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Suits not in native colours with the truth;
For Heav'n doth know, how many, now in health,
Shall drop their blood in approbation

Of what your reverence shall incite us to:
Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,
How you awake the sleeping sword of war;

We charge you in the name of Heaven, take heed.-
Under this conjuration, speak, my lord.

Can. Then hear me, gracious sovereign :

There is no bar

To make against your highness' claim to France,
But this which they produce from Pharamond;
"No woman shall succeed in Salique land :"
Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze
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 lies in Germany,
Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe :
Nor did the French possess the Salique land
Until four hundred one and twenty years
After defunction of king Pharamond,
Idly suppos'd the founder of this law:
Besides, their writers say,

King Pepin, who deposed Childerick,
Did hold in right and title of the female:
So do the kings of France unto this day:
Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law,
To bar your highness claiming from the female.
K. Hen. May I, with right and conscience, make
this claim?

Can. The sin upon my head, dread sovereign!
For in the book of Numbers it is writ,-

When the son dies, let the inheritance

Descend unto the daughter.

Exe. Gracious lord,

Stand for your own; unwind your bloody flag;
Look back unto your mighty ancestors:

C

Go, my dread lord, to your great grandsire's tomb,
From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit,
And your great uncle's, Edward the Black Prince:
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
Stood smiling, to behold his lion whelp
Forage in blood of French nobility.

Glost. 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!

West. 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.

Bed. Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth Do all expect that you should rouse yourself, As did the former lions of your blood.

Exe. 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 pavilion'd in the field of France:

O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege,
With blood and sword and fire to win your right!
Can. In aid whereof, we of the spiritualty

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:

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;
That England, being empty of defence,

Hath shook and trembled at the ill neighbourhood. Exe. 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.
Can. 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 power left at home,
Cannot defend our own door from the dog,
Let us be worry'd, and our nation lose
The name of hardiness and policy.

K. Hen. Call in the messengers sent from the
Dauphin.
[Exit a HERALD.

Now are we well resolv'd; and, by Heaven'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.

Flourish.

Enter HERALD, with the CONSTABLE OF FRANCE, MONTJOY, and two French Lords.

Now are we well prepar'd to know the pleasure

Of our fair cousin Dauphin; for, we hear,
Your greeting is from him, not from the king.
Const. 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; Therefore, with frank and with uncurbed plainness, Tell us the Dauphin's mind.

Const. 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 savour too much of your youth; And bids you be advis'd, 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,
A 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?

Exe. Tennis balls, my liege.

K. Hen. We're glad, the Dauphin is so pleasant

with us.

His present, and your pains, we thank you

for:

When we have match'd our rackets to these balls,
We will, in France, by Heaven's grace, play a set,
Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard.
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:
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:

[Rises.

For 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.
But this lies all within the will of Heav'n,
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 savour but of shallow wit,

When thousands weep more than did laugh at it.— Convey them with safe conduct.-Fare you well. [Exeunt HERALD, CONSTABLE, MONTJOY, and the two Lords.

Exe. This was a merry message.

K. Hen. We hope to make the sender blush at it. 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 Heav'n, that run before our business.
Therefore let our proportion for these wars
Be soon collected; and all things thought upon
That may, with reasonable swiftness, add
More feathers to our wings; for, Heav'n before,
We'll chide this Dauphin at his father's door.
[Flourish of Drums and Trumpets.]

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.

Before the Boar's Head Tavern, in Eastcheap.

Enter NYM and BARDOLph.

Bard. Well met, corporal Nym.

Nym. Good-morrow, lieutenant Bardolph.

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