Stood smiling, to behold his lion's whelp- Forage in blood of French nobility.
O, noble English, that could entertain
With half their forces the full pride of France; And let another half stand laughing by, All out of work, and cold for action!
Ely. Awake remembrance of these valiant dead, 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,
Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises.
Exe. 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;
So hath your highness; never king of England Had nobles richer, and more loyal subjects;
Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England, And lie pavilioned in the fields of France.
Cant. O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege, With blood, and sword, and fire, to win your right. In aid whereof, we of the spirituality
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
Cant. They of those marches, gracious sovereign,
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 neighbor to us. For you shall read, that my great grandfather Never went with his forces into France, But that the Scot on his unfurnished kingdom Came pouring, like the tide into a breach, With ample and brimfulness of his force; Galling the gleaned land with hot essays; Girding, with grievous siege, castles and towns;
That England, being empty of defence,
Hath shook and trembled at the ill neighborhood. Cant. She hath been then more feared than harmed, 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
Comes sneaking, and so sucks her princely eggs; Playing the mouse, in absence of the cat, To spoil and havoc more than she can eat.
Exe. It follows, then, the cat must stay at home. Yet that is but a crushed 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 concent; Congruing in a full and natural close,
True; therefore doth Heaven divide The state of man in divers functions, Setting endeavor 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; 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 concent, may work contrariously; As many arrows, loosed several ways, Fly to one mark;
As many several ways meet in one town; As many fresh streams run in one self-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 that power left at home, Cannot defend our own door 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 dauphin. [Exit an Attendant. The King ascends
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, 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 worshipped 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.
Amb. May it please your majesty to give us leave Freely to render what we have in charge; Or shall we sparingly show you far off The dauphin's meaning, and our embassy?
K. Hen. We are no tyrant, but a Christian king; Unto whose grace our passion is as subject, As are our wretches fettered in our prisons: Therefore, with frank and with uncurbed plainness, Tell us the dauphin's mind.
Amb. Thus, then, in few:- Your highness, lately sending into France, Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right Of your great predecessor, king Edward the Third. In answer of which claim, the prince our master Says, that you savor too much of your youth; And bids you be advised, there's nought in France, 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, Desires you, let the dukedoms that you claim Hear no more of you. This the dauphin speaks. K. Hen. What treasure, uncle?
K. Hen. We are glad the dauphin is so pleasant with us; His present, and your pains, we thank you for. When we have matched 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, That all the courts of France will be disturbed 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 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, When I do rouse me in my throne of France; For that I have laid by my majesty, 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.
And tell the pleasant prince,- this mock of his Hath turned 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 Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands; Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down; And some are yet ungotten, and unborn,
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 name, Tell you the dauphin, I am coming on, To venge me as I may, and to put forth My rightful hand in a well-hallowed cause.
So, get you hence in peace; and tell the dauphin, His jest will savor but of shallow wit,
When thousands weep, more than did laugh at it.— Convey them with safe conduct.-Fare you well. [Exeunt Ambassadors.
Exe. This was a merry message. K. Hen. We hope to make the sender blush at it. [Descends from his throne. Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour, That may give furtherance to our expedition; For we have now no thought in us but France, Save those to God, that run before our business. Therefore, let our proportions for these wars Be soon collected; and all things thought upon, That may, with reasonable swiftness, add 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. [Exeunt.
Cho. Now all the youth of England are on fire,
And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies; Now thrive the armorers, and honor's thought Reigns solely in the breast of every man. They sell the pasture now, to buy the horse; Following the mirror of all Christian kings, With winged heels, as English Mercuries. VOL. II. 36
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