King Henry V | Page 6

hath been then more fear'd than harm'd, my
liege;
For hear her but exampl'd by herself:
When all her chivalry
hath 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 her chronicle as rich
with praise
As is the ooze and bottom of the sea
With sunken wreck
and sumless treasuries.
WESTMORELAND.
But there's a saying very old and true,
"If that you will France win,
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,
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.
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.
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,
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,

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;
As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea;
As many lines
close in the dial's centre;
So many 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 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.
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,
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 worshipp'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.
FIRST AMBASSADOR.
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.
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 plainness
Tell
us the Dauphin's mind.
AMBASSADOR.
Thus, then, in few.
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.
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.
KING HENRY.
What treasure, uncle?
EXETER.
Tennis-balls, my liege.
KING HENRY.
We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us.

His present and your pains we thank you for.
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
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 valu'd this poor seat of England;
And therefore,
living hence, did give ourself
To barbarous