Shakespearefor Bharat
Henry V

Act II · Scene IV

France. The KING'S palace.

Hover a speech to translate it — or press play to hear it performed.

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 concernsTo 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 warWith men of courage and with means defendant;For England his approaches makes as fierceAs waters to the sucking of a gulf.It fits us then to be as providentAs fear may teach us out of late examplesLeft by the fatal and neglected EnglishUpon our fields.
DAUPHIN
My most redoubted father,It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe;For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom,Though war nor no known quarrel were in question,But that defences, musters, preparations,Should be maintain'd, assembled and collected,As were a war in expectation.Therefore, I say 'tis meet we all go forthTo view the sick and feeble parts of France:And let us do it with no show of fear;No, with no more than if we heard that EnglandWere busied with a Whitsun morris-dance:For, my good liege, she is so idly king'd,Her sceptre so fantastically borneBy 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 modest in exception, and withalHow terrible in constant resolution,And you shall find his vanities forespentWere but the outside of the Roman Brutus,Covering discretion with a coat of folly;As gardeners do with ordure hide those rootsThat shall first spring and be most delicate.
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 weighThe enemy more mighty than he seems:So the proportions of defence are fill'd;Which of a weak or niggardly projectionDoth, like a miser, spoil his coat with scantingA little cloth.
KING OF FRANCE
Think we King Harry strong;And, princes, look you strongly arm to meet him.The kindred of him hath been flesh'd upon us;And he is bred out of that bloody strainThat haunted us in our familiar paths:Witness our too much memorable shameWhen Cressy battle fatally was struck,And all our princes captiv'd by the handOf that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales;Whiles that his mountain sire, on mountain standing,Up in the air, crown'd with the golden sun,Saw his heroical seed, and smiled to see him,Mangle the work of nature and defaceThe patterns that by God and by French fathersHad twenty years been made. This is a stemOf that victorious stock; and let us fearThe native mightiness and fate of him.

Enter a Messenger

Messenger
Ambassadors from Harry King of EnglandDo crave admittance to your majesty.
KING OF FRANCE
We'll give them present audience. Go, and bring them.

Exeunt Messenger and certain Lords

KING OF FRANCE
You see this chase is hotly follow'd, friends.
DAUPHIN
Turn head, and stop pursuit; for coward dogsMost spend their mouths when what they seem to threatenRuns far before them. Good my sovereign,Take up the English short, and let them knowOf what a monarchy you are the head:Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sinAs 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 apartThe borrow'd glories that by gift of heaven,By law of nature and of nations, 'longTo him and to his heirs; namely, the crownAnd all wide-stretched honours that pertainBy custom and the ordinance of timesUnto the crown of France. That you may know'Tis no sinister nor no awkward claim,Pick'd from the worm-holes of long-vanish'd days,Nor from the dust of old oblivion raked,He sends you this most memorable line,In every branch truly demonstrative;Willing to overlook this pedigree:And when you find him evenly derivedFrom his most famed of famous ancestors,Edward the Third, he bids you then resignYour crown and kingdom, indirectly heldFrom him the native and true challenger.
KING OF FRANCE
Or else what follows?
EXETER
Bloody constraint; for if you hide the crownEven 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 mercyOn the poor souls for whom this hungry warOpens his vasty jaws; and on your headTurning the widows' tears, the orphans' criesThe 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 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 intentBack 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 misbecomeThe mighty sender, doth he prize you at.Thus says my king; an' if your father's highnessDo 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 FranceShall chide your trespass and return your mockIn second accent of his ordnance.
DAUPHIN
Say, if my father render fair return,It is against my will; for I desireNothing but odds with England: to that end,As matching to his youth and vanity,I did present him with the Paris balls.
EXETER
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 daysAnd these he masters now: now he weighs timeEven to the utmost grain: that you shall readIn your own losses, if he stay in France.
KING OF FRANCE
To-morrow shall you know our mind at full.
EXETER
Dispatch us with all speed, lest that our kingCome here himself to question our delay;For he is footed in this land already.
KING OF FRANCE
You shall be soon dispatch's with fair conditions:A night is but small breath and little pauseTo answer matters of this consequence.

Flourish. Exeunt