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, 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 pavilion'd 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 spiritualty Will raise your highness such a mighty sum As never did the clergy at one time Bring in to any of your ancestors. KING HENRY V We must not only arm to 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 HENRY V 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;For you shall read that my great-grandfather Never went with his forces into France But that the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdom Came pouring, like the tide into a breach, With ample and brim fulness of his force, 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 the ill neighbourhood. CANTERBURY She hath been then more fear'd than harm'd, 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 wreck and sunless treasuries. WESTMORELAND 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 tear and havoc more than she can eat. EXETER It follows then the cat must stay at home:
Yet that is but a crush'd necessity, Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries, And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves.
While that the armed hand doth fight abroad, The advised 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 endeavour in continual motion;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;
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, loosed several ways, 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 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;
