TPTT The Life of Henry the Fifth: ACT I
Introduction
ACT I
PROLOGUE
SCENE I. London. An ante-chamber in the KING'S palace.
SCENE II. The same. The Presence chamber.
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
ACT V
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SCENE II. The same. The Presence chamber.
Enter KING HENRY V, GLOUCESTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and Attendants
KING HENRY V
      Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury?
EXETER
      Not here in presence.
KING HENRY V
      Send for him, good uncle.
WESTMORELAND
      Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege?
KING HENRY V
5     Not yet, my cousin: we would be resolved,
      Before we hear him, of some things of weight
      That task our thoughts, concerning us and France.
Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, and the BISHOP of ELY
CANTERBURY
      God and his angels guard your sacred throne
      And make you long become it!
KING HENRY V
10    Sure, we thank you.
      My learned lord, we pray you to proceed
      And justly and religiously unfold
      Why the law Salique that they have in France
      Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim:
15    And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,
      That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading,
      Or nicely charge your understanding soul
      With opening titles miscreate, whose right
      Suits not in native colours with the truth;
20    For God doth know how many now in health
      Shall drop their blood in approbation
      Of what your reverence shall incite us to.
      Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,
      How you awake our sleeping sword of war:
25    We charge you, in the name of God, take heed;
      For never two such kingdoms did contend
      Without much fall of blood; whose guiltless drops
      Are every one a woe, a sore complaint
      'Gainst him whose wrong gives edge unto the swords
30    That make such waste in brief mortality.
      Under this conjuration, speak, my lord;
      For we will hear, note and believe in heart
      That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd
      As pure as sin with baptism.
CANTERBURY
35    Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers,
      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,
40    '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
      The founder of this law and female bar.
45    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 subdued the Saxons,
      There left behind and settled certain French;
50    Who, holding in disdain the German women
      For some dishonest manners of their life,
      Establish'd then this law; to wit, no female
      Should be inheritrix in Salique land:
      Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala,
55    Is at this day in Germany call'd Meisen.
      Then doth it well appear that 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
60    After defunction of King Pharamond,
      Idly supposed the founder of this law;
      Who died within the year of our redemption
      Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the Great
      Subdued the Saxons, and did seat the French
65    Beyond the river Sala, in the year
      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 Clothair,
70    Make claim and title to the crown of France.
      Hugh Capet also, who usurped 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,
75    'Through, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught,
      Convey'd himself as heir to the Lady Lingare,
      Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son
      To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son
      Of Charles the Great. Also King Lewis the Tenth,
80    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,
85    Daughter to Charles the foresaid duke of Lorraine:
      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,
90    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,
95    And rather choose to hide them in a net
      Than amply to imbar their crooked titles
      Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.
KING HENRY V
      May I with right and conscience make this claim?
CANTERBURY
      The sin upon my head, dread sovereign!
100   For in the book of Numbers is it writ,
      When the man dies, let the inheritance
      Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord,
      Stand for your own; unwind your bloody flag;
      Look back into your mighty ancestors:
105   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,
110   Whiles his most mighty father on a hill
      Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp
      Forage in blood of French nobility.
      O noble English. that could entertain
      With half their forces the full Pride of France
115   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;
120   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 enterprises.
EXETER
      Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth
125   Do all expect that you should rouse yourself,
      As did the former lions of your blood.
WESTMORELAND
      They know your grace hath cause and means and might;
      So hath your highness; never king of England
      Had nobles richer and more loyal subjects,
130   Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England
      And lie pavilion'd in the fields of France.
CANTERBURY
      O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege,
      With blood and sword and fire to win your right;
      In aid whereof we of the spiritualty
135   Will raise your highness such a mighty sum
      As never did the clergy at one time
      Bring in to any of your ancestors.
KING HENRY V
      We must not only arm to invade the French,
      But lay down our proportions to defend
140   Against the Scot, who will make road upon us
      With all advantages.
CANTERBURY
      They of those marches, gracious sovereign,
      Shall be a wall sufficient to defend
      Our inland from the pilfering borderers.
KING HENRY V
145   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
150   But that the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdom
      Came pouring, like the tide into a breach,
      With ample and brim fulness of his force,
      Galling the gleaned land with hot assays,
      Girding with grievous siege castles and towns;
155   That England, being empty of defence,
      Hath shook and trembled at the ill neighbourhood.
CANTERBURY
      She hath been then more fear'd than harm'd, my liege;
      For hear her but exampled by herself:
      When all her chivalry hath been in France
160   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
165   And make her chronicle as rich with praise
      As is the ooze and bottom of the sea
      With sunken wreck and sunless treasuries.
WESTMORELAND
      But there's a saying very old and true,
      'If that you will France win,
170   Then with Scotland first begin:'
      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,
175   To tear and havoc more than she can eat.
EXETER
      It follows then the cat must stay at home:
      Yet that is but a crush'd necessity,
      Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries,
      And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves.
180   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,
185   Like music.
CANTERBURY
      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,
190   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,
195   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;
200   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,
205   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:
210   As many arrows, loosed several ways,
      Come to one mark; as many ways meet in one town;
      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.
215   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.
220   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.
KING HENRY V
      Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin.

Exeunt some Attendants

225   Now are we well resolved; 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,
      Ruling in large and ample empery
230   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,
235   Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth,
      Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph.

Enter Ambassadors of France

      Now are we well prepared to know the pleasure
      Of our fair cousin Dauphin; for we hear
      Your greeting is from him, not from the king.
First Ambassador
240   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?
KING HENRY V
      We are no tyrant, but a Christian king;
245   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.
First Ambassador
      Thus, then, in few.
250   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,
255   And bids you be advised there's nought in France
      That can be with a nimble galliard won;
      You cannot revel into dukedoms there.
      He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit,
      This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this,
260   Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim
      Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.
KING HENRY V
      What treasure, uncle?
EXETER
      Tennis-balls, my liege.
KING HENRY V
      We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us;
265   His present and your pains we thank you for:
      When we have march'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
270   That all the courts of France will be disturb'd
      With chaces. And we understand him well,
      How he comes o'er us with our wilder days,
      Not measuring what use we made of them.
      We never valued this poor seat of England;
275   And therefore, living hence, did give ourself
      To barbarous licence; as 'tis 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
280   When I do rouse me in my throne of France:
      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,
285   Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us.
      And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his
      Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones; and his soul
      Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance
      That shall fly with them: for many a thousand widows
290   Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands;
      Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down;
      And some are yet ungotten and unborn
      That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's scorn.
      But this lies all within the will of God,
295   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
300   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
EXETER
      This was a merry message.
KING HENRY V
      We hope to make the sender blush at it.
305   Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour
      That may give furtherance to our expedition;
      For we have now no thought in us but France,
      Save those to God, that run before our business.
      Therefore let our proportions for these wars
310   Be soon collected and all things thought upon
      That may with reasonable swiftness add
      More feathers to our wings; for, God before,
      We'll chide this Dauphin at his father's door.
      Therefore let every man now task his thought,
315   That this fair action may on foot be brought.
Exeunt. Flourish
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