Fr. King.
Thus come the English with full power upon us;
And more than carefully it us concerns
To answer royally in our defences.
Therefore the Dukes of Berry and of Britain,
Of Brabant, and of Orleans, shall make forth,
And you, Prince Dauphin, with all swift dispatch;
To line and new repair our towns of war,
With men of courage and with means defendant:
For England his approaches makes as fierce,
As waters to the sucking of a gulf.
It fits us then to be as provident,
As fear may teach us out of late examples,
Left by the fatal and neglected English,
Upon our fields.

Daup.
My most redoubted father,
It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe:

For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom
But that defences, musters, preparations,
Should be maintain'd, assembled and collected,
As were a war in expectation.
Therefore, I say, 'tis meet we all go forth,
To view the sick and feeble parts of France:
And let us do it with no shew of fear;
No, with no more than if we heard that England
Were busied with a Whitsun morrice-dance.
For, my good liege, she is so idly king'd,
Her scepter so fantastically born.
By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth,
That fear attends her not.

Con.
O peace, prince Dauphin,
You are too much mistaken in this king.
Question your grace the late ambassadors,
With what great state he heard their embassy,
How well supply'd with noble counsellors,
How modest in exception, and withal,
How terrible in constant resolution.
And you shall find his vanities, fore-spent,
Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus,
Covering discretion with a coat of folly.

Daup.
Well, 'tis not so, my lord high constable;
But tho' we think it so, it is no matter.
In causes of defence, 'tis best to weigh
The enemy more mighty than he seems,
So the proportions of defence are fill'd.

Fr. King.
Think we king Harry strong;
And, princes, look you strongly arm to meet him.
The kindred of him hath been flesh'd upon us;
And he is bred out of that bloody strain,
That haunted us, in our familiar paths.
Witness our too much memorable shame,
When Cressy battle fatally was struck,
And all our princes captiv'd, by the hand
Of that black name, Edward, the prince of Wales:

While that his mountain fire, on mountain standing,* ^note
Up in the air, crown'd with the golden sun,
Saw his heroic seed, and smil'd to see him,
Mangle the work of nature, and deface
The patterns, that by Heav'n and by French fathers,
Had twenty years been made. This is a stem,
Of that victorious stock; and let us fear
The native mightiness and fate of him.† ^note Enter Messenger.

Mess.
Ambassadors from Harry, king of England,
Do crave admittance to your majesty.

Fr. King.
We'll give them present audience. Go, and bring them.
You see this chace is hotly follow'd, friends.

Daup.
Turn head, and stop pursuit; for coward dogs
Most spend their mouths, when what they seem to threaten,
Runs far before them. Good, my sovereign,
Take up the English short, and let them know,
Of what a monarchy you are the head.
Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin,‡ ^note
As self-neglecting. Enter Exeter.

Fr. King.
From our brother England?

Exe.
From him; and thus he greets your majesty.
He wills you, in the awful name of Heav'n,

That you divest yourself, and lay apart
The borrow'd glories, that by gift of heaven,
By law of nature, and of nations, 'long
To him, and to his heirs; namely, the crown,
And all the wide-stretch'd honours that pertain,
By custom, and the ordinance of times,
Unto the crown of France. That you may know
'Tis no sinister, nor no aukward claim,
Pick'd from the worm-holes of long vanish'd days,
Nor from the dust of old oblivion rak'd,
He sends you this most memorable line,
Willing you overlook his pedigree;
And when you find him evenly deriv'd
From his most fam'd of famous ancestors,
Edward the Third: he bids you then resign
Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held
From him, the native, and true challenger.

Fr. King.
Or else, what follows?

Exe.
Bloody constraint; for if you hide the crown* ^note
Ev'n in your hearts, there will he rake for it.
And therefore, in fierce tempest is he coming,
In thunder, and in earthquake, like a Jove:
That if requiring fail, he may compell.
He bids you, in compassion to your subjects,
Deliver up the crown, and to take mercy
On the poor souls, for whom this hungry war
Opens his vasty jaws; upon your head,
Turning the widows' tears, the orphans' cries,
The dead men's blood, the pining maiden's groans,
For husbands, fathers, and betrothed lovers,
That shall be swallow'd in this controversy.
This is his claim, his threatning, and my message;
Unless the Dauphin be in presence here,
To whom, expresly 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.

Daup.
For the Dauphin,
I stand here for him. What to him, from England?

Exe.
Scorn and defiance, slight regard, contempt,
And any thing, that may not misbecome
The mighty sender, doth he prize you at.
Thus, says my king; and if your father's highness
Do not, in grant of all demands at large,
Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his majesty;
He'll call you to so hot an answer for it,
That caves and womby vaultages of France,
Shall chide your trespass, and return your mock,
In second accent to his ordinance.

Daup.
Say, if my father render fair reply,
It is against my will; for I desire
Nothing but odds with England. To that end,
As matching to his youth and vanity,
I did present him with those Paris balls.

Exe.
He'll make your Paris Louvre shake for it.
Were it the mistress court of mighty Europe.
And be assur'd, you'll find a difference,
Between the promise of his greener days,
And these he masters, now. Now he weighs time
Even to the utmost grain, which you shall read
In your own losses, if he stay in France.

Fr. King.

To-morrow, you shall know our mind at full.

Exe.
Dispatch 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 dispatch'd with fair conditions:
A night is but small breath, and little pause,
To answer matters of this consequence. [Exeunt.* ^note End of the Second Act.

Previous section