France. The KING’S palace.
[Flourish. Enter the FRENCH KING, the
DAUPHIN, the DUKES of BERRI and
BRETAGNE, the Constable, and others]
KING OF FRANCE Thus comes the English
with full power upon us;
And more than carefully it us concerns
To answer royally in our defences.
Therefore the Dukes of Berri and of Bretagne,
Of Brabant and of Orleans, shall make forth,
And you, Prince Dauphin, with all swift dispatch,
To line and new repair our towns of war
With men of courage and with means defendant;
DAUPHIN My most redoubted father,
It is most meet we arm us ‘gainst the foe;
And let us do it with no show of fear;
No, with no more than if we heard that England
Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance:
For, my good liege, she is so idly king’d,
By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth,
That fear attends her not.
Constable O peace, Prince Dauphin!
You are too much mistaken in this king:
Question your grace the late ambassadors,
With what great state he heard their embassy,
How well supplied with noble counsellors,
How terrible in constant resolution.
DAUPHIN Well, ’tis not so, my lord high constable;
But though we think it so, it is no matter:
In cases of defence ’tis best to weigh
The enemy more mighty than he seems.
KING OF FRANCE And he is bred out of that bloody strain
That haunted us in our familiar paths:
Witness our too much memorable shame
When Cressy battle fatally was struck,
And all our princes captiv’d by the hand
Of that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales;
This is a stem
Of that victorious stock; and let us fear
The native mightiness and fate of him.
[Enter a Messenger]
Messenger Ambassadors from Harry King of England
Do crave admittance to your majesty.
KING OF FRANCE We’ll give them present audience.
Go, and bring them.
[Exeunt Messenger and certain Lords]
DAUPHIN 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.
[Re-enter Lords, with EXETER and train]
KING OF FRANCE From our brother England?
EXETER 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
Willing to overlook this pedigree:
And when you find him evenly derived
From his most famed of famous ancestors,
Edward the Third, he bids you then resign
Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held
From him the native and true challenger.
KING OF FRANCE Or else what follows?
EXETER 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;
This is his claim, his threatening and my message;
Unless the Dauphin be in presence here,
To whom expressly I bring greeting too.
KING OF FRANCE For us, we will consider of this further:
To-morrow shall you bear our full intent
Back to our brother England.
DAUPHIN For the Dauphin,
I stand here for him: what to him from England?
EXETER Scorn and defiance; slight regard, contempt,
And any thing that may not misbecome
The mighty sender, doth he prize you at.
Thus says my king; an’ if your father’s highness
Do not, in grant of all demands at large,
Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his majesty,
He’ll make your Paris Louvre shake for it
KING OF FRANCE To-morrow
shall you know our mind at full.
EXETER Dispatch us with all speed, lest that our king
Come here himself to question our delay;
[Flourish. Exeunt]
Act 2.3 | Chorus Act 3
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