Henry V

Sweet, juicy oranges.

O for a muse of fire,

that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention,

a kingdom for a stage,

princes to act and monarchs to behold a swelling scene.

Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, assume the port of Mars.

And, at his heels, leashed in like hounds,

would famine, sword and fire crouch for employment.

But pardon, gentles all, the flat, unraised spirits

that hath dared on this unworthy scaffold to bring forth so great an object.

Can this cockpit hold the vasty fields of France?

Or may we cram, within this wooden O,

the very casques that did affright the air at Agincourt?

On your imaginary forces work.

Suppose, within the girdle of these walls,

are now confined two mighty monarchies

whose high upreared and abutting fronts

the perilous narrow ocean parts asunder.

Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts.

Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them

printing their proud hoofs in the receiving earth.

For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,

carry them here and there, jumping o'er times,

turning the accomplishment of many years into an hourglass -

for the which supply admit me, Chorus, to this history,

who prologue-like, your humble patience pray...

gently to hear,

kindly to judge our play.

My lord, I'll tell you.

That same bill is urged

which, in the eleventh year of the last king's reign,

was likely to have been against us passed,

but that the scambling and unquiet times

did push it out of further question.

But how, my lord, shall we resist it now?

It must be thought on. If it pass against us,

we lose the better half of our possession,

for all those temporal lands which men devout

by testament have given to the Church,

would they strip from us - thus runs the bill.

- This would drink deep. - 'Twould drink the cup and all.

- (Audience laughs) - By what prevention?

The King is full of grace and fair regard.

And a true lover of the holy Church.

The courses of his youth promised it not,

since his addiction was to courses vain,

his companies unlettered, rude and shallow,

his hours filled up with banquets, riots, sports,

and never noted in him any study.

And so the prince obscured his contemplations

under the veil of wildness,

which grew, no doubt, like the summer grass,

- fastest by night. - (Laughter)

The breath no sooner left his father's body

but that the wildness, mortified in him, seemed to die too.

- Sir John Falstaff... - (Cheering)

..and all his company along with him,

- he banished... - (Booing)

..under pain of death, not to come near his person...

- (Yelling) - ..by ten miles!

Yea, at that very moment, consideration like an angel came

and whipped the offending Adam out of him.

Never was such a sudden scholar made,

never came reformation in a flood

as in this king.

We are blessed in the change.

- (Man) "We are blessed in the change"! - (Laughter)

My good lord, how now for mitigation of this bill urged by the Commons?

Doth his majesty incline to it, or no?

He seems indifferent, or rather swaying more upon our part,

for I have made an offer to his majesty,

as touching France,

to give a greater sum than ever at one time

the clergy yet did to his predecessors part withal.

How did this offer seem received, my lord?

Of good acceptance of his majesty,

save that there was not time enough to hear,

as I perceived his grace would fain have done,

of his true title to some certain dukedoms

and generally to the crown and seat of France,

derived from Edward, his great-grandfather.

What was the impediment that broke this off?

The French ambassador upon that instant craved audience...

..and I think the hour is come to give him hearing.

Is it four o'clock?

- (Bell rings three times) - (Laughter)

- It is. - Then go we in to hear his embassy,

which I could with a ready guess declare

before the Frenchman speak a word of it.

I'll wait upon you and I long to hear it.

Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury?

- Not here in presence. - Send for him, good uncle.

Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege?

Not yet, my cousin. We would be resolved before we hear him

of some things of weight that task our thoughts, concerning us and France.

God and his angels guard your sacred throne

and make you long become it.

- Sure, we thank you. - (Laughter)

My learned lord, we pray you to proceed

and justly and religiously unfold

why the Law Salic that they have in France

or should, nor should not, bar us in our claim.

We charge you in the name of God,

take heed how you awake the sleeping sword of war.

For never two such kingdoms did contend without much fall of blood,

whose guiltless drops do make such waste in brief mortality.

Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers

that owe your lives, your faith, your 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 Salic land -

which Salic land the French unjustly gloze to be the realm of France.

Yet their own authors faithfully affirm

that the land Salic lies in Germany,

between the floods of Saale and of Elbe,

where, Charles the Great, having subdued the Saxons,

there left behind and settled certain French

who, holding in disdain the German women

for some dishonest manners of their life...

..established there this law - to whit, no female should be inheritrix in Salic land,

which is this day in Germany called Meissen.

Then doth it well appear the Salic Law was not devised for the realm of France.

Nor did the French possess the Salic land

until four hundred one-and-twenty years

after defunction of King...

..Pharamond, idly supposed the founder of this law.

King Pepin, which deposed Childeric,

did, as heir general, being descended...

..of Blithild...

- (Roars of laughter) - ..who was daughter to...

..King Clotaire, made claim and title to the throne of France.

Hugh Capet also, which usurped the crown...

Er...

..of Charles, the Duke of Lorraine,

sole heir male of the true line and stock of...

..of Charles the Great, could not keep quiet in his conscience,

wearing the crown of France, till satisfied that fair...

that fair...that fair...

Queen Isabel, his grandmother, was lineal of the Lady...of the Lady...

of the Lady...

of the Lady Ermengarde, daughter to Charles,

the foresaid Duke of Lorraine.

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

- (Laughter) - ..all hold in right and title of the female.

So do the kings of France unto this day,

howbeit they would hold up this Salic Law

to bar Your Highness claiming from the female.

May I with right and conscience make this claim?

The sin upon my head, dread sovereign,

for in the Book of Numbers it is writ,

"When the son die, let the inheritance descend unto the daughter."

Gracious lord, stand your own.

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.

Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth do all expect

that you should rouse yourself as did the former lions of your blood.

They know your grace hath cause and means and might.

So hath Your Highness.

Never king of England had nobles richer or more loyal subjects,

whose hearts have left their bodies here in England

and lie pavilioned in the fields of France.

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.

Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin.

Now are we well resolved, and by God's help and yours,

the noble sinews of our power,

France being ours we'll bend it to our awe

or lay these bones in an unworthy urn,

tombless, with no remembrance over them.

Now are we well prepared to know the pleasure of our fair cousin Dauphin,

for we hear your greeting is from him, not from the king.

May it please Your Majesty to give us leave

freely to render what we have in charge,

or shall we sparingly show you far off

the Dauphin's meaning and our embassy?

We are no tyrant, but a Christian King,

therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness tell us the Dauphin's mind.

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 to which claim, the Prince our master

says that you savour too much of your youth.

He therefore sends you, fitter for your study,

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.

What treasure, Uncle?