When Cressy battle fatally was struck,

And all our princes captived, by the hand

Of that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales;
Whiles that his mountain sire--on mountain standing,
Up in the air, crowned with the golden sun-
Saw his heroical seed, and smiled to see him
Mangle the work of nature, and deface

The patterns that by God and by French fathers
Had twenty years been made. This is a stem
Of that victorious stock; and let us fear
The native mightiness and fate of him.'

Enter a Messenger.

Mess. Ambassadors from Henry, king of England, Do crave admittance to your majesty.

Fr. King. We'll give them present audience. Go, and bring them.

[Exeunt Mess. and certain Lords. You see, this chase is hotly followed, friends.

Dau. Turn head, and stop pursuit; for coward dogs Most spend their mouths, when what they seem to

threaten,

2

Runs far before them. 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.

Fr. King.

From our brother 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 borrowed glories, that, by gift of Heaven,

By law of nature, and of nations, 'long

11. e. what is allotted him by destiny.

2 i. e. bark; the sportsman's term.

To him, and to his heirs; namely, the crown,
And all wide-stretched honors that pertain,
By custom and the ordinance of times,

Unto the crown of France. That you may know,
'Tis no sinister, nor no awkward claim,
Picked from the worm-holes of long-vanished days,
Nor from the dust of old oblivion raked,
He sends you this most memorable line,1

[Gives a paper.

In every branch truly demonstrative ;
Willing you 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.
Fr. King. Or else what follows?

Exe. Bloody constraint; for if you hide the crown
Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it;
And, 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
Turns he the widows' tears, the orphans' cries,
The dead men's blood, the pining maidens' groans,
For husbands, fathers, and betrothed lovers,
That shall be swallowed in this controversy.
This is his claim, his threatening, and my message;
Unless the dauphin be in presence here,

To whom expressly I bring greeting too.

Fr. King. For us, we will consider of this further To-morrow shall you bear our full intent

Back to our brother England.

Dau.

For the dauphin,

I stand here for him. What to him from England?

i "Memorable line;" this genealogy, this deduction of his lineage.

Exe. 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:-and, 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 for it,
That caves and womby vaultages of France
Shall chide your trespass, and return your mock
In second accent of his ordnance.

Dau. Say, if my father render fair reply,
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 those Paris balls.

Exe. He'll make your Paris Louvre shake for it,
Were it the mistress court of mighty Europe;
And, be assured, 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; which you shall read
In your own losses, if he stay in France.

Fr. King. 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.

Fr. King. You shall be soon despatched, with fair

conditions.

A night is but small breath, and little pause,
To answer matters of this consequence.

1 To chide is to resound, to echo

[Exeuni

ACT III.

Enter CHORUS.

Chor. Thus with imagined 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 pier1
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 confused; behold the threaden sails,
Borne with the invisible and creeping wind,
Draw the huge bottoms through the furrowed sea,
Breasting the lofty surge. O, do but think
You stand upon the rivage, and behold
A city on the inconstant billows dancing;
For so appears this fleet majestical,
Holding due course to Harfleur. Follow, follow!
Grapple your minds to sternage of this navy;?
And leave your England, as dead midnight, still,
Guarded with grandsires, babies, and old women,
Either past, or not arrived to, pith and puissance.
For who is he, whose chin is but enriched
With one appearing hair, that will not follow
These culled and choice-drawn cavaliers to France?
Work, work, your thoughts, and therein see a siege.
Behold the ordnance on their carriages,

2

1 "The well-appointed king at Hampton pier." "Well-appointed," that is, well furnished with all necessaries of war. The old copies read, "Dover pier:" but the Poet himself, and all accounts, and even the Chronicles which he followed, say that the king embarked at Southampton. A minute account still exists among the records of the town; and it is remarkable that a low, level plain, where the army encamped, is now covered by the sea, and called Westport.

2 The meaning of this passage is, "Let your minds follow this navy." The stern was anciently synonymous to rudder. "The sterne of a ship gubernaculum."-Baret.

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 chambers1 go off.

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

SCENE I. The same. Before Harfleur. Alarums.

Enter KING HENRY, EXETER, BEDFORD, GLOSTER, 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-favored rage.
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
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

O'er hang and jutty his confounded base,

Swilled with the wild and wasteful ocean.

Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide;

1 "Chambers," small pieces of ordnance.

2 "The portage of the head." Shakspeare uses portage for loop-holes or port-holes.

3 "O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,

Swilled with the wild and wasteful ocean."

To juttu is to project; jutties, or jetties, are projecting moles to break the force of the waves. Confounded is vered, or troubled.

1