K. CHA.

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,
Unto the crown of France. That you may know,
'Tis no sinister, nor no awkward a 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,b
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.

K. CHA. 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;
Unless the Dauphin be in presence here,

To whom expressly I bring greeting too.d

K. CHA. 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 any thing that may not misbecome

Awkward-] Distorted.

b Memorable line,-] Line is lineage, genealogy.
Pining-] So the quartos; the folio has "

"privy."

[Gives a paper.

Greeting too.] Thus the quartos; the folio reads, "greeting to."

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 call you to so hot an answer of it,
That caves and womby vaultages of France
Shall chidea your trespass, and return your mock
In second accent of his ordinance.b

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 the 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.

K. CHA. 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.

K. CHA. 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.

Enter CHORUS.

CHO. 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,

(*) Old copy, Dover.

(+) Old copy, fayning.

Shall chide your trespass,-] Chide is here employed in its double sense of rebuke and resound, or echo.

Ordinance.] This was anciently spelt indifferently, ordnance, or ordinance. Here the metre requires it to be pronounced as a trisyllable.

• Small breath,-] Short breathing time.

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

A city on the inconstant billows dancing;
For so appears this fleet majestical,

Holding due course to Harfleur. Follow, follow!
Grapple your minds to sternageb 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: and the nimble gunner
With linstock now the devilish cannon touches,

[Alarum; and chambers go off.

And down goes all before them. Still be kind,
And eke out our performance with your mind.

[Exit.

ACT III.

SCENE I.-France. Before Harfleur.

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

K. HEN. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead!

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 aspéct;

Let it pry through the portage of the head,
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it,

As fearfully as doth a galled rock

(*) Old copy, commune.

Rivage,-] The shore or bank. The word is not unfrequent with our old writers,

although this is the only instance of its occurrence in Shakespeare.

bTo sternage of this navy ;] To the steerage, or course, of the fleet.

e Portage ] The port-holes.

O'erhang and juttya his confounded base,
Swill'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 noble* 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 you call'd fathers, did beget you!
Be copy now to men† of grosser blood,

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 BARDOLPH, NYM, 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: the humour of it is too hot, that is the very plain-song of it.

PIST. The plain-song is most just; for humours do abound:

Knocks go and come;

God's vassals drop and die;

And sword and shield,

In bloody field,

Doth win immortal fame.

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

PIST. And I:

If wishes would prevail with me,

My purpose should not fail with me,

But thither would I hie.

(*) Old copy, Noblish.

Jutty-] Project, jut out.

(†) Old copy, me.

Old copy, Straying.

Confounded base,-] Demolished base.

c_Whose blood is fet-] Fet is frequently found in our early poets; it is the participle

of the Anglo-Saxon verb fet-ian, to fetch.

Pray thee, corporal,-] See note (c), p. 16.

A case of lives:] A brace, or pair of lives.

FLU. Got's plood!"-Up to the preach, you dogs! avaunt, you

cullions!

c

[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, PISTOL, and BARDOLPH, followed by FLUELLEN. 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, and 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 matched 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 any thing, 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, the men would carry coals. 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 take from another's pocket, to put into mine'; for it is plain pocketing-up of wrongs. I must leave them, and seek some better service: their villainy goes against my weak stomach, and therefore I must cast it up. [Exit Boy.

Re-enter FLUELLEN, GOWER following.

Gow. Captain Fluellen, you must come presently to the mines; the duke of Gloucester would speak with you.

FLU. To the mines! tell you the duke, it is not so goot to come to the mines: for, look you, the mines is not according to the disciplines of the war; the concavities of it is not sufficient; for, look you, th' athversary (you may discuss unto the duke, look you,) is digt himself four yard under the countermines: py Cheshu, I think, 'a will plow up all, if there is not petter directions.

Gow. The duke of Gloucester, to whom the order of the siege is given, is altogether directed by an Irishman, a very valiant gentleman, i' faith.

Fluellen.] The Welsh pronunciation of Lluellyn.

b Got's plood!] Omitted in the folio, probably on account of the Act 3 Jac. I. c. 21