Cant.
My lord, I'll tell you; that self bill is urged,
Which in the eleventh year of the last king's reign
Was like, and had indeed against us pass'd,
But that the scambling and unquiet time
Did push ^note it out of farther question.

Ely.
But how, my lord, shall we resist it now?

Cant.
It must be thought on. If it pass against us,
We lose the better half ^note of our possession ^note:
For all the temporal lands which men devout
By testament have given to the church
Would they strip from us; being valued thus:
As much as would maintain, to the king's honour,
Full fifteen earls and fifteen hundred knights,
Six thousand and two hundred good esquires;
And, to relief of lazars and weak age,
Of indigent faint souls past corporal toil,
A hundred almshouses right well supplied;
And to the coffers of the king beside,
A thousand pounds ^note by the year: thus runs the bill.

Ely.
This would drink deep.

Cant.
'Twould drink the cup and all.

Ely.
But what prevention?

Cant.
The king is full of grace and fair regard.

Ely.
And ^note a true lover of the holy church.

Cant. ^note
The courses of his youth promised it not.
The breath no sooner left his father's body,
But that his wildness, mortified 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 ^note, scouring faults;
Nor never ^note Hydra-headed wilfulness
So soon did lose his seat and all ^note at once
As in this king.

Ely.
We are ^note 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 prelate:
Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,
You would ^note say it hath been all in all his study:
List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
A fearful battle render'd you in music:
Turn him to any cause ^note of policy,
The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,
Familiar as his garter: that ^note, 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 ^note and practic part of life
Must be the mistress to this ^note theoric:
Which is a wonder how his grace should glean it,
Since his addiction was to courses vain,
His companies unletter'd, rude and shallow,
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:
And so the prince obscured his contemplation
Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt,
Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night,
Unseen, yet crescive ^note in his faculty.

Cant.
It must be so; for miracles are ceased;
And therefore we must needs admit the means
How things are perfected.

Ely.
But, my good lord,
How now for mitigation of this bill
Urged by the commons? Doth his majesty

Incline to it, or no?

Cant.
He seems indifferent,
Or rather swaying more upon our part
Than cherishing the exhibiters against us;
For I have made an offer to his majesty,
Upon ^note our spiritual convocation
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 received, my lord?

Cant.
With good acceptance of his majesty;
Save that there was not time enough to hear,
As I perceived his grace would fain have done,
The severals ^note and unhidden passages ^note
Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms
And generally to the crown and seat ^note of France
Derived from Edward, his great-grandfather.

Ely.
What was the impediment that broke this off?

Cant.
The French ambassador upon that instant
Craved audience; and the hour, I think, is come
To give him hearing: is it four o'clock?

Ely.
It is.

Cant.
Then go we in, to know his embassy;
Which I could with a ready guess declare,
Before the Frenchman speak ^note a word of it.

Ely.
I'll wait upon you, and I long to hear it. [Exeunt.

^note Scene II. [Footnote: The same. The Presence chamber. ^note Enter King Henry, Gloucester ^note, Bedford, Exeter, Warwick, Westmoreland, and Attendants ^note.

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 resolved,
Before we hear him, of some things of weight
That task our thoughts, concerning us and France. Enter ^note the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely.

Cant.
God and his angels guard your ^note sacred throne,
And make you long become it!

K. Hen.
Sure, we thank you.
My learned lord, we pray you to proceed
And justly and religiously unfold
Why the law Salique that they ^note have in France
Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim:
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;
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 ^note,

How you awake our sleeping ^note sword of war:
We charge you, in the name of God, take heed;
For never two such kingdoms did contend
Without much fall of blood; whose guiltless ^note drops
Are every one a woe, a sore complaint
'Gainst him whose wrong gives ^note edge unto the swords
That make ^note such waste in brief mortality.
Under ^note this conjuration speak, my lord;
For ^note we will hear, note and believe in heart
That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd
As pure as sin with ^note baptism.

Cant.
Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers,
That owe yourselves, your lives ^note 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 ^note:’ ^note
‘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.
Yet their own authors faithfully affirm
That the land Salique is ^note in Germany,
Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe ^note;
Where Charles the Great, having subdued the Saxons,
There left behind and settled certain French;
Who, holding in disdain the German women
For some dishonest ^note manners of their life,
Establish'd then ^note this law; to wit, no female

Should be inheritrix in Salique land:
Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe ^note and Sala,
Is at this day in Germany call'd Meisen.
Then ^note 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 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
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 ^note Clothair,
Make claim and title to the crown of France.
Hugh Capet also, who ^note 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 ^note his title with some shows ^note of truth,
Though ^note, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught,
Convey'd himself as heir ^note to the Lady Lingare,
Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son
To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis ^note the son
Of Charles the Great. Also King Lewis the tenth ^note,
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 ^note duke of Lorraine:
By the which marriage ^note 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,
King Lewis his satisfaction ^note, all appear
To hold in right and title of the female:
So do the kings of France unto ^note 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 ^{note note} 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 ^note writ,
When the man ^note dies, let the inheritance
Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord,
Stand for your own; unwind your bloody flag;
Look back into ^note your mighty ancestors:
Go, my dread lord, to your great-grandsire's tomb ^note,
From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit,
And your great-uncle's ^note, Edward the Black Prince,
Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy,
Making defeat on the full power of France,
Whiles ^note his most mighty father on a hill
Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp
Forage in ^note blood of French nobility.

O noble English, that could entertain
With half their forces the full pride ^note of France
And let another half stand laughing by,
All out of work and cold for action ^note!

Ely.
Awake remembrance of these valiant dead
And with your puissant arm renew their feats:
You are their heir; you sit upon their throne;
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.

Exe.
Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth
Do all expect that you should rouse yourself,
As did the former lions of your blood.

West.
They know your grace hath ^note cause and means and might; ^note
So hath ^note your highness; never king of England
Had nobles richer and more loyal subjects,
Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England
And lie pavilion'd in the fields ^note of France.

Cant.
O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege,
With blood ^note and sword and fire to win your right; ^note
In aid whereof we of the spiritualty ^note
Will raise your highness such a mighty sum
As never did the clergy at one time
Bring in to any of your ancestors.

K. Hen.
We must not only arm to invade the French,
But lay down our proportions to defend ^note
Against the Scot, who will make road upon us
With all advantages.

Cant.
They of those marches, gracious sovereign ^note,
Shall be a wall sufficient to defend
Our inland from the pilfering borderers.

K. Hen.
We do not mean the coursing snatchers ^note only,
But fear the main intendment of the Scot,
Who hath been still a giddy ^note neighbour to us;
For you shall read that my great-grandfather
Never went with his forces ^note into France
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 ^note,
Girding with grievous siege castles and towns;
That England, being empty of defence,
Hath shook and trembled at the ill neighbourhood ^note.

Cant.
She hath been then more fear'd than harm'd, my liege;
For hear her but ^note exampled 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 ^note with prisoner kings
And make her chronicle ^note as rich with praise ^note
As is the ooze and ^note bottom of the sea
With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries.

West. ^note
But there's a saying very old and true,

^note
‘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 ^note and havoc more than she can eat.

Exe. ^note
It follows then the cat must stay at home:
Yet that is but a crush'd ^note necessity,
Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries,
And pretty traps to catch the petty ^note thieves.
While that the armed hand doth fight abroad,
The advised head defends itself at home;
For government, though ^note high and low and lower,
Put into parts, doth keep in one consent ^note,
Congreeing ^note in a full and natural close ^note,
Like music.

Cant.
Therefore ^note 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 ^note nature teach
The act ^note of order to a peopled kingdom.
They have a king and officers of sorts ^note;
Where some, like magistrates, correct at home,
Others, like merchants, venture ^note trade abroad,
Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,
Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds ^note,

Which pillage they with merry march bring home
To the tent-royal of their emperor;
Who, busied in his majesty ^note, surveys
The singing masons ^note building roofs of gold,
The civil citizens kneading ^note 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 ^note to one mark; as many ways ^note meet in one town ^note;
As many fresh streams meet in one salt ^note sea;
As many lines close in the dial's centre;
So may a thousand actions, once ^note afoot,
End ^note in one purpose, and be all well borne
Without defeat ^note. 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. ^note

K. Hen.
Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin ^note. [Exeunt some Attendants. ^note
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 ^note 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 ^note mouth
Speak freely of our acts, or else our grave,
Like Turkish mute ^note, shall have a tongueless mouth,
Not worshipp'd with a waxen ^note epitaph. Enter ^note Ambassadors of France. ^note
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 Amb. ^note
May't ^note 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?

K. Hen.
We are no tyrant, but a Christian king;
Unto whose grace our passion is as subject
As are ^note our wretches fetter'd in our prisons:
Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness
Tell us the Dauphin's mind.

First Amb.
Thus, then ^note, in few.
Your highness, lately sending into France,
Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right
Of your great predecessor, King Edward the third ^note.
In answer of which claim, the prince our master
Says that you savour too much of your youth,

And bids you be advised there's ^note 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 ^note the Dauphin speaks.

K. Hen.
What treasure, uncle?

Exe.
Tennis-balls, my liege.

K. Hen.
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 ^note 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 valued this poor seat of England;
And therefore, living hence ^note, did give ourself
To barbarous license; 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 ^note of greatness
When I do rouse me in my throne of France:
For that ^note 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 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 ^note thousand widows
Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands;
Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down;
And some are yet ^note ungotten and unborn
That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's scorn.
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 ^note than did laugh at it.
Convey them with safe conduct. Fare you ^note well. [Exeunt Ambassadors.

Exe.
This was a merry message. ^note

K. Hen.
We hope to make the sender blush at it.
Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour
That may give furtherance to our expedition;
For we have now no thought ^note in us but France,
Save those to God, that run before our business.
Therefore let our proportions for these wars
Be soon collected and all things ^note thought upon
That may with reasonable ^note 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,
That this fair action may on foot be brought. [Exeunt. Flourish. ^note

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