Act 1, Scene 2

The same. The presence chamber.

[Enter King Henry, Gloucester, Bedford, Exeter, Warwick, Westmoreland [and Attendants.]
King Henry V
137 Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury?
Duke of Exeter
138 Not here in presence.
King Henry V
139 Send for him, good uncle.
Earl of Westmoreland
140 Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege?
King Henry V
141 Not yet, my cousin. We would be resolv'd,
142 Before we hear him, of some things of weight
143 That task our thoughts, concerning us and France.
[Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely.]
Archbishop of Canterbury
144 God and his angels guard your sacred throne
145 And make you long become it!
King Henry V
146 Sure, we thank you.
147 My learned lord, we pray you to proceed
148 And justly and religiously unfold
149 Why the law Salique that they have in France
150 Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim;
151 And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,
152 That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading,
153 Or nicely charge your understanding soul
154 With opening titles miscreate, whose right
155 Suits not in native colours with the truth;
156 For God doth know how many now in health
157 Shall drop their blood in approbation
158 Of what your reverence shall incite us to.
159 Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,
160 How you awake our sleeping sword of war.
161 We charge you, in the name of God, take heed;
162 For never two such kingdoms did contend
163 Without much fall of blood, whose guiltless drops
164 Are every one a woe, a sore complaint
165 'Gainst him whose wrongs gives edge unto the swords
166 That makes such waste in brief mortality.
167 Under this conjuration speak, my lord;
168 For we will hear, note, and believe in heart
169 That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd
170 As pure as sin with baptism.
Archbishop of Canterbury
171 Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers,
172 That owe yourselves, your lives, and services
173 To this imperial throne. There is no bar
174 To make against your Highness' claim to France
175 But this, which they produce from Pharamond:
176 "In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant,"
177 "No woman shall succeed in Salique land;"
178 Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze
179 To be the realm of France, and Pharamond
180 The founder of this law and female bar.
181 Yet their own authors faithfully affirm
182 That the land Salique is in Germany,
183 Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe;
184 Where Charles the Great, having subdu'd the Saxons,
185 There left behind and settled certain French;
186 Who, holding in disdain the German women
187 For some dishonest manners of their life,
188 Establish'd then this law, to wit, no female
189 Should be inheritrix in Salique land;
190 Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala,
191 Is at this day in Germany call'd Meisen.
192 Then doth it well appear the Salique law
193 Was not devised for the realm of France;
194 Nor did the French possess the Salique land
195 Until four hundred one and twenty years
196 After defunction of King Pharamond,
197 Idly suppos'd the founder of this law,
198 Who died within the year of our redemption
199 Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the Great
200 Subdu'd the Saxons, and did seat the French
201 Beyond the river Sala, in the year
202 Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say,
203 King Pepin, which deposed Childeric,
Archbishop of Canterbury
204 Did, as heir general, being descended
205 Of Blithild, which was daughter to King Clothair,
206 Make claim and title to the crown of France.
207 Hugh Capet also, who usurp'd the crown
208 Of Charles the Duke of Lorraine, sole heir male
209 Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great,
210 To find his title with some shows of truth,
211 Though, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught,
212 Convey'd himself as the heir to the Lady Lingare,
213 Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son
214 To Lewis the Emperor, and Lewis the son
215 Of Charles the Great. Also, King Lewis the Tenth,
216 Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet,
217 Could not keep quiet in his conscience,
218 Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied
219 That fair Queen Isabel, his grandmother,
220 Was lineal of the Lady Ermengare,
221 Daughter to Charles, the foresaid Duke of Lorraine;
222 By the which marriage the line of Charles the Great
223 Was re-united to the crown of France.
224 So that, as clear as is the summer's sun,
225 King Pepin's title and Hugh Capet's claim,
226 King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear
227 To hold in right and title of the female.
228 So do the kings of France unto this day,
229 Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law
230 To bar your Highness claiming from the female,
231 And rather choose to hide them in a net
232 Than amply to imbar their crooked titles
233 Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.
King Henry V
234 May I with right and conscience make this claim?
Archbishop of Canterbury
235 The sin upon my head, dread sovereign!
236 For in the book of Numbers is it writ,
237 When the man dies, let the inheritance
238 Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord,
239 Stand for your own! Unwind your bloody flag!
240 Look back into your mighty ancestors!
241 Go, my dread lord, to your great-grandsire's tomb,
242 From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit,
243 And your great-uncle's, Edward the Black Prince,
244 Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy,
245 Making defeat on the full power of France,
246 Whiles his most mighty father on a hill
247 Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp
248 Forage in blood of French nobility.
249 O noble English, that could entertain
250 With half their forces the full pride of France
251 And let another half stand laughing by,
252 All out of work and cold for action!
Bishop of Ely
253 Awake remembrance of these valiant dead,
254 And with your puissant arm renew their feats.
255 You are their heir; you sit upon their throne;
256 The blood and courage that renowned them
257 Runs in your veins; and my thrice-puissant liege
258 Is in the very May-morn of his youth,
259 Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises.
Duke of Exeter
260 Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth
261 Do all expect that you should rouse yourself,
262 As did the former lions of your blood.
Earl of Westmoreland
263 They know your Grace hath cause and means and might;
264 So hath your Highness. Never King of England
265 Had nobles richer, and more loyal subjects,
266 Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England
267 And lie pavilion'd in the fields of France.
Archbishop of Canterbury
268 O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege,
269 With blood and sword and fire to win your right;
270 In aid whereof we of the spiritualty
271 Will raise your Highness such a mighty sum
272 As never did the clergy at one time
273 Bring in to any of your ancestors.
King Henry V
274 We must not only arm to invade the French,
275 But lay down our proportions to defend
276 Against the Scot, who will make road upon us
277 With all advantages.
Archbishop of Canterbury
278 They of those marches, gracious sovereign,
279 Shall be a wall sufficient to defend
280 Our inland from the pilfering borderers.
King Henry V
281 We do not mean the coursing snatchers only,
282 But fear the main intendment of the Scot,
283 Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us;
284 For you shall read that my great-grandfather
285 Never went with his forces into France
286 But that the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdom
287 Came pouring, like the tide into a breach,
288 With ample and brim fullness of his force,
289 Galling the gleaned land with hot assays,
290 Girdling with grievous siege castles and towns;
291 That England, being empty of defence,
292 Hath shook and trembled at the ill neighbourhood.
Archbishop of Canterbury
293 She hath been then more fear'd than harm'd, my liege;
294 For hear her but exampl'd by herself:
295 When all her chivalry hath been in France,
296 And she a mourning widow of her nobles,
297 She hath herself not only well defended
298 But taken and impounded as a stray
299 The King of Scots; whom she did send to France
300 To fill King Edward's fame with prisoner kings,
301 And make her chronicle as rich with praise
302 As is the ooze and bottom of the sea
303 With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries.
Earl of Westmoreland
304 But there's a saying very old and true,
305 "If that you will France win,
306 Then with Scotland first begin."
307 For once the eagle England being in prey,
308 To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot
309 Comes sneaking and so sucks her princely eggs,
310 Playing the mouse in absence of the cat,
311 To tear and havoc more than she can eat.
Duke of Exeter
312 It follows then the cat must stay at home;
313 Yet that is but a crush'd necessity,
314 Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries,
Duke of Exeter
315 And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves.
316 While that the armed hand doth fight abroad,
317 The advised head defends itself at home;
318 For government, though high and low and lower,
319 Put into parts, doth keep in one consent,
320 Congreeing in a full and natural close,
321 Like music.
Archbishop of Canterbury
322 Therefore doth heaven divide
323 The state of man in divers functions,
324 Setting endeavour in continual motion,
325 To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,
326 Obedience; for so work the honey-bees,
327 Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
328 The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
329 They have a king and officers of sorts,
330 Where some, like magistrates, correct at home,
331 Others like merchants, venture trade abroad,
332 Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,
333 Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds,
334 Which pillage they with merry march bring home
335 To the tent-royal of their emperor;
336 Who, busied in his majesty, surveys
337 The singing masons building roofs of gold,
338 The civil citizens kneading up the honey,
339 The poor mechanic porters crowding in
340 Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate,
341 The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum,
342 Delivering o'er to executors pale
343 The lazy yawning drone. I this infer,
344 That many things, having full reference
345 To one consent, may work contrariously.
346 As many arrows, loosed several ways,
347 Come to one mark; as many ways meet in one town;
348 As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea;
349 As many lines close in the dial's centre;
350 So many a thousand actions, once afoot,
351 End in one purpose, and be all well borne
352 Without defeat. Therefore to France, my liege!
353 Divide your happy England into four,
354 Whereof take you one quarter into France,
355 And you withal shall make all Gallia shake.
356 If we, with thrice such powers left at home,
357 Cannot defend our own doors from the dog,
358 Let us be worried and our nation lose
359 The name of hardiness and policy.
King Henry V
360 Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin.
[Exeunt some Attendants.]
King Henry V
361 Now are we well resolv'd; and, by God's help,
362 And yours, the noble sinews of our power,
363 France being ours, we'll bend it to our awe,
364 Or break it all to pieces. Or there we'll sit,
365 Ruling in large and ample empery
366 O'er France and all her almost kingly dukedoms,
367 Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn,
368 Tombless, with no remembrance over them.
369 Either our history shall with full mouth
370 Speak freely of our acts, or else our grave,
371 Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth,
372 Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph.
[Enter Ambassadors of France.]
King Henry V
373 Now are we well prepar'd to know the pleasure
374 Of our fair cousin Dauphin; for we hear
375 Your greeting is from him, not from the King.
French Ambassador
376 May't please your Majesty to give us leave
377 Freely to render what we have in charge,
378 Or shall we sparingly show you far off
379 The Dauphin's meaning and our embassy?
King Henry V
380 We are no tyrant, but a Christian king,
381 Unto whose grace our passion is as subject
382 As is our wretches fett'red in our prisons;
383 Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness
384 Tell us the Dauphin's mind.
French Ambassador
385 Thus, then, in few.
386 Your Highness, lately sending into France,
387 Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right
388 Of your great predecessor, King Edward the Third.
French Ambassador
389 In answer of which claim, the prince our master
390 Says that you savour too much of your youth,
391 And bids you be advis'd there's nought in France
392 That can be with a nimble galliard won.
393 You cannot revel into dukedoms there.
394 He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit,
395 This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this,
396 Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim
397 Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.
King Henry V
398 What treasure, uncle?
Duke of Exeter
399 Tennis-balls, my liege.
King Henry V
400 We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us.
401 His present and your pains we thank you for.
402 When we have match'd our rackets to these balls,
403 We will, in France, by God's grace, play a set
404 Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard.
405 Tell him he hath made a match with such a wrangler
406 That all the courts of France will be disturb'd
407 With chaces. And we understand him well,
408 How he comes o'er us with our wilder days,
409 Not measuring what use we made of them.
410 We never valu'd this poor seat of England;
411 And therefore, living hence, did give ourself
412 To barbarous licence; as 'tis ever common
413 That men are merriest when they are from home.
414 But tell the Dauphin I will keep my state,
415 Be like a king, and show my sail of greatness
416 When I do rouse me in my throne of France.
417 For that I have laid by my majesty
418 And plodded like a man for working days,
419 But I will rise there with so full a glory
420 That I will dazzle all the eyes of France,
421 Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us.
422 And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his
423 Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones, and his soul
424 Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance
425 That shall fly with them; for many a thousand widows
426 Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands,
427 Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down;
428 And some are yet ungotten and unborn
429 That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's scorn.
430 But this lies all within the will of God,
431 To whom I do appeal; and in whose name
432 Tell you the Dauphin I am coming on
433 To venge me as I may, and to put forth
434 My rightful hand in a well-hallow'd cause.
435 So get you hence in peace; and tell the Dauphin
436 His jest will savour but of shallow wit,
437 When thousands weep more than did laugh at it.—
438 Convey them with safe conduct.—Fare you well.
[Exeunt Ambassadors.]
Duke of Exeter
439 This was a merry message.
King Henry V
440 We hope to make the sender blush at it.
441 Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour
442 That may give furtherance to our expedition;
443 For we have now no thought in us but France,
444 Save those to God, that run before our business.
445 Therefore, let our proportions for these wars
446 Be soon collected, and all things thought upon
447 That may with reasonable swiftness add
448 More feathers to our wings; for, God before,
449 We'll chide this Dauphin at his father's door.
450 Therefore let every man now task his thought,
451 That this fair action may on foot be brought.
[Exeunt.]

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Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 148historical topical
“justly and religiously unfold Why the law Salique that they have in France”
Henry is asking the Archbishop to explain, honestly and with clear conscience, whether France's 'Salic law' legally bars his claim to the French throne. The war's entire legal justification hangs on this answer, which is why Henry insists the Archbishop speak truthfully rather than tell him what he wants to hear.
historical The Salic law and Henry's claim to France
TLN 152archaic vocab
“fashion, wrest, or bow your reading Or nicely charge your understanding soul”
'Fashion' here means to shape dishonestly; 'wrest' means to twist or force; 'nicely' means subtly or craftily (not 'pleasantly' as in modern English). Henry is warning the Archbishop not to distort the law to reach a convenient conclusion, and not to burden ('charge') his own conscience by doing so.
TLN 154archaic vocab
“opening titles miscreate, whose right Suits not in native colours with the truth”
'Titles miscreate' means claims to ownership (here: to the French crown) that are falsely made or illegitimately created. 'Native colours' means true colours, the honest appearance. Henry is saying: do not put forward claims whose legitimate basis does not hold up when honestly displayed.
TLN 157archaic vocab
“drop their blood in approbation Of what your reverence shall incite us to”
'Approbation' means approval or ratification — here, by the ultimate test of war. Henry is saying that men will die as the proof of whatever the Archbishop authorizes. The word is deliberately legal in register, treating soldiers' deaths as a form of evidence.
TLN 159archaic vocab
“take heed how you impawn our person, How you awake our sleeping sword of war”
'Impawn' means to pawn or pledge — to put something at risk as security. Henry is warning the Archbishop: do not pledge the King's body and life carelessly, as a moneylender pledges an object. 'Our sleeping sword of war' is a metaphor for a dormant military campaign being woken from its sheath.
TLN 176cultural context
“In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant”
Latin for 'Let not women succeed into Salic land.' The Archbishop is quoting the Salic law — the legal rule France invokes to bar Henry from inheriting the French throne through his female-line descent. The next line translates it: 'No woman shall succeed in Salique land.'
historical The Salic law and Henry's claim to France
TLN 178archaic vocab
“the French unjustly gloze To be the realm of France”
'Gloze' means to gloss over, to interpret loosely, or to put a deceptively favorable spin on something. The Archbishop is saying the French dishonestly re-read 'Salic land' (which he will argue is a region in Germany) as meaning the whole kingdom of France.
TLN 192historical topical
“doth it well appear the Salique law Was not devised for the realm of France”
The Archbishop argues that the Salic law was made for a specific German territory between the rivers Sala and Elbe — settled by French colonists under Charlemagne around 805 CE — not for France itself. Since the French did not even possess that German land until 421 years after the law was supposedly created, they cannot honestly apply it to bar inheritance in France.
historical The Salic law and Henry's claim to Francehistorical Edward III and his seven sons
TLN 236biblical allusion
“in the book of Numbers is it writ, When the man dies, let the inheritance Descend unto the daughter”
The Archbishop cites Numbers 27:8 to support inheritance through daughters when there is no male heir, giving the claim a scriptural basis beyond mere legal argument. In the biblical passage, the daughters of Zelophehad successfully petition Moses for the right to inherit their father's land. Canterbury is saying that even the Bible endorses female inheritance — so the French Salic law is not just wrong legally but contrary to scripture.
TLN 254archaic vocab
“with your puissant arm renew their feats”
'Puissant' (pronounced 'pyoo-ih-sant' or 'PWISS-ant') is an archaic adjective meaning powerfully strong, mighty. It comes from Old French and was used in formal or elevated speech; it appears again in TLN 257 ('my thrice-puissant liege'). It is not an intensifier but a genuine term for royal or military force.
TLN 258rhetorical device
“in the very May-morn of his youth, Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises”
The Bishop of Ely compares Henry to a May morning — the freshest, most promising time of year — to describe a young man at the peak of his vitality and readiness. 'May-morn' is a compressed metaphor (the year's prime morning = a young man's prime) meant to flatter and encourage the King to act on that energy before it passes.
TLN 267archaic vocab
“lie pavilion'd in the fields of France”
'Pavilion'd' means encamped in tents (a pavilion was a large military tent). Westmoreland is saying England's nobles have already pitched their hearts in France — they are mentally camped there and waiting to follow. The image blends a literal camp with a figure for loyalty and anticipation.
TLN 275archaic vocab
“lay down our proportions to defend Against the Scot, who will make road upon us”
'Lay down our proportions' means to calculate and allocate the appropriate size of forces — literally set out the proportional share of troops to be kept home versus sent abroad. 'Make road upon us' means to make a raid or inroad. Henry is raising the practical military problem that attacking France leaves England's northern border exposed to a Scottish incursion.
TLN 286historical topical
“the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdom Came pouring, like the tide into a breach”
Henry recalls that his great-grandfather Edward III was repeatedly raided by the Scots whenever he took his army to France. 'Unfurnish'd kingdom' means a kingdom stripped of its garrison (unfurnished = not furnished with troops). 'Gleaned' at TLN 289 means stripped bare, like a field after harvest. This is historically accurate: during Edward III's French campaigns, Scotland regularly invaded northern England.
historical Crécy, Poitiers, and the Black Prince
TLN 298historical topical
“taken and impounded as a stray The King of Scots; whom she did send to France”
The Archbishop argues that even without its men, England captured the King of Scots (King David II, taken at the Battle of Neville's Cross in 1346) and sent him to France as a trophy of English prowess. 'Impounded as a stray' is a contemptuous legal image: straying animals were rounded up and held in a pound (an enclosure) until claimed — England treated the King of Scots like a lost cow.
TLN 305historical topical
“If that you will France win, Then with Scotland first begin”
Westmoreland quotes a proverbial rhyme that had circulated for generations: secure your northern border before going abroad. The proverb reflects the real strategic problem of England's two-front exposure, and Westmoreland introduces it with 'there's a saying very old and true' to give it the weight of accumulated wisdom.
TLN 307rhetorical device
“once the eagle England being in prey, To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot Comes sneaking”
Westmoreland extends the proverb into an animal fable: England is a hunting eagle; Scotland is a weasel that sneaks into the unguarded nest to suck the eggs and 'play the mouse in absence of the cat.' These are familiar English proverbs about the weak taking advantage of a distracted stronger party. The fable is not flattering to Scotland but is also not a compliment to England — an eagle that leaves its eggs unguarded is careless.
TLN 326historical topical
“so work the honey-bees, Creatures that by a rule in nature teach The act of order to a peopled kingdom”
The Archbishop compares the social organization of a beehive to an ideal kingdom: a king (the bee-king, whom Elizabethans believed to be male) governs different castes — magistrates, merchants, soldiers, and laborers — each performing their function in concert. This was a commonplace of Elizabethan political thought: nature's order in the hive mirrors and legitimizes human hierarchy.
historical The great chain of being (order and degree)
TLN 333archaic vocab
“Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds”
'Make boot' means to take plunder or profit. The bee-soldiers are described as looting the blossoms the way an army loots a town. 'Summer's velvet buds' is a tactile image for the soft flower-heads the bees rob. The military metaphor for foraging bees is part of the Archbishop's sustained comparison between hive-life and the social roles of war, trade, and law.
TLN 341rhetorical device
“sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum, Delivering o'er to executors pale The lazy yawning drone”
In the hive's analogy, a bee-judge (the 'sad-eyed justice') hands over idle drones to bee-executioners ('executors pale') — a darkly comic image. The drone bee does no work and is driven out or killed by worker bees; here it represents unproductive subjects who must be punished. The phrase 'surly hum' wittily gives the judge the sound of a bee.
TLN 365archaic vocab
“Ruling in large and ample empery O'er France and all her almost kingly dukedoms”
'Empery' (from Latin 'imperium') means absolute dominion or sovereignty, an empire's worth of power. 'Almost kingly dukedoms' refers to the great semi-independent duchies of France — Normandy, Brittany, Burgundy, Gascony — whose dukes were almost kings in their own territories. Henry is promising either to rule France entirely, or to die in the attempt.
TLN 371historical topical
“Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth, Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph”
At the Ottoman court, 'mutes' were servants whose tongues had been cut out so they could keep secrets and could be trusted around the sultan. Henry says if his history is not spoken freely, his grave will be as speechless as one of these mutes — it will have no epitaph at all, not even a wax tablet. A 'waxen epitaph' was the most minimal grave inscription, a wax tablet rather than carved stone.
TLN 391historical topical
“nought in France That can be with a nimble galliard won. You cannot revel into dukedoms there”
A galliard was an energetic court dance fashionable in the late 16th century — the Dauphin is sneering that there is nothing in France to be won by dancing. The insult recalls Henry's reputation as a wild, pleasure-loving prince (the 'Hal' of Henry IV); the Dauphin thinks the new king is still a frivolous reveler who mistakes dancing ability for kingship.
TLN 395historical topical
“This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this”
A 'tun' is a large barrel or cask, typically holding 252 gallons of wine. The Dauphin's 'tun of treasure' turns out to be a barrel of tennis balls (TLN 399) — the mock-gift is packaged like a real diplomatic payment, a cask of treasure, to amplify the insult. Henry must open it publicly, before his court, only to find a joke inside.
TLN 402wordplay
“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”
Henry turns the tennis-ball insult into a sustained tennis metaphor: 'match our rackets' = prepare our weapons; 'play a set' = fight a campaign; 'courts of France' (TLN 406) = both the royal courts and tennis courts; 'chaces' (TLN 407) = a technical tennis term for a point scored when a ball bounces a second time. 'Hazard' was a specific hole or opening in a real-tennis court — Henry's pun means he will knock the French king's crown into the hazard (the dangerous zone, the place of loss). The wordplay transforms mockery into a declaration of war.
TLN 422historical topical
“this mock of his Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones, and his soul Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance”
'Gun-stones' were the stone cannon-balls used in 15th-century artillery. Henry is converting the Dauphin's game — tennis balls — into actual weapons: by mocking the King, the Dauphin has turned his own jest into cannonfire. 'Sore charged' means heavily burdened, as a gun is charged (loaded) with powder; the image sustains the artillery pun. Henry is saying the Dauphin will personally be answerable to God for every death his mockery has caused.
TLN 428rhetorical device
“some are yet ungotten and unborn That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's scorn”
Henry extends the consequences of the Dauphin's mockery forward in time: people not yet conceived will suffer and curse the Dauphin for what his insult has set in motion. The image reaches from the Dauphin's careless jest through future widows and orphans all the way to children not yet born. It positions Henry as a reluctant avenger and the Dauphin as the true cause of the war's suffering — a rhetorical move that shifts moral responsibility away from Henry.