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;
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 . .
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.
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.
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.
Now are we well resolved; and, by God's help,
And
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 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
220 hardiness and policy] valour and political wisdom.
233 Not worshipp'd with epitaph] Not honoured even with an
waxen] thus the Folios. The Quartos read paper.
suggests that which can be easily effaced, is not lasting.
epitaph in marble would alone promise permanent fame,
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 fetter'd in our prisons:
Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness
Tell us the Dauphin's mind.
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 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 pleasure; 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?
Tennis-balls, my liege. K. HEN. We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant
His present and your pains we thank you for:
When we have match'd our rackets to these balls,
252 galliard] quick dance.
255 This tun] This barrel.
in lieu of this] in exchange for this gift
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 disturb'd
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 't is 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
262 play a set] This play abounds in the technical vocabulary of a game
263 the hazard] a hole in the wall of the tennis-court near the ground. A stroke into this hole would score a point for the player. There is a quibble on the word in the ordinary sense of danger.
264 a wrangler] an opponent.
266 chaces] the word has various meanings in tennis, viz., strokes, matches, the time during which the ball is kept tossing in the air by the players, and sometimes the point on the ground, where the ball comes to a stop.
267 comes o'er us] taunts us.
269 seat of England] throne of England.
270 hence] away from the court.
276 For that I have laid by] For all that, despite the fact that I have laid aside or neglected my dignity.
|