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KING HENRY V
SCENE England; afterwards France.
ACT I, PROLOGUE
Enter Chorus
Chorus
001:
O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
002:
The brightest heaven of invention,
003:
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
004:
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
005:
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
006:
Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,
007:
Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire
008:
Crouch for employment. But pardon, and gentles all,
009:
The flat unraised spirits that have dared
010:
On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth
011:
So great an object: can this cockpit hold
012:
The vasty fields of France? or may we cram
013:
Within this wooden O the very casques
014:
That did affright the air at Agincourt?
015:
O, pardon! since a crooked figure may
016:
Attest in little place a million;
017:
And let us, ciphers to this great account,
018:
On your imaginary forces work.
019:
Suppose within the girdle of these walls
020:
Are now confined two mighty monarchies,
021:
Whose high upreared and abutting fronts
022:
The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder:
023:
Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;
024:
Into a thousand parts divide one man,
025:
And make imaginary puissance;
026:
Think when we talk of horses, that you see them
027:
Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth;
028:
For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
029:
Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times,
030:
Turning the accomplishment of many years
031:
Into an hour-glass: for the which supply,
032:
Admit me Chorus to this history;
033:
Who prologue-like your humble patience pray,
034:
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.
Exit
ACT I, SCENE I.
London. An ante-chamber in the KING'S palace.
Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, and the BISHOP OF ELY
CANTERBURY
001:
My lord, I'll tell you; that self bill is urged,
002:
Which in the eleventh year of the last king's reign
003:
Was like, and had indeed against us pass'd,
004:
But that the scambling and unquiet time
005:
Did push it out of farther question.
ELY
006:
But how, my lord, shall we resist it now?
CANTERBURY
007:
It must be thought on. If it pass against us,
008:
We lose the better half of our possession:
009:
For all the temporal lands which men devout
010:
By testament have given to the church
011:
Would they strip from us; being valued thus:
012:
As much as would maintain, to the king's honour,
013:
Full fifteen earls and fifteen hundred knights,
014:
Six thousand and two hundred good esquires;
015:
And, to relief of lazars and weak age,
016:
Of indigent faint souls past corporal toil.
017:
A hundred almshouses right well supplied;
018:
And to the coffers of the king beside,
019:
A thousand pounds by the year: thus runs the bill.
ELY
020:
This would drink deep.
CANTERBURY
021:
'Twould drink the cup and all.
ELY
022:
But what prevention?
CANTERBURY
023:
The king is full of grace and fair regard.
ELY
024:
And a true lover of the holy church.
CANTERBURY
025:
The courses of his youth promised it not.
026:
The breath no sooner left his father's body,
027:
But that his wildness, mortified in him,
028:
Seem'd to die too; yea, at that very moment
029:
Consideration, like an angel, came
030:
And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him,
031:
Leaving his body as a paradise,
032:
To envelop and contain celestial spirits.
033:
Never was such a sudden scholar made;
034:
Never came reformation in a flood,
035:
With such a heady currance, scouring faults
036:
Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulness
037:
So soon did lose his seat and all at once
038:
As in this king.
ELY
039:
We are blessed in the change.
CANTERBURY
040:
Hear him but reason in divinity,
041:
And all-admiring with an inward wish
042:
You would desire the king were made a prelate:
043:
Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,
044:
You would say it hath been all in all his study:
045:
List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
046:
A fearful battle render'd you in music:
047:
Turn him to any cause of policy,
048:
The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,
049:
Familiar as his garter: that, when he speaks,
050:
The air, a charter'd libertine, is still,
051:
And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,
052:
To steal his sweet and honey'd sentences;
053:
So that the art and practic part of life
054:
Must be the mistress to this theoric:
055:
Which is a wonder how his grace should glean it,
056:
Since his addiction was to courses vain,
057:
His companies unletter'd, rude and shallow,
058:
His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports,
059:
And never noted in him any study,
060:
Any retirement, any sequestration
061:
From open haunts and popularity.
ELY
062: The strawberry grows underneath the nettle
063: And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best
064: Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality:
065:
And so the prince obscured his contemplation
066:
Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt,
067:
Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night,
068: Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.
CANTERBURY
069: It must be so; for miracles are ceased;
070: And therefore we must needs admit the means
071: How things are perfected.
ELY
072:
But, my good lord,
073:
How now for mitigation of this bill
074:
Urged by the commons? Doth his majesty
075:
Incline to it, or no?
CANTERBURY
076:
He seems indifferent,
077:
Or rather swaying more upon our part
078:
Than cherishing the exhibiters against us;
079:
For I have made an offer to his majesty,
080:
Upon our spiritual convocation
081:
And in regard of causes now in hand,
082:
Which I have open'd to his grace at large,
083:
As touching France , to give a greater sum
084:
Than ever at one time the clergy yet
085:
Did to his predecessors part withal.
ELY
086:
How did this offer seem received, my lord?
CANTERBURY
087:
With good acceptance of his majesty;
088:
Save that there was not time enough to hear,
089:
As I perceived his grace would fain have done,
090:
The severals and unhidden passages
091:
Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms
092:
And generally to the crown and seat of France
093:
Derived from Edward, his great-grandfather.
ELY
094:
What was the impediment that broke this off?
CANTERBURY
095:
The French ambassador upon that instant
096:
Craved audience; and the hour, I think, is come
097:
To give him hearing: is it four o'clock?
ELY
098:
It is.
CANTERBURY
099:
Then go we in, to know his embassy;
100:
Which I could with a ready guess declare,
101:
Before the Frenchman speak a word of it.
ELY
102:
I'll wait upon you, and I long to hear it.
Exeunt
ACT I, SCENE II.
The same. The Presence chamber.
Enter KING HENRY V, GLOUCESTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and Attendants
KING HENRY V
001:
Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury?
EXETER
002:
Not here in presence.
KING HENRY V
003:
Send for him, good uncle.
WESTMORELAND
004:
Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege?
KING HENRY V
005:
Not yet, my cousin: we would be resolved,
006:
Before we hear him, of some things of weight
007:
That task our thoughts, concerning us and France.
Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, and the BISHOP of ELY
CANTERBURY
008:
God and his angels guard your sacred throne
009:
And make you long become it!
KING HENRY V
010:
Sure, we thank you.
011:
My learned lord, we pray you to proceed
012:
And justly and religiously unfold
013:
Why the law Salique that they have in France
014:
Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim:
015:
And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,
016:
That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading,
017:
Or nicely charge your understanding soul
018:
With opening titles miscreate, whose right
019:
Suits not in native colours with the truth;
020:
For God doth know how many now in health
021:
Shall drop their blood in approbation
022:
Of what your reverence shall incite us to.
023:
Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,
024:
How you awake our sleeping sword of war:
025:
We charge you, in the name of God, take heed;
026:
For never two such kingdoms did contend
027:
Without much fall of blood; whose guiltless drops
028: Are every one a woe, a sore complaint
029: 'Gainst him whose wrong gives edge unto the swords
030:
That make such waste in brief mortality.
031: Under this conjuration, speak, my lord;
032: For we will hear, note and believe in heart
033: That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd
034: As pure as sin with baptism.
CANTERBURY
035:
Then hear me, gracious sovereign , and you peers,
036:
That owe yourselves, your lives and services
037:
To this imperial throne. There is no bar
038:
To make against your highness' claim to France
039:
But this, which they produce from Pharamond,
040:
'In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant:'
041:
'No woman shall succeed in Salique land:'
042:
Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze
043:
To be the realm of France,
and Pharamond
044:
The founder of this law and female bar.
045:
Yet their own authors faithfully affirm
046:
That the land Salique is in Germany,
047:
Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe;
048:
Where Charles the Great, having subdued the Saxons,
049:
There left behind and settled certain French;
050:
Who, holding in disdain the German women
051:
For some dishonest manners of their life,
052:
Establish'd then this law; to wit, no female
053:
Should be inheritrix in Salique land:
054:
Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala,
055:
Is at this day in Germany call'd Meisen.
056:
Then doth it well appear that Salique law
057:
Was not devised for the realm of France:
058:
Nor did the French possess the Salique land
059:
Until four hundred one and twenty years
060:
After defunction of King Pharamond,
061:
Idly supposed the founder of this law;
062: Who died within the year of our redemption
063: Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the Great
064: Subdued the Saxons, and did seat the French
065: Beyond the river Sala, in the year
066: Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say,
067:
King Pepin, which deposed Childeric,
068:
Did, as heir general, being descended
069:
Of Blithild, which was daughter to King Clothair,
070:
Make claim and title to the crown of France.
071:
Hugh Capet also, who usurped the crown
072:
Of Charles the duke of Lorraine, sole heir male
073:
Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great,
074: To find his title with some shows of truth,
075: 'Through, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught,
076: Convey'd himself as heir to the Lady Lingare,
077: Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son
078: To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son
079: Of Charles the Great. Also King Lewis the Tenth,
080: Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet,
081:
Could not keep quiet in his conscience,
082:
Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied
083:
That fair Queen Isabel, his grandmother,
084:
Was lineal of the Lady Ermengare,
085:
Daughter to Charles the foresaid duke of Lorraine:
086:
By the which marriage the line of Charles the Great
087:
Was re-united to the crown of France.
088:
So that, as clear as is the summer's sun.
089: King Pepin's title and Hugh Capet's claim,
090: King Lewis his satisfaction,
all appear
091:
To hold in right and title of the female:
092:
So do the kings of France unto this day;
093:
Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law
094:
To bar your highness claiming from the female,
095:
And rather choose to hide them in a net
096:
Than amply to imbar their crooked titles
097:
Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.
KING HENRY V
098:
May I with right and conscience make this claim?
CANTERBURY
099:
The sin upon my head, dread sovereign!
100:
For in the book of Numbers is it writ,
101:
When the man dies, let the inheritance
102:
Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord,
103:
Stand for your own; unwind your bloody flag;
104:
Look back into your mighty ancestors:
105:
Go, my dread lord, to your great-grandsire's tomb,
106:
From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit,
107:
And your great-uncle's, Edward the Black Prince,
108: Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy,
109: Making defeat on the full power of France,
110: Whiles his most mighty father on a hill
111: Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp
112: Forage in blood of French nobility.
113: O noble English. that could entertain
114: With half their forces the full Pride of France
115: And let another half stand laughing by,
116: All out of work and cold for action!
ELY
117:
Awake remembrance of these valiant dead
118:
And with your puissant arm renew their feats:
119: You are their heir; you sit upon their throne;
120: The blood and courage that renowned them
121: Runs in your veins; and my thrice-puissant liege
122: Is in the very May-morn of his youth,
123: Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises.
EXETER
124:
Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth
125:
Do all expect that you should rouse yourself,
126:
As did the former lions of your blood.
WESTMORELAND
127:
They know your grace hath cause and means and might;
128:
So hath your highness; never king of England
129:
Had nobles richer and more loyal subjects,
130:
Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England
131:
And lie pavilion'd in the fields of France.
CANTERBURY
132:
O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege,
133:
With blood and sword and fire to win your right;
134:
In aid whereof we of the spiritualty
135:
Will raise your highness such a mighty sum
136:
As never did the clergy at one time
137:
Bring in to any of your ancestors.
KING HENRY V
138:
We must not only arm to invade the French,
139:
But lay down our proportions to defend
140:
Against the Scot, who will make road upon us
141:
With all advantages.
CANTERBURY
142: They of those marches, gracious sovereign,
143: Shall be a wall sufficient to defend
144: Our inland from the pilfering borderers.
KING HENRY V
145: We do not mean the coursing snatchers only,
146: But fear the main intendment of the Scot,
147: Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us;
148: For you shall read that my great-grandfather
149: Never went with his forces into France
150: But that the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdom
151: Came pouring, like the tide into a breach,
152: With ample and brim fulness of his force,
153: Galling the gleaned land with hot assays,
154: Girding with grievous siege castles and towns;
155: That England, being empty of defence,
156: Hath shook and trembled at the ill neighbourhood.
CANTERBURY
157: She hath been then more fear'd than harm'd, my liege;
158: For hear her but exampled by herself:
159: When all her chivalry hath been in France
160: And she a mourning widow of her nobles,
161: She hath herself not only well defended
162: But taken and impounded as a stray
163: The King of Scots; whom she did send to France,
164: To fill King Edward's fame with prisoner kings
165: And make her chronicle as rich with praise
166: As is the ooze and bottom of the sea
167: With sunken wreck and sunless treasuries.
WESTMORELAND
168:
But there's a saying very old and true,
169:
'If that you will France win,
170:
Then with Scotland first begin:'
171:
For once the eagle England being in prey,
172:
To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot
173:
Comes sneaking and so sucks her princely eggs,
174:
Playing the mouse in absence of the cat,
175:
To tear and havoc more than she can eat.
EXETER
176:
It follows then the cat must stay at home:
177:
Yet that is but a crush'd necessity,
178:
Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries,
179:
And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves.
180:
While that the armed hand doth fight abroad,
181:
The advised head defends itself at home;
182:
For government, though high and low and lower,
183:
Put into parts, doth keep in one consent,
184:
Congreeing in a full and natural close,
185:
Like music.
CANTERBURY
186:
Therefore doth heaven divide
187:
The state of man in divers functions,
188:
Setting endeavour in continual motion;
189:
To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,
190:
Obedience: for so work the honey-bees,
191:
Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
192:
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
193:
They have a king and officers of sorts;
194:
Where some, like magistrates, correct at home,
195:
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad,
196:
Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,
197:
Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds,
198:
Which pillage they with merry march bring home
199:
To the tent-royal of their emperor;
200:
Who, busied in his majesty, surveys
201:
The singing masons building roofs of gold,
202:
The civil citizens kneading up the honey,
203:
The poor mechanic porters crowding in
204:
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate,
205:
The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum,
206:
Delivering o'er to executors pale
207:
The lazy yawning drone. I this infer,
208:
That many things, having full reference
209:
To one consent, may work contrariously:
210: As many arrows, loosed several ways,
211: Come to one mark; as many ways meet in one town;
212: As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea;
213: As many lines close in the dial's centre;
214:
So may a thousand actions, once afoot.
215:
End in one purpose, and be all well borne
216:
Without defeat. Therefore to France, my liege.
217:
Divide your happy England into four;
218:
Whereof take you one quarter into France,
219:
And you withal shall make all Gallia shake.
220:
If we, with thrice such powers left at home,
221:
Cannot defend our own doors from the dog,
222:
Let us be worried and our nation lose
223:
The name of hardiness and policy.
KING HENRY V
224:
Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin.
[Exeunt some Attendants]
225:
Now are we well resolved; and, by God's help,
226:
And yours, the noble sinews of our power,
227:
France being ours, we'll bend it to our awe,
228:
Or break it all to pieces
: or there we'll sit,
229: Ruling in large and ample empery
230: O'er France and all her almost kingly dukedoms,
231:
Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn,
232:
Tombless, with no remembrance over them:
233: Either our history shall with full mouth
234: Speak freely of our acts, or else our grave,
235: Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth,
236: Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph.
[Enter Ambassadors of France]
237:
Now are we well prepared to know the pleasure
238:
Of our fair cousin Dauphin ; for we hear
239:
Your greeting is from him, not from the king.
First Ambassador
240:
May't please your majesty to give us leave
241:
Freely to render what we have in charge;
242:
Or shall we sparingly show you far off
243:
The Dauphin's meaning and our embassy?
KING HENRY V
244:
We are no tyrant, but a Christian king;
245:
Unto whose grace our passion is as subject
246:
As are our wretches fetter'd in our prisons:
247:
Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness
248:
Tell us the Dauphin's mind.
First Ambassador
249:
Thus, then, in few.
250:
Your highness, lately sending into France,
251:
Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right
252:
Of your great predecessor, King Edward the Third.
253:
In answer of which claim, the prince our master
254:
Says that you savour too much of your youth,
255:
And bids you be advised there's nought in France
256:
That can be with a nimble galliard won;
257:
You cannot revel into dukedoms there.
258:
He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit,
259:
This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this,
260:
Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim
261:
Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.
KING HENRY V
262:
What treasure, uncle?
EXETER
263:
Tennis-balls, my liege.
KING HENRY V
264:
We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us;
265:
His present and your pains we thank you for:
266:
When we have march'd our rackets to these balls,
267:
We will, in France, by God's grace, play a set
268:
Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard.
269:
Tell him he hath made a match with such a wrangler
270:
That all the courts of France will be disturb'd
271:
With chaces. And we understand him well,
272:
How he comes o'er us with our wilder days,
273:
Not measuring what use we made of them.
274:
We never valued this poor seat of England;
275:
And therefore, living hence, did give ourself
276:
To barbarous licence; as 'tis ever common
277:
That men are merriest when they are from home.
278:
But tell the Dauphin I will keep my state,
279:
Be like a king and show my sail of greatness
280:
When I do rouse me in my throne of France:
281:
For that I have laid by my majesty
282:
And plodded like a man for working-days,
283:
But I will rise there with so full a glory
284:
That I will dazzle all the eyes of France,
285:
Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us.
286:
And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his
287:
Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones; and his soul
288:
Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance
289:
That shall fly with them: for many a thousand widows
290:
Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands;
291:
Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down;