HENRY THE FIFTH

Act 4 Scene 7

(Enter Captains Fluellen and Gower)
l1l	Fluellen	 Kill the poys and the luggage! ’Tis expressly
l2l		against the law of arms. ’Tis as arrant a piece of
l3l		knavery, mark you now, as can be offert. In your
l4l		conscience now, is it not?
l5l	Gower	’Tis certain there’s not a boy left alive. And the
l6l		cowardly rascals that ran from the battle ha’ done this
l7l		slaughter. Besides, they have burned and carried away
l8l		all that was in the King’s tent# wherefore the King
l9l		most worthily hath caused every soldier to cut his
l10l		prisoner’s throat. O ’tis a gallant king.
l11l	Fluellen	Ay, he was porn at Monmouth. Captain Gower,
l12l		what call you the town’s name where Alexander the
l13l		Pig was born?
l14l	Gower	Alexander the Great.
l15l	Fluellen	Why I pray you, is not “pig” great? The pig or
l16l		the great or the mighty or the huge or the
l17l		magnanimous are all one reckonings, save the phrase
l18l		is a little variations.
l19l	Gower	I think Alexander the Great was born in Macedon.
l20l		His father was called Philip of Macedon, as I take it.
l21l	Fluellen	I think it is e’en Macedon where Alexander is
l22l		porn. I tell you, captain, if you look in the maps of the
l23l		world I warrant you sall find, in the comparisons
l24l		between Macedon and Monmouth, that the situations,
l25l		look you, is both alike. There is a river in Macedon,
l26l		and there is also moreover a river at Monmouth. It is
l27l		called Wye at Monmouth, but it is out of my prains
l28l		what is the name of the other river—but ’tis all one,
l29l		’tis alike as my fingers is to my fingers, and there is
l30l		salmons in both. If you mark Alexander’s life well,
l31l		Harry of Monmouth’s life is come after it indifferent
l32l		well. For there is figures in all things. Alexander, God
l33l		knows, and you know, in his rages and his furies and
l34l		his wraths and his cholers and his moods and his
l35l		displeasures and his indignations, and also being a little
l36l		intoxicates in his prains, did in his ales and his angers,
l37l		look you, kill his best friend Cleitus—
l38l	Gower	Our King is not like him in that. He never killed
l39l		any of his friends.
l40l	Fluellen	It is not well done, mark you now, to take the
l41l		tales out of my mouth ere it is made an end and
l42l		finished. I speak but in the figures and comparisons of
l43l		it. As Alexander killed his friend Cleitus, being in his
l44l		ales and his cups, so also Harry Monmouth, being in
l45l		his right wits and his good judgements, turned away
l46l		the fat knight with the great-belly doublet—he was full
l47l		of jests and gipes and knaveries and mocks—I have
l48l		forgot his name.
l49l	Gower	Sir John Falstaff.
l50l	Fluellen	That is he. I’ll tell you, there is good men porn
l51l		at Monmouth.
l52l	Gower	Here comes his majesty.
		(Alarum. Enter King Harry and the English army, with the Duke of Bourbon, the Duke of Orleans, and other prisoners. Flourish)
l53l	King Harry	 I was not angry since I came to France
l54l		Until this instant. Take a trumpet, herald#
l55l		Ride thou unto the horsemen on yon hill.
l56l		If they will fight with us, bid them come down,
l57l		Or void the field: they do offend our sight.
l58l		If they’ll do neither, we will come to them,
l59l		And make them skirr away as swift as stones
l60l		Enforcèd from the old Assyrian slings.
l61l		Besides, we’ll cut the throats of those we have,
l62l		And not a man of them that we shall take
l63l		Shall taste our mercy. Go and tell them so.
		(Enter Montjoy)
l64l	Exeter	 Here comes the herald of the French, my liege.
l65l	Gloucester	His eyes are humbler than they used to be.
l66l	King Harry	How now, what means this, herald? Know’st thou not
l67l		That I have fined these bones of mine for ransom?
l68l		Com’st thou again for ransom?
	Montjoy	No, great King.
l69l		I come to thee for charitable licence,
l70l		That we may wander o’er this bloody field
l71l		To book our dead and then to bury them,
l72l		To sort our nobles from our common men—
l73l		For many of our princes, woe the while,
l74l		Lie drowned and soaked in mercenary blood.
l75l		So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs
l76l		In blood of princes, and our wounded steeds
l77l		Fret fetlock-deep in gore, and with wild rage
l78l		Jerk out their armèd heels at their dead masters,
l79l		Killing them twice. O give us leave, great King,
l80l		To view the field in safety, and dispose
l81l		Of their dead bodies.
	King Harry	I tell thee truly, herald,
l82l		I know not if the day be ours or no,
l83l		For yet a many of your horsemen peer
l84l		And gallop o’er the field.
	Montjoy	The day is yours.
l85l	King Harry	Praisèd be God, and not our strength, for it.
l86l		What is this castle called that stands hard by?
l87l	Montjoy	They call it Agincourt.
l88l	King Harry	Then call we this the field of Agincourt,
l89l		Fought on the day of Crispin Crispian.
l90l	Fluellen	 Your grandfather of famous memory, an ’t
l91l		please your majesty, and your great-uncle Edward the
l92l		Plack Prince of Wales, as I have read in the chronicles,
l93l		fought a most prave pattle here in France.
l94l	King Harry	 They did, Fluellen.
l95l	Fluellen	 Your majesty says very true. If your majesties
l96l		is remembered of it, the Welshmen did good service in
l97l		a garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their
l98l		Monmouth caps, which your majesty know to this
l99l		hour is an honourable badge of the service. And I do
l100l		believe your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek
l101l		upon Saint Tavy’s day.
l102l	King Harry	 I wear it for a memorable honour,
l103l		For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman.
l104l	Fluellen	 All the water in Wye cannot wash your
l105l		majesty’s Welsh plood out of your pody, I can tell you
l106l		that. God pless it and preserve it, as long as it pleases
l107l		his grace, and his majesty too.
l108l	King Harry	 Thanks, good my countryman.
l109l	Fluellen	 By Jeshu, I am your majesty’s countryman. I
l110l		care not who know it, I will confess it to all the world.
l111l		I need not to be ashamed of your majesty, praised be
l112l		God, so long as your majesty is an honest man.
l113l	King Harry	 God keep me so.
		(Enter Williams with a glove in his cap)
		 Our heralds go with him.
l114l		Bring me just notice of the numbers dead
l115l		On both our parts.
		(Exeunt Montjoy, Gower, and an English herald)
		 Call yonder fellow hither.
l116l	Exeter	(to Williams)
		 Soldier, you must come to the King.
l117l	King Harry	Soldier, why wearest thou that glove in thy
l118l		cap?
l119l	Williams	An ’t please your majesty, ’tis the gage of one
l120l		that I should fight withal, if he be alive.
l121l	King Harry	An Englishman?
l122l	Williams	An ’t please your majesty, a rascal, that
l123l		swaggered with me last night—who, if a live, and ever
l124l		dare to challenge this glove, I have sworn to take him
l125l		a box o’ th’ ear# or if I can see my glove in his cap—
l126l		which he swore, as he was a soldier, he would wear
l127l		if a lived—I will strike it out soundly.
l128l	King Harry	What think you, Captain Fluellen? Is it fit
l129l		this soldier keep his oath?
l130l	Fluellen	He is a craven and a villain else, an ’t please
l131l		your majesty, in my conscience.
l132l	King Harry	It may be his enemy is a gentleman of great
l133l		sort, quite from the answer of his degree.
l134l	Fluellen	Though he be as good a gentleman as the devil
l135l		is, as Lucifer and Beelzebub himself, it is necessary,
l136l		look your grace, that he keep his vow and his oath. If
l137l		he be perjured, see you now, his reputation is as arrant
l138l		a villain and a Jack-sauce as ever his black shoe trod
l139l		upon God’s ground and his earth, in my conscience,
l140l		law.
l141l	King Harry	Then keep thy vow, sirrah, when thou
l142l		meetest the fellow.
l143l	Williams	So I will, my liege, as I live.
l144l	King Harry	Who serv’st thou under?
l145l	Williams	Under Captain Gower, my liege.
l146l	Fluellen	Gower is a good captain, and is good knowledge
l147l		and literatured in the wars.
l148l	King Harry	Call him hither to me, soldier.
l149l	Williams	I will, my liege.
		(Exit)
l150l	King Harry	(giving him Williams's other glove)
		 Here,
l151l		Fluellen, wear thou this favour for me and stick it in
l152l		thy cap. When Alencon and myself were down together,
l153l		I plucked this glove from his helm. If any man challenge
l154l		this, he is a friend to Alencon and an enemy to our
l155l		person. If thou encounter any such, apprehend him,
l156l		an thou dost me love.
l157l	Fluellen	Your grace does me as great honours as can
l158l		be desired in the hearts of his subjects. I would fain see
l159l		the man that has but two legs that shall find himself
l160l		aggriefed at this glove, that is all# but I would fain see
l161l		it once. An ’t please God of his grace, that I would see.
l162l	King Harry	Know’st thou Gower?
l163l	Fluellen	He is my dear friend, an ’t please you.
l164l	King Harry	Pray thee, go seek him and bring him to my
l165l		tent.
l166l	Fluellen	I will fetch him.
		(Exit)
l167l	King Harry	 My lord of Warwick and my brother Gloucester,
l168l		Follow Fluellen closely at the heels.
l169l		The glove which I have given him for a favour
l170l		May haply purchase him a box o’ th’ ear.
l171l		It is the soldier’s. I by bargain should
l172l		Wear it myself. Follow, good cousin Warwick.
l173l		If that the soldier strike him, as I judge
l174l		By his blunt bearing he will keep his word,
l175l		Some sudden mischief may arise of it,
l176l		For I do know Fluellen valiant
l177l		And touched with choler, hot as gunpowder,
l178l		And quickly will return an injury.
l179l		Follow, and see there be no harm between them.
l180l		Go you with me, uncle of Exeter.
		(Exeunt severally)