SCENE II. The same. The Presence chamber. The Life of King Henry the Fifth  Shakespeare homepage  |  Henry V  | Act 1, Scene 2 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE II. 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 weight 

 That 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 throne 

 And make you long become it! 

 KING HENRY V  Sure, we thank you. 

 My learned lord, we pray you to proceed 

 And justly and religiously unfold 

 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 

 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, 

 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 

 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 

 That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd 

 As pure as sin with baptism. 

 CANTERBURY  Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers, 

 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 

 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 

 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: 

 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 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 

 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 

 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 Lorraine: 

 By the which marriage 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, 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 

 Than amply to imbar their crooked titles 

 Usurp'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 inheritance 

 Descend 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 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! 

 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. 

 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. 

 WESTMORELAND  They know your grace hath cause and means and might; 

 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. 

 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 spiritualty 

 Will raise your highness such a mighty sum 

 As never did the clergy at one time 

 Bring in to any of your ancestors. 

 KING 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. 

 CANTERBURY  They of those marches, gracious sovereign, 

 Shall be a wall sufficient to defend 

 Our 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-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, 

 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 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 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 Scot 

 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. 

 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 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 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 

 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 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 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. 

 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 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 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  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 

 Freely to render what we have in charge; 

 Or shall we sparingly show you far off 

 The Dauphin's meaning and our embassy? 

 KING HENRY V  We are no tyrant, but a Christian king; 

 Unto whose grace our passion is as subject 

 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, 

 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 

 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. 

 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 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 

 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 

 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: 

 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. 

 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; 

 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 

 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 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 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 

 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, 

 That this fair action may on foot be brought. 



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