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In cases of defence 'tis best to weigh
The enemy more mighty than he seems:
So the proportions of defence are fill'd.

Fr. 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 strain18
That haunted us19 in our familiar paths:
Witness our too much memorable shame
When Cressy battle fatally was struck,
And all our princes captiv'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,-2u
Saw his heroical seed, and smil'd to see him

Mangle the work of nature, and deface

The patterns that by Heaven and by French fathers
Had twenty years been made. This is a stem
Of that victorious stock; and let us fear

The native mightiness and fate of him.21

Enter MONTJOY,2 L.H., and kneels c. to the KING. Mont. Ambassadors from Henry King of England

Do crave admittance to your majesty.

Fr. King. We'll give them present audience. (MONTJOY rises from his knee.) Go, and bring them.

[Exeunt MONTJOY, and certain LORDS, L.H.

You see this chase is hotly, follow'd, friends.

Dau. 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,

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19 That haunted us] To haunt is a word of the utmost horror, which shows that they dreaded the English as goblins and spirits. 20 crown'd with the golden sun,-] Shakespeare's meaning (divested of its poetical fancy) probably is, that the king stood upon an eminence, with the sun shining over his head.—STEEVENS. fate of him. His fate is what is allotted him by destiny, or what he is fated to perform.

21

22 Montjoy,] Mont-joie is the title of the principal king-at-arms in France, as Garter is in our country.

23

spend their mouths,] That is, bark; the sportsman's term.

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.

[FRENCH KING takes his seat on Throne, B.

Re-enter MONTJOY, LORDS, with EXETER and Train, L.H. Fr. King. From our brother England?

Exe. (L.c) From him; and thus he greets your majesty. He wills you, in the awful name of Heaven,

That you divest yourself, and lay apart

The borrow'd glories, that, by gift of heaven,
By law of nature and of nations, 'long

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 to MONTJOY, who delivers it kneeling to the KING.

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.
Fr. King. Or else what follows?

Exe. 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):

This is his claim, his threat'ning, and my message;
Unless the Dauphin be in presence here,

To whom expressly I bring greeting too.

24

Fr. King. For us, we will consider of this further:

lineage.

memorable line,] This genealogy; this deduction of his

To-morrow shall you bear our full intent
Back to our brother England.

[MONTJOY rises, and retires to R. Dau. (R. of throne.) For the Dauphin,

I stand here for him: What to him from England ?
Exe. Scorn and defiance; slight regard, contempt,.
And any thing that may not inisbecome

The mighty sender, doth he prize you at.

Thus says my king: an if your father's highness
Do not, in grant of all demands at large,
Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his majesty,
He'll call you to so hot an answer for it,
That caves and womby vaultages of France
Shall chide your trespass,25 and return your mock
In second accent of his ordnance.

Dau. Say, if my father render fair reply,

It is against my will; for I desire

Nothing but odds with England: to that end,

As matching to his youth and vanity,

I did present him with those Paris balls.

Exe. He'll make your Paris Louvre shake for it:

And, be assur'd, you'll find a difference

Between the promise of his greener days

And these he masters now: now he weighs time,

Even to the utmost grain: which you shall read 26

In your own losses, if he stay in France.

Fr. King. To-morrow shall you know our mind at full. Exe. Despatch us with all speed, lest that our king Come here himself to question our delay;

For he is footed in this land already.

Fr. King. You shall be soon despatch'd with fair conditions: [MONTJOY crosses to the English party.

A night is but small breath and little pause

To answer matters of this consequence.

L.H.

[English party exit, with MONTJOY and others, French Lords group round the KING. Trumpets sound.

25 Shall chide your trespass,] To chide is to resound, to echo.

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HISTORICAL NOTES TO CHORUS-ACT
SECOND.

(A) Three corrupted men,

One, Richard earl of Cambridge; and the second,
Henry lord Scroop of Masham; and the third,
Sir Thomas Grey knight of Northumberland,—
Have for the guilt of France (0, guilt, indeed!)
Confirm'd conspiracy with fearful France.

About the end of July, Henry's ambitious designs received a momentary check from the discovery of a treasonable conspiracy against his person and government, by Richard, Earl of Cambridge, brother of the Duke of York; Henry, Lord Scroop of Masham, the Lord Treasurer; and Sir Thomas Grey, of Heton, knight. The king's command for the investigation of the affair, was dated on the 21st of that month, and a writ was issued to the Sheriff of Southampton, to assemble a jury for their trial; and which on Friday, the 2nd of August, found that on the 20th of July, Richard, Earl of Cambridge, and Thomas Grey, of Heton, in the County of Northumberland, knight, had falsely and traitorously conspired to collect a body of armed men, to conduct Edmund, Earl of March,* to the frontiers of Wales, and to proclaim him the rightful heir to the crown, in case Richard II. was actually dead; but they had solicited Thomas Frumpyngton, who personated King Richard, Henry Percy, and many others from Scotland to invade the realm, that they had intended to destroy the King, the Duke of Clarence, the Duke of Bedford, the Duke of Gloucester, with other lords and great men; and that Henry, Lord Scroop, of Masham, consented to the said treasonable purposes, and concealed the knowledge of them from the king. On the same day the accused were reported by Sir John Popham, Constable of the Castle of Southampton, to whose custody they had been committed, to have confessed the justice of the charges brought against them, and that they threw themselves on the king's mercy; but Scroop endeavoured to ex

* At that moment the Earl of March was the lawful heir to the crown, he being the heir general of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, third son of Edward III., whilst Henry V. was but the heir of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, King Edward's fourth son.

tenuate his conduct, by asserting that his intentions were innocent, and that he appeared only to acquiesce in their designs to be enabled to defeat them. The Earl and Lord Scroop having claimed the privilege of being tried by the peers, were remanded to prison, but sentence of death in the usual manner was pronounced against Grey, and he was immediately executed; though, in consequence of Henry having dispensed with his being drawn and hung, he was allowed to walk from the Watergate to the Northgate of the town of Southampton, where he was beheaded. A commission was soon afterwards issued, addressed to the Duke of Clarence, for the trial of the Earl of Cambridge and Lord Scroop: this court unanimously declared the prisoners guilty, and sentence of death having been denounced against them, they paid the forfeit of their lives on Monday, the 5th of August. In consideration of the earl being of the blood royal, he was merely beheaded; but to mark the perfidy and ingratitude of Scroop, who had enjoyed the king's utmost confidence and friendship, and had even shared his bed, he commanded that he should be drawn to the place of execution, and that his head should be affixed on one of the gates of the city of York.-Nicolas's History of the Battle of Agincourt.

HISTORICAL NOTES TO ACT SECOND.

(A)

-the man that was his bedfellow,] So, Holinshed: "The said Lord Scroop was in such favour with the king, that he admitted him sometimes to be his bedfellow." The familiar appellation of bedfellow, which appears strange to us, was common among the ancient nobility. There is a letter from the sixth Earl of Northumberland (still preserved in the collection of the present duke), addressed "To his beloved cousin, Thomas Arundel," &c., which begins "Bedfellow, after my most hasté recommendation.' Steevens.

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This unseemly custom continued common till the middle of the last century, if not later. Cromwell obtained much of his intelligence, during the civil wars, from the mean men with whom he slept.-Malone.

After the battle of Dreux, 1562, the Prince of Condé slept in the same bed with the Duke of Guise; an anecdote frequently c 2

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