The Life Of King Henry The Fifth

1 Enter King Henry, Gloucester, Bedford, Clarence, Warwick, Westmorland,
2 Exeter and Attendants.
3 KING HENRY.
4 Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury?
5 EXETER.
6 Not here in presence.
7 KING HENRY.
8 Send for him, good uncle.
9 WESTMORLAND.
10 Shall we call in th’ ambassador, my liege?
11 KING HENRY.
12 Not yet, my cousin. We would be resolved,
13 Before we hear him, of some things of weight
14 That task our thoughts concerning us and France.
15 Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely.
16 CANTERBURY.
17 God and his angels guard your sacred throne
18 And make you long become it!
19 KING HENRY.
20 Sure, we thank you.
21 My learned lord, we pray you to proceed
22 And justly and religiously unfold
23 Why the law Salic that they have in France
24 Or should or should not bar us in our claim.
25 And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,
26 That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading,
27 Or nicely charge your understanding soul
28 With opening titles miscreate, whose right
29 Suits not in native colours with the truth;
30 For God doth know how many now in health
31 Shall drop their blood in approbation
32 Of what your reverence shall incite us to.
33 Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,
34 How you awake our sleeping sword of war.
35 We charge you in the name of God, take heed;
36 For never two such kingdoms did contend
37 Without much fall of blood, whose guiltless drops
38 Are every one a woe, a sore complaint
39 ’Gainst him whose wrongs gives edge unto the swords
40 That makes such waste in brief mortality.
41 Under this conjuration speak, my lord,
42 For we will hear, note, and believe in heart
43 That what you speak is in your conscience washed
44 As pure as sin with baptism.
45 CANTERBURY.
46 Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers,
47 That owe yourselves, your lives, and services
48 To this imperial throne. There is no bar
49 To make against your Highness’ claim to France
50 But this, which they produce from Pharamond:
51 _In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant_,
52 “No woman shall succeed in Salic land;”
53 Which Salic land the French unjustly gloze
54 To be the realm of France, and Pharamond
55 The founder of this law and female bar.
56 Yet their own authors faithfully affirm
57 That the land Salic is in Germany,
58 Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe;
59 Where Charles the Great, having subdu’d the Saxons,
60 There left behind and settled certain French;
61 Who, holding in disdain the German women
62 For some dishonest manners of their life,
63 Establish’d then this law, to wit, no female
64 Should be inheritrix in Salic land;
65 Which Salic, as I said, ’twixt Elbe and Sala,
66 Is at this day in Germany call’d Meissen.
67 Then doth it well appear the Salic law
68 Was not devised for the realm of France;
69 Nor did the French possess the Salic land
70 Until four hundred one and twenty years
71 After defunction of King Pharamond,
72 Idly suppos’d the founder of this law,
73 Who died within the year of our redemption
74 Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the Great
75 Subdu’d the Saxons, and did seat the French
76 Beyond the river Sala, in the year
77 Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say,
78 King Pepin, which deposed Childeric,
79 Did, as heir general, being descended
80 Of Blithild, which was daughter to King Clothair,
81 Make claim and title to the crown of France.
82 Hugh Capet also, who usurp’d the crown
83 Of Charles the Duke of Lorraine, sole heir male
84 Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great,
85 To find his title with some shows of truth,
86 Though, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught,
87 Convey’d himself as the heir to the Lady Lingare,
88 Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son
89 To Lewis the Emperor, and Lewis the son
90 Of Charles the Great. Also, King Lewis the Tenth,
91 Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet,
92 Could not keep quiet in his conscience,
93 Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied
94 That fair Queen Isabel, his grandmother,
95 Was lineal of the Lady Ermengare,
96 Daughter to Charles, the foresaid Duke of Lorraine;
97 By the which marriage the line of Charles the Great
98 Was re-united to the crown of France.
99 So that, as clear as is the summer’s sun,
100 King Pepin’s title and Hugh Capet’s claim,
101 King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear
102 To hold in right and title of the female.
103 So do the kings of France unto this day,
104 Howbeit they would hold up this Salic law
105 To bar your Highness claiming from the female,
106 And rather choose to hide them in a net
107 Than amply to imbar their crooked titles
108 Usurp’d from you and your progenitors.
109 KING HENRY.
110 May I with right and conscience make this claim?
111 CANTERBURY.
112 The sin upon my head, dread sovereign!
113 For in the Book of Numbers is it writ,
114 “When the man dies, let the inheritance
115 Descend unto the daughter.” Gracious lord,
116 Stand for your own! Unwind your bloody flag!
117 Look back into your mighty ancestors!
118 Go, my dread lord, to your great-grandsire’s tomb,
119 From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit,
120 And your great-uncle’s, Edward the Black Prince,
121 Who on the French ground play’d a tragedy,
122 Making defeat on the full power of France,
123 Whiles his most mighty father on a hill
124 Stood smiling to behold his lion’s whelp
125 Forage in blood of French nobility.
126 O noble English, that could entertain
127 With half their forces the full pride of France
128 And let another half stand laughing by,
129 All out of work and cold for action!
130 ELY.
131 Awake remembrance of these valiant dead,
132 And with your puissant arm renew their feats.
133 You are their heir; you sit upon their throne;
134 The blood and courage that renowned them
135 Runs in your veins; and my thrice-puissant liege
136 Is in the very May-morn of his youth,
137 Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises.
138 EXETER.
139 Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth
140 Do all expect that you should rouse yourself,
141 As did the former lions of your blood.
142 WESTMORLAND.
143 They know your Grace hath cause and means and might;
144 So hath your Highness. Never King of England
145 Had nobles richer, and more loyal subjects,
146 Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England
147 And lie pavilion’d in the fields of France.
148 CANTERBURY.
149 O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege,
150 With blood and sword and fire to win your right;
151 In aid whereof we of the spiritualty
152 Will raise your Highness such a mighty sum
153 As never did the clergy at one time
154 Bring in to any of your ancestors.
155 KING HENRY.
156 We must not only arm to invade the French,
157 But lay down our proportions to defend
158 Against the Scot, who will make road upon us
159 With all advantages.
160 CANTERBURY.
161 They of those marches, gracious sovereign,
162 Shall be a wall sufficient to defend
163 Our inland from the pilfering borderers.
164 KING HENRY.
165 We do not mean the coursing snatchers only,
166 But fear the main intendment of the Scot,
167 Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us;
168 For you shall read that my great-grandfather
169 Never went with his forces into France
170 But that the Scot on his unfurnish’d kingdom
171 Came pouring, like the tide into a breach,
172 With ample and brim fullness of his force,
173 Galling the gleaned land with hot assays,
174 Girdling with grievous siege castles and towns;
175 That England, being empty of defence,
176 Hath shook and trembled at the ill neighbourhood.
177 CANTERBURY.
178 She hath been then more fear’d than harm’d, my liege;
179 For hear her but exampl’d by herself:
180 When all her chivalry hath been in France,
181 And she a mourning widow of her nobles,
182 She hath herself not only well defended
183 But taken and impounded as a stray
184 The King of Scots; whom she did send to France
185 To fill King Edward’s fame with prisoner kings,
186 And make her chronicle as rich with praise
187 As is the ooze and bottom of the sea
188 With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries.
189 WESTMORLAND.
190 But there’s a saying very old and true,
191 “If that you will France win,
192 Then with Scotland first begin.”
193 For once the eagle England being in prey,
194 To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot
195 Comes sneaking and so sucks her princely eggs,
196 Playing the mouse in absence of the cat,
197 To tear and havoc more than she can eat.
198 EXETER.
199 It follows then the cat must stay at home;
200 Yet that is but a crush’d necessity,
201 Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries,
202 And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves.
203 While that the armed hand doth fight abroad,
204 The advised head defends itself at home;
205 For government, though high and low and lower,
206 Put into parts, doth keep in one consent,
207 Congreeing in a full and natural close,
208 Like music.
209 CANTERBURY.
210 Therefore doth heaven divide
211 The state of man in divers functions,
212 Setting endeavour in continual motion,
213 To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,
214 Obedience; for so work the honey-bees,
215 Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
216 The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
217 They have a king and officers of sorts,
218 Where some, like magistrates, correct at home,
219 Others like merchants, venture trade abroad,
220 Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,
221 Make boot upon the summer’s velvet buds,
222 Which pillage they with merry march bring home
223 To the tent-royal of their emperor;
224 Who, busied in his majesty, surveys
225 The singing masons building roofs of gold,
226 The civil citizens kneading up the honey,
227 The poor mechanic porters crowding in
228 Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate,
229 The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum,
230 Delivering o’er to executors pale
231 The lazy yawning drone. I this infer,
232 That many things, having full reference
233 To one consent, may work contrariously.
234 As many arrows, loosed several ways,
235 Come to one mark; as many ways meet in one town;
236 As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea;
237 As many lines close in the dial’s centre;
238 So many a thousand actions, once afoot,
239 End in one purpose, and be all well borne
240 Without defeat. Therefore to France, my liege!
241 Divide your happy England into four,
242 Whereof take you one quarter into France,
243 And you withal shall make all Gallia shake.
244 If we, with thrice such powers left at home,
245 Cannot defend our own doors from the dog,
246 Let us be worried and our nation lose
247 The name of hardiness and policy.
248 KING HENRY.
249 Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin.
250 [_Exeunt some Attendants._]
251 Now are we well resolv’d; and, by God’s help,
252 And yours, the noble sinews of our power,
253 France being ours, we’ll bend it to our awe,
254 Or break it all to pieces. Or there we’ll sit,
255 Ruling in large and ample empery
256 O’er France and all her almost kingly dukedoms,
257 Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn,
258 Tombless, with no remembrance over them.
259 Either our history shall with full mouth
260 Speak freely of our acts, or else our grave,
261 Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth,
262 Not worshipp’d with a waxen epitaph.
263 Enter Ambassadors of France.
264 Now are we well prepar’d to know the pleasure
265 Of our fair cousin Dauphin; for we hear
266 Your greeting is from him, not from the King.
267 FIRST AMBASSADOR.
268 May’t please your Majesty to give us leave
269 Freely to render what we have in charge,
270 Or shall we sparingly show you far off
271 The Dauphin’s meaning and our embassy?
272 KING HENRY.
273 We are no tyrant, but a Christian king,
274 Unto whose grace our passion is as subject
275 As is our wretches fett’red in our prisons;
276 Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness
277 Tell us the Dauphin’s mind.
278 AMBASSADOR.
279 Thus, then, in few.
280 Your Highness, lately sending into France,
281 Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right
282 Of your great predecessor, King Edward the Third.
283 In answer of which claim, the prince our master
284 Says that you savour too much of your youth,
285 And bids you be advis’d there’s nought in France
286 That can be with a nimble galliard won.
287 You cannot revel into dukedoms there.
288 He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit,
289 This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this,
290 Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim
291 Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.
292 KING HENRY.
293 What treasure, uncle?
294 EXETER.
295 Tennis-balls, my liege.
296 KING HENRY.
297 We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us.
298 His present and your pains we thank you for.
299 When we have match’d our rackets to these balls,
300 We will, in France, by God’s grace, play a set
301 Shall strike his father’s crown into the hazard.
302 Tell him he hath made a match with such a wrangler
303 That all the courts of France will be disturb’d
304 With chaces. And we understand him well,
305 How he comes o’er us with our wilder days,
306 Not measuring what use we made of them.
307 We never valu’d this poor seat of England;
308 And therefore, living hence, did give ourself
309 To barbarous licence; as ’tis ever common
310 That men are merriest when they are from home.
311 But tell the Dauphin I will keep my state,
312 Be like a king, and show my sail of greatness
313 When I do rouse me in my throne of France.
314 For that I have laid by my majesty
315 And plodded like a man for working days,
316 But I will rise there with so full a glory
317 That I will dazzle all the eyes of France,
318 Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us.
319 And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his
320 Hath turn’d his balls to gun-stones, and his soul
321 Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance
322 That shall fly with them; for many a thousand widows
323 Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands,
324 Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down;
325 And some are yet ungotten and unborn
326 That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin’s scorn.
327 But this lies all within the will of God,
328 To whom I do appeal; and in whose name
329 Tell you the Dauphin I am coming on
330 To venge me as I may, and to put forth
331 My rightful hand in a well-hallow’d cause.
332 So get you hence in peace; and tell the Dauphin
333 His jest will savour but of shallow wit,
334 When thousands weep more than did laugh at it.—
335 Convey them with safe conduct.—Fare you well.
336 [_Exeunt Ambassadors._]
337 EXETER.
338 This was a merry message.
339 KING HENRY.
340 We hope to make the sender blush at it.
341 Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour
342 That may give furtherance to our expedition;
343 For we have now no thought in us but France,
344 Save those to God, that run before our business.
345 Therefore, let our proportions for these wars
346 Be soon collected, and all things thought upon
347 That may with reasonable swiftness add
348 More feathers to our wings; for, God before,
349 We’ll chide this Dauphin at his father’s door.
350 Therefore let every man now task his thought,
351 That this fair action may on foot be brought.
352 [_Exeunt._]