To him, and to his heirs; namely, the crown, By custom and the ordinance of times, Unto the crown of France. That you may know, 1 [Gives a paper. In every branch truly demonstrative; Exe. Bloody constraint; for if you hide the crown To whom expressly I bring greeting too. Fr. King. For us, we will consider of this further. To-morrow shall you bear our full intent Back to our brother England. For the dauphin, Dau. I stand here for him. What to him from England? 1 "Memorable line;" this genealogy, this deduction of his lineage. Exe. Scorn, and defiance; slight regard, contempt, Thus says my king:-and, if your father's highness Dau. Say, if my father render fair reply, Nothing but odds with England: to that end, I did present him with those Paris balls. Exe. He'll make your Paris Louvre shake for it, And these he masters now: now he weighs time, Fr. King. To-morrow shall you know our mind at full. Exe. Despatch us with all speed, lest that our king Come here himself to question our delay; For he is footed in this land already. Fr. King. You shall be soon despatched, with fair conditions. A night is but small breath, and little pause, 1 To chide is to resound, to echo. [Exeunt. ACT III. Enter CHORUS. : Chor. Thus with imagined wing our swift scene flies, In motion of no less celerity Than that of thought. Suppose that you have seen With silken streamers the young Phoebus fanning. Holding due course to Harfleur. Follow, follow! 1 "The well-appointed king at Hampton pier." "Well-appointed," that is, well furnished with all necessaries of war. The old copies read, " Dover pier:" but the Poet himself, and all accounts, and even the Chronicles which he followed, say that the king embarked at Southampton. A minute account still exists among the records of the town; and it is remarkable that a low, level plain, where the army encamped, is now covered by the sea, and called Westport. 2 The meaning of this passage is, "Let your minds follow this navy." The stern was anciently synonymous to rudder. "The sterne of a ship, gubernaculum."—Baret. With fatal mouths gaping on girded Harfleur. Suppose the ambassador from the French comes back; [Alarum; and chambers1 go off. And down goes all before them. Still be kind, And eke out our performance with your mind. [Exrt. SCENE I. The same. Before Harfleur. Alarums. Enter KING HENRY, EXETER, BEDFORD, GLOSTER, and Soldiers, with scaling ladders. K. Hen. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead! But when the blast of war blows in our ears, 2 Let it pry through the portage of the head, 3 O'er hang and jutty his confounded base, Swilled with the wild and wasteful ocean. Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide; 1 "Chambers," small pieces of ordnance. 2 "The portage of the head." Shakspeare uses portage for loop-holes or port-holes. 3 "O'erhang and jutty his confounded base, Swilled with the wild and wasteful ocean." To jutty is to project; jutties, or jetties, are projecting moles to break the force of the waves. Confounded is vexed, or troubled. Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit 2 Have, in these parts, from morn till even fought, That those, whom you called fathers, did beget you! Be copy now to men of grosser blood, And teach them how to war!—And you, good yeomen, That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not; I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, Cry-God for Harry! England! and Saint George! CENE II. . The same. Forces pass over. Then Enter NYM, BARDOLPH, PISTOL, and Boy. Bard. On, on, on, on, on! to the breach! to the breach! 4 Nym. 'Pray thee, corporal, stay; the knocks are too hot; and, for mine own part, I have not a case of lives: the humor of it is too hot, that is the very plainsong of it. 1 "You noble English." The folio reads noblish, by mistake; the compositor having taken twice the final syllable ish. Steevens reads noblest. This speech is not in the quartos. 2 "Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof." Mr. Pope took the liberty of altering this word to fetched. The sacred writings afford us many instances of its use. "Ascita et accepta a Græcis, Fet and taken out of Greece." It is often coupled with far, as in the expressions "farfet and dear-bought," "affectated and far-fet.” 3 Argument is matter, subject. 4.66 Corporal." Bardolph is called lieutenant in a former scene. |