Enter Ambassadors of France.[4623]
Now are we well prepared to know the pleasure[4624]
Of our fair cousin Dauphin; for we hear235
Your greeting is from him, not from the king.
First Amb. May't please your majesty to give us leave[4625]
Freely to render what we have in charge;
Or shall we sparingly show you far off
The Dauphin's meaning and our embassy?240
K. Hen. We are no tyrant, but a Christian king;
Unto whose grace our passion is as subject
As are our wretches fetter'd in our prisons:[4626]
Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness
Tell us the Dauphin's mind.
First Amb. Thus, then, in few.[4627]245
Your highness, lately sending into France,
Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right
Of your great predecessor, King Edward the third.[4628]
In answer of which claim, the prince our master
Says that you savour too much of your youth,250
And bids you be advised there's nought in France[4629]
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; and, in lieu of this,255
Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim
Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.[4630]
K. Hen. What treasure, uncle?
Exe. Tennis-balls, my liege.
K. Hen. We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us;
His present and your pains we thank you for:260
When we have match'd our rackets to these balls,
We will, in France, by God's grace, play a set
Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard.
Tell him he hath made a match with such a wrangler[4631]
That all the courts of France will be disturb'd265
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.
We never valued this poor seat of England;
And therefore, living hence, did give ourself[4632]270
To barbarous license; as 'tis ever common
That men are merriest when they are from home.
But tell the Dauphin I will keep my state,
Be like a king and show my sail of greatness[4633]
When I do rouse me in my throne of France:275
For that I have laid by my majesty[4634]
And plodded like a man for working-days,
But I will rise there with so full a glory
That I will dazzle all the eyes of France,
Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us.280
And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his
Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones; and his soul
Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance
That shall fly with them: for many a thousand widows[4635]
Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands;285
Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down;
And some are yet ungotten and unborn[4636]
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 name290
Tell you the Dauphin I am coming on.
To venge me as I may and to put forth
My rightful hand in a well-hallow'd cause.
So get you hence in peace; and tell the Dauphin
His jest will savour but of shallow wit,295
When thousands weep more than did laugh at it.[4637]
Convey them with safe conduct. Fare you well.[4638]
[Exeunt Ambassadors.
Exe. This was a merry message.