Boy. And that's but unwholfome Food, they fay. Pift. Touch her foft Mouth, and march.
Nim. I cannot kifs, that is the humour of it; but adieu.
Pift. Let Houfwifery appear; keep clofe, I thee command. Hoft. Farewel; adieu.
[Exeunt. Enter the French King, the Dauphin, the Duke of Burgundy, and the Conftable.
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 Britain, Of Brabant, and of Orleans fhall make fɔrth, And you, Prince Dauphin, with all fwift dispatch; 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 fucking 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.
Dan. My moft redoubted Father,
It is moft meet we arm us 'gainst the Foe: For Peace it self should not fo dull a Kingdom,
(Tho' War, nor no known Quarrel were in queftion) But that Defences, Mufters, Preparations,
Should be maintain'd, affembled and collected, As were a War in expectation.
Therefore, I fay, 'tis meet we all go
To view the fick and feeble parts of France: And let us do it with ro fhew of Fear;
No, with no more than if we heard that England Were bufied with a Whitfon Morris-dance: For, my good Liege, fhe is fo idly King'd, Her Scepter fo fantaftically born,
By a vain, giddy, fhallow, humorous Youth, That Fear attends her not.
Con. O Peace, Prince Dauphin,
You are too much mistaken in this King: Queftion your Grace the late Ambaffadors,
With what great State he heard their Embaffic, How well fupply'd with Noble Counsellors, How modeft in exception, and, withal, How terrible in conftant Refolution: And you fhall find his Vanities fore-fpent Were but the out-fide of the Roman Brutus, Covering Difcretion with a Coat of Folly; As Gardeners do with Ordure hide thofe Roots That (hall firft fpring, and be moft delicate. Dau. Well, 'tis not fo, my Lord High-Constable. But tho' we think it fo, it is no matter: In caufes of Defence, 'tis beft to weigh The Enemy more mighty than he feems, So the Proportions of defence are fill'd; Which of a weak and niggirdly projection, Doth, like a Mifer, spoil his Coat with fcanting A little Cloath.
Fr. King. Think we King Harry ftrong; And Princes, look, you ftrongly arm to meet him. The Kindred of him hath been flesh'd upon us: And he is bred out of that bloody ftrain That haunted us in our familiar Paths; Witness our too much memorable Shame, When Creffy Battel fatally was ftruck, And all our Princes captiv'd by the Hand
Of that black Name, Edward, black Prince of Wales: While that his Mountain Sire, on Mountain ftanding, Up in the Air, crown'd with the Golden Sun, Saw his Heroick Seed, and fmil'd to fee 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 mightinefs and fate of him.
Meff. Ambaffadors from Harry, King of England, Do crave admittance to your Majefty.
Fr. King. We'll give them prefent Audience.
You fee this Chafe is hotly followed, Friends.
Dau. Turn Head, and ftop purfuit; for Coward Dogs Most spend their Mouths, when what they feem to threaten Runs far before them. Good my Sovereign,
Take up the English fhort, and let them know, Of what a Monarchy you are the Head: Self-love, my Liege, is not fo vile a Sin, - As felf-neglecting.
Fr. King. From our Brother of England? Exe. From him, and thus he greets your Majefty: He wills you in the Name of God Almighty, That you diveft your felf, and lay apart The borrowed Glories, that, by gift of Heaven, By Law of Nature, and of Nations, 'longs To him and to his Heirs; namely, the Crown; And all wide-ftretched Honours that pertain, By Custom and the Ordinance of Times, Unto the Crown of France. That you may know 'Tis no finifter, ner no awkward Claim, Pick'd from the Worm-holes of long-vanish'd days, Nor from the duft of old Oblivion rak'd, He fends you this moft memorable Line, In every Branch truly demonstrative, Willing you over-look his Pedigree; And when you find him evenly deriv'd From his most fam'd of famous Ancestors. Edward the Third; he bids you then refign Your Crown and Kingdom indire&ly held From him, the native and true Challenger. Fr. King. Or else what follows?
Exe. Bloody conftraint; for if you hide the Crown Even in your Hearts, there will he rake for it. And therefore in fierce Tempeft is he coming, In Thunder and in Earthquake, like a Jove: That if requiring fail, he will compell. He 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 this vafty Jaws; and on your Head Turning the Widow's Tears, the Orphans Cries, The dead Mens Bloods, the privy Maidens Groans,
For Husbands, Fathers, and betrothed Lovers, That fhall be fwallowed in this Controverfie. This is his Claim, his Threatning, and my Message; Unless the Dauphin be in prefence here,
To whom exprefly I bring Greeting too.
Fr. King. For us, we will confider of this further: To morrow fhall you bear our full intent Back to our Brother of England.
I ftand here for him; what to him from England? Exe. Scorn and Defiance, flight Regard, Contempt, And any thing that may not mif-become The mighty Sender, doth he prize you at. Thus fays my King; and if your Father's Highness Do not, in grant of all Demands at large, Sweeten the bitter Mock you fent his Majefty; He'll call you to fo hot an Anfwer of it, That Caves and womby Vaultages of France Shall chide your Trefpafs, and return your Mock In fecond Accent of his Ordinance.
Dan. Say, if my Father tender fair return, It is against my will; for I defire
Nothing but Odds with England; to that end, As matching to his Youth and Vanity,
I did prefent him with the Paris Balls.
Exe. He'll make your Paris Louver shake for it, Were it the Miftrefs Court of mighty Europe: And be affur'd you'll find a difference, As we, his Subjects, have in wonder found, Between the Promife of his greener days
And these he mafters now; now he weighs Time Even to the utmost Grain, that you shall read In your own Loffes, if he stay in France.
Fr. King. To morrow you fhall know our mind at full.
Exe. Dispatch us with all fpeed, left that our King
Come here himself to question our delay,
For he is footed in this Land already.
Fr. King. You shall be foon dispatch'd with fair Conditions, A Night is but fmall breath, and little paufe
To answer matters of this Confequence.
"Hus with imagin'd Wing our fwift Scene flies, In motion of no lefs celerity,
Than that of Thought. Suppofe that you have feen The well appointed King at Dover Peer, Embark his Royalty; and his brave Fleet, With filken Streamers, the young Phoebus fanning; Play with your Fancies; and in them behold, Upon the Hempen Tackle, Ship Boys climbing; Hear the fhrill Whiftle, which doth Order give To founds confus'd; behold the threaden Sails, Born with th' invifible and creeping Wind, Draw the huge Bottoms thro' the furrow'd Sea, Breafting the lofty Surge. O, do but think You ftand upon the Ravage, and behold A City on th'inconftant Billows dancing; For fo appears this Fleet Majeftical,
Holding due courfe to Harfleur. Follow, follow, Grapple your Minds to fternage of this Navy, And leave your England as dead Midnight, ftill, Guarded with Grandfires, Babies and old Women, Either paft, or not arriv'd to pitch and puiffance: For who is he, whofe Chin is but enrich'd With one appearing Hair, that will not follow Thefe cull'd and choice drawn Cavaliers to France? Work, work your Thoughts, and therein fee a Siege; Behold the Ordnance on their Carriages, With fatal Mouths gaping on girded Harfleur. Suppofe th' Ambaffador from the French comes back, Tells Harry, That the King doth offer him Katherine his Daughter, and with her to Dowry Some petty and unprofitable Dukedoms.
The Offer likes rot; and the nimble Gunner With Lynftock now the devilish Cannon touches.
[Alarm, and Chambers go off.
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