[4622] Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph.

Now are we well prepared to know the pleasure[4624] Of our fair cousin Dauphin; for we hear235 Your greeting is from him, not from the king. First Amb. May't please your majesty to give us leave[4625] Freely to render what we have in charge; Or shall we sparingly show you far off The Dauphin's meaning and our embassy?240 K. Hen. We are no tyrant, but a Christian king; Unto whose grace our passion is as subject As are our wretches fetter'd in our prisons:[4626] Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness Tell us the Dauphin's mind. First Amb. Thus, then, in few.[4627]245 Your highness, lately sending into France, Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right Of your great predecessor, King Edward the third.[4628] In answer of which claim, the prince our master Says that you savour too much of your youth,250 And bids you be advised there's nought in France[4629] That can be with a nimble galliard won; You cannot revel into dukedoms there. He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit, This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this,255 Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.[4630] K. Hen. What treasure, uncle? Exe. Tennis-balls, my liege. K. Hen. We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us; His present and your pains we thank you for:260 When we have match'd our rackets to these balls, We will, in France, by God's grace, play a set Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard. Tell him he hath made a match with such a wrangler[4631] That all the courts of France will be disturb'd265 With chaces. And we understand him well, How he comes o'er us with our wilder days, Not measuring what use we made of them. We never valued this poor seat of England; And therefore, living hence, did give ourself[4632]270 To barbarous license; as 'tis ever common That men are merriest when they are from home. But tell the Dauphin I will keep my state, Be like a king and show my sail of greatness[4633] When I do rouse me in my throne of France:275 For that I have laid by my majesty[4634] And plodded like a man for working-days, But I will rise there with so full a glory That I will dazzle all the eyes of France, Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us.280 And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones; and his soul Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance That shall fly with them: for many a thousand widows[4635] Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands;285 Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down; And some are yet ungotten and unborn[4636] That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's scorn. But this lies all within the will of God, To whom I do appeal; and in whose name290 Tell you the Dauphin I am coming on. To venge me as I may and to put forth My rightful hand in a well-hallow'd cause. So get you hence in peace; and tell the Dauphin His jest will savour but of shallow wit,295 When thousands weep more than did laugh at it.[4637] Convey them with safe conduct. Fare you well.[4638]

Exe. This was a merry message. K. Hen. We hope to make the sender blush at it.[4639] Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour300 That may give furtherance to our expedition; For we have now no thought in us but France,[4640] Save those to God, that run before our business. Therefore let our proportions for these wars Be soon collected and all things thought upon[4641]305 That may with reasonable swiftness add[4642] More feathers to our wings; for, God before, We'll chide this Dauphin at his father's door. Therefore let every man now task his thought, That this fair action may on foot be brought.[4643]310