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Therefore, caveto be thy counsellor.

Go, clear thy chrystals.-Yoke-fellows in arms,
Let us to France! like horse-leeches, my boys;
To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck!

Boy. And that is but unwholesome food, they say.
Pist. Touch her soft mouth, and march.
Bard. Farewell, hostess.

[Kissing her. Nym. I cannot kiss, that is the humour of it; but adieu.

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

Quick. Farewell; adieu.

SCENE IV.

[Exeunt.

France. A Room in the French King's Palace.

Enter the French King attended; the Dauphin, the Duke of BURGUNDY, the 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 gulph.

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.

2 clear thy chrystals.] Dry thine eyes.

Dau.

My most redoubted father,

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

For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom,3
(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
'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 scepter so fantastically borne

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

4

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,And you shall find, his vanities fore-spent Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus, 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;

3 so dull a kingdom,] i. e. render it callous, insensible. How modest in exception,] How diffident and decent in making objections.

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,"
That haunted us in our familiar paths:
Witness our too much memorable shame,
When Cressy battle fatally was struck,
And all our princes captiv'd, 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 smil'd 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 follow'd, friends. Dau. Turn head, and stop pursuit: for coward dogs

5-strain,] lineage.

"That haunted us- - To haunt is a word of the utmost horror, which shows that they dreaded the English as goblins and spirits. fate of him.] His fate is what is allotted him by destiny, or what he is fated to perform.

7

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 divest yourself, and lay apart

you

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 honours that pertain,
By custom and the ordinance of times
Unto the crown of France. That you may
you may know,
'Tis no sinister, nor no aukward claim,
Pick'd from the worm-holes of long-vanish'd days,
Nor from the dust of old oblivion rak'd,
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 deriv'd
From his most fam'd of famous ancestors,
Edward the Third, he bids you then resign
Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held
From him the native and true challenger,

8 spend their mouths,] That is, bark; the sportsman's

term.

9- memorable line,] This genealogy; this deduction of his lineage,

Fr. King. Or else what follows?

Ere. 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 threat'ning, 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? Ere. 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

• Shall chide your trespass,] To chide is to resound, to echo.

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