To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son
Of Charles the great. Also king Lewis the tenth,
Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet,
Could not keep quiet in his conscience,
Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied
That fair queen Isabel, his grandmother,
Was lineal of the lady Ermengare,
Daughter to Charles the foresaid duke of Lorain :.
By the which marriage, the line of Charles the great
Was re-united to the crown of France.
So that, as clear as is the summer's sun,
King Pepin's title, and Hugh Capet's claim,
King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear
To 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
And rather choose to hide them in a net,
Than amply to imbare' their crooked titles
Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.
K. Hen. May I, with right and conscience, make this claim?
Cant. The sin upon my head, dread sovereign! For in the book of Numbers is it writ,
When the son dies, let the inheritance
Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord,
Stand for your own; unwind your bloody flag;
Look back unto your mighty ancestors :
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's whelp
Forage in blood of French nobility.
[1] To unbar is to open, and might have been the word set down by the poet, in opposition to-ban. JOHNSON.
[2] This alludes to the battle of Cressy, as described by Holinshed: "The earle of Northampton and others sent to the king where he stood aloft on a windmill-hill ; the king demanded if his sonne were slaine, hurt, or felled to the earth. No, said the knight that brought the message, but he is sore matched. Well, (said the king,) returne to him and them that sent you, and saie to them, that they send no more to me for any adventure that falleth, so long as my son is alive; for I will that this journey be his, with the honour thereof. The slaughter of the French was great and lamentable at the same battle, fought the 26th August, 1346." BOWLE.
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 enterprizes.
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;3 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 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 neighbour to us;
For you shall read, that my great grandfather
Never went with his forces into France,
But that the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdom
Came pouring, like the tide into a breach,
[3] We should point the passage thus:
They know your grace hath cause; and means, and might,
So hath your highness;
So, in this place, has the force of also, or likewise. M. MASON.
[4] The marches are the borders, the limits, the confines. Hence the Lords Marchers, i. e. the lords presidents of the marches, &c. STEEVENS,
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 th' ill neighbourhood.
Cant. She hath been then more fear'd than harm'd,
my liege :
For hear her but exampled by herself,-
When all her chivalry have 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 your 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:5
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 curs'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,
Th' advised head defends itself at home :
For government, though high, and low, and lower,
Put into parts, doth keep in one consent ;7
Congruing in a full and natural close,
Like music.
Cant. True: 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,
[5] Hall's Chronicle. Hen. V. year 2, fol. 7, (p. 2,) x. POPE.
[6] A curs'd necessity means, I believe, only an unfortunate necessity. Curs'd, in colloquial phrase, signifies any thing unfortunate. STEEVENS.
[7] I learn from Dr. Burney, that consent is connected harmony, in general, and not confined to any specific consonance. Thus, (says the same elegant and wellinformed writer,) concentio and concentus are both used by Cicero for the union of voices or instruments in what we should now call a chorus, or concert. STE.
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 ;9
The poor mechanic porters crouding in
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate;
The sad-ey'd 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,
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 his throne. Now are we well resolv'd: and,—by God's help; And yours, the noble sinews of our power,France being ours, we'll bend it to our awe,
[8] The sense is, that all endeavour is to terminate in obedience, to be subordinate to the public good and general design of government. JOHNSON.
[9] To knead the honey gives an easy sense, though not physically true. The bees, do in fact, knead the wax more than the honey, but that Shakespeare perhaps did not know. JOHNSON.
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 worship'd with a waxen epitaph.
Enter Ambassadors of France.
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.
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 fetter'd in our prisons:
Therefore, with frank and with uncurbed plainness,
Tell us the Dauphin's mind.
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;2
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?
Exe. Tennis-balls, my liege.
K. Hen. We are glad, the Dauphin is so pleasant with us ;
His present, and your pains, we thank you
When we have match'd 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,
[1] This word signifies dominion, now obsolete. STEEVENS.
[2] A galliard was an ancient dance, now obsolete. STEEVENS.
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