Читать книгу The Life of King Henry the Fifth - Уильям Шекспир, William Szekspir, the Simon Studio - Страница 4

SCENE: England and France
ACT I. SCENE I. London. An ante-chamber in the KING'S palace
SCENE II. London. The Presence Chamber in the KING'S palace

Оглавление

Enter the KING, GLOUCESTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and attendants

  KING HENRY. Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury?

  EXETER. Not here in presence.

  KING HENRY. Send for him, good uncle.

  WESTMORELAND. Shall we call in th' ambassador, my liege?

  KING HENRY. Not yet, my cousin; we would be resolv'd,

    Before we hear him, of some things of weight

    That task our thoughts, concerning us and France.


Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY and the BISHOP OF ELY

  CANTERBURY. God and his angels guard your sacred throne,

    And make you long become it!

  KING HENRY. Sure, we thank you.

    My learned lord, we pray you to proceed,

    And justly and religiously unfold

    Why the law Salique, that they have in France,

    Or should or should not bar us in our claim;

    And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,

    That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading,

    Or nicely charge your understanding soul

    With opening titles miscreate whose right

    Suits not in native colours with the truth;

    For God doth know how many, now in health,

    Shall drop their blood in approbation

    Of what your reverence shall incite us to.

    Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,

    How you awake our sleeping sword of war-

    We charge you, in the name of God, take heed;

    For never two such kingdoms did contend

    Without much fall of blood; whose guiltless drops

    Are every one a woe, a sore complaint,

    'Gainst him whose wrongs gives edge unto the swords

    That makes such waste in brief mortality.

    Under this conjuration speak, my lord;

    For we will hear, note, and believe in heart,

    That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd

    As pure as sin with baptism.

  CANTERBURY. Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers,

    That owe yourselves, your lives, and services,

    To this imperial throne. There is no bar

    To make against your Highness' claim to France

    But this, which they produce from Pharamond:

    'In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant'-

    'No woman shall succeed in Salique land';

    Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze

    To be the realm of France, and Pharamond

    The founder of this law and female bar.

    Yet their own authors faithfully affirm

    That the land Salique is in Germany,

    Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe;

    Where Charles the Great, having subdu'd the Saxons,

    There left behind and settled certain French;

    Who, holding in disdain the German women

    For some dishonest manners of their life,

    Establish'd then this law: to wit, no female

    Should be inheritrix in Salique land;

    Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala,

    Is at this day in Germany call'd Meisen.

    Then doth it well appear the Salique law

    Was not devised for the realm of France;

    Nor did the French possess the Salique land

    Until four hundred one and twenty years

    After defunction of King Pharamond,

    Idly suppos'd the founder of this law;

    Who died within the year of our redemption

    Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the Great

    Subdu'd the Saxons, and did seat the French

    Beyond the river Sala, in the year

    Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say,

    King Pepin, which deposed Childeric,

    Did, as heir general, being descended

    Of Blithild, which was daughter to King Clothair,

    Make claim and title to the crown of France.

    Hugh Capet also, who usurp'd the crown

    Of Charles the Duke of Lorraine, sole heir male

    Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great,

    To find his title with some shows of truth-

    Though in pure truth it was corrupt and naught-

    Convey'd himself as th' heir to th' Lady Lingare,

    Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son

    To Lewis the Emperor, and Lewis the son

    Of Charles the Great. Also King Lewis the Tenth,

    Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet,

    Could not keep quiet in his conscience,

    Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied

    That fair Queen Isabel, his grandmother,

    Was lineal of the Lady Ermengare,

    Daughter to Charles the foresaid Duke of Lorraine;

    By the which marriage the line of Charles the Great

    Was re-united to the Crown of France.

    So that, as clear as is the summer's sun,

    King Pepin's title, and Hugh Capet's claim,

    King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear

    To hold in right and tide of the female;

    So do the kings of France unto this day,

    Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law

    To bar your Highness claiming from the female;

    And rather choose to hide them in a net

    Than amply to imbar their crooked tides

    Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.

  KING HENRY. May I with right and conscience make this claim?

  CANTERBURY. The sin upon my head, dread sovereign!

    For in the book of Numbers is it writ,

    When the man dies, let the inheritance

    Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord,

    Stand for your own, unwind your bloody flag,

    Look back into your mighty ancestors.

    Go, my dread lord, to your great-grandsire's tomb,

    From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit,

    And your great-uncle's, Edward the Black Prince,

    Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy,

    Making defeat on the fun power of France,

    Whiles his most mighty father on a hill

    Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp

    Forage in blood of French nobility.

    O noble English, that could entertain

    With half their forces the full pride of France,

    And let another half stand laughing by,

    All out of work and cold for action!

  ELY. Awake remembrance of these valiant dead,

    And with your puissant arm renew their feats.

    You are their heir; you sit upon their throne;

    The blood and courage that renowned them

    Runs in your veins; and my thrice-puissant liege

    Is in the very May-morn of his youth,

    Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises.

  EXETER. Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth

    Do all expect that you should rouse yourself,

    As did the former lions of your blood.

  WESTMORELAND. They know your Grace hath cause and means and

might-

    So hath your Highness; never King of England

    Had nobles richer and more loyal subjects,

    Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England

    And lie pavilion'd in the fields of France.

  CANTERBURY. O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege,

    With blood and sword and fire to win your right!

    In aid whereof we of the spiritualty

    Will raise your Highness such a mighty sum

    As never did the clergy at one time

    Bring in to any of your ancestors.

  KING HENRY. We must not only arm t' invade the French,

    But lay down our proportions to defend

    Against the Scot, who will make road upon us

    With all advantages.

  CANTERBURY. They of those marches, gracious sovereign,

    Shall be a wall sufficient to defend

    Our inland from the pilfering borderers.

  KING HENRY. We do not mean the coursing snatchers only,

    But fear the main intendment of the Scot,

    Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us;

    For you shall read that my great-grandfather

    Never went with his forces into France

    But that the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdom

    Came pouring, like the tide into a breach,

    With ample and brim fulness of his force,

    Galling the gleaned land with hot assays,

    Girdling with grievous siege castles and towns;

    That England, being empty of defence,

    Hath shook and trembled at th' ill neighbourhood.

  CANTERBURY. She hath been then more fear'd than harm'd, my

liege;

    For hear her but exampled by herself:

    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

    The King of Scots; whom she did send to France,

    To fill King Edward's fame with prisoner kings,

    And make her chronicle as rich with praise

    As is the ooze and bottom of the sea

    With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries.

  WESTMORELAND. But there's a saying, very old and true:


          'If that you will France win,

          Then with Scotland first begin.'


    For once the eagle England being in prey,

    To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot

    Comes sneaking, and so sucks her princely eggs,

    Playing the mouse in absence of the cat,

    To tear and havoc more than she can eat.

  EXETER. It follows, then, the cat must stay at home;

    Yet that is but a crush'd necessity,

    Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries

    And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves.

    While that the armed hand doth fight abroad,

    Th' advised head defends itself at home;

    For government, though high, and low, and lower,

    Put into parts, doth keep in one consent,

    Congreeing in a full and natural close,

    Like music.

  CANTERBURY. Therefore doth heaven divide

    The state of man in divers functions,

    Setting endeavour in continual motion;

    To which is fixed as an aim or but

    Obedience; for so work the honey bees,

    Creatures that by a rule in nature teach

    The act of order to a peopled kingdom.

    They have a king, and officers of sorts,

    Where some like magistrates correct at home;

    Others like merchants venture trade abroad;

    Others like soldiers, armed in their stings,

    Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds,

    Which pillage they with merry march bring home

    To the tent-royal of their emperor;

    Who, busied in his majesty, surveys

    The singing masons building roofs of gold,

    The civil citizens kneading up the honey,

    The poor mechanic porters crowding in

    Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate,

    The sad-ey'd justice, with his surly hum,

    Delivering o'er to executors pale

    The lazy yawning drone. I this infer,

    That many things, having full reference

    To one consent, may work contrariously;

    As many arrows loosed several ways

    Come to one mark, as many ways meet in one town,

    As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea,

    As many lines close in the dial's centre;

    So many a thousand actions, once afoot,

    End in one purpose, and be all well home

    Without defeat. Therefore to France, my liege.

    Divide your happy England into four;

    Whereof take you one quarter into France,

    And you withal shall make all Gallia shake.

    If we, with thrice such powers left at home,

    Cannot defend our own doors from the dog,

    Let us be worried, and our nation lose

    The name of hardiness and policy.

  KING HENRY. Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin.


Exeunt some attendants

    Now are we well resolv'd; and, by God's help

    And yours, the noble sinews of our power,

    France being ours, we'll bend it to our awe,

    Or break it all to pieces; or there we'll sit,

    Ruling in large and ample empery

    O'er France and all her almost kingly dukedoms,

    Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn,

    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,

    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.

  AMBASSADOR. May't please your Majesty to give us leave

    Freely to render what we have in charge;

    Or shall we sparingly show you far of

    The Dauphin's meaning and our embassy?

  KING HENRY. We are no tyrant, but a Christian king,

    Unto whose grace our passion is as subject

    As are our wretches fett'red in our prisons;

    Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness

    Tell us the Dauphin's mind.

  AMBASSADOR. Thus then, in few.

    Your Highness, lately sending into France,

    Did claim some certain dukedoms in the right

    Of your great predecessor, King Edward the Third.

    In answer of which claim, the Prince our master

    Says that you savour too much of your youth,

    And bids you be advis'd there's nought in France

    That can be with a nimble galliard won;

    You cannot revel into dukedoms there.

    He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit,

    This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this,

    Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim

    Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.

  KING HENRY. What treasure, uncle?

  EXETER. Tennis-balls, my liege.

  KING HENRY. We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us;

    His present and your pains we thank you for.

    When we have match'd our rackets to these balls,

    We will in France, by God's grace, play a set

    Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard.

    Tell him he hath made a match with such a wrangler

    That all the courts of France will be disturb'd

    With chaces. And we understand him well,

    How he comes o'er us with our wilder days,

    Not measuring what use we made of them.

    We never valu'd this poor seat of England;

    And therefore, living hence, did give ourself

    To barbarous licence; as 'tis ever common

    That men are merriest when they are from home.

    But tell the Dauphin I will keep my state,

    Be like a king, and show my sail of greatness,

    When I do rouse me in my throne of France;

    For that I have laid by my majesty

    And plodded like a man for working-days;

    But I will rise there with so full a glory

    That I will dazzle all the eyes of France,

    Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us.

    And tell the pleasant Prince this mock of his

    Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones, and his soul

    Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance

    That shall fly with them; for many a thousand widows

    Shall this his mock mock of their dear husbands;

    Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down;

    And some are yet ungotten and unborn

    That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's scorn.

    But this lies all within the will of God,

    To whom I do appeal; and in whose name,

    Tell you the Dauphin, I am coming on,

    To venge me as I may and to put forth

    My rightful hand in a well-hallow'd cause.

    So get you hence in peace; and tell the Dauphin

    His jest will savour but of shallow wit,

    When thousands weep more than did laugh at it.

    Convey them with safe conduct. Fare you well.


Exeunt AMBASSADORS

  EXETER. This was a merry message.

  KING HENRY. We hope to make the sender blush at it.

    Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour

    That may give furth'rance to our expedition;

    For we have now no thought in us but France,

    Save those to God, that run before our business.

    Therefore let our proportions for these wars

    Be soon collected, and all things thought upon

    That may with reasonable swiftness ad

    More feathers to our wings; for, God before,

    We'll chide this Dauphin at his father's door.

    Therefore let every man now task his thought

    That this fair action may on foot be brought. Exeunt


The Life of King Henry the Fifth

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