(Which my most true and inward duteous spirit
Teacheth,) this prostrate and exterior bending!
Heaven witness with me, when I here came in,
And found no course of breath within your Majesty,
How cold it struck my heart! If I do feign,
Oh let me in my present wildness die,

And never live to show the incredulous world
The noble change that I have purposed!
Coming to look on you, thinking you dead,
(And dead almost, my liege, to think you were,)
I spake unto the crown as having sense,

And thus upbraided it: "The care on thee depending
Hath fed upon the body of my father;
Therefore, thou best of gold, art worst of gold:
Other, less fine in carat,' is more precious

Preserving life in med'cine potable;3

But thou, most fine, most honour'd, most renown'd, Hast eat thy bearer up!" Thus, my most royal liege,

Accusing it, I put it on my head,

To try with it—as with an enemy

That had before my face murdered my father

The quarrel of a true inheritor.

But if it did infect my blood with joy,

Or swell my thoughts to any strain of pride;

If any rebel or vain spirit of mine

Did, with the least affection of a welcome,

This is in spirit much what he had previously said to the crown.

2 The test for gold and jewels.

3 Drinkable. Gold dust was used in medicine.

Give entertainment to the might of it,
Let God for ever keep it from my head,
And make me as the poorest vassal is,
That doth with awe and terror kneel to it!

O my son,

KING.

Heaven put it in thy mind to take it hence,
That thou mightst win the more thy father's love,
Pleading so wisely in excuse of it.

Come hither, Harry, sit thou by my bed,

And hear, I think, the very latest counsel

That ever I shall breathe. Heaven knows, my son,
By what by-paths and indirect crook'd ways
I met this crown, and I myself know well
How troublesome it sat upon my head.
To thee it shall descend with better quiet,
Better opinion, better confirmation :
For all the soil of the achievement goes
With me into the earth. It seem'd in me

But as an honour snatch'd with boist'rous hand;
And I had many living to upbraid

My gain of it by their assistances;

Which daily grew to quarrel, and to bloodshed, Wounding supposed peace. All these bold fears Thou seest with peril I have answered:

For all my reign hath been but as a scene
Acting that argument; and now my death.
Changes the mode: for what in me was purchased
Falls upon thee in a more fairer sort;

So thou the garland1 wear'st successively.2

Yet, though thou stand'st more sure than I could do,
Thou art not firm enough, since griefs are green;
And all my friends, which thou must make thy friends,
Have but their stings and teeth newly ta'en out,
By whose fell working I was first advanc'd,3
And by whose power I well might lodge a fear
To be again displac'd, which to avoid

I cut them off; and had a purpose now
To lead out many to the Holy Land,

Lest rest, and lying still, might make them look
Too near unto my state. Therefore, my Harry,
Be it thy course to busy giddy minds

4

With foreign quarrels, that action, hence borne out,
May waste the memory of the former days.

More would I, but my lungs are wasted so
That strength of speech is utterly denied me.
How I came by the crown, O God, forgive!
And grant it may with thee in true peace live!

1 Crown.

2 By inheritance.

3 The Percies, who rebelled against Richard.

The king advises his son to employ his subjects in foreign wars, that "action," namely, full employment, may drive from their minds the recollection of his own lack of right to the inheritance. This counsel and the prince's answers are historical.

HENRY.

My gracious liege

You won it, wore it, kept it, gave it me;
Then plain and right must my possession be:
Which I, with more than with a common pain,
'Gainst all the world will rightfully maintain.

SHAKESPEARE, "King Henry IV," Part 2.

ARCHBISHOP CHICHELEY TO HENRY V.

1415.

Archbishop Chicheley is said to have counselled Henry V. to make war on France.

"WHAT beast in wilderness or cultured field

The lively beauty of the leopard1 shows?
What flower in meadow ground or garden grows,
That to the towering lily doth not yield?
Let both meet only on thy royal shield!

Go forth, great king, claim what thy birth bestows,
Conquer the Gallic lily which thy foes

Dare to usurp. Thou hast a sword to wield,

1 The lions on the English shield were sometimes called leopards.

2 The lily, or fleur-de-lys, was on the shield of France.

And Heaven will crown the right!"-The mitred sire Thus spake, and lo! a fleet, for Gaul addrest,

Ploughs her bold course across the wondering seas;
For, sooth to say, ambition, in the breast
Of youthful heroes, is no sullen fire,

But one that leaps to meet the fanning breeze.

WORDSWORTH.

THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH CAMPS AT AGINCOURT.

1415.

The French are in a foolish state of exultation, while the English, much exhausted by hunger and fatigue, are preparing resolutely.

Scene: The French camp; the Dauphin (eldest son of the King of France) receives the Constable of France, commander of all her armies.

DAUPHIN.

Now, my Lord Constable!

CONSTABLE.

Hark! how our steeds for present service neigh.

DAUPHIN,

Mount them, and make incision in their hides,
That their hot blood may spin in English eyes,
And dout1 them with superfluous courage. Ha!

1 Put out.