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 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,
Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries,
And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves.

148 unfurnished undefended

151 gleanèd i.e., stripped of defenders

154 neighborhood neighborliness

155 feared alarmed

156 exampled furnished with a precedent

160 stray animal found wandering out of bounds

161 King of Scots i.e., David II

164 ooze and bottom oozy bottom

165 wrack wreck

169 in prey engaged upon preying

173 tame broach (as a weasel breaks into eggs to suck their meat)

175 crushed strained, needless


While that the armed hand doth fight abroad,
Th’ advisèd° 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 endeavor in continual motion;°
To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,
Obedience; for so work the honeybees,
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-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°
To one consent, may work contrariously;
As many arrows loosèd several ways°

179 advisèd prudent 181 parts (1) members of the body politic (2) melodies of the various instruments in concerted music 181 consent (1) agreement (2) harmony 182 Congreeing agreeing 182 close (1) union (2) conclusion of a piece of music

184 state estate, kingdom

185 Setting ... motion giving a perpetual stimulus to effort

188 in nature instinctive

189 act operation

190 sorts various kinds

191 correct administer justice

194 Make boot upon plunder

200 mechanic engaged in manual labor

202 surly stern

203 executors executioners

204 infer adduce

205 reference relation

207 loosèd several ways shot from various places


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 center,
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,
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. 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,°
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 worshipped° with a waxen° epitaph.

Enter Ambassadors of France [and Attendants].

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.

212 borne carried out

220 policy statesmanship

222 resolved (1) convinced (2) determined

224 ours i.e., by right of inheritance

224 bend it to our awe subdue it to our authority

226 empery dominion

228 urn grave

229 temembrance memorial inscription

232 Turkish mute (certain slaves in the Turkish royal household had their tongues cut out to ensure secrecy)

233 worshipped honored

233 waxen easily effaced

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
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 is our wretches fett‘red in our prisons;
Therefore with frank and with uncurbèd 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 savor 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,
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—

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.°

239 sparingly with reserve, discreetly

242 grace gracious disposition

245 few few words

251 be advised take care

252 galliard lively dance

255 tun cask

259 pleasant jocular, merry

262 France (1) tennis court (2) the country

263 crown (1) coin (stake money) (2) throne and power

263 hazard (1) opening in the walls of an old-fashioned tennis court; the ball entering it became “dead” and a point was scored (2) peril, jeopardy


Tell him he hath made a match with such a wran
gler°
That all the courts° of France will be disturbed
With chases.° 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 valued this poor seat° of England,
And therefore, living hence,° did give ourself
To barbarous license; 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 turned his balls to gunstones,° and his soul
Shall stand sore chargèd for the wasteful vengeance
That shall fly with them; for many a thousand
widows
Shall this his mock mock out of their dear hus
bands,
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.°

264 wrangler (1) adversary (2) disputant 265 courts (1) tennis courts (2) courts of princes

266 chases (1) bouncings twice of tennis ball (scoring points) (2) pursuits

267 comes o‘er us with affects superiority over us by reason of

269 seat throne (lines

269-72 are ironical)

270 hence i.e., away from the court

273 state position of power

274 show my sail of greatness demean myself proudly

276-77 For that... working days i.e., to be able to achieve this I have divested myself of greatness and learned what it is to live as a laboring man

278-80 But I will ... look on us (cf. I Henry IV 1.2.217-39)

282 gunstones stones used for cannonballs

288 scorn taunt


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-hallowed cause.
So get you hence in peace. And tell the Dauphin
His jest will savor but of shallow wit,
When thousands weep more than did laugh at it.
Convey them with safe conduct.