Nor from the dust of long oblivion rak'd,
He sends you this most memorable line (1),
(Gives a paper to MONTJOY who delivers it to the
KING.)

In every branch truly demonstrative;
Willing you overlook this pedigree:
And, when you find him evenly (2) 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.

FRENCH KING

Or else what follows?

EXETER

Bloody constraint; for if you hide the crown
Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it:
This is his claim, his threat'ning, and my message;
Unless the Dauphin be in presence here,
To whom expressly I bring greeting too.

FRENCH KING

For us, we will consider of this further;
To-morrow shall you bear our full intent
Back to our brother of England.

DAUPHIN

I stand here for him.

For the Dauphin,
What to him from England?
EXETER

Scorn and defiance; slight regard, contempt.
And anything that may not misbecome
The mighty sender, doth he prize you at.

Thus says the king: and, if your father's highness

(1) Pedigree.

straight line.

Exeter holds the document in his hand. (2) In a

Do not, in grant of all demands at large,
Sweeten the bitter mock (1) you sent his majesty,
He'll call you to so hot an answer of it,
That caves and womby vaultages of France
Shall chide your trespass, and return your mock
In second accent of his ordinance (2).

DAUPHIN

Say, if my father render fair return,
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.

EXETER

He'll make your Paris Louvre (3) shake for it.
FRENCH KING (rises)

To-morrow shall you know our mind at full.

EXETER

Despatch us with all speed, lest that our king
Come here to question our delay;

For he is footed (4) in this land already.

FRENCH KING

You shall soon be despatch'd, with fair conditions.
A night is but small breath, and little pause,
To answer matters of this consequence. (Tableau.)

RUMOUR appears as Chorus

Thus with imagin'd wing our swift scene flies,
In motion of no less celerity

¶(1) That is, the insult conveyed in the present of tennis balls in Act I., Scene 2. (2) Ordnance. The spelling is a concession to the rhythm. (3) According to some writers the ancient palace of the Louvre was built in the seventh century. What is now called the "Old Louvre " was begun in 1528 under Francis I., and completed by Henry II. in 1548. (4) That is, he has set foot, is landed.

Than that of thought. Suppose that you have seen
The well appointed king at Hampton pier
Embark his royalty; (1) 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 confus'd: behold the threaden sails,
Borne with the invisible and creeping wind,
Draw the huge bottoms through the furrow'd sea,
Breasting the lofty surge: O, do but think
You stand upon the rivage, (2) 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 (3) of this navy;
And leave your England, as dead midnight still,
Guarded with grandsires, babies, and old women,
Either past or not arriv'd to pith and puissance:
For who is he, whose chin is but enrich'd
With one appearing hair, that will not follow
These cull'd and choice-drawn cavaliers to France ?
Work, work your thoughts, and therein see a siege :
Behold the ordnance on their carriages,

With fatal mouths gaping on girded Harfleur,
The nimble gunner

With linstock (4) now the devilish cannon touches,
And down goes all before them.

(1) The place where Henry's army was embarked, at Southampton, is now entirely covered with the sea, and called Westport. (2) Shore. (3) The stern, hence in the wake of this navy. `Some read steerage. (4) The staff

to which the match is fixed when the ordnance is fired.-Johnson.

The SECOND Scene

(The English Entrenchment before Harfleur. KING HENRY and his army)

KING HENRY

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-favour'd rage:
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;

Let it pry through the portage (1) of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it,
As fearfully as doth a galled rock

O'erhang and jutty (2) his confounded (3) base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.

Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide;
Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit
To his full height!-On, on, you nobless (4) Eng-
lish,

Whose blood is fet (5) from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from morn till even fought,
And sheath'd their swords for lack of argument.
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest

That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,

And teach them how to war!-And you, good yeo

men,

(1) Comparing the eyes to cannon Jutting, common term applied to land. often the same meaning as destroyed. Noblish English. Some authorities give

prying through portholes. (2) (3) Confounded is said to have (4) The original of 1623 gives noblest. (5) Fetched.

Whose limbs were made in England, show us here The mettle of your pasture; let us swear

That you are worth your breeding: which I doubt

not;

For there is none of you so mean and base
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips (1),
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot;
Follow your spirit: and, upon this charge,
Cry" God for Harry! England! and Saint
George!"
(Tableau.)

The THIRD Scene

(The DUKE of GLOSTER'S Quarters)

Enter, alarmedly, NYM, BARDOLPH, PISTOL and Boy.

BARDOLPH

On, on, on, on, on! to the breach, to the breach!

NYM

'Pray thee, corporal, stay; the knocks are too hot; and, for mine own part, I have not a case of lives: (2) the humour of it is too hot, that is the very plainsong (3) of it.

PISTOL

The plain song is most just; for humours do abound;

Knocks

go and come; our vassals drop and die;

And sword and shield,

In bloody field,

Doth win immortal fame.

(1) Noose about the neck in which the dogs were held until started

for the game. (2) Not merely one life drawn from a case of pistols or knives.

but two or more lives. Figure (3) That is, with no variations.