throne (centre)*, Bedford,(C) Gloster,(D) Exeter,(E) Warwick, Westmoreland, and others in attendance.
K. Hen. Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury?
Exe. (L.) Not here in presence.
K. Hen. Send for him, good uncle.
Exeter beckons to a Herald, who goes off, L.H.
West. (L.) Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege?
K. Hen. Not yet, my cousin: we would be resolv’d,
Before we hear him, of some things of weight,
That task1 our thoughts, concerning us and France.
Re-enter Herald with the Archbishop of Canterbury,(F)2 and Bishop of Ely,3 L.H. The Bishops cross to R.C.
Cant. (R.C.) Heaven and its angels guard your sacred throne,
And make you long become it!
K. Hen.
Sure, we thank you.
My learned lord, we pray you to proceed,
And justly and religiously unfold,
Why the law Salique,(G) that they have in France,
Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim:
And Heaven forbid, my dear and faithful lord,
That you should fashion, wrest,4 or bow your reading,5
Or nicely charge your understanding soul6
With opening titles miscreate,7 whose right
Suits not in native colours with the truth.
For Heaven doth know how many, now in health,
Shall drop their blood in approbation8
Of what your reverence shall incite us to.
Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,9
How you awake the sleeping sword of war:
We charge you, in the name of Heaven, take heed:
Under this conjuration, speak, my lord.
Cant. (R.C.) Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers,
That owe your lives, your faith, and services,
To this imperial throne.—There is no bar
To make against your highness’ claim to France
But this, which they produce from Pharamond—
No woman shall succeed in Salique land:
Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze10
To be the realm of France, and Pharamond
The founder of this law and female bar.
Yet their own authors faithfully affirm
That the land Salique lies in Germany,
Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe;
Where Charles the Great, having subdued the Saxons,
There left behind and settled certain French:
Nor did the French possess the Salique land
Until four hundred one and twenty years
After defunction of King Pharamond,
Idly supposed the founder of this law.
Besides, their writers say,
King Pepin, which deposed Childerick,
Did hold in right and title of the female:
So do the kings of France unto this day;
Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law
To bar your highness claiming from the female;
And rather choose to hide them in a net
Than amply to imbare their crooked titles11
Usurp’d from you and your progenitors.
K. Hen. May I with right and conscience make this claim?
Cant. (R.C.) The sin upon my head, dread sovereign!
For in the book of Numbers is it writ—
When the son dies, let the inheritance
Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord,
Stand for your own; unwind your bloody flag;
Look back unto your mighty ancestors:
Go, my dread lord, to your great grandsire’s tomb,
From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit,
And your great uncle’s, Edward the black prince,
Who on the French ground play’d a tragedy,
Making defeat on the full power of France,
Whiles his most mighty father on a hill
Stood smiling to behold his lion’s whelp
Forage in blood of French nobility.12
Ely. (R.C.) Awake remembrance of these valiant dead,
And with your puissant arm renew their feats:
You are their heir; you sit upon their throne;
The blood and courage, that renowned them,
Runs in your veins; and my thrice-puissant liege
Is in the very May-morn of his youth,
Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises.
Exe. (L.) Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth
Do
