William Shakespeare

“ Scarce blood enough in all their sickly veins 20
To give each naked curtal-axe a stain,
That our French gallants shall to-day draw out,
And sheathe for lack of sport: let us but blow on them,
The vapour of our valour will o'erturn them. 24
'Tis positive 'gainst all exceptions, lords,
That our superfluous lackeys and our peasants,
Who in unnecessary action swarm
About our squares of battle, were enow 28
To purge this field of such a hilding foe,
Though we upon this mountain's basis by
Took stand for idle speculation:
But that our honours must not. What's to say? ”

“ What mightst thou do, that honour would thee do, Were all thy children kinde and naturall: But see, thy fault France hath in thee found out, A nest of hollow bosomes, which he filles With treacherous Crownes, and three corrupted men: One, Richard Earle of Cambridge, and the second Henry Lord Scroope of Masham, and the third Sir Thomas Grey Knight of Northumberland, Haue for the Gilt of France (O guilt indeed) Confirm'd Conspiracy with fearefull France, And by their hands, this grace of Kings must dye. ”

“ Will. Sir, know you this glove?
Flu. Know the glove! I know the glove is a glove.
Will. I know this; and thus I challenge it. 8
Strikes him.
Flu. 'Sblood! an arrant traitor as any's in
the universal world, or in France, or in England.
Gow. How now, sir! you villain!
Will. Do you think I'll be forsworn? 12
Flu. Stand away, Captain Gower; I will give
treason his payment into plows, I warrant you.
Will. I am no traitor.
Flu. That's a lie in thy throat. I charge you
in his majesty's name, apprehend him: he is a
friend of the Duke Alençon's. 18
Enter Warwick and Gloucester. ”

“ Is now transported, gentles, to Southampton:
There is the playhouse now, there must you sit:
And thence to France shall we convey you safe,
And bring you back, charming the narrow seas
To give you gentle pass; for, if we may,
We'll not offend one stomach with our play. ⁠40
But, till the king come forth and not till then,
Unto Southampton do we shift our scene. Exit. ”

“ Whose blood is fet 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. ⁠21
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood, ⁠24
And teach them how to war. And you, good yeomen,
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 ”

“ K. Hen. Gloucester, 'tis true that we are in great danger;
The greater therefore should our courage be.
Good morrow, brother Bedford. God Almighty!
There is some soul of goodness in things evil, 4
Would men observingly distil it out;
For our bad neighbour makes us early stirrers,
Which is both healthful, and good husbandry:
Besides, they are our outward consciences, 8
And preachers to us all; admonishing
That we should dress us fairly for our end.
Thus may we gather honey from the weed,
And make a moral of the devil himself. 12
Enter Erpingham. ”

“ Cant. She hath been then more fear'd than harm'd, my liege;
For hear her but exampled by herself: ⁠156
When all her chivalry hath been in France
And she a mourning widow of her nobles,
She hath herself not only well defended,
But taken and impounded as a stray ⁠160
The King of Scots; whom she did send to France,
To fill King Edward's fame with prisoner kings,
And make your chronicle as rich with praise
As is the ooze and bottom of the sea ⁠164
With sunken wrack and sumless treasuries.
West. But there's a saying very old and true ”

“ So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs
In blood of princes; and their wounded steeds
Fret fetlock-deep in gore, and with wild rage
Yerk out their armed heels at their dead masters, 84
Killing them twice. O! give us leave, great king,
To view the field in safety and dispose
Of their dead bodies.
K. Hen. I tell thee truly, herald,
I know not if the day be ours or no; 88
For yet a many of your horsemen peer
And gallop o'er the field.
Mont.The day is yours.
K. Hen. Praised be God, and not our strength, for it!
What is this castle call'd that stands hard by? ”

“ K. Hen. 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: ⁠4
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 ”

“ Wherein you would have sold your king to slaughter,
His princes and his peers to servitude,
His subjects to oppression and contempt, ⁠172
And his whole kingdom into desolation.
Touching our person seek we no revenge;
But we our kingdom's safety must so tender,
Whose ruin you have sought, that to her laws ⁠176
We do deliver you. Get you therefore hence,
Poor miserable wretches, to your death;
The taste whereof, God of his mercy give
You patience to endure, and true repentance ⁠180
Of all your dear offences! Bear them hence.
Exeunt [Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey, guarded] . ”

“ Henry the Sixt, in Infant Bands crown'd King Of France and England, did this King succeed: Whose State so many had the managing, That they lost France, and made his England bleed: Which oft our Stage hath showne; and for their sake, In your faire minds let this acceptance take. ”

“ Ill-favour'dly become the morning field: 40
Their ragged curtains poorly are let loose,
And our air shakes them passing scornfully:
Big Mars seems bankrupt in their beggar'd host,
And faintly through a rusty beaver peeps: 44
The horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks,
With torch-staves in their hand; and their poor jades
Lob down their heads, dropping the hides and hips,
The gum down-roping from their pale-dead eyes, 48
And in their pale dull mouths the gimmal'd bit
Lies foul with chew'd grass, still and motionless ”

“ What? is thy Soule of Odoration? Art thou ought else but Place, Degree, and Forme, Creating awe and feare in other men? Wherein thou art lesse happy, being fear'd, Then they in fearing. What drink'st thou oft, in stead of Homage sweet, But poyson'd flatterie? O, be sick, great Greatnesse, And bid thy Ceremonie giue thee cure. Thinks thou the fierie Feuer will goe out With Titles blowne from Adulation? Will it giue place to flexure and low bending? Canst thou, when thou command'st the beggers knee, Command the health of it? No, thou prowd Dreame, That play'st so subtilly with a Kings Repose. ”

“ With silken streamers the young Phoebus fanning:
Play with your fancies, and in them behold
Upon the hempen tackle ship-boys climbing; ⁠8
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, ⁠12
Breasting the lofty surge. O! do but think
You stand upon the rivage and behold
A city on the inconstant billows dancing ”

“ Nym. Shall we shog? the king will be gone
from Southampton. ⁠49
Pist. Come, let's away. My love, give me thy lips.
Look to my chattels and my moveables:
Let senses rule, the word is, 'Pitch and pay'; ⁠52
Trust none;
For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes,
And hold-fast is the only dog, my duck:
Therefore, 'caveto' be thy counsellor. ”

“ Returns us that his powers are yet not ready
To raise so great a siege. Therefore, great king,
We yield our town and lives to thy soft mercy.
Enter our gates; dispose of us and ours; ⁠49
For we no longer are defensible. ”

“ O'er France and all her almost kingly dukedoms,
Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn, ⁠228
Tombless, with no remembrance over them:
Either our history shall with full mouth
Speak freely of our acts, or else our grave,
Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth, ⁠232
Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph.
Enter Ambassadors of France.
Now are we well prepar'd to know the pleasure
Of our fair cousin Dauphin; for we hear
Your greeting is from him, not from the king.
First Amb. May 't please your majesty to give us leave ⁠237
Freely to render what we have in charge ”

“ a good Legge will fall, a strait Backe will stoope, a blacke Beard will turne white, a curl'd Pate will grow bald, a faire Face will wither, a full Eye will wax hollow: but a good Heart, Kate, is the Sunne and the Moone, or rather the Sunne, and not the Moone; for it shines bright, and neuer changes, but keepes his course truly. ”

“ He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age, 44
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say, 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian';
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say, 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot, 49
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day. ”

“ As Gardeners doe with Ordure hide those Roots That shall first spring, and be most delicate
Dolphin. Well, 'tis not so, my Lord High Constable. But though we thinke it so, it is no matter: In cases of defence, 'tis best to weigh The Enemie more mightie then he seemes, So the proportions of defence are fill'd: Which of a weake and niggardly proiection, Doth like a Miser spoyle his Coat, with scanting A little Cloth
King. Thinke we King Harry strong: And Princes, looke you strongly arme to meet him. ”

“ And tell the Dolphin, His Iest will sauour but of shallow wit, When thousands weepe more then did laugh at it. ”

“ Whom he hath dull'd and cloy'd with gracious favours, ⁠9
That he should, for a foreign purse, so sell
His sovereign's life to death and treachery!
Sound trumpets. Enter the King, Scroop, Cambridge, and Grey [with Attendants] .
K. Hen. Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard. ⁠12
My Lord of Cambridge, and my kind Lord of Masham,
And you, my gentle knight, give me your thoughts:
Think you not that the powers we bear with us
Will cut their passage through the force of France, ⁠16
Doing the execution and the act
For which we have in head assembled them? ”

“ Enter Constable, Orleans, Bourbon, Dauphin, and Rambures.
Con. O diable!
Orl. O seigneur! le jour est perdu! tout est perdu!
Dau. Mort de ma vie! all is confounded, all!
Reproach and everlasting shame 4
Sit mocking in our plumes. O méchante fortune! ”

“ God, the best maker of all Marriages, Combine your hearts in one, your Realmes in one: As Man and Wife being two, are one in loue, So be there 'twixt your Kingdomes such a Spousall, That neuer may ill Office, or fell Iealousie, Which troubles oft the Bed of blessed Marriage, Thrust in betweene the Paction of these Kingdomes, To make diuorce of their incorporate League: That English may as French, French Englishmen, Receiue each other. ”

“ If we are markt to dye, we are enow To doe our Countrey losse: and if to liue, The fewer men, the greater share of honour. Gods will, I pray thee wish not one man more. By Ioue, I am not couetous for Gold, Nor care I who doth feed vpon my cost: It yernes me not, if men my Garments weare; Such outward things dwell not in my desires. But if it be a sinne to couet Honor, I am the most offending Soule aliue. No 'faith, my Couze, wish not a man from England: Gods peace, I would not loose so great an Honor, As one man more me thinkes would share from me, For the best hope I haue. ”

“ When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk: he ⁠16
trots the air; the earth sings when he touches
it; the basest horn of his hoof is more musical
than the pipe of Hermes. ”

“ His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports; ⁠56
And never noted in him any study,
Any retirement, any sequestration
From open haunts and popularity.
Ely. The strawberry grows underneath the nettle,
And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best ⁠61
Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality:
And so the prince obscur'd his contemplation
Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt, ⁠64
Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night,
Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.
Cant. It must be so; for miracles are ceas'd ”

“ Or are they spare in diet, Free from grosse passion, or of mirth, or anger, Constant in spirit, not sweruing with the blood, Garnish'd and deck'd in modest complement, Not working with the eye, without the eare, And but in purged iudgement trusting neither, Such and so finely boulted didst thou seeme: And thus thy fall hath left a kinde of blot, To make thee full fraught man, and best indued With some suspition, I will weepe for thee. ”

“ Besides, there is no king, be his cause
never so spotless, if it come to the arbitrement 170
of swords, can try it out with all unspotted sol-
diers. Some, peradventure, have on them the
guilt of premeditated and contrived murder;
some, of beguiling virgins with the broken seals
of perjury; some, making the wars their bul-
wark, that have before gored the gentle bosom
of peace with pillage and robbery. Now, if these
men have defeated the law and outrun native 178
punishment, though they can outstrip men, they
have no wings to fly from God: war is his beadle,
war is his vengeance ”

“ King Henry's claim to the French throne rested upon his descent from Philip IV of France. Henry's great-grandfather, Edward III of England, was the son of Isabella, daughter to Philip IV. Her three brothers died without male heirs. Upon the death of the third (Charles IV) , Isabella claimed the French throne for her son Edward; but an assembly of French peers and barons barred the English king's claim, declaring that 'no woman, nor therefore her son, could in accordance with custom succeed to the monarchy of France.' Later the doctrine thus enunciated became known as the Salic law. ”