Page 1619 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

Come to one mark:
As many ways meet in one town;
As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea; [210]
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; [215]

Whereof take you one quarter into France,
And you withal shall make all Gallia shake.
If we, with thrice such powers left at home,
Cannot defend our own doors from the dog,

Let us be worried, and our nation lose [220]
The name of hardiness and policy.

KING HENRY
Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin.
Now are we well resolv’d; and by God’s help,

And yours, the noble sinews of our power,
France being ours, we’ll bend it to our awe [225]
Or break it all to pieces: or there we’ll sit,
Ruling in large and ample empery
O’er France and all her almost kingly dukedoms,

Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn,
Tombless, with no remembrance over them: [230]
Either our history shall with full mouth

Speak freely of our acts, or else our grave,
Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth,
Not worshipp’d with a waxen epitaph.
Enter Ambassadors of France.
Now are we well prepar’d to know the pleasure [235]

Of our fair cousin Dauphin; for we hear
Your greeting is from him, not from the King.

AMBASSADOR
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 [240]