Part 6 (1/2)

_Exe._ b.l.o.o.d.y 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.

(That, if requiring fail, he will compel): This is his claim, his threat'ning, and my message; Unless the Dauphin be in presence here, To whom expressly I bring greeting too.

_Fr. King._ For us, we will consider of this further: To-morrow shall you bear our full intent Back to our brother England.

[_MONTJOY rises, and retires to R._

_Dau._ (_R. of throne._) For the Dauphin, I stand here for him: What to him from England?

_Exe._ Scorn and defiance; slight regard, contempt, And any thing that may not misbecome The mighty sender, doth he prize you at.

Thus says my king: an if your father's highness Do not, in grant of all demands at large, Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his majesty, He'll call you to so hot an answer for it, That caves and womby vaultages of France Shall chide your trespa.s.s,[25] and return your mock In second accent of his ordnance.

_Dau._ Say, if my father render fair reply, It is against my will; for I desire Nothing but odds with England: to that end, As matching to his youth and vanity, I did present him with those Paris b.a.l.l.s.

_Exe._ He'll make your Paris Louvre shake for it: And, be a.s.sur'd, you'll find a difference Between the promise of his greener days And these he masters now: now he weighs time, Even to the utmost grain: which you shall read[26]

In your own losses, if he stay in France.

_Fr. King._ To-morrow shall you know our mind at full.

_Exe._ Despatch us with all speed, lest that our king Come here himself to question our delay; For he is footed in this land already.

_Fr. King._ You shall be soon despatch'd with fair conditions:

[_MONTJOY crosses to the English party._

A night is but small breath and little pause To answer matters of this consequence.

[_English party exit, with MONTJOY and others, L.H.

French Lords group round the KING._

_Trumpets sound._

[Footnote II.15: ----FRENCH KING,] The costume of Charles VI. is copied from Willemin, Monuments Francais. The dresses of the other Lords are selected from Montfaucon Monarchie Francoise.]

[Footnote II.16: _----more than carefully it us concerns,_] _More than carefully_ is _with more than common care_; a phrase of the same kind with _better than well_. --JOHNSON.]

[Footnote II.17: _How modest in exception,_] How diffident and decent in making objections.]

[Footnote II.18: _----strain_] _lineage_.]

[Footnote II.19: _That +haunted+ us_] To _haunt_ is a word of the utmost horror, which shows that they dreaded the English as goblins and spirits.]

[Footnote II.20: _----crown'd with the golden sun,--_]

Shakespeare's meaning (divested of its poetical fancy) probably is, that the king stood upon an eminence, with the sun s.h.i.+ning over his head. --STEEVENS.]