Page 1640 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

Therefore the Dukes of Berri and of Britaine,
Of Brabant, and of Orleans, shall make forth, [5]
And you, Prince Dauphin, with all swift dispatch,
To line and new repair our towns of war

With men of courage and with means defendant;
For England his approaches makes as fierce
As waters to the sucking of a gulf. [10]
It fits us then to be as provident

As fear may teach us out of late examples
Left by the fatal and neglected English
Upon our fields.

DAUPHIN
My most redoubted father,
It is most meet we arm us ’gainst the foe; [15]

For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom,
Though war nor no known quarrel were in question,
But that defences, musters, preparations,

Should be maintain’d, assembled, and collected,
As were a war in expectation. [20]
Therefore, I say ’tis meet we all go forth
To view the sick and feeble parts of France:
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: [25]
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.

CONSTABLE
O peace, Prince Dauphin!
You are too much mistaken in this King. [30]

Question your grace the late ambassadors,
With what great state be heard their embassy,
How well supplied with noble counsellors,
How modest in exception, and withal

How terrible in constant resolution, [35]