The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works

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The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 185

by William Shakespeare


  Should be inheritrix in Salic land;

  Which Salic (as I said, ’twixt Elbe and Sala)

  Is at this day in Germany called Meissen.

  Then doth it well appear the Salic law

  Was not devised for the realm of France.

  55

  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,

  Who died within the year of our redemption

  60

  Four hundred twenty-six, and Charles the Great

  Subdued 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,

  65

  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 usurped the crown

  Of Charles the Duke of Lorraine, sole heir male

  70

  Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great,

  To fine his title with some shows of truth,

  Though in pure truth it was corrupt and naught,

  Conveyed himself as heir to th’ Lady Lingard,

  Daughter to Charlemagne, who was the son

  75

  To Louis the Emperor, and Louis the son

  Of Charles the Great. Also King Louis the Ninth,

  Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet,

  Could not keep quiet in his conscience,

  Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied

  80

  That fair Queen Isabel, his grandmother,

  Was lineal of the Lady Ermengard,

  Daughter to Charles the foresaid Duke of Lorraine,

  By the which marriage the line of Charles the Great

  Was reunited to the crown of France.

  85

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

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

  King Louis his satisfaction, all appear

  To hold in right and title of the female.

  So do the kings of France unto this day,

  90

  Howbeit they would hold up this Salic law

  To bar your highness claiming from the female,

  And rather choose to hide them in a net

  Than amply to embare their crooked titles

  Usurped from you and your progenitors.

  95

  KING

  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,

  100

  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,

  105

  Who on the French ground played a tragedy,

  Making defeat on the full 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.

  110

  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,

  115

  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,

  120

  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.

  WESTMORLAND

  They know your grace hath cause, and means, and might;

  125

  So doth your highness. Never king of England

  Had nobles richer and more loyal subjects,

  Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England

  And lie pavilioned in the fields of France.

  CANTERBURY O let their bodies follow, my dear liege,

  130

  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.

  135

  KING 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,

  140

  Shall be a wall sufficient to defend

  Our inland from the pilfering borderers.

  KING 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.

  145

  For you shall read that my great-grandfather

  Never went with his forces into France

  But that the Scot on his unfurnished kingdom

  Came pouring like the tide into a breach,

  With ample and brim fullness of his force,

  150

  Galling the gleaned land with hot assays,

  Girding 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 feared than harmed, my liege.

  155

  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

  160

  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 wrack and sumless treasuries.

  165

  WESTMORLAND 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

  170

  Comes sneaking and so sucks her princely eggs,

  Playing the mouse in absence of the cat,

  To ’tame and havoc more than she can eat.

  EXETER It follows then the cat must stay at home;

  Yet that is but a crushed necessity,

  175

  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

  180

  Put into parts, doth keep in one concent,

  Congreeing in a full and natural close

  Like music.

  CANTERBURY True. Therefore doth heaven divide

  The state of man in di
verse functions,

  Setting endeavour in continual motion,

  185

  To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,

  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,

  190

  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

  195

  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

  200

  Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate,

  The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum,

  Delivering o’er to executors pale

  The lazy yawning drone. I this infer,

  That many things having full reference

  205

  To one consent may work contrariously,

  As many arrows loosed several ways

  Come to one mark,

  As many several ways meet in one town,

  As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea,

  210

  As many lines close in the dial’s centre.

  So may a thousand actions once afoot

  End in one purpose and be all well borne

  Without defeat. Therefore to France, my liege.

  Divide your happy England into four,

  215

  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

  220

  The name of hardiness and policy.

  KING Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin.

  Exeunt some attendants.

  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

  225

  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.

  230

  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 worshipped with a waxen epitaph.

  Enter Ambassadors of France, with attendants carrying a tun.

  Now are we well prepared to know the pleasure

  235

  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 off

  240

  The Dauphin’s meaning and our embassy?

  KING We are no tyrant but a Christian king,

  Unto whose grace our passion is as subject

  As are our wretches fettered in our prisons:

  Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness

  245

  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

  250

  Says that you savour too much of your youth

  And bids you be advised. There’s naught in France

  That can be with a nimble galliard won;

  You cannot revel into dukedoms there.

  He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit,

  255

  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 What treasure, uncle?

  EXETER Tennis-balls, my liege.

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

  260

  His present and your pains we thank you for.

  When we have matched 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

 

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