Will raise your highness such a mighty sum
As never did the clergy at one time

Bring in to any of your ancestors.

K. HEN. We must not only arm to invade the French,

But lay down our proportions to defend

Against the Scot, who will make road upon us
With all advantages.

CANT. They of those marches, gracious sovereign, 140 Shall be a wall sufficient to defend

Our inland from the pilfering borderers.

K. HEN. 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-grandfather
Never went with his forces into France,
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,
Galling the gleaned land with hot assays,
Girding with grievous siege castles and towns;

137 lay down our proportions to] dispose our numbers so as to.

138 make road ... advantages] make inroads at every favourable

opportunity.

140 They of those marches] The inhabitants of the Scottish border.

143 coursing snatchers] scattered, unattached raiders.

144 the main intendment of the Scot] the design of the armed forces of

Scotland.

145 giddy] fickle, untrustworthy.

150

151 assays] assaults.

That England, being empty of defence,

Hath shook and trembled at the ill neighbourhood. CANT. 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 France,
And she a mourning widow of her nobles,
She hath herself not only well defended,
But taken and impounded as a stray

The King of Scots; whom she did send to France,
To fill King Edward's fame with prisoner kings,
And make her chronicle as rich with praise,

As is the ooze and bottom of the sea

With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries.
WEST. 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 Scot

161 The King of Scots] David II, the King of Scotland, was taken prisoner at the battle of Neville's Cross, 17 October, 1346, and was captive in England for eleven years. The text errs in sending him to France. This mistake seems borrowed from the play of Edward III, IV, ii, 55–56 and V, i, 64.

162 prisoner kings] John II, King of France, was also one of Edward III's prisoners.

163 her chronicle] The Folios read their chronicle, and the Quartos your chronicle. Johnson suggested the accepted reading.

166-173 WEST. But... eat] The Folios give this speech to "Bish. Ely," the Quartos, to a Lord." Holinshed assigns similar remarks to Westmoreland, whose name Capell first introduced here.

160

170

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.

EXE. 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.

CANT. Therefore doth heaven divide
The 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 teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
They have a king and officers of sorts;

180

190

173 tear] Rowe's correction of the Folio reading tame, and the Quarto reading spoil.

175 a crush'd necessity] a need or condition that is put out of account, that is rendered negligible.

179 advised] thoughtful.

181 in one consent] in unison.

182 Congreeing... close] Harmonising . . . cadence.

187 so work the honey-bees] This description closely follows Lyly's account of the commonwealth of bees in Euphues (ed. Arber, pp. 261-264). 189 act] ordinance, practice.

190 of sorts] in grades.

10587

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 home
To the tent-royal of their emperor;
Who, busied in his majesty, surveys
The singing masons building roofs of gold,
The civil citizens kneading up the honey;
The poor mechanic porters crowding in
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 reference
To 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 borne

Without 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,

194 boot] booty, prey.

199 civil orderly.

202 sad-eyed] grave-eyed.

203 executors] executioners.

[21]

200

210

„SE UNIVERSIT OF ROMA

Cannot defend our own doors from the dog,
Let us be worried and our nation lose
The name of hardiness and policy.

K. HEN. Call in the messengers sent from the [Exeunt some Attendants.

Dauphin.

Now are we well resolved; and, by God's help,
And
the noble sinews of our power,
yours,
France being ours, we'll bend it to our awe,
Or break it all to pieces: or there we'll sit,
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
Speak freely of our acts, or else our grave,

Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth,
Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph.

Enter Ambassadors of France

Now are we well prepared to know the pleasure
Of our fair cousin Dauphin; for we hear

Your greeting is from him, not from the king.
FIRST AMB. May't please your majesty to give us

leave

220 hardiness and policy] valour and political wisdom.

suggests that which can be easily effaced, is not lasting. An epitaph in marble would alone promise permanent fame.

220

230

TIBBYBA