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 lies 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,
Established there 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 called-Meisen.
Thus 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 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 Childerick,
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, that usurped the crown
Of Charles the duke of Lorain, sole heir male
Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great,-
1 "There is no bar," &c. The whole speech is taken from Ho linshed.
To fine1 his title with some show of truth,
(Though, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught,)
Conveyed 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,3
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 Lorain :
By the which marriage, the line of Charles the Great
Was reunited 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 imbare their crooked titles
Usurped from you and your progenitors.
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 son dies, let the inheritance
Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord,
Stand for your own; unwind your bloody flag;
Look back unto your mighty ancestors;
Go, my dread lord, to your great grandsire's tomb,
1 To fine is to embellish, to trim, to make showy or specious: Limare. The folio reads find.
2 Shakspeare found this expression in Holinshed; and, though it sounds odd to modern ears, it is classical.
3 This should be Lewis the Ninth, as it stands in Hall's Chronicle. Shakspeare has been led into the error by Holinshed, whose Chronicle he followed.
4 The folio reads imbarre; the quarto imbace.
From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit,
And your great uncle's, Edward the Black Prince;
Who on the French ground played 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.
Exe. Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth Do all expect that you should rouse yourself, As did the former lions of your blood.
West. 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 pavilioned 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 spirituality
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
This alludes to the battle of Cressy, as described by Holinshed vol ii. p. 372.
i. e. your highness hath indeed what they think and know you have.
Against the Scot, who will make road upon us
With all advantages.
Cant. They of those marches,' gracious sovereign, Shall be a wall sufficient to defend
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 neighbor to us.
For you shall read, that my great grandfather
Never went with his forces into France,
But that the Scot on his unfurnished kingdom
Came pouring, like the tide into a breach,
With ample and brimfulness of his force;
Galling the gleaned land with hot essays;
Girding, with grievous siege, castles and towns,
That England, being empty of defence,
Hath shook and trembled at the ill neighborhood,3
Cant. She hath been then more feared than harmed,
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 sumless treasuries.
West. 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
1 The marches are the borders.
2 The main intendment is the principal purpose, that he will bend his whole force against us; the Bellum in aliquem intendere of Livy.
3 The quarto reads, "at the bruit thereof."
Comes sneaking, and so sucks her princely eggs;
Playing the mouse, in absence of the cat,
To spoil and havock more than she can eat.
Exe. It follows, then, the cat must stay at home. Yet that is but a crushed necessity;1
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 concent;
Congruing in a full and natural close,
True; therefore doth Heaven divide
The state of man in divers functions,
Setting endeavor 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;
1 "Yet that is but a crushed necessity." This is the reading of the folio. The editors of late editions have adopted the reading of the quarto copy, "cursed necessity."
2 Concent is connected harmony in general, and not confined to any specific consonance. Concentio and concentus are both used by Cicero for the union of voices or instruments, in what we should now call a chorus or concert.
3 "The act of order" is the statute or law of order; as appears from the reading of the quarto. "Creatures that by awe ordain an act of order to a peopled kingdom."
4 i. e. of different degrees: if it be not an error of the press for sort, i. e. rank.
5 «The civil citizens kneading up the honey." Civil is grave. See
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