A thousand pounds by the year. Thus runs the bill.

Ely. This would drink deep.
Cant.

21

'T would drink the cup and all. Ely. But what prevention? Cant. The King is full of grace and fair regard.

Ely. And a true lover of the holy Church. Cant. The courses of his youth promis'd it not.

The breath no sooner left his father's body, 25
But that his wildness, mortifi'd in him,
Seem'd to die too; yea, at that very moment
Consideration like an angel came

And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him,
Leaving his body as a paradise

To envelope and contain celestial spirits.

Never was such a sudden scholar made;

Never came reformation in a flood

With such a heady currance, scouring faults;
Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulness

So soon did lose his seat, and all at once,
As in this king.

30

35

Ely. We are blessed in the change. Cant. Hear him but reason in divinity, And, all-admiring, with an inward wish You would desire the King were made a pre

late;

40

Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,
You would say it hath been all in all his study;
List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
A fearful battle rend'red you in music;
Turn him to any cause of policy,
The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,
Familiar as his garter; that, when he speaks,
The air, a charter'd libertine, is still,

And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,
To steal his sweet and honey'd sentences;
So that the art and practic part of life
Must be the mistress to this theoric:

45

50

Which is a wonder how his Grace should glean it,

Since his addiction was to courses vain,

His companies unletter'd, rude, and shallow, 55
His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports,
And never noted in him any study,
Any retirement, any sequestration
From open haunts and popularity.

Ely. The strawberry grows underneath the nettle,

And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality;

60

And so the Prince obscur'd his contemplation

Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt,

And in regard of causes now in hand,
Which I have open'd to his Grace at large,
As touching France, to give a greater sum
Than ever at one time the clergy yet
Did to his predecessors part withal.
Ely. How did this offer seem receiv'd, my
lord?

Cant. With good acceptance of his Majesty; Save that there was not time enough to hear, As I perceiv'd his Grace would fain have done, The severals and unhidden passages

80

Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms, And generally to the crown and seat of France Deriv'd from Edward, his great-grandfather. Ely. What was the impediment that broke this off?

90

Cant. The French ambassador upon that instant

Crav'd audience; and the hour, I think, is

come

To give him hearing. Is it four o'clock? Ely. It is.

90

Cant. Then go we in, to know his embassy; Which I could with a ready guess declare, Before the Frenchman speak a word of it. Ely. I'll wait upon you, and I long to hear it. [Exeunt.

[SCENE II. The same. The presence chamber.] Enter KING HENRY, GLOUCESTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND (and Attendants].

K. Hen. Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury?

Exe. Not here in presence.
K. Hen.

Send for him, good uncle. West. Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege?

K. Hen. Not yet, my cousin. We would be resolv'd,

Before we hear him, of some things of weight 5 That task our thoughts, concerning us and France.

Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY and the BISHOP OF ELY.

Cant. God and his angels guard your sacred throne

And make you long become it!

35

That owe yourselves, your lives, and services
To this imperial throne. There is no bar
To make against your Highness' claim to France
But this, which they produce from Pharamond:
"In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant,"
"No woman shall succeed in Salique land';
Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze
To be the realm of France, and Pharamond 41
The founder of this law and female bar.
Yet their own authors faithfully affirm
That the land Salique is in Germany,
Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe;
Where Charles the Great, having subdu'd the
Saxons,

45

There left behind and settled certain French;
Who, holding in disdain the German women
For some dishonest manners of their life,
Establish'd then this law, to wit, no female 50
Should be inheritrix in Salique land;
Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala,
Is at this day in Germany call'd Meisen.
Then doth it well appear the Salique law
Was not devised for the realm of France;
Nor did the French possess the Salique land
Until four hundred one and twenty years
After defunction of King Pharamond,
Idly suppos'd the founder of this law,
Who died within the year of our redemption 60
Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the

Great

Subdu'd the Saxons, and did seat the French Beyond the river Sala, in the year

55

65

Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say,
King Pepin, which deposed Childeric,
Did, as heir general, being descended

Of Blithild, which was daughter to King Clo

thair,

I.

Make claim and title to the crown of France.
Hugh Capet also, who usurp'd the crown
Of Charles the Duke of Lorraine, sole heir
male

Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great,
To find his title with some shows of truth,
Though, in pure truth, it was corrupt and
naught,

Convey'd himself as the heir to the Lady Lis

gare,

Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son
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
Lorraine ;

By the which marriage the line of Charles the
Great

65

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 imbar 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 man dies, let the inheritance
Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord, 10
Stand for your own! Unwind your bloody flag!
Look back into 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.

106

110

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,

115

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; 145
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,
With ample and brim fullness of his force, 150
Galling the gleaned land with hot assays,
Girding with grievous siege castles and towns;
That England, being empty of defence,
Hath shook and trembled at the ill neighbour-
hood.

Cant. She hath been then more fear'd than

175

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.

180

185

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, Where some, like magistrates, correct at home, Others, like inerchants, 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

190

195

200

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;

205

210

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, 215
And you withal shall make all Gallia shake.
If we, with thrice such powers left at home,
Cannot defend our own doors from the dog,
Let us be worried and our nation lose
The name of hardiness and policy.

220

K. Hen. Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin. [Exeunt some Attendants.] 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, Or break it all to pieces. Or there we 'll sit,

225

Ruling in large and ample empery O'er France and all her almost kingly dukedoms,

230

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.

235

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. 1. Amb. May 't 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? 240
K. Hen. We are no tyrant, but a Christian
king,

Unto whose grace our passion is as subject
As is our wretches fett'red in our prisons;
Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plain-

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. 275
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
That I will dazzle all the eyes of France,
Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on

200

But this lies all within the will of God,
To whom I do appeal; and in whose name
Tell you the Dauphin I am coming on
To venge me as I may, and to put forth
My rightful hand in a well-hallow'd cause.
So get you hence in peace; and tell the Dauphin
His jest will savour but of shallow wit,
When thousands weep more than did laugh at
it.

Convey them with safe conduct.- Fare you
well.
[Exeunt Ambassadors. |
Exe. This was a merry message.

K. Hen. We hope to make the sender blush

thought

Reigns solely in the breast of every man.
They sell the pasture now to buy the horse,
Following the mirror of all Christian kings,
With winged heels, as English Mercuries.
For now sits Expectation in the air,
And hides a sword from hilts unto the point
With crowns imperial, crowns, and coronets,
Promis'd to Harry and his followers.
The French, advis'd by good intelligence
Of this most dreadful preparation,
Shake in their fear, and with pale policy
Seek to divert the English purposes.
O England! model to thy inward greatness,
Like little body with a mighty heart,
What mightst thou do, that honour would thee

do,

10

ampton.

30

Linger your patience on, and we 'll digest
The abuse of distance, force a play.
The sum is paid; the traitors are agreed;
The King is set from London; and the scene
Is now transported, gentles, to Southampton. 35
There is the playhouse now, there must you sit;
And thence to France shall we convey you safe,
And bring you back, charming the narrow seas
To give you gentle pass; for, if we may,
We'll not offend one stomach with our play. 40
But, till the King come forth, and not till then,
Unto Southampton do we shift our scene.

[Exit.

perdy,

56

And, which is worse, within thy nasty mouth! I do retort the "solus" in thy bowels; For I can take, and Pistol's cock is up, And flashing fire will follow. Nym. I am not Barbason; you cannot conI have an humour to knock you indifjure me. ferently well. If you grow foul with me, Pistol, I will scour you with my rapier, as I may, in fair terms. If you would walk off, I would prick your guts a little, in good terms, as I may; and that's the humour of it.

63

Pist. O braggart vile and damned furious wight!

The grave doth gape, and doting death is

near,

Therefore exhale.

Bard. Hear me, hear me what I say. He that strikes the first stroke, I'll run him up to the hilts, as I am a soldier. [Draws.]

Pist. An oath of mickle might; and fury shall abate.

Give me thy fist, thy fore-foot to me give.
Thy spirits are most tall.

70

Nym. I will cut thy throat, one time or other, in fair terms: that is the humour of it. Pist. Couple a gorge!"

That is the word. I thee defy again.

75

O hound of Crete, think 'st thou my spouse to get?

No! to the spital go,

And from the powdering-tub of infamy
Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind, so
Doll Tearsheet she by name, and her espouse.
I have, and I will hold, the quondam Quickly
For the only she; and -pauca, there's enough.
Go to.

Enter the Box.

84

Boy. Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master, and you, hostess. He is very sick, and would to bed. Good Bardolph, put thy face