Con. O peace, Prince Dauphin!
You are too much mistaken in this king:30
Question your grace the late ambassadors,
With what great state he heard their embassy,
How well supplied with noble counsellors,
How modest in exception, and withal
How terrible in constant resolution,35
And you shall find his vanities forespent
Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus,
Covering discretion with a coat of folly;
As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots
That shall first spring and be most delicate.40
Dau. Well, 'tis not so, my lord high constable;
But though we think it so, it is no matter:[4796]
In cases of defence 'tis best to weigh[4797]
The enemy more mighty than he seems:
So the proportions of defence are fill'd;45
Which of a weak and niggardly projection[4798]
Doth, like a miser, spoil his coat with scanting
A little cloth.
Fr. King. Think we King Harry strong;
And, princes, look you strongly arm to meet him.
The kindred of him hath been flesh'd upon us;50
And he is bred out of that bloody strain
That haunted us in our familiar paths:[4799]
Witness our too much memorable shame
When Cressy battle fatally was struck,
And all our princes captived by the hand55
Of that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales;
Whiles that his mountain sire, on mountain standing,[4800]
Up in the air, crown'd with the golden sun,[4801]
Saw his heroical seed, and smiled to see him,[4802]
Mangle the work of nature and deface60
The patterns that by God and by French fathers
Had twenty years been made. This is a stem
Of that victorious stock; and let us fear
The native mightiness and fate of him.[4803]
Enter a Messenger.
Mess. Ambassadors from Harry King of England[4804]65
Do crave admittance to your majesty.
Fr. King. We'll give them present audience. Go, and bring them.
[Exeunt Messenger and certain Lords.[4805]
You see this chase is hotly follow'd, friends.
Dau. Turn head, and stop pursuit; for coward dogs
Most spend their mouths when what they seem to threaten70
Runs far before them. Good my sovereign,[4806]
Take up the English short, and let them know[4807]
Of what a monarchy you are the head:
Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin
As self-neglecting.