Henry V – Act 2 Scene 4

KING OF FRANCE

Thus comes the English with full power upon us;

The mighty English army is approaching;

And more than carefully it us concerns

And it’s essential, more than being cautious,

To answer royally in our defences.

That we defend our monarchy against them.

Therefore the Dukes of Berri and of Bretagne,

And so, the Dukes of Berri and of Bretagne,

Of Brabant and of Orleans, shall make forth,

Brabant and Orleans, must now depart,

And you, Prince Dauphin, with all swift dispatch,

Along with you, Prince Dauphin, leaving quickly

To line and new repair our towns of war

To fix and fortify our towns for war

With men of courage and with means defendant;

With brave men armed so that they can defend us.

For England his approaches makes as fierce

For England’s army comes at us intensely

As waters to the sucking of a gulf.

As water gushing into an abyss.

It fits us then to be as provident

It is appropriate that we are cautious

As fear may teach us out of late examples

And fearful, learning from recent examples

Left by the fatal and neglected English

Of death by underestimating English

Upon our fields.

In battle on our land.

DAUPHIN

My most redoubted father,

Respected father,

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

It’s right we should be ready for a battle,

For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom,

And not let peace make us become complacent,

Though war nor no known quarrel were in question,

Although there is no war on at the moment,

But that defences, musters, preparations,

We must ensure we’ve readied our defences,

Should be maintained, assembled and collected,

And keep our army properly prepared

As were a war in expectation.

As though we are about to go to war.

Therefore, I say 'tis meet we all go forth

And so it is appropriate we leave

To view the sick and feeble parts of France:

To seek the ill-prepared, weak parts of France.

And let us do it with no show of fear;

And let’s do it not showing any fear;

No, with no more than if we heard that England

As though we’d been informed the English army

Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance:

Were dancing round a maypole on a Sunday.

For, my good liege, she is so idly kinged,

For, dear lord, England is so weakly ruled,

Her sceptre so fantastically borne

Her crown is so ridiculously worn

By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth,

By a pathetic youth, shallow and foolish

That fear attends her not.

That nobody’s afraid of England.

CONSTABLE

O peace, Prince Dauphin!

Quiet, Prince!

You are too much mistaken in this king:

You’re underestimating England’s king:

Question your grace the late ambassadors,

Go ask the envoys, recently returned,

With what great state he heard their embassy,

About how strong they found the king to be,

How well supplied with noble counsellors,

How well advised he was by noblemen,

How modest in exception, and withal

How calm he was when arguing, and what’s more,

How terrible in constant resolution,

How fearsome and unwavering his resolve is,

And you shall find his vanities forespent

And you’ll see that his youthful days are over,

Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus,

Like Brutus hid his cunning with a smile,

Covering discretion with a coat of folly;

Disguising smartness acting like a fool,

As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots

Like gardeners spread shoots with dung manure

That shall first spring and be most delicate.

To make them be the flowers first to bloom.

DAUPHIN

Well, 'tis not so, my lord high constable;

Well, you are wrong, my lord high constable;

But though we think it so, it is no matter:

But whatever you think, it doesn’t matter:

In cases of defence 'tis best to weigh

When acting in defence, it’s wise to think

The enemy more mighty than he seems:

The enemy is stronger than he looks.

So the proportions of defence are filled;

Thus, weaknesses in our defence are fixed;

Which of a weak or niggardly projection

Which, otherwise, if acting weak and stingy,

Doth, like a miser, spoil his coat with scanting

You’re like a scrimp who spoils the coat he’s making

A little cloth.

By skimping on the cloth.

KING OF FRANCE

Think we King Harry strong;

Think Harry’s strong;

And, princes, look you strongly arm to meet him.

And, princes, make sure you’re robustly armed.

The kindred of him hath been fleshed upon us;

His ancestors have fought us, causing bloodshed,

And he is bred out of that bloody strain

And he’s descended from those fighting men

That haunted us in our familiar paths:

That brought us grief upon the fields of France.

Witness our too much memorable shame

Remember all the shame that fell upon us

When Cressy battle fatally was struck,

When we were fatally attacked at Crécy,

And all our princes captived by the hand

And all our princes then were taken captive

Of that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales;

By Edward, Prince of Wales, known as the Black Prince,

Whiles that his mountain sire, on mountain standing,

While up upon the mountain stood his father,

Up in the air, crowned with the golden sun,

Edward the Third, emblazoned by the sun,

Saw his heroical seed, and smiled to see him,

Who watched his offspring be a hero, smiling,

Mangle the work of nature and deface

As he defiled France, which nature made,

The patterns that by God and by French fathers

And killed the offspring made by God and Frenchmen

Had twenty years been made. This is a stem

Some twenty years before. Harry’s descended

Of that victorious stock; and let us fear

From those victorious men; so let us fear

The native mightiness and fate of him.

His strengths inherited and his good fortune.

MESSENGER

Ambassadors from Harry King of England

Ambassadors from Harry, King of England,

Do crave admittance to your majesty.

Request a meeting with your majesty.

KING OF FRANCE

We'll give them present audience. Go, and bring them.

I’ll meet with them right now. Go bring them in.

[EXEUNT MESSENGER AND CERTAIN LORDS]

You see this chase is hotly followed, friends.

They’re hot upon our heels already, friends.

DAUPHIN

Turn head, and stop pursuit; for coward dogs

Turn round, and do not run, for dogs are cowards

Most spend their mouths when what they seem to threaten

That bark the most when what they think they’re threatening

Runs far before them. Good my sovereign,

Runs far away from them. My dear sovereign,

Take up the English short, and let them know

Just make the English stop short in their tracks,

Of what a monarchy you are the head:

And show what type of country you’re the king of:

Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin

My lord, it’s preferable if you are proud

As self-neglecting.

Instead of negligent.

KING OF FRANCE

From our brother England?

From England’s king?

EXETER

From him; and thus he greets your majesty:

I am, and here’s his message for your highness:

He wills you, in the name of God Almighty,

He tells you, in the name of God Almighty,

That you divest yourself, and lay apart

That you must abdicate and sign away

The borrowed glories that by gift of heaven,

The land you borrowed as a gift from heaven,

By law of nature and of nations, 'long

Through laws of nature and the land, belonging

To him and to his heirs; namely, the crown

To him and to his heirs; namely, the crown

And all wide-stretched honours that pertain

And all the glorious honours that come with it

By custom and the ordinance of times

As is the custom of the ancient laws,

Unto the crown of France. That you may know

The crown of France bestows. So that you know

'Tis no sinister nor no awkward claim,

It’s not a sinister or dodgy claim

Picked from the worm-holes of long-vanished days,

That’s lifted from a long-forgotten law,

Nor from the dust of old oblivion raked,

Nor found from raking through an ancient text,

He sends you this most memorable line,

He’s sending you this lovely family tree,

In every branch truly demonstrative;

That shows his lineage through every line;

Willing to overlook this pedigree:

He asks you look at it to see his bloodline.

And when you find him evenly derived

And when you see he’s directly descended

From his most famed of famous ancestors,

From his most famous famous ancestors,

Edward the Third, he bids you then resign

Edward the Third, he asks you then resign

Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held

Your crown and country, held unlawfully

From him the native and true challenger.

From him, the rightful claimant through his birthright.

KING OF FRANCE

Or else what follows?

Or what will happen?

EXETER

Bloody constraint; for if you hide the crown

Then violent coercion; hide the crown

Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it:

Within your hearts, and he will rip it out.

Therefore in fierce tempest is he coming,

For he is coming like a wild tempest,

In thunder and in earthquake, like a Jove,

With devastation only Jove could wreak,

That, if requiring fail, he will compel;

Which he’ll be forced to do if you decline;

And bids you, in the bowels of the Lord,

On God’s behalf, he asks you from his heart

Deliver up the crown, and to take mercy

To yield the crown, thus showing mercy on

On the poor souls for whom this hungry war

The poor folk who’ll be eaten by this war

Opens his vasty jaws; and on your head

That’s beast-like; and upon your guilty conscience

Turning the widows' tears, the orphans' cries

Will be the widows’ tears, the orphans’ cries,

The dead men's blood, the pining maidens groans,

The dead men’s blood, the girls wailing in mourning

For husbands, fathers and betrothed lovers,

For husbands, fathers and their fiancés,

That shall be swallowed in this controversy.

Who will be victims of this violent war.

This is his claim, his threatening and my message;

This is his claim, his threat, and that’s my message;

Unless the Dauphin be in presence here,

Unless I’m in the presence of the Dauphin

To whom expressly I bring greeting too.

For whom I have a separate message too.

KING OF FRANCE

For us, we will consider of this further:

We’ll take some time to ponder your request:

To-morrow shall you bear our full intent

Tomorrow you can take our full response

Back to our brother England.

Back to the King of England.

DAUPHIN

For the Dauphin,

And the Dauphin

I stand here for him: what to him from England?

Is standing here: what message comes from England?

EXETER

Scorn and defiance; slight regard, contempt,

Scorn and contempt; a general disregard,

And any thing that may not misbecome

And anything that might not seem demeaning

The mighty sender, doth he prize you at.

Unto our mighty king, he sends to you.

Thus says my king; an' if your father's highness

That’s what my king says; and says if your father

Do not, in grant of all demands at large,

Does not, on top of all he has demanded,

Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his majesty,

Atone for mocking tennis balls you sent him,

He'll call you to so hot an answer of it,

He’ll shout at you with such a fiery answer

That caves and womby vaultages of France

That caves and spaces echoing in France

Shall chide your trespass and return your mock

Will scold your error, bouncing back the sound

In second accent of his ordnance.

As echoes of the mock you sent to him.

DAUPHIN

Say, if my father render fair return,

Tell him that if my father takes his terms,

It is against my will; for I desire

I don’t agree with it; for all I want

Nothing but odds with England: to that end,

Is conflict with the English. For that reason,

As matching to his youth and vanity,

Aligning with his childish vanity,

I did present him with the Paris balls.

I offered him those tennis balls from Paris.

EXETER

He'll make your Paris Louvre shake for it,

For that, he’ll make your Paris palace tremble,

Were it the mistress-court of mighty Europe:

If it were Europe’s highest royal court:

And, be assured, you'll find a difference,

And, rest assured, you’ll see a difference,

As we his subjects have in wonder found,

As all his people have in awe observed,

Between the promise of his greener days

From his behaviour as a wild youngster

And these he masters now: now he weighs time

To how he’s masterful now. He plans his time

Even to the utmost grain: that you shall read

Down to the second: you will find this out

In your own losses, if he stay in France.

The hard way through your losses if he stays here.

KING OF FRANCE

To-morrow shall you know our mind at full.

We will confirm our thoughts to you tomorrow.

EXETER

Dispatch us with all speed, lest that our king

Send us off quickly, just in case our king

Come here himself to question our delay;

Comes here to ask us why we are delayed,

For he is footed in this land already.

For he has landed here in France already.

KING OF FRANCE

You shall be soon dispatched with fair conditions:

You’ll soon be on your way with a fair answer:

A night is but small breath and little pause

A night is just a little time to wait

To answer matters of this consequence.

To answer something that is so important.