Part 3

_K. Hen._ (_rising; all the LORDS rise with the KING._) The mercy that was quick[8] in us but late, By your own counsel is suppress'd and kill'd: You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy. See you, my princes and my noble peers, These English monsters! My lord of Cambridge here,-- You know how apt our love was to accord To furnish him with all appertinents Belonging to his honour; and this man Hath, for a few light crowns, lightly conspir'd, And sworn unto the practises of France, To kill us here in Hampton: to the which This knight, no less for bounty bound to us Than Cambridge is,--hath likewise sworn.--But, O, What shall I say to thee, lord Scroop? thou cruel, Ingrateful, savage, and inhuman creature! Thou that did'st bear the key of all my counsels, That knew'st the very bottom of my soul, That almost might'st have coin'd me into gold, May it be possible, that foreign hire Could out of thee extract one spark of evil That might annoy my finger? 'Tis so strange, That, though the truth of it stands off as gross[9] As black from white,[10] my eye will scarcely see it; For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like Another fall of man.--Their faults are open: Arrest them to the answer of the law;--

[_EXETER goes to door U.E.L.H, and calls on the Guard._

And Heaven acquit them of their practises!

_Exe._ (_comes down, R.C._) I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Richard earl of Cambridge.

I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Henry lord Scroop of Masham.

I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Thomas Grey, knight, of Northumberland.

_Scroop._ (_R., kneeling._) Our purposes Heaven justly hath discover'd; And I repent my fault more than my death.

_Cam._ (_R., kneeling._) For me,--the gold of France did not seduce;(B) Although I did admit it as a motive The sooner to effect what I intended: But Heaven be thanked for prevention; Which I in sufferance heartily will rejoice,[11] Beseeching Heaven and you to pardon me.

_Grey._ (_R. kneeling._) Never did faithful subject more rejoice At the discovery of most dangerous treason Than I do at this hour joy o'er myself, Prevented from a damned enterprize: My fault, but not my body, pardon, sovereign.

_K. Hen._ (C.) Heaven quit you in its mercy! Hear your sentence. You have conspir'd against our royal person, Join'd with an enemy proclaim'd, and from his coffers Receiv'd the golden earnest of our death; Wherein you would have sold your king to slaughter, His princes and his peers to servitude, His subjects to oppression and contempt, And his whole kingdom into desolation. Touching our person, seek we no revenge;(C) But we our kingdom's safety must so tender,[12] Whose ruin you three sought, that to her laws We do deliver you. Get you, therefore, hence, Poor miserable wretches, to your death: The taste whereof, Heaven of its mercy give you Patience to endure, and true repentance Of all your dear offences![13]--Bear them hence.

[_Conspirators rise and exeunt guarded, with EXETER._

Now, Lords, for France; the enterprize whereof Shall be to you, as us, like glorious. We doubt not of a fair and lucky war, Since Heaven so graciously hath brought to light This dangerous treason, lurking in our way. Then, forth, dear countrymen: let us deliver Our puissance[14] into the hand of Heaven, Putting it straight in expedition. Cheerly to sea; the signs of war advance:(D) No king of England, if not king of France.

[_Exeunt, U.E.L.H._

[Footnote II.1: _----in a fair consent with ours,_] i.e., in friendly concord; in unison with ours.]

[Footnote II.2: _----hearts +create+_] Hearts _compounded_ or _made up_ of duty and zeal.]

[Footnote II.3: _----more advice,_] On his return to more _coolness of mind_.]

[Footnote II.4: _Are heavy orisons 'gainst, &c._] i.e., are weighty supplications against this poor wretch.]

[Footnote II.5: _----proceeding on +distemper+,_] _Distemper'd in liquor_ was a common expression. We read in Holinshed, vol. iii., page 626:-- "gave him wine and strong drink in such excessive sort, that he was therewith _distempered_, and reeled as he went."]

[Footnote II.6: _----how shall we stretch our eye_] If we may not _wink_ at small faults, _how wide must we open our eyes_ at great.]

[Footnote II.7: _Who are the late commissioners?_] That is, who are the persons lately appointed commissioners.]

[Footnote II.8: _----quick_] That is, _living_.]

[Footnote II.9: _----as gross_] As palpable.]

[Footnote II.10: _----though the truth of it stands off as gross As black from white,_] Though the truth be as apparent and visible as black and white contiguous to each other. To _stand off_ is _etre releve_, to be prominent to the eye, as the strong parts of a picture. --JOHNSON.]

[Footnote II.11: _Which I in sufferance heartily will rejoice,_] Cambridge means to say, _at_ which prevention, or, which intended scheme that it was prevented, I shall rejoice. Shakespeare has many such elliptical expressions. The intended scheme that he alludes to was the taking off Henry, to make room for his brother-in-law. --MALONE.]

[Footnote II.12: _----our kingdom's safety must so tender,_] i.e., must so regard.]

[Footnote II.13: _----dear offences!----_] _To dere_, in ancient language, was _to hurt_; the meaning, therefore, is hurtful-- pernicious offences.]

[Footnote II.14: _Our puissance_] i.e., our power, our force.]

## SCENE II.--FRANCE. A ROOM IN THE FRENCH KING'S PALACE.

_Trumpets sound._

_Enter the FRENCH KING,[15] attended; the DAUPHIN, the DUKE OF BURGUNDY, the CONSTABLE, and Others,(E) L.H._

_Fr. King._ (C.) Thus come the English with full power upon us; And more than carefully it us concerns[16] To answer royally in our defences. Therefore the Dukes of Berry and of Bretagne, Of Brabant and of Orleans, shall make forth,-- And you, Prince Dauphin,--with all swift despatch, To line and new repair our towns of war With men of courage and with means defendant.

_Dau._ (R.C.) My most redoubted father, It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe: And let us do it with no show of fear; No, with no more than if we heard that England Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance: For, my good liege, she is so idly king'd, Her sceptre so fantastically borne By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth, That fear attends her not.

_Con._ (L.C.) O peace, prince Dauphin You are too much mistaken in this king: With what great state he heard our embassy, How well supplied with noble counsellors, How modest in exception,[17] and withal How terrible in constant resolution, And you shall find his vanities fore-spent Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus, Covering discretion with a coat of folly.

_Dau._ 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.

_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 strain[18] That haunted us[19] 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,--[20] 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,[22] 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,[23] 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.

[_FRENCH KING takes his seat on Throne, R._

_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,[24]

[_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.

_Fr. King._ For us, we will consider of this further: 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 misbecome 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.

[_English party exit, with MONTJOY and others, L.H. French Lords group round the KING._

_Trumpets sound._

[Footnote II.15: ----FRENCH KING,] The costume of Charles VI. is copied from Willemin, Monuments Francais. The dresses of the other Lords are selected from Montfaucon Monarchie Francoise.]

[Footnote II.16: _----more than carefully it us concerns,_] _More than carefully_ is _with more than common care_; a phrase of the same kind with _better than well_. --JOHNSON.]

[Footnote II.17: _How modest in exception,_] How diffident and decent in making objections.]

[Footnote II.18: _----strain_] _lineage_.]

[Footnote II.19: _That +haunted+ us_] To _haunt_ is a word of the utmost horror, which shows that they dreaded the English as goblins and spirits.]

[Footnote II.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.]

[Footnote II.21: _----+fate+ of him._] His _fate_ is what is allotted him by destiny, or what he is fated to perform.]

[Footnote II.22: _Montjoy,_] Mont-joie is the title of the principal king-at-arms in France, as Garter is in our country.]

[Footnote II.23: _----spend their mouths,_] That is, bark; the sportsman's term.]

[Footnote II.24: _----memorable +line+,_] This genealogy; this deduction of his _lineage_.]

[Footnote II.25: _Shall +chide+ your trespass,_] To _chide_ is to _resound_, to _echo_.]

[Footnote II.26: _----you shall read_] i.e., shall _find_.]

END OF ACT SECOND.

HISTORICAL NOTES TO CHORUS--ACT SECOND.

(A) _These 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 (O, 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 extenuate 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_.

[Footnote *: 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.]

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 haste recommendation." --_Steevens_.

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 Conde slept in the same bed with the Duke of Guise; an anecdote frequently cited, to show the magnanimity of the latter, who slept soundly, though so near his greatest enemy, then his prisoner. --_Nares._

(B) _For me,--the gold of France did not seduce;_] Holinshed observes, "that Richard, Earl of Cambridge, did not conspire with the Lord Scroop and Thomas Grey, for the murdering of King Henry to please the French king, but only to the intent to exalt to the crown his brother-in-law Edmund, Earl of March, as heir to Lionel, Duke of Clarence; after the death of which Earl of March, for divers secret impediments not able to have issue, the Earl of Cambridge was sure that the crown should come to him by his wife, and to his children of her begotten; and therefore (as was thought), he rather confessed himself for need of money to be corrupted by the French king, than he would declare his inward mind, &c., which if it were espied, he saw plainly that the Earl of March should have tasted of the same cup that he had drunk, and what should have come to his own children he merely doubted, &c."

A million of gold is stated to have been given by France to the conspirators.

Historians have, however, generally expressed their utter inability to explain upon what grounds the conspirators built their expectation of success; and unless they had been promised powerful assistance from France, the design seems to have been one of the most absurd and hopeless upon record. The confession of the Earl of Cambridge, and his supplication for mercy in his own hand writing, is in the British Museum.

(C) _Touching our person, seek we no revenge;_] This speech is taken from Holinshed:--

"Revenge herein touching my person, though I seek not; yet for the safeguard of my dear friends, and for due preservation of all sorts, I am by office to cause example to be showed: Get ye hence, therefore, you poor miserable wretches, to the receiving of your just reward, wherein God's majesty give you grace of his mercy, and repentance of your heinous offences."

(D) _Cheerly to sea; the signs of war advance:_] "The king went from his castle of Porchester in a small vessel to the sea, and embarking on board his ship, called The Trinity, between the ports of Southampton and Portsmouth, he immediately ordered that the sail should be set, to signify his readiness to depart." "There were about fifteen hundred vessels, including about a hundred which were left behind. After having passed the Isle of Wight, swans were seen swimming in the midst of the fleet, which, in the opinion of all, were said to be happy auspices of the undertaking. On the next day, the king entered the mouth of the Seine, and cast anchor before a place called Kidecaus, about three miles from Harfleur, where he proposed landing." --_Nicolas's History of Agincourt_.

The departure of Henry's army on this occasion, and the separation between those who composed it and their relatives and friends, is thus described by Drayton, who was born in 1563, and died in 1631:--

There might a man have seen in every street, The father bidding farewell to his son; Small children kneeling at their father's feet: The wife with her dear husband ne'er had done: Brother, his brother, with adieu to greet: One friend to take leave of another, run; The maiden with her best belov'd to part, Gave him her hand who took away her heart.

The nobler youth the common rank above, On their curveting coursers mounted fair: One wore his mistress' garter, one her glove; And he a lock of his dear lady's hair: And he her colours, whom he did most love; There was not one but did some favour wear: And each one took it, on his happy speed, To make it famous by some knightly deed.

(E) Enter the FRENCH KING, _the DAUPHIN, the_ DUKE OF BURGUNDY, _the CONSTABLE, and others._] Charles VI., surnamed the Well Beloved, was King of France during the most disastrous period of its history. He ascended the throne in 1380, when only thirteen years of age. In 1385 he married Isabella of Bavaria, who was equally remarkable for her beauty and her depravity. The unfortunate king was subject to fits of insanity, which lasted for several months at a time. On the 21st October, 1422, seven years after the battle of Agincourt, Charles VI. ended his unhappy life at the age of 55, having reigned 42 years. Lewis the Dauphin was the eldest son of Charles VI. He was born 22nd January, 1396, and died before his father, December 18th, 1415, in his twentieth year. History says, "Shortly after the battle of Agincourt, either for melancholy that he had for the loss, or by some sudden disease, Lewis, Dovphin of Viennois, heir apparent to the French king, departed this life without issue."

John, Duke of Burgundy, surnamed the Fearless, succeeded to the dukedom in 1403. He caused the Duke of Orleans to be assassinated in the streets of Paris, and was himself murdered August 28, 1419, on the bridge of Montereau, at an interview with the Dauphin, afterwards Charles VII. John was succeeded by his only son, who bore the title of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy.

The Constable, Charles D'Albret, commanded the French army at the Battle of Agincourt, and was slain on the field.

_Enter CHORUS._