Sure we thank you.

My learnèd 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 read
ing,°
Or nicely charge your understanding soul
With opening titles miscreate,° whose right°

1.2.4 cousin kinsman

4 be resolved have doubts removed

6 task burden

12 Or ... or either ... or

14 reading interpretation

15-16 nicely ... miscreate by subtle reasoning lay to the vcharge of your soul—that knows right and wrong—the fault of advancing illegitimate claims

16 right claim


Suits not in native colors 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 washed
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 subdued the
Saxons,
There left behind and settled certain French;
Who, holding in disdain the German women
For some dishonest manners° of their life,

17 Suits... truth i.e., plainly told would not be taken as true

19 approbation support

21 impawn pledge, hazard

27 wrongs wrongdoings

36 make i.e., be made

37 Pharamond legen king of Salian Franks

40 gloze interpret

49 dishonest manners unchaste conduct


Established 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, called Meisen.
Then doth it well appear the Salique Law
Was not devisèd 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 supposed the founder of this law,
Who died within the year of our redemption
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 deposèd 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 usurped 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,
Conveyed° himself as heir to th’ Lady Lingard,
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 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.

58 defunction discharge, death

65 Pepin King of Franks

66 general through male or female line of descent

72 find provide

74 Conveyed passed off

75 Charlemain (Holinshed’s error for Charles the Bold)

77 Tenth (Holinshed’s error for Ninth)

82 lineal lineally descended


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 title 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 titles°
Usurped from you and your progenitors.

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,
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 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.
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.

88 his satisfaction (see line 80)

93-94 to hide ... titles to take refuge in a tangle of sophistical arguments than make the most of (bar in, secure) their own false claims (by admitting female succession)

103 great-grandsire’s i.e., Edward III’s (whose mother, Isabella, was daughter of Philip IV of France)

106 a tragedy i.e., battle of Crécy

107 power army

112 half their forces (one third was held in reserve with the King)

114 for for lack of


You are their heir; you sit upon their throne;
The blood and courage that renownèd 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 pavilioned 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 spirituality
Will raise your Highness such a mighty sum
As never did the clergy at one time
Bring in to any of your ancestors.

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,

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 neighbor to us;
For you shall read that my great-grandfather

119 thrice-puissant i.e., for the three reasons just stated

125 bath (accented)

137 lay down our proportions estimate the size of our forces

138 road raid

139 With all advantages at every favorable opportunity, with everything in their favor

140 marches border country

142 inlandheart of the country

143 coursing marauding

144 main intendment general purpose

145 still always


Never went with his forces into France
But that the Scot on his udfurnished° kingdom
Came pouring like the tide into a breach,
With ample and brim fullness of his force,
Galling the gteanèd° land with hot assays,
Girding with grievous siege castles and towns;
That England, being empty of defense,
Hath shook and trembled at th’ ill neighborhood.°

Canterbury. She hath been then more feared° than harmed, 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 wrack° and sumless treasuries.

Ely.