Act I, Scene 2

The same. The Presence chamber.

[Enter KING HENRY V, GLOUCESTER, BEDFORD, EXETER,] [p]WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and Attendants]

• Henry V. Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury?

• Duke of Exeter. Not here in presence.

• Henry V. Send for him, good uncle. 145

• Earl of Westmoreland. Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege?

• Henry V. 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]

• Archbishop of Canterbury. God and his angels guard your sacred throne
  And make you long become it!

• Henry V. Sure, we thank you.
  My learned lord, we pray you to proceed
  And justly and religiously unfold 155
  Why the law Salique that they 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 160
  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. 165
  Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,
  How you awake our sleeping 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 drops 170
  Are every one a woe, a sore complaint
  'Gainst him whose wrong gives edge unto the swords
  That make such waste in brief mortality.
  Under this conjuration, speak, my lord;
  For we will hear, note and believe in heart 175
  That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd
  As pure as sin with baptism.

• Archbishop of Canterbury. Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers,
  That owe yourselves, your lives and services
  To this imperial throne. There is no bar 180
  To make against your highness' claim to France
  But this, which they produce from Pharamond,
  'In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant:'
  'No woman shall succeed in Salique land:'
  Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze 185
  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 in Germany,
  Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe; 190
  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 manners of their life,
  Establish'd then this law; to wit, no female 195
  Should be inheritrix in Salique land:
  Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala,
  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: 200
  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 205
  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, 210
  Did, as heir general, being descended
  Of Blithild, which was daughter to King Clothair,
  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 215
  Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great,
  To find his title with some shows of truth,
  '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 220
  To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son
  Of Charles the Great. Also King Lewis the Tenth,
  Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet,
  Could not keep quiet in his conscience,
  Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied 225
  That fair Queen Isabel, his grandmother,
  Was lineal of the Lady Ermengare,
  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. 230
  So that, as clear as is the summer's sun.
  King Pepin's title and Hugh Capet's claim,
  King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear
  To hold in right and title of the female:
  So do the kings of France unto this day; 235
  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 their crooked titles
  Usurp'd from you and your progenitors. 240

• Henry V. May I with right and conscience make this claim?

• Archbishop of Canterbury. The sin upon my head, dread sovereign!
  For in the book of Numbers is it writ,
  When the man dies, let the inheritance
  Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord, 245
  Stand for your own; unwind your bloody flag;
  Look back into your mighty ancestors:
  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, 250
  Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy,
  Making defeat on the full power of France,
  Whiles his most mighty father on a hill
  Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp
  Forage in blood of French nobility. 255
  O noble English. that could entertain
  With half their forces the full Pride of France
  And let another half stand laughing by,
  All out of work and cold for action!

• Bishop of Ely. Awake remembrance of these valiant dead 260
  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, 265
  Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises.

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

• Earl of Westmoreland. They know your grace hath cause and means and might; 270
  So hath 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 of France.

• Archbishop of Canterbury. O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege, 275
  With blood and sword and fire to win your right;
  In aid whereof we of the spiritualty
  Will raise your highness such a mighty sum
  As never did the clergy at one time
  Bring in to any of your ancestors. 280

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

• Archbishop of Canterbury. They of those marches, gracious sovereign, 285
  Shall be a wall sufficient to defend
  Our inland from the pilfering borderers.

• Henry V. 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; 290
  For you shall read that my great-grandfather
  Never went with his forces 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, 295
  Galling the gleaned land with hot assays,
  Girding with grievous siege castles and towns;
  That England, being empty of defence,
  Hath shook and trembled at the ill neighbourhood.

• Archbishop of Canterbury. She hath been then more fear'd than harm'd, my liege; 300
  For hear her but 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 305
  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 sunless treasuries. 310

• Earl of 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 315
  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.

• Duke of Exeter. It follows then the cat must stay at home:
  Yet that is but a crush'd necessity, 320
  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, 325
  Put into parts, doth keep in one consent,
  Congreeing in a full and natural close,
  Like music.

• Archbishop of Canterbury. Therefore doth heaven divide
  The state of man in divers functions, 330
  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. 335
  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, 340
  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, 345
  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, 350
  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; 355
  As many lines close in the dial's centre;
  So may 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; 360
  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 365
  The name of hardiness and policy.

• Henry V. Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin.
  [Exeunt some Attendants]
  Now are we well resolved; and, by God's help,
  And yours, the noble sinews of our power, 370
  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, 375
  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. 380
  [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. May't please your majesty to give us leave 385
  Freely to render what we have in charge;
  Or shall we sparingly show you far off
  The Dauphin's meaning and our embassy?

• Henry V. We are no tyrant, but a Christian king;
  Unto whose grace our passion is as subject 390
  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.
  Your highness, lately sending into France, 395
  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 advised there's nought in France 400
  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 405
  Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.

• Henry V. What treasure, uncle?

• Duke of Exeter. Tennis-balls, my liege.

• Henry V. We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us;
  His present and your pains we thank you for: 410
  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
  That all the courts of France will be disturb'd 415
  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, did give ourself 420
  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
  When I do rouse me in my throne of France: 425
  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,
  Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us. 430
  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
  Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands; 435
  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,
  To whom I do appeal; and in whose name 440
  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, 445
  When thousands weep more than did laugh at it.
  Convey them with safe conduct. Fare you well.

[Exeunt Ambassadors]

• Duke of Exeter. This was a merry message.

• Henry V. We hope to make the sender blush at it. 450
  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 455
  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, 460
  That this fair action may on foot be brought.

[Exeunt. Flourish]