To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck!

Boy. And that is but unwholesome food, they

say.

Pis. Touch her soft mouth, and march.

Bar. Farewell, hostess.

[kissing her. Nym. I cannot kiss; that is the humor of it: but adieu.

Pis. Let housewifery appear; keep close, I thee command.

Mrs. Quick. Farewell; adieu.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

France. A room in the French King's palace.

Enter FRENCH KING attended; DAUPHIN, DUKE OF BURGUNDY, CONSTABLE, and others.

Fr. King. Thus come the English with full power

upon us;

And more than carefully it us concerns,

To answer royally in our defences.

Therefore the dukes of Berry, and of Bretagne,
Of Brabant, and of Orleans, shall make forth,—
And you, prince Dauphin,-with all swift despatch,
To line, and new repair, our towns of war
With men of courage and with means defendant:
For England his approaches makes as fierce,
As waters to the sucking of a gulf.

It fits us then to be as provident

As fear may teach us, out of late examples
Left by the fatal and neglected English

Upon our fields.

Dau.

My most redoubted father,

It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe;

For peace itself should not so dull1 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 forth,

To 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 England

Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance:

For, my good liege, she is so idly king'd,
Her sceptre so fantastically borne

By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth,
That fear attends her not.

Con.

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, withal,

How terrible in constant resolution ;

you

3

And shall find, his vanities forespent 3
Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus,

1 Render callous, insensible.

2 In making objections,

3 Past.

Covering discretion with a coat of folly;

As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots
That shall first spring, and be most delicate.

Dau. 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 weigh The enemy more mighty than he seems; So the proportions of defence are fill'd, Which, of a weak and niggardly projection, Doth, like a miser, spoil his coat, with scanting A little cloth.

Fr. King. 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 strain,1
That haunted us in our familiar paths:
Witness our too much memorable shame,
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, crown'd 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 stemn
Of that victorious stock; and let us fear

1 Lineage.

The native mightiness and fate of him.

Enter MESSENGER.

Mes. 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 Messenger and certain Lords.

You see, this chase is hotly follow'd, friends.

Dau. Turn head, and stop pursuit: for coward

dogs

Most spend their mouths, when what they seem to

threaten,

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 ma.

jesty.

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 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,

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,

[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 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.