Henry V: Act 1, Scene 2

 

Henry V.         Act 1, Scene 2.      King Henry

This speech is used in our interview with Nathan Winkelstein.

  1. We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us.
  2. His present and your pains we thank you for.
  3. When we have matched our rackets to these balls,
  4. We will in France, by God’s grace, play a set
  5. Shall strike his father’s crown into the hazard.
  6. Tell him he hath made a match with such a wrangler
  7. That all the courts of France will be disturbed
  8. With chases. And we understand him well,
  9. How he comes o’er us with our wilder days,
  10. Not measuring what use we made of them.
  11. We never valued this poor seat of England,
  12. And therefore, living hence, did give ourself
  13. To barbarous license, as ’tis ever common
  14. That men are merriest when they are from home.
  15. But tell the Dauphin I will keep my state,
  16. Be like a king, and show my sail of greatness
  17. When I do rouse me in my throne of France,
  18. For that I have laid by my majesty
  19. And plodded like a man for working days;
  20. But I will rise there with so full a glory
  21. That I will dazzle all the eyes of France,
  22. Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us.
  23. And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his
  24. Hath turned his balls to gun-stones, and his soul
  25. Shall stand sore chargèd for the wasteful vengeance
  26. That shall fly with them; for many a thousand widows
  27. Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands,
  28. Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down;
  29. And some are yet ungotten and unborn
  30. That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin’s scorn.
  31. But this lies all within the will of God,
  32. To whom I do appeal, and in whose name
  33. Tell you the Dauphin I am coming on,
  34. To venge me as I may and to put forth
  35. My rightful hand in a well-hallowed cause.
  36. So get you hence in peace. And tell the Dauphin
  37. His jest will savor but of shallow wit
  38. When thousands weep more than did