The Life of Henry V

Edición filológica utilizada:
William Shakespeare, Henry V: Modern text based on the Folio, edited by James D. Mardock (Victoria:Internet Shakespeare Editions, University of Victoria, 2013) http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Annex/Texts/H5/FM/default/. Also available from Broadview Press.
Procedencia:
Internet Shakespeare Editions, University of Victoria http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/index.html

Edición digital a cargo de:

Ortíz Ramírez, Ainhoa (Artelope)

List of Characters

Chorus

The English

King Henry V

Duke of Clarence, brother to the king

Duke of Bedford, brother to the king

Duke of Gloucester, brother to the king

Duke of Exeter, uncle to the king

Duke of York, cousin to the king

Earl of Westmorland

Earl of Warwick

Earl of Salisbury

Earl of Huntingdon

Archbishop of Canterbury

Bishop of Ely

Richard Earl of Cambridge, conspirator

Henry, Lord Scrope of Masham, conspirator

Sir Thomas Grey, conspirator

Ancient Pistol

Hostess, formerly Mistress Quickly, married to Pistol

Lieutenant Bardolph

Corporal Nym

Boy

Sir Thomas Erpingham

Gower, an English captain

Fluellen, a Welsh captain

Jamy, a Scottish captain

Macmorris, an Irish captain

John Bates, a soldier

Alexander Court, a soldier

Michael Williams, a soldier

Herald

The French

French King, Charles VI

Queen Isabeau

Louis the Dauphin, their son

Catherine, their daughter

Alice, Catherine’s waiting woman

Constable of France

Duke of Burgundy

Duke of Bourbon

Duke of Orléans

Duke of Berry

Lord Rambures

Lord Grandpré

Montjoy the Herald

Governor of Harfleur

Two Ambassadors to England

French Soldier, Monsieur le Fer

Lords, Attendants, Soldiers, Citizens of Harfleur

Act I

[Prologue]

Enter [Chorus as] Prologue.

CHORUS

Oh, for a muse of fire, that would ascend

The brightest heaven of invention,

A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,

And monarchs to behold the swelling scene.

Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,

Assume the port of Mars, and at his heels,

Leashed in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire

Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all,

The flat unraisèd spirits that hath dared,

On this unworthy scaffold, to bring forth

So great an object. Can this cockpit hold

The vasty fields of France? Or may we cram

Within this wooden O the very casques

That did affright the air at Agincourt?

Oh, pardon, since a crooked figure may

Attest in little place a million,

And let us, ciphers to this great account,

On your imaginary forces work.

Suppose within the girdle of these walls

Are now confined two mighty monarchies,

Whose high, uprearèd, and abutting fronts

The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder.

Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts:

Into a thousand parts divide one man,

And make imaginary puissance.

Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them

Printing their proud hooves i'th'receiving earth.

For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,

Carry them here and there, jumping o'er times,

Turning th'accomplishment of many years

Into an hourglass: for the which supply,

Admit me Chorus to this history,

Who, prologue-like, your humble patience pray

Gently to hear, kindly to judge our play.

Exit.

1.1

Enter [the Archbishop of] Canterbury and [the Bishop of] Ely.

CANTERBURY

My lord, I'll tell you, that self bill is urged

Which in th'eleventh year of the last king's reign

Was like, and had indeed against us passed,

But that the scambling and unquiet time

Did push it out of further question.

ELY

But how, my lord, shall we resist it now?

CANTERBURY

It must be thought on. If it pass against us,

We lose the better half of our possession,

For all the temporal lands which men devout

By testament have given to the Church

Would they strip from us, being valued thus:

As much as would maintain, to the king's honor,

Full fifteen earls and fifteen hundred knights,

Six thousand and two hundred good esquires,

And to relief of lazars and weak age

Of indigent faint souls past corporal toil,

A hundred almshouses, right well supplied;

And to the coffers of the king beside,

A thousand pounds by th'year. Thus runs the bill.

ELY

This would drink deep.

CANTERBURY

'Twould drink the cup and all.

ELY

But what prevention?

CANTERBURY

The king is full of grace and fair regard.

ELY

And a true lover of the holy Church.

CANTERBURY

The courses of his youth promised it not.

The breath no sooner left his father's body,

But that his wildness, mortified in him,

Seemed to die too. Yea, at that very moment,

Consideration like an angel came,

And whipped th'offending Adam out of him,

Leaving his body as a paradise,

T'envelop and contain celestial spirits.

100

Never was such a sudden scholar made,

Never came reformation in a flood

With such a heady currence scouring faults,

Nor never hydra-headed willfulness

So soon did lose his seat, and all at once,

105

As in this king.

ELY

We are blessèd in the change.

CANTERBURY

Hear him but reason in divinity,

And, all-admiring, with an inward wish

You would desire the king were made a prelate.

Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,

110

You would say it hath been all in all his study.

List his discourse of war, and you shall hear

A fearful battle rendered you in music.

Turn him to any cause of policy,

The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,

115

Familiar as his garter; that when he speaks,

The air, a chartered libertine, is still,

And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears

To steal his sweet and honeyed sentences,

So that the art and practic part of life

120

Must be the mistress to this theoric.

Which is a wonder how his grace should glean it,

Since his addiction was to courses vain,

His companies unlettered, rude, and shallow,

His hours filled up with riots, banquets, sports,

125

And never noted in him any study,

Any retirement, any sequestration

From open haunts and popularity.

ELY

The strawberry grows underneath the nettle,

And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best

130

Neighbored by fruit of baser quality;

And so the prince obscured his contemplation

Under the veil of wildness, which no doubt

Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night,

Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.

CANTERBURY

135

It must be so, for miracles are ceased,

And therefore we must needs admit the means

How things are perfected.

ELY

But my good lord,

How now for mitigation of this bill

Urged by the commons? Doth his majesty

140

Incline to it or no?

CANTERBURY

He seems indifferent,

Or rather swaying more upon our part,

Than cherishing th'exhibitors against us;

For I have made an offer to his majesty,

Upon our spiritual convocation,

145

And in regard of causes now in hand,

Which I have opened to his grace at large,

As touching France, to give a greater sum

Than ever at one time the clergy yet

Did to his predecessors part withal.

ELY

150

How did this offer seem received, my lord?

CANTERBURY

With good acceptance of his majesty,

Save that there was not time enough to hear,

As I perceived his grace would fain have done,

The severals and unhidden passages

155

Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms,

And generally to the crown and seat of France

Derived from Edward, his great-grandfather.

ELY

What was th'impediment that broke this off?

CANTERBURY

The French ambassador upon that instant

160

Craved audience; and the hour, I think, is come

To give him hearing. Is it four o'clock?

ELY

It is.

CANTERBURY

Then go we in to know his embassy,

Which I could with a ready guess declare

165

Before the Frenchman speak a word of it.

ELY

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

Exeunt.

[1.2]

Enter the King, Humphrey [Duke of Gloucester], Bedford, Clarence, Warwick, Westmorland, and Exeter[, with attendants].

KING HENRY

Where is my gracious lord of Canterbury?

EXETER

Not here in presence.

KING HENRY

Send for him, good uncle.

[Exit attendant.]

WESTMORLAND

Shall we call in th'ambassador, my liege?

KING HENRY

170

Not yet, my cousin. We would be resolved,

Before we hear him, of some things of weight

That task our thoughts concerning us and France.

Enter [the] two Bishops[, Canterbury and Ely].

CANTERBURY

God and his angels guard your sacred throne

And make you long become it.

KING HENRY

Sure we thank you.

175

My learnèd lord, we pray you to proceed,

And justly and religiously unfold

Why the law Salic, that they have in France,

Or should or should not bar us in our claim.

And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,

180

That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading,

Or nicely charge your understanding soul

With opening titles miscreate, whose right

Suits not in native colors with the truth.

For God doth know how many now in health

185

Shall drop their blood in approbation

Of what your reverence shall incite us to.

Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,

How you awake our sleeping sword of war;

We charge you in the name of God, take heed.

190

For never two such kingdoms did contend

Without much fall of blood, whose guiltless drops

Are every one a woe, a sore complaint

'Gainst him whose wrongs gives edge unto the swords

That makes such waste in brief mortality.

195

Under this conjuration speak, my lord,

For we will hear, note, and believe in heart

That what you speak is in your conscience washed

As pure as sin with baptism.

CANTERBURY

Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers

200

That owe your selves, your lives and services

To this imperial throne. There is no bar

To make against your highness' claim to France

But this, which they produce from Pharamond:

"In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant" —

205

"No woman shall succeed in Salic land" —

Which Salic land the French unjustly gloss

To be the realm of France, and Pharamond

The founder of this law and female bar.

Yet their own authors faithfully affirm

210

That the land Salic is in Germany,

Between the floods of Saale and of Elbe,

Where Charles the Great, having subdued the Saxons,

There left behind and settled certain French

Who, holding in disdain the German women

215

For some dishonest manners of their life,

Established then this law: to wit, no female

Should be inheritrix in Salic land,

Which Salic, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Saale,

Is at this day in Germany, called Meissen.

220

Then doth it well appear the Salic law

Was not devisèd for the realm of France,

Nor did the French possess the Salic land

Until four hundred one-and-twenty years

After defunction of King Pharamond,

225

Idly supposed the founder of this law,

Who died within the year of our redemption

Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the Great

Subdued the Saxons and did seat the French

Beyond the river Saale in the year

230

Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say

King Pepin, which deposèd Childeric,

Did as heir general, being descended

Of Blithild, which was daughter to King Chlothar,

Make claim and title to the crown of France.

235

Hugh Capet also, who usurped the crown

Of Charles the Duke of Lorraine, sole heir male

Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great,

To find his title with some shows of truth —

Though in pure truth it was corrupt and naught —

240

Conveyed himself as th'heir to th'lady Lingare,

Daughter to Charlemagne, who was the son

To Louis the emperor, and Louis the son

Of Charles the Great. Also King Louis the Tenth,

Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet,

245

Could not keep quiet in his conscience

Wearing the crown of France till satisfied

That fair Queen Isabelle, his grandmother,

Was lineal of the lady Ermengarde,

Daughter to Charles the foresaid Duke of Lorraine,

250

By the which marriage the line of Charles the Great

Was reunited to the crown of France.

So that, as clear as is the summer's sun,

King Pepin's title and Hugh Capet's claim,

King Louis his satisfaction, all appear

255

To hold in right and title of the female;

So do the kings of France unto this day,

Howbeit they would hold up this Salic law

To bar your highness claiming from the female,

And rather choose to hide them in a net

260

Than amply to embar their crooked titles

Usurped from you and your progenitors.

KING HENRY

May I with right and conscience make this claim?

CANTERBURY

The sin upon my head, dread sovereign.

For in the book of Numbers is it writ:

265

"When the man dies, let the inheritance

Descend unto the daughter." Gracious lord,

Stand for your own. Unwind your bloody flag,

Look back into your mighty ancestors.

Go, my dread lord, to your great-grandsire's tomb,

270

From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit,

And your great-uncle's, Edward the Black Prince,

Who on the French ground played a tragedy,

Making defeat on the full power of France

Whiles his most mighty father on a hill

275

Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp

Forage in blood of French nobility.

Oh, noble English, that could entertain

With half their forces the full pride of France

And let another half stand laughing by,

280

All out of work and cold for action!

ELY

Awake remembrance of these valiant dead,

And with your puissant arm renew their feats.

You are their heir, you sit upon their throne,

The blood and courage that renownèd them

285

Runs in your veins, and my thrice-puissant liege

Is in the very May-morn of his youth,

Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises.

EXETER

Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth

Do all expect that you should rouse yourself

290

As did the former lions of your blood.

WESTMORLAND

They know your grace hath cause, and means, and might;

So hath your highness. Never king of England

Had nobles richer and more loyal subjects,

Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England

295

And lie pavilioned in the fields of France.

CANTERBURY

Oh, let their bodies follow, my dear liege,

With bloods and sword and fire to win your right.

In aid whereof, we of the spiritualty

Will raise your highness such a mighty sum

300

As never did the clergy at one time

Bring in to any of your ancestors.

KING HENRY

We must not only arm t'invade the French,

But lay down our proportions to defend

Against the Scot, who will make road upon us

305

With all advantages.

CANTERBURY

They of those marches, gracious sovereign,

Shall be a wall sufficient to defend

Our inland from the pilfering borderers.

KING HENRY

We do not mean the coursing snatchers only,

310

But fear the main intendment of the Scot,

Who hath been still a giddy neighbor to us.

For you shall read that my great-grandfather

Never went with his forces into France

But that the Scot on his unfurnished kingdom

315

Came pouring like the tide into a breach

With ample and brim fullness of his force,

Galling the gleanèd land with hot assays,

Girding with grievous siege castles and towns,

That England, being empty of defense,

320

Hath shook and trembled at th'ill neighborhood.

CANTERBURY

She hath been then more feared than harmed, my liege.

For hear her but exampled by herself:

When all her chivalry hath been in France

And she a mourning widow of her nobles,

325

She hath herself not only well defended,

But taken and impounded as a stray

The king of Scots, whom she did send to France

To fill King Edward's fame with prisoner kings

And make their chronicle as rich with praise

330

As is the ooze and bottom of the sea

With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries.

ELY

But there's a saying very old and true:

"If that you will France win,

Then with Scotland first begin."

335

For once the eagle England being in prey,

To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot

Comes sneaking, and so sucks her princely eggs,

Playing the mouse in absence of the cat,

To 'tame and havoc more than she can eat.

EXETER

340

It follows then the cat must stay at home,

Yet that is but a crushed necessity,

Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries

And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves.

While that the armèd hand doth fight abroad,

345

Th'advisèd head defends itself at home.

For government, though high and low and lower

Put into parts, doth keep in one consent,

Congreeing in a full and natural close

Like music.

CANTERBURY

Therefore doth heaven divide

350

The state of man in divers functions,

Setting endeavor in continual motion,

To which is fixèd, as an aim or butt,

Obedience. For so work the honeybees,

Creatures that by a rule in nature teach

355

The act of order to a peopled kingdom.

They have a king, and officers of sorts,

Where some like magistrates correct at home;

Others like merchants venture trade abroad;

Others, like soldiers armèd in their stings,

360

Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds,

Which pillage they with merry march bring home

To the tent-royal of their emperor,

Who, busied in his majesties, surveys

The singing masons building roofs of gold,

365

The civil citizens kneading up the honey,

The poor mechanic porters crowding in

Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate,

The sad-eyed justice with his surly hum

Delivering o'er to executors pale

370

The lazy yawning drone. I this infer:

That many things, having full reference

To one consent, may work contrariously.

As many arrows loosèd several ways

Come to one mark, as many ways meet in one town,

375

As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea,

As many lines close in the dial's center,

So may a thousand actions once afoot

End in one purpose, and be all well borne

Without defeat. Therefore to France, my liege.

380

Divide your happy England into four,

Whereof take you one quarter into France,

And you withal shall make all Gallia shake.

If we, with thrice such powers left at home,

Cannot defend our own doors from the dog,

385

Let us be worried, and our nation lose

The name of hardiness and policy.

KING HENRY

Call in the messengers sent from the dauphin.

[Exit attendant.]

Now are we well resolved, and by God's help

And yours, the noble sinews of our power,

390

France being ours, we'll bend it to our awe,

Or break it all to pieces. Or there we'll sit,

Ruling in large and ample empery

O'er France and all her almost kingly dukedoms,

Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn,

395

Tombless, with no remembrance over them.

Either our history shall with full mouth

Speak freely of our acts, or else our grave,

Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth,

Not worshipped with a waxen epitaph. —

Enter Ambassadors of France.

400

Now are we well prepared to know the pleasure

Of our fair cousin dauphin, for we hear

Your greeting is from him, not from the king.

AMBASSADOR

May't please your majesty to give us leave

Freely to render what we have in charge,

405

Or shall we sparingly show you far off

The dauphin's meaning and our embassy?

KING HENRY

We are no tyrant, but a Christian king,

Unto whose grace our passion is as subject

As is our wretches fettered in our prisons.

410

Therefore with frank and with uncurbèd plainness

Tell us the dauphin's mind.

AMBASSADOR

Thus, then, in few:

Your highness, lately sending into France,

Did claim some certain dukedoms in the right

Of your great predecessor, King Edward the Third.

415

In answer of which claim, the prince our master

Says that you savor too much of your youth,

And bids you be advised, there's naught in France

That can be with a nimble galliard won;

You cannot revel into dukedoms there.

420

He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit,

This tun of treasure, and in lieu of this,

Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim

Hear no more of you. This the dauphin speaks.

KING HENRY

What treasure, uncle?

EXETER

Tennis balls, my liege.

KING HENRY

425

We are glad the dauphin is so pleasant with us.

His present and your pains we thank you for.

When we have matched our rackets to these balls,

We will in France, by God's grace, play a set

Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard.

430

Tell him he hath made a match with such a wrangler

That all the courts of France will be disturbed

With chases. And we understand him well,

How he comes o'er us with our wilder days,

Not measuring what use we made of them.

435

We never valued this poor seat of England,

And therefore living hence, did give ourself

To barbarous license, as 'tis ever common

That men are merriest when they are from home.

But tell the dauphin I will keep my state,

440

Be like a king, and show my sail of greatness

When I do rouse me in my throne of France.

For that I have laid by my majesty

And plodded like a man for working days,

But I will rise there with so full a glory

445

That I will dazzle all the eyes of France,

Yea, strike the dauphin blind to look on us.

And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his

Hath turned his balls to gunstones, and his soul

Shall stand sore chargèd for the wasteful vengeance

450

That shall fly with them: for many a thousand widows

Shall this, his mock, mock out of their dear husbands,

Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down,

And some are yet ungotten and unborn

That shall have cause to curse the dauphin's scorn.

455

But this lies all within the will of God,

To whom I do appeal, and in whose name

Tell you the dauphin I am coming on

To venge me as I may, and to put forth

My rightful hand in a well-hallowed cause.

460

So get you hence in peace, and tell the dauphin

His jest will savor but of shallow wit

When thousands weep more than did laugh at it. —

Convey them with safe conduct. — Fare you well.

Exeunt Ambassadors.

EXETER

This was a merry message.

KING HENRY

465

We hope to make the sender blush at it.

Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour

That may give furtherance to our expedition,

For we have now no thought in us but France,

Save those to God, that run before our business.

470

Therefore let our proportions for these wars

Be soon collected, and all things thought upon

That may with reasonable swiftness add

More feathers to our wings, for, God before,

We'll chide this dauphin at his father's door.

475

Therefore let every man now task his thought

That this fair action may on foot be brought.

Exeunt.

Act II

[2.0]

Flourish. Enter Chorus.

CHORUS

Now all the youth of England are on fire

And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies.

Now thrive the armorers, and honor's thought

480

Reigns solely in the breast of every man.

They sell the pasture now to buy the horse,

Following the mirror of all Christian kings

With wingèd heels, as English Mercuries.

For now sits expectation in the air

485

And hides a sword from hilts unto the point

With crowns imperial, crowns and coronets

Promised to Harry and his followers.

The French, advised by good intelligence

Of this most dreadful preparation,

490

Shake in their fear, and with pale policy

Seek to divert the English purposes.

O England, model to thy inward greatness,

Like little body with a mighty heart,

What mightst thou do, that honor would thee do,

495

Were all thy children kind and natural!

But see, thy fault France hath in thee found out:

A nest of hollow bosoms, which he fills

With treacherous crowns; and three corrupted men,

One, Richard, Earl of Cambridge, and the second

500

Henry, Lord Scrope of Masham, and the third

Sir Thomas Grey, knight of Northumberland,

Have for the gilt of France — oh, guilt indeed! —

Confirmed conspiracy with fearful France.

And by their hands this grace of kings must die,

505

If hell and treason hold their promises,

Ere he take ship for France, and in Southampton.

Linger your patience on, and we'll digest

Th'abuse of distance, force a play.

The sum is paid, the traitors are agreed,

510

The king is set from London, and the scene

Is now transported, gentles, to Southampton.

There is the playhouse now, there must you sit,

And thence to France shall we convey you safe

And bring you back, charming the narrow seas

515

To give you gentle pass; for if we may,

We'll not offend one stomach with our play.

But when the king come forth, and not till then,

Unto Southampton do we shift our scene.

Exit

[2.1]

Enter Corporal Nym and Lieutenant Bardolph.

BARDOLPH

Well met, Corporal Nym.

NYM

Good morrow, Lieutenant Bardolph.

BARDOLPH

What, are Ancient Pistol and you friends yet?

NYM

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

BARDOLPH

I will bestow a breakfast to make you friends, and we'll be all three sworn brothers to France. Let’t be so, good Corporal Nym.

NYM

Faith, I will live so long as I may, that's the certain of it. And when I cannot live any longer, I will do as I may. That is my rest; that is the rendezvous of it.

BARDOLPH

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

NYM

I cannot tell; things must be as they may. Men may sleep, and they may have their throats about them at that time, and some say knives have edges. It must be as it may. Though patience be a tired mare, yet she will plod. There must be conclusions. Well, I cannot tell.

Enter Pistol and [Hostess, formerly Mistress] Quickly.

BARDOLPH

Here comes Ancient Pistol and his wife. Good corporal, be patient here. — How now, mine host Pistol?

PISTOL

Base tyke, call'st thou me host? Now by this hand I swear I scorn the term! Nor shall my Nell keep lodgers.

HOSTESS

No, by my troth, not long, for we cannot lodge and board a dozen or fourteen gentlewomen that live honestly by the prick of their needles, but it will be thought we keep a bawdy house straight. [Nym draws his sword.] Oh, welladay, lady, if he be not hewn now, we shall see willful adultery and murder committed!

BARDOLPH

Good lieutenant, good corporal, offer nothing here.

NYM

Pish.

PISTOL

Pish for thee, Iceland dog, thou prick-eared cur of Iceland.

HOSTESS

Good Corporal Nym, show thy valor and put up your sword.

NYM

Will you shog off? [To Pistol] I would have you solus.

PISTOL

"Solus," egregious dog? O viper vile! The "solus" in thy most marvelous face. The "solus" in thy teeth, and in thy throat, and in thy hateful lungs, yea in thy maw, perdy. And which is worse, within thy nasty mouth. I do retort the "solus" in thy bowels, for I can take, and Pistol's cock is up, and flashing fire will follow.

NYM

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

PISTOL

O braggart vile, and damnèd furious wight,

520

The grave doth gape, and doting death is near,

Therefore exhale.

[Pistol draws his sword.]

BARDOLPH

Hear me, hear me what I say. [Draws his sword (?)] He that strikes the first stroke, I'll run him up to the hilts, as I am a soldier.

PISTOL

An oath of mickle might, and fury shall abate. [They sheathe their swords.] Give me thy fist. Thy forefoot to me give. Thy spirits are most tall.

NYM

I will cut thy throat one time or other in fair terms. That is the humor of it.

PISTOL

Couple a gorge, that is the word. I defy thee again! O hound of Crete, think'st thou my spouse to get? No, to the Spital go, and from the powd'ring tub of infamy fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind, Doll Tearsheet, she by name, and her espouse. I have, and I will hold the quondam Quickly for the only she, and pauca, there's enough. Go to.

Enter the Boy.

BOY

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

BARDOLPH

Away, you rogue.

HOSTESS

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

Exeunt [Boy and Hostess.]

BARDOLPH

Come, shall I make you two friends? We must to France together. Why the devil should we keep knives to cut one another's throats?

PISTOL

Let floods o'erswell, and fiends for food howl on.

NYM

[To Pistol] You'll pay me the eight shillings I won of you at betting?

PISTOL

Base is the slave that pays.

NYM

That now I will have. That's the humor of it.

PISTOL

As manhood shall compound. Push home.

[They] draw [their swords.]

BARDOLPH

[Drawing his sword (?)] By this sword, he that makes the first thrust, I'll kill him. By this sword, I will.

PISTOL

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

[Sheathes his sword]

BARDOLPH

Corporal Nym, an thou wilt be friends, be friends. An thou wilt not, why then be enemies with me, too. Prithee, put up.

[Nym and Bardolph sheathe their swords. (?)]

PISTOL

A noble shalt thou have, and present pay. And liquor likewise will I give to thee, and friendship shall combine, and brotherhood. I'll live by Nym and Nym shall live by me. Is not this just? For I shall sutler be unto the camp, and profits will accrue. Give me thy hand.

NYM

I shall have my noble?

PISTOL

In cash most justly paid.

NYM

Well, then that's the humor of't.

[Pistol and Nym shake hands. (?)]

Enter Hostess.

HOSTESS

As ever you come of women, come in quickly to Sir John. A poor heart, he is so shaked of a burning quotidian tertian that it is most lamentable to behold. Sweet men, come to him.

[Exit.]

NYM

The king hath run bad humors on the knight. That's the even of it.

PISTOL

Nym, thou hast spoke the right. His heart is fracted and corroborate.

NYM

The king is a good king, but it must be as it may. He passes some humors and careers.

PISTOL

Let us condole the knight, for lambkins, we will live.

[Exeunt.]

[2.2]

Enter Exeter, Bedford, and Westmorland.

BEDFORD

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

EXETER

They shall be apprehended by and by.

WESTMORLAND

How smooth and even they do bear themselves,

525

As if allegiance in their bosoms sat

Crownèd with faith and constant loyalty.

BEDFORD

The king hath note of all that they intend

By interception, which they dream not of.

EXETER

Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow,

530

Whom he hath dulled and cloyed with gracious favors,

That he should for a foreign purse so sell

His sovereign's life to death and treachery!

Sound trumpets. Enter the King, Scrope, Cambridge, and Grey[, and attendants.]

KING HENRY

Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard. —

My lord of Cambridge, and my kind lord of Masham,

535

And you, my gentle knight, give me your thoughts:

Think you not that the powers we bear with us

Will cut their passage through the force of France,

Doing the execution and the act

For which we have in head assembled them?

SCROPE

540

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

KING HENRY

I doubt not that, since we are well persuaded

We carry not a heart with us from hence

That grows not in a fair consent with ours,

Nor leave not one behind that doth not wish

545

Success and conquest to attend on us.

CAMBRIDGE

Never was monarch better feared and loved

Than is your majesty. There's not, I think, a subject

That sits in heart-grief and uneasiness

Under the sweet shade of your government.

GREY

550

True. Those that were your father's enemies

Have steeped their galls in honey and do serve you

With hearts create of duty and of zeal.

KING HENRY

We therefore have great cause of thankfulness,

And shall forget the office of our hand

555

Sooner than quittance of desert and merit,

According to the weight and worthiness.

SCROPE

So service shall with steelèd sinews toil,

And labor shall refresh itself with hope

To do your grace incessant services.

KING HENRY

560

We judge no less. Uncle of Exeter,

Enlarge the man committed yesterday

That railed against our person. We consider

It was excess of wine that set him on,

And on his more advice we pardon him.

SCROPE

565

That's mercy, but too much security.

Let him be punished, sovereign, lest example

Breed, by his sufferance, more of such a kind.

KING HENRY

Oh, let us yet be merciful.

CAMBRIDGE

So may your highness, and yet punish too.

GREY

570

Sir, you show great mercy if you give him life

After the taste of much correction.

KING HENRY

Alas, your too much love and care of me

Are heavy orisons 'gainst this poor wretch.

If little faults proceeding on distemper

575

Shall not be winked at, how shall we stretch our eye

When capital crimes, chewed, swallowed, and digested,

Appear before us? We'll yet enlarge that man,

Though Cambridge, Scrope, and Grey, in their dear care

And tender preservation of our person

580

Would have him punished. And now to our French causes. —

Who are the late commissioners?

CAMBRIDGE

I one, my lord.

Your highness bade me ask for it today.

SCROPE

So did you me, my liege.

GREY

And I, my royal sovereign.

KING HENRY

585

[Giving them papers] Then Richard Earl of Cambridge, there is yours.

There yours, Lord Scrope of Masham; and sir knight,

Grey of Northumberland, this same is yours.

Read them and know I know your worthiness. —

My lord of Westmorland, and uncle Exeter,

590

We will aboard to night. — Why, how now, gentlemen?

What see you in those papers that you lose

So much complexion? Look ye how they change:

Their cheeks are paper! Why, what read you there

That have so cowarded and chased your blood

595

Out of appearance?

CAMBRIDGE

I do confess my fault,

And do submit me to your highness' mercy.

GREY, SCROPE

To which we all appeal.

KING HENRY

The mercy that was quick in us but late

By your own counsel is suppressed and killed.

600

You must not dare for shame to talk of mercy,

For your own reasons turn into your bosoms

As dogs upon their masters, worrying you. —

See you, my princes and my noble peers,

These English monsters: my lord of Cambridge here,

605

You know how apt our love was to accord

To furnish him with all appurtenants

Belonging to his honor. And this man

Hath for a few light crowns lightly conspired

And sworn unto the practices of France

610

To kill us here in Hampton. To the which

This knight, no less for bounty bound to us

Than Cambridge is, hath likewise sworn.— But oh,

What shall I say to thee, Lord Scrope, thou cruel,

Ingrateful, savage and inhuman creature?

615

Thou that didst bear the key of all my counsels,

That knew'st the very bottom of my soul,

That almost mightst have coined me into gold,

Wouldst thou have practiced on me for thy use?

May it be possible that foreign hire

620

Could out of thee extract one spark of evil

That might annoy my finger? 'Tis so strange

That though the truth of it stands off as gross

As black and white, my eye will scarcely see it.

Treason and murder ever kept together

625

As two yoke-devils sworn to either's purpose,

Working so grossly in unnatural cause

That admiration did not whoop at them.

But thou, 'gainst all proportion, didst bring in

Wonder to wait on treason and on murder,

630

And whatsoever cunning fiend it was

That wrought upon thee so preposterously

Hath got the voice in hell for excellence;

And other devils, that suggest by treasons,

Do botch and bungle up damnation

635

With patches, colors, and with forms being fetched

From glist'ring semblances of piety.

But he that tempered thee, bade thee stand up,

Gave thee no instance why thou shouldst do treason

Unless to dub thee with the name of traitor.

640

If that same demon that hath gulled thee thus

Should with his lion gait walk the whole world,

He might return to vasty Tartar back

And tell the legions, "I can never win

A soul so easy as that Englishman's."

645

Oh, how hast thou with jealousy infected

The sweetness of affiance! Show men dutiful?

Why so didst thou. Seem they grave and learnèd?

Why so didst thou. Come they of noble family?

Why so didst thou. Seem they religious?

650

Why so didst thou. Or are they spare in diet,

Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger,

Constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood,

Garnished and decked in modest complement,

Not working with the eye without the ear,

655

And but in purgèd judgment trusting neither?

Such and so finely bolted didst thou seem.

And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot

To make the full-fraught man, and best, indued

With some suspicion. I will weep for thee,

660

For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like

Another fall of man.— Their faults are open.

Arrest them to the answer of the law,

And God acquit them of their practices.

EXETER

I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Richard Earl of Cambridge. I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Henry Lord Scrope of Masham. I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Thomas Grey, knight of Northumberland.

SCROPE

Our purposes God justly hath discovered,

665

And I repent my fault more than my death,

Which I beseech your highness to forgive,

Although my body pay the price of it.

CAMBRIDGE

For me, the gold of France did not seduce,

Although I did admit it as a motive

670

The sooner to effect what I intended.

But God be thankèd for prevention,

Which I in sufferance heartily will rejoice,

Beseeching God and you to pardon me.

GREY

Never did faithful subject more rejoice

675

At the discovery of most dangerous treason

Than I do at this hour joy o'er myself,

Prevented from a damnèd enterprise.

My fault, but not my body, pardon, sovereign.

KING HENRY

God quit you in his mercy. Hear your sentence:

680

You have conspired against our royal person,

Joined with an enemy proclaimed and from his coffers

Received the golden earnest of our death,

Wherein you would have sold your king to slaughter,

His princes and his peers to servitude,

685

His subjects to oppression and contempt,

And his whole kingdom into desolation.

Touching our person seek we no revenge,

But we our kingdom's safety must so tender,

Whose ruin you sought, that to her laws

690

We do deliver you. Get you therefore hence,

Poor miserable wretches, to your death,

The taste whereof God of his mercy give

You patience to endure, and true repentance

Of all your dear offences. — Bear them hence.

[Exeunt traitors, guarded.]

695

Now, lords, for France, the enterprise whereof

Shall be to you as us like glorious.

We doubt not of a fair and lucky war,

Since God so graciously hath brought to light

This dangerous treason lurking in our way

700

To hinder our beginnings. We doubt not now

But every rub is smoothèd on our way.

Then forth, dear countrymen. Let us deliver

Our puissance into the hand of God,

Putting it straight in expedition.

705

Cheerly to sea; the signs of war advance.

No king of England if not king of France.

Flourish. [Exeunt.]

[2.3]

Enter Pistol, Nym, Bardolph, Boy, and Hostess.

HOSTESS

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

PISTOL

No, for my manly heart doth earn. Bardolph, be blithe. Nym, rouse thy vaunting veins. Boy, bristle thy courage up. For Falstaff he is dead, and we must earn therefore.

BARDOLPH

Would I were with him wheresome'er he is, either in heaven or in hell.

HOSTESS

Nay, sure he's not in hell. He's in Arthur's bosom, if ever man went to Arthur's bosom. A made a finer end, and went away an it had been any christom child. A parted ev'n just between twelve and one, ev'n at the turning o'th'tide. For after I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers, and smile upon his finger's end, I knew there was but one way. For his nose was as sharp as a pen, and a babbled of green fields. "How now, Sir John?" quoth I. "What, man, be o' good cheer!" So a cried out, "God, God, God," three or four times. Now I, to comfort him, bid him a should not think of God; I hoped there was no need to trouble himself with any such thoughts yet. So a bade me lay more clothes on his feet. I put my hand into the bed and felt them, and they were as cold as any stone. Then I felt to his knees, and so up-peered, and upward and all was as cold as any stone.

NYM

They say he cried out of sack.

HOSTESS

Ay, that a did.

BARDOLPH

And of women.

HOSTESS

Nay, that a did not.

BOY

Yes, that a did, and said they were devils incarnate.

HOSTESS

A could never abide carnation; 'twas a color he never liked.

BOY

A said once the devil would have him about women.

HOSTESS

A did in some sort, indeed, handle women, but then he was rheumatic, and talked of the whore of Babylon.

BOY

Do you not remember a saw a flea stick upon Bardolph's nose, and a said it was a black soul burning in hell?

BARDOLPH

Well, the fuel is gone that maintained that fire. That's all the riches I got in his service.

NYM

Shall we shog? The king will be gone from Southampton.

PISTOL

Come, let's away. My love, give me thy lips. [Kisses her] Look to my chattels and my moveables. Let senses rule. The world is pitch-and-pay. Trust none, for oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes, and Holdfast is the only dog, my duck, therefore caveto be thy counselor. Go, clear thy crystals. Yoke-fellows in arms, let us to France like horse-leeches, my boys: to suck, to suck, the very blood to suck!

BOY

And that's but unwholesome food, they say.

PISTOL

Touch her soft mouth and march.

BARDOLPH

[Kisses her] Farewell, hostess.

NYM

I cannot kiss, that is the humor of it, but adieu.

PISTOL

Let housewifery appear. Keep close, I thee command.

HOSTESS

Farewell. Adieu.

Exeunt.

[2.4]

Flourish. Enter the French King, the Dauphin, the Dukes of Berry and Brittany[, and the Constable of France].

FRENCH KING

Thus comes the English with full power upon us,

And more than carefully it us concerns

To answer royally in our defenses.

710

Therefore the Dukes of Berry and of Brittany,

Of Brabant and of Orléans shall make forth,

And you, Prince Dauphin, with all swift dispatch

To line and new repair our towns of war

With men of courage and with means defendant,

715

For England his approaches makes as fierce

As waters to the sucking of a gulf.

It fits us then to be as provident

As fear may teach us, out of late examples

Left by the fatal and neglected English

720

Upon our fields.

DAUPHIN

My most redoubted father,

It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe,

For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom,

Though war nor no known quarrel were in question,

But that defenses, musters, preparations

725

Should be maintained, assembled, and collected

As were a war in expectation.

Therefore I say 'tis meet we all go forth

To view the sick and feeble parts of France.

And let us do it with no show of fear,

730

No, with no more than if we heard that England

Were busied with a Whitsun morris dance.

For, my good liege, she is so idly kinged,

Her scepter so fantastically borne

By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth,

735

That fear attends her not.

CONSTABLE

Oh, peace, Prince Dauphin.

You are too much mistaken in this king.

Question your grace the late ambassadors —

With what great state he heard their embassy,

How well supplied with noble counselors,

740

How modest in exception, and withal

How terrible in constant resolution —

And you shall find his vanities forespent

Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus,

Covering discretion with a coat of folly,

745

As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots

That shall first spring and be most delicate.

DAUPHIN

Well, 'tis not so, my lord high constable.

But though we think it so, it is no matter.

In cases of defense, 'tis best to weigh

750

The enemy more mighty than he seems.

So the proportions of defense are filled,

Which of a weak and niggardly projection

Doth like a miser spoil his coat with scanting

A little cloth.

FRENCH KING

Think we King Harry strong,

755

And princes, look you strongly arm to meet him.

The kindred of him hath been fleshed upon us,

And he is bred out of that bloody strain

That haunted us in our familiar paths:

Witness our too much memorable shame

760

When Crécy battle fatally was struck,

And all our princes captived by the hand

Of that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales,

Whiles that his mountain sire on mountain standing

Up in the air, crowned with the golden sun,

765

Saw his heroical seed and smiled to see him

Mangle the work of nature, and deface

The patterns that by God and by French fathers

Had twenty years been made. This is a stem

Of that victorious stock, and let us fear

770

The native mightiness and fate of him.

Enter a Messenger.

MESSENGER

Ambassadors from Harry, King of England,

Do crave admittance to your majesty.

FRENCH KING

We'll give them present audience; go and bring them.

[Exit Messenger.]

You see this chase is hotly followed, friends.

DAUPHIN

775

Turn head and stop pursuit, for coward dogs

Most spend their mouths when what they seem to threaten

Runs far before them. Good my sovereign,

Take up the English short, and let them know

Of what a monarchy you are the head.

780

Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin

As self-neglecting.

Enter Exeter.

FRENCH KING

From our brother of England?

EXETER

From him, and thus he greets your majesty:

He wills you in the name of God almighty

That you divest yourself, and lay apart

785

The borrowed glories that by gift of heaven,

By law of nature and of nations longs

To him and to his heirs, namely the crown

And all wide-stretchèd honors that pertain

By custom and the ordinance of times

790

Unto the crown of France. That you may know

'Tis no sinister nor no awkward claim

Picked from the wormholes of long-vanished days,

Nor from the dust of old oblivion raked,

He sends you this most memorable line,

[Gives the French King a paper]

795

In every branch truly demonstrative,

Willing you overlook this pedigree.

And when you find him evenly derived

From his most famed of famous ancestors,

Edward the Third, he bids you then resign

800

Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held

From him, the native and true challenger.

FRENCH KING

Or else what follows?

EXETER

Bloody constraint: for if you hide the crown

Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it.

805

Therefore in fierce tempest is he coming,

In thunder and in earthquake, like a Jove,

That if requiring fail, he will compel.

And bids you in the bowels of the Lord

Deliver up the crown, and to take mercy

810

On the poor souls for whom this hungry war

Opens his vasty jaws, and on your head

Turning the widows' tears, the orphans' cries,

The dead men's blood, the privy maidens' groans

For husbands, fathers, and betrothèd lovers

815

That shall be swallowed in this controversy.

This is his claim, his threat'ning, and my message,

Unless the dauphin be in presence here,

To whom expressly I bring greeting too.

FRENCH KING

For us, we will consider of this further.

820

Tomorrow shall you bear our full intent

Back to our brother of England.

DAUPHIN

For the dauphin,

I stand here for him. What to him from England?

EXETER

Scorn and defiance, slight regard, contempt,

And anything that may not misbecome

825

The mighty sender doth he prize you at.

Thus says my king: an if your father's highness

Do not, in grant of all demands at large,

Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his majesty,

He'll call you to so hot an answer of it

830

That caves and womby vaultages of France

Shall chide your trespass and return your mock

In second accent of his ordinance.

DAUPHIN

Say if my father render fair return

It is against my will, for I desire

835

Nothing but odds with England. To that end,

As matching to his youth and vanity,

I did present him with the Paris balls.

EXETER

He'll make your Paris Louvre shake for it,

Were it the mistress court of mighty Europe.

840

And be assured, you'll find a difference,

As we his subjects have in wonder found,

Between the promise of his greener days

And these he masters now. Now he weighs time

Even to the utmost grain. That you shall read

845

In your own losses, if he stay in France.

FRENCH KING

Tomorrow shall you know our mind at full.

Flourish.

EXETER

Dispatch us with all speed, lest that our king

Come here himself to question our delay,

For he is footed in this land already.

FRENCH KING

850

You shall be soon dispatched with fair conditions.

A night is but small breath and little pause

To answer matters of this consequence.

Exeunt.

Act III

[3.0]

Flourish. Enter Chorus.

CHORUS

Thus with imagined wing our swift scene flies

In motion of no less celerity

855

Than that of thought. Suppose that you have seen

The well-appointed king at Dover pier

Embark his royalty, and his brave fleet

With silken streamers the young Phoebus feigning.

Play with your fancies, and in them behold

860

Upon the hempen tackle ship-boys climbing.

Hear the shrill whistle, which doth order give

To sounds confused. Behold the threaden sails,

Borne with th'invisible and creeping wind,

Draw the huge bottoms through the furrowed sea,

865

Breasting the lofty surge. Oh, do but think

You stand upon the rivage, and behold

A city on th'inconstant billows dancing,

For so appears this fleet majestical

Holding due course to Harfleur. Follow, follow!

870

Grapple your minds to sternage of this navy

And leave your England as dead midnight, still,

Guarded with grandsires, babies, and old women,

Either past or not arrived to pith and puissance.

For who is he whose chin is but enriched

875

With one appearing hair, that will not follow

These culled and choice-drawn cavaliers to France?

Work, work your thoughts, and therein see a siege.

Behold the ordnance on their carriages,

With fatal mouths gaping on girded Harfleur.

880

Suppose th'ambassador from the French comes back,

Tells Harry that the king doth offer him

Catherine his daughter, and with her to dowry

Some petty and unprofitable dukedoms.

The offer likes not, and the nimble gunner

885

With linstock now the devilish cannon touches,

Alarum, and chambers go off.

And down goes all before them. Still be kind,

And eke out our performance with your mind.

Exit.

[3.1]

Enter the King, Exeter, Bedford, and Gloucester.

Alarum. [Enter soldiers with] scaling-ladders at Harfleur.

KING HENRY

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,

Or close the wall up with our English dead!

890

In peace, there's nothing so becomes a man

As modest stillness and humility,

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,

Then imitate the action of the tiger:

Stiffen the sinews, conjure up the blood,

895

Disguise fair nature with hard-favored rage.

Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;

Let it pry through the portage of the head

Like the brass cannon. Let the brow o'erwhelm it

As fearfully as doth a gallèd rock

900

O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,

Swilled with the wild and wasteful ocean.

Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,

Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit

To his full height. On! On, you noble English,

905

Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof,

Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,

Have in these parts from morn till even fought

And sheathed their swords for lack of argument.

Dishonor not your mothers; now attest

910

That those whom you called fathers did beget you.

Be copy now to men of grosser blood

And teach them how to war. And you good yeomen,

Whose limbs were made in England, show us here

The mettle of your pasture. Let us swear

915

That you are worth your breeding, which I doubt not,

For there is none of you so mean and base

That hath not noble luster in your eyes.

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,

Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:

920

Follow your spirit, and upon this charge

Cry "God for Harry, England, and Saint George!"

Alarum, and chambers go off. [Exeunt.]

[3.2]

Enter Nym, Bardolph, Pistol, and Boy.

BARDOLPH

On, on, on, on, on, to the breach, to the breach!

NYM

Pray thee, corporal, stay. The knocks are too hot, and for mine own part, I have not a case of lives. The humor of it is too hot, that is the very plainsong of it.

PISTOL

The plainsong is most just, for humors do abound, knocks go and come, God's vassals drop and die,

[Singing]

And sword and shield

In bloody field

Doth win immortal fame.

BOY

Would I were in an alehouse in London. I would give all my fame for a pot of ale, and safety.

PISTOL

And I.

925

[Singing] If wishes would prevail with me,

My purpose should not fail with me,

But thither would I hie.

BOY

[Singing] As duly —

But not as truly —

930

As bird doth sing on bough.

Enter Fluellen.

FLUELLEN

[Beating them] Up to the breach, you dogs! Avaunt, you cullions!

PISTOL

Be merciful, great duke, to men of mold! Abate thy rage, abate thy manly rage! Abate thy rage, great duke! Good bawcock, bate thy rage. Use lenity, sweet chuck.

NYM

These be good humors! Your honor wins bad humors!

[Exeunt Pistol, Bardolph, and Nym.]

BOY

[To audience] As young as I am, I have observed these three swashers. I am boy to them all three, but all they three, though they would serve me, could not be man to me, for indeed three such antics do not amount to a man. For Bardolph, he is white-livered and red-faced, by the means whereof a faces it out, but fights not. For Pistol, he hath a killing tongue and a quiet sword, by the means whereof a breaks words and keeps whole weapons. For Nym, he hath heard that men of few words are the best men, and therefore he scorns to say his prayers, lest a should be thought a coward. But his few bad words are matched with as few good deeds, for a never broke any man's head but his own, and that was against a post when he was drunk. They will steal anything, and call it purchase. Bardolph stole a lute case, bore it twelve leagues, and sold it for three halfpence. Nym and Bardolph are sworn brothers in filching, and in Calais they stole a fire-shovel. I knew by that piece of service the men would carry coals. They would have me as familiar with men's pockets as their gloves or their handkercheifs, which makes much against my manhood, if I should take from another's pocket to put into mine, for it is plain pocketing up of wrongs. I must leave them and seek some better service. Their villainy goes against my weak stomach, and therefore I must cast it up.

Exit [Boy].

Enter Gower.

GOWER

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

FLUELLEN

To the mines? Tell you the duke it is not so good to come to the mines, for look you, the mines is not according to the disciplines of the war. The concavities of it is not sufficient: for look you, th'athversary, you may discuss unto the duke, look you, is digged himself, four yard under, the countermines. By Cheshu, I think a will plow up all if there is not better directions.

GOWER

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

FLUELLEN

It is Captain Macmorris, is it not?

GOWER

I think it be.

FLUELLEN

By Cheshu, he is an ass, as in the world. I will verify as much in his beard. He has no more directions in the true disciplines of the wars, look you, of the Roman disciplines, than is a puppydog.

Enter Macmorris and Captain Jamy.

GOWER

Here a comes, and the Scots captain, Captain Jamy, with him.

FLUELLEN

Captain Jamy is a marvelous falorous gentleman, that is certain, and of great expedition and knowledge in th'aunchient wars, upon my particular knowledge of his directions. By Cheshu, he will maintain his argument as well as any military man in the world, in the disciplines of the pristine wars of the Romans.

JAMY

I say guid day, Captain Fluellen.

FLUELLEN

Good e'en to your worship, good Captain James.

GOWER

How now, Captain Macmorris, have you quit the mines? Have the pioneers given o'er?

MACMORRIS

By Chrish law, 'tish ill done. The work ish give over, the trumpet sound the retreat. By my hand I swear, and my father's soul, the work ish ill done; it ish give over. I would have blowed up the town, so Chrish save me law, in an hour. Oh, 'tish ill done, 'tish ill done, by my hand 'tish ill done.

FLUELLEN

Captain Macmorris, I beseech you now, will you vouchsafe me, look you, a few disputations with you, as partly touching or concerning the disciplines of the war, the Roman wars, in the way of argument, look you, and friendly communication? Partly to satisfy my opinion, and partly for the satisfaction, look you, of my mind, as touching the direction of the military discipline; that is the point.

JAMY

It sall be verray guid, guid faith, guid captains baith, and I sall quit you with guid leve, as I may pick occasion. That sall I, marry.

MACMORRIS

It is no time to discourse, so Chrish save me. The day is hot, and the weather, and the wars, and the king, and the dukes. It is no time to discourse. The town is besieched, and the trumpet call us to the breach, and we talk, and be Chrish do nothing! 'Tis shame for us all; so God sa' me, 'tis shame to stand still. It is shame, by my hand; and there is throats to be cut, and works to be done, and there ish nothing done, so Christ sa' me law.

JAMY

By the mess, ere these eyes of mine take themselves to slumber, I'll dae guid service, or I'll lig i'th' grund for it; I owe God a death, and I'll pay't as valorously as I may, that sall I surely do. That is the brefe and the long. Marry, I wad full fain heard some question 'tween you twae.

FLUELLEN

Captain Macmorris, I think, look you, under your correction, there is not many of your nation —

MACMORRIS

Of my nation? What ish my nation? Ish a villain, and a bastard, and a knave, and a rascal? What ish my nation? Who talks of my nation?

FLUELLEN

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

MACMORRIS

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

GOWER

Gentlemen both, you will mistake each other.

JAMY

Ah, that's a foul fault.

A parley [is sounded.]

GOWER

The town sounds a parley.

FLUELLEN

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

[Exeunt.]

[3.3]

Enter the King and all his train before the gates.

KING HENRY

How yet resolves the governor of the town?

This is the latest parle we will admit,

Therefore to our best mercy give yourselves,

Or like to men proud of destruction

935

Defy us to our worst; for as I am a soldier,

A name that in my thoughts becomes me best,

If I begin the batt'ry once again,

I will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur

Till in her ashes she lie burièd.

940

The gates of mercy shall be all shut up,

And the fleshed soldier, rough and hard of heart,

In liberty of bloody hand shall range

With conscience wide as hell, mowing like grass

Your fresh fair virgins and your flow'ring infants.

945

What is it then to me if impious war,

Arrayed in flames like to the prince of fiends,

Do with his smirched complexion all fell feats

Enlinked to waste and desolation?

What is't to me, when you yourselves are cause,

950

If your pure maidens fall into the hand

Of hot and forcing violation?

What rein can hold licentious wickedness

When down the hill he holds his fierce career?

We may as bootless spend our vain command

955

Upon th'enragèd soldiers in their spoil

As send precepts to the leviathan

To come ashore. Therefore, you men of Harfleur,

Take pity of your town and of your people

Whiles yet my soldiers are in my command,

960

Whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace

O'er-blows the filthy and contagious clouds

Of headly murder, spoil, and villainy.

If not, why in a moment look to see

The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand

965

Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters,

Your fathers taken by the silver beards

And their most reverend heads dashed to the walls,

Your naked infants spitted upon pikes

Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confused

970

Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry

At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen.

What say you? Will you yield and this avoid,

Or, guilty in defense, be thus destroyed?

Enter Governor.

GOVERNOR

Our expectation hath this day an end:

975

The dauphin, whom of succors we entreated,

Returns us that his powers are yet not ready

To raise so great a siege. Therefore, great king,

We yield our town and lives to thy soft mercy.

Enter our gates; dispose of us and ours,

980

For we no longer are defensible.

KING HENRY

Open your gates. –

[Exit Governor.]

Come, uncle Exeter,

Go you and enter Harfleur; there remain

And fortify it strongly 'gainst the French.

Use mercy to them all for us, dear uncle.

985

The winter coming on and sickness growing

Upon our soldiers, we will retire to Calais.

Tonight in Harfleur will we be your guest;

Tomorrow for the march are we addressed.

Flourish, and [the English] enter the town.

[3.4]

Enter Catherine and [Alice,] an old gentlewoman.

CATHERINE

Alice, tu as été en Angleterre, et tu bien parles le langage.

ALICE

Un peu, madame.

CATHERINE

Je te prie, m'enseignez; il faut que j'apprenne à parler. Comment appelez-vous la main en anglais?

ALICE

La main? Elle est appellée de hand.

CATHERINE

De hand. Et les doigts ?

ALICE

Les doigts — ma foi, j'oublie les doigts! Mais je me souviendrai: les doigts, je pense qu'ils sont appellés de fingres. Oui, de fingres.

CATHERINE

Le main, de hand, les doigts, les fingres. Je pense que je suis la bonne écolière. J'ai gagné deux mots d'anglais vistement. Comment appelez vous les ongles?

ALICE

Les ongles, nous les appelons de nails.

CATHERINE

De nails. Écoutez; dites-moi si je parle bien: de hand, de fingres, et de nails.

ALICE

C'est bien dit, madame. Il est fort bon anglais.

CATHERINE

Dites-moi l'anglais pour le bras.

ALICE

De arm, madame.

CATHERINE

Et le coude?

ALICE

D'elbow.

CATHERINE

D'elbow. Je m'en fais la répétition de tous les mots que vous m'avez appris dès à présent.

ALICE

Il est trop difficile, madame, comme je pense.

CATHERINE

Excusez-moi, Alice. Éscoutez: d'hand, de fingre, de nails, d'arma, de bilbow.

ALICE

D'elbow, madame.

CATHERINE

O Seigneur Dieu, je m'en oublie! D'elbow. Comment appellez-vous le col ?

ALICE

De nick, madame.

CATHERINE

De nick. Et le menton?

ALICE

De chin.

CATHERINE

De sin. Le col, de nick, le menton, de sin.

ALICE

Oui. Sauf votre honneur, en vérité vous prononcez les mots aussi droit que les natifs d’Angleterre.

CATHERINE

Je ne doute point d'apprendre, par la grâce de Dieu, et en peu de temps.

ALICE

N'avez-vous déjà oublié ce que je vous ai enseigné ?

CATHERINE

Non, et je réciterai à vous promptement: d'hand, de fingre, de mailés —

ALICE

De nails, madame.

CATHERINE

De nails, de arm, de ilbow —

ALICE

Sauf votre honneur, d'elbow.

CATHERINE

Ainsi dis-je, d'elbow. De nick, et de sin. Comment appellez-vous le pied et la robe ?

ALICE

Le foot, madame, et le count.

CATHERINE

Le foot et le count? O Seigneur Dieu, ils sont les mots de son mauvais, corruptible, gros, et impudique, et non pour les dames d'honneur d'user! Je ne voudrais prononcer ces mots devant les seigneurs de France pour tout le monde. Foh! Le foot et le count! Néanmoins, je réciterai une autre fois ma leçon ensemble: d'hand, de fingre, de nails, d'arm, d'elbow, de nick, de sin, de foot, le count.

ALICE

Excellent, madame!

CATHERINE

C'est assez pour une fois. Allons-nous à dîner.

[Exeunt.]

[3.5]

Enter the King of France, the Dauphin, the Constable of France, [the Duke of Brittany,] and others.

FRENCH KING

'Tis certain he hath passed the river Somme.

CONSTABLE

990

And if he be not fought withal, my lord,

Let us not live in France. Let us quit all

And give our vineyards to a barbarous people.

DAUPHIN

O Dieu vivant! Shall a few sprays of us,

The emptying of our fathers' luxury,

995

Our scions, put in wild and savage stock,

Spurt up so suddenly into the clouds

And overlook their grafters?

BRITTANY

Normans, but bastard Normans! Norman bastards!

Mort de ma vie, if they march along

1000

Unfought withal, but I will sell my dukedom

To buy a slobb'ry and a dirty farm

In that nook-shotten isle of Albion.

CONSTABLE

Dieu des batailles, where have they this mettle?

Is not their climate foggy, raw, and dull,

1005

On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale,

Killing their fruit with frowns? Can sodden water,

A drench for sur-reined jades, their barley broth,

Decoct their cold blood to such valiant heat?

And shall our quick blood, spirited with wine,

1010

Seem frosty? Oh, for honor of our land,

Let us not hang like roping icicles

Upon our houses' thatch whiles a more frosty people

Sweat drops of gallant youth in our rich fields!

Poor we may call them in their native lords.

DAUPHIN

1015

By faith and honor,

Our madams mock at us, and plainly say

Our mettle is bred out, and they will give

Their bodies to the lust of English youth

To new-store France with bastard warriors.

BRITTANY

1020

They bid us to the English dancing schools

And teach lavoltas high and swift corantos,

Saying our grace is only in our heels

And that we are most lofty runaways.

FRENCH KING

Where is Montjoy the herald? Speed him hence.

1025

Let him greet England with our sharp defiance.

Up, princes, and with spirit of honor edged

More sharper than your swords, hie to the field.

Charles d'Alberet, High Constable of France,

You Dukes of Orléans, Bourbon, and of Berry,

1030

Alençon, Brabant, Bar, and Burgundy,

Jaques Châtillon, Rambures, Vaudémont,

Beaumont, Grandpré, Roucy, and Fauquembergues,

Foix, Lestrelles, Boucicaut, and Charolais,

High dukes, great princes, barons, lords, and kings,

1035

For your great seats, now quit you of great shames.

Bar Harry England, that sweeps through our land

With pennons painted in the blood of Harfleur.

Rush on his host as doth the melted snow

Upon the valleys, whose low vassal seat

1040

The Alps doth spit and void his rheum upon.

Go down upon him — you have power enough —

And in a captive chariot into Rouen

Bring him our prisoner.

CONSTABLE

This becomes the great.

Sorry am I his numbers are so few,

1045

His soldiers sick and famished in their march;

For I am sure when he shall see our army

He'll drop his heart into the sink of fear

And, 'fore achievement, offer us his ransom.

FRENCH KING

Therefore, lord constable, haste on Montjoy

1050

And let him say to England that we send

To know what willing ransom he will give.

Prince Dauphin, you shall stay with us in Rouen.

DAUPHIN

Not so, I do beseech your majesty.

FRENCH KING

Be patient, for you shall remain with us.

1055

Now forth, lord constable, and princes all,

And quickly bring us word of England's fall.

Exeunt.

[3.6]

Enter Captains English and Welsh, Gower and Fluellen[, meeting].

GOWER

How now, Captain Fluellen, come you from the bridge?

FLUELLEN

I assure you, there is very excellent services committed at the bridge.

GOWER

Is the Duke of Exeter safe?

FLUELLEN

The Duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as Agamemnon, and a man that I love and honor with my soul, and my heart, and my duty, and my live, and my living, and my uttermost power. He is not, God be praised and blessed, any hurt in the world, but keeps the bridge most valiantly, with excellent discipline. There is an aunchient lieutenant there at the pridge. I think in my very conscience he is as valiant a man as Mark Antony, and he is a man of no estimation in the world, but I did see him do as gallant service.

GOWER

What do you call him?

FLUELLEN

He is called Aunchient Pistol.

GOWER

I know him not.

Enter Pistol.

FLUELLEN

Here is the man.

PISTOL

Captain, I thee beseech to do me favors; the Duke of Exeter doth love thee well.

FLUELLEN

Ay, I praise God, and I have merited some love at his hands.

PISTOL

Bardolph, a soldier firm and sound of heart, and of buxom valor, hath, by cruel fate and giddy Fortune's furious fickle wheel, that goddess blind that stands upon the rolling restless stone —

FLUELLEN

By your patience, Aunchient Pistol, Fortune is painted blind, with a muffler afore his eyes, to signify to you that fortune is blind; and she is painted also with a wheel, to signify to you, which is the moral of it, that she is turning and inconstant, and mutability, and variation; and her foot, look you, is fixed upon a spherical stone, which rowls and rowls and rowls. In good truth, the poet makes a most excellent description of it. Fortune is an excellent moral.

PISTOL

Fortune is Bardolph's foe and frowns on him, for he hath stolen a pax, and hanged must a be, a damned death. Let gallows gape for dog; let man go free, and let not hemp his windpipe suffocate. But Exeter hath given the doom of death for pax of little price. Therefore go speak — the duke will hear thy voice — and let not Bardolph's vital thread be cut with edge of penny-cord and vile reproach. Speak, captain, for his life, and I will thee requite.

FLUELLEN

Aunchient Pistol, I do partly understand your meaning.

PISTOL

Why then, rejoice therefore!

FLUELLEN

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

PISTOL

Die and be damned, and fico for thy friendship!

FLUELLEN

It is well.

PISTOL

The fig of Spain!

Exit.

FLUELLEN

Very good.

GOWER

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

FLUELLEN

I'll assure you, a uttered as prave words at the pridge as you shall see in a summer's day. But it is very well; what he has spoke to me, that is well, I warrant you, when time is serve.

GOWER

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

FLUELLEN

I tell you what, Captain Gower: I do perceive he is not the man that he would gladly make show to the world he is. If I find a hole in his coat, I will tell him my mind. [Drum within] Hark you, the king is coming, and I must speak with him from the pridge.

Drum and Colors. Enter the King and his poor soldiers[, and Gloucester].

FLUELLEN

God pless your majesty.

KING HENRY

How now, Fluellen, cam'st thou from the bridge?

FLUELLEN

Ay, so please your majesty. The Duke of Exeter has very gallantly maintained the pridge. The French is gone off, look you, and there is gallant and most prave passages. Marry, th'athversary was have possession of the pridge, but he is enforced to retire, and the Duke of Exeter is master of the pridge. I can tell your majesty, the duke is a prave man.

KING HENRY

What men have you lost, Fluellen?

FLUELLEN

The perdition of th'athversary hath been very great, reasonable great. Marry, for my part I think the duke hath lost never a man, but one that is like to be executed for robbing a church: one Bardolph, if your majesty know the man. His face is all bubuckles, and whelks, and knobs, and flames afire, and his lips blows at his nose, and it is like a coal of fire, sometimes plue and sometimes red. But his nose is executed, and his fire's out.

KING HENRY

We would have all such offenders so cut off, and we give express charge that in our marches through the country there be nothing compelled from the villages, nothing taken but paid for, none of the French upbraided or abused in disdainful language. For when levity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentler gamester is the soonest winner.

Tucket. Enter Montjoy.

MONTJOY

You know me by my habit.

KING HENRY

Well then, I know thee. What shall I know of thee?

MONTJOY

My master's mind.

KING HENRY

Unfold it.

MONTJOY

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

KING HENRY

What is thy name? I know thy quality.

MONTJOY

Montjoy.

KING HENRY

Thou dost thy office fairly. Turn thee back

1060

And tell thy king I do not seek him now,

But could be willing to march on to Calais

Without impeachment; for to say the sooth,

Though 'tis no wisdom to confess so much

Unto an enemy of craft and vantage,

1065

My people are with sickness much enfeebled,

My numbers lessened, and those few I have

Almost no better than so many French,

Who when they were in health, I tell thee, herald,

I thought upon one pair of English legs

1070

Did march three Frenchmen. Yet forgive me, God,

That I do brag thus; this your air of France

Hath blown that vice in me. I must repent.

Go therefore, tell thy master here I am.

My ransom is this frail and worthless trunk,

1075

My army but a weak and sickly guard.

Yet, God before, tell him we will come on,

Though France himself and such another neighbor

Stand in our way.

[Gives money]

There's for thy labor, Montjoy.

Go bid thy master well advise himself.

1080

If we may pass, we will. If we be hindered,

We shall your tawny ground with your red blood

Discolor. And so, Montjoy, fare you well.

The sum of all our answer is but this:

We would not seek a battle as we are,

1085

Nor as we are, we say, we will not shun it.

So tell your master.

MONTJOY

I shall deliver so. Thanks to your highness.

[Exit.]

GLOUCESTER

I hope they will not come upon us now.

KING HENRY

We are in God's hand, brother, not in theirs. —

1090

March to the bridge. — It now draws toward night.

Beyond the river we'll encamp ourselves,

And on tomorrow bid them march away.

Exeunt.

[3.7]

Enter the Constable of France, the Lord Rambures, Orléans, [and the] Dauphin, with others.

CONSTABLE

Tut, I have the best armor of the world. Would it were day.

ORLÉANS

You have an excellent armor, but let my horse have his due.

CONSTABLE

It is the best horse of Europe.

ORLÉANS

Will it never be morning?

DAUPHIN

My lord of Orléans, and my lord high constable, you talk of horse and armor?

ORLÉANS

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

DAUPHIN

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

ORLÉANS

He's of the color of the nutmeg.

DAUPHIN

And of the heat of the ginger. It is a beast for Perseus. He is pure air and fire, and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in him but only in patient stillness while his rider mounts him. He is indeed a horse, and all other jades you may call beasts.

CONSTABLE

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

DAUPHIN

It is the prince of palfreys. His neigh is like the bidding of a monarch, and his countenance enforces homage.

ORLÉANS

No more, cousin.

DAUPHIN

Nay, the man hath no wit that cannot from the rising of the lark to the lodging of the lamb vary deserved praise on my palfrey; it is a theme as fluent as the sea. Turn the sands into eloquent tongues and my horse is argument for them all. 'Tis a subject for a sovereign to reason on, and for a sovereign's sovereign to ride on, and for the world, familiar to us and unknown, to lay apart their particular functions and wonder at him. I once writ a sonnet in his praise, and began thus: "Wonder of nature —"

ORLÉANS

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

DAUPHIN

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

ORLÉANS

Your mistress bears well.

DAUPHIN

Me well, which is the prescript praise and perfection of a good and particular mistress.

CONSTABLE

Nay, for methought yesterday your mistress shrewdly shook your back.

DAUPHIN

So perhaps did yours.

CONSTABLE

Mine was not bridled.

DAUPHIN

Oh, then belike she was old and gentle, and you rode like a kern of Ireland, your French hose off, and in your strait strossers.

CONSTABLE

You have good judgment in horsemanship.

DAUPHIN

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

CONSTABLE

I had as lief have my mistress a jade.

DAUPHIN

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

CONSTABLE

I could make as true a boast as that if I had a sow to my mistress.

DAUPHIN

" Le chien est retourné à son propre vomissement, et la truie lavée au bourbier. " Thou makest use of anything.

CONSTABLE

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

RAMBURES

My lord constable, the armor that I saw in your tent tonight: are those stars or suns upon it?

CONSTABLE

Stars, my lord.

DAUPHIN

Some of them will fall tomorrow, I hope.

CONSTABLE

And yet my sky shall not want.

DAUPHIN

That may be, for you bear a many superfluously, and 'twere more honor some were away.

CONSTABLE

Ev'n as your horse bears your praises, who would trot as well were some of your brags dismounted.

DAUPHIN

Would I were able to load him with his desert. Will it never be day? I will trot tomorrow a mile, and my way shall be paved with English faces.

CONSTABLE

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

RAMBURES

Who will go to hazard with me for twenty prisoners?

CONSTABLE

You must first go yourself to hazard ere you have them.

DAUPHIN

'Tis midnight; I'll go arm myself.

Exit.

ORLÉANS

The dauphin longs for morning.

RAMBURES

He longs to eat the English.

CONSTABLE

I think he will eat all he kills.

ORLÉANS

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

CONSTABLE

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

ORLÉANS

He is simply the most active gentleman of France.

CONSTABLE

Doing is activity, and he will still be doing.

ORLÉANS

He never did harm that I heard of.

CONSTABLE

Nor will do none tomorrow; he will keep that good name still.

ORLÉANS

I know him to be valiant.

CONSTABLE

I was told that by one that knows him better than you.

ORLÉANS

What's he?

CONSTABLE

Marry, he told me so himself, and he said he cared not who knew it.

ORLÉANS

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

CONSTABLE

By my faith, sir, but it is. Never anybody saw it but his lackey. 'Tis a hooded valor, and when it appears, it will bate.

ORLÉANS

Ill will never said well.

CONSTABLE

I will cap that proverb with "There is flattery in friendship."

ORLÉANS

And I will take up that with "Give the devil his due."

CONSTABLE

Well placed. There stands your friend for the devil. Have at the very eye of that proverb with "A pox of the devil."

ORLÉANS

You are the better at proverbs by how much "a fool's bolt is soon shot."

CONSTABLE

You have shot over.

ORLÉANS

'Tis not the first time you were overshot.

Enter a Messenger.

MESSENGER

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

CONSTABLE

Who hath measured the ground?

MESSENGER

The lord Grandpré.

CONSTABLE

A valiant and most expert gentleman. Would it were day! Alas, poor Harry of England. He longs not for the dawning as we do.

ORLÉANS

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

CONSTABLE

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

ORLÉANS

That they lack, for if their heads had any intellectual armor, they could never wear such heavy headpieces.

RAMBURES

That island of England breeds very valiant creatures. Their mastiffs are of unmatchable courage.

ORLÉANS

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

CONSTABLE

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

ORLÉANS

Ay, but these English are shrewdly out of beef.

CONSTABLE

Then shall we find tomorrow they have only stomachs to eat, and none to fight. Now is it time to arm. Come, shall we about it?

ORLÉANS

It is now two o'clock, but let me see: by ten

We shall have each a hundred Englishmen.

Exeunt.

Act IV

[4.0]

[Enter] Chorus.

CHORUS

1095

Now entertain conjecture of a time

When creeping murmur and the poring dark

Fills the wide vessel of the universe.

From camp to camp, through the foul womb of night,

The hum of either army stilly sounds,

1100

That the fixed sentinels almost receive

The secret whispers of each other's watch.

Fire answers fire, and through their paly flames

Each battle sees the other's umbered face.

Steed threatens steed, in high and boastful neighs

1105

Piercing the night's dull ear, and from the tents,

The armorers accomplishing the knights,

With busy hammers closing rivets up,

Give dreadful note of preparation.

The country cocks do crow, the clocks do toll,

1110

And the third hour of drowsy morning named.

Proud of their numbers and secure in soul,

The confident and over-lusty French

Do the low-rated English play at dice,

And chide the cripple tardy-gaited night,

1115

Who like a foul and ugly witch doth limp

So tediously away. The poor condemnèd English,

Like sacrifices, by their watchful fires

Sit patiently and inly ruminate

The morning's danger; and their gesture sad,

1120

Investing lank-lean cheeks and war-worn coats,

Presented them unto the gazing moon

So many horrid ghosts. Oh, now, who will behold

The royal captain of this ruined band

Walking from watch to watch, from tent to tent,

1125

Let him cry "Praise and glory on his head!"

For forth he goes and visits all his host,

Bids them good morrow with a modest smile,

And calls them brothers, friends, and countrymen.

Upon his royal face there is no note

1130

How dread an army hath enrounded him;

Nor doth he dedicate one jot of color

Unto the weary and all-watchèd night,

But freshly looks and overbears attaint

With cheerful semblance and sweet majesty,

1135

That every wretch, pining and pale before,

Beholding him, plucks comfort from his looks.

A largess universal like the sun

His liberal eye doth give to everyone,

Thawing cold fear, that mean and gentle all

1140

Behold, as may unworthiness define,

A little touch of Harry in the night.

And so our scene must to the battle fly,

Where — oh, for pity! — we shall much disgrace

With four or five most vile and ragged foils

1145

Right ill-disposed in brawl ridiculous,

The name of Agincourt. Yet sit and see,

Minding true things by what their mock'ries be.

Exit.

[4.1]

Enter the King [and Gloucester, meeting Bedford].

KING HENRY

Gloucester, 'tis true that we are in great danger;

The greater therefore should our courage be.—

1150

Good morrow, brother Bedford. God almighty,

There is some soul of goodness in things evil,

Would men observingly distill it out.

For our bad neighbor makes us early stirrers,

Which is both healthful and good husbandry.

1155

Besides, they are our outward consciences

And preachers to us all, admonishing

That we should dress us fairly for our end.

Thus may we gather honey from the weed,

And make a moral of the devil himself.

Enter Erpingham.

1160

Good morrow, old Sir Thomas Erpingham.

A good soft pillow for that good white head

Were better than a churlish turf of France.

ERPINGHAM

Not so, my liege. This lodging likes me better,

Since I may say "Now lie I like a king."

KING HENRY

1165

'Tis good for men to love their present pains.

Upon example so, the spirit is eased,

And when the mind is quickened, out of doubt

The organs, though defunct and dead before,

Break up their drowsy grave and newly move

1170

With casted slough, and fresh legerity.

Lend me thy cloak, Sir Thomas. — Brothers both,

Commend me to the princes in our camp.

Do my good morrow to them, and anon

Desire them all to my pavilion.

GLOUCESTER

1175

We shall, my liege.

ERPINGHAM

Shall I attend your grace?

KING HENRY

No, my good knight,

Go with my brothers to my lords of England.

I and my bosom must debate awhile,

And then I would no other company.

ERPINGHAM

1180

The lord in heaven bless thee, noble Harry.

Exeunt [all but King Henry, who disguises himself in Erpingham's cloak].

KING HENRY

God-a-mercy, old heart; thou speak'st cheerfully.

Enter Pistol.

PISTOL

Che vous la?

KING HENRY

A friend.

PISTOL

Discuss unto me: art thou officer, or art thou base, common, and popular?

KING HENRY

I am a gentleman of a company.

PISTOL

Trail'st thou the puissant pike?

KING HENRY

Even so. What are you?

PISTOL

As good a gentleman as the emperor.

KING HENRY

Then you are a better than the king.

PISTOL

The king's a bawcock and a heart of gold, a lad of life, an imp of fame, of parents good, of fist most valiant. I kiss his dirty shoe, and from heartstring I love the lovely bully. What is thy name?

KING HENRY

Harry le Roy.

PISTOL

Leroy? A Cornish name; art thou of Cornish crew?

KING HENRY

No, I am a Welshman.

PISTOL

Know'st thou Fluellen?

KING HENRY

Yes.

PISTOL

Tell him I'll knock his leek about his pate upon Saint Davy's day.

KING HENRY

Do not you wear your dagger in your cap that day, lest he knock that about yours.

PISTOL

Art thou his friend?

KING HENRY

And his kinsman too.

PISTOL

The fico for thee then.

KING HENRY

I thank you. God be with you.

PISTOL

My name is Pistol called.

Exit [Pistol].

KING HENRY

It sorts well with your fierceness.

Enter Fluellen and Gower [separately].

GOWER

Captain Fluellen.

FLUELLEN

'So! In the name of Jesu Christ speak fewer! It is the greatest admiration in the universal world when the true and aunchient prerogatiffs and laws of the wars is not kept. If you would take the pains but to examine the wars of Pompey the Great, you shall find, I warrant you, that there is no tiddle-taddle nor pibble-babble in Pompey's camp. I warrant you, you shall find the ceremonies of the wars, and the cares of it, and the forms of it, and the sobriety of it, and the modesty of it, to be otherwise.

GOWER

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

FLUELLEN

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

GOWER

I will speak lower.

FLUELLEN

I pray you and beseech you that you will.

[Exeunt Gower and Fluellen.]

KING HENRY

Though it appear a little out of fashion,

There is much care and valor in this Welshman.

Enter three soldiers: John Bates, Alexander Court, and Michael Williams.

COURT

Brother John Bates, is not that the morning which breaks yonder?

BATES

I think it be, but we have no great cause to desire the approach of day.

WILLIAMS

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

KING HENRY

A friend.

WILLIAMS

Under what captain serve you?

KING HENRY

Under Sir Thomas Erpingham.

WILLIAMS

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

KING HENRY

Even as men wrecked upon a sand, that look to be washed off the next tide.

BATES

He hath not told his thought to the king?

KING HENRY

No, nor it is not meet he should. For though I speak it to you, I think the king is but a man, as I am. The violet smells to him as it doth to me; the element shows to him as it doth to me; all his senses have but human conditions. His ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man, and though his affections are higher mounted than ours, yet when they stoop, they stoop with the like wing. Therefore when he sees reason of fears, as we do, his fears out of doubt be of the same relish as ours are. Yet in reason, no man should possess him with any appearance of fear, lest he by showing it should dishearten his army.

BATES

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

KING HENRY

By my troth, I will speak my conscience of the king: I think he would not wish himself anywhere but where he is.

BATES

Then I would he were here alone. So should he be sure to be ransomed, and a many poor men's lives saved.

KING HENRY

I dare say you love him not so ill to wish him here alone, howsoever you speak this to feel other men's minds. Methinks I could not die anywhere so contented as in the king's company, his cause being just and his quarrel honorable.

WILLIAMS

That's more than we know.

BATES

Ay, or more than we should seek after. For we know enough if we know we are the king's subjects. If his cause be wrong, our obedience to the king wipes the crime of it out of us.

WILLIAMS

But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs and arms and heads chopped off in a battle shall join together at the latter day, and cry all, "We died at such a place," some swearing, some crying for a surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind them, some upon the debts they owe, some upon their children rawly left. I am afeared there are few die well that die in a battle, for how can they charitably dispose of anything when blood is their argument? Now if these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for the king that led them to it, who to disobey were against all proportion of subjection.

KING HENRY

So if a son that is by his father sent about merchandise do sinfully miscarry upon the sea, the imputation of his wickedness, by your rule, should be imposed upon his father that sent him. Or if a servant, under his master's command transporting a sum of money, be assailed by robbers and die in many irreconciled iniquities, you may call the business of the master the author of the servant's damnation. But this is not so. The king is not bound to answer the particular endings of his soldiers, the father of his son, nor the master of his servant, for they purpose not their death when they purpose their services. Besides, there is no king, be his cause never so spotless, if it come to the arbitrament of swords, can try it out with all unspotted soldiers. Some, peradventure, have on them the guilt of premeditated and contrived murder; some of beguiling virgins with the broken seals of perjury; some, making the wars their bulwark, that have before gored the gentle bosom of peace with pillage and robbery. Now if these men have defeated the law and outrun native punishment, though they can outstrip men, they have no wings to fly from God. War is his beadle; war is his vengeance. So that here men are punished for before-breach of the king's laws in now the king's quarrel. Where they feared the death, they have borne life away; and where they would be safe, they perish. Then if they die unprovided, no more is the king guilty of their damnation than he was before guilty of those impieties for the which they are now visited. Every subject's duty is the king's, but every subject's soul is his own. Therefore should every soldier in the wars do as every sick man in his bed, wash every mote out of his conscience. And dying so, death is to him advantage, or not dying, the time was blessedly lost wherein such preparation was gained. And in him that escapes, it were not sin to think that, making God so free an offer, he let him outlive that day to see his greatness and to teach others how they should prepare.

WILLIAMS

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

BATES

I do not desire he should answer for me, and yet I determine to fight lustily for him.

KING HENRY

I myself heard the king say he would not be ransomed.

WILLIAMS

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

KING HENRY

If I live to see it, I will never trust his word after.

WILLIAMS

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

KING HENRY

Your reproof is something too round. I should be angry with you if the time were convenient.

WILLIAMS

Let it be a quarrel between us if you live.

KING HENRY

I embrace it.

WILLIAMS

How shall I know thee again?

KING HENRY

Give me any gage of thine and I will wear it in my bonnet. Then if ever thou darest acknowledge it, I will make it my quarrel.

WILLIAMS

Here's my glove. Give me another of thine.

KING HENRY

There.

[They exchange gloves.]

WILLIAMS

This will I also wear in my cap. If ever thou come to me and say, after tomorrow, "This is my glove," by this hand I will take thee a box on the ear.

KING HENRY

If ever I live to see it, I will challenge it.

WILLIAMS

Thou darest as well be hanged.

KING HENRY

Well, I will do it, though I take thee in the king's company.

WILLIAMS

Keep thy word. Fare thee well.

BATES

Be friends, you English fools, be friends! We have French quarrels enough, if you could tell how to reckon.

[Exeunt] Soldiers.

KING HENRY

Indeed, the French may lay twenty French crowns to one they will beat us, for they bear them on their shoulders. But it is no English treason to cut French crowns, and tomorrow the king himself will be a clipper. —

Upon the king! "Let us our lives, our souls,

1185

Our debts, our careful wives, our children, and

Our sins lay on the king." We must bear all.

O hard condition, twin-born with greatness,

Subject to the breath of every fool whose sense

No more can feel but his own wringing.

1190

What infinite heart's-ease must kings neglect,

That private men enjoy?

And what have kings that privates have not too,

Save ceremony, save general ceremony?

And what art thou, thou idol ceremony?

1195

What kind of god art thou, that suffer'st more

Of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers?

What are thy rents? What are thy comings in?

O ceremony, show me but thy worth.

What? Is thy soul of adoration?

1200

Art thou aught else but place, degree, and form,

Creating awe and fear in other men,

Wherein thou art less happy being feared

Than they in fearing?

What drink'st thou oft, instead of homage sweet,

1205

But poisoned flattery? O, be sick, great greatness,

And bid thy ceremony give thee cure.

Think'st thou the fiery fever will go out

With titles blown from adulation?

Will it give place to flexure and low bending?

1210

Canst thou, when thou command'st the beggar's knee,

Command the health of it? No, thou proud dream

That play'st so subtly with a king's repose.

I am a king that find thee, and I know

'Tis not the balm, the scepter, and the ball,

1215

The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,

The intertissued robe of gold and pearl,

The farcèd title running 'fore the king,

The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp

That beats upon the high shore of this world —

1220

No, not all these, thrice-gorgeous ceremony,

Not all these, laid in bed majestical,

Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave

Who, with a body filled and vacant mind,

Gets him to rest, crammed with distressful bread;

1225

Never sees horrid night, the child of hell,

But like a lackey, from the rise to set,

Sweats in the eye of Phoebus, and all night

Sleeps in Elysium; next day after dawn

Doth rise and help Hyperion to his horse,

1230

And follows so the ever-running year

With profitable labor to his grave.

And but for ceremony, such a wretch,

Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep,

Had the forehand and vantage of a king.

1235

The slave, a member of the country's peace,

Enjoys it, but in gross brain little wots

What watch the king keeps to maintain the peace,

Whose hours the peasant best advantages.

Enter Erpingham.

ERPINGHAM

My lord, your nobles, jealous of your absence,

1240

Seek through your camp to find you.

KING HENRY

Good old knight,

Collect them all together at my tent:

I'll be before thee.

ERPINGHAM

I shall do't, my lord.

Exit.

KING HENRY

[Kneeling] O God of battles, steel my soldiers' hearts.

Possess them not with fear. Take from them now

1245

The sense of reck'ning, ere th'opposèd numbers

Pluck their hearts from them. Not today, O Lord,

Oh, not today — think not upon the fault

My father made in compassing the crown.

I Richard's body have interrèd new,

1250

And on it have bestowed more contrite tears

Than from it issued forcèd drops of blood.

Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay

Who twice a day their withered hands hold up

Toward heaven to pardon blood, and I have built

1255

Two chantries where the sad and solemn priests

Sing still for Richard's soul. More will I do,

Though all that I can do is nothing worth,

Since that my penitence comes after all,

Imploring pardon.

Enter Gloucester.

GLOUCESTER

1260

My liege.

KING HENRY

My brother Gloucester's voice? Ay,

I know thy errand. I will go with thee.

The day, my friend, and all things stay for me.

Exeunt.

[4.2]

Enter the Dauphin, Orléans, Rambures, and Beaumont.

ORLÉANS

The sun doth gild our armor. Up, my lords!

DAUPHIN

Montez à cheval : my horse, varlet lackey, ha!

ORLÉANS

1265

Oh, brave spirit!

DAUPHIN

Via les eaux et terres.

ORLÉANS

Rien plus? L'air et feu ?

DAUPHIN

Cieux, Cousin Orléans.

Enter Constable.

Now my lord constable?

CONSTABLE

Hark how our steeds for present service neigh.

DAUPHIN

1270

Mount them, and make incision in their hides,

That their hot blood may spin in English eyes

And d'out them with superfluous courage. Ha!

RAMBURES

What, will you have them weep our horses' blood?

How shall we then behold their natural tears?

Enter Messenger.

MESSENGER

1275

The English are embattled, you French peers.

CONSTABLE

To horse, you gallant princes, straight to horse!

Do but behold yon poor and starvèd band

And your fair show shall suck away their souls,

Leaving them but the shales and husks of men.

1280

There is not work enough for all our hands,

Scarce blood enough in all their sickly veins

To give each naked curtle-ax a stain

That our French gallants shall today draw out

And sheathe for lack of sport. Let us but blow on them,

1285

The vapor of our valor will o'erturn them.

'Tis positive against all exceptions, lords,

That our superfluous lackeys and our peasants,

Who in unnecessary action swarm

About our squares of battle, were enough

1290

To purge this field of such a hilding foe

Though we upon this mountain's basis by

Took stand for idle speculation,

But that our honors must not. What's to say?

A very little little let us do

1295

And all is done. Then let the trumpets sound

The tucket sonance and the note to mount,

For our approach shall so much dare the field

That England shall couch down in fear and yield.

Enter Grandpré.

GRANDPRÉ

Why do you stay so long, my lords of France?

1300

Yon island carrions, desperate of their bones,

Ill-favoredly become the morning field.

Their ragged curtains poorly are let loose

And our air shakes them passing scornfully.

Big Mars seems bankrupt in their beggared host

1305

And faintly through a rusty beaver peeps.

The horsemen sit like fixèd candlesticks

With torch-staves in their hand, and their poor jades

Lob down their heads, dropping the hides and hips,

The gum down-roping from their pale dead eyes,

1310

And in their pale dull mouths the gemelled bit

Lies foul with chawed grass, still and motionless;

And their executors, the knavish crows,

Fly o'er them all, impatient for their hour.

Description cannot suit itself in words

1315

To demonstrate the life of such a battle

In life so lifeless as it shows itself.

CONSTABLE

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

DAUPHIN

Shall we go send them dinners and fresh suits

And give their fasting horses provender,

1320

And after fight with them?

CONSTABLE

I stay but for my guard. On to the field;

I will the banner from a trumpet take

And use it for my haste. Come, come away.

The sun is high and we outwear the day.

Exeunt.

[4.3]

Enter Gloucester, Bedford, Exeter, Erpingham with all his host, Salisbury, and Westmorland.

GLOUCESTER

1325

Where is the king?

BEDFORD

The king himself is rode to view their battle.

WESTMORLAND

Of fighting men they have full threescore thousand.

EXETER

There's five to one, besides they all are fresh.

SALISBURY

God's arm strike with us! 'Tis a fearful odds.

1330

God b'wi'you, princes all. I'll to my charge.

If we no more meet till we meet in heaven,

Then joyfully, my noble lord of Bedford,

My dear lord Gloucester, and my good lord Exeter,

And my kind kinsman, warriors all, adieu.

BEDFORD

1335

Farewell, good Salisbury, and good luck go with thee.

EXETER

[To Salisbury] Farewell, kind lord. Fight valiantly today.

And yet I do thee wrong to mind thee of it,

For thou art framed of the firm truth of valor.

[Exit Salisbury.]

BEDFORD

He is as full of valor as of kindness,

1340

Princely in both.

Enter the King.

WESTMORLAND

Oh, that we now had here

But one ten thousand of those men in England

That do no work today.

KING HENRY

What's he that wishes so?

My cousin Westmorland? No, my fair cousin,

If we are marked to die, we are enough

1345

To do our country loss; and if to live,

The fewer men, the greater share of honor.

God's will, I pray thee wish not one man more.

By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,

Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost.

1350

It earns me not if men my garments wear;

Such outward things dwell not in my desires.

But if it be a sin to covet honor,

I am the most offending soul alive.

No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.

1355

God's peace, I would not lose so great an honor

As one man more methinks would share from me

For the best hope I have. Oh, do not wish one more.

Rather proclaim it, Westmorland, through my host

That he which hath no stomach to this fight,

1360

Let him depart. His passport shall be made

And crowns for convoy put into his purse.

We would not die in that man's company

That fears his fellowship to die with us.

This day is called the feast of Crispian.

1365

He that outlives this day and comes safe home

Will stand a tiptoe when this day is named

And rouse him at the name of Crispian.

He that shall see this day and live old age

Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors

1370

And say, "Tomorrow is Saint Crispian."

Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.

Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,

But he'll remember, with advantages,

What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,

1375

Familiar in his mouth as household words —

Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,

Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester —

Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered.

This story shall the good man teach his son,

1380

And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by

From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be rememberèd,

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.

For he today that sheds his blood with me

1385

Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition.

And gentlemen in England now abed,

Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

1390

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Enter Salisbury.

SALISBURY

My sovereign lord, bestow yourself with speed.

The French are bravely in their battles set

And will with all expedience charge on us.

KING HENRY

All things are ready if our minds be so.

WESTMORLAND

1395

Perish the man whose mind is backward now.

KING HENRY

Thou dost not wish more help from England, coz?

WESTMORLAND

God's will, my liege, would you and I alone

Without more help could fight this royal battle!

KING HENRY

Why, now thou hast unwished five thousand men,

1400

Which likes me better than to wish us one. —

You know your places. God be with you all.

Tucket. Enter Montjoy.

MONTJOY

Once more I come to know of thee, King Harry,

If for thy ransom thou wilt now compound

Before thy most assurèd overthrow,

1405

For certainly thou art so near the gulf

Thou needs must be englutted. Besides, in mercy

The constable desires thee thou wilt mind

Thy followers of repentance, that their souls

May make a peaceful and a sweet retire

1410

From off these fields where, wretches, their poor bodies

Must lie and fester.

KING HENRY

Who hath sent thee now?

MONTJOY

The Constable of France.

KING HENRY

I pray thee bear my former answer back:

Bid them achieve me and then sell my bones.

1415

Good God, why should they mock poor fellows thus?

The man that once did sell the lion's skin

While the beast lived, was killed with hunting him.

A many of our bodies shall no doubt

Find native graves, upon the which I trust

1420

Shall witness live in brass of this day's work.

And those that leave their valiant bones in France,

Dying like men, though buried in your dunghills,

They shall be famed, for there the sun shall greet them

And draw their honors reeking up to heaven,

1425

Leaving their earthly parts to choke your clime,

The smell whereof shall breed a plague in France.

Mark then abounding valor in our English,

That being dead, like to the bullets crazing,

Break out into a second course of mischief,

1430

Killing in relapse of mortality.

Let me speak proudly: tell the constable

We are but warriors for the working day.

Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirched

With rainy marching in the painful field.

1435

There's not a piece of feather in our host —

Good argument, I hope, we will not fly —

And time hath worn us into slovenry.

But by the mass, our hearts are in the trim,

And my poor soldiers tell me yet ere night

1440

They'll be in fresher robes, or they will pluck

The gay new coats o'er the French soldiers' heads

And turn them out of service. If they do this,

As, if God please, they shall, my ransom then

Will soon be levied. Herald, save thou thy labor.

1445

Come thou no more for ransom, gentle herald.

They shall have none, I swear, but these my joints,

Which if they have as I will leave 'em them,

Shall yield them little. Tell the constable.

MONTJOY

I shall, King Harry. And so fare thee well.

1450

Thou never shalt hear herald any more.

Exit.

KING HENRY

I fear thou wilt once more come for a ransom.

Enter York.

YORK

[Kneeling] My lord, most humbly on my knee I beg

The leading of the vanguard.

KING HENRY

Take it, brave York. — Now soldiers, march away,

1455

And how thou pleasest, God, dispose the day.

Exeunt.

[4.4]

Alarum. Excursions.

Enter Pistol, French Soldier, [and] Boy.

PISTOL

Yield, cur!

FRENCH SOLDIER

Je pense que vous êtes le gentilhomme de bon qualité.

PISTOL

Qualtity? “ Calinny custure me! ” Art thou a gentleman? What is thy name? Discuss.

FRENCH SOLDIER

O Seigneur Dieu!

PISTOL

O Signieur Dew should be a gentleman. Perpend my words, O Signieur Dew, and mark: O Signieur Dew, thou diest on point of fox, except, O Signieur, thou do give to me egregious ransom.

FRENCH SOLDIER

Oh, prenez miséricorde! Ayez pitié de moi!

PISTOL

Moy shall not serve. I will have forty moys, for I will fetch thy rim out at thy throat in drops of crimson blood.

FRENCH SOLDIER

Est-il impossible d'échapper la force de ton bras ?

PISTOL

Brass, cur? Thou damned and luxurious mountain goat, offer'st me brass?

FRENCH SOLDIER

Oh, pardonnez-moi!

PISTOL

Say'st thou me so? Is that a ton of moys? — Come hither, boy. Ask me this slave in French what is his name.

BOY

Écoutez: comment êtes-vous appellé?

FRENCH SOLDIER

Monsieur le Fer.

BOY

He says his name is Master Fer.

PISTOL

Master Fer. I'll fer him, and firk him, and ferret him. Discuss the same in French unto him.

BOY

I do not know the French for fer and ferret and firk.

PISTOL

Bid him prepare, for I will cut his throat.

FRENCH SOLDIER

[To Boy] Que dit-il, monsieur ?

BOY

Il me commande à vous dire que vous faites vous prêr, car ce soldat ici est disposé tout à cette heure de couper votre gorge.

PISTOL

Owi, cuppe-la gorge, permafoy, peasant, unless thou give me crowns. Brave crowns, or mangled shalt thou be by this my sword.

FRENCH SOLDIER

Oh, je vous supplie, pour l'amour de Dieu, me pardonner! Je suis le gentilhomme de bonne maison. Gardez ma vie, et je vous donnerai deux cent écus.

PISTOL

What are his words?

BOY

He prays you to save his life. He is a gentleman of a good house, and for his ransom he will give you two hundred crowns.

PISTOL

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

FRENCH SOLDIER

[To Boy] Petit monsieur, que dit-il ?

BOY

Encore qu’il est contre son jurement de pardonner aucun prisonnier, néanmoins, pour les écus que vous l’avez promis, il est content à vous donner la liberté, le franchisement.

FRENCH SOLDIER

[Kneeling to Pistol] Sur mes genoux je vous donne mille remerciements, et je m'estime heureux que je suis tombé entre les mains d'un chevalier, je pense, le plus brave, vaillant et très distingué seigneur d'Angleterre.

PISTOL

Expound unto me, boy.

BOY

He gives you upon his knees a thousand thanks, and he esteems himself happy that he hath fallen into the hands of one, as he thinks, the most brave, valorous and thrice-worthy seigneur of England.

PISTOL

As I suck blood, I will some mercy show. Follow me.

BOY

Suivez-vous le grand capitaine.

[Exeunt Pistol and French Soldier]

I did never know so full a voice issue from so empty a heart, but the saying is true, "The empty vessel makes the greatest sound." Bardolph and Nym had ten times more valor than this roaring devil i'th'old play, that everyone may pare his nails with a wooden dagger, and they are both hanged; and so would this be if he durst steal anything adventurously. I must stay with the lackeys with the luggage of our camp. The French might have a good prey of us if he knew of it, for there is none to guard it but boys.

Exit.

[4.5]

Enter Constable, Orléans, Bourbon, Dauphin, and Rambures.

CONSTABLE

O diable!

ORLÉANS

O Seigneur! Le jour est perdu, tout est perdu!

DAUPHIN

Mort Dieu! Ma vie! All is confounded, all.Reproach and everlasting shame sits mocking in our plumes.

A short alarum

O méchante Fortune! Do not run away.

CONSTABLE

Why, all our ranks are broke.

DAUPHIN

Oh, perdurable shame. Let's stab ourselves.

Be these the wretches that we played at dice for?

ORLÉANS

Is this the king we sent to for his ransom?

BOURBON

Shame and eternal shame, nothing but shame.

1460

Let us die. In once more, back again,

And he that will not follow Bourbon now

Let him go hence, and with his cap in hand

Like a base pander, hold the chamber door

Whilst by a slave no gentler than my dog

1465

His fairest daughter is contaminated.

CONSTABLE

Disorder that hath spoiled us, friend us now.

Let us on heaps go offer up our lives.

ORLÉANS

We are enough yet living in the field

To smother up the English in our throngs,

1470

If any order might be thought upon.

BOURBON

The devil take order now. I'll to the throng;

Let life be short, else shame will be too long.

[Exeunt.]

[4.6]

Alarum. Enter the King and his train, with prisoners.

KING HENRY

Well have we done, thrice-valiant countrymen,

But all's not done. Yet keep the French the field.

[Enter Exeter.]

EXETER

1475

The Duke of York commends him to your majesty.

KING HENRY

Lives he, good uncle? Thrice within this hour

I saw him down, thrice up again and fighting.

From helmet to the spur all blood he was.

EXETER

In which array, brave soldier, doth he lie,

1480

Larding the plain. And by his bloody side,

Yoke-fellow to his honor-owing wounds,

The noble Earl of Suffolk also lies.

Suffolk first died, and York, all haggled over,

Comes to him where in gore he lay insteeped,

1485

And takes him by the beard, kisses the gashes

That bloodily did yawn upon his face.

He cries aloud, "Tarry, my cousin Suffolk.

My soul shall thine keep company to heaven.

Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly abreast,

1490

As in this glorious and well-foughten field

We kept together in our chivalry."

Upon these words I came and cheered him up.

He smiled me in the face, raught me his hand,

And with a feeble grip says, "Dear my lord,

1495

Commend my service to my sovereign."

So did he turn, and over Suffolk's neck

He threw his wounded arm, and kissed his lips,

And so espoused to death, with blood he sealed

A testament of noble-ending love.

1500

The pretty and sweet manner of it forced

Those waters from me which I would have stopped,

But I had not so much of man in me,

And all my mother came into mine eyes

And gave me up to tears.

KING HENRY

I blame you not,

1505

For hearing this I must perforce compound

With mixtful eyes, or they will issue too.

Alarum

But hark, what new alarum is this same?

The French have reinforced their scattered men.

Then every soldier kill his prisoners.

1510

Give the word through.

[Exeunt.]

[4.7]

Enter Fluellen and Gower.

FLUELLEN

Kill the poys and the luggage! 'Tis expressly against the law of arms. 'Tis as arrant a piece of knavery, mark you now, as can be offer't. In your conscience now, is it not?

GOWER

'Tis certain there's not a boy left alive, and the cowardly rascals that ran from the battle ha' done this slaughter. Besides, they have burned and carried away all that was in the king's tent, wherefore the king most worthily hath caused every soldier to cut his prisoner's throat. Oh, 'tis a gallant king.

FLUELLEN

Ay, he was porn at Monmouth, Captain Gower. What call you the town's name where Alexander the Pig was born?

GOWER

Alexander the Great.

FLUELLEN

Why, I pray you, is not "pig" great? The pig, or the great, or the mighty, or the huge, or the magnanimous, are all one reckonings, save the phrase is a little variations.

GOWER

I think Alexander the Great was born in Macedon. His father was called Philip of Macedon, as I take it.

FLUELLEN

I think it is in Macedon where Alexander is porn. I tell you, captain, if you look in the maps of the 'orld, I warrant you sall find, in the comparisons between Macedon and Monmouth, that the situations, look you, is both alike. There is a river in Macedon, and there is also moreover a river at Monmouth. It is called Wye at Monmouth, but it is out of my prains what is the name of the other river. But 'tis all one, 'tis alike as my fingers is to my fingers, and there is salmons in both. If you mark Alexander's life well, Harry of Monmouth's life is come after it indifferent well, for there is figures in all things. Alexander, God knows, and you know, in his rages, and his furies, and his wraths, and his cholers, and his moods, and his displeasures, and his indignations, and also being a little intoxicates in his prains, did in his ales and his angers, look you, kill his best friend Cleitus.

GOWER

Our king is not like him in that. He never killed any of his friends.

FLUELLEN

It is not well done, mark you now, to take the tales out of my mouth ere it is made and finished. I speak but in the figures and comparisons of it. As Alexander killed his friend Cleitus, being in his ales and his cups, so also Harry Monmouth, being in his right wits, and his good judgments, turned away the fat knight with the great belly-doublet. He was full of jests, and gipes, and knaveries, and mocks. I have forgot his name.

GOWER

Sir John Falstaff.

FLUELLEN

That is he. I'll tell you, there is good men porn at Monmouth.

GOWER

Here comes his majesty.

Alarum. Enter King Harry[, Exeter, Warwick, Gloucester, an English herald, and others, with] Bourbon [and other] prisoners. Flourish.

KING HENRY

I was not angry since I came to France

Until this instant. Take a trumpet, herald.

Ride thou unto the horsemen on yon hill.

If they will fight with us, bid them come down,

1515

Or void the field. They do offend our sight.

If they'll do neither, we will come to them

And make them skirr away as swift as stones

Enforcèd from the old Assyrian slings.

Besides, we'll cut the throats of those we have,

1520

And not a man of them that we shall take

Shall taste our mercy. Go and tell them so.

Enter Montjoy.

EXETER

Here comes the herald of the French, my liege.

GLOUCESTER

His eyes are humbler than they used to be.

KING HENRY

How now, what means this, herald? Know'st thou not

1525

That I have fined these bones of mine for ransom?

Com'st thou again for ransom?

MONTJOY

No, great king.

I come to thee for charitable license,

That we may wander o'er this bloody field

To book our dead and then to bury them,

1530

To sort our nobles from our common men.

For many of our princes — woe the while —

Lie drowned and soaked in mercenary blood;

So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs

In blood of princes, and the wounded steeds

1535

Fret fetlock deep in gore, and with wild rage

Jerk out their armèd heels at their dead masters,

Killing them twice. O, give us leave, great king,

To view the field in safety and dispose

Of their dead bodies.

KING HENRY

I tell thee truly, herald,

1540

I know not if the day be ours or no,

For yet a many of your horsemen peer

And gallop o'er the field.

MONTJOY

The day is yours.

KING HENRY

Praisèd be God and not our strength for it.

What is this castle called that stands hard by?

MONTJOY

1545

They call it Agincourt.

KING HENRY

Then call we this the field of Agincourt,

Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus.

FLUELLEN

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

KING HENRY

They did, Fluellen.

FLUELLEN

Your majesty says very true. If your majesties is remembered of it, the Welshmen did good service in a garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps, which your majesty know to this hour is an honorable badge of the service. And I do believe your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek upon Saint Tavy's day.

KING HENRY

I wear it for a memorable honor,

For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman.

FLUELLEN

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

KING HENRY

Thanks, good my countryman.

FLUELLEN

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

KING HENRY

1550

God keep me so. –

Enter Williams.

Our heralds go with him.

Bring me just notice of the numbers dead

On both our parts. –

[Exeunt Montjoy, English heralds, and Gower.]

Call yonder fellow hither.

EXETER

[To Williams] Soldier, you must come to the king.

KING HENRY

Soldier, why wear'st thou that glove in thy cap?

WILLIAMS

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

KING HENRY

An Englishman?

WILLIAMS

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

KING HENRY

What think you, Captain Fluellen? Is it fit this soldier keep his oath?

FLUELLEN

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

KING HENRY

It may be his enemy is a gentleman of great sort, quite from the answer of his degree.

FLUELLEN

Though he be as good a gentleman as the devil is, as Lucifer and Belzebub himself, it is necessary, look your grace, that he keep his vow and his oath. If he be perjured, see you now, his reputation is as arrant a villain and a jack-sauce as ever his black shoe trod upon God's ground and his earth, in my conscience, law.

KING HENRY

Then keep thy vow, sirrah, when thou meet'st the fellow.

WILLIAMS

So I will, my liege, as I live.

KING HENRY

Who serv'st thou under?

WILLIAMS

Under Captain Gower, my liege.

FLUELLEN

Gower is a good captain, and is good knowledge and literatured in the wars.

KING HENRY

Call him hither to me, soldier.

WILLIAMS

I will, my liege.

Exit.

KING HENRY

Here, Fluellen, wear thou this favor for me and stick it in thy cap.[Gives him Williams's glove] When Alençon and myself were down together I plucked this glove from his helm. If any man challenge this, he is a friend to Alençon and an enemy to our person. If thou encounter any such, apprehend him, and thou dost me love.

FLUELLEN

Your grace does me as great honors as can be desired in the hearts of his subjects. I would fain see the man that has but two legs that shall find himself aggrief'd at this glove. That is all, but I would fain see it once an't please God of his grace that I might see.

KING HENRY

Know'st thou Gower?

FLUELLEN

He is my dear friend, an't please you.

KING HENRY

Pray thee, go seek him and bring him to my tent.

FLUELLEN

I will fetch him.

Exit.

KING HENRY

My lord of Warwick and my brother Gloucester,

Follow Fluellen closely at the heels.

1555

The glove which I have given him for a favor

May haply purchase him a box o'th'ear.

It is the soldier's. I by bargain should

Wear it myself. Follow, good cousin Warwick.

If that the soldier strike him — as I judge

1560

By his blunt bearing he will keep his word —

Some sudden mischief may arise of it.

For I do know Fluellen valiant

And touched with choler, hot as gunpowder,

And quickly will return an injury.

1565

Follow, and see there be no harm between them. —

Go you with me, uncle of Exeter.

Exeunt.

[4.8]

Enter Gower and Williams.

WILLIAMS

I warrant it is to knight you, captain.

Enter Fluellen.

FLUELLEN

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

WILLIAMS

[To Fluellen] Sir, know you this glove?

FLUELLEN

Know the glove? I know the glove is a glove.

WILLIAMS

I know this, and thus I challenge it.

Strikes him.

FLUELLEN

'Sblood, an arrant traitor as any's in the universal world, or in France, or in England!

GOWER

How now, sir? [To Williams] You villain!

WILLIAMS

Do you think I'll be forsworn?

FLUELLEN

Stand away, Captain Gower. I will give treason his payment into plows, I warrant you.

WILLIAMS

I am no traitor.

FLUELLEN

That's a lie in thy throat. [To Gower] I charge you in his majesty's name, apprehend him. He's a friend of the Duke Alençon's.

Enter Warwick and Gloucester.

WARWICK

How now, how now, what's the matter?

FLUELLEN

My lord of Warwick, here is, praised be God for it, a most contagious treason come to light, look you, as you shall desire in a summer's day. Here is his majesty.

Enter King and Exeter.

KING HENRY

How now, what's the matter?

FLUELLEN

My liege, here is a villain and a traitor that, look your grace, has struck the glove which your majesty is take out of the helmet of Alençon.

WILLIAMS

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

FLUELLEN

Your majesty hear now, saving your majesty's manhood, what an arrant, rascally, beggarly, lousy knave it is. I hope your majesty is pear me testimony and witness, and will avouchment, that this is the glove of Alençon that your majesty is give me, in your conscience now.

KING HENRY

Give me thy glove, soldier. Look, here is the fellow of it.

'Twas I indeed thou promisèd'st to strike,

And thou hast given me most bitter terms.

FLUELLEN

An't please your majesty, let his neck answer for it, if there is any martial law in the world.

KING HENRY

How canst thou make me satisfaction?

WILLIAMS

All offences, my lord, come from the heart. Never came any from mine that might offend your majesty.

KING HENRY

It was ourself thou didst abuse.

WILLIAMS

Your majesty came not like yourself. You appeared to me but as a common man — witness the night, your garments, your lowliness — and what your highness suffered under that shape, I beseech you take it for your own fault and not mine, for had you been as I took you for, I made no offense. Therefore I beseech your highness pardon me.

KING HENRY

Here, uncle Exeter, fill this glove with crowns

1570

And give it to this fellow. [To Williams] Keep it, fellow,

And wear it for an honor in thy cap

Till I do challenge it. Give him the crowns.

[To Fluellen] And captain, you must needs be friends with him.

FLUELLEN

By this day and this light, the fellow has mettle enough in his belly. — Hold, there is twelvepence for you, and I pray you to serve God and keep you out of prawls, and prabbles, and quarrels, and dissensions, and I warrant you it is the better for you.

WILLIAMS

I will none of your money.

FLUELLEN

It is with a good will. I can tell you it will serve you to mend your shoes. Come, wherefore should you be so pashful? Your shoes is not so good. 'Tis a good silling, I warrant you, or I will change it.

Enter Herald.

KING HENRY

Now, herald, are the dead numbered?

HERALD

[Presenting a paper] Here is the number of the slaughtered French.

KING HENRY

1575

[To Exeter] What prisoners of good sort are taken, uncle?

EXETER

Charles, Duke of Orléans, nephew to the king;

John, Duke of Bourbon, and Lord Boucicaut.

Of other lords and barons, knights and squires,

Full fifteen hundred, besides common men.

KING HENRY

1580

This note doth tell me of ten thousand French

That in the field lie slain. Of princes in this number

And nobles bearing banners, there lie dead

One hundred twenty-six. Added to these,

Of knights, esquires, and gallant gentlemen,

1585

Eight thousand and four hundred, of the which

Five hundred were but yesterday dubbed knights.

So that in these ten thousand they have lost

There are but sixteen hundred mercenaries.

The rest are princes, barons, lords, knights, squires,

1590

And gentlemen of blood and quality.

The names of those their nobles that lie dead:

Charles d'Alberet, High Constable of France,

Jacques of Châtillon, Admiral of France,

The Master of the Crossbows, Lord Rambures,

1595

Great Master of France, the brave Sir Guichard Dauphin;

Jean Duke of Alençon, Antony Duke of Brabant,

The brother to the Duke of Burgundy,

And Édouard Duke of Bar. Of lusty earls,

Grandpré and Roucy, Fauquembergues and Foix,

1600

Beaumont and Marle, Vaudémont and Lestrelles.

Here was a royal fellowship of death. —

Where is the number of our English dead?

[Takes a paper]

Edward the Duke of York, the Earl of Suffolk,

Sir Richard Kyghley, Davey Gam, Esquire.

1605

None else of name, and of all other men

But five-and-twenty. O God, thy arm was here,

And not to us but to thy arm alone

Ascribe we all. When, without stratagem,

But in plain shock and even play of battle,

1610

Was ever known so great and little loss

On one part and on th'other? Take it, God,

For it is none but thine.

EXETER

'Tis wonderful.

KING HENRY

Come, go we in procession to the village,

And be it death proclaimèd through our host

1615

To boast of this, or take that praise from God

Which is his only.

FLUELLEN

Is it not lawful, an't please your majesty, to tell how many is killed?

KING HENRY

Yes, captain, but with this acknowledgement:

That God fought for us.

FLUELLEN

Yes, my conscience, he did us great good.

KING HENRY

1620

Do we all holy rites.

Let there be sung Non nobis and Te Deum,

The dead with charity enclosed in clay,

And then to Calais, and to England then,

Where ne'er from France arrived more happy men.

Exeunt.

Act V

5.[0]

Enter Chorus.

CHORUS

1625

Vouchsafe to those that have not read the story

That I may prompt them; and of such as have,

I humbly pray them to admit th'excuse

Of time, of numbers, and due course of things

Which cannot in their huge and proper life

1630

Be here presented. Now we bear the king

Toward Calais; grant him there. There seen,

Heave him away upon your wingèd thoughts

Athwart the sea. Behold, the English beach

Pales in the flood with men, wives, and boys,

1635

Whose shouts and claps outvoice the deep-mouthed sea,

Which, like a mighty whiffler 'fore the king,

Seems to prepare his way. So let him land,

And solemnly see him set on to London.

So swift a pace hath thought that even now

1640

You may imagine him upon Blackheath,

Where that his lords desire him to have borne

His bruisèd helmet and his bended sword

Before him through the city. He forbids it,

Being free from vainness and self-glorious pride,

1645

Giving full trophy, signal, and ostent

Quite from himself to God. But now behold

In the quick forge and working-house of thought

How London doth pour out her citizens.

The mayor and all his brethren in best sort,

1650

Like to the senators of th'antique Rome

With the plebeians swarming at their heels,

Go forth and fetch their conqu'ring Caesar in —

As, by a lower but by loving likelihood,

Were now the general of our gracious empress

1655

(As in good time he may) from Ireland coming,

Bringing rebellion broachèd on his sword,

How many would the peaceful city quit

To welcome him? Much more, and much more cause,

Did they this Harry. Now in London place him,

1660

As yet the lamentation of the French

Invites the king of England's stay at home.

The emperor's coming in behalf of France

To order peace between them, we omit:

All the occurrences, whatever chanced,

1665

Till Harry's back return again to France.

There must we bring him, and myself have played

The interim by remembering you 'tis past.

Then brook abridgement, and your eyes advance,

After your thoughts, straight back again to France.

Exit.

[5.1]

Enter Fluellen and Gower.

GOWER

Nay, that's right. But why wear you your leek today? Saint Davy's day is past.

FLUELLEN

There is occasions and causes why and wherefore in all things. I will tell you ass my friend, Captain Gower. The rascally, scald, beggarly, lousy, pragging knave Pistol, which you and yourself and all the world know to be no petter than a fellow, look you now, of no merits, he is come to me and prings me pread and salt yesterday, look you, and bid me eat my leek. It was in a place where I could not breed no contention with him, but I will be so bold as to wear it in my cap till I see him once again, and then I will tell him a little piece of my desires.

Enter Pistol.

GOWER

Why, here he comes, swelling like a turkey-cock.

FLUELLEN

'Tis no matter for his swellings nor his turkey-cocks. — God pless you, Aunchient Pistol, you scurvy lousy knave, God pless you.

PISTOL

Ha, art thou bedlam? Dost thou thirst, base Trojan, to have me fold up Parca's fatal web? Hence! I am qualmish at the smell of leek.

FLUELLEN

I peseech you heartily, scurvy lousy knave, at my desires, and my requests, and my petitions, to eat, look you, this leek. Because, look you, you do not love it, nor your affections and your appetites and your disgestions does not agree with it, I would desire you to eat it.

PISTOL

Not for Cadwallader and all his goats.

FLUELLEN

There is one goat for you. Strikes him [with a cudgel] Will you be so good, scald knave, as eat it?

PISTOL

Base Trojan, thou shalt die.

FLUELLEN

You say very true, scald knave, when God's will is. I will desire you to live in the meantime, and eat your victuals. Come, there is sauce for it. [Strikes him] You called me yesterday mountain squire, but I will make you today a squire of low degree. I pray you, fall to. If you can mock a leek, you can eat a leek.

GOWER

Enough, captain. You have astonished him.

FLUELLEN

I say I will make him eat some part of my leek, or I will peat his pate four days. — Bite, I pray you. It is good for your green wound and your ploody coxcomb.

PISTOL

Must I bite?

FLUELLEN

Yes, certainly, and out of doubt and out of question, too, and ambiguities.

PISTOL

By this leek, I will most horribly revenge — [Fluellen threatens him.] I eat and eat, I swear.

FLUELLEN

Eat, I pray you. Will you have some more sauce to your leek? There is not enough leek to swear by.

PISTOL

Quiet thy cudgel! Thou dost see I eat.

FLUELLEN

Much good do you, scald knave, heartily. Nay, pray you throw none away; the skin is good for your broken coxcomb. When you take occasions to see leeks hereafter, I pray you mock at 'em, that is all.

PISTOL

Good.

FLUELLEN

Ay, leeks is good. Hold you, there is a groat to heal your pate.

[Offers money]

PISTOL

Me a groat?

FLUELLEN

Yes, verily, and in truth you shall take it, or I have another leek in my pocket which you shall eat.

PISTOL

I take thy groat in earnest of revenge.

FLUELLEN

If I owe you anything, I will pay you in cudgels. You shall be a woodmonger, and buy nothing of me but cudgels. God b'wi'you, and keep you, and heal your pate.

Exit.

PISTOL

All hell shall stir for this.

GOWER

Go, go, you are a counterfeit cowardly knave. Will you mock at an ancient tradition, begun upon an honorable respect, and worn as a memorable trophy of predeceased valor, and dare not avouch in your deeds any of your words? I have seen you gleeking and galling at this gentleman twice or thrice. You thought because he could not speak English in the native garb he could not therefore handle an English cudgel. You find it otherwise, and henceforth let a Welsh correction teach you a good English condition. Fare ye well.

Exit.

PISTOL

Doth fortune play the hussy with me now? News have I that my Doll is dead i'th'Spital of a malady of France, and there my rendezvous is quite cut off. Old I do wax, and from my weary limbs honor is cudgeled. Well, bawd I'll turn, and something lean to cutpurse of quick hand. To England will I steal, and there I'll steal.

1670

And patches will I get unto these cudgeled scars,

And swear I got them in the Gallia wars.

Exit.

[5.2]

Enter at one door King Henry, Exeter, Bedford, Warwick, [Westmorland,] and other lords [(Clarence, Gloucester, and Huntingdon)]. At another, Queen Isabeau, the [French] King, [Catherine, Alice,] the Duke of Burgundy, and other French.

KING HENRY

Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are met.

Unto our brother France and to our sister,

Health and fair time of day. Joy and good wishes

1675

To our most fair and princely cousin Catherine.

And as a branch and member of this royalty,

By whom this great assembly is contrived,

We do salute you, Duke of Burgundy.

And princes French, and peers, health to you all.

FRENCH KING

1680

Right joyous are we to behold your face,

Most worthy brother England; fairly met.

So are you, princes English, every one.

QUEEN ISABEAU

So happy be the issue, brother England,

Of this good day and of this gracious meeting

1685

As we are now glad to behold your eyes —

Your eyes which hitherto have borne in them

Against the French that met them in their bent

The fatal balls of murdering basilisks.

The venom of such looks, we fairly hope,

1690

Have lost their quality, and that this day

Shall change all griefs and quarrels into love.

KING HENRY

To cry amen to that, thus we appear.

QUEEN ISABEAU

You English princes all, I do salute you.

BURGUNDY

My duty to you both, on equal love.

1695

Great kings of France and England, that I have labored

With all my wits, my pains, and strong endeavors,

To bring your most imperial majesties

Unto this bar and royal interview,

Your mightiness on both parts best can witness.

1700

Since, then, my office hath so far prevailed

That face to face and royal eye to eye

You have congreeted, let it not disgrace me

If I demand before this royal view

What rub or what impediment there is

1705

Why that the naked, poor, and mangled peace,

Dear nurse of arts, plenties, and joyful births,

Should not in this best garden of the world,

Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage?

Alas, she hath from France too long been chased,

1710

And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps,

Corrupting in it own fertility.

Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart,

Unprunèd, dies. Her hedges even-pleached,

Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair,

1715

Put forth disordered twigs. Her fallow leas

The darnel, hemlock, and rank fumitory

Doth root upon, while that the colter rusts

That should deracinate such savagery.

The even mead that erst brought sweetly forth

1720

The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover,

Wanting the scythe, withal uncorrected, rank,

Conceives by idleness, and nothing teems

But hateful docks, rough thistles, kexes, burrs,

Losing both beauty and utility,

1725

And all our vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges,

Defective in their natures, grow to wildness.

Even so our houses, and ourselves, and children

Have lost, or do not learn for want of time

The sciences that should become our country,

1730

But grow like savages — as soldiers will

That nothing do but meditate on blood —

To swearing and stern looks, diffused attire,

And everything that seems unnatural.

Which to reduce into our former favor,

1735

You are assembled, and my speech entreats

That I may know the let why gentle peace

Should not expel these inconveniences

And bless us with her former qualities.

KING HENRY

If, Duke of Burgundy, you would the peace

1740

Whose want gives growth to th'imperfections

Which you have cited, you must buy that peace

With full accord to all our just demands,

Whose tenors and particular effects

You have enscheduled briefly in your hands.

BURGUNDY

1745

The king hath heard them, to the which as yet

There is no answer made.

KING HENRY

Well then, the peace

Which you before so urged lies in his answer.

FRENCH KING

I have but with a curselary eye

O'erglanced the articles. Pleaseth your grace

1750

To appoint some of your council presently

To sit with us once more, with better heed

To re-survey them, we will suddenly

Pass our accept and peremptory answer.

KING HENRY

Brother, we shall. — Go, uncle Exeter,

1755

And brother Clarence, and you, brother Gloucester,

Warwick, and Huntingdon, go with the king,

And take with you free power to ratify,

Augment, or alter as your wisdoms best

Shall see advantageable for our dignity,

1760

Anything in or out of our demands,

And we'll consign thereto. [To Queen Isabeau] Will you, fair sister,

Go with the princes, or stay here with us?

QUEEN ISABEAU

Our gracious brother, I will go with them.

Haply a woman's voice may do some good

1765

When articles too nicely urged be stood on.

KING HENRY

Yet leave our cousin Catherine here with us.

She is our capital demand, comprised

Within the forerank of our articles.

QUEEN ISABEAU

She hath good leave.

Exeunt all but King Henry, Catherine [and Alice].

KING HENRY

Fair Catherine, and most fair,

1770

Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms

Such as will enter at a lady's ear

And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart?

CATHERINE

Your majesty shall mock at me. I cannot speak your England.

KING HENRY

Oh, fair Catherine, if you will love me soundly with your French heart, I will be glad to hear you confess it brokenly with your English tongue. Do you like me, Kate?

CATHERINE

Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell wat is "like me."

KING HENRY

An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like an angel.

CATHERINE

[To Alice] Que dit-il? Que je suis semblable à les anges?

ALICE

Oui, vraiment, sauf votre grâce, ainsi dit-il.

KING HENRY

I said so, dear Catherine, and I must not blush to affirm it.

CATHERINE

O bon Dieu, les langues des hommes sont pleines de tromperies!

KING HENRY

[To Alice] What says she, fair one? That the tongues of men are full of deceits?

ALICE

Oui, dat de tongues of de mans is be full of deceits. Dat is de princess.

KING HENRY

The princess is the better Englishwoman. I'faith, Kate, my wooing is fit for thy understanding. I am glad thou canst speak no better English, for if thou couldst, thou wouldst find me such a plain king that thou wouldst think I had sold my farm to buy my crown. I know no ways to mince it in love, but directly to say "I love you." Then if you urge me farther than to say, "Do you in faith?", I wear out my suit. Give me your answer, i'faith do, and so clap hands and a bargain. How say you, lady?

CATHERINE

Sauf votre honneur, me understand well.

KING HENRY

Marry, if you would put me to verses or to dance for your sake, Kate, why you undid me. For the one I have neither words nor measure, and for the other I have no strength in measure, yet a reasonable measure in strength. If I could win a lady at leapfrog, or by vaulting into my saddle with my armor on my back — under the correction of bragging be it spoken — I should quickly leap into a wife. Or if I might buffet for my love or bound my horse for her favors, I could lay on like a butcher and sit like a jackanapes, never off. But before God, Kate, I cannot look greenly, nor gasp out my eloquence, nor I have no cunning in protestation, only downright oaths, which I never use till urged, nor never break for urging. If thou canst love a fellow of this temper, Kate, whose face is not worth sunburning, that never looks in his glass for love of anything he sees there, let thine eye be thy cook. I speak to thee plain soldier. If thou canst love me for this, take me. If not, to say to thee that I shall die is true, but for thy love, by the Lord, no. Yet I love thee too. And while thou liv'st, dear Kate, take a fellow of plain and uncoined constancy, for he perforce must do thee right, because he hath not the gift to woo in other places. For these fellows of infinite tongue, that can rhyme themselves into ladies' favors, they do always reason themselves out again. What! A speaker is but a prater, a rhyme is but a ballad, a good leg will fall, a straight back will stoop, a black beard will turn white, a curled pate will grow bald, a fair face will wither, a full eye will wax hollow; but a good heart, Kate, is the sun and the moon, or rather the sun and not the moon, for it shines bright and never changes, but keeps his course truly. If thou would have such a one, take me. An take me, take a soldier. Take a soldier, take a king. And what say'st thou then to my love? Speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee.

CATHERINE

Is it possible dat I sould love de enemy of France?

KING HENRY

No, it is not possible you should love the enemy of France, Kate, but in loving me you should love the friend of France, for I love France so well that I will not part with a village of it; I will have it all mine. And Kate, when France is mine and I am yours, then yours is France, and you are mine.

CATHERINE

I cannot tell wat is dat.

KING HENRY

No, Kate? I will tell thee in French, which I am sure will hang upon my tongue like a new-married wife about her husband's neck, hardly to be shook off. Je quand sur le possession de France, et quand vous avez le possession de moi — let me see, what then? Saint Denis be my speed! — donc vôtre est France, et vous êtes mienne. It is as easy for me, Kate, to conquer the kingdom as to speak so much more French. I shall never move thee in French unless it be to laugh at me.

CATHERINE

Sauf votre honneur, le fran√ßais que vous parlez, il est meilleur que l'anglais lequel je parle.

KING HENRY

No, faith, is't not, Kate; but thy speaking of my tongue and I thine, most truly falsely, must needs be granted to be much at one. But Kate, dost thou understand thus much English? Canst thou love me?

CATHERINE

I cannot tell.

KING HENRY

Can any of your neighbors tell, Kate? I'll ask them. Come, I know thou lovest me, and at night when you come into your closet you'll question this gentlewoman about me; and I know, Kate, you will to her dispraise those parts in me that you love with your heart. But good Kate, mock me mercifully, the rather, gentle princess, because I love thee cruelly. If ever thou beest mine, Kate, as I have a saving faith within me tells me thou shalt, I get thee with scambling, and thou must therefore needs prove a good soldier-breeder. Shall not thou and I, between Saint Denis and Saint George, compound a boy, half French, half English, that shall go to Constantinople and take the Turk by the beard? Shall we not? What say'st thou, my fair flower-de-luce?

CATHERINE

I do not know dat.

KING HENRY

No, 'tis hereafter to know, but now to promise. Do but now promise, Kate, you will endeavor for your French part of such a boy, and for my English moiety, take the word of a king and a bachelor. How answer you, la plus belle Catherine du monde, mon très cher et divin déesse ?

CATHERINE

Your majesty 'ave fausse French enough to deceive de most sage demoiselle dat is en France.

KING HENRY

Now fie upon my false French! By mine honor, in true English, I love thee, Kate; by which honor I dare not swear thou lovest me, yet my blood begins to flatter me that thou dost, notwithstanding the poor and untempering effect of my visage. Now beshrew my father's ambition! He was thinking of civil wars when he got me, therefore was I created with a stubborn outside, with an aspect of iron, that when I come to woo ladies I fright them. But in faith, Kate, the elder I wax, the better I shall appear. My comfort is that old age, that ill layer-up of beauty, can do no more spoil upon my face. Thou hast me, if thou hast me, at the worst; and thou shalt wear me, if thou wear me, better and better. And therefore tell me, most fair Katherine, will you have me? Put off your maiden blushes. Avouch the thoughts of your heart with the looks of an empress. Take me by the hand and say, "Harry of England, I am thine." Which word thou shalt no sooner bless mine ear withal but I will tell thee aloud "England is thine, Ireland is thine, France is thine, and Henry Plantagenet is thine," who, though I speak it before his face, if he be not fellow with the best king, thou shalt find the best king of good fellows. Come, your answer in broken music, for thy voice is music and thy English broken. Therefore, queen of all, Catherine, break thy mind to me in broken English: wilt thou have me?

CATHERINE

Dat is as it shall please de roi mon père.

KING HENRY

Nay, it will please him well, Kate; it shall please him, Kate.

CATHERINE

Den it sall also content me.

KING HENRY

Upon that I kiss your hand, and I call you my queen.

CATHERINE

Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez! Ma foi, je ne veux point que vous abaissez votre grandeur en baisant le main d'une de votre seigneurie indigne serviteure. Excusez-moi, je vous supplie, mon très puissant seigneur.

KING HENRY

Then I will kiss your lips, Kate.

CATHERINE

Les dames et demoiselles, pour être baisées devant leurs noces, il n'est pas la coutume de France.

KING HENRY

Madam my interpreter, what says she?

ALICE

Dat it is not be de fashion pour les ladies of France — I cannot tell wat is baiser en Anglish.

KING HENRY

To kiss.

ALICE

Your majesty entend bettre que moi.

KING HENRY

It is not a fashion for the maids in France to kiss before they are married, would she say?

ALICE

Oui, vraiment.

KING HENRY

Oh, Kate, nice customs curtsy to great kings. Dear Kate, you and I cannot be confined within the weak list of a country's fashion. We are the makers of manners, Kate, and the liberty that follows our places stops the mouth of all find-faults, as I will do yours for upholding the nice fashion of your country in denying me a kiss, therefore patiently, and yielding — [Kisses her] You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate. There is more eloquence in a sugar touch of them than in the tongues of the French council, and they should sooner persuade Harry of England than a general petition of monarchs. Here comes your father.

Enter the French power [(French King, Queen Isabeau, Burgundy),] and the English lords[, including Exeter and Westmorland].

BURGUNDY

God save your majesty. My royal cousin, teach you our princess English?

KING HENRY

I would have her learn, my fair cousin, how perfectly I love her, and that is good English.

BURGUNDY

Is she not apt?

KING HENRY

Our tongue is rough, coz, and my condition is not smooth, so that having neither the voice nor the heart of flattery about me, I cannot so conjure up the spirit of love in her that he will appear in his true likeness.

BURGUNDY

Pardon the frankness of my mirth if I answer you for that. If you would conjure in her, you must make a circle. If conjure up love in her in his true likeness, he must appear naked and blind. Can you blame her then, being a maid yet rosed over with the virgin crimson of modesty, if she deny the appearance of a naked blind boy in her naked seeing self? It were, my lord, a hard condition for a maid to consign to.

KING HENRY

Yet they do wink and yield, as love is blind and enforces.

BURGUNDY

They are then excused, my lord, when they see not what they do.

KING HENRY

Then good my lord, teach your cousin to consent winking.

BURGUNDY

I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you will teach her to know my meaning. For maids well summered and warm kept are like flies at Bartholomew-tide, blind, though they have their eyes, and then they will endure handling, which before would not abide looking on.

KING HENRY

This moral ties me over to time and a hot summer, and so I shall catch the fly, your cousin, in the latter end, and she must be blind too.

BURGUNDY

As love is, my lord, before it loves.

KING HENRY

It is so. And you may, some of you, thank love for my blindness, who cannot see many a fair French city for one fair French maid that stands in my way.

FRENCH KING

Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, the cities turned into a maid, for they are all girdled with maiden walls that no war hath entered.

KING HENRY

Shall Kate be my wife?

FRENCH KING

So please you.

KING HENRY

I am content, so the maiden cities you talk of may wait on her. So the maid that stood in the way for my wish shall show me the way to my will.

FRENCH KING

We have consented to all terms of reason.

KING HENRY

Is't so, my lords of England?

WESTMORLAND

The king hath granted every article:

His daughter first, and in sequel, all,

1775

According to their firm proposèd natures.

EXETER

Only he hath not yet subscribèd this:

where your majesty demands that the king of France, having any occasion to write for matter of grant, shall name your highness in this form and with this addition, in French: Notre très cher fils Henri, Roi d'Angleterre, héritier de France ; and thus in Latin: Praecarissimus filius noster Henricus, Rex Angliae et Haeres Franciae.

FRENCH KING

Nor this I have not, brother, so denied

But your request shall make me let it pass.

KING HENRY

I pray you then in love and dear alliance,

1780

Let that one article rank with the rest,

And thereupon give me your daughter.

FRENCH KING

Take her, fair son, and from her blood raise up

Issue to me, that the contending kingdoms

Of France and England, whose very shores look pale

1785

With envy of each other's happiness,

May cease their hatred, and this dear conjunction

Plant neighborhood and Christian-like accord

In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance

His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair France.

LORDS

1790

Amen.

KING HENRY

Now welcome, Kate, and bear me witness all

That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen.

Flourish.

QUEEN ISABEAU

God, the best maker of all marriages,

Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one.

1795

As man and wife, being two, are one in love,

So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal

That never may ill office or fell jealousy,

Which troubles oft the bed of blessèd marriage,

Thrust in between the paction of these kingdoms

1800

To make divorce of their incorporate league,

That English may as French, French Englishmen,

Receive each other. God speak this amen.

ALL

Amen.

KING HENRY

Prepare we for our marriage; on which day,

1805

My lord of Burgundy, we'll take your oath,

And all the peers', for surety of our leagues.

Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me,

And may our oaths well kept and prosp'rous be.

Sennet. Exeunt.

[Epilogue]

Enter Chorus.

CHORUS

Thus far, with rough and all-unable pen,

1810

Our bending author hath pursued the story,

In little room confining mighty men,

Mangling by starts the full course of their glory.

Small time, but in that small most greatly lived

This star of England. Fortune made his sword,

1815

By which the world's best garden he achieved,

And of it left his son imperial lord.

Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crowned King

Of France and England, did this king succeed,

Whose state so many had the managing

1820

That they lost France and made his England bleed,

Which oft our stage hath shown; and for their sake,

In your fair minds let this acceptance take.

[Exit.]