K. Hen. V. I know thee not, old man: fall to thy prayers;
Lanc. I like this fair proceeding of the king's. He hath intent his wonted followers Shall all be very well provided for; But all are banish'd till their conversations Appear more wise and modest to the world. Ch. Just. And so they are. Lanc. The king hath call'd his parliament, my lord.
Lanc. I will lay odds that, ere this year expire,
How ill white hairs become a fool and jester! I have long dream'd of such a kind of man, So surfeit-swell'd, so old, and so profane; But, being awak'd, I do despise my dream. Make less thy body hence, and more thy grace; Leave gormandizing; know the grave doth gape For thee thrice wider than for other men. Reply not to me with a fool-born jest: Presume not that I am the thing I was ; For God doth know, so shall the world perceive, That I have turn'd away my former self; So will I those that kept me company. When thou dost hear I am as I have been, Approach me, and thou shalt be as thou wast, The tutor and the feeder of my riots: Till then, I banish thee, on pain of death, As I have done the rest of my misleaders, Not to come near our person by ten mile. For competence of life I will allow you, That lack of means enforce you not to evil: And, as we hear you do reform yourselves, 70 We will, according to your strength and qualities, Give you advancement. Be it your charge, my lord,
To see perform'd the tenour of our word. Set on.
Exeunt King HENRY V. and his Train. Fal. Master Shallow, I owe you a thousand
Shal. Ay, marry, Sir John; which I beseech you to let me have home with me.
Fal. That can hardly be, Master Shallow. Do not you grieve at this: I shall be sent for in private to him. Look you, he must seem thus to the world. Fear not your advancements; I will be the man yet that shall make you great.
Shal. I cannot well perceive how, unless you should give me your doublet and stuff me out with straw. I beseech you, good Sir John, let me have five hundred of my thousand.
Fal. Sir, I will be as good as my word: this that you heard was but a colour.
Shal. A colour that I fear you will die in,
Fal. Fear no colours: go with me to dinner. Come, Lieutenant Pistol; come, Bardolph: I shall be sent for soon at night.
Re-enter JOHN OF LANCASTER, the Lord Chief
Justice; Officers with them.
Ch. Just. Go, carry Sir John Falstaff to the
Take all his company along with him. Fal. My lord, my lord!
We bear our civil swords and native fire 110 As far as France. I heard a bird so sing, Whose music, to my thinking, pleas'd the king. Come, will you hence?
First my fear; then my courtesy ; last my speech. My fear is your displeasure, my courtesy my duty, and my speech to beg your pardons. If you look for a good speech now, you undo me; for what I have to say is of mine own making; and what indeed I should say will, I doubt, prove mine own marring. But to the purpose, and so to the venture. Be it known to you, as it is very well, I was lately here in the end of a displeasing play, to pray your patience for it and to promise you a better. I did mean indeed to pay you with this; which, if like an ill venture it come unluckily home, I break, and you, my gentle creditors, lose. Here I promised you I would be, and here I commit my body to your mercies: bate me some and I will pay you some; and as most debtors do, promise you infinitely. 19
If my tongue cannot entreat you to acquit me, will you command me to use my legs? and yet that were but light payment, to dance out of your debt. But a good conscience will make any possible satisfaction, and so will I. All the gentlewomen here have forgiven me if the gentlemen will not, then the gentlemen do not agree with the gentlewomen, which was never seen before in such an assembly.
One word more, I beseech you. If you be not too much cloyed with fat meat, our humble author will continue the story, with Sir John in it, and make you merry with fair Katharine of France: where, for any thing I know, Falstaff shall die of a sweat, unless already a' be killed with your hard opinions; for Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man. My tongue is weary; when my legs are too, I will bid you good night: and so kneel down before you; but, indeed, to pray for the queen.
Lords, Ladies, Officers, French and English Soldiers, Citizens, Messengers, and Attendants.
SCENE.-England; afterwards France.
O! for a Muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention;
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act And monarchs to behold the swelling scene. Then should the war-like Harry, like himself, Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,
Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, and
Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all, The flat unraised spirits that have dar'd On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth
So great an object: can this cockpit hold The vasty fields of France? or may we cram Within this wooden O the very casques That did affright the air at Agincourt? O, pardon! since a crooked figure may Attest in little place a million;
And let us, ciphers to this great accompt, On your imaginary forces work. Suppose within the girdle of these walls Are now confin'd two mighty monarchies, Whose high upreared and abutting fronts The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder: Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts; Into a thousand parts divide one man, And make imaginary puissance;
20 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,
Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth; For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck ourkings,
Ely. This would drink deep.
'Twould drink the cup and all. 20 Ely. But what prevention? Cant. The king is full of grace and fair regard. Ely. And a true lover of the holy church. Cant. The courses of his youth promis'd 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 envelop and contain celestial spirits. Never was such a sudden scholar made;
Never came reformation in a flood,
With such a heady currance, scouring faults; Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulness
So soon did lose his seat and all at once
We are 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 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 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 life Must 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 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 obscur'd his contemplation Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt, Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night, Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.
Cant. It must be so; for miracles are ceas'd; And therefore we must needs admit the means How things are perfected.
But, my good lord, How now for mitigation of this bill Urg'd by the commons? Doth his majesty
Or rather swaying more upon our part Than cherishing the exhibiters against us; For I have made an offer to his majesty, Upon 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 receiv'd, my lord?
SCENE II.- The Same. The Presence Chamber. Enter King HENRY, GLOUCESTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and Attendants.
K. Hen. Where is my gracious lord of Canter. bury?
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 resolv'd,
Before we hear him, of some things of weight That task our thoughts, concerning us and
Are every one a woe, a sore complaint 'Gainst him whose wrongs give edge unto the
That make such waste in brief mortality. Under this conjuration speak, my lord, And we will hear, note, and believe in heart That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd As pure as sin with baptism.
Cant. Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and
That owe yourselves, your lives, 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,
'No woman shall succeed in Salique land :' Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze 40 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; 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 50 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 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 suppos'd the founder of this law;
Who died within the year of our redemption se 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 Clothair, Make claim and title to the crown of France. Hugh Capet also, who 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 his title with some shows of truth, Though, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught, Convey'd himself as heir to the Lady Lingare, Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son 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 That fair Queen Isabel, his grandmother, Was lineal of the Lady Ermengare, Daughter to Charles the foresaid Duke of Lor- raine:
Descend unto the daughter.' Gracious lord, 100 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 war-likespirit, 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 hill Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp Forage in blood of French nobility. 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.
And lie pavilion'd in the fields of France.
Cant. O! let their bodies follow, my dear liege, 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.
K. Hen. 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.
Cant. They of those marches, gracious sove- reign,
Shall be a wall sufficient to defend
80 Our inland from the pilfering borderers.
K. Hen. 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-grandfather Never went with his forces into 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 appear To hold in right and title of the female: So do the kings of France unto 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
That England, being empty of defence,
Hath shook and trembled at the ill neighbour
Than amply to imbar their crooked titles Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.
Cant. She hath been then more fear'd than harm'd, my liege;
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 writ: When the man dies, let the inheritance
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
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.
West. But there's a saying very old and true; If that you will France win, Then with Scotland first begin:
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.
For once the eagle England being in prey, To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot Comes sneaking and so sucks her princely eggs, Your greeting is from him, not from the king.
Playing the mouse in absence of the cat, To tear and havoc more than she can eat.
Now are we well prepar'd to know the pleasure Of our fair cousin Dauphin; for we hear
First Amb. May 't please your majesty to give us leave
Tell us the Dauphin's mind. First Amb.
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, 250 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. K. Hen. What treasure, uncle? Exe.
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
K. Hen. We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us;
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate, The sad-ey'd justice, with his surly hum,
Delivering o'er to executors pale
The lazy yawning drone. I this infer,
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
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
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 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.
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That all the courts of France will be disturb'd With chases. 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 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 of greatness When I do rouse me in my throne of France: 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. 200 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
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