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How well supplied with noble counsellors,

How modest in exception, and withal

How terrible in constant resolution,

And you shall find his vanities forespent

Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus,

Covering discretion with a coat of folly;

As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots

That shall first spring and be most delicate.

DAUPHIN.

Well, 'tis not so, my Lord High Constable;

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

In cases of defence 'tis best to weigh

The enemy more mighty than he seems;

So the proportions of defence are fill'd;

Which of a weak and niggardly projection

Doth like a miser spoil his coat with scanting

A little cloth.

FRENCH KING.

Think we King Harry strong;

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

The kindred of him hath been flesh'd upon us;

And he is bred out of that bloody strain

That haunted us in our familiar paths.

Witness our too much memorable shame

When Cressy battle fatally was struck,

And all our princes capdv'd by the hand

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

Whiles that his mountain sire- on mountain standing,

Up in the air, crown'd with the golden sun-

Saw his heroical seed, and smil'd to see him,

Mangle the work of nature, and deface

The patterns that by God and by French fathers

Had twenty years been made. This is a stern

Of that victorious stock; and let us fear

The native mightiness and fate of him.

Enter a MESSENGER

MESSENGER.

Ambassadors from Harry King of England

Do crave admittance to your Majesty.

FRENCH KING.

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

Exeunt MESSENGER and certain LORDS

You see this chase is hotly followed, friends.

DAUPHIN.

Turn head and stop pursuit; for coward dogs

Most spend their mouths when what they seem to threaten

Runs far before them. Good my sovereign,

Take up the English short, and let them know

Of what a monarchy you are the head.

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

As self-neglecting.

Re-enter LORDS, with EXETER and train

FRENCH KING.

From our brother of England?

EXETER.

From him, and thus he greets your Majesty:

He wills you, in the name of God Almighty,

That you divest yourself, and lay apart

The borrowed glories that by gift of heaven,

By law of nature and of nations, 'longs

To him and to his heirs- namely, the crown,

And all wide-stretched honours that pertain,

By custom and the ordinance of times,

Unto the crown of France. That you may know

'Tis no sinister nor no awkward claim,

Pick'd from the worm-holes of long-vanish'd days,

Nor from the dust of old oblivion rak'd,

He sends you this most memorable line, [Gives a paper]

In every branch truly demonstrative;

Willing you overlook this pedigree.

And when you find him evenly deriv'd

From his most fam'd of famous ancestors,

Edward the Third, he bids you then resign

Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held

From him, the native and true challenger.

FRENCH KING.

Or else what follows?

EXETER.

Bloody constraint; for if you hide the crown

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

Therefore in fierce tempest is he coming,

In thunder and in earthquake, like a Jove,

That if requiring fail, he will compel;

And bids you, in the bowels of the Lord,

Deliver up the crown; and to take mercy

On the poor souls for whom this hungry war

Opens his vasty jaws; and on your head

Turning the widows' tears, the orphans' cries,

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

For husbands, fathers, and betrothed lovers,

That shall be swallowed in this controversy.

This is his claim, his threat'ning, and my message;

Unless the Dauphin be in presence here,

To whom expressly I bring greeting too.

FRENCH KING.

For us, we will consider of this further;

To-morrow shall you bear our full intent

Back to our brother of England.

DAUPHIN.

For the Dauphin:

I stand here for him. What to him from England?

EXETER.

Scorn and defiance, slight regard, contempt,

And anything that may not misbecome

The mighty sender, doth he prize you at.

Thus