Page 1643 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

From his most fam’d of famous ancestors,
Edward the Third, he bids you then resign
Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held
From him the native and true challenger. [95]

FRENCH KING
Or else what follows?

EXETER
Bloody constraint; for if you hide the crown
Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it:
Therefore in fierce tempest is he coming,
In thunder and in earthquake like a Jove, [100]

That, if requiring fail, he will compel;
And bids you, in the bowels of the Lord,
Deliver up the crown, and to take mercy
On the poor souls for whom this hungry war

Opens his vasty jaws; and on your head [105]
Turning the widow’s tears, the orphans’ cries,
The dead men’s blood, the privèd maidens’ groans,
For husbands, fathers, and betrothèd lovers,

That shall be swallow’d in this controversy.
This is his claim, his threat’ning, and my message − [110]
Unless the Dauphin be in presence here,
To whom expressly I bring greeting too.

FRENCH KING
For us we will consider of this further:

To-morrow shall you bear our full intent
Back to our brother of England.

DAUPHIN
For the Dauphin, [115]
I stand here for him: what to him from England?

EXETER

Scorn and defiance; slight regard, contempt,