Henry V by William Shakespeare
Act 2 - Scene 4
France. The KING’S palace.
King of France : Thus comes the English with full power upon us;
[p]And more than
carefully it us concerns
[p]To answer royally in our
defences.
[p]Therefore the Dukes of Berri and of Bretagne,
[p]Of
Brabant and of Orleans, shall make forth,
[p]And you, Prince Dauphin,
with all swift dispatch,
[p]To line and new repair our towns of
war
[p]With men of courage and with means defendant;
[p]For England
his approaches makes as fierce
[p]As waters to the sucking of a
gulf.
[p]It fits us then to be as provident
[p]As fear may teach us
out of late examples
[p]Left by the fatal and neglected
English
[p]Upon our fields.
Lewis the Dauphin : My most redoubted father,
[p]It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the
foe;
[p]For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom,
[p]Though war
nor no known quarrel were in question,
[p]But that defences, musters,
preparations,
[p]Should be maintain'd, assembled and collected,
[p]As
were a war in expectation.
[p]Therefore, I say 'tis meet we all go
forth
[p]To view the sick and feeble parts of France:
[p]And let us do
it with no show of fear;
[p]No, with no more than if we heard that
England
[p]Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance:
[p]For, my good
liege, she is so idly king'd,
[p]Her sceptre so fantastically
borne
[p]By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth,
[p]That fear
attends her not.
Constable of France : O peace, Prince Dauphin!
[p]You are too much mistaken in this
king:
[p]Question your grace the late ambassadors,
[p]With what great
state he heard their embassy,
[p]How well supplied with noble
counsellors,
[p]How modest in exception, and withal
[p]How terrible in
constant resolution,
[p]And you shall find his vanities
forespent
[p]Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus,
[p]Covering
discretion with a coat of folly;
[p]As gardeners do with ordure hide
those roots
[p]That shall first spring and be most delicate.
Lewis the Dauphin : Well, 'tis not so, my lord high constable;
[p]But though we think it
so, it is no matter:
[p]In cases of defence 'tis best to weigh
[p]The
enemy more mighty than he seems:
[p]So the proportions of defence are
fill'd;
[p]Which of a weak or niggardly projection
[p]Doth, like a
miser, spoil his coat with scanting
[p]A little cloth.
King of France : Think we King Harry strong;
[p]And, princes, look you strongly arm to
meet him.
[p]The kindred of him hath been flesh'd upon us;
[p]And he
is bred out of that bloody strain
[p]That haunted us in our familiar
paths:
[p]Witness our too much memorable shame
[p]When Cressy battle
fatally was struck,
[p]And all our princes captiv'd by the hand
[p]Of
that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales;
[p]Whiles that his
mountain sire, on mountain standing,
[p]Up in the air, crown'd with
the golden sun,
[p]Saw his heroical seed, and smiled to see
him,
[p]Mangle the work of nature and deface
[p]The patterns that by
God and by French fathers
[p]Had twenty years been made. This is a
stem
[p]Of that victorious stock; and let us fear
[p]The native
mightiness and fate of him.
Messenger : Ambassadors from Harry King of England
[p]Do crave admittance to your
majesty.
King of France : We'll give them present audience. Go, and bring them.
[p][Exeunt
Messenger and certain Lords]
[p]You see this chase is hotly follow'd,
friends.
Lewis the Dauphin : Turn head, and stop pursuit; for coward dogs
[p]Most spend their
mouths when what they seem to threaten
[p]Runs far before them. Good
my sovereign,
[p]Take up the English short, and let them know
[p]Of
what a monarchy you are the head:
[p]Self-love, my liege, is not so
vile a sin
[p]As self-neglecting.
King of France : From our brother England?
King of France : Or else what follows?
King of France : For us, we will consider of this further:
[p]To-morrow shall you bear
our full intent
[p]Back to our brother England.
Lewis the Dauphin : For the Dauphin,
[p]I stand here for him: what to him from England?
Lewis the Dauphin : Say, if my father render fair return,
[p]It is against my will; for I
desire
[p]Nothing but odds with England: to that end,
[p]As matching
to his youth and vanity,
[p]I did present him with the Paris balls.
King of France : To-morrow shall you know our mind at full.
King of France : You shall be soon dispatch's with fair conditions:
[p]A night is but
small breath and little pause
[p]To answer matters of this
consequence.
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Next: Act 3 - Scene 0
