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3
O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
4
The brightest heaven of invention,
5
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
6
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
7
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
8
Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,
9
Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire
10
Crouch for employment. But pardon, and gentles all,
11
The flat unraised spirits that have dared
12
On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth
13
So great an object: can this cockpit hold
14
The vasty fields of France? or may we cram
15
Within this wooden O the very casques
16
That did affright the air at Agincourt?
17
O, pardon! since a crooked figure may
18
Attest in little place a million;
19
And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,
20
On your imaginary forces work.
21
Suppose within the girdle of these walls
22
Are now confined two mighty monarchies,
23
Whose high upreared and abutting fronts
24
The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder:
25
Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;
26
Into a thousand parts divide on man,
27
And make imaginary puissance;
28
Think when we talk of horses, that you see them
29
Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth;
30
For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
31
Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times,
32
Turning the accomplishment of many years
33
Into an hour-glass: for the which supply,
34
Admit me Chorus to this history;
35
Who prologue-like your humble patience pray,
36
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.
1
London. An ante-chamber in the KING’S palace.
2
[Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, and the BISHOP OF ELY]
3
Archbishop of Canterbury.
4
My lord, I'll tell you; that self bill is urged,
5
Which in the eleventh year of the last king's reign
6
Was like, and had indeed against us pass'd,
7
But that the scambling and unquiet time
8
Did push it out of farther question.
10
But how, my lord, shall we resist it now?
11
Archbishop of Canterbury.
12
It must be thought on. If it pass against us,
13
We lose the better half of our possession:
14
For all the temporal lands which men devout
15
By testament have given to the church
16
Would they strip from us; being valued thus:
17
As much as would maintain, to the king's honour,
18
Full fifteen earls and fifteen hundred knights,
19
Six thousand and two hundred good esquires;
20
And, to relief of lazars and weak age,
21
Of indigent faint souls past corporal toil.
22
A hundred almshouses right well supplied;
23
And to the coffers of the king beside,
24
A thousand pounds by the year: thus runs the bill.
26
This would drink deep.
27
Archbishop of Canterbury.
28
'Twould drink the cup and all.
31
Archbishop of Canterbury.
32
The king is full of grace and fair regard.
34
And a true lover of the holy church.
35
Archbishop of Canterbury.
36
The courses of his youth promised it not.
37
The breath no sooner left his father's body,
38
But that his wildness, mortified in him,
39
Seem'd to die too; yea, at that very moment
40
Consideration, like an angel, came
41
And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him,
42
Leaving his body as a paradise,
43
To envelop and contain celestial spirits.
44
Never was such a sudden scholar made;
45
Never came reformation in a flood,
46
With such a heady currance, scouring faults
47
Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulness
48
So soon did lose his seat and all at once
51
We are blessed in the change.
52
Archbishop of Canterbury.
53
Hear him but reason in divinity,
54
And all-admiring with an inward wish
55
You would desire the king were made a prelate:
56
Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,
57
You would say it hath been all in all his study:
58
List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
59
A fearful battle render'd you in music:
60
Turn him to any cause of policy,
61
The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,
62
Familiar as his garter: that, when he speaks,
63
The air, a charter'd libertine, is still,
64
And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,
65
To steal his sweet and honey'd sentences;
66
So that the art and practic part of life
67
Must be the mistress to this theoric:
68
Which is a wonder how his grace should glean it,
69
Since his addiction was to courses vain,
70
His companies unletter'd, rude and shallow,
71
His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports,
72
And never noted in him any study,
73
Any retirement, any sequestration
74
From open haunts and popularity.
76
The strawberry grows underneath the nettle
77
And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best
78
Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality:
79
And so the prince obscured his contemplation
80
Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt,
81
Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night,
82
Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.
83
Archbishop of Canterbury.
84
It must be so; for miracles are ceased;
85
And therefore we must needs admit the means
86
How things are perfected.
89
How now for mitigation of this bill
90
Urged by the commons? Doth his majesty
92
Archbishop of Canterbury.
94
Or rather swaying more upon our part
95
Than cherishing the exhibiters against us;
96
For I have made an offer to his majesty,
97
Upon our spiritual convocation
98
And in regard of causes now in hand,
99
Which I have open'd to his grace at large,
100
As touching France, to give a greater sum
101
Than ever at one time the clergy yet
102
Did to his predecessors part withal.
104
How did this offer seem received, my lord?
105
Archbishop of Canterbury.
106
With good acceptance of his majesty;
107
Save that there was not time enough to hear,
108
As I perceived his grace would fain have done,
109
The severals and unhidden passages
110
Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms
111
And generally to the crown and seat of France
112
Derived from Edward, his great-grandfather.
114
What was the impediment that broke this off?
115
Archbishop of Canterbury.
116
The French ambassador upon that instant
117
Craved audience; and the hour, I think, is come
118
To give him hearing: is it four o'clock?
121
Archbishop of Canterbury.
122
Then go we in, to know his embassy;
123
Which I could with a ready guess declare,
124
Before the Frenchman speak a word of it.
126
I'll wait upon you, and I long to hear it.
1
The same. The Presence chamber.
2
[Enter KING HENRY V, GLOUCESTER, BEDFORD, EXETER,] [p]WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and Attendants]
4
Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury?
8
Send for him, good uncle.
10
Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege?
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
Archbishop of Canterbury.
17
God and his angels guard your sacred throne
18
And make you long become it!
21
My learned lord, we pray you to proceed
22
And justly and religiously unfold
23
Why the law Salique 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 wrong gives edge unto the swords
40
That make 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 wash'd
44
As pure as sin with baptism.
45
Archbishop of 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 Salique land:'
53
Which Salique 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 Salique is in Germany,
58
Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe;
59
Where Charles the Great, having subdued 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 Salique land:
65
Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala,
66
Is at this day in Germany call'd Meisen.
67
Then doth it well appear that Salique law
68
Was not devised for the realm of France:
69
Nor did the French possess the Salique land
70
Until four hundred one and twenty years
71
After defunction of King Pharamond,
72
Idly supposed the founder of this law;
73
Who died within the year of our redemption
74
Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the Great
75
Subdued 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 usurped 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
'Through, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught,
87
Convey'd himself as 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 Salique 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.
110
May I with right and conscience make this claim?
111
Archbishop of 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!
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.
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
Earl of Westmoreland.
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
Archbishop of 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.
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
160
Archbishop of Canterbury.
161
They of those marches, gracious sovereign,
162
Shall be a wall sufficient to defend
163
Our inland from the pilfering borderers.
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 fulness of his force,
173
Galling the gleaned land with hot assays,
174
Girding with grievous siege castles and towns;
175
That England, being empty of defence,
176
Hath shook and trembled at the ill neighbourhood.
177
Archbishop of Canterbury.
178
She hath been then more fear'd than harm'd, my liege;
179
For hear her but exampled 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 sunless treasuries.
189
Earl of Westmoreland.
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.
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,
209
Archbishop of 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 may 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.
249
Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin.
250
[Exeunt some Attendants]
251
Now are we well resolved; 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 prepared to know the pleasure
265
Of our fair cousin Dauphin; for we hear
266
Your greeting is from him, not from the king.
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?
273
We are no tyrant, but a Christian king;
274
Unto whose grace our passion is as subject
275
As are our wretches fetter'd in our prisons:
276
Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness
277
Tell us the Dauphin's mind.
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 advised 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.
293
What treasure, uncle?
295
Tennis-balls, my liege.
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 march'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 valued 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.
338
This was a merry message.
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.
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