._

_Chor._ Thus with imagin'd wing our swift scene flies,
In motion of no less celerity
Than that of thought. Suppose that you have seen
The well-appointed king[1] at Hampton pier
Embark his royalty;[2] and his brave fleet
With silken streamers the young Phoebus fanning:
Play with your fancies; and in them behold
Upon the hempen tackle ship-boys climbing;
Hear the shrill whistle, which doth order give
To sounds confus'd; behold the threaden sails,
Borne with the invisible and creeping wind,
Draw the huge bottoms through the furrow'd sea,
Breasting the lofty surge: O, do but think
You stand upon the rivage,[3] and behold
A city on the inconstant billows dancing;
For so appears this fleet majestical,
Holding due course to Harfleur. Follow, follow!
Grapple your minds to sternage of this navy;[4]
And leave your England, as dead midnight still,
Guarded with grandsires, babies, and old women,
Either past, or not arriv'd to, pith and puissance;
For who is he, whose chin is but enrich'd
With one appearing hair, that will not follow
These cull'd and choice-drawn cavaliers to France?
Work, work your thoughts, and therein see a siege;
Behold the ordnance on their carriages,
With fatal mouths gaping on girded Harfleur.
Suppose the ambassador from the French comes back;
Tells Harry--that the king doth offer him
Katharine his daughter; and with her, to dowry,
Some petty and unprofitable dukedoms.
The offer likes not: and the nimble gunner
With linstock[5] now the devilish cannon touches,

[_Alarums, and cannon shot off._

And down goes all before them. Still be kind,
And eke out our performance with your mind.

[_Exit._

[Footnote IIIc.1: _The well-appointed king_] i.e., well furnished
with all the necessaries of war.]

[Footnote IIIc.2: _Embark his royalty;_] The place where Henry's
army was encamped, at Southampton, is now entirely covered with
the sea, and called Westport.]

[Footnote IIIc.3: _----rivage,_] The _bank_ or shore.]

[Footnote IIIc.4: _----to +sternage+ of this navy;_] The stern
being the hinder part of the ship, the meaning is, let your minds
follow close after the navy. _Stern_, however, appears to have
been anciently synonymous to _rudder_.]

Scene Changes to
THE SIEGE OF HARFLEUR.

THE WALLS ARE MANNED BY THE FRENCH.

The English Are Repulsed from
an Att