(medieval music)
- Call in the messengers
sent from the Dauphin.
Now are we well resolved; 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.
Now are we well prepared
to hear the pleasure
Of our fair cousin Dauphin;
for we hear your message is
from him, and not from the king.
- 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?
- We are no tyrant, but a Christian king;
Therefore with frank and
with uncurbed plainness
Tell us the Dauphin's mind.
- Thus, then, in few.
Your highness, lately sending into France,
Did claim some certain dukedoms there,
in the right of your great predecessor,
King Edward the Third.
In answer of which claim,
the prince our master
Says that you savour
too much of your youth,
And bids you be advised
there's nought 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.
- What treasure?
- Tennis balls, my liege.
- In lieu of this,
He desires you let the
dukedoms that you claim
Hear no more of you.
This the Dauphin speaks.
- We are glad the Dauphin
is so pleasant with us;
His present and your
pains we thank you for:
When we have march'd our
rackets to these balls,
We will, in France, by
God's grace, play a set
Will strike his father's
crown into the hazard.
Tell him he hath made a
match with such a wrangler
That all the courts of
France will be disturb'd
With chaces.
And we understand him well,
How he comes o'er us with our wilder days,
Not measuring what use we made of them.
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:
But I will rise there with so full a glory
as will dazzle all the eyes of France,
Yea, strike the Dauphin
blind to look upon us.
And tell the pleasant
prince this mock of his
Hath turn'd his balls into gun-stones;
and his soul shall stand sore charged
for the wasteful vengeance
That shall fly with them:
for many a thousand widows
Shall this his mock mock
out of their dear husbands;
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.
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 put forth my rightful hand
in a well-hallow'd cause.
Get thee hence in peace;
and tell the Dauphin
His jest will savour but of shallow wit,
When thousands weep more
than did laugh at it.
Convey them with safe conduct.
Fare thee well.
- This was a merry message.
- We hope to make the sender blush at it.
Let all our proportions for these wars
Be soon collected and
all things thought upon
That may with reasonable swiftness add
More feathers to our
wings; for, God before,
We'll chide this Dauphin
at his father's door.
Therefore let every man
now task his thought,
That this fair action
may on foot be brought.
(men cheer)
- [Chorus] Now all the youth
of England are on fire,
And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies.
And from the tents the armourers,
accomplishing the knights
with busy hammers,
closing rivets up, give
dreadful note of preparation.
Now thrive the armourers,
and honour's thought
Reigns solely in the breast of every man:
For now sits Expectation in the air,
And hides a sword from
hilts unto the point
With crowns imperial, crowns and coronets,
Promised to Harry and his followers.
Fire answers fire,
And steed threatens steed,
in high and boastful neighs
Piercing the night's dull ear.
Then should the warlike
Harry, like himself,
Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,
Leash'd in like hounds,
should famine, sword and fire
Crouch for employment.
But when the blast of
war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, conjure up the blood,
Disguise fair nature
with hard-favour'd rage.
(medieval music)
