filmskakespeare.org

ACT I, PROLOGUE

Enter Chorus

Chorus
001: O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
002: The brightest heaven of invention,
003: A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
004: And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
005: Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
006: Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,
007: Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire
008: Crouch for employment. But pardon, and gentles all,
009: The flat unraised spirits that have dared
010: On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth
011: So great an object: can this cockpit hold
012: The vasty fields of France? or may we cram
013: Within this wooden O the very casques
014: That did affright the air at Agincourt?
015: O, pardon! since a crooked figure may
016: Attest in little place a million;
017: And let us, ciphers to this great account,
018: On your imaginary forces work.
019: Suppose within the girdle of these walls
020: Are now confined two mighty monarchies,
021: Whose high upreared and abutting fronts
022: The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder:
023: Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;
024: Into a thousand parts divide one man,
025: And make imaginary puissance;
026: Think when we talk of horses, that you see them
027: Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth;
028: For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
029: Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times,
030: Turning the accomplishment of many years
031: Into an hour-glass: for the which supply,
032: Admit me Chorus to this history;
033: Who prologue-like your humble patience pray,
034: Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.

Exit

ACT I, SCENE I.

London. An ante-chamber in the KING'S palace.

Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, and the BISHOP OF ELY

CANTERBURY
001: My lord, I'll tell you; that self bill is urged,
002: Which in the eleventh year of the last king's reign
003: Was like, and had indeed against us pass'd,
004: But that the scambling and unquiet time
005: Did push it out of farther question.

ELY
006: But how, my lord, shall we resist it now?

CANTERBURY
007: It must be thought on. If it pass against us,
008: We lose the better half of our possession:
009: For all the temporal lands which men devout
010: By testament have given to the church
011: Would they strip from us; being valued thus:
012: As much as would maintain, to the king's honour,
013: Full fifteen earls and fifteen hundred knights,
014: Six thousand and two hundred good esquires;
015: And, to relief of lazars and weak age,
016: Of indigent faint souls past corporal toil.
017: A hundred almshouses right well supplied;
018: And to the coffers of the king beside,
019: A thousand pounds by the year: thus runs the bill.

ELY
020: This would drink deep.

CANTERBURY
021: 'Twould drink the cup and all.

ELY
022: But what prevention?

CANTERBURY
023: The king is full of grace and fair regard.

ELY
024: And a true lover of the holy church.

CANTERBURY
025: The courses of his youth promised it not.
026: The breath no sooner left his father's body,
027: But that his wildness, mortified in him,
028: Seem'd to die too; yea, at that very moment
029: Consideration, like an angel, came
030: And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him,
031: Leaving his body as a paradise,
032: To envelop and contain celestial spirits.
033: Never was such a sudden scholar made;
034: Never came reformation in a flood,
035: With such a heady currance, scouring faults
036: Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulness
037: So soon did lose his seat and all at once
038: As in this king.

ELY
039: We are blessed in the change.

CANTERBURY
040: Hear him but reason in divinity,
041: And all-admiring with an inward wish
042: You would desire the king were made a prelate:
043: Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,
044: You would say it hath been all in all his study:
045: List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
046: A fearful battle render'd you in music:
047: Turn him to any cause of policy,
048: The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,
049: Familiar as his garter: that, when he speaks,
050: The air, a charter'd libertine, is still,
051: And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,
052: To steal his sweet and honey'd sentences;
053: So that the art and practic part of life
054: Must be the mistress to this theoric:
055: Which is a wonder how his grace should glean it,
056: Since his addiction was to courses vain,
057: His companies unletter'd, rude and shallow,
058: His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports,
059: And never noted in him any study,
060: Any retirement, any sequestration
061: From open haunts and popularity.

ELY
062: The strawberry grows underneath the nettle
063: And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best
064: Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality:
065: And so the prince obscured his contemplation
066: Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt,
067: Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night,
068: Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.

CANTERBURY
069: It must be so; for miracles are ceased;
070: And therefore we must needs admit the means
071: How things are perfected.

ELY
072: But, my good lord,
073: How now for mitigation of this bill
074: Urged by the commons? Doth his majesty
075: Incline to it, or no?

CANTERBURY
076: He seems indifferent,
077: Or rather swaying more upon our part
078: Than cherishing the exhibiters against us;
079: For I have made an offer to his majesty,
080: Upon our spiritual convocation
081: And in regard of causes now in hand,
082: Which I have open'd to his grace at large,
083: As touching France, to give a greater sum
084: Than ever at one time the clergy yet
085: Did to his predecessors part withal.

ELY
086: How did this offer seem received, my lord?

CANTERBURY
087: With good acceptance of his majesty;
088: Save that there was not time enough to hear,
089: As I perceived his grace would fain have done,
090: The severals and unhidden passages
091: Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms
092: And generally to the crown and seat of France
093: Derived from Edward, his great-grandfather.

ELY
094: What was the impediment that broke this off?

CANTERBURY
095: The French ambassador upon that instant
096: Craved audience; and the hour, I think, is come
097: To give him hearing: is it four o'clock?

ELY
098: It is.

CANTERBURY
099: Then go we in, to know his embassy;
100: Which I could with a ready guess declare,
101: Before the Frenchman speak a word of it.

ELY
102: I'll wait upon you, and I long to hear it.

Exeunt

ACT I, SCENE II.

The same. The Presence chamber.

Enter KING HENRY V, GLOUCESTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and Attendants

KING HENRY V
001: Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury?

EXETER
002: Not here in presence.

KING HENRY V
003: Send for him, good uncle.

WESTMORELAND
004: Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege?

KING HENRY V
005: Not yet, my cousin: we would be resolved,
006: Before we hear him, of some things of weight
007: That task our thoughts, concerning us and France.

Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, and the BISHOP of ELY

CANTERBURY
008: God and his angels guard your sacred throne
009: And make you long become it!

KING HENRY V
010: Sure, we thank you.
011: My learned lord, we pray you to proceed
012: And justly and religiously unfold
013: Why the law Salique that they have in France
014: Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim:
015: And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,
016: That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading,
017: Or nicely charge your understanding soul
018: With opening titles miscreate, whose right
019: Suits not in native colours with the truth;
020: For God doth know how many now in health
021: Shall drop their blood in approbation
022: Of what your reverence shall incite us to.
023: Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,
024: How you awake our sleeping sword of war:
025: We charge you, in the name of God, take heed;
026: For never two such kingdoms did contend
027: Without much fall of blood; whose guiltless drops
028: Are every one a woe, a sore complaint
029: 'Gainst him whose wrong gives edge unto the swords
030: That make such waste in brief mortality.
031: Under this conjuration, speak, my lord;
032: For we will hear, note and believe in heart
033: That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd
034: As pure as sin with baptism.

CANTERBURY
035: Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers,
036: That owe yourselves, your lives and services
037: To this imperial throne. There is no bar
038: To make against your highness' claim to France
039: But this, which they produce from Pharamond,
040: 'In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant:'
041: 'No woman shall succeed in Salique land:'
042: Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze
043: To be the realm of France, and Pharamond
044: The founder of this law and female bar.
045: Yet their own authors faithfully affirm
046: That the land Salique is in Germany,
047: Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe;
048: Where Charles the Great, having subdued the Saxons,
049: There left behind and settled certain French;
050: Who, holding in disdain the German women
051: For some dishonest manners of their life,
052: Establish'd then this law; to wit, no female
053: Should be inheritrix in Salique land:
054: Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala,
055: Is at this day in Germany call'd Meisen.
056: Then doth it well appear that Salique law
057: Was not devised for the realm of France:
058: Nor did the French possess the Salique land
059: Until four hundred one and twenty years
060: After defunction of King Pharamond,
061: Idly supposed the founder of this law;
062: Who died within the year of our redemption
063: Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the Great
064: Subdued the Saxons, and did seat the French
065: Beyond the river Sala, in the year
066: Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say,
067: King Pepin, which deposed Childeric,
068: Did, as heir general, being descended
069: Of Blithild, which was daughter to King Clothair,
070: Make claim and title to the crown of France.
071: Hugh Capet also, who usurped the crown
072: Of Charles the duke of Lorraine, sole heir male
073: Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great,
074: To find his title with some shows of truth,
075: 'Through, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught,
076: Convey'd himself as heir to the Lady Lingare,
077: Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son
078: To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son
079: Of Charles the Great. Also King Lewis the Tenth,
080: Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet,
081: Could not keep quiet in his conscience,
082: Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied
083: That fair Queen Isabel, his grandmother,
084: Was lineal of the Lady Ermengare,
085: Daughter to Charles the foresaid duke of Lorraine:
086: By the which marriage the line of Charles the Great
087: Was re-united to the crown of France.
088: So that, as clear as is the summer's sun.
089: King Pepin's title and Hugh Capet's claim,
090: King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear
091: To hold in right and title of the female:
092: So do the kings of France unto this day;
093: Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law
094: To bar your highness claiming from the female,
095: And rather choose to hide them in a net
096: Than amply to imbar their crooked titles
097: Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.

KING HENRY V
098: May I with right and conscience make this claim?

CANTERBURY
099: The sin upon my head, dread sovereign!
100: For in the book of Numbers is it writ,
101: When the man dies, let the inheritance
102: Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord,
103: Stand for your own; unwind your bloody flag;
104: Look back into your mighty ancestors:
105: Go, my dread lord, to your great-grandsire's tomb,
106: From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit,
107: And your great-uncle's, Edward the Black Prince,
108: Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy,
109: Making defeat on the full power of France,
110: Whiles his most mighty father on a hill
111: Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp
112: Forage in blood of French nobility.
113: O noble English. that could entertain
114: With half their forces the full Pride of France
115: And let another half stand laughing by,
116: All out of work and cold for action!

ELY
117: Awake remembrance of these valiant dead
118: And with your puissant arm renew their feats:
119: You are their heir; you sit upon their throne;
120: The blood and courage that renowned them
121: Runs in your veins; and my thrice-puissant liege
122: Is in the very May-morn of his youth,
123: Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises.

EXETER
124: Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth
125: Do all expect that you should rouse yourself,
126: As did the former lions of your blood.

WESTMORELAND
127: They know your grace hath cause and means and might;
128: So hath your highness; never king of England
129: Had nobles richer and more loyal subjects,
130: Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England
131: And lie pavilion'd in the fields of France.

CANTERBURY
132: O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege,
133: With blood and sword and fire to win your right;
134: In aid whereof we of the spiritualty
135: Will raise your highness such a mighty sum
136: As never did the clergy at one time
137: Bring in to any of your ancestors.

KING HENRY V
138: We must not only arm to invade the French,
139: But lay down our proportions to defend
140: Against the Scot, who will make road upon us
141: With all advantages.

CANTERBURY
142: They of those marches, gracious sovereign,
143: Shall be a wall sufficient to defend
144: Our inland from the pilfering borderers.

KING HENRY V
145: We do not mean the coursing snatchers only,
146: But fear the main intendment of the Scot,
147: Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us;
148: For you shall read that my great-grandfather
149: Never went with his forces into France
150: But that the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdom
151: Came pouring, like the tide into a breach,
152: With ample and brim fulness of his force,
153: Galling the gleaned land with hot assays,
154: Girding with grievous siege castles and towns;
155: That England, being empty of defence,
156: Hath shook and trembled at the ill neighbourhood.

CANTERBURY
157: She hath been then more fear'd than harm'd, my liege;
158: For hear her but exampled by herself:
159: When all her chivalry hath been in France
160: And she a mourning widow of her nobles,
161: She hath herself not only well defended
162: But taken and impounded as a stray
163: The King of Scots; whom she did send to France,
164: To fill King Edward's fame with prisoner kings
165: And make her chronicle as rich with praise
166: As is the ooze and bottom of the sea
167: With sunken wreck and sunless treasuries.

WESTMORELAND
168: But there's a saying very old and true,
169: 'If that you will France win,
170: Then with Scotland first begin:'
171: For once the eagle England being in prey,
172: To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot
173: Comes sneaking and so sucks her princely eggs,
174: Playing the mouse in absence of the cat,
175: To tear and havoc more than she can eat.

EXETER
176: It follows then the cat must stay at home:
177: Yet that is but a crush'd necessity,
178: Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries,
179: And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves.
180: While that the armed hand doth fight abroad,
181: The advised head defends itself at home;
182: For government, though high and low and lower,
183: Put into parts, doth keep in one consent,
184: Congreeing in a full and natural close,
185: Like music.

CANTERBURY
186: Therefore doth heaven divide
187: The state of man in divers functions,
188: Setting endeavour in continual motion;
189: To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,
190: Obedience: for so work the honey-bees,
191: Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
192: The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
193: They have a king and officers of sorts;
194: Where some, like magistrates, correct at home,
195: Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad,
196: Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,
197: Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds,
198: Which pillage they with merry march bring home
199: To the tent-royal of their emperor;
200: Who, busied in his majesty, surveys
201: The singing masons building roofs of gold,
202: The civil citizens kneading up the honey,
203: The poor mechanic porters crowding in
204: Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate,
205: The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum,
206: Delivering o'er to executors pale
207: The lazy yawning drone. I this infer,
208: That many things, having full reference
209: To one consent, may work contrariously:
210: As many arrows, loosed several ways,
211: Come to one mark; as many ways meet in one town;
212: As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea;
213: As many lines close in the dial's centre;
214: So may a thousand actions, once afoot.
215: End in one purpose, and be all well borne
216: Without defeat. Therefore to France, my liege.
217: Divide your happy England into four;
218: Whereof take you one quarter into France,
219: And you withal shall make all Gallia shake.
220: If we, with thrice such powers left at home,
221: Cannot defend our own doors from the dog,
222: Let us be worried and our nation lose
223: The name of hardiness and policy.

KING HENRY V
224: Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin.
[Exeunt some Attendants]
225: Now are we well resolved; and, by God's help,
226: And yours, the noble sinews of our power,
227: France being ours, we'll bend it to our awe,
228: Or break it all to pieces: or there we'll sit,
229: Ruling in large and ample empery
230: O'er France and all her almost kingly dukedoms,
231: Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn,
232: Tombless, with no remembrance over them:
233: Either our history shall with full mouth
234: Speak freely of our acts, or else our grave,
235: Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth,
236: Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph.
[Enter Ambassadors of France]
237: Now are we well prepared to know the pleasure
238: Of our fair cousin Dauphin; for we hear
239: Your greeting is from him, not from the king.

First Ambassador
240: May't please your majesty to give us leave
241: Freely to render what we have in charge;
242: Or shall we sparingly show you far off
243: The Dauphin's meaning and our embassy?

KING HENRY V
244: We are no tyrant, but a Christian king;
245: Unto whose grace our passion is as subject
246: As are our wretches fetter'd in our prisons:
247: Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness
248: Tell us the Dauphin's mind.

First Ambassador
249: Thus, then, in few.
250: Your highness, lately sending into France,
251: Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right
252: Of your great predecessor, King Edward the Third.
253: In answer of which claim, the prince our master
254: Says that you savour too much of your youth,
255: And bids you be advised there's nought in France
256: That can be with a nimble galliard won;
257: You cannot revel into dukedoms there.
258: He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit,
259: This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this,
260: Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim
261: Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.

KING HENRY V
262: What treasure, uncle?

EXETER
263: Tennis-balls, my liege.

KING HENRY V
264: We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us;
265: His present and your pains we thank you for:
266: When we have march'd our rackets to these balls,
267: We will, in France, by God's grace, play a set
268: Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard.
269: Tell him he hath made a match with such a wrangler
270: That all the courts of France will be disturb'd
271: With chaces. And we understand him well,
272: How he comes o'er us with our wilder days,
273: Not measuring what use we made of them.
274: We never valued this poor seat of England;
275: And therefore, living hence, did give ourself
276: To barbarous licence; as 'tis ever common
277: That men are merriest when they are from home.
278: But tell the Dauphin I will keep my state,
279: Be like a king and show my sail of greatness
280: When I do rouse me in my throne of France:
281: For that I have laid by my majesty
282: And plodded like a man for working-days,
283: But I will rise there with so full a glory
284: That I will dazzle all the eyes of France,
285: Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us.
286: And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his
287: Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones; and his soul
288: Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance
289: That shall fly with them: for many a thousand widows
290: Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands;
291: Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down;
292: And some are yet ungotten and unborn
293: That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's scorn.
294: But this lies all within the will of God,
295: To whom I do appeal; and in whose name
296: Tell you the Dauphin I am coming on,
297: To venge me as I may and to put forth
298: My rightful hand in a well-hallow'd cause.
299: So get you hence in peace; and tell the Dauphin
300: His jest will savour but of shallow wit,
301: When thousands weep more than did laugh at it.
302: Convey them with safe conduct. Fare you well.

Exeunt Ambassadors

EXETER
303: This was a merry message.

KING HENRY V
304: We hope to make the sender blush at it.
305: Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour
306: That may give furtherance to our expedition;
307: For we have now no thought in us but France,
308: Save those to God, that run before our business.
309: Therefore let our proportions for these wars
310: Be soon collected and all things thought upon
311: That may with reasonable swiftness add
312: More feathers to our wings; for, God before,
313: We'll chide this Dauphin at his father's door.
314: Therefore let every man now task his thought,
315: That this fair action may on foot be brought.

Exeunt. Flourish

ACT II, PROLOGUE

Enter Chorus

Chorus
001: Now all the youth of England are on fire,
002: And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies:
003: Now thrive the armourers, and honour's thought
004: Reigns solely in the breast of every man:
005: They sell the pasture now to buy the horse,
006: Following the mirror of all Christian kings,
007: With winged heels, as English Mercuries.
008: For now sits Expectation in the air,
009: And hides a sword from hilts unto the point
010: With crowns imperial, crowns and coronets,
011: Promised to Harry and his followers.
012: The French, advised by good intelligence
013: Of this most dreadful preparation,
014: Shake in their fear and with pale policy
015: Seek to divert the English purposes.
016: O England! model to thy inward greatness,
017: Like little body with a mighty heart,
018: What mightst thou do, that honour would thee do,
019: Were all thy children kind and natural!
020: But see thy fault! France hath in thee found out
021: A nest of hollow bosoms, which he fills
022: With treacherous crowns; and three corrupted men,
023: One, Richard Earl of Cambridge, and the second,
024: Henry Lord Scroop of Masham, and the third,
025: Sir Thomas Grey, knight, of Northumberland,
026: Have, for the gilt of France,--O guilt indeed!
027: Confirm'd conspiracy with fearful France;
028: And by their hands this grace of kings must die,
029: If hell and treason hold their promises,
030: Ere he take ship for France, and in Southampton.
031: Linger your patience on; and we'll digest
032: The abuse of distance; force a play:
033: The sum is paid; the traitors are agreed;
034: The king is set from London; and the scene
035: Is now transported, gentles, to Southampton;
036: There is the playhouse now, there must you sit:
037: And thence to France shall we convey you safe,
038: And bring you back, charming the narrow seas
039: To give you gentle pass; for, if we may,
040: We'll not offend one stomach with our play.
041: But, till the king come forth, and not till then,
042: Unto Southampton do we shift our scene.

Exit

ACT II, SCENE I.... :: No specific directions for getting BARDOLPH, NYM, PISTOL, and Hostess off the stage.

London. A street.

Enter Corporal NYM and Lieutenant BARDOLPH

BARDOLPH
001: Well met, Corporal Nym.

NYM
002: Good morrow, Lieutenant Bardolph.

BARDOLPH
003: What, are Ancient Pistol and you friends yet?

NYM
004: For my part, I care not: I say little; but when
005: time shall serve, there shall be smiles; but that
006: shall be as it may. I dare not fight; but I will
007: wink and hold out mine iron: it is a simple one; but
008: what though? it will toast cheese, and it will
009: endure cold as another man's sword will: and
010: there's an end.

BARDOLPH
011: I will bestow a breakfast to make you friends; and
012: we'll be all three sworn brothers to France: let it
013: be so, good Corporal Nym.

NYM
014: Faith, I will live so long as I may, that's the
015: certain of it; and when I cannot live any longer, I
016: will do as I may: that is my rest, that is the
017: rendezvous of it.

BARDOLPH
018: It is certain, corporal, that he is married to Nell
019: Quickly: and certainly she did you wrong; for you
020: were troth-plight to her.

NYM
021: I cannot tell: things must be as they may: men may
022: sleep, and they may have their throats about them at
023: that time; and some say knives have edges. It must
024: be as it may: though patience be a tired mare, yet
025: she will plod. There must be conclusions. Well, I
026: cannot tell.

Enter PISTOL and Hostess

BARDOLPH
027: Here comes Ancient Pistol and his wife: good
028: corporal, be patient here.

NYM
029: How now, mine host Pistol!

PISTOL
030: Base tike, call'st thou me host? Now, by this hand,
031: I swear, I scorn the term; Nor shall my Nell keep lodgers.

Hostess
032: No, by my troth, not long; for we cannot lodge and
033: board a dozen or fourteen gentlewomen that live
034: honestly by the prick of their needles, but it will
035: be thought we keep a bawdy house straight.
[NYM and PISTOL draw]
036: O well a day, Lady, if he be not drawn now! we
037: shall see wilful adultery and murder committed.

BARDOLPH
038: Good lieutenant! good corporal! offer nothing here.

NYM
039: Pish!

PISTOL
040: Pish for thee, Iceland dog! thou prick-ear'd cur of Iceland!

Hostess
041: Good Corporal Nym, show thy valour, and put up your sword.

NYM
042: Will you shog off? I would have you solus.

PISTOL
043: 'Solus,' egregious dog? O viper vile!
044: The 'solus' in thy most mervailous face;
045: The 'solus' in thy teeth, and in thy throat,
046: And in thy hateful lungs, yea, in thy maw, perdy,
047: And, which is worse, within thy nasty mouth!
048: I do retort the 'solus' in thy bowels;
049: For I can take, and Pistol's cock is up,
050: And flashing fire will follow.

NYM
051: I am not Barbason; you cannot conjure me. I have an
052: humour to knock you indifferently well. If you grow
053: foul with me, Pistol, I will scour you with my
054: rapier, as I may, in fair terms: if you would walk
055: off, I would prick your guts a little, in good
056: terms, as I may: and that's the humour of it.

PISTOL
057: O braggart vile and damned furious wight!
058: The grave doth gape, and doting death is near;
059: Therefore exhale.

BARDOLPH
060: Hear me, hear me what I say: he that strikes the
061: first stroke, I'll run him up to the hilts, as I am a soldier.

Draws

PISTOL
062: An oath of mickle might; and fury shall abate.
063: Give me thy fist, thy fore-foot to me give:
064: Thy spirits are most tall.

NYM
065: I will cut thy throat, one time or other, in fair
066: terms: that is the humour of it.

PISTOL
067: 'Couple a gorge!'
068: That is the word. I thee defy again.
069: O hound of Crete, think'st thou my spouse to get?
070: No; to the spital go,
071: And from the powdering tub of infamy
072: Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind,
073: Doll Tearsheet she by name, and her espouse:
074: I have, and I will hold, the quondam Quickly
075: For the only she; and--pauca, there's enough. Go to.

Enter the Boy

Boy
076: Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master, and
077: you, hostess: he is very sick, and would to bed.
078: Good Bardolph, put thy face between his sheets, and
079: do the office of a warming-pan. Faith, he's very ill.

BARDOLPH
080: Away, you rogue!

Hostess
081: By my troth, he'll yield the crow a pudding one of
082: these days. The king has killed his heart. Good
083: husband, come home presently.

Exeunt Hostess and Boy

BARDOLPH
084: Come, shall I make you two friends? We must to
085: France together: why the devil should we keep
086: knives to cut one another's throats?

PISTOL
087: Let floods o'erswell, and fiends for food howl on!

NYM
088: You'll pay me the eight shillings I won of you at betting?

PISTOL
089: Base is the slave that pays.

NYM
090: That now I will have: that's the humour of it.

PISTOL
091: As manhood shall compound: push home.

They draw

BARDOLPH
092: By this sword, he that makes the first thrust, I'll
093: kill him; by this sword, I will.

PISTOL
094: Sword is an oath, and oaths must have their course.

BARDOLPH
095: Corporal Nym, an thou wilt be friends, be friends:
096: an thou wilt not, why, then, be enemies with me too.
097: Prithee, put up.

NYM
098: I shall have my eight shillings I won of you at betting?

PISTOL
099: A noble shalt thou have, and present pay;
100: And liquor likewise will I give to thee,
101: And friendship shall combine, and brotherhood:
102: I'll live by Nym, and Nym shall live by me;
103: Is not this just? for I shall sutler be
104: Unto the camp, and profits will accrue.
105: Give me thy hand.

NYM
106: I shall have my noble?

PISTOL
107: In cash most justly paid.

NYM
108: Well, then, that's the humour of't.

Re-enter Hostess

Hostess
109: As ever you came of women, come in quickly to Sir
110: John. Ah, poor heart! he is so shaked of a burning
111: quotidian tertian, that it is most lamentable to
112: behold. Sweet men, come to him.

NYM
113: The king hath run bad humours on the knight; that's
114: the even of it.

PISTOL
115: Nym, thou hast spoke the right;
116: His heart is fracted and corroborate.

NYM
117: The king is a good king: but it must be as it may;
118: he passes some humours and careers.

PISTOL
119: Let us condole the knight; for, lambkins we will live.

ACT II, SCENE II.

Southampton. A council-chamber.

Enter EXETER, BEDFORD, and WESTMORELAND

BEDFORD
001: 'Fore God, his grace is bold, to trust these traitors.

EXETER
002: They shall be apprehended by and by.

WESTMORELAND
003: How smooth and even they do bear themselves!
004: As if allegiance in their bosoms sat,
005: Crowned with faith and constant loyalty.

BEDFORD
006: The king hath note of all that they intend,
007: By interception which they dream not of.

EXETER
008: Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow,
009: Whom he hath dull'd and cloy'd with gracious favours,
010: That he should, for a foreign purse, so sell
011: His sovereign's life to death and treachery.

Trumpets sound. Enter KING HENRY V, SCROOP, CAMBRIDGE, GREY, and Attendants

KING HENRY V
012: Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard.
013: My Lord of Cambridge, and my kind Lord of Masham,
014: And you, my gentle knight, give me your thoughts:
015: Think you not that the powers we bear with us
016: Will cut their passage through the force of France,
017: Doing the execution and the act
018: For which we have in head assembled them?

SCROOP
019: No doubt, my liege, if each man do his best.

KING HENRY V
020: I doubt not that; since we are well persuaded
021: We carry not a heart with us from hence
022: That grows not in a fair consent with ours,
023: Nor leave not one behind that doth not wish
024: Success and conquest to attend on us.

CAMBRIDGE
025: Never was monarch better fear'd and loved
026: Than is your majesty: there's not, I think, a subject
027: That sits in heart-grief and uneasiness
028: Under the sweet shade of your government.

GREY
029: True: those that were your father's enemies
030: Have steep'd their galls in honey and do serve you
031: With hearts create of duty and of zeal.

KING HENRY V
032: We therefore have great cause of thankfulness;
033: And shall forget the office of our hand,
034: Sooner than quittance of desert and merit
035: According to the weight and worthiness.

SCROOP
036: So service shall with steeled sinews toil,
037: And labour shall refresh itself with hope,
038: To do your grace incessant services.

KING HENRY V
039: We judge no less. Uncle of Exeter,
040: Enlarge the man committed yesterday,
041: That rail'd against our person: we consider
042: it was excess of wine that set him on;
043: And on his more advice we pardon him.

SCROOP
044: That's mercy, but too much security:
045: Let him be punish'd, sovereign, lest example
046: Breed, by his sufferance, more of such a kind.

KING HENRY V
047: O, let us yet be merciful.

CAMBRIDGE
048: So may your highness, and yet punish too.

GREY
049: Sir,
050: You show great mercy, if you give him life,
051: After the taste of much correction.

KING HENRY V
052: Alas, your too much love and care of me
053: Are heavy orisons 'gainst this poor wretch!
054: If little faults, proceeding on distemper,
055: Shall not be wink'd at, how shall we stretch our eye
056: When capital crimes, chew'd, swallow'd and digested,
057: Appear before us? We'll yet enlarge that man,
058: Though Cambridge, Scroop and Grey, in their dear care
059: And tender preservation of our person,
060: Would have him punished. And now to our French causes:
061: Who are the late commissioners?

CAMBRIDGE
062: I one, my lord:
063: Your highness bade me ask for it to-day.

SCROOP
064: So did you me, my liege.

GREY
065: And I, my royal sovereign.

KING HENRY V
066: Then, Richard Earl of Cambridge, there is yours;
067: There yours, Lord Scroop of Masham; and, sir knight,
068: Grey of Northumberland, this same is yours:
069: Read them; and know, I know your worthiness.
070: My Lord of Westmoreland, and uncle Exeter,
071: We will aboard to night. Why, how now, gentlemen!
072: What see you in those papers that you lose
073: So much complexion? Look ye, how they change!
074: Their cheeks are paper. Why, what read you there
075: That hath so cowarded and chased your blood
076: Out of appearance?

CAMBRIDGE
077: I do confess my fault;
078: And do submit me to your highness' mercy.

GREY, SCROOP
079: To which we all appeal.

KING HENRY V
080: The mercy that was quick in us but late,
081: By your own counsel is suppress'd and kill'd:
082: You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy;
083: For your own reasons turn into your bosoms,
084: As dogs upon their masters, worrying you.
085: See you, my princes, and my noble peers,
086: These English monsters! My Lord of Cambridge here,
087: You know how apt our love was to accord
088: To furnish him with all appertinents
089: Belonging to his honour; and this man
090: Hath, for a few light crowns, lightly conspired,
091: And sworn unto the practises of France,
092: To kill us here in Hampton: to the which
093: This knight, no less for bounty bound to us
094: Than Cambridge is, hath likewise sworn. But, O,
095: What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop? thou cruel,
096: Ingrateful, savage and inhuman creature!
097: Thou that didst bear the key of all my counsels,
098: That knew'st the very bottom of my soul,
099: That almost mightst have coin'd me into gold,
100: Wouldst thou have practised on me for thy use,
101: May it be possible, that foreign hire
102: Could out of thee extract one spark of evil
103: That might annoy my finger? 'tis so strange,
104: That, though the truth of it stands off as gross
105: As black and white, my eye will scarcely see it.
106: Treason and murder ever kept together,
107: As two yoke-devils sworn to either's purpose,
108: Working so grossly in a natural cause,
109: That admiration did not whoop at them:
110: But thou, 'gainst all proportion, didst bring in
111: Wonder to wait on treason and on murder:
112: And whatsoever cunning fiend it was
113: That wrought upon thee so preposterously
114: Hath got the voice in hell for excellence:
115: All other devils that suggest by treasons
116: Do botch and bungle up damnation
117: With patches, colours, and with forms being fetch'd
118: From glistering semblances of piety;
119: But he that temper'd thee bade thee stand up,
120: Gave thee no instance why thou shouldst do treason,
121: Unless to dub thee with the name of traitor.
122: If that same demon that hath gull'd thee thus
123: Should with his lion gait walk the whole world,
124: He might return to vasty Tartar back,
125: And tell the legions 'I can never win
126: A soul so easy as that Englishman's.'
127: O, how hast thou with 'jealousy infected
128: The sweetness of affiance! Show men dutiful?
129: Why, so didst thou: seem they grave and learned?
130: Why, so didst thou: come they of noble family?
131: Why, so didst thou: seem they religious?
132: Why, so didst thou: or are they spare in diet,
133: Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger,
134: Constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood,
135: Garnish'd and deck'd in modest complement,
136: Not working with the eye without the ear,
137: And but in purged judgment trusting neither?
138: Such and so finely bolted didst thou seem:
139: And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot,
140: To mark the full-fraught man and best indued
141: With some suspicion. I will weep for thee;
142: For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like
143: Another fall of man. Their faults are open:
144: Arrest them to the answer of the law;
145: And God acquit them of their practises!

EXETER
146: I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of
147: Richard Earl of Cambridge.
148: I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of
149: Henry Lord Scroop of Masham.
150: I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of
151: Thomas Grey, knight, of Northumberland.

SCROOP
152: Our purposes God justly hath discover'd;
153: And I repent my fault more than my death;
154: Which I beseech your highness to forgive,
155: Although my body pay the price of it.

CAMBRIDGE
156: For me, the gold of France did not seduce;
157: Although I did admit it as a motive
158: The sooner to effect what I intended:
159: But God be thanked for prevention;
160: Which I in sufferance heartily will rejoice,
161: Beseeching God and you to pardon me.

GREY
162: Never did faithful subject more rejoice
163: At the discovery of most dangerous treason
164: Than I do at this hour joy o'er myself.
165: Prevented from a damned enterprise:
166: My fault, but not my body, pardon, sovereign.

KING HENRY V
167: God quit you in his mercy! Hear your sentence.
168: You have conspired against our royal person,
169: Join'd with an enemy proclaim'd and from his coffers
170: Received the golden earnest of our death;
171: Wherein you would have sold your king to slaughter,
172: His princes and his peers to servitude,
173: His subjects to oppression and contempt
174: And his whole kingdom into desolation.
175: Touching our person seek we no revenge;
176: But we our kingdom's safety must so tender,
177: Whose ruin you have sought, that to her laws
178: We do deliver you. Get you therefore hence,
179: Poor miserable wretches, to your death:
180: The taste whereof, God of his mercy give
181: You patience to endure, and true repentance
182: Of all your dear offences! Bear them hence.
[Exeunt CAMBRIDGE, SCROOP and GREY, guarded]
183: Now, lords, for France; the enterprise whereof
184: Shall be to you, as us, like glorious.
185: We doubt not of a fair and lucky war,
186: Since God so graciously hath brought to light
187: This dangerous treason lurking in our way
188: To hinder our beginnings. We doubt not now
189: But every rub is smoothed on our way.
190: Then forth, dear countrymen: let us deliver
191: Our puissance into the hand of God,
192: Putting it straight in expedition.
193: Cheerly to sea; the signs of war advance:
194: No king of England, if not king of France.

Exuent

ACT II, SCENE III.

London. Before a tavern.

Enter PISTOL, Hostess, NYM, BARDOLPH, and Boy

Hostess
001: Prithee, honey-sweet husband, let me bring thee to Staines.

PISTOL
002: No; for my manly heart doth yearn.
003: Bardolph, be blithe: Nym, rouse thy vaunting veins:
004: Boy, bristle thy courage up; for Falstaff he is dead,
005: And we must yearn therefore.

BARDOLPH
006: Would I were with him, wheresome'er he is, either in
007: heaven or in hell!

Hostess
008: Nay, sure, he's not in hell: he's in Arthur's
009: bosom, if ever man went to Arthur's bosom. A' made
010: a finer end and went away an it had been any
011: christom child; a' parted even just between twelve
012: and one, even at the turning o' the tide: for after
013: I saw him fumble with the sheets and play with
014: flowers and smile upon his fingers' ends, I knew
015: there was but one way; for his nose was as sharp as
016: a pen, and a' babbled of green fields. 'How now,
017: sir John!' quoth I 'what, man! be o' good
018: cheer.' So a' cried out 'God, God, God!' three or
019: four times. Now I, to comfort him, bid him a'
020: should not think of God; I hoped there was no need
021: to trouble himself with any such thoughts yet. So
022: a' bade me lay more clothes on his feet: I put my
023: hand into the bed and felt them, and they were as
024: cold as any stone; then I felt to his knees, and
025: they were as cold as any stone, and so upward and
026: upward, and all was as cold as any stone.

NYM
027: They say he cried out of sack.

Hostess
028: Ay, that a' did.

BARDOLPH
029: And of women.

Hostess
030: Nay, that a' did not.

Boy
031: Yes, that a' did; and said they were devils
032: incarnate.

Hostess
033: A' could never abide carnation; 'twas a colour he
034: never liked.

Boy
035: A' said once, the devil would have him about women.

Hostess
036: A' did in some sort, indeed, handle women; but then
037: he was rheumatic, and talked of the whore of Babylon.

Boy
038: Do you not remember, a' saw a flea stick upon
039: Bardolph's nose, and a' said it was a black soul
040: burning in hell-fire?

BARDOLPH
041: Well, the fuel is gone that maintained that fire:
042: that's all the riches I got in his service.

NYM
043: Shall we shog? the king will be gone from
044: Southampton.

PISTOL
045: Come, let's away. My love, give me thy lips.
046: Look to my chattels and my movables:
047: Let senses rule; the word is 'Pitch and Pay:'
048: Trust none;
049: For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes,
050: And hold-fast is the only dog, my duck:
051: Therefore, Caveto be thy counsellor.
052: Go, clear thy crystals. Yoke-fellows in arms,
053: Let us to France; like horse-leeches, my boys,
054: To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck!

Boy
055: And that's but unwholesome food they say.

PISTOL
056: Touch her soft mouth, and march.

BARDOLPH
057: Farewell, hostess.

Kissing her

NYM
058: I cannot kiss, that is the humour of it; but, adieu.

PISTOL
059: Let housewifery appear: keep close, I thee command.

Hostess
060: Farewell; adieu.

Exeunt

ACT II, SCENE IV.

France. The KING'S palace.

Flourish. Enter the FRENCH KING, the DAUPHIN, the DUKES of BERRI and BRETAGNE, the Constable, and others

KING OF FRANCE
001: Thus comes the English with full power upon us;
002: And more than carefully it us concerns
003: To answer royally in our defences.
004: Therefore the Dukes of Berri and of Bretagne,
005: Of Brabant and of Orleans, shall make forth,
006: And you, Prince Dauphin, with all swift dispatch,
007: To line and new repair our towns of war
008: With men of courage and with means defendant;
009: For England his approaches makes as fierce
010: As waters to the sucking of a gulf.
011: It fits us then to be as provident
012: As fear may teach us out of late examples
013: Left by the fatal and neglected English
014: Upon our fields.

DAUPHIN
015: My most redoubted father,
016: It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe;
017: For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom,
018: Though war nor no known quarrel were in question,
019: But that defences, musters, preparations,
020: Should be maintain'd, assembled and collected,
021: As were a war in expectation.
022: Therefore, I say 'tis meet we all go forth
023: To view the sick and feeble parts of France:
024: And let us do it with no show of fear;
025: No, with no more than if we heard that England
026: Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance:
027: For, my good liege, she is so idly king'd,
028: Her sceptre so fantastically borne
029: By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth,
030: That fear attends her not.

Constable
031: O peace, Prince Dauphin!
032: You are too much mistaken in this king:
033: Question your grace the late ambassadors,
034: With what great state he heard their embassy,
035: How well supplied with noble counsellors,
036: How modest in exception, and withal
037: How terrible in constant resolution,
038: And you shall find his vanities forespent
039: Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus,
040: Covering discretion with a coat of folly;
041: As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots
042: That shall first spring and be most delicate.

DAUPHIN
043: Well, 'tis not so, my lord high constable;
044: But though we think it so, it is no matter:
045: In cases of defence 'tis best to weigh
046: The enemy more mighty than he seems:
047: So the proportions of defence are fill'd;
048: Which of a weak or niggardly projection
049: Doth, like a miser, spoil his coat with scanting
050: A little cloth.

KING OF FRANCE
051: Think we King Harry strong;
052: And, princes, look you strongly arm to meet him.
053: The kindred of him hath been flesh'd upon us;
054: And he is bred out of that bloody strain
055: That haunted us in our familiar paths:
056: Witness our too much memorable shame
057: When Cressy battle fatally was struck,
058: And all our princes captiv'd by the hand
059: Of that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales;
060: Whiles that his mountain sire, on mountain standing,
061: Up in the air, crown'd with the golden sun,
062: Saw his heroical seed, and smiled to see him,
063: Mangle the work of nature and deface
064: The patterns that by God and by French fathers
065: Had twenty years been made. This is a stem
066: Of that victorious stock; and let us fear
067: The native mightiness and fate of him.

Enter a Messenger

Messenger
068: Ambassadors from Harry King of England
069: Do crave admittance to your majesty.

KING OF FRANCE
070: We'll give them present audience. Go, and bring them.
[Exeunt Messenger and certain Lords]
071: You see this chase is hotly follow'd, friends.

DAUPHIN
072: Turn head, and stop pursuit; for coward dogs
073: Most spend their mouths when what they seem to threaten
074: Runs far before them. Good my sovereign,
075: Take up the English short, and let them know
076: Of what a monarchy you are the head:
077: Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin
078: As self-neglecting.

Re-enter Lords, with EXETER and train

KING OF FRANCE
079: From our brother England?

EXETER
080: From him; and thus he greets your majesty.
081: He wills you, in the name of God Almighty,
082: That you divest yourself, and lay apart
083: The borrow'd glories that by gift of heaven,
084: By law of nature and of nations, 'long
085: To him and to his heirs; namely, the crown
086: And all wide-stretched honours that pertain
087: By custom and the ordinance of times
088: Unto the crown of France. That you may know
089: 'Tis no sinister nor no awkward claim,
090: Pick'd from the worm-holes of long-vanish'd days,
091: Nor from the dust of old oblivion raked,
092: He sends you this most memorable line,
093: In every branch truly demonstrative;
094: Willing to overlook this pedigree:
095: And when you find him evenly derived
096: From his most famed of famous ancestors,
097: Edward the Third, he bids you then resign
098: Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held
099: From him the native and true challenger.

KING OF FRANCE
100: Or else what follows?

EXETER
101: Bloody constraint; for if you hide the crown
102: Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it:
103: Therefore in fierce tempest is he coming,
104: In thunder and in earthquake, like a Jove,
105: That, if requiring fail, he will compel;
106: And bids you, in the bowels of the Lord,
107: Deliver up the crown, and to take mercy
108: On the poor souls for whom this hungry war
109: Opens his vasty jaws; and on your head
110: Turning the widows' tears, the orphans' cries
111: The dead men's blood, the pining maidens groans,
112: For husbands, fathers and betrothed lovers,
113: That shall be swallow'd in this controversy.
114: This is his claim, his threatening and my message;
115: Unless the Dauphin be in presence here,
116: To whom expressly I bring greeting too.

KING OF FRANCE
117: For us, we will consider of this further:
118: To-morrow shall you bear our full intent
119: Back to our brother England.

DAUPHIN
120: For the Dauphin,
121: I stand here for him: what to him from England?

EXETER
122: Scorn and defiance; slight regard, contempt,
123: And any thing that may not misbecome
124: The mighty sender, doth he prize you at.
125: Thus says my king; an' if your father's highness
126: Do not, in grant of all demands at large,
127: Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his majesty,
128: He'll call you to so hot an answer of it,
129: That caves and womby vaultages of France
130: Shall chide your trespass and return your mock
131: In second accent of his ordnance.

DAUPHIN
132: Say, if my father render fair return,
133: It is against my will; for I desire
134: Nothing but odds with England: to that end,
135: As matching to his youth and vanity,
136: I did present him with the Paris balls.

EXETER
137: He'll make your Paris Louvre shake for it,
138: Were it the mistress-court of mighty Europe:
139: And, be assured, you'll find a difference,
140: As we his subjects have in wonder found,
141: Between the promise of his greener days
142: And these he masters now: now he weighs time
143: Even to the utmost grain: that you shall read
144: In your own losses, if he stay in France.

KING OF FRANCE
145: To-morrow shall you know our mind at full.

EXETER
146: Dispatch us with all speed, lest that our king
147: Come here himself to question our delay;
148: For he is footed in this land already.

KING OF FRANCE
149: You shall be soon dispatch's with fair conditions:
150: A night is but small breath and little pause
151: To answer matters of this consequence.

Flourish. Exeunt

ACT III, PROLOGUE.

Enter Chorus

Chorus
001: Thus with imagined wing our swift scene flies
002: In motion of no less celerity
003: Than that of thought. Suppose that you have seen
004: The well-appointed king at Hampton pier
005: Embark his royalty; and his brave fleet
006: With silken streamers the young Phoebus fanning:
007: Play with your fancies, and in them behold
008: Upon the hempen tackle ship-boys climbing;
009: Hear the shrill whistle which doth order give
010: To sounds confused; behold the threaden sails,
011: Borne with the invisible and creeping wind,
012: Draw the huge bottoms through the furrow'd sea,
013: Breasting the lofty surge: O, do but think
014: You stand upon the ravage and behold
015: A city on the inconstant billows dancing;
016: For so appears this fleet majestical,
017: Holding due course to Harfleur. Follow, follow:
018: Grapple your minds to sternage of this navy,
019: And leave your England, as dead midnight still,
020: Guarded with grandsires, babies and old women,
021: Either past or not arrived to pith and puissance;
022: For who is he, whose chin is but enrich'd
023: With one appearing hair, that will not follow
024: These cull'd and choice-drawn cavaliers to France?
025: Work, work your thoughts, and therein see a siege;
026: Behold the ordnance on their carriages,
027: With fatal mouths gaping on girded Harfleur.
028: Suppose the ambassador from the French comes back;
029: Tells Harry that the king doth offer him
030: Katharine his daughter, and with her, to dowry,
031: Some petty and unprofitable dukedoms.
032: The offer likes not: and the nimble gunner
033: With linstock now the devilish cannon touches,
[Alarum, and chambers go off]
034: And down goes all before them. Still be kind,
035: And eke out our performance with your mind.

Exit

ACT III, SCENE I.

France. Before Harfleur.

Alarum. Enter KING HENRY, EXETER, BEDFORD, GLOUCESTER, and Soldiers, with scaling-ladders

KING HENRY V
001: Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
002: Or close the wall up with our English dead.
003: In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
004: As modest stillness and humility:
005: But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
006: Then imitate the action of the tiger;
007: Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
008: Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
009: Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
010: Let pry through the portage of the head
011: Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
012: As fearfully as doth a galled rock
013: O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
014: Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
015: Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
016: Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
017: To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.
018: Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
019: Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
020: Have in these parts from morn till even fought
021: And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
022: Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
023: That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.
024: Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
025: And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,
026: Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
027: The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
028: That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
029: For there is none of you so mean and base,
030: That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
031: I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
032: Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
033: Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
034: Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'

Exeunt. Alarum, and chambers go off

ACT III, SCENE II.

The same.

Enter NYM, BARDOLPH, PISTOL, and Boy

BARDOLPH
001: On, on, on, on, on! to the breach, to the breach!

NYM
002: Pray thee, corporal, stay: the knocks are too hot;
003: and, for mine own part, I have not a case of lives:
004: the humour of it is too hot, that is the very
005: plain-song of it.

PISTOL
006: The plain-song is most just: for humours do abound:
007: Knocks go and come; God's vassals drop and die;
008: And sword and shield,
009: In bloody field,
010: Doth win immortal fame.

Boy
011: Would I were in an alehouse in London! I would give
012: all my fame for a pot of ale and safety.

PISTOL
013: And I:
014: If wishes would prevail with me,
015: My purpose should not fail with me,
016: But thither would I hie.

Boy
017: As duly, but not as truly,
018: As bird doth sing on bough.

Enter FLUELLEN

FLUELLEN
019: Up to the breach, you dogs! avaunt, you cullions!

Driving them forward

PISTOL
020: Be merciful, great duke, to men of mould.
021: Abate thy rage, abate thy manly rage,
022: Abate thy rage, great duke!
023: Good bawcock, bate thy rage; use lenity, sweet chuck!

NYM
024: These be good humours! your honour wins bad humours.

Exeunt all but Boy

Boy
025: As young as I am, I have observed these three
026: swashers. I am boy to them all three: but all they
027: three, though they would serve me, could not be man
028: to me; for indeed three such antics do not amount to
029: a man. For Bardolph, he is white-livered and
030: red-faced; by the means whereof a' faces it out, but
031: fights not. For Pistol, he hath a killing tongue
032: and a quiet sword; by the means whereof a' breaks
033: words, and keeps whole weapons. For Nym, he hath
034: heard that men of few words are the best men; and
035: therefore he scorns to say his prayers, lest a'
036: should be thought a coward: but his few bad words
037: are matched with as few good deeds; for a' never
038: broke any man's head but his own, and that was
039: against a post when he was drunk. They will steal
040: any thing, and call it purchase. Bardolph stole a
041: lute-case, bore it twelve leagues, and sold it for
042: three half pence. Nym and Bardolph are sworn
043: brothers in filching, and in Calais they stole a
044: fire-shovel: I knew by that piece of service the
045: men would carry coals. They would have me as
046: familiar with men's pockets as their gloves or their
047: handkerchers: which makes much against my manhood,
048: if I should take from another's pocket to put into
049: mine; for it is plain pocketing up of wrongs. I
050: must leave them, and seek some better service:
051: their villany goes against my weak stomach, and
052: therefore I must cast it up.

Exit

Re-enter FLUELLEN, GOWER following

GOWER
053: Captain Fluellen, you must come presently to the
054: mines; the Duke of Gloucester would speak with you.

FLUELLEN
055: To the mines! tell you the duke, it is not so good
056: to come to the mines; for, look you, the mines is
057: not according to the disciplines of the war: the
058: concavities of it is not sufficient; for, look you,
059: the athversary, you may discuss unto the duke, look
060: you, is digt himself four yard under the
061: countermines: by Cheshu, I think a' will plough up
062: all, if there is not better directions.

GOWER
063: The Duke of Gloucester, to whom the order of the
064: siege is given, is altogether directed by an
065: Irishman, a very valiant gentleman, i' faith.

FLUELLEN
066: It is Captain Macmorris, is it not?

GOWER
067: I think it be.

FLUELLEN
068: By Cheshu, he is an ass, as in the world: I will
069: verify as much in his beard: he has no more
070: directions in the true disciplines of the wars, look
071: you, of the Roman disciplines, than is a puppy-dog.

Enter MACMORRIS and Captain JAMY

GOWER
072: Here a' comes; and the Scots captain, Captain Jamy, with him.

FLUELLEN
073: Captain Jamy is a marvellous falourous gentleman,
074: that is certain; and of great expedition and
075: knowledge in th' aunchient wars, upon my particular
076: knowledge of his directions: by Cheshu, he will
077: maintain his argument as well as any military man in
078: the world, in the disciplines of the pristine wars
079: of the Romans.

JAMY
080: I say gud-day, Captain Fluellen.

FLUELLEN
081: God-den to your worship, good Captain James.

GOWER
082: How now, Captain Macmorris! have you quit the
083: mines? have the pioneers given o'er?

MACMORRIS
084: By Chrish, la! tish ill done: the work ish give
085: over, the trompet sound the retreat. By my hand, I
086: swear, and my father's soul, the work ish ill done;
087: it ish give over: I would have blowed up the town, so
088: Chrish save me, la! in an hour: O, tish ill done,
089: tish ill done; by my hand, tish ill done!

FLUELLEN
090: Captain Macmorris, I beseech you now, will you
091: voutsafe me, look you, a few disputations with you,
092: as partly touching or concerning the disciplines of
093: the war, the Roman wars, in the way of argument,
094: look you, and friendly communication; partly to
095: satisfy my opinion, and partly for the satisfaction,
096: look you, of my mind, as touching the direction of
097: the military discipline; that is the point.

JAMY
098: It sall be vary gud, gud feith, gud captains bath:
099: and I sall quit you with gud leve, as I may pick
100: occasion; that sall I, marry.

MACMORRIS
101: It is no time to discourse, so Chrish save me: the
102: day is hot, and the weather, and the wars, and the
103: king, and the dukes: it is no time to discourse. The
104: town is beseeched, and the trumpet call us to the
105: breach; and we talk, and, be Chrish, do nothing:
106: 'tis shame for us all: so God sa' me, 'tis shame to
107: stand still; it is shame, by my hand: and there is
108: throats to be cut, and works to be done; and there
109: ish nothing done, so Chrish sa' me, la!

JAMY
110: By the mess, ere theise eyes of mine take themselves
111: to slomber, ay'll de gud service, or ay'll lig i'
112: the grund for it; ay, or go to death; and ay'll pay
113: 't as valourously as I may, that sall I suerly do,
114: that is the breff and the long. Marry, I wad full
115: fain hear some question 'tween you tway.

FLUELLEN
116: Captain Macmorris, I think, look you, under your
117: correction, there is not many of your nation--

MACMORRIS
118: Of my nation! What ish my nation? Ish a villain,
119: and a bastard, and a knave, and a rascal. What ish
120: my nation? Who talks of my nation?

FLUELLEN
121: Look you, if you take the matter otherwise than is
122: meant, Captain Macmorris, peradventure I shall think
123: you do not use me with that affability as in
124: discretion you ought to use me, look you: being as
125: good a man as yourself, both in the disciplines of
126: war, and in the derivation of my birth, and in
127: other particularities.

MACMORRIS
128: I do not know you so good a man as myself: so
129: Chrish save me, I will cut off your head.

GOWER
130: Gentlemen both, you will mistake each other.

JAMY
131: A! that's a foul fault.

A parley sounded

GOWER
132: The town sounds a parley.

FLUELLEN
133: Captain Macmorris, when there is more better
134: opportunity to be required, look you, I will be so
135: bold as to tell you I know the disciplines of war;
136: and there is an end.

Exeunt

ACT III, SCENE III.

The same. Before the gates.

The Governor and some Citizens on the walls; the English forces below. Enter KING HENRY and his train

KING HENRY V
001: How yet resolves the governor of the town?
002: This is the latest parle we will admit;
003: Therefore to our best mercy give yourselves;
004: Or like to men proud of destruction
005: Defy us to our worst: for, as I am a soldier,
006: A name that in my thoughts becomes me best,
007: If I begin the battery once again,
008: I will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur
009: Till in her ashes she lie buried.
010: The gates of mercy shall be all shut up,
011: And the flesh'd soldier, rough and hard of heart,
012: In liberty of bloody hand shall range
013: With conscience wide as hell, mowing like grass
014: Your fresh-fair virgins and your flowering infants.
015: What is it then to me, if impious war,
016: Array'd in flames like to the prince of fiends,
017: Do, with his smirch'd complexion, all fell feats
018: Enlink'd to waste and desolation?
019: What is't to me, when you yourselves are cause,
020: If your pure maidens fall into the hand
021: Of hot and forcing violation?
022: What rein can hold licentious wickedness
023: When down the hill he holds his fierce career?
024: We may as bootless spend our vain command
025: Upon the enraged soldiers in their spoil
026: As send precepts to the leviathan
027: To come ashore. Therefore, you men of Harfleur,
028: Take pity of your town and of your people,
029: Whiles yet my soldiers are in my command;
030: Whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace
031: O'erblows the filthy and contagious clouds
032: Of heady murder, spoil and villany.
033: If not, why, in a moment look to see
034: The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand
035: Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters;
036: Your fathers taken by the silver beards,
037: And their most reverend heads dash'd to the walls,
038: Your naked infants spitted upon pikes,
039: Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confused
040: Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry
041: At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen.
042: What say you? will you yield, and this avoid,
043: Or, guilty in defence, be thus destroy'd?

GOVERNOR
044: Our expectation hath this day an end:
045: The Dauphin, whom of succors we entreated,
046: Returns us that his powers are yet not ready
047: To raise so great a siege. Therefore, great king,
048: We yield our town and lives to thy soft mercy.
049: Enter our gates; dispose of us and ours;
050: For we no longer are defensible.

KING HENRY V
051: Open your gates. Come, uncle Exeter,
052: Go you and enter Harfleur; there remain,
053: And fortify it strongly 'gainst the French:
054: Use mercy to them all. For us, dear uncle,
055: The winter coming on and sickness growing
056: Upon our soldiers, we will retire to Calais.
057: To-night in Harfleur we will be your guest;
058: To-morrow for the march are we addrest.

Flourish. The King and his train enter the town

ACT III, SCENE IV.

The FRENCH KING's palace.

Enter KATHARINE and ALICE

KATHARINE
001: Alice, tu as ete en Angleterre, et tu parles bien le langage.

ALICE
002: Un peu, madame.

KATHARINE
003: Je te prie, m'enseignez: il faut que j'apprenne a
004: parler. Comment appelez-vous la main en Anglois?

ALICE
005: La main? elle est appelee de hand.

KATHARINE
006: De hand. Et les doigts?

ALICE
007: Les doigts? ma foi, j'oublie les doigts; mais je me
008: souviendrai. Les doigts? je pense qu'ils sont
009: appeles de fingres; oui, de fingres.

KATHARINE
010: La main, de hand; les doigts, de fingres. Je pense
011: que je suis le bon ecolier; j'ai gagne deux mots
012: d'Anglois vitement. Comment appelez-vous les ongles?

ALICE
013: Les ongles? nous les appelons de nails.

KATHARINE
014: De nails. Ecoutez; dites-moi, si je parle bien: de
015: hand, de fingres, et de nails.

ALICE
016: C'est bien dit, madame; il est fort bon Anglois.

KATHARINE
017: Dites-moi l'Anglois pour le bras.

ALICE
018: De arm, madame.

KATHARINE
019: Et le coude?

ALICE
020: De elbow.

KATHARINE
021: De elbow. Je m'en fais la repetition de tous les
022: mots que vous m'avez appris des a present.

ALICE
023: Il est trop difficile, madame, comme je pense.

KATHARINE
024: Excusez-moi, Alice; ecoutez: de hand, de fingres,
025: de nails, de arma, de bilbow.

ALICE
026: De elbow, madame.

KATHARINE
027: O Seigneur Dieu, je m'en oublie! de elbow. Comment
028: appelez-vous le col?

ALICE
029: De neck, madame.

KATHARINE
030: De nick. Et le menton?

ALICE
031: De chin.

KATHARINE
032: De sin. Le col, de nick; de menton, de sin.

ALICE
033: Oui. Sauf votre honneur, en verite, vous prononcez
034: les mots aussi droit que les natifs d'Angleterre.

KATHARINE
035: Je ne doute point d'apprendre, par la grace de Dieu,
036: et en peu de temps.

ALICE
037: N'avez vous pas deja oublie ce que je vous ai enseigne?

KATHARINE
038: Non, je reciterai a vous promptement: de hand, de
039: fingres, de mails--

ALICE
040: De nails, madame.

KATHARINE
041: De nails, de arm, de ilbow.

ALICE
042: Sauf votre honneur, de elbow.

KATHARINE
043: Ainsi dis-je; de elbow, de nick, et de sin. Comment
044: appelez-vous le pied et la robe?

ALICE
045: De foot, madame; et de coun.

KATHARINE
046: De foot et de coun! O Seigneur Dieu! ce sont mots
047: de son mauvais, corruptible, gros, et impudique, et
048: non pour les dames d'honneur d'user: je ne voudrais
049: prononcer ces mots devant les seigneurs de France
050: pour tout le monde. Foh! le foot et le coun!
051: Neanmoins, je reciterai une autre fois ma lecon
052: ensemble: de hand, de fingres, de nails, de arm, de
053: elbow, de nick, de sin, de foot, de coun.

ALICE
054: Excellent, madame!

KATHARINE
055: C'est assez pour une fois: allons-nous a diner.

Exeunt

ACT III, SCENE V.

The same.

Enter the KING OF FRANCE, the DAUPHIN, the DUKE oF BOURBON, the Constable Of France, and others

KING OF FRANCE
001: 'Tis certain he hath pass'd the river Somme.

Constable
002: And if he be not fought withal, my lord,
003: Let us not live in France; let us quit all
004: And give our vineyards to a barbarous people.

DAUPHIN
005: O Dieu vivant! shall a few sprays of us,
006: The emptying of our fathers' luxury,
007: Our scions, put in wild and savage stock,
008: Spirt up so suddenly into the clouds,
009: And overlook their grafters?

BOURBON
010: Normans, but bastard Normans, Norman bastards!
011: Mort de ma vie! if they march along
012: Unfought withal, but I will sell my dukedom,
013: To buy a slobbery and a dirty farm
014: In that nook-shotten isle of Albion.

Constable
015: Dieu de batailles! where have they this mettle?
016: Is not their climate foggy, raw and dull,
017: On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale,
018: Killing their fruit with frowns? Can sodden water,
019: A drench for sur-rein'd jades, their barley-broth,
020: Decoct their cold blood to such valiant heat?
021: And shall our quick blood, spirited with wine,
022: Seem frosty? O, for honour of our land,
023: Let us not hang like roping icicles
024: Upon our houses' thatch, whiles a more frosty people
025: Sweat drops of gallant youth in our rich fields!
026: Poor we may call them in their native lords.

DAUPHIN
027: By faith and honour,
028: Our madams mock at us, and plainly say
029: Our mettle is bred out and they will give
030: Their bodies to the lust of English youth
031: To new-store France with bastard warriors.

BOURBON
032: They bid us to the English dancing-schools,
033: And teach lavoltas high and swift corantos;
034: Saying our grace is only in our heels,
035: And that we are most lofty runaways.

KING OF FRANCE
036: Where is Montjoy the herald? speed him hence:
037: Let him greet England with our sharp defiance.
038: Up, princes! and, with spirit of honour edged
039: More sharper than your swords, hie to the field:
040: Charles Delabreth, high constable of France;
041: You Dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and of Berri,
042: Alencon, Brabant, Bar, and Burgundy;
043: Jaques Chatillon, Rambures, Vaudemont,
044: Beaumont, Grandpre, Roussi, and Fauconberg,
045: Foix, Lestrale, Bouciqualt, and Charolois;
046: High dukes, great princes, barons, lords and knights,
047: For your great seats now quit you of great shames.
048: Bar Harry England, that sweeps through our land
049: With pennons painted in the blood of Harfleur:
050: Rush on his host, as doth the melted snow
051: Upon the valleys, whose low vassal seat
052: The Alps doth spit and void his rheum upon:
053: Go down upon him, you have power enough,
054: And in a captive chariot into Rouen
055: Bring him our prisoner.

Constable
056: This becomes the great.
057: Sorry am I his numbers are so few,
058: His soldiers sick and famish'd in their march,
059: For I am sure, when he shall see our army,
060: He'll drop his heart into the sink of fear
061: And for achievement offer us his ransom.

KING OF FRANCE
062: Therefore, lord constable, haste on Montjoy.
063: And let him say to England that we send
064: To know what willing ransom he will give.
065: Prince Dauphin, you shall stay with us in Rouen.

DAUPHIN
066: Not so, I do beseech your majesty.

KING OF FRANCE
067: Be patient, for you shall remain with us.
068: Now forth, lord constable and princes all,
069: And quickly bring us word of England's fall.

Exeunt

ACT III, SCENE VI.

The English camp in Picardy.

Enter GOWER and FLUELLEN, meeting

GOWER
001: How now, Captain Fluellen! come you from the bridge?

FLUELLEN
002: I assure you, there is very excellent services
003: committed at the bridge.

GOWER
004: Is the Duke of Exeter safe?

FLUELLEN
005: The Duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as Agamemnon;
006: and a man that I love and honour with my soul, and my
007: heart, and my duty, and my life, and my living, and
008: my uttermost power: he is not-God be praised and
009: blessed!--any hurt in the world; but keeps the
010: bridge most valiantly, with excellent discipline.
011: There is an aunchient lieutenant there at the
012: pridge, I think in my very conscience he is as
013: valiant a man as Mark Antony; and he is a man of no
014: estimation in the world; but did see him do as
015: gallant service.

GOWER
016: What do you call him?

FLUELLEN
017: He is called Aunchient Pistol.

GOWER
018: I know him not.

Enter PISTOL

FLUELLEN
019: Here is the man.

PISTOL
020: Captain, I thee beseech to do me favours:
021: The Duke of Exeter doth love thee well.

FLUELLEN
022: Ay, I praise God; and I have merited some love at
023: his hands.

PISTOL
024: Bardolph, a soldier, firm and sound of heart,
025: And of buxom valour, hath, by cruel fate,
026: And giddy Fortune's furious fickle wheel,
027: That goddess blind,
028: That stands upon the rolling restless stone--

FLUELLEN
029: By your patience, Aunchient Pistol. Fortune is
030: painted blind, with a muffler afore her eyes, to
031: signify to you that Fortune is blind; and she is
032: painted also with a wheel, to signify to you, which
033: is the moral of it, that she is turning, and
034: inconstant, and mutability, and variation: and her
035: foot, look you, is fixed upon a spherical stone,
036: which rolls, and rolls, and rolls: in good truth,
037: the poet makes a most excellent description of it:
038: Fortune is an excellent moral.

PISTOL
039: Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him;
040: For he hath stolen a pax, and hanged must a' be:
041: A damned death!
042: Let gallows gape for dog; let man go free
043: And let not hemp his wind-pipe suffocate:
044: But Exeter hath given the doom of death
045: For pax of little price.
046: Therefore, go speak: the duke will hear thy voice:
047: And let not Bardolph's vital thread be cut
048: With edge of penny cord and vile reproach:
049: Speak, captain, for his life, and I will thee requite.

FLUELLEN
050: Aunchient Pistol, I do partly understand your meaning.

PISTOL
051: Why then, rejoice therefore.

FLUELLEN
052: Certainly, aunchient, it is not a thing to rejoice
053: at: for if, look you, he were my brother, I would
054: desire the duke to use his good pleasure, and put
055: him to execution; for discipline ought to be used.

PISTOL
056: Die and be damn'd! and figo for thy friendship!

FLUELLEN
057: It is well.

PISTOL
058: The fig of Spain!

Exit

FLUELLEN
059: Very good.

GOWER
060: Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal; I
061: remember him now; a bawd, a cutpurse.

FLUELLEN
062: I'll assure you, a' uttered as brave words at the
063: bridge as you shall see in a summer's day. But it
064: is very well; what he has spoke to me, that is well,
065: I warrant you, when time is serve.

GOWER
066: Why, 'tis a gull, a fool, a rogue, that now and then
067: goes to the wars, to grace himself at his return
068: into London under the form of a soldier. And such
069: fellows are perfect in the great commanders' names:
070: and they will learn you by rote where services were
071: done; at such and such a sconce, at such a breach,
072: at such a convoy; who came off bravely, who was
073: shot, who disgraced, what terms the enemy stood on;
074: and this they con perfectly in the phrase of war,
075: which they trick up with new-tuned oaths: and what
076: a beard of the general's cut and a horrid suit of
077: the camp will do among foaming bottles and
078: ale-washed wits, is wonderful to be thought on. But
079: you must learn to know such slanders of the age, or
080: else you may be marvellously mistook.

FLUELLEN
081: I tell you what, Captain Gower; I do perceive he is
082: not the man that he would gladly make show to the
083: world he is: if I find a hole in his coat, I will
084: tell him my mind.
[Drum heard]
085: Hark you, the king is coming, and I must speak with
086: him from the pridge.
[Drum and colours. Enter KING HENRY, GLOUCESTER, and Soldiers]
087: God pless your majesty!

KING HENRY V
088: How now, Fluellen! camest thou from the bridge?

FLUELLEN
089: Ay, so please your majesty. The Duke of Exeter has
090: very gallantly maintained the pridge: the French is
091: gone off, look you; and there is gallant and most
092: prave passages; marry, th' athversary was have
093: possession of the pridge; but he is enforced to
094: retire, and the Duke of Exeter is master of the
095: pridge: I can tell your majesty, the duke is a
096: prave man.

KING HENRY V
097: What men have you lost, Fluellen?

FLUELLEN
098: The perdition of th' athversary hath been very
099: great, reasonable great: marry, for my part, I
100: think the duke hath lost never a man, but one that
101: is like to be executed for robbing a church, one
102: Bardolph, if your majesty know the man: his face is
103: all bubukles, and whelks, and knobs, and flames o'
104: fire: and his lips blows at his nose, and it is like
105: a coal of fire, sometimes plue and sometimes red;
106: but his nose is executed and his fire's out.

KING HENRY V
107: We would have all such offenders so cut off: and we
108: give express charge, that in our marches through the
109: country, there be nothing compelled from the
110: villages, nothing taken but paid for, none of the
111: French upbraided or abused in disdainful language;
112: for when lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the
113: gentler gamester is the soonest winner.

Tucket. Enter MONTJOY

MONTJOY
114: You know me by my habit.

KING HENRY V
115: Well then I know thee: what shall I know of thee?

MONTJOY
116: My master's mind.

KING HENRY V
117: Unfold it.

MONTJOY
118: Thus says my king: Say thou to Harry of England:
119: Though we seemed dead, we did but sleep: advantage
120: is a better soldier than rashness. Tell him we
121: could have rebuked him at Harfleur, but that we
122: thought not good to bruise an injury till it were
123: full ripe: now we speak upon our cue, and our voice
124: is imperial: England shall repent his folly, see
125: his weakness, and admire our sufferance. Bid him
126: therefore consider of his ransom; which must
127: proportion the losses we have borne, the subjects we
128: have lost, the disgrace we have digested; which in
129: weight to re-answer, his pettiness would bow under.
130: For our losses, his exchequer is too poor; for the
131: effusion of our blood, the muster of his kingdom too
132: faint a number; and for our disgrace, his own
133: person, kneeling at our feet, but a weak and
134: worthless satisfaction. To this add defiance: and
135: tell him, for conclusion, he hath betrayed his
136: followers, whose condemnation is pronounced. So far
137: my king and master; so much my office.

KING HENRY V
138: What is thy name? I know thy quality.

MONTJOY
139: Montjoy.

KING HENRY V
140: Thou dost thy office fairly. Turn thee back.
141: And tell thy king I do not seek him now;
142: But could be willing to march on to Calais
143: Without impeachment: for, to say the sooth,
144: Though 'tis no wisdom to confess so much
145: Unto an enemy of craft and vantage,
146: My people are with sickness much enfeebled,
147: My numbers lessened, and those few I have
148: Almost no better than so many French;
149: Who when they were in health, I tell thee, herald,
150: I thought upon one pair of English legs
151: Did march three Frenchmen. Yet, forgive me, God,
152: That I do brag thus! This your air of France
153: Hath blown that vice in me: I must repent.
154: Go therefore, tell thy master here I am;
155: My ransom is this frail and worthless trunk,
156: My army but a weak and sickly guard;
157: Yet, God before, tell him we will come on,
158: Though France himself and such another neighbour
159: Stand in our way. There's for thy labour, Montjoy.
160: Go bid thy master well advise himself:
161: If we may pass, we will; if we be hinder'd,
162: We shall your tawny ground with your red blood
163: Discolour: and so Montjoy, fare you well.
164: The sum of all our answer is but this:
165: We would not seek a battle, as we are;
166: Nor, as we are, we say we will not shun it:
167: So tell your master.

MONTJOY
168: I shall deliver so. Thanks to your highness.

Exit

GLOUCESTER
169: I hope they will not come upon us now.

KING HENRY V
170: We are in God's hand, brother, not in theirs.
171: March to the bridge; it now draws toward night:
172: Beyond the river we'll encamp ourselves,
173: And on to-morrow, bid them march away.

Exeunt

ACT III, SCENE VII.

The French camp, near Agincourt:

Enter the Constable of France, the LORD RAMBURES, ORLEANS, DAUPHIN, with others

Constable
001: Tut! I have the best armour of the world. Would it were day!

ORLEANS
002: You have an excellent armour; but let my horse have his due.

Constable
003: It is the best horse of Europe.

ORLEANS
004: Will it never be morning?

DAUPHIN
005: My lord of Orleans, and my lord high constable, you
006: talk of horse and armour?

ORLEANS
007: You are as well provided of both as any prince in the world.

DAUPHIN
008: What a long night is this! I will not change my
009: horse with any that treads but on four pasterns.
010: Ca, ha! he bounds from the earth, as if his
011: entrails were hairs; le cheval volant, the Pegasus,
012: chez les narines de feu! When I bestride him, I
013: soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the earth
014: sings when he touches it; the basest horn of his
015: hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes.

ORLEANS
016: He's of the colour of the nutmeg.

DAUPHIN
017: And of the heat of the ginger. It is a beast for
018: Perseus: he is pure air and fire; and the dull
019: elements of earth and water never appear in him, but
020: only in Patient stillness while his rider mounts
021: him: he is indeed a horse; and all other jades you
022: may call beasts.

Constable
023: Indeed, my lord, it is a most absolute and excellent horse.

DAUPHIN
024: It is the prince of palfreys; his neigh is like the
025: bidding of a monarch and his countenance enforces homage.

ORLEANS
026: No more, cousin.

DAUPHIN
027: Nay, the man hath no wit that cannot, from the
028: rising of the lark to the lodging of the lamb, vary
029: deserved praise on my palfrey: it is a theme as
030: fluent as the sea: turn the sands into eloquent
031: tongues, and my horse is argument for them all:
032: 'tis a subject for a sovereign to reason on, and for
033: a sovereign's sovereign to ride on; and for the
034: world, familiar to us and unknown to lay apart
035: their particular functions and wonder at him. I
036: once writ a sonnet in his praise and began thus:
037: 'Wonder of nature,'--

ORLEANS
038: I have heard a sonnet begin so to one's mistress.

DAUPHIN
039: Then did they imitate that which I composed to my
040: courser, for my horse is my mistress.

ORLEANS
041: Your mistress bears well.

DAUPHIN
042: Me well; which is the prescript praise and
043: perfection of a good and particular mistress.

Constable
044: Nay, for methought yesterday your mistress shrewdly
045: shook your back.

DAUPHIN
046: So perhaps did yours.

Constable
047: Mine was not bridled.

DAUPHIN
048: O then belike she was old and gentle; and you rode,
049: like a kern of Ireland, your French hose off, and in
050: your straight strossers.

Constable
051: You have good judgment in horsemanship.

DAUPHIN
052: Be warned by me, then: they that ride so and ride
053: not warily, fall into foul bogs. I had rather have
054: my horse to my mistress.

Constable
055: I had as lief have my mistress a jade.

DAUPHIN
056: I tell thee, constable, my mistress wears his own hair.

Constable
057: I could make as true a boast as that, if I had a sow
058: to my mistress.

DAUPHIN
059: 'Le chien est retourne a son propre vomissement, et
060: la truie lavee au bourbier;' thou makest use of any thing.

Constable
061: Yet do I not use my horse for my mistress, or any
062: such proverb so little kin to the purpose.

RAMBURES
063: My lord constable, the armour that I saw in your tent
064: to-night, are those stars or suns upon it?

Constable
065: Stars, my lord.

DAUPHIN
066: Some of them will fall to-morrow, I hope.

Constable
067: And yet my sky shall not want.

DAUPHIN
068: That may be, for you bear a many superfluously, and
069: 'twere more honour some were away.

Constable
070: Even as your horse bears your praises; who would
071: trot as well, were some of your brags dismounted.

DAUPHIN
072: Would I were able to load him with his desert! Will
073: it never be day? I will trot to-morrow a mile, and
074: my way shall be paved with English faces.

Constable
075: I will not say so, for fear I should be faced out of
076: my way: but I would it were morning; for I would
077: fain be about the ears of the English.

RAMBURES
078: Who will go to hazard with me for twenty prisoners?

Constable
079: You must first go yourself to hazard, ere you have them.

DAUPHIN
080: 'Tis midnight; I'll go arm myself.

Exit

ORLEANS
081: The Dauphin longs for morning.

RAMBURES
082: He longs to eat the English.

Constable
083: I think he will eat all he kills.

ORLEANS
084: By the white hand of my lady, he's a gallant prince.

Constable
085: Swear by her foot, that she may tread out the oath.

ORLEANS
086: He is simply the most active gentleman of France.

Constable
087: Doing is activity; and he will still be doing.

ORLEANS
088: He never did harm, that I heard of.

Constable
089: Nor will do none to-morrow: he will keep that good name still.

ORLEANS
090: I know him to be valiant.

Constable
091: I was told that by one that knows him better than
092: you.

ORLEANS
093: What's he?

Constable
094: Marry, he told me so himself; and he said he cared
095: not who knew it

ORLEANS
096: He needs not; it is no hidden virtue in him.

Constable
097: By my faith, sir, but it is; never any body saw it
098: but his lackey: 'tis a hooded valour; and when it
099: appears, it will bate.

ORLEANS
100: Ill will never said well.

Constable
101: I will cap that proverb with 'There is flattery in friendship.'

ORLEANS
102: And I will take up that with 'Give the devil his due.'

Constable
103: Well placed: there stands your friend for the
104: devil: have at the very eye of that proverb with 'A
105: pox of the devil.'

ORLEANS
106: You are the better at proverbs, by how much 'A
107: fool's bolt is soon shot.'

Constable
108: You have shot over.

ORLEANS
109: 'Tis not the first time you were overshot.

Enter a Messenger

Messenger
110: My lord high constable, the English lie within
111: fifteen hundred paces of your tents.

Constable
112: Who hath measured the ground?

Messenger
113: The Lord Grandpre.

Constable
114: A valiant and most expert gentleman. Would it were
115: day! Alas, poor Harry of England! he longs not for
116: the dawning as we do.

ORLEANS
117: What a wretched and peevish fellow is this king of
118: England, to mope with his fat-brained followers so
119: far out of his knowledge!

Constable
120: If the English had any apprehension, they would run away.

ORLEANS
121: That they lack; for if their heads had any
122: intellectual armour, they could never wear such heavy
123: head-pieces.

RAMBURES
124: That island of England breeds very valiant
125: creatures; their mastiffs are of unmatchable courage.

ORLEANS
126: Foolish curs, that run winking into the mouth of a
127: Russian bear and have their heads crushed like
128: rotten apples! You may as well say, that's a
129: valiant flea that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion.

Constable
130: Just, just; and the men do sympathize with the
131: mastiffs in robustious and rough coming on, leaving
132: their wits with their wives: and then give them
133: great meals of beef and iron and steel, they will
134: eat like wolves and fight like devils.

ORLEANS
135: Ay, but these English are shrewdly out of beef.

Constable
136: Then shall we find to-morrow they have only stomachs
137: to eat and none to fight. Now is it time to arm:
138: come, shall we about it?

ORLEANS
139: It is now two o'clock: but, let me see, by ten
140: We shall have each a hundred Englishmen.

Exeunt

ACT IV, PROLOGUE.

Enter Chorus

Chorus
001: Now entertain conjecture of a time
002: When creeping murmur and the poring dark
003: Fills the wide vessel of the universe.
004: From camp to camp through the foul womb of night
005: The hum of either army stilly sounds,
006: That the fixed sentinels almost receive
007: The secret whispers of each other's watch:
008: Fire answers fire, and through their paly flames
009: Each battle sees the other's umber'd face;
010: Steed threatens steed, in high and boastful neighs
011: Piercing the night's dull ear, and from the tents
012: The armourers, accomplishing the knights,
013: With busy hammers closing rivets up,
014: Give dreadful note of preparation:
015: The country cocks do crow, the clocks do toll,
016: And the third hour of drowsy morning name.
017: Proud of their numbers and secure in soul,
018: The confident and over-lusty French
019: Do the low-rated English play at dice;
020: And chide the cripple tardy-gaited night
021: Who, like a foul and ugly witch, doth limp
022: So tediously away. The poor condemned English,
023: Like sacrifices, by their watchful fires
024: Sit patiently and inly ruminate
025: The morning's danger, and their gesture sad
026: Investing lank-lean; cheeks and war-worn coats
027: Presenteth them unto the gazing moon
028: So many horrid ghosts. O now, who will behold
029: The royal captain of this ruin'd band
030: Walking from watch to watch, from tent to tent,
031: Let him cry 'Praise and glory on his head!'
032: For forth he goes and visits all his host.
033: Bids them good morrow with a modest smile
034: And calls them brothers, friends and countrymen.
035: Upon his royal face there is no note
036: How dread an army hath enrounded him;
037: Nor doth he dedicate one jot of colour
038: Unto the weary and all-watched night,
039: But freshly looks and over-bears attaint
040: With cheerful semblance and sweet majesty;
041: That every wretch, pining and pale before,
042: Beholding him, plucks comfort from his looks:
043: A largess universal like the sun
044: His liberal eye doth give to every one,
045: Thawing cold fear, that mean and gentle all,
046: Behold, as may unworthiness define,
047: A little touch of Harry in the night.
048: And so our scene must to the battle fly;
049: Where--O for pity!--we shall much disgrace
050: With four or five most vile and ragged foils,
051: Right ill-disposed in brawl ridiculous,
052: The name of Agincourt. Yet sit and see,
053: Minding true things by what their mockeries be.

Exit

ACT IV, SCENE I.

The English camp at Agincourt.

Enter KING HENRY, BEDFORD, and GLOUCESTER

KING HENRY V
001: Gloucester, 'tis true that we are in great danger;
002: The greater therefore should our courage be.
003: Good morrow, brother Bedford. God Almighty!
004: There is some soul of goodness in things evil,
005: Would men observingly distil it out.
006: For our bad neighbour makes us early stirrers,
007: Which is both healthful and good husbandry:
008: Besides, they are our outward consciences,
009: And preachers to us all, admonishing
010: That we should dress us fairly for our end.
011: Thus may we gather honey from the weed,
012: And make a moral of the devil himself.
[Enter ERPINGHAM]
013: Good morrow, old Sir Thomas Erpingham:
014: A good soft pillow for that good white head
015: Were better than a churlish turf of France.

ERPINGHAM
016: Not so, my liege: this lodging likes me better,
017: Since I may say 'Now lie I like a king.'

KING HENRY V
018: 'Tis good for men to love their present pains
019: Upon example; so the spirit is eased:
020: And when the mind is quicken'd, out of doubt,
021: The organs, though defunct and dead before,
022: Break up their drowsy grave and newly move,
023: With casted slough and fresh legerity.
024: Lend me thy cloak, Sir Thomas. Brothers both,
025: Commend me to the princes in our camp;
026: Do my good morrow to them, and anon
027: Desire them an to my pavilion.

GLOUCESTER
028: We shall, my liege.

ERPINGHAM
029: Shall I attend your grace?

KING HENRY V
030: No, my good knight;
031: Go with my brothers to my lords of England:
032: I and my bosom must debate awhile,
033: And then I would no other company.

ERPINGHAM
034: The Lord in heaven bless thee, noble Harry!

Exeunt all but KING HENRY

KING HENRY V
035: God-a-mercy, old heart! thou speak'st cheerfully.

Enter PISTOL

PISTOL
036: Qui va la?

KING HENRY V
037: A friend.

PISTOL
038: Discuss unto me; art thou officer?
039: Or art thou base, common and popular?

KING HENRY V
040: I am a gentleman of a company.

PISTOL
041: Trail'st thou the puissant pike?

KING HENRY V
042: Even so. What are you?

PISTOL
043: As good a gentleman as the emperor.

KING HENRY V
044: Then you are a better than the king.

PISTOL
045: The king's a bawcock, and a heart of gold,
046: A lad of life, an imp of fame;
047: Of parents good, of fist most valiant.
048: I kiss his dirty shoe, and from heart-string
049: I love the lovely bully. What is thy name?

KING HENRY V
050: Harry le Roy.

PISTOL
051: Le Roy! a Cornish name: art thou of Cornish crew?

KING HENRY V
052: No, I am a Welshman.

PISTOL
053: Know'st thou Fluellen?

KING HENRY V
054: Yes.

PISTOL
055: Tell him, I'll knock his leek about his pate
056: Upon Saint Davy's day.

KING HENRY V
057: Do not you wear your dagger in your cap that day,
058: lest he knock that about yours.

PISTOL
059: Art thou his friend?

KING HENRY V
060: And his kinsman too.

PISTOL
061: The figo for thee, then!

KING HENRY V
062: I thank you: God be with you!

PISTOL
063: My name is Pistol call'd.

Exit

KING HENRY V
064: It sorts well with your fierceness.

Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER

GOWER
065: Captain Fluellen!

FLUELLEN
066: So! in the name of Jesu Christ, speak lower. It is
067: the greatest admiration of the universal world, when
068: the true and aunchient prerogatifes and laws of the
069: wars is not kept: if you would take the pains but to
070: examine the wars of Pompey the Great, you shall
071: find, I warrant you, that there is no tiddle toddle
072: nor pibble pabble in Pompey's camp; I warrant you,
073: you shall find the ceremonies of the wars, and the
074: cares of it, and the forms of it, and the sobriety
075: of it, and the modesty of it, to be otherwise.

GOWER
076: Why, the enemy is loud; you hear him all night.

FLUELLEN
077: If the enemy is an ass and a fool and a prating
078: coxcomb, is it meet, think you, that we should also,
079: look you, be an ass and a fool and a prating
080: coxcomb? in your own conscience, now?

GOWER
081: I will speak lower.

FLUELLEN
082: I pray you and beseech you that you will.

Exeunt GOWER and FLUELLEN

KING HENRY V
083: Though it appear a little out of fashion,
084: There is much care and valour in this Welshman.

Enter three soldiers, JOHN BATES, ALEXANDER COURT, and MICHAEL WILLIAMS

COURT
085: Brother John Bates, is not that the morning which
086: breaks yonder?

BATES
087: I think it be: but we have no great cause to desire
088: the approach of day.

WILLIAMS
089: We see yonder the beginning of the day, but I think
090: we shall never see the end of it. Who goes there?

KING HENRY V
091: A friend.

WILLIAMS
092: Under what captain serve you?

KING HENRY V
093: Under Sir Thomas Erpingham.

WILLIAMS
094: A good old commander and a most kind gentleman: I
095: pray you, what thinks he of our estate?

KING HENRY V
096: Even as men wrecked upon a sand, that look to be
097: washed off the next tide.

BATES
098: He hath not told his thought to the king?

KING HENRY V
099: No; nor it is not meet he should. For, though I
100: speak it to you, I think the king is but a man, as I
101: am: the violet smells to him as it doth to me: the
102: element shows to him as it doth to me; all his
103: senses have but human conditions: his ceremonies
104: laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man; and
105: though his affections are higher mounted than ours,
106: yet, when they stoop, they stoop with the like
107: wing. Therefore when he sees reason of fears, as we
108: do, his fears, out of doubt, be of the same relish
109: as ours are: yet, in reason, no man should possess
110: him with any appearance of fear, lest he, by showing
111: it, should dishearten his army.

BATES
112: He may show what outward courage he will; but I
113: believe, as cold a night as 'tis, he could wish
114: himself in Thames up to the neck; and so I would he
115: were, and I by him, at all adventures, so we were quit here.

KING HENRY V
116: By my troth, I will speak my conscience of the king:
117: I think he would not wish himself any where but
118: where he is.

BATES
119: Then I would he were here alone; so should he be
120: sure to be ransomed, and a many poor men's lives saved.

KING HENRY V
121: I dare say you love him not so ill, to wish him here
122: alone, howsoever you speak this to feel other men's
123: minds: methinks I could not die any where so
124: contented as in the king's company; his cause being
125: just and his quarrel honourable.

WILLIAMS
126: That's more than we know.

BATES
127: Ay, or more than we should seek after; for we know
128: enough, if we know we are the kings subjects: if
129: his cause be wrong, our obedience to the king wipes
130: the crime of it out of us.

WILLIAMS
131: But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath
132: a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs and
133: arms and heads, chopped off in battle, shall join
134: together at the latter day and cry all 'We died at
135: such a place;' some swearing, some crying for a
136: surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind
137: them, some upon the debts they owe, some upon their
138: children rawly left. I am afeard there are few die
139: well that die in a battle; for how can they
140: charitably dispose of any thing, when blood is their
141: argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it
142: will be a black matter for the king that led them to
143: it; whom to disobey were against all proportion of
144: subjection.

KING HENRY V
145: So, if a son that is by his father sent about
146: merchandise do sinfully miscarry upon the sea, the
147: imputation of his wickedness by your rule, should be
148: imposed upon his father that sent him: or if a
149: servant, under his master's command transporting a
150: sum of money, be assailed by robbers and die in
151: many irreconciled iniquities, you may call the
152: business of the master the author of the servant's
153: damnation: but this is not so: the king is not
154: bound to answer the particular endings of his
155: soldiers, the father of his son, nor the master of
156: his servant; for they purpose not their death, when
157: they purpose their services. Besides, there is no
158: king, be his cause never so spotless, if it come to
159: the arbitrement of swords, can try it out with all
160: unspotted soldiers: some peradventure have on them
161: the guilt of premeditated and contrived murder;
162: some, of beguiling virgins with the broken seals of
163: perjury; some, making the wars their bulwark, that
164: have before gored the gentle bosom of peace with
165: pillage and robbery. Now, if these men have
166: defeated the law and outrun native punishment,
167: though they can outstrip men, they have no wings to
168: fly from God: war is his beadle, war is vengeance;
169: so that here men are punished for before-breach of
170: the king's laws in now the king's quarrel: where
171: they feared the death, they have borne life away;
172: and where they would be safe, they perish: then if
173: they die unprovided, no more is the king guilty of
174: their damnation than he was before guilty of those
175: impieties for the which they are now visited. Every
176: subject's duty is the king's; but every subject's
177: soul is his own. Therefore should every soldier in
178: the wars do as every sick man in his bed, wash every
179: mote out of his conscience: and dying so, death
180: is to him advantage; or not dying, the time was
181: blessedly lost wherein such preparation was gained:
182: and in him that escapes, it were not sin to think
183: that, making God so free an offer, He let him
184: outlive that day to see His greatness and to teach
185: others how they should prepare.

WILLIAMS
186: 'Tis certain, every man that dies ill, the ill upon
187: his own head, the king is not to answer it.

BATES
188: But I do not desire he should answer for me; and
189: yet I determine to fight lustily for him.

KING HENRY V
190: I myself heard the king say he would not be ransomed.

WILLIAMS
191: Ay, he said so, to make us fight cheerfully: but
192: when our throats are cut, he may be ransomed, and we
193: ne'er the wiser.

KING HENRY V
194: If I live to see it, I will never trust his word after.

WILLIAMS
195: You pay him then. That's a perilous shot out of an
196: elder-gun, that a poor and private displeasure can
197: do against a monarch! you may as well go about to
198: turn the sun to ice with fanning in his face with a
199: peacock's feather. You'll never trust his word
200: after! come, 'tis a foolish saying.

KING HENRY V
201: Your reproof is something too round: I should be
202: angry with you, if the time were convenient.

WILLIAMS
203: Let it be a quarrel between us, if you live.

KING HENRY V
204: I embrace it.

WILLIAMS
205: How shall I know thee again?

KING HENRY V
206: Give me any gage of thine, and I will wear it in my
207: bonnet: then, if ever thou darest acknowledge it, I
208: will make it my quarrel.

WILLIAMS
209: Here's my glove: give me another of thine.

KING HENRY V
210: There.

WILLIAMS
211: This will I also wear in my cap: if ever thou come
212: to me and say, after to-morrow, 'This is my glove,'
213: by this hand, I will take thee a box on the ear.

KING HENRY V
214: If ever I live to see it, I will challenge it.

WILLIAMS
215: Thou darest as well be hanged.

KING HENRY V
216: Well. I will do it, though I take thee in the
217: king's company.

WILLIAMS
218: Keep thy word: fare thee well.

BATES
219: Be friends, you English fools, be friends: we have
220: French quarrels enow, if you could tell how to reckon.

KING HENRY V
221: Indeed, the French may lay twenty French crowns to
222: one, they will beat us; for they bear them on their
223: shoulders: but it is no English treason to cut
224: French crowns, and to-morrow the king himself will
225: be a clipper.
[Exeunt soldiers]
226: Upon the king! let us our lives, our souls,
227: Our debts, our careful wives,
228: Our children and our sins lay on the king!
229: We must bear all. O hard condition,
230: Twin-born with greatness, subject to the breath
231: Of every fool, whose sense no more can feel
232: But his own wringing! What infinite heart's-ease
233: Must kings neglect, that private men enjoy!
234: And what have kings, that privates have not too,
235: Save ceremony, save general ceremony?
236: And what art thou, thou idle ceremony?
237: What kind of god art thou, that suffer'st more
238: Of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers?
239: What are thy rents? what are thy comings in?
240: O ceremony, show me but thy worth!
241: What is thy soul of adoration?
242: Art thou aught else but place, degree and form,
243: Creating awe and fear in other men?
244: Wherein thou art less happy being fear'd
245: Than they in fearing.
246: What drink'st thou oft, instead of homage sweet,
247: But poison'd flattery? O, be sick, great greatness,
248: And bid thy ceremony give thee cure!
249: Think'st thou the fiery fever will go out
250: With titles blown from adulation?
251: Will it give place to flexure and low bending?
252: Canst thou, when thou command'st the beggar's knee,
253: Command the health of it? No, thou proud dream,
254: That play'st so subtly with a king's repose;
255: I am a king that find thee, and I know
256: 'Tis not the balm, the sceptre and the ball,
257: The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,
258: The intertissued robe of gold and pearl,
259: The farced title running 'fore the king,
260: The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp
261: That beats upon the high shore of this world,
262: No, not all these, thrice-gorgeous ceremony,
263: Not all these, laid in bed majestical,
264: Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave,
265: Who with a body fill'd and vacant mind
266: Gets him to rest, cramm'd with distressful bread;
267: Never sees horrid night, the child of hell,
268: But, like a lackey, from the rise to set
269: Sweats in the eye of Phoebus and all night
270: Sleeps in Elysium; next day after dawn,
271: Doth rise and help Hyperion to his horse,
272: And follows so the ever-running year,
273: With profitable labour, to his grave:
274: And, but for ceremony, such a wretch,
275: Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep,
276: Had the fore-hand and vantage of a king.
277: The slave, a member of the country's peace,
278: Enjoys it; but in gross brain little wots
279: What watch the king keeps to maintain the peace,
280: Whose hours the peasant best advantages.

Enter ERPINGHAM

ERPINGHAM
281: My lord, your nobles, jealous of your absence,
282: Seek through your camp to find you.

KING HENRY V
283: Good old knight,
284: Collect them all together at my tent:
285: I'll be before thee.

ERPINGHAM
286: I shall do't, my lord.

Exit

KING HENRY V
287: O God of battles! steel my soldiers' hearts;
288: Possess them not with fear; take from them now
289: The sense of reckoning, if the opposed numbers
290: Pluck their hearts from them. Not to-day, O Lord,
291: O, not to-day, think not upon the fault
292: My father made in compassing the crown!
293: I Richard's body have interred anew;
294: And on it have bestow'd more contrite tears
295: Than from it issued forced drops of blood:
296: Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay,
297: Who twice a-day their wither'd hands hold up
298: Toward heaven, to pardon blood; and I have built
299: Two chantries, where the sad and solemn priests
300: Sing still for Richard's soul. More will I do;
301: Though all that I can do is nothing worth,
302: Since that my penitence comes after all,
303: Imploring pardon.

Enter GLOUCESTER

GLOUCESTER
304: My liege!

KING HENRY V
305: My brother Gloucester's voice? Ay;
306: I know thy errand, I will go with thee:
307: The day, my friends and all things stay for me.

Exeunt

ACT IV, SCENE II.

The French camp.

Enter the DAUPHIN, ORLEANS, RAMBURES, and others

ORLEANS
001: The sun doth gild our armour; up, my lords!

DAUPHIN
002: Montez A cheval! My horse! varlet! laquais! ha!

ORLEANS
003: O brave spirit!

DAUPHIN
004: Via! les eaux et la terre.

ORLEANS
005: Rien puis? L'air et la feu.

DAUPHIN
006: Ciel, cousin Orleans.
[Enter Constable]
007: Now, my lord constable!

Constable
008: Hark, how our steeds for present service neigh!

DAUPHIN
009: Mount them, and make incision in their hides,
010: That their hot blood may spin in English eyes,
011: And dout them with superfluous courage, ha!

RAMBURES
012: What, will you have them weep our horses' blood?
013: How shall we, then, behold their natural tears?

Enter Messenger

Messenger
014: The English are embattled, you French peers.

Constable
015: To horse, you gallant princes! straight to horse!
016: Do but behold yon poor and starved band,
017: And your fair show shall suck away their souls,
018: Leaving them but the shales and husks of men.
019: There is not work enough for all our hands;
020: Scarce blood enough in all their sickly veins
021: To give each naked curtle-axe a stain,
022: That our French gallants shall to-day draw out,
023: And sheathe for lack of sport: let us but blow on them,
024: The vapour of our valour will o'erturn them.
025: 'Tis positive 'gainst all exceptions, lords,
026: That our superfluous lackeys and our peasants,
027: Who in unnecessary action swarm
028: About our squares of battle, were enow
029: To purge this field of such a hilding foe,
030: Though we upon this mountain's basis by
031: Took stand for idle speculation:
032: But that our honours must not. What's to say?
033: A very little little let us do.
034: And all is done. Then let the trumpets sound
035: The tucket sonance and the note to mount;
036: For our approach shall so much dare the field
037: That England shall couch down in fear and yield.

Enter GRANDPRE

GRANDPRE
038: Why do you stay so long, my lords of France?
039: Yon island carrions, desperate of their bones,
040: Ill-favouredly become the morning field:
041: Their ragged curtains poorly are let loose,
042: And our air shakes them passing scornfully:
043: Big Mars seems bankrupt in their beggar'd host
044: And faintly through a rusty beaver peeps:
045: The horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks,
046: With torch-staves in their hand; and their poor jades
047: Lob down their heads, dropping the hides and hips,
048: The gum down-roping from their pale-dead eyes
049: And in their pale dull mouths the gimmal bit
050: Lies foul with chew'd grass, still and motionless;
051: And their executors, the knavish crows,
052: Fly o'er them, all impatient for their hour.
053: Description cannot suit itself in words
054: To demonstrate the life of such a battle
055: In life so lifeless as it shows itself.

Constable
056: They have said their prayers, and they stay for death.

DAUPHIN
057: Shall we go send them dinners and fresh suits
058: And give their fasting horses provender,
059: And after fight with them?

Constable
060: I stay but for my guidon: to the field!
061: I will the banner from a trumpet take,
062: And use it for my haste. Come, come, away!
063: The sun is high, and we outwear the day.

Exeunt

ACT IV, SCENE III.

The English camp.

Enter GLOUCESTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, ERPINGHAM, with all his host: SALISBURY and WESTMORELAND

GLOUCESTER
001: Where is the king?

BEDFORD
002: The king himself is rode to view their battle.

WESTMORELAND
003: Of fighting men they have full three score thousand.

EXETER
004: There's five to one; besides, they all are fresh.

SALISBURY
005: God's arm strike with us! 'tis a fearful odds.
006: God be wi' you, princes all; I'll to my charge:
007: If we no more meet till we meet in heaven,
008: Then, joyfully, my noble Lord of Bedford,
009: My dear Lord Gloucester, and my good Lord Exeter,
010: And my kind kinsman, warriors all, adieu!

BEDFORD
011: Farewell, good Salisbury; and good luck go with thee!

EXETER
012: Farewell, kind lord; fight valiantly to-day:
013: And yet I do thee wrong to mind thee of it,
014: For thou art framed of the firm truth of valour.

Exit SALISBURY

BEDFORD
015: He is full of valour as of kindness;
016: Princely in both.

Enter the KING

WESTMORELAND
017: O that we now had here
018: But one ten thousand of those men in England
019: That do no work to-day!

KING HENRY V
020: What's he that wishes so?
021: My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin:
022: If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
023: To do our country loss; and if to live,
024: The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
025: God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
026: By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
027: Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
028: It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
029: Such outward things dwell not in my desires:
030: But if it be a sin to covet honour,
031: I am the most offending soul alive.
032: No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England:
033: God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
034: As one man more, methinks, would share from me
035: For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
036: Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
037: That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
038: Let him depart; his passport shall be made
039: And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
040: We would not die in that man's company
041: That fears his fellowship to die with us.
042: This day is called the feast of Crispian:
043: He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
044: Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
045: And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
046: He that shall live this day, and see old age,
047: Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
048: And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'
049: Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
050: And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
051: Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
052: But he'll remember with advantages
053: What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
054: Familiar in his mouth as household words
055: Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
056: Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
057: Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
058: This story shall the good man teach his son;
059: And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
060: From this day to the ending of the world,
061: But we in it shall be remember'd;
062: We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
063: For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
064: Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
065: This day shall gentle his condition:
066: And gentlemen in England now a-bed
067: Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
068: And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
069: That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Re-enter SALISBURY

SALISBURY
070: My sovereign lord, bestow yourself with speed:
071: The French are bravely in their battles set,
072: And will with all expedience charge on us.

KING HENRY V
073: All things are ready, if our minds be so.

WESTMORELAND
074: Perish the man whose mind is backward now!

KING HENRY V
075: Thou dost not wish more help from England, coz?

WESTMORELAND
076: God's will! my liege, would you and I alone,
077: Without more help, could fight this royal battle!

KING HENRY V
078: Why, now thou hast unwish'd five thousand men;
079: Which likes me better than to wish us one.
080: You know your places: God be with you all!

Tucket. Enter MONTJOY

MONTJOY
081: Once more I come to know of thee, King Harry,
082: If for thy ransom thou wilt now compound,
083: Before thy most assured overthrow:
084: For certainly thou art so near the gulf,
085: Thou needs must be englutted. Besides, in mercy,
086: The constable desires thee thou wilt mind
087: Thy followers of repentance; that their souls
088: May make a peaceful and a sweet retire
089: From off these fields, where, wretches, their poor bodies
090: Must lie and fester.

KING HENRY V
091: Who hath sent thee now?

MONTJOY
092: The Constable of France.

KING HENRY V
093: I pray thee, bear my former answer back:
094: Bid them achieve me and then sell my bones.
095: Good God! why should they mock poor fellows thus?
096: The man that once did sell the lion's skin
097: While the beast lived, was killed with hunting him.
098: A many of our bodies shall no doubt
099: Find native graves; upon the which, I trust,
100: Shall witness live in brass of this day's work:
101: And those that leave their valiant bones in France,
102: Dying like men, though buried in your dunghills,
103: They shall be famed; for there the sun shall greet them,
104: And draw their honours reeking up to heaven;
105: Leaving their earthly parts to choke your clime,
106: The smell whereof shall breed a plague in France.
107: Mark then abounding valour in our English,
108: That being dead, like to the bullet's grazing,
109: Break out into a second course of mischief,
110: Killing in relapse of mortality.
111: Let me speak proudly: tell the constable
112: We are but warriors for the working-day;
113: Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirch'd
114: With rainy marching in the painful field;
115: There's not a piece of feather in our host--
116: Good argument, I hope, we will not fly--
117: And time hath worn us into slovenry:
118: But, by the mass, our hearts are in the trim;
119: And my poor soldiers tell me, yet ere night
120: They'll be in fresher robes, or they will pluck
121: The gay new coats o'er the French soldiers' heads
122: And turn them out of service. If they do this,--
123: As, if God please, they shall,--my ransom then
124: Will soon be levied. Herald, save thou thy labour;
125: Come thou no more for ransom, gentle herald:
126: They shall have none, I swear, but these my joints;
127: Which if they have as I will leave 'em them,
128: Shall yield them little, tell the constable.

MONTJOY
129: I shall, King Harry. And so fare thee well:
130: Thou never shalt hear herald any more.

Exit

KING HENRY V
131: I fear thou'lt once more come again for ransom.

Enter YORK

YORK
132: My lord, most humbly on my knee I beg
133: The leading of the vaward.

KING HENRY V
134: Take it, brave York. Now, soldiers, march away:
135: And how thou pleasest, God, dispose the day!

Exeunt

ACT IV, SCENE IV.

The field of battle.

Alarum. Excursions. Enter PISTOL, French Soldier, and Boy

PISTOL
001: Yield, cur!

French Soldier
002: Je pense que vous etes gentilhomme de bonne qualite.

PISTOL
003: Qualtitie calmie custure me! Art thou a gentleman?
004: what is thy name? discuss.

French Soldier
005: O Seigneur Dieu!

PISTOL
006: O, Signieur Dew should be a gentleman:
007: Perpend my words, O Signieur Dew, and mark;
008: O Signieur Dew, thou diest on point of fox,
009: Except, O signieur, thou do give to me
010: Egregious ransom.

French Soldier
011: O, prenez misericorde! ayez pitie de moi!

PISTOL
012: Moy shall not serve; I will have forty moys;
013: Or I will fetch thy rim out at thy throat
014: In drops of crimson blood.

French Soldier
015: Est-il impossible d'echapper la force de ton bras?

PISTOL
016: Brass, cur!
017: Thou damned and luxurious mountain goat,
018: Offer'st me brass?

French Soldier
019: O pardonnez moi!

PISTOL
020: Say'st thou me so? is that a ton of moys?
021: Come hither, boy: ask me this slave in French
022: What is his name.

Boy
023: Ecoutez: comment etes-vous appele?

French Soldier
024: Monsieur le Fer.

Boy
025: He says his name is Master Fer.

PISTOL
026: Master Fer! I'll fer him, and firk him, and ferret
027: him: discuss the same in French unto him.

Boy
028: I do not know the French for fer, and ferret, and firk.

PISTOL
029: Bid him prepare; for I will cut his throat.

French Soldier
030: Que dit-il, monsieur?

Boy
031: Il me commande de vous dire que vous faites vous
032: pret; car ce soldat ici est dispose tout a cette
033: heure de couper votre gorge.

PISTOL
034: Owy, cuppele gorge, permafoy,
035: Peasant, unless thou give me crowns, brave crowns;
036: Or mangled shalt thou be by this my sword.

French Soldier
037: O, je vous supplie, pour l'amour de Dieu, me
038: pardonner! Je suis gentilhomme de bonne maison:
039: gardez ma vie, et je vous donnerai deux cents ecus.

PISTOL
040: What are his words?

Boy
041: He prays you to save his life: he is a gentleman of
042: a good house; and for his ransom he will give you
043: two hundred crowns.

PISTOL
044: Tell him my fury shall abate, and I the crowns will take.

French Soldier
045: Petit monsieur, que dit-il?

Boy
046: Encore qu'il est contre son jurement de pardonner
047: aucun prisonnier, neanmoins, pour les ecus que vous
048: l'avez promis, il est content de vous donner la
049: liberte, le franchisement.

French Soldier
050: Sur mes genoux je vous donne mille remercimens; et
051: je m'estime heureux que je suis tombe entre les
052: mains d'un chevalier, je pense, le plus brave,
053: vaillant, et tres distingue seigneur d'Angleterre.

PISTOL
054: Expound unto me, boy.

Boy
055: He gives you, upon his knees, a thousand thanks; and
056: he esteems himself happy that he hath fallen into
057: the hands of one, as he thinks, the most brave,
058: valorous, and thrice-worthy signieur of England.

PISTOL
059: As I suck blood, I will some mercy show.
060: Follow me!

Boy
061: Suivez-vous le grand capitaine.
[Exeunt PISTOL, and French Soldier]
062: I did never know so full a voice issue from so
063: empty a heart: but the saying is true 'The empty
064: vessel makes the greatest sound.' Bardolph and Nym
065: had ten times more valour than this roaring devil i'
066: the old play, that every one may pare his nails with
067: a wooden dagger; and they are both hanged; and so
068: would this be, if he durst steal any thing
069: adventurously. I must stay with the lackeys, with
070: the luggage of our camp: the French might have a
071: good prey of us, if he knew of it; for there is
072: none to guard it but boys.

Exit

ACT IV, SCENE V.

Another part of the field.

Enter Constable, ORLEANS, BOURBON, DAUPHIN, and RAMBURES

Constable
001: O diable!

ORLEANS
002: O seigneur! le jour est perdu, tout est perdu!

DAUPHIN
003: Mort de ma vie! all is confounded, all!
004: Reproach and everlasting shame
005: Sits mocking in our plumes. O merchante fortune!
006: Do not run away.

A short alarum

Constable
007: Why, all our ranks are broke.

DAUPHIN
008: O perdurable shame! let's stab ourselves.
009: Be these the wretches that we play'd at dice for?

ORLEANS
010: Is this the king we sent to for his ransom?

BOURBON
011: Shame and eternal shame, nothing but shame!
012: Let us die in honour: once more back again;
013: And he that will not follow Bourbon now,
014: Let him go hence, and with his cap in hand,
015: Like a base pander, hold the chamber-door
016: Whilst by a slave, no gentler than my dog,
017: His fairest daughter is contaminated.

Constable
018: Disorder, that hath spoil'd us, friend us now!
019: Let us on heaps go offer up our lives.

ORLEANS
020: We are enow yet living in the field
021: To smother up the English in our throngs,
022: If any order might be thought upon.

BOURBON
023: The devil take order now! I'll to the throng:
024: Let life be short; else shame will be too long.

Exeunt

ACT IV, SCENE VI.

Another part of the field.

Alarums. Enter KING HENRY and forces, EXETER, and others

KING HENRY V
001: Well have we done, thrice valiant countrymen:
002: But all's not done; yet keep the French the field.

EXETER
003: The Duke of York commends him to your majesty.

KING HENRY V
004: Lives he, good uncle? thrice within this hour
005: I saw him down; thrice up again and fighting;
006: From helmet to the spur all blood he was.

EXETER
007: In which array, brave soldier, doth he lie,
008: Larding the plain; and by his bloody side,
009: Yoke-fellow to his honour-owing wounds,
010: The noble Earl of Suffolk also lies.
011: Suffolk first died: and York, all haggled over,
012: Comes to him, where in gore he lay insteep'd,
013: And takes him by the beard; kisses the gashes
014: That bloodily did spawn upon his face;
015: And cries aloud 'Tarry, dear cousin Suffolk!
016: My soul shall thine keep company to heaven;
017: Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly abreast,
018: As in this glorious and well-foughten field
019: We kept together in our chivalry!'
020: Upon these words I came and cheer'd him up:
021: He smiled me in the face, raught me his hand,
022: And, with a feeble gripe, says 'Dear my lord,
023: Commend my service to me sovereign.'
024: So did he turn and over Suffolk's neck
025: He threw his wounded arm and kiss'd his lips;
026: And so espoused to death, with blood he seal'd
027: A testament of noble-ending love.
028: The pretty and sweet manner of it forced
029: Those waters from me which I would have stopp'd;
030: But I had not so much of man in me,
031: And all my mother came into mine eyes
032: And gave me up to tears.

KING HENRY V
033: I blame you not;
034: For, hearing this, I must perforce compound
035: With mistful eyes, or they will issue too.
[Alarum]
036: But, hark! what new alarum is this same?
037: The French have reinforced their scatter'd men:
038: Then every soldier kill his prisoners:
039: Give the word through.

Exeunt

ACT IV, SCENE VII.

Another part of the field.

Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER

FLUELLEN
001: Kill the poys and the luggage! 'tis expressly
002: against the law of arms: 'tis as arrant a piece of
003: knavery, mark you now, as can be offer't; in your
004: conscience, now, is it not?

GOWER
005: 'Tis certain there's not a boy left alive; and the
006: cowardly rascals that ran from the battle ha' done
007: this slaughter: besides, they have burned and
008: carried away all that was in the king's tent;
009: wherefore the king, most worthily, hath caused every
010: soldier to cut his prisoner's throat. O, 'tis a
011: gallant king!

FLUELLEN
012: Ay, he was porn at Monmouth, Captain Gower. What
013: call you the town's name where Alexander the Pig was born!

GOWER
014: Alexander the Great.

FLUELLEN
015: Why, I pray you, is not pig great? the pig, or the
016: great, or the mighty, or the huge, or the
017: magnanimous, are all one reckonings, save the phrase
018: is a little variations.

GOWER
019: I think Alexander the Great was born in Macedon; his
020: father was called Philip of Macedon, as I take it.

FLUELLEN
021: I think it is in Macedon where Alexander is porn. I
022: tell you, captain, if you look in the maps of the
023: 'orld, I warrant you sall find, in the comparisons
024: between Macedon and Monmouth, that the situations,
025: look you, is both alike. There is a river in
026: Macedon; and there is also moreover a river at
027: Monmouth: it is called Wye at Monmouth; but it is
028: out of my prains what is the name of the other
029: river; but 'tis all one, 'tis alike as my fingers is
030: to my fingers, and there is salmons in both. If you
031: mark Alexander's life well, Harry of Monmouth's life
032: is come after it indifferent well; for there is
033: figures in all things. Alexander, God knows, and
034: you know, in his rages, and his furies, and his
035: wraths, and his cholers, and his moods, and his
036: displeasures, and his indignations, and also being a
037: little intoxicates in his prains, did, in his ales and
038: his angers, look you, kill his best friend, Cleitus.

GOWER
039: Our king is not like him in that: he never killed
040: any of his friends.

FLUELLEN
041: It is not well done, mark you now take the tales out
042: of my mouth, ere it is made and finished. I speak
043: but in the figures and comparisons of it: as
044: Alexander killed his friend Cleitus, being in his
045: ales and his cups; so also Harry Monmouth, being in
046: his right wits and his good judgments, turned away
047: the fat knight with the great belly-doublet: he
048: was full of jests, and gipes, and knaveries, and
049: mocks; I have forgot his name.

GOWER
050: Sir John Falstaff.

FLUELLEN
051: That is he: I'll tell you there is good men porn at Monmouth.

GOWER
052: Here comes his majesty.

Alarum. Enter KING HENRY, and forces; WARWICK, GLOUCESTER, EXETER, and others

KING HENRY V
053: I was not angry since I came to France
054: Until this instant. Take a trumpet, herald;
055: Ride thou unto the horsemen on yon hill:
056: If they will fight with us, bid them come down,
057: Or void the field; they do offend our sight:
058: If they'll do neither, we will come to them,
059: And make them skirr away, as swift as stones
060: Enforced from the old Assyrian slings:
061: Besides, we'll cut the throats of those we have,
062: And not a man of them that we shall take
063: Shall taste our mercy. Go and tell them so.

Enter MONTJOY

EXETER
064: Here comes the herald of the French, my liege.

GLOUCESTER
065: His eyes are humbler than they used to be.

KING HENRY V
066: How now! what means this, herald? know'st thou not
067: That I have fined these bones of mine for ransom?
068: Comest thou again for ransom?

MONTJOY
069: No, great king:
070: I come to thee for charitable licence,
071: That we may wander o'er this bloody field
072: To look our dead, and then to bury them;
073: To sort our nobles from our common men.
074: For many of our princes--woe the while!--
075: Lie drown'd and soak'd in mercenary blood;
076: So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs
077: In blood of princes; and their wounded steeds
078: Fret fetlock deep in gore and with wild rage
079: Yerk out their armed heels at their dead masters,
080: Killing them twice. O, give us leave, great king,
081: To view the field in safety and dispose
082: Of their dead bodies!

KING HENRY V
083: I tell thee truly, herald,
084: I know not if the day be ours or no;
085: For yet a many of your horsemen peer
086: And gallop o'er the field.

MONTJOY
087: The day is yours.

KING HENRY V
088: Praised be God, and not our strength, for it!
089: What is this castle call'd that stands hard by?

MONTJOY
090: They call it Agincourt.

KING HENRY V
091: Then call we this the field of Agincourt,
092: Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus.

FLUELLEN
093: Your grandfather of famous memory, an't please your
094: majesty, and your great-uncle Edward the Plack
095: Prince of Wales, as I have read in the chronicles,
096: fought a most prave pattle here in France.

KING HENRY V
097: They did, Fluellen.

FLUELLEN
098: Your majesty says very true: if your majesties is
099: remembered of it, the Welshmen did good service in a
100: garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their
101: Monmouth caps; which, your majesty know, to this
102: hour is an honourable badge of the service; and I do
103: believe your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek
104: upon Saint Tavy's day.

KING HENRY V
105: I wear it for a memorable honour;
106: For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman.

FLUELLEN
107: All the water in Wye cannot wash your majesty's
108: Welsh plood out of your pody, I can tell you that:
109: God pless it and preserve it, as long as it pleases
110: his grace, and his majesty too!

KING HENRY V
111: Thanks, good my countryman.

FLUELLEN
112: By Jeshu, I am your majesty's countryman, I care not
113: who know it; I will confess it to all the 'orld: I
114: need not to be ashamed of your majesty, praised be
115: God, so long as your majesty is an honest man.

KING HENRY V
116: God keep me so! Our heralds go with him:
117: Bring me just notice of the numbers dead
118: On both our parts. Call yonder fellow hither.

Points to WILLIAMS. Exeunt Heralds with Montjoy

EXETER
119: Soldier, you must come to the king.

KING HENRY V
120: Soldier, why wearest thou that glove in thy cap?

WILLIAMS
121: An't please your majesty, 'tis the gage of one that
122: I should fight withal, if he be alive.

KING HENRY V
123: An Englishman?

WILLIAMS
124: An't please your majesty, a rascal that swaggered
125: with me last night; who, if alive and ever dare to
126: challenge this glove, I have sworn to take him a box
127: o' th' ear: or if I can see my glove in his cap,
128: which he swore, as he was a soldier, he would wear
129: if alive, I will strike it out soundly.

KING HENRY V
130: What think you, Captain Fluellen? is it fit this
131: soldier keep his oath?

FLUELLEN
132: He is a craven and a villain else, an't please your
133: majesty, in my conscience.

KING HENRY V
134: It may be his enemy is a gentleman of great sort,
135: quite from the answer of his degree.

FLUELLEN
136: Though he be as good a gentleman as the devil is, as
137: Lucifer and Belzebub himself, it is necessary, look
138: your grace, that he keep his vow and his oath: if
139: he be perjured, see you now, his reputation is as
140: arrant a villain and a Jacksauce, as ever his black
141: shoe trod upon God's ground and his earth, in my
142: conscience, la!

KING HENRY V
143: Then keep thy vow, sirrah, when thou meetest the fellow.

WILLIAMS
144: So I will, my liege, as I live.

KING HENRY V
145: Who servest thou under?

WILLIAMS
146: Under Captain Gower, my liege.

FLUELLEN
147: Gower is a good captain, and is good knowledge and
148: literatured in the wars.

KING HENRY V
149: Call him hither to me, soldier.

WILLIAMS
150: I will, my liege.

Exit

KING HENRY V
151: Here, Fluellen; wear thou this favour for me and
152: stick it in thy cap: when Alencon and myself were
153: down together, I plucked this glove from his helm:
154: if any man challenge this, he is a friend to
155: Alencon, and an enemy to our person; if thou
156: encounter any such, apprehend him, an thou dost me love.

FLUELLEN
157: Your grace doo's me as great honours as can be
158: desired in the hearts of his subjects: I would fain
159: see the man, that has but two legs, that shall find
160: himself aggrieved at this glove; that is all; but I
161: would fain see it once, an please God of his grace
162: that I might see.

KING HENRY V
163: Knowest thou Gower?

FLUELLEN
164: He is my dear friend, an please you.

KING HENRY V
165: Pray thee, go seek him, and bring him to my tent.

FLUELLEN
166: I will fetch him.

Exit

KING HENRY V
167: My Lord of Warwick, and my brother Gloucester,
168: Follow Fluellen closely at the heels:
169: The glove which I have given him for a favour
170: May haply purchase him a box o' th' ear;
171: It is the soldier's; I by bargain should
172: Wear it myself. Follow, good cousin Warwick:
173: If that the soldier strike him, as I judge
174: By his blunt bearing he will keep his word,
175: Some sudden mischief may arise of it;
176: For I do know Fluellen valiant
177: And, touched with choler, hot as gunpowder,
178: And quickly will return an injury:
179: Follow and see there be no harm between them.
180: Go you with me, uncle of Exeter.

Exeunt

ACT IV, SCENE VIII.

Before KING HENRY'S pavilion.

Enter GOWER and WILLIAMS

WILLIAMS
001: I warrant it is to knight you, captain.

Enter FLUELLEN

FLUELLEN
002: God's will and his pleasure, captain, I beseech you
003: now, come apace to the king: there is more good
004: toward you peradventure than is in your knowledge to dream of.

WILLIAMS
005: Sir, know you this glove?

FLUELLEN
006: Know the glove! I know the glove is glove.

WILLIAMS
007: I know this; and thus I challenge it.

Strikes him

FLUELLEN
008: 'Sblood! an arrant traitor as any is in the
009: universal world, or in France, or in England!

GOWER
010: How now, sir! you villain!

WILLIAMS
011: Do you think I'll be forsworn?

FLUELLEN
012: Stand away, Captain Gower; I will give treason his
013: payment into ploughs, I warrant you.

WILLIAMS
014: I am no traitor.

FLUELLEN
015: That's a lie in thy throat. I charge you in his
016: majesty's name, apprehend him: he's a friend of the
017: Duke Alencon's.

Enter WARWICK and GLOUCESTER

WARWICK
018: How now, how now! what's the matter?

FLUELLEN
019: My Lord of Warwick, here is--praised be God for it!
020: --a most contagious treason come to light, look
021: you, as you shall desire in a summer's day. Here is
022: his majesty.

Enter KING HENRY and EXETER

KING HENRY V
023: How now! what's the matter?

FLUELLEN
024: My liege, here is a villain and a traitor, that,
025: look your grace, has struck the glove which your
026: majesty is take out of the helmet of Alencon.

WILLIAMS
027: My liege, this was my glove; here is the fellow of
028: it; and he that I gave it to in change promised to
029: wear it in his cap: I promised to strike him, if he
030: did: I met this man with my glove in his cap, and I
031: have been as good as my word.

FLUELLEN
032: Your majesty hear now, saving your majesty's
033: manhood, what an arrant, rascally, beggarly, lousy
034: knave it is: I hope your majesty is pear me
035: testimony and witness, and will avouchment, that
036: this is the glove of Alencon, that your majesty is
037: give me; in your conscience, now?

KING HENRY V
038: Give me thy glove, soldier: look, here is the
039: fellow of it.
040: 'Twas I, indeed, thou promised'st to strike;
041: And thou hast given me most bitter terms.

FLUELLEN
042: An please your majesty, let his neck answer for it,
043: if there is any martial law in the world.

KING HENRY V
044: How canst thou make me satisfaction?

WILLIAMS
045: All offences, my lord, come from the heart: never
046: came any from mine that might offend your majesty.

KING HENRY V
047: It was ourself thou didst abuse.

WILLIAMS
048: Your majesty came not like yourself: you appeared to
049: me but as a common man; witness the night, your
050: garments, your lowliness; and what your highness
051: suffered under that shape, I beseech you take it for
052: your own fault and not mine: for had you been as I
053: took you for, I made no offence; therefore, I
054: beseech your highness, pardon me.

KING HENRY V
055: Here, uncle Exeter, fill this glove with crowns,
056: And give it to this fellow. Keep it, fellow;
057: And wear it for an honour in thy cap
058: Till I do challenge it. Give him the crowns:
059: And, captain, you must needs be friends with him.

FLUELLEN
060: By this day and this light, the fellow has mettle
061: enough in his belly. Hold, there is twelve pence
062: for you; and I pray you to serve Got, and keep you
063: out of prawls, and prabbles' and quarrels, and
064: dissensions, and, I warrant you, it is the better for you.

WILLIAMS
065: I will none of your money.

FLUELLEN
066: It is with a good will; I can tell you, it will
067: serve you to mend your shoes: come, wherefore should
068: you be so pashful? your shoes is not so good: 'tis
069: a good silling, I warrant you, or I will change it.

Enter an English Herald

KING HENRY V
070: Now, herald, are the dead number'd?

Herald
071: Here is the number of the slaughter'd French.

KING HENRY V
072: What prisoners of good sort are taken, uncle?

EXETER
073: Charles Duke of Orleans, nephew to the king;
074: John Duke of Bourbon, and Lord Bouciqualt:
075: Of other lords and barons, knights and squires,
076: Full fifteen hundred, besides common men.

KING HENRY V
077: This note doth tell me of ten thousand French
078: That in the field lie slain: of princes, in this number,
079: And nobles bearing banners, there lie dead
080: One hundred twenty six: added to these,
081: Of knights, esquires, and gallant gentlemen,
082: Eight thousand and four hundred; of the which,
083: Five hundred were but yesterday dubb'd knights:
084: So that, in these ten thousand they have lost,
085: There are but sixteen hundred mercenaries;
086: The rest are princes, barons, lords, knights, squires,
087: And gentlemen of blood and quality.
088: The names of those their nobles that lie dead:
089: Charles Delabreth, high constable of France;
090: Jaques of Chatillon, admiral of France;
091: The master of the cross-bows, Lord Rambures;
092: Great Master of France, the brave Sir Guichard Dolphin,
093: John Duke of Alencon, Anthony Duke of Brabant,
094: The brother of the Duke of Burgundy,
095: And Edward Duke of Bar: of lusty earls,
096: Grandpre and Roussi, Fauconberg and Foix,
097: Beaumont and Marle, Vaudemont and Lestrale.
098: Here was a royal fellowship of death!
099: Where is the number of our English dead?
[Herald shows him another paper]
100: Edward the Duke of York, the Earl of Suffolk,
101: Sir Richard Ketly, Davy Gam, esquire:
102: None else of name; and of all other men
103: But five and twenty. O God, thy arm was here;
104: And not to us, but to thy arm alone,
105: Ascribe we all! When, without stratagem,
106: But in plain shock and even play of battle,
107: Was ever known so great and little loss
108: On one part and on the other? Take it, God,
109: For it is none but thine!

EXETER
110: 'Tis wonderful!

KING HENRY V
111: Come, go we in procession to the village.
112: And be it death proclaimed through our host
113: To boast of this or take the praise from God
114: Which is his only.

FLUELLEN
115: Is it not lawful, an please your majesty, to tell
116: how many is killed?

KING HENRY V
117: Yes, captain; but with this acknowledgement,
118: That God fought for us.

FLUELLEN
119: Yes, my conscience, he did us great good.

KING HENRY V
120: Do we all holy rites;
121: Let there be sung 'Non nobis' and 'Te Deum;'
122: The dead with charity enclosed in clay:
123: And then to Calais; and to England then:
124: Where ne'er from France arrived more happy men.

Exeunt

ACT V, PROLOGUE.

Enter Chorus

Chorus
001: Vouchsafe to those that have not read the story,
002: That I may prompt them: and of such as have,
003: I humbly pray them to admit the excuse
004: Of time, of numbers and due course of things,
005: Which cannot in their huge and proper life
006: Be here presented. Now we bear the king
007: Toward Calais: grant him there; there seen,
008: Heave him away upon your winged thoughts
009: Athwart the sea. Behold, the English beach
010: Pales in the flood with men, with wives and boys,
011: Whose shouts and claps out-voice the deep mouth'd sea,
012: Which like a mighty whiffler 'fore the king
013: Seems to prepare his way: so let him land,
014: And solemnly see him set on to London.
015: So swift a pace hath thought that even now
016: You may imagine him upon Blackheath;
017: Where that his lords desire him to have borne
018: His bruised helmet and his bended sword
019: Before him through the city: he forbids it,
020: Being free from vainness and self-glorious pride;
021: Giving full trophy, signal and ostent
022: Quite from himself to God. But now behold,
023: In the quick forge and working-house of thought,
024: How London doth pour out her citizens!
025: The mayor and all his brethren in best sort,
026: Like to the senators of the antique Rome,
027: With the plebeians swarming at their heels,
028: Go forth and fetch their conquering Caesar in:
029: As, by a lower but loving likelihood,
030: Were now the general of our gracious empress,
031: As in good time he may, from Ireland coming,
032: Bringing rebellion broached on his sword,
033: How many would the peaceful city quit,
034: To welcome him! much more, and much more cause,
035: Did they this Harry. Now in London place him;
036: As yet the lamentation of the French
037: Invites the King of England's stay at home;
038: The emperor's coming in behalf of France,
039: To order peace between them; and omit
040: All the occurrences, whatever chanced,
041: Till Harry's back-return again to Fran