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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
As self-neglecting.

F. King.

Re-enter Lords, with EXETER, and Train.

From our brother of England?
Exe. From him; and thus he greets your majesty.
He wills you, in the name of God Almighty,
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 wide-stretched honours that pertain,
By custom and the ordinance of times,

[Gives a paper.

Unto the crown of France. That you may know
'Tis no sinister nor no awkward 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,2
In every branch truly demonstrative;
Willing you overlook this 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.
F. King. Or else what follows?

Exe. Bloody constraint; for if you hide the crown
Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it:
Therefore in fierce tempest is he coming,
In thunder, and in earthquake, like a Jove,
That, if requiring fail, he will compel;
And bids you in the bowels of the Lord
Deliver up the crown; and to take mercy
On the poor souls for whom this hungry war
Opens his vasty jaws: and on your head
Turning the widows' tears, the orphans' cries,
The dead men's blood, the pining maidens' groans,
For husbands, fathers, and betrothed lovers,
That shall be swallow'd in this controversy.
This is his claim, his threat'ning, and my message:

(1) Spend their mouths. This is a huntsman's term, meaning to bark.
(2) Most memorable line, i. e. most illustrious lineage.

Unless the dauphin be in presence here,
To whom expressly 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 of England.

Dau.
For the dauphin,
I stand here for him: What to him from England?
Exe. Scorn and defiance; slight regard, contempt,
And anything 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 of it,
That caves and womby vaultages of France
Shall chide your trespass, and return your mock
In second accent of his ordnance.

Dau. Say, if my father render fair return,
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

(As we, his subjects, have in wonder found)
Between the promise of his greener days,

And these he masters now; now he weighs time,
Even to the utmost grain; that you shall read

In your own losses, if he stay in France.

Fr. King. To-morrow shall you know our mind at full.
Exe. Despatch 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 despatch'd, with fair conditions: A night is but small breath, and little pause,

To answer matters of this consequence.

[Exeunt.

CHORUS.

Thus with imagin'd wing our swift scene flies,

In motion of no less celerity

Than that of thought. Suppose that you have seen
The well-appointed king at Hampton pier

Embark his royalty; and his brave fleet

With silken streamers the young Phoebus fanning.
Play with your fancies; and in them behold.

Upon the hempen tackle ship-boys climbing:
Hear the shrill whistle which doth order give
To sounds confus'd: behold the threaden sails,
Borne with the invisible and creeping wind,
Draw the huge bottoms through the furrow'd sea,
Breasting the lofty surge: O, do but think
You stand upon the rivage, and behold
A city on the inconstant billows dancing;
For so appears this fleet majestical,

Holding due course to Harfleur. Follow, follow
Grapple your minds to sternage1 of this
navy;
And leave your England, as dead midnight still,
Guarded with grandsires, babies, and old women,
Either past, or not arriv'd to, pith and puissance :
For who is he, whose chin is but enrich'd
With one appearing hair, that will not follow
These cull'd and choice-drawn cavaliers to France?
Work, work your thoughts, and therein see a siege:
Behold the ordnance on their carriages,

With fatal mouths gaping on girded Harfleur.

Suppose, the ambassador from the French comes back;
Tells Harry, that the king doth offer him

Katharine his daughter; and with her, to dowry,
Some petty and unprofitable dukedoms.
The offer likes not:2 and the nimble gunner

With linstock3 now the devilish cannon touches,

[Alarum; and chambers (small cannon) go off. And down goes all before them. Still be kind, And eke out our performance with your mind.

[Exit.

ACT III.

SCENE I.-The same. Before Harfleur.

Alarums. Enter KING HENRY, EXETER, BEDFORD, Gloster, and Soldiers, with scaling ladders.

K. Henry. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;

Or close the wall up with our English dead!

(1) Grapple your minds to sternage, i. e. follow in imagination close to the sterns of this navy.

(2) The offer likes not, i. e. is not pleasing.

(3) With linstock. A linstock is the staff to which the match, for firing the cannon, is fastened.

In peace, there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage:"
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;

Let it pry through the portage1 of the head,
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it,
As fearfully as doth a galled rock

O'erhang and jutty his confounded2 base,
Swell'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.

Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide;
Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit
To his full height !-On, on, you nobless English,
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from morn till even fought,
And sheath'd their swords for lack of argument.
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
That those whom ye call'd fathers did beget you!
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,3

And teach them how to war!-And you, good yeomen,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear

That you are worth your breeding: which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot;
Follow your spirit; and, upon this charge,

Cry-God for Harry! England! and Saint George!

[Exeunt. Alarum, and chambers go off.

SCENE II.-The same.

Forces pass over; then enter NYM, BARDOLPH, PISTOL, and Boy.

Bard. On, on, on, on, on! to the breach, to the breach! Nym. 'Pray thee, corporal, stay; the knocks are too hot; and, for mine own part, I have not a case of lives humour of it is too hot, that is the very plain-song of it.

the

(1) Let it pry through the portage of the head. Let the eye look from the head like cannons pointing from the port-hole of a fortress.

(2) Confounded base. Confounded here means worn away, wasted.

(3) Be copy now to men of grosser blood, i. e. set an example for the imitation of those of inferior birth.

(4) A case of lives i. e. a set of lives, many lives.

Pist. The plain-song is most just; for humours do abound; God's vassals drop and die;

Knocks go and come;

And sword and shield,

In bloody field,

Doth win immortal fame.

Boy. 'Would I were in an alehouse in London! I would my fame for a pot of ale and safety.

give all

Pist. And I:

If wishes would prevail with me,

My purpose should not fail with me,

But thither would I hie.

Boy.

As duly, but not as truly,

As bird doth sing on bough.

Enter FLUELLEN.

Flu. Up to the preach,1 you dogs! avaunt, you cullions.

[Driving them forward. Pist. Be merciful, great duke, to men of mould! Abate thy rage, abate thy manly rage!

Abate thy rage, great duke!

Good bawcock, bate thy rage! use lenity, sweet chuck! Nym. These be good humours !-your honour wins bad humours. [Exeunt NYM, PIST., and BARD., followed by FLU. Boy. As young as I am, I have observed these three swashers. I am boy to them all three: but all they three, though they would serve me, could not be man to me; for, indeed, three such antics do not amount to a man. For Bardolph, he is white-livered, and red faced; by the means whereof 'a faces it out, but fights not. For Pistol,—he hath a killing tongue and a quiet sword; by the means whereof 'a breaks words but keeps whole weapons. For Nym,-he hath heard that men of few words are the best men; and therefore he scorns to say his prayers, lest 'a should be thought a coward: but his few bad words are match'd with as few good deeds; for 'a never broke any man's head but his own, and that was against a post when he was drunk. They will steal anything and call it-purchase. Bardolph stole a lute-case, bore it twelve leagues, and sold it for three halfpence. Nym and Bardolph are sworn brothers in filching; and in Calais they stole a fire-shovel: I knew, by that piece of service, they men would carry coals.2 They would have me as familiar with men's pockets, as their gloves or their handkerchers which makes much against my manhood, if I should

(1) Up to the preach. Fluellen or Llewellyn is a Welshman, and therefore, both here and elsewhere, he speaks with certain pronunciations, e. g. using p for b. and others which may be noticed as we go on.

(2) Carry coals, i. e. endure affronts.

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