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 executors1 pale
The lazy, yawning drone. I this infer,—
That many things, having full reference
To one concent, may work contrariously;
As many arrows, loosed several ways,
Fly to one mark;
As many several ways meet in one town;
As, many fresh streams run in one self-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 that power left at home,
Cannot defend our own door from the dog,
Let us be worried; and our nation lose
The name of hardiness, and policy.
K. Hen. Call in the messengers sent from the dauphin.
[Exit an Attendant. The King ascends
his throne.
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,3
O'er France, and all her almost kingly dukedoms;
Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn,
Twelfth Night, Act iii. Sc. 4. Johnson observes, to knead the honey is not physically true. The bees do, in fact, knead the wax more than the honey.
1 "Executors," for executioners. Thus also Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 38, ed. 1632:
"Tremble at an executor, and yet not feare hell-fire.”
2 "Without defeat." The quartos read, "Without defect."
3 "Empery." This word, which signifies dominion, is now obsolete.
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 worshipped 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.
Amb. May it 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?
K. Hen. We are no tyrant, but a Christian king;
Unto whose grace our passion is as subject,
As are our wretches fettered in our prisons:
Therefore, with frank and with uncurbed plainness,
Tell us the dauphin's mind.
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 savor 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.
1 The quartos read, “. with a paper epitaph." Either a paper or a waxen epitaph is an epitaph easily destroyed; one that can confer no lasting honor on the dead. Steevens thinks that the allusion is to wacen tablets, as any thing written upon them was easily effaced. Mr. Gifford says, that a waren epitaph was an epitaph affixed to the hearse or grave with wax. But the expression may be merely metaphorical, and not allu
9 A galliard was an ancient sprightly dance, as its name implies.
K. Hen. What treasure, uncle?
Tennis-balls, my liege.1 K. Hen. We are glad the dauphin is so pleasant
His present, and your pains, we thank you for.
When we have matched 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.2
Tell him, he hath made a match with such a wrangler,
That all the courts of France will be disturbed
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 license; 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,5
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 turned 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
in the old play of King Henry V. this present consists of a gilded tun of tennis-balls, and a carpet.
2 The hazard is a place in the tennis-court, into which the ball is sometimes struck.
3 A chace at tennis is that spot where a ball falls, beyond which the adversary must strike his ball to gain a point or chace. At long tennis it is the spot where the ball leaves off rolling. We see, therefore, why the ing has called himself a wrangler.
4 That is, away from this seat or throne.
To qualify myself for this undertaking, I have descended from my station, and studied the arts of life in a lower character. 6 "Hath turned his balls to gun-stones." used, they discharged balls of stone.
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-hallowed cause.
So, get you hence in peace; and tell the dauphin,
His jest will savor but of shallow wit,
When thousands weep, more than did laugh at it.—
Convey them with safe conduct.-Fare
you well. [Exeunt Ambassadors
Exe. This was a merry message.
K. Hen. We hope to make the sender blush at it. [Descends from his throne Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour, That may give furtherance o 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. [Exeunt.
Cho. Now all the youth of England are on fire
And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies;
Now thrive the armorers, and honor's thought
Reigns solely in the breast of every man.
They sell the pasture now, to buy the horse;
Following the mirror of all Christian kings,
With winged heels, as English Mercuries.
For now sits Expectation in the air;
And hides a sword, from hilt unto the point,
With crowns imperial, crowns, and coronets,1
Promised to Harry, and his followers.
The French, advised by good intelligence
Of this most dreadful preparation,
Shake in their fear; and with pale policy
Seek to divert the English purposes.
O, England!-model to thy inward greatness,
Like little body with a mighty heart,-
What mightst thou do, that honor would thee do,
Were all thy children kind and natural!
But see thy fault! France hath in thee found out
A nest of hollow bosoms, which he fills
With treacherous crowns; and three corrupted men-
One, Richard earl of Cambridge; and the second,
Henry lord Scroop 3 of Masham; and the third,
Sir Thomas Grey, knight of Northumberland-
Have, for the gilt of France, (O guilt, indeed!)
Confirmed conspiracy with fearful France;
And by their hands this grace of kings must die,
(If hell and treason hold their promises,)
Ere he take ship for France, and in Southampton.
Linger your patience on; and well digest
The abuse of distance, while we force a play.
The sum is paid; the traitors are agreed;
1 In ancient representations of trophies, &c. it is common to see swords encircled with crowns. Shakspeare's image is supposed to be taken from a wood cut in the first edition of Holinshed.
2 Richard earl of Cambridge" was Richard de Conisbury, younger son of Edmund Langley, duke of York. He was father of Richard duke of York, and grandfather of Edward the Fourth.
3 "Henry lord Scroop" was a third husband of Joan duchess of York, mother-in-law of Richard earl of Cambridge.
"Linger your patience on, and we'll digest
The abuse of distance; force a play."
The alteration was made by Pope.
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