Act 1
Prologue
Enter Chorus
Chorus
O for a Muse of fire, that would
ascendThe brightest heaven of invention,A kingdom for a
stage, princes to actAnd monarchs to behold the swelling
scene!Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,Assume the
port of Mars; and at his heels,Leash'd in like hounds, should
famine, sword and fireCrouch for employment. But pardon, and
gentles all,The flat unraised spirits that have daredOn this
unworthy scaffold to bring forthSo great an object: can this
cockpit holdThe vasty fields of France? or may we cramWithin
this wooden O the very casquesThat did affright the air at
Agincourt?O, pardon! since a crooked figure mayAttest in
little place a million;And let us, ciphers to this great
accompt,On your imaginary forces work.Suppose within the
girdle of these wallsAre now confined two mighty
monarchies,Whose high upreared and abutting frontsThe
perilous narrow ocean parts asunder:Piece out our imperfections
with your thoughts;Into a thousand parts divide on man,And
make imaginary puissance;Think when we talk of horses, that you
see themPrinting their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth;For
'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,Carry them here
and there; jumping o'er times,Turning the accomplishment of many
yearsInto an hour-glass: for the which supply,Admit me Chorus
to this history;Who prologue-like your humble patience
pray,Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.
Exit
Scene 1
London. An ante-chamber in the
KING'S palace.
Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY,
and the BISHOP OF ELY
CANTERBURY
My lord, I'll tell you; that self
bill is urged,Which in the eleventh year of the last king's
reignWas like, and had indeed against us pass'd,But that the
scambling and unquiet timeDid push it out of farther question.
ELY
But how, my lord, shall we resist it
now?
CANTERBURY
It must be thought on. If it pass
against us,We lose the better half of our possession:For all
the temporal lands which men devoutBy testament have given to the
churchWould 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 by the year: thus runs the bill.
ELY
This would drink deep.
CANTERBURY
'Twould drink the cup and all.
ELY
But what prevention?
CANTERBURY
The king is full of grace and fair
regard.
ELY
And a true lover of the holy church.
CANTERBURY
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
momentConsideration, like an angel, cameAnd whipp'd the
offending Adam out of him,Leaving his body as a paradise,To
envelop and contain celestial spirits.Never was such a sudden
scholar made;Never came reformation in a flood,With such a
heady currance, scouring faultsNor never Hydra-headed
wilfulnessSo soon did lose his seat and all at onceAs in this
king.
ELY
We are blessed in the change.
CANTERBURY
Hear him but reason in divinity,And
all-admiring with an inward wishYou would desire the king were
made a prelate:Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,You
would say it hath been all in all his study:List his discourse of
war, and you shall hearA fearful battle render'd you in
music:Turn him to any cause of policy,The Gordian knot of it
he will unloose,Familiar as his garter: that, 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 and practic part of lifeMust be the mistress to this
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
sequestrationFrom open haunts and popularity.
ELY
The strawberry grows underneath the
nettleAnd wholesome berries thrive and ripen bestNeighbour'd
by fruit of baser quality:And so the prince obscured his
contemplationUnder the veil of wildness; which, no doubt,Grew
like the summer grass, fastest by night,Unseen, yet crescive in
his faculty.
CANTERBURY
It must be so; for miracles are
ceased;And therefore we must needs admit the meansHow things
are perfected.
ELY
But, my good lord,How now for
mitigation of this billUrged by the commons? Doth his
majestyIncline to it, or no?
CANTERBURY
He seems indifferent,Or rather
swaying more upon our partThan cherishing the exhibiters against
us;For I have made an offer to his majesty,Upon our spiritual
convocationAnd in regard of causes now in hand,Which I have
open'd to his grace at large,As touching France, to give a
greater sumThan ever at one time the clergy yetDid to his
predecessors part withal.
ELY
How did this offer seem received, my
lord?
CANTERBURY
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 and
unhidden passagesOf his true titles to some certain dukedomsAnd
generally to the crown and seat of FranceDerived from Edward, his
great-grandfather.
ELY
What was the impediment that broke
this off?
CANTERBURY
The French ambassador upon that
instantCraved audience; and the hour, I think, is comeTo give
him hearing: is it four o'clock?
ELY
It is.
CANTERBURY
Then go we in, to know his
embassy;Which I could with a ready guess declare,Before the
Frenchman speak a word of it.
ELY
I'll wait upon you, and I long to
hear it.
Exeunt
Scene 2
The same. The Presence chamber.
Enter KING HENRY V, GLOUCESTER,
BEDFORD, EXETER, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and Attendants
KING HENRY V
Where is my gracious Lord of
Canterbury?
EXETER
Not here in presence.
KING HENRY V
Send for him, good uncle.
WESTMORELAND
Shall we call in the ambassador, my
liege?
KING HENRY V
Not yet, my cousin: we would be
resolved,Before we hear him, of some things of weightThat
task our thoughts, concerning us and France.
Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY,
and the BISHOP of ELY
CANTERBURY
God and his angels guard your sacred
throneAnd make you long become it!
KING HENRY V
Sure, we thank you.My learned
lord, we pray you to proceedAnd justly and religiously unfoldWhy
the law Salique that they have in FranceOr 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 soulWith opening titles
miscreate, whose rightSuits not in native colours with the
truth;For God doth know how many now in healthShall drop
their blood in approbationOf what your reverence shall incite us
to.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 contendWithout
much fall of blood; whose guiltless dropsAre every one a woe, a
sore complaint'Gainst him whose wrong gives edge unto the
swordsThat make such waste in brief mortality.Under this
conjuration, speak, my lord;For we will hear, note and believe in
heartThat what you speak is in your conscience wash'dAs pure
as sin with baptism.
CANTERBURY
Then hear me, gracious sovereign,
and you peers,That owe yourselves, your lives and servicesTo
this imperial throne. There is no barTo make against your
highness' claim to FranceBut 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 glozeTo be the realm of France, and PharamondThe
founder of this law and female bar.Yet their own authors
faithfully affirmThat the land Salique is in Germany,Between
the floods of Sala and of Elbe;Where Charles the Great, having
subdued the Saxons,There left behind and settled certain
French;Who, holding in disdain the German womenFor some
dishonest manners of their life,Establish'd then this law; to
wit, no femaleShould 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
lawWas not devised for the realm of France:Nor did the French
possess the Salique landUntil four hundred one and twenty
yearsAfter defunction of King Pharamond,Idly supposed the
founder of this law;Who died within the year of our
redemptionFour hundred twenty-six; and Charles the GreatSubdued
the Saxons, and did seat the FrenchBeyond the river Sala, in the
yearEight hundred five. Besides, their writers say,King
Pepin, which deposed Childeric,Did, as heir general, being
descendedOf Blithild, which was daughter to King Clothair,Make
claim and title to the crown of France.Hugh Capet also, who
usurped the crownOf Charles the duke of Lorraine, sole heir
maleOf 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 sonTo Lewis the
emperor, and Lewis the sonOf 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
satisfiedThat 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 GreatWas
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, all appearTo hold in right and title of
the female:So do the kings of France unto this day;Howbeit
they would hold up this Salique lawTo bar your highness claiming
from the female,And rather choose to hide them in a netThan
amply to imbar their crooked titlesUsurp'd from you and your
progenitors.
KING HENRY V
May I with right and conscience make
this claim?
CANTERBURY
The sin upon my head, dread
sovereign!For in the book of Numbers is it writ,When the man
dies, let the inheritanceDescend unto the daughter. Gracious
lord,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,Who on
the French ground play'd a tragedy,Making defeat on the full
power of France,Whiles his most mighty father on a hillStood
smiling to behold his lion's whelpForage in blood of French
nobility.O noble English. that could entertainWith half their
forces the full Pride of FranceAnd let another half stand
laughing by,All out of work and cold for action!
ELY
Awake remembrance of these valiant
deadAnd with your puissant arm renew their feats:You are
their heir; you sit upon their throne;The blood and courage that
renowned themRuns in your veins; and my thrice-puissant liegeIs
in the very May-morn of his youth,Ripe for exploits and mighty
enterprises.
EXETER
Your brother kings and monarchs of
the earthDo all expect that you should rouse yourself,As did
the former lions of your blood.
WESTMORELAND
They know your grace hath cause and
means and might;So hath your highness; never king of EnglandHad
nobles richer and more loyal subjects,Whose hearts have left
their bodies here in EnglandAnd lie pavilion'd in the fields of
France.
CANTERBURY
O, let their bodies follow, my dear
liege,With blood and sword and fire to win your right;In aid
whereof we of the spiritualtyWill raise your highness such a
mighty sumAs never did the clergy at one timeBring in to any
of your ancestors.
KING HENRY V
We must not only arm to invade the
French,But lay down our proportions to defendAgainst the
Scot, who will make road upon usWith all advantages.
CANTERBURY
They of those marches, gracious
sovereign,Shall be a wall sufficient to defendOur inland from
the pilfering borderers.
KING 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;For you shall read that
my great-grandfatherNever went with his forces into FranceBut
that the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdomCame pouring, like the
tide into a breach,With ample and brim fulness of his
force,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.
CANTERBURY
She hath been then more fear'd than
harm'd, my liege;For hear her but exampled by herself:When
all her chivalry hath been in FranceAnd she a mourning widow of
her nobles,She hath herself not only well defendedBut taken
and impounded as a strayThe King of Scots; whom she did send to
France,To fill King Edward's fame with prisoner kingsAnd make
her chronicle as rich with praiseAs is the ooze and bottom of the
seaWith sunken wreck and sunless 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 ScotComes 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 divideThe
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 teachThe
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 homeTo the tent-royal of
their emperor;Who, busied in his majesty, surveysThe singing
masons building roofs of gold,The civil citizens kneading up the
honey,The poor mechanic porters crowding inTheir heavy
burdens at his narrow gate,The sad-eyed justice, with his surly
hum,Delivering o'er to executors paleThe lazy yawning drone.
I this infer,That many things, having full referenceTo 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 may a thousand actions, once afoot.End in
one purpose, and be all well borneWithout 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 loseThe name of hardiness and policy.
KING 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,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 emperyO'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 mouthSpeak 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 prepared to know the
pleasureOf our fair cousin Dauphin; for we hearYour greeting
is from him, not from the king.
First Ambassador
May't please your majesty to give us
leaveFreely to render what we have in charge;Or shall we
sparingly show you far offThe Dauphin's meaning and our embassy?
KING HENRY V
We are no tyrant, but a Christian
king;Unto whose grace our passion is as subjectAs are our
wretches fetter'd in our prisons:Therefore with frank and with
uncurbed plainnessTell us the Dauphin's mind.
First Ambassador
Thus, then, in few.Your
highness, lately sending into France,Did claim some certain
dukedoms, in the rightOf your great predecessor, King Edward the
Third.In answer of which claim, the prince our masterSays
that you savour too much of your youth,And bids you be advised
there's nought in FranceThat 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 claimHear no more
of you. This the Dauphin speaks.
KING HENRY V
What treasure, uncle?
EXETER
Tennis-balls, my liege.
KING HENRY V
We are glad the Dauphin is so
pleasant with us;His present and your pains we thank you
for:When we have march'd our rackets to these balls,We will,
in France, by God's grace, play a setShall strike his father's
crown into the hazard.Tell him he hath made a match with such a
wranglerThat all the courts of France will be disturb'dWith
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 ourselfTo barbarous licence; as 'tis ever commonThat 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 greatnessWhen
I do rouse me in my throne of France:For that I have laid by my
majestyAnd plodded like a man for working-days,But I will
rise there with so full a gloryThat 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 hisHath turn'd his balls to
gun-stones; and his soulShall stand sore charged for the wasteful
vengeanceThat shall fly with them: for many a thousand
widowsShall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands;Mock
mothers from their sons, mock castles down;And some are yet
ungotten and unbornThat 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 nameTell you the Dauphin I am coming on,To
venge me as I may and to put forthMy rightful hand in a
well-hallow'd cause.So get you hence in peace; and tell the
DauphinHis jest will savour but of shallow wit,When thousands
weep more than did laugh at it.Convey them with safe conduct.
Fare you well.
Exeunt Ambassadors
EXETER
This was a merry message.
KING HENRY V
We hope to make the sender blush at
it.Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hourThat 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 warsBe soon
collected and all things thought uponThat may with reasonable
swiftness addMore 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