home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
World of Education
/
World of Education.iso
/
world_p
/
pcshx10d.zip
/
PCSHX10D.EXE
/
HV
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1991-10-09
|
166KB
|
4,122 lines
HV.
King Henry the Fifth
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
CHORUS
KING HENRY V of England, claimant to the French throne
Duke of GLOUCESTER }
Duke of CLARENCE } his brothers
Duke of EXETER, his uncle
Duke of YORK
SALISBURY
WESTMORELAND
WARWICK
Archbishop of CANTERBURY
Bishop of ELY
Richard, Earl of CAMBRIDGE }
Henry, Lord SCROOP of Masham }
Sir Thomas GREY } traitors
Sir Thomas ERPINGHAM
John BATES
Alexander COURT
Michael WILLIAMS
Captain GOWER, an Englishman
Captain FLUELLEN, a Welshman
Captain MACMORRIS, an Irishman
Captain JAMY, a Scot
PISTOL
NIM
BARDOLPH
BOY, formerly Falstaff's page
HOSTESS, formerly Mistress Quickly, now Pistol's wife
HERALD
KING CHARLES VI of France
ISABEL, his wife and queen
Lewis the DAUPHIN, their son and heir
CATHERINE, their daughter
The CONSTABLE of France
Duke of BOURBON }
Duke of ORLEANS } French noblemen at Agincourt
Lord RAMBURES }
Lord GRANDPRE }
Duke of BURGUNDY
MONTJOY, the French Herald
GOVERNOR of Harfleur
ALICE, an old gentlewoman
French AMBASSADORS to England
0.1
PROLOGUE
Enter Chorus as Prologue
CHORUS
O 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 5
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 unraised spirits that hath dared
On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth 10
So great an object. Can this cock-pit hold
The vasty fields of France? Or may we cram
Within this wooden O the very casques
That did affright the air at Agincourt?
O pardon: since a crooked figure may 15
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 20
Whose high upreared 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 25
Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them,
Printing their proud hoofs 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 30
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
ACT I Henry V
1.1
Enter Archbishop of Canterbury and 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 scrambling and unquiet time
Did push it out of farther question 5
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 10
Would they strip from us - being valued thus:
As much as would maintain, to the King's honour,
Full fifteen earls and fifteen hundred knights,
Six thousand and two hundred good esquires,
And, to relief of lazars and weak age 15
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 20
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 25
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 30
Leaving his body as a paradise
T'envelop and contain celestial spirits.
Never was such a sudden scholar made,
Never came reformation in a flood
With such a heady currance scouring faults 35
Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulness
So soon did lose his seat - and all at once -
As in this king.
ELY
We are blessed in the change.
CANTERBURY
Hear him but reason in divinity
And, all-admiring, with an inward wish 40
You would desire the King were made a prelate,
Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,
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 45
Turn him to any cause of policy,
The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,
Familiar as his garter - that when he speaks,
The air, a chartered libertine, is still,
And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears 50
To steal his sweet and honeyed sentences:
So that the art and practic part of life
Must be the mistress to this theoric.
Which is a wonder how his grace should glean it,
Since his addiction was to courses vain 55
His companies unlettered, rude, and shallow,
His hours filled up with riots, banquets, sports,
And never noted in him any study,
Any retirement, any sequestration
From open haunts and popularity 60
ELY
The strawberry grows underneath the nettle,
And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best
Neighboured by fruit of baser quality,
And so the Prince obscured his contemplation
Under the veil of wildness - which, no doubt 65
Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night,
Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.
CANTERBURY
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 70
How now for mitigation of this bill
Urged by the Commons? Doth his majesty
Incline to it, or no?
CANTERBURY
He seems indifferent,
Or rather swaying more upon our part
Than cherishing th'exhibitors against us 75
For I have made an offer to his majesty,
Upon our spiritual convocation
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 80
Than ever at one time the clergy yet
Did to his predecessors part withal.
ELY
How did this offer seem received, my lord?
CANTERBURY
With good acceptance of his majesty,
Save that there was not time enough to hear 85
As I perceived his grace would fain have done,
The severals and unhidden passages
Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms,
And generally to the crown and seat of France,
Derived from Edward, his great-grandfather 90
ELY
What was th'impediment that broke this off?
CANTERBURY
The French ambassador upon that instant
Craved audience - and the hour I think is come
To give him hearing. Is it four o'clock?
ELY
It is 95
CANTERBURY
Then go we in, to know his embassy -
Which I could with a ready guess declare
Before the Frenchman speak a word of it.
ELY
I'll wait upon you, and I long to hear it.
Exeunt
1.2
Enter King Harry, the Dukes of Gloucester,
Clarence, and Exeter, and the Earls of Warwick
and Westmoreland
KING HENRY
Where is my gracious lord of Canterbury?
EXETER
Not here in presence.
KING HENRY
Send for him, good uncle.
WESTMORELAND
Shall we call in th'ambassador, my liege?
KING HENRY
Not yet, my cousin. We would be resolved,
Before we hear him, of some things of weight 5
That task our thoughts, concerning us and France.
Enter Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop
of Ely
CANTERBURY
God and his angels guard your sacred throne,
And make you long become it.
KING HENRY
Sure we thank you.
My learned lord, we pray you to proceed,
And justly and religiously unfold 10
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,
That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading,
Or nicely charge your understanding soul 15
With opening titles miscreate, whose right
Suits not in native colours with the truth,
For God doth know how many now in health
Shall drop their blood in approbation
Of what your reverence shall incite us to 20
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.
For never two such kingdoms did contend
Without much fall of blood, whose guiltless drops 25
Are every one a woe, a sore complaint
'Gainst him whose wrongs gives edge unto the swords
That makes such waste in brief mortality.
Under this conjuration speak, my lord,
For we will hear, note, and believe in heart 30
That what you speak is in your conscience washed
As pure as sin with baptism.
CANTERBURY
Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers
That owe your selves, your lives, and services
To this imperial throne. There is no bar 35
To make against your highness' claim to France
But this, which they produce from Pharamond:
`In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant' -
`No woman shall succeed in Salic land' -
Which `Salic land' the French unjustly gloss 40
To be the realm of France, and Pharamond
The founder of this law and female bar.
Yet their own authors faithfully affirm
That the land Salic is in Germany,
Between the floods of Saale and of Elbe 45
Where, Charles the Great having subdued the Saxons,
There left behind and settled certain French
Who, holding in disdain the German women
For some dishonest manners of their life,
Established there this law: to wit, no female 50
Should be inheritrix in Salic land -
Which Salic, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Saale,
Is at this day in Germany called Meissen.
Then doth it well appear the Salic Law
Was not devised for the realm of France 55
Nor did the French possess the Salic land
Until four hundred one-and-twenty years
After defunction of King Pharamond,
Idly supposed the founder of this law,
Who died within the year of our redemption 60
Four hundred twenty-six, and Charles the Great
Subdued the Saxons, and did seat the French
Beyond the river Saale, in the year
Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say,
King Pepin, which deposed Childeric 65
Did, as heir general - being descended
Of Blithild, which was daughter to King Clotaire -
Make claim and title to the crown of France.
Hugh Capet also - who usurped the crown
Of Charles the Duke of Lorraine, sole heir male 70
Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great -
To fine his title with some shows of truth,
Though in pure truth it was corrupt and naught,
Conveyed himself as heir to th' Lady Lingard,
Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son 75
To Louis the Emperor, and Louis the son
Of Charles the Great. Also, King Louis the Ninth,
Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet,
Could not keep quiet in his conscience,
Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied 80
That fair Queen Isabel, his grandmother,
Was lineal of the Lady Ermengarde,
Daughter to Charles, the foresaid Duke of Lorraine,
By the which marriage, the line of Charles the Great
Was reunited to the crown of France 85
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
To hold in right and title of the female,
So do the kings of France unto this day 90
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
Than amply to embar their crooked titles,
Usurped from you and your progenitors 95
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,
`When the son dies, let the inheritance
Descend unto the daughter.' Gracious lord 100
Stand for your own, unwind your bloody flag,
Look back into your mighty ancestors.
Go, my dread lord, to your great-grandsire's tomb,
From whom you claim, invoke his warlike spirit,
And your great-uncle's, Edward the Black Prince 105
Who on the French ground played a tragedy,
Making defeat on the full power of France,
Whiles his most mighty father on a hill
Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp
Forage in blood of French nobility 110
O noble English, that could entertain
With half their forces the full pride of France,
And let another half stand laughing by,
All out of work, and cold for action.
ELY
Awake remembrance of those valiant dead 115
And with your puissant arm renew their feats.
You are their heir, you sit upon their throne,
The blood and courage that renowned them
Runs in your veins - and my thrice-puissant liege
Is in the very May-morn of his youth 120
Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises.
EXETER
Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth
Do all expect that you should rouse yourself
As did the former lions of your blood.
WESTMORELAND
They know your grace hath cause, and means and might 125
So hath your highness. Never king of England
Had nobles richer and more loyal subjects,
Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England
And lie pavilioned in the fields of France.
CANTERBURY
O let their bodies follow, my dear liege 130
With blood and sword and fire, to win your right.
In aid whereof, we of the spiritualty
Will raise your highness such a mighty sum
As never did the clergy at one time
Bring in to any of your ancestors 135
KING HENRY
We must not only arm t'invade the French,
But lay down our proportions to defend
Against the Scot, who will make raid upon us
With all advantages.
CANTERBURY
They of those marches, gracious sovereign 140
Shall be a wall sufficient to defend
Our inland from the pilfering borderers.
KING HENRY
We do not mean the coursing snatchers only,
But fear the main intendment of the Scot,
Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us 145
For you shall read that my great-grandfather
Never unmasked his power unto France
But that the Scot on his unfurnished kingdom
Came pouring like the tide into a breach
With ample and brim fullness of his force 150
Galling the gleaned land with hot assays,
Girding with grievous siege castles and towns,
That England, being empty of defence,
Hath shook and trembled at the bruit thereof.
CANTERBURY
She hath been then more feared than harmed, my liege 155
For hear her but exampled by herself:
When all her chivalry hath been in France
And she a mourning widow of her nobles,
She hath herself not only well defended
But taken and impounded as a stray 160
The King of Scots, whom she did send to France
To fill King Edward's fame with prisoner kings
And make your chronicle as rich with praise
As is the ooze and bottom of the sea
With sunken wrack and sumless treasuries 165
A LORD
But there's a saying very old and true:
`If that you will France win,
Then with Scotland first begin.'
For once the eagle England being in prey,
To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot 170
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
It follows then the cat must stay at home.
Yet that is but a crushed necessity 175
Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries
And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves.
While that the armed hand doth fight abroad,
Th'advised head defends itself at home.
For government, though high and low and lower 180
Put into parts, doth keep in one consent,
Congreeing in a full and natural close,
Like music.
CANTERBURY
True. Therefore doth heaven divide
The state of man in divers functions,
Setting endeavour in continual motion 185
To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,
Obedience. For so work the honey-bees,
Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
They have a king, and officers of sorts 190
Where some like magistrates correct at home,
Others like merchants venture trade abroad,
Others like soldiers, armed in their stings,
Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds,
Which pillage they with merry march bring home 195
To the tent royal of their emperor,
Who busied in his majesty surveys
The singing masons building roofs of gold,
The civil citizens lading up the honey,
The poor mechanic porters crowding in 200
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate,
The sad-eyed justice with his surly hum
Delivering o'er to executors pale
The lazy yawning drone. I this infer:
That many things, having full reference 205
To one consent, may work contrariously.
As many arrows, loosed several ways,
Fly to one mark, as many ways meet in one town,
As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea,
As many lines close in the dial's centre 210
So may a thousand actions once afoot
End in one purpose, and be all well borne
Without defect. Therefore to France, my liege.
Divide your happy England into four,
Whereof take you one quarter into France 215
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,
Let us be worried, and our nation lose
The name of hardiness and policy 220
KING HENRY
Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin.
Exit one or more
Now are we well resolved, and by God's help
And yours, the noble sinews of our power,
France being ours we'll bend it to our awe,
Or break it all to pieces. Or there we'll sit 225
Ruling in large and ample empery
O'er France and all her almost kingly dukedoms,
Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn,
Tombless, with no remembrance over them.
Either our history shall with full mouth 230
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, with a tun
Now are we well prepared to know the pleasure
Of our fair cousin Dauphin, for we hear 235
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,
Or shall we sparingly show you far off
The Dauphin's meaning and our embassy 240
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.
Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness
Tell us the Dauphin's mind.
AMBASSADOR
Thus then in few 245
Your highness lately sending into France
Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right
Of your great predecessor, King Edward the Third.
In answer of which claim, the Prince our master
Says that you savour too much of your youth 250
And bids you be advised, there's naught in France
That can be with a nimble galliard won:
You cannot revel into dukedoms there.
He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit,
This tun of treasure, and in lieu of this 255
Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim
Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.
KING HENRY
What treasure, uncle?
EXETER (opening the tun)
Tennis balls, my liege.
KING HENRY
We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us.
His present and your pains we thank you for 260
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.
Tell him he hath made a match with such a wrangler
That all the courts of France will be disturbed 265
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.
We never valued this poor seat of England,
And therefore, living hence, did give ourself 270
To barbarous licence - as 'tis ever common
That men are merriest when they are from home.
But tell the Dauphin I will keep my state,
Be like a king, and show my sail of greatness
When I do rouse me in my throne of France 275
For that have I laid by my majesty
And plodded like a man for working days,
But I will rise there with so full a glory
That I will dazzle all the eyes of France,
Yea strike the Dauphin blind to look on us 280
And tell the pleasant Prince this mock of his
Hath turned his balls to gunstones, and his soul
Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance
That shall fly from them - for many a thousand widows
Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands 285
Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down,
Ay, some are yet ungotten and unborn
That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's scorn.
But this lies all within the will of God,
To whom I do appeal, and in whose name 290
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.
So get you hence in peace. And tell the Dauphin
His jest will savour but of shallow wit 295
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
We hope to make the sender blush at it.
Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour 300
That may give furth'rance to our expedition,
For we have now no thought in us but France,
Save those to God, that run before our business.
Therefore let our proportions for these wars
Be soon collected, and all things thought upon 305
That may with reasonable swiftness add
More feathers to our wings, for, God before,
We'll chide this Dauphin at his father's door.
Therefore let every man now task his thought,
That this fair action may on foot be brought 310
Flourish. Exeunt
ACT II Henry V
2.1
Enter Corporal Nim and Lieutenant Bardolph
BARDOLPH
Well met, Corporal Nim.
NIM
Good morrow, Lieutenant Bardolph.
BARDOLPH
What, are Ensign Pistol and you friends yet?
NIM
For my part, I care not. I say little, but when time
shall serve, there shall be smiles - but that shall be as 5
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 10
and we'll be all three sworn brothers to France. Let't
be so, good Corporal Nim.
NIM
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 15
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.
NIM
I cannot tell. Things must be as they may. Men may
sleep, and they may have their throats about them at 20
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 Ensign Pistol and Hostess Quickly
BARDOLPH
Good morrow, Ensign Pistol. Here 25
comes Ensign Pistol and his wife. Good Corporal, be
patient here.
NIM
How now, mine host Pistol?
PISTOL
Base tick, call'st thou me host? Now by Gad's lugs
I swear I scorn the term. Nor shall my Nell keep lodgers 30
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.
Nim draws his sword
O well-a-day, Lady! If he be not hewn now, we shall 35
see wilful adultery and murder committed.
Pistol draws his sword
BARDOLPH
Good lieutenant, good corporal, offer nothing here.
NIM
Pish.
PISTOL
Pish for thee, Iceland dog. Thou prick-eared cur of Iceland 40
HOSTESS
Good Corporal Nim, show thy valour, and put up your sword.
They sheathe their swords
NIM
Will you shog off? I would have you solus.
PISTOL
`Solus', egregious dog? O viper vile!
The solus in thy most marvellous face 45
The solus in thy teeth, and in thy throat,
And in thy hateful lungs, yea in thy maw pardie -
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 50
And flashing fire will follow.
NIM
I am not Barbason, you cannot conjure me. I have
an humour 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 55
prick your guts a little, in good terms, as I may, and
that's the humour of it.
PISTOL
O braggart vile, and damned furious wight!
The grave doth gape and doting death is near.
Therefore ex-hale 60
Pistol and Nim draw their swords
BARDOLPH
Hear me, hear me what I say.
He 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
(To Nim) Give me thy fist, thy forefoot to me give 65
Thy spirits are most tall.
NIM
I will cut thy throat one time or other, in fair terms,
that is the humour of it.
PISTOL
Couple a gorge,
That is the word. I thee defy again 70
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 75
I have, and I will hold, the quondam Quickly
For the only she, and - pauca, there's enough. Go to.
Enter the Boy running
BOY
Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master, and
you, hostess. He is very sick, and would to bed. - Good
Bardolph, put thy face between his sheets, and do the 80
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 85
Exit with Boy
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!
NIM
You'll pay me the eight shillings I won of you at 90
betting?
PISTOL
Base is the slave that pays.
NIM
That now I will have. That's the humour of it.
PISTOL
As manhood shall compound. Push home.
Pistol and Nim draw their swords
BARDOLPH
By this sword, he that makes 95
the first thrust, I'll kill him. By this sword, I will.
PISTOL
Sword is an oath, and oaths must have their course.
He sheathes his sword
BARDOLPH
Corporal Nim, an thou wilt be friends, be
friends. An thou wilt not, why then be enemies with
me too. Prithee, put up 100
NIM
I shall have my eight shillings?
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 Nim, and Nim shall live by me 105
Is not this just? For I shall sutler be
Unto the camp, and profits will accrue.
Give me thy hand.
NIM
I shall have my noble?
PISTOL
In cash, most justly paid 110
NIM
Well then, that's the humour of't.
Nim and Bardolph sheathe their swords.
Enter Hostess Quickly
HOSTESS
As ever you come of women, come in quickly to
Sir John. Ah, poor heart, he is so shaked of a burning
quotidian-tertian, that it is most lamentable to behold.
Sweet men, come to him 115
Exit
NIM
The King hath run bad humours on the knight,
that's the even of it.
PISTOL
Nim, thou hast spoke the right.
His heart is fracted and corroborate.
NIM
The King is a good king, but it must be as it may 120
He passes some humours and careers.
PISTOL
Let us condole the knight - for, lambkins, we will live.
Exeunt
2.2
Enter Dukes of Exeter and Gloucester, and
Earl of Westmoreland
GLOUCESTER
Fore God, his grace is bold to trust these traitors.
EXETER
They shall be apprehended by and by.
WESTMORELAND
How smooth and even they do bear themselves,
As if allegiance in their bosoms sat,
Crowned with faith and constant loyalty 5
GLOUCESTER
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,
Whom he hath dulled and cloyed with gracious favours -
That he should for a foreign purse so sell 10
His sovereign's life to death and treachery.
Sound trumpets. Enter King Harry, Lord Scroop,
Earl of Cambridge, and Sir Thomas Grey
KING HENRY
Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard.
My lord of Cambridge, and my kind lord of Masham,
And you, my gentle knight, give me your thoughts.
Think you not that the powers we bear with us 15
Will cut their passage through the force of France,
Doing the execution and the act
For which we have in head assembled them?
SCROOP
No doubt, my liege, if each man do his best.
KING HENRY
I doubt not that, since we are well persuaded 20
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
Success and conquest to attend on us.
CAMBRIDGE
Never was monarch better feared and loved 25
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
True. Those that were your father's enemies
Have steeped their galls in honey, and do serve you 30
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
Sooner than quittance of desert and merit,
According to their weight and worthiness 35
SCROOP
So service shall with steeled sinews toil,
And labour shall refresh itself with hope,
To do your grace incessant services.
KING HENRY
We judge no less. - Uncle of Exeter,
Enlarge the man committed yesterday 40
That railed against our person. We consider
It was excess of wine that set him on,
And on his more advice we pardon him.
SCROOP
That's mercy, but too much security.
Let him be punished, sovereign, lest example 45
Breed, by his sufferance, more of such a kind.
KING HENRY
O let us yet be merciful.
CAMBRIDGE
So may your highness, and yet punish too.
GREY
Sir, you show great mercy if you give him life,
After the taste of much correction 50
KING HENRY
Alas, your too much love and care of me
Are heavy orisons 'gainst this poor wretch.
If little faults proceeding on distemper
Shall not be winked at, how shall we stretch our eye
When capital crimes, chewed, swallowed, and digested 55
Appear before us? We'll yet enlarge that man,
Though Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey, in their dear care
And tender preservation of our person,
Would have him punished. And now to our French causes.
Who are the late commissioners?
CAMBRIDGE
I one, my lord 60
Your highness bade me ask for it today.
SCROOP
So did you me, my liege.
GREY
And I, my royal sovereign.
KING HENRY
Then Richard, Earl of Cambridge, there is yours,
There yours, Lord Scroop of Masham, and sir knight,
Grey of Northumberland, this same is yours 65
Read them, and know I know your worthiness. -
My lord of Westmoreland, and Uncle Exeter,
We will aboard tonight. - Why, how now, gentlemen?
What see you in those papers, that you lose
So much complexion? - Look ye how they change 70
Their cheeks are paper. - Why, what read you there
That have so cowarded and chased your blood
Out of appearance?
CAMBRIDGE
I do confess my fault,
And do submit me to your highness' mercy.
GREY AND SCROOP
To which we all appeal 75
KING HENRY
The mercy that was quick in us but late
By your own counsel is suppressed and killed.
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 80
See you, my princes and my noble peers,
These English monsters? My lord of Cambridge here,
You know how apt our love was to accord
To furnish him with all appurtenants
Belonging to his honour, and this vile man 85
Hath for a few light crowns lightly conspired
And sworn unto the practices of France
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 O 90
What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop, thou cruel,
Ingrateful, savage, and inhuman creature?
Thou that didst bear the key of all my counsels,
That knew'st the very bottom of my soul,
That almost mightst ha' coined me into gold 95
Wouldst thou ha' practised on me for thy use:
May it be possible that foreign hire
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 100
As black on white, my eye will scarcely see it.
Treason and murder ever kept together,
As two yoke-devils sworn to either's purpose,
Working so grossly in a natural cause
That admiration did not whoop at them 105
But thou, 'gainst all proportion, didst bring in
Wonder to wait on treason and on murder.
And whatsoever cunning fiend it was
That wrought upon thee so preposterously
Hath got the voice in hell for excellence 110
And other devils that suggest by treasons
Do botch and bungle up damnation
With patches, colours, and with forms, being fetched
From glist'ring semblances of piety,
But he that tempered thee, bade thee stand up 115
Gave thee no instance why thou shouldst do treason,
Unless to dub thee with the name of traitor.
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 120
And tell the legions, `I can never win
A soul so easy as that Englishman's.'
O how hast thou with jealousy infected
The sweetness of affiance. Show men dutiful?
Why so didst thou. Seem they grave and learned 125
Why so didst thou. Come they of noble family?
Why so didst thou. Seem they religious?
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 130
Garnished and decked in modest complement,
Not working with the eye without the ear,
And but in purged judgement trusting neither?
Such, and so finely boulted, didst thou seem.
And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot 135
To mark the full-fraught man, and best endowed,
With some suspicion. I will weep for thee,
For this revolt of thine methinks is like
Another fall of man. - Their faults are open.
Arrest them to the answer of the law 140
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 Scroop of
Masham. - I arrest thee of high treason, by the name 145
of Thomas Grey, knight, of Northumberland.
SCROOP
Our purposes God justly hath discovered,
And I repent my fault more than my death,
Which I beseech your highness to forgive
Although my body pay the price of it 150
CAMBRIDGE
For me, the gold of France did not seduce,
Although I did admit it as a motive
The sooner to effect what I intended.
But God be thanked for prevention,
Which heartily in sufferance will rejoice 155
Beseeching God and you to pardon me.
GREY
Never did faithful subject more rejoice
At the discovery of most dangerous treason
Than I do at this hour joy o'er myself,
Prevented from a damned enterprise 160
My fault, but not my body, pardon, sovereign.
KING HENRY
God 'quit you in his mercy. Hear your sentence.
You have conspired against our royal person,
Joined with an enemy proclaimed and fixed,
And from his coffers 165
Received the golden earnest of our death,
Wherein you would have sold your king to slaughter,
His princes and his peers to servitude,
His subjects to oppression and contempt,
And his whole kingdom into desolation 170
Touching our person seek we no revenge,
But we our kingdom's safety must so tender,
Whose ruin you have sought, that to her laws
We do deliver you. Get ye therefore hence,
Poor miserable wretches, to your death 175
The taste whereof, God of his mercy give
You patience to endure, and true repentance
Of all your dear offences. - Bear them hence.
Exeunt the traitors, guarded
Now lords for France, the enterprise whereof
Shall be to you, as us, like glorious 180
We doubt not of a fair and lucky war,
Since God so graciously hath brought to light
This dangerous treason lurking in our way
To hinder our beginnings. We doubt not now
But every rub is smoothed on our way 185
Then forth, dear countrymen. Let us deliver
Our puissance into the hand of God,
Putting it straight in expedition.
Cheerly to sea, the signs of war advance:
No king of England, if not king of France 190
Flourish. Exeunt
2.3
Enter Ensign Pistol, Corporal Nim, Lieutenant
Bardolph, Boy, and Hostess Quickly
HOSTESS
Prithee, honey, sweet husband, let me bring thee
to Staines.
PISTOL
No, for my manly heart doth erne. Bardolph,
Be blithe, Nim, rouse thy vaunting veins, boy, bristle
Thy courage up. For Falstaff he is dead 5
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 10
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 15
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 20
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'ard and up'ard, and
all was as cold as any stone 25
NIM
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 30
HOSTESS
A could never abide carnation, 'twas a colour 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 35
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-fire.
BARDOLPH
Well, the fuel is gone that maintained that fire 40
That's all the riches I got in his service.
NIM
Shall we shog? The King will be gone from Southampton.
PISTOL
Come, let's away. - My love, give me thy lips.
He kisses her
Look to my chattels and my movables 45
Let senses rule. The word 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 counsellor.
Go, clear thy crystals. - Yokefellows in arms 50
Let us to France, like horseleeches, my boys,
To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck!
BOY (aside)
And that's but unwholesome food, they say.
PISTOL
Touch her soft mouth, and march.
BARDOLPH
Farewell, hostess 55
He kisses her
NIM
I cannot kiss, that is the humour of it, but adieu.
PISTOL (to Hostess)
Let housewifery appear. Keep close, I thee command.
HOSTESS
Farewell! Adieu!
Exeunt severally
2.4
Flourish. Enter King Charles the Sixth of
France, the Dauphin, the Constable, and
Dukes of Berri and Bourbon
KING CHARLES
Thus comes the English with full power upon us,
And more than carefully it us concerns
To answer royally in our defences.
Therefore the Dukes of Berri and of Bourbon,
Of Brabant and of Orleans shall make forth 5
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.
For England his approaches makes as fierce
As waters to the sucking of a gulf 10
It fits us then to be as provident
As fear may teach us, out of late examples
Left by the fatal and neglected English
Upon our fields.
DAUPHIN
My most redoubted father,
It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe 15
For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom -
Though war, nor no known quarrel, were in question -
But that defences, musters, preparations
Should be maintained, assembled, and collected
As were a war in expectation 20
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,
No, with no more than if we heard that England
Were busied with a Whitsun morris dance 25
For, my good liege, she is so idly kinged,
Her sceptre so fantastically borne
By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth,
That fear attends her not.
CONSTABLE
O peace, Prince Dauphin.
You are too much mistaken in this king 30
Question your grace the late ambassadors
With what great state he heard their embassy,
How well supplied with aged counsellors,
How modest in exception, and withal
How terrible in constant resolution 35
And you shall find his vanities forespent
Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus,
Covering discretion with a coat of folly,
As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots
That shall first spring and be most delicate 40
DAUPHIN
Well, 'tis not so, my Lord High Constable.
But though we think it so, it is no matter.
In cases of defence 'tis best to weigh
The enemy more mighty than he seems.
So the proportions of defence are filled 45
Which, of a weak and niggardly projection,
Doth like a miser spoil his coat with scanting
A little cloth.
KING CHARLES
Think we King Harry strong.
And princes, look you strongly arm to meet him.
The kindred of him hath been fleshed upon us 50
And he is bred out of that bloody strain
That haunted us in our familiar paths.
Witness our too-much-memorable shame
When Crecy battle fatally was struck,
And all our princes captived by the hand 55
Of that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales,
Whiles that his mountant sire, on mountain standing,
Up in the air, crowned with the golden sun,
Saw his heroical seed and smiled to see him
Mangle the work of nature and deface 60
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
The native mightiness and fate of him.
Enter a Messenger
MESSENGER
Ambassadors from Harry, King of England 65
Do crave admittance to your majesty.
KING CHARLES
We'll give them present audience. Go and bring them.
Exit Messenger
You see this chase is hotly followed, friends.
DAUPHIN
Turn head and stop pursuit. For coward dogs
Most spend their mouths when what they seem to threaten 70
Runs far before them. Good my sovereign,
Take up the English short, and let them know
Of what a monarchy you are the head.
Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin
As self-neglecting.
Enter the Duke of Exeter, attended
KING CHARLES
From our brother England 75
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
The borrowed glories that by gift of heaven,
By law of nature and of nations, 'longs 80
To him and to his heirs, namely the crown,
And all wide-stretched honours that pertain
By custom and the ordinance of times
Unto the crown of France. That you may know
'Tis no sinister nor no awkward claim 85
Picked from the worm-holes of long-vanished days,
Nor from the dust of old oblivion raked,
He sends you this most memorable line,
In every branch truly demonstrative,
Willing you over-look this pedigree 90
And when you find him evenly derived
From his most famed of famous ancestors,
Edward the Third, he bids you then resign
Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held
From him, the native and true challenger 95
KING CHARLES
Or else what follows?
EXETER
Bloody constraint. For if you hide the crown
Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it.
Therefore in fierce tempest is he coming,
In thunder and in earthquake, like a Jove 100
That if requiring fail, he will compel,
And bids you, in the bowels of the Lord,
Deliver up the crown, and to take mercy
On the poor souls for whom this hungry war
Opens his vasty jaws, and on your head 105
Turns he the widows' tears, the orphans' cries,
The dead men's blood, the pining maidens' groans,
For husbands, fathers, and betrothed lovers
That shall be swallowed in this controversy.
This is his claim, his threat'ning, and my message 110
Unless the Dauphin be in presence here,
To whom expressly I bring greeting too.
KING CHARLES
For us, we will consider of this further.
Tomorrow shall you bear our full intent
Back to our brother England.
DAUPHIN
For the Dauphin 115
I stand here for him. What to him from England?
EXETER
Scorn and defiance, slight regard, contempt,
And anything that may not misbecome
The mighty sender, doth he prize you at.
Thus says my king: an if your father's highness 120
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 for it
That caves and womby vaultages of France
Shall chide your trespass and return your mock 125
In second accent of his ordinance.
DAUPHIN
Say if my father render fair return
It is against my will, for I desire
Nothing but odds with England. To that end,
As matching to his youth and vanity 130
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.
And be assured, you'll find a diff'rence,
As we his subjects have in wonder found 135
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
In your own losses, if he stay in France.
KING CHARLES [rising]
Tomorrow shall you know our mind at full 140
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.
KING CHARLES
You shall be soon dispatched with fair conditions.
A night is but small breath and little pause 145
To answer matters of this consequence.
Flourish. Exeunt
ACT III Henry V
3.1
Alarum. Enter King Harry and the English army,
with scaling ladders
KING HENRY
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility,
But when the blast of war blows in our ears 5
Then imitate the action of the tiger.
Stiffen the sinews, conjure up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favoured rage.
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect,
Let it pry through the portage of the head 10
Like the brass cannon, let the brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swilled with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide 15
Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English,
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof,
Fathers that like so many Alexanders
Have in these parts from morn till even fought 20
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument.
Dishonour not your mothers, now attest
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 25
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture, let us swear
That you are worth your breeding - which I doubt not,
For there is none of you so mean and base
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes 30
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot.
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry, `God for Harry! England and Saint George!'
Alarum, and chambers go off. Exeunt
3.2
Enter Nim, Bardolph, Ensign Pistol, and Boy
BARDOLPH
On, on, on, on, on! To the breach, to the breach!
NIM
Pray thee corporal, stay. The knocks are too hot,
and for mine own part I have not a case of lives. The
humour of it is too hot, that is the very plainsong of it 5
PISTOL
`The plainsong' is most just, for humours do abound.
Knocks go and come, God's vassals drop and die,
[sings]
And sword and shield
In bloody field 10
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 [sings]
And I.
If wishes would prevail with me 15
My purpose should not fail with me
But thither would I hie.
BOY [sings]
As duly
But not as truly
As bird doth sing on bough 20
Enter Captain Fluellen and beats them in
FLUELLEN
God's plud! Up to the breaches, you dogs!
Avaunt, you cullions!
PISTOL
Be merciful, great duke, to men of mould.
Abate thy rage, abate thy manly rage,
Abate thy rage, great duke. Good bawcock, bate 25
Thy rage. Use lenity, sweet chuck.
NIM
These be good humours!
Fluellen begins to beat Nim
Your honour runs bad humours.
Exeunt all but the Boy
BOY
As young as I am, I have observed these three swashers.
I am boy to them all three, but all they three 30
though they should 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 35
means whereof a breaks words, and keeps whole
weapons. For Nim, 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 40
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. Nim and Bardolph are sworn brothers in 45
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 handkerchiefs - which makes much
against my manhood, if I should take from another's 50
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
3.3
Enter Captain Gower and Captain Fluellen,
meeting
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 concavi 5
ties of it is not sufficient. For look you, th'athversary,
you may discuss unto the Duke, look you, is digt
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 10
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 15
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 puppy dog.
Enter Captain MacMorris and Captain Jamy
GOWER
Here a comes, and the Scots captain, Captain
Jamy, with him 20
FLUELLEN
Captain Jamy is a marvellous falorous gentle-
man, that is certain, and of great expedition and
knowledge in th'anciant wars, upon my particular
knowledge of his directions. By Cheshu, he will
maintain his argument as well as any military man in 25
the world, in the disciplines of the pristine wars of the
Romans.
JAMY
I say gud day, Captain Fluellen.
FLUELLEN
Good e'en to your worship, good Captain James.
GOWER
How now, Captain MacMorris, have you quit the 30
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 35
Chrish save me law, in an hour. O '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 40
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 45
JAMY
It sall be vary gud, gud feith, gud captains bath,
and I sall quite you with gud 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 50
King and the dukes. It is no time to discourse. The
town is besieched. An 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, 55
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, ay'll de gud service, or I'll lig i'th' grund
for it. Ay owe Got a death, and I'll pay't as valorously 60
as I may, that sall I suirely do, that is the brief 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 65
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 70
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 75
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 80
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.
Exit
Flourish. Enter King Harry 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 85
Therefore to our best mercy give yourselves,
Or like to men proud of destruction
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 90
I will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur
Till in her ashes she lie buried.
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 95
With conscience wide as hell, mowing like grass
Your fresh fair virgins and your flow'ring infants.
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 100
Enlinked to waste and desolation?
What is't to me, when you yourselves are cause,
If your pure maidens fall into the hand
Of hot and forcing violation?
What rein can hold licentious wickedness 105
When down the hill he holds his fierce career?
We may as bootless spend our vain command
Upon th'enraged soldiers in their spoil
As send precepts to the leviathan
To come ashore. Therefore, you men of Harfleur 110
Take pity of your town and of your people
Whiles yet my soldiers are in my command,
Whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace
O'erblows the filthy and contagious clouds
Of heady murder, spoil, and villainy 115
If not - why, in a moment look to see
The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand
Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters,
Your fathers taken by the silver beards,
And their most reverend heads dashed to the walls 120
Your naked infants spitted upon pikes,
Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confused
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 125
Or, guilty in defence, be thus destroyed?
Enter Governor on the wall
GOVERNOR
Our expectation hath this day an end.
The Dauphin, whom of succours we entreated,
Returns us that his powers are yet not ready
To raise so great a siege. Therefore, dread King 130
We yield our town and lives to thy soft mercy.
Enter our gates, dispose of us and ours,
For we no longer are defensible.
KING HENRY
Open your gates.
Exit Governor
Come, Uncle Exeter,
Go you and enter Harfleur. There remain 135
And fortify it strongly 'gainst the French.
Use mercy to them all. For us, dear uncle,
The winter coming on, and sickness growing
Upon our soldiers, we will retire to Calais.
Tonight in Harfleur will we be your guest 140
Tomorrow for the march are we addressed.
The gates are opened. Flourish, and they enter
the town
3.4
Enter Princess Catherine and Alice,
an old gentlewoman
CATHERINE
Alice, tu as ete en Angleterre, et tu bien parles
le langage.
ALICE
Un peu, madame.
CATHERINE
Je te prie, m'enseignez. Il faut que j'apprenne
aA parler. Comment appelez-vous la main en anglais 5
ALICE
La main? Elle est appelee 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 appeles de
fingres. Oui, de fingres 10
CATHERINE
La main, de hand, les doigts, de fingres. Je pense
que je suis la bonne ecoliere, j'ai gagne deux mots
d'anglais vitement. Comment appelez-vous les ongles?
ALICE
Les ongles? Nous les appelons de nails.
CATHERINE
De nails. Ecoutez - dites-moi si je parle bien 15
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 arma, madame.
CATHERINE
Et le coude 20
ALICE D
'elbow.
CATHERINE D
'elbow. Je m'en fais la repetition de tous les
mots que vous m'avez appris des aA present.
ALICE
Il est trop difficile, madame, comme je pense.
CATHERINE
Excusez-moi, Alice. Ecoutez: d'hand, de fingre 25
de nails, d'arma, de bilbow.
ALICE D
'elbow, madame.
CATHERINE
O Seigneur Dieu, je m'en oublie! D'elbow.
Comment appelez-vous le col?
ALICE
De nick, madame 30
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 verite vous prononcez
les mots aussi droit que les natifs d'Angleterre 35
CATHERINE
Je ne doute point d'apprendre, par la graCce de
Dieu, et en peu de temps.
ALICE N
'avez-vous y deja oublie ce que je vous ai enseigne?
CATHERINE
Non, et je reciterai aA vous promptement 40
d'hand, de fingre, de mailes -
ALICE
De nails, madame.
CATHERINE
De nails, de arma, de ilbow -
ALICE
Sauf votre honneur, d'elbow.
CATHERINE
Ainsi dis-je. D'elbow, de nick, et de sin. Comment 45
appelez-vous les pieds et la robe?
ALICE
De foot, madame, et de cown.
CATHERINE
De foot et de cown? O Seigneur Dieu! Ils sont
les mots de son mauvais, corruptible, gros, et
impudique, et non pour les dames d'honneur d'user. Je 50
ne voudrais prononcer ces mots devant les seigneurs
de France pour tout le monde. Foh! De foot et de cown!
Neanmoins, je reciterai une autre fois ma lecon
ensemble. D'hand, de fingre, de nails, d'arma, d'elbow,
de nick, de sin, de foot, de cown 55
ALICE
Excellent, madame!
CATHERINE C
'est assez pour une fois. Allons-nous aA dCner.
Exeunt
3.5
Enter King Charles the Sixth of France, the
Dauphin, the Constable, the Duke of Bourbon,
and others
KING CHARLES
'Tis certain he hath passed the River Somme.
CONSTABLE
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 5
The emptying of our fathers' luxury,
Our scions, put in wild and savage stock,
Spirt up so suddenly into the clouds
And over-look their grafters?
BOURBON
Normans, but bastard Normans, Norman bastards 10
Mort de ma vie, if they march along
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 de batailles! Where have they this mettle 15
Is not their climate foggy, raw, and dull,
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 20
And shall our quick blood, spirited with wine,
Seem frosty? O for honour 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 25
`Poor' may we call them, in their native lords.
DAUPHIN
By faith and honour,
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 30
To new-store France with bastard warriors.
BOURBON
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 35
KING CHARLES
Where is Montjoy the herald? Speed him hence.
Let him greet England with our sharp defiance.
Up, princes, and with spirit of honour edged
More sharper than your swords, hie to the field.
Charles Delabret, High Constable of France 40
You Dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and of Berri,
Alencon, Brabant, Bar, and Burgundy,
Jaques Chatillion, Rambures, Vaudemont,
Beaumont, Grandpre, Roussi, and Fauconbridge,
Foix, Lestrelles, Boucicault, and Charolais 45
High dukes, great princes, barons, lords, and knights,
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 50
Upon the valleys, whose low vassal seat
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 55
Sorry am I his numbers are so few,
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 60
KING CHARLES
Therefore, Lord Constable, haste on Montjoy,
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 65
KING CHARLES
Be patient, for you shall remain with us. -
Now forth, Lord Constable, and princes all,
And quickly bring us word of England's fall.
Exeunt severally
3.6
Enter Captains 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 5
FLUELLEN
The Duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as
Agamemnon, and a man that I love and honour 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 10
the bridge most valiantly, with excellent discipline.
There is an ensign 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 15
GOWER
What do you call him?
FLUELLEN
He is called Ensign Pistol.
GOWER
I know him not.
Enter Ensign Pistol
FLUELLEN
Here is the man.
PISTOL
Captain, I thee beseech to do me favours 20
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,
Of buxom valour, hath by cruel fate 25
And giddy Fortune's furious fickle wheel,
That goddess blind that stands
upon the rolling restless stone -
FLUELLEN
By your patience, Ensign Pistol: Fortune is
painted blind, with a muffler afore her eyes, to signify
to you that Fortune is blind. And she is painted also 30
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 rolls and rolls and rolls. In good
truth, the poet makes a most excellent description 35
of it, Fortune is an excellent moral.
PISTOL
Fortune is Bardolph's foe and frowns on him,
For he hath stol'n a pax, and hanged must a be.
A damned death -
Let gallows gape for dog, let man go free 40
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 45
With edge of penny cord and vile reproach.
Speak, captain, for his life, and I will thee requite.
FLUELLEN
Ensign Pistol, I do partly understand your meaning.
PISTOL
Why then rejoice therefor 50
FLUELLEN
Certainly, ensign, 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
executions. For discipline ought to be used.
PISTOL
Die and be damned! and fico for thy friendship 55
FLUELLEN
It is well.
PISTOL
The fig of Spain.
FLUELLEN
Very good.
PISTOL
I say the fig within thy bowels and thy dirty maw.
Exit
FLUELLEN
Captain Gower, cannot you hear it lighten and thunder 60
GOWER
Why, is this the ensign you told me of? 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 65
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 70
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 75
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 80
know such slanders of the age, or else you may be
marvellously 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 85
tell him my mind.
A drum is heard
Hark you, the King is coming, and I must speak with
him from the pridge.
Enter King Harry and his poor soldiers, with
drum and colours
God pless your majesty.
KING HENRY
How now, Fluellen, com'st thou from the bridge 90
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 95
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 100
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 bubuncles and
whelks and knobs and flames o' fire, and his lips blows at
his nose, and it is like a coal of fire, sometimes plue 105
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 here give express charge that in our marches
through the country there be nothing compelled from 110
the villages, nothing taken but paid for, none of the
French upbraided or abused in disdainful language. For
when lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentler
gamester is the soonest winner.
Tucket. Enter Montjoy
MONTJOY
You know me by my habit 115
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 120
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 125
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 130
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 135
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
And tell thy king I do not seek him now 140
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 -
My people are with sickness much enfeebled 145
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
Did march three Frenchmen. Yet forgive me, God 150
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,
My army but a weak and sickly guard 155
Yet, God before, tell him we will come on,
Though France himself and such another neighbour
Stand in our way. There's for thy labour, Montjoy.
Go bid thy master well advise himself.
If we may pass, we will, if we be hindered 160
We shall your tawny ground with your red blood
Discolour. And so, Montjoy, fare you well.
The sum of all our answer is but this:
We would not seek a battle as we are,
Nor as we are we say we will not shun it 165
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.
March to the bridge. It now draws toward night 170
Beyond the river we'll encamp ourselves,
And on tomorrow bid them march away.
Exeunt
3.7
Enter the Constable, Lord Rambures, the
Dukes of Orleans and Bourbon, with others
CONSTABLE
Tut, I have the best armour of the world.
Would it were day.
ORLEANS
You have an excellent armour. But let my horse
have his due.
CONSTABLE
It is the best horse of Europe 5
ORLEANS
Will it never be morning?
BOURBON
My lord of Orleans and my Lord High
Constable, you talk of horse and armour?
ORLEANS
You are as well provided of both as any prince
in the world 10
BOURBON
What a long night is this! I will not change
my horse with any that treads but on four pasterns.
Ah ha! He bounds from the earth as if his entrails were
hares - le cheval volant, the Pegasus, qui a les narines de
feu! When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk, he trots 15
the air, the earth sings when he touches it, the basest
horn of his hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes.
ORLEANS
He's of the colour of the nutmeg.
BOURBON
And of the heat of the ginger. It is a beast for 20
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 25
excellent horse.
BOURBON
It is the prince of palfreys. His neigh is like the
bidding of a monarch, and his countenance enforces
homage.
ORLEANS
No more, cousin 30
BOURBON
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 35
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 40
ORLEANS
I have heard a sonnet begin so to one's mistress.
BOURBON
Then did they imitate that which I composed
to my courser, for my horse is my mistress.
ORLEANS
Your mistress bears well.
BOURBON
Me well, which is the prescribed praise and 45
perfection of a good and particular mistress.
CONSTABLE
Nay, for methought yesterday your mistress
shrewdly shook your back.
BOURBON
So perhaps did yours.
CONSTABLE
Mine was not bridled 50
BOURBON
O 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 judgement in horsemanship.
BOURBON
Be warned by me then: they that ride so, and 55
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.
BOURBON
I tell thee, Constable, my mistress wears his own hair 60
CONSTABLE
I could make as true a boast as that, if I had
a sow to my mistress.
BOURBON
`Le chien est retourne aA son propre vomissement,
et la truie lavee au bourbier.' Thou makest use of
anything 65
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 armour that I saw in
your tent tonight, are those stars or suns upon it?
CONSTABLE
Stars, my lord 70
BOURBON
Some of them will fall tomorrow, I hope.
CONSTABLE
And yet my sky shall not want.
BOURBON
That may be, for you bear a many super-
fluously, and 'twere more honour some were away.
CONSTABLE
Even as your horse bears your praises, who 75
would trot as well were some of your brags dismounted.
BOURBON
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 80
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 85
have them.
BOURBON
'Tis midnight. I'll go arm myself.
Exit
ORLEANS
The Duke of Bourbon longs for morning.
RAMBURES
He longs to eat the English.
CONSTABLE
I think he will eat all he kills 90
ORLEANS
By the white hand of my lady, he's a gallant prince.
CONSTABLE
Swear by her foot, that she may tread out the oath.
ORLEANS
He is simply the most active gentleman of France 95
CONSTABLE
Doing is activity, and he will still be doing.
ORLEANS
He never did harm that I heard of.
CONSTABLE
Nor will do none tomorrow. He will keep that
good name still.
ORLEANS
I know him to be valiant 100
CONSTABLE
I was told that by one that knows him better
than you.
ORLEANS
What's he?
CONSTABLE
Marry, he told me so himself, and he said he
cared not who knew it 105
ORLEANS
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 valour, and when it
appears it will bate.
ORLEANS
`Ill will never said well 110
CONSTABLE
I will cap that proverb with `There is flattery
in friendship.'
ORLEANS
And I will take up that with `Give the devil his
due.'
CONSTABLE
Well placed! There stands your friend for the 115
devil. Have at the very eye of that proverb with `A pox
of the devil!'
ORLEANS
You are the better at proverbs by how much `a
fool's bolt is soon shot'.
CONSTABLE
You have shot over 120
ORLEANS
'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 Grandpre 125
CONSTABLE
A valiant and most expert gentleman.
Exit Messenger
Would it were day! Alas, poor Harry of England. He
longs not for the dawning as we do.
ORLEANS
What a wretched and peevish fellow is this King
of England, to mope with his fat-brained followers 130
so far out of his knowledge.
CONSTABLE
If the English had any apprehension, they
would run away.
ORLEANS
That they lack - for if their heads had any
intellectual armour, they could never wear such 135
heavy headpieces.
RAMBURES
That island of England breeds very valiant
creatures. Their mastiffs are of unmatchable courage.
ORLEANS
Foolish curs, that run winking into the mouth of
a Russian bear, and have their heads crushed like 140
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 145
meals of beef, and iron and steel, they will eat like
wolves and fight like devils.
ORLEANS
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 150
to arm. Come, shall we about it?
ORLEANS
It is now two o'clock. But let me see - by ten
We shall have each a hundred Englishmen.
Exeunt
ACT IV Henry V
4.1
Enter King Harry and Duke of Gloucester, then
Duke of Clarence
KING HENRY
Gloucester, 'tis true that we are in great danger,
The greater therefore should our courage be.
Good morrow, brother Clarence. God Almighty!
There is some soul of goodness in things evil,
Would men observingly distil it out 5
For our bad neighbour makes us early stirrers,
Which is both healthful and good husbandry.
Besides, they are our outward consciences,
And preachers to us all, admonishing
That we should dress us fairly for our end 10
Thus may we gather honey from the weed
And make a moral of the devil himself.
Enter Sir Thomas Erpingham
Good morrow, old Sir Thomas Erpingham.
A good soft pillow for that good white head
Were better than a churlish turf of France 15
ERPINGHAM
Not so, my liege. This lodging likes me better,
Since I may say, `Now lie I like a king.'
KING HENRY
'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 20
The organs, though defunct and dead before,
Break up their drowsy grave and newly move
With casted slough and fresh legerity.
Lend me thy cloak, Sir Thomas.
He puts on Erpingham's cloak
Brothers both,
Commend me to the princes in our camp 25
Do my good morrow to them, and anon
Desire them all to my pavilion.
GLOUCESTER
We shall, my liege.
ERPINGHAM
Shall I attend your grace?
KING HENRY
No, my good knight 30
Go with my brothers to my lords of England.
I and my bosom must debate awhile,
And then I would no other company.
ERPINGHAM
The Lord in heaven bless thee, noble Harry.
KING HENRY
God-a-mercy, old heart, thou speak'st cheerfully 35
Exeunt all but King Harry
Enter Pistol to him
PISTOL
Qui vous laA?
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 40
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 45
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 roi 50
PISTOL
Leroi? 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 55
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 60
PISTOL
The fico for thee then.
KING HENRY
I thank you. God be with you.
PISTOL
My name is Pistol called.
KING HENRY
It sorts well with your fierceness.
Exit Pistol
Enter Captains Fluellen and Gower severally.
King Harry stands apart
GOWER
Captain Fluellen 65
FLUELLEN
So! In the name of Jesu Christ, speak fewer. It
is the greatest admiration in the universal world, when
the true and ancient prerogatifs 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 70
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 75
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 80
GOWER
I will speak lower.
FLUELLEN
I pray you and beseech you that you will.
Exeunt Fluellen and Gower
KING HENRY
Though it appear a little out of fashion,
There is much care and valour in this Welshman.
Enter three soldiers: John Bates,
Alexander Court, and Michael Williams
COURT
Brother John Bates, is not that the morning which 85
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 90
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 gentle 95
man. 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 100
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 105
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 110
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 115
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 120
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 125
contented as in the King's company, his cause being
just and his quarrel honourable.
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 130
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 135
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 afeard there are few die well that 140
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 145
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 150
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 155
master of his servant, for they purpose not their deaths
when they propose 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 160
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 165
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 170
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 175
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 180
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.
BATES
'Tis certain, every man that dies ill, the ill upon 185
his own head. The King is not to answer it. 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 190
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 195
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 200
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 205
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 210
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 215
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 220
French quarrels enough, if you could tell how to reckon.
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 225
be a clipper.
Exeunt soldiers
Upon the King.
`Let us our lives, our souls, our debts, our care-full
wives,
Our children, and our sins, lay on the King.'
We must bear all. O hard condition 230
Twin-born with greatness: subject to the breath
Of every fool, whose sense no more can feel
But his own wringing. What infinite heartsease
Must kings neglect that private men enjoy?
And what have kings that privates have not too 235
Save ceremony, save general ceremony?
And what art thou, thou idol ceremony?
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 240
O ceremony, show me but thy worth.
What is thy soul of adoration?
Art thou aught else but place, degree, and form,
Creating awe and fear in other men?
Wherein thou art less happy, being feared 245
Than they in fearing.
What drink'st thou oft, instead of homage sweet,
But poisoned flattery? O be sick, great greatness,
And bid thy ceremony give thee cure.
Think'st thou the fiery fever will go out 250
With titles blown from adulation?
Will it give place to flexure and low bending?
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 255
I am a king that find thee, and I know
'Tis not the balm, the sceptre, and the ball,
The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,
The intertissued robe of gold and pearl,
The farced title running fore the king 260
The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp
That beats upon the high shore of this world -
No, not all these, thrice-gorgeous ceremony,
Not all these, laid in bed majestical,
Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave 265
Who with a body filled and vacant mind
Gets him to rest, crammed with distressful bread,
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 270
Sleeps in Elysium, next day, after dawn
Doth rise and help Hyperion to his horse,
And follows so the ever-running year
With profitable labour to his grave.
And but for ceremony such a wretch 275
Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep,
Had the forehand and vantage of a king.
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 280
Whose hours the peasant best advantages.
Enter Sir Thomas Erpingham
ERPINGHAM
My lord, your nobles, jealous of your absence,
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 285
Exit
KING HENRY
O God of battles, steel my soldiers' hearts.
Possess them not with fear. Take from them now
The sense of reck'ning, ere th'opposed numbers
Pluck their hearts from them. Not today, O Lord,
O not today, think not upon the fault 290
My father made in compassing the crown.
I Richard's body have interred new,
And on it have bestowed more contrite tears
Than from it issued forced drops of blood.
Five hundred poor have I in yearly pay 295
Who twice a day their withered hands hold up
Toward heaven to pardon blood. And I have built
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 300
Since that my penitence comes after ill,
Imploring pardon.
Enter the Duke of Gloucester
GLOUCESTER
My liege.
KING HENRY
My brother Gloucester's voice? Ay.
I know thy errand, I will go with thee.
The day, my friends, and all things stay for me 305
Exeunt
4.2
Enter the Dukes of Bourbon and Orleans,
and Lord Rambures
ORLEANS
The sun doth gild our armour. Up, my lords!
BOURBON
Monte cheval! My horse! Varlet, lacquais! Ha!
ORLEANS
O brave spirit!
BOURBON
Via les eaux et terre!
ORLEANS
Rien plus? L'air et feu 5
BOURBON
Cieux, cousin Orleans!
Enter the Constable
Now, my Lord Constable!
CONSTABLE
Hark how our steeds for present service neigh.
BOURBON
Mount them and make incision in their hides,
That their hot blood may spin in English eyes 10
And dout them with superfluous courage. Ha!
RAMBURES
What, will you have them weep our horses' blood?
How shall we then behold their natural tears?
Enter a Messenger
MESSENGER
The English are embattled, you French peers.
CONSTABLE
To horse, you gallant princes, straight to horse 15
Do but behold yon poor and starved band,
And your fair show shall suck away their souls,
Leaving them but the shells and husks of men.
There is not work enough for all our hands,
Scarce blood enough in all their sickly veins 20
To give each naked curtal-axe a stain
That our French gallants shall today draw out
And sheathe for lack of sport. Let us but blow on them,
The vapour of our valour will o'erturn them.
'Tis positive 'gainst all exceptions, lords 25
That our superfluous lackeys and our peasants,
Who in unnecessary action swarm
About our squares of battle, were enough
To purge this field of such a hilding foe,
Though we upon this mountain's basis by 30
Took stand for idle speculation,
But that our honours must not. What's to say?
A very little little let us do
And all is done. Then let the trumpets sound
The tucket sonance and the note to mount 35
For our approach shall so much dare the field
That England shall couch down in fear and yield.
Enter Lord Grandpre
GRANDPRE
Why do you stay so long, my lords of France?
Yon island carrions, desperate of their bones,
Ill-favouredly become the morning field 40
Their ragged curtains poorly are let loose
And our air shakes them passing scornfully.
Big Mars seems bankrupt in their beggared host
And faintly through a rusty beaver peeps.
The horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks 45
With torchstaves in their hands, and their poor jades
Lob down their heads, drooping the hides and hips,
The gum down-roping from their pale dead eyes,
And in their palled dull mouths the gimmaled bit
Lies foul with chewed grass, still and motionless 50
And their executors, the knavish crows,
Fly o'er them all impatient for their hour.
Description cannot suit itself in words
To demonstrate the life of such a battle
In life so lifeless as it shows itself 55
CONSTABLE
They have said their prayers, and they stay for death.
BOURBON
Shall we go send them dinners and fresh suits
And give their fasting horses provender,
And after fight with them?
CONSTABLE
I stay but for my guidon. To the field 60
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 the Dukes of Gloucester, Clarence, and
Exeter, the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick, and
Sir Thomas Erpingham, with all the host
GLOUCESTER
Where is the King?
CLARENCE
The King himself is rode to view their battle.
WARWICK
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 5
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 Clarence,
My dear Lord Gloucester, and my good Lord Exeter,
And (to Warwick) my kind kinsman, warriors all,
adieu 10
CLARENCE
Farewell, good Salisbury, and good luck go with thee.
EXETER
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 valour.
Exit Salisbury
CLARENCE
He is as full of valour as of kindness 15
Princely in both.
Enter King Harry, behind
WARWICK
O 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 Warwick? No, my fair cousin.
If we are marked to die, we are enough 20
To do our country loss, and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
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 25
It ernes me not if men my garments wear,
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England 30
God's peace, I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O do not wish one more.
Rather proclaim it presently through my host
That he which hath no stomach to this fight 35
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 40
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 t'old age
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours 45
And say, `Tomorrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars
And say, `These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
Old men forget, yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages 50
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
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 55
This story shall the good man teach his son,
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by
From this day to the ending of the world
But we in it shall be remembered,
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers 60
For he today that sheds his blood with me
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 65
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
Enter the Earl of 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 70
KING HENRY
All things are ready if our minds be so.
WARWICK
Perish the man whose mind is backward now.
KING HENRY
Thou dost not wish more help from England, coz?
WARWICK
God's will, my liege, would you and I alone,
Without more help, could fight this royal battle 75
KING HENRY
Why now thou hast unwished five thousand men,
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 80
Before thy most assured overthrow.
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 85
May make a peaceful and a sweet retire
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 90
KING HENRY
I pray thee bear my former answer back.
Bid them achieve me, and then sell my bones.
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 95
A many of our bodies shall no doubt
Find native graves, upon the which, I trust,
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 100
They shall be famed. For there the sun shall greet them
And draw their honours reeking up to heaven,
Leaving their earthly parts to choke your clime,
The smell whereof shall breed a plague in France.
Mark then abounding valour in our English 105
That, being dead, like to the bullets grazing
Break out into a second course of mischief,
Killing in relapse of mortality.
Let me speak proudly. Tell the Constable
We are but warriors for the working day 110
Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirched
With rainy marching in the painful field.
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 115
But by the mass, our hearts are in the trim.
And my poor soldiers tell me, yet ere night
They'll be in fresher robes, as they will pluck
The gay new coats o'er your French soldiers' heads,
And turn them out of service. If they do this 120
As if God please, they shall - my ransom then
Will soon be levied. Herald, save thou thy labour.
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 125
Shall yield them little. Tell the Constable.
MONTJOY
I shall, King Harry. And so fare thee well.
Thou never shalt hear herald any more.
KING HENRY
I fear thou wilt once more come for a ransom.
Exit Montjoy
Enter the Duke of York
YORK
My lord, most humbly on my knee I beg 130
The leading of the vanguard.
KING HENRY
Take it, brave York. - Now soldiers, march away,
And how thou pleasest, God, dispose the day.
Exeunt
4.4
Alarum. Excursions. Enter Pistol,
a French soldier, and the Boy
PISTOL
Yield, cur.
FRENCH SOLDIER
Je pense que vous etes le gentilhomme de
bon qualite.
PISTOL
Qualite? `Calin o custure me!'
Art thou a gentleman? What is thy name? Discuss 5
FRENCH SOLDIER
O Seigneur Dieu!
PISTOL [aside]
O Seigneur Dew should be a gentleman. -
Perpend my words, O Seigneur Dew, and mark:
O Seigneur Dew, thou diest, on point of fox,
Except, O Seigneur, thou do give to me 10
Egregious ransom.
FRENCH SOLDIER
O prenez misericorde! Ayez pitie de moi!
PISTOL
`Moy' shall not serve, I will have forty `moys',
Or I will fetch thy rim out at thy throat
In drops of crimson blood 15
FRENCH SOLDIER
Est-il impossible d'echapper la force de ton bras?
PISTOL
Brass, cur? Thou damned and luxurious mountain goat,
Offer'st me brass?
FRENCH SOLDIER
O pardonne-moi 20
PISTOL
Sayst thou me so? Is that a ton of moys? -
Come hither boy. Ask me this slave in French
What is his name.
BOY
Ecoutez: comment etes-vous appele?
FRENCH SOLDIER
Monsieur le Fer 25
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 30
PISTOL
Bid him prepare, for I will cut his throat.
FRENCH SOLDIER
Que dit-il, monsieur?
BOY
Il me commande a vous dire que vous faites vous pret,
car ce soldat ici est dispose tout a cette heure de couper
votre gorge 35
PISTOL
Oui, couper la gorge, par ma foi,
Peasant, unless thou give me crowns, brave crowns,
Or mangled shalt thou be by this my sword.
FRENCH SOLDIER
O je vous supplie, pour l'amour de Dieu, me
pardonner. Je suis le gentilhomme de bonne maison. 40
Gardez ma vie, et je vous donnerai deux cents ecus.
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 45
PISTOL
Tell him, my fury shall abate, and I the crowns will take.
FRENCH SOLDIER
Petit monsieur, que dit-il?
BOY
Encore qu'il est contre son jurement de pardonner aucun
prisonnier, neanmoins, pour les ecus que vous lui ci
promettez, il est content a vous donner la liberte, 50
le franchisement.
FRENCH SOLDIER (kneeling)
Sur mes genoux je vous
donne mille remerciements, et je m'estime heureux que j'ai
tombe entre les mains d'un chevalier, comme je pense, le plus
brave, vaillant, et treis-distingue seigneur d'Angleterre 55
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 60
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 65
the greatest sound.' Bardolph and Nim had ten times
more valour 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 70
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 the Constable, the Dukes of Orleans and
Bourbon, and Lord Rambures
CONSTABLE
O diable!
ORLEANS
O Seigneur! Le jour est perdu, tout est perdu!
BOURBON
Mort de ma vie! All is confounded, all.
Reproach and everlasting shame
Sits mocking in our plumes 5
A short alarum
O mechante fortune! - (To Rambures) Do not run away.
ORLEANS
We are enough yet living in the field
To smother up the English in our throngs,
If any order might be thought upon.
BOURBON
The devil take order. Once more back again 10
And he that will not follow Bourbon now,
Let him go home, and with his cap in hand
Like a base leno hold the chamber door
Whilst by a slave no gentler than my dog
His fairest daughter is contaminated 15
CONSTABLE
Disorder that hath spoiled us friend us now.
Let us on heaps go offer up our lives.
BOURBON
I'll to the throng.
Let life be short, else shame will be too long.
Exeunt
4.6
Alarum. Enter King Harry 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 the Duke of Exeter
EXETER
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 5
From helmet to the spur, all blood he was.
EXETER
In which array, brave soldier, doth he lie,
Larding the plain. And by his bloody side,
Yokefellow to his honour-owing wounds,
The noble Earl of Suffolk also lies 10
Suffolk first died, and York, all haggled over,
Comes to him, where in gore he lay insteeped,
And takes him by the beard, kisses the gashes
That bloodily did yawn upon his face,
And cries aloud, `Tarry, dear cousin Suffolk 15
My soul shall thine keep company to heaven.
Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly abreast,
As in this glorious and well-foughten field
We kept together in our chivalry.'
Upon these words I came and cheered him up 20
He smiled me in the face, raught me his hand,
And with a feeble grip says, `Dear my lord,
Commend my service to my sovereign.'
So did he turn, and over Suffolk's neck
He threw his wounded arm, and kissed his lips 25
And so espoused to death, with blood he sealed
A testament of noble-ending love.
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 30
And all my mother came into mine eyes
And gave me up to tears.
KING HENRY
I blame you not,
For hearing this I must perforce compound
With mistful eyes, or they will issue too.
Alarum
But hark, what new alarum is this same 35
The French have reinforced their scattered men.
Then every soldier kill his prisoners.
The soldiers kill their prisoners
Give the word through.
PISTOL
Coup' la gorge.
Exeunt
4.7
Enter Captains 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 offert. In your
conscience now, is it not?
GOWER
'Tis certain there's not a boy left alive. And the 5
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. O 'tis a gallant king 10
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 15
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 20
FLUELLEN
I think it is e'en Macedon where Alexander is
porn. I tell you, captain, if you look in the maps of the
world 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 25
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 30
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 35
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 40
tales out of my mouth ere it is made an end 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 judgements, turned away 45
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 50
at Monmouth.
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
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 55
If they will fight with us, bid them come down,
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
Enforced from the old Assyrian slings 60
Besides, we'll cut the throats of those we have,
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 65
KING HENRY
How now, what means this, herald? Know'st thou not
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 licence,
That we may wander o'er this bloody field 70
To book our dead and then to bury them,
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 75
In blood of princes, and our wounded steeds
Fret fetlock-deep in gore, and with wild rage
Jerk out their armed heels at their dead masters,
Killing them twice. O give us leave, great King,
To view the field in safety, and dispose 80
Of their dead bodies.
KING HENRY
I tell thee truly, herald,
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
Praised be God, and not our strength, for it 85
What is this castle called that stands hard by?
MONTJOY
They call it Agincourt.
KING HENRY
Then call we this the field of Agincourt,
Fought on the day of Crispin Crispian.
FLUELLEN
Your grandfather of famous memory, an't 90
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 95
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 honourable badge of the service. And I do
believe your majesty takes no scorn to wear the 100
leek upon Saint Tavy's day.
KING HENRY
I wear it for a memorable honour,
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 105
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 world 110
I need not to be ashamed of your majesty, praised be
God, so long as your majesty is an honest man.
KING HENRY
God keep me so.
Enter Williams with a glove in his cap
Our heralds go with him.
Bring me just notice of the numbers dead
On both our parts.
Exeunt Montjoy, Gower, and an English
herald
Call yonder fellow hither 115
EXETER
Soldier, you must come to the King.
KING HENRY
Soldier, why wearest 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 120
KING HENRY
An Englishman?
WILLIAMS
An't please your majesty, a rascal, that
swaggered with me last night - who, if a live, 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 125
cap which he swore, as he was a soldier, he would wear
if a lived - 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 130
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 Beelzebub himself, it is necessary 135
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 140
KING HENRY
Then keep thy vow, sirrah, when thou meetest the fellow.
WILLIAMS
So I will, my liege, as I live.
KING HENRY
Who serv'st thou under?
WILLIAMS
Under Captain Gower, my liege 145
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 (giving him Williams's other glove)
Here 150
Fluellen, wear thou this favour for me and stick it in
thy cap. When Alencon and myself were down together,
I plucked this glove from his helm. If any man challenge
this, he is a friend to Alencon and an enemy to our
person. If thou encounter any such, apprehend him 155
an thou dost me love.
FLUELLEN
Your grace does me as great honours 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
aggriefed at this glove, that is all, but I would fain see 160
it once. An't please God of his grace, that I would 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 165
FLUELLEN
I will fetch him.
Exit
KING HENRY
My lord of Warwick and my brother Gloucester,
Follow Fluellen closely at the heels.
The glove which I have given him for a favour
May haply purchase him a box o'th' ear 170
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
By his blunt bearing he will keep his word,
Some sudden mischief may arise of it 175
For I do know Fluellen valiant
And touched with choler, hot as gunpowder,
And quickly will return an injury.
Follow, and see there be no harm between them.
Go you with me, uncle of Exeter 180
Exeunt severally
4.8
Enter Captain Gower and Williams
WILLIAMS
I warrant it is to knight you, captain.
Enter Captain 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 5
WILLIAMS
Sir, know you this glove?
FLUELLEN
Know the glove? I know the glove is a glove.
WILLIAMS [plucking the glove from Fluellen's cap]
I know
this, and thus I challenge it.
He strikes Fluellen
FLUELLEN
God's plood, and his! An arrant traitor as any's 10
in the universal world, or in France, or in England.
GOWER (to Williams)
How now, sir? 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 15
WILLIAMS
I am no traitor.
FLUELLEN
That's a lie in thy throat. I charge you in his
majesty's name, apprehend him. He's a friend of the
Duke Alencon's.
Enter the Earl of Warwick and the Duke of
Gloucester
WARWICK
How now, how now, what's the matter 20
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.
Enter King Harry and the Duke of Exeter
Here is his majesty.
KING HENRY
How now, what is the matter 25
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 Alencon.
WILLIAMS
My liege, this was my glove - here is the fellow of it -
and he that I gave it to in change promised to 30
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 35
it is. I hope your majesty is pear me testimony and
witness, and will avouchment that this is the glove of
Alencon that your majesty is give me, in your
conscience now.
KING HENRY
Give me thy glove, soldier. Look, here is the 40
fellow of it.
'Twas I indeed thou promised'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 45
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 50
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 55
I took you for, I made no offence. Therefore I beseech
your highness pardon me.
KING HENRY
Here, Uncle Exeter, fill this glove with crowns
And give it to this fellow. - Keep it, fellow,
And wear it for an honour in thy cap 60
Till I do challenge it. - Give him the crowns.
- 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 twelve pence for
you, and I pray you to serve God, and keep you out of 65
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 70
you be so pashful? Your shoes is not so good. 'Tis a
good shilling, I warrant you, or I will change it.
Enter an English Herald
KING HENRY
Now, herald, are the dead numbered?
HERALD
Here is the number of the slaughtered French.
KING HENRY
What prisoners of good sort are taken, uncle 75
EXETER
Charles, Duke of Orleans, nephew to the King,
Jean, Duke of Bourbon, and Lord Boucicault,
Of other lords and barons, knights and squires,
Full fifteen hundred, besides common men.
KING HENRY
This note doth tell me of ten thousand French 80
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,
Eight thousand and four hundred, of the which 85
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,
And gentlemen of blood and quality 90
The names of those their nobles that lie dead:
Charles Delabret, High Constable of France,
Jaques of Chatillon, Admiral of France,
The Master of the Crossbows, Lord Rambures,
Great-Master of France, the brave Sir Guiscard Dauphin 95
Jean, Duke of Alencon, Antony, Duke of Brabant,
The brother to the Duke of Burgundy,
And Edouard, Duke of Bar, of lusty earls,
Grandpre and Roussi, Fauconbridge and Foix,
Beaumont and Marle, Vaudemont and Lestrelles 100
Here was a royal fellowship of death.
Where is the number of our English dead?
He is given another paper
Edward the Duke of York, the Earl of Suffolk,
Sir Richard Keighley, Davy Gam Esquire,
None else of name, and of all other men 105
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,
Was ever known so great and little loss 110
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 proclaimed through our host
To boast of this, or take that praise from God 115
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 120
FLUELLEN
Yes, in my conscience, he did us great good.
KING HENRY
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 125
Where ne'er from France arrived more-happy men.
Exeunt
ACT V Henry V
5.1
Enter Captain Gower and Captain Fluellen,
with a leek in his cap and a cudgel
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 5
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 10
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 Ensign Pistol
GOWER
Why, here a comes, swelling like a turkey-cock.
FLUELLEN
'Tis no matter for his swellings nor his turkey 15
cocks. - God pless you Ensign 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 20
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
digestions does not agree with it, I would desire 25
you to eat it.
PISTOL
Not for Cadwallader and all his goats.
FLUELLEN
There is one goat for you. (He strikes Pistol)
Will you be so good, scald knave, as eat it?
PISTOL
Base Trojan, thou shalt die 30
FLUELLEN
You say very true, scald knave, when God's
will is. I will desire you to live in the mean time, and
eat your victuals. Come, there is sauce for it. (He strikes
him) You called me yesterday `mountain-squire', but I
will make you today a `squire of low degree'. I pray 35
you, fall to. If you can mock a leek you can eat a leek.
He strikes him
GOWER
Enough, captain, you have astonished him.
FLUELLEN
By Jesu, I will make him eat some part of my
leek, or I will peat his pate four days and four nights. -
Bite, I pray you. It is good for your green wound 40
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 45
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 50
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 55
heal your pate.
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 60
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 65
GOWER
Go, go, you are a counterfeit cowardly knave.
Will you mock at an ancient tradition, begun upon an
honourable respect and worn as a memorable trophy
of predeceased valour, and dare not avouch in your
deeds any of your words? I have seen you gleeking and 70
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 75
Exit
PISTOL
Doth Fortune play the hussy with me now?
News have I that my Nell 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 80
Honour is cudgelled. Well, bawd I'll turn,
And something lean to cutpurse of quick hand.
To England will I steal, and there I'll steal,
And patches will I get unto these cudgelled scars,
And swear I got them in the Gallia wars 85
Exit
5.2
Enter at one door King Harry, tDukes of Exeter
and Clarence, Earl of Warwick, and other
lords, at another, King Charles the Sixth of France,
Queen Isabel, Duke of Burgundy, and other
French, among them Princess Catherine and Alice
KING HENRY
Peace to this meeting, wherefor we are met.
Unto our brother France and to our sister,
Health and fair time of day. Joy and good wishes
To our most fair and princely cousin Catherine,
And as a branch and member of this royalty 5
By whom this great assembly is contrived,
We do salute you, Duke of Burgundy.
And princes French, and peers, health to you all.
KING CHARLES
Right joyous are we to behold your face.
Most worthy brother England, fairly met 10
So are you, princes English, every one.
QUEEN ISABEL
So happy be the issue, brother England,
Of this good day and of this gracious meeting,
As we are now glad to behold your eyes -
Your eyes which hitherto have borne in them 15
Against the French that met them in their bent,
The fatal balls of murdering basilisks.
The venom of such looks we fairly hope
Have lost their quality, and that this day
Shall change all griefs and quarrels into love 20
KING HENRY
To cry amen to that, thus we appear.
QUEEN ISABEL
You English princes all, I do salute you.
BURGUNDY
My duty to you both, on equal love,
Great Kings of France and England. That I have laboured
With all my wits, my pains, and strong endeavours 25
To bring your most imperial majesties
Unto this bar and royal interview,
Your mightiness on both parts best can witness.
Since, then, my office hath so far prevailed
That face to face and royal eye to eye 30
You have congreeted, let it not disgrace me
If I demand, before this royal view,
What rub or what impediment there is
Why that the naked, poor, and mangled peace,
Dear nurse of arts, plenties, and joyful births 35
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,
And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps,
Corrupting in it own fertility 40
Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart,
Unpruned dies, her hedges even-plashed
Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair
Put forth disordered twigs, her fallow leas
The darnel, hemlock, and rank fumitory 45
Doth root upon, while that the coulter rusts
That should deracinate such savagery.
The even mead - that erst brought sweetly forth
The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover -
Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank 50
Conceives by idleness, and nothing teems
But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs,
Losing both beauty and utility.
An all our vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges,
Defective in their natures, grow to wildness 55
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,
But grow like savages - as soldiers will
That nothing do but meditate on blood 60
To swearing and stern looks, diffused attire,
And everything that seems unnatural.
Which to reduce into our former favour
You are assembled, and my speech entreats
That I may know the let why gentle peace 65
Should not expel these inconveniences
And bless us with her former qualities.
KING HENRY
If, Duke of Burgundy, you would the peace
Whose want gives growth to th'imperfections
Which you have cited, you must buy that peace 70
With full accord to all our just demands,
Whose tenors and particular effects
You have enscheduled briefly in your hands.
BURGUNDY
The King hath heard them, to the which as yet
There is no answer made.
KING HENRY
Well then, the peace 75
Which you before so urged, lies in his answer.
KING CHARLES
I have but with a cursitory eye
O'erglanced the articles. Pleaseth your grace
To appoint some of your council presently
To sit with us once more, with better heed 80
To re-survey them, we will suddenly
Pass our accept and peremptory answer.
KING HENRY
Brother, we shall. - Go, Uncle Exeter
And brother Clarence, and you, brother Gloucester,
Warwick and Huntingdon, go with the King 85
And take with you free power to ratify,
Augment, or alter, as your wisdoms best
Shall see advantageable for our dignity,
Anything in or out of our demands,
And we'll consign thereto. - Will you, fair sister 90
Go with the princes, or stay here with us?
QUEEN
Our gracious brother, I will go with them.
Haply a woman's voice may do some good
When articles too nicely urged be stood on.
KING HENRY
Yet leave our cousin Catherine here with us 95
She is our capital demand, comprised
Within the fore-rank of our articles.
QUEEN
She hath good leave.
Exeunt all but King Harry, Catherine, and Alice
KING HENRY
Fair Catherine, and most fair,
Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms
Such as will enter at a lady's ear 100
And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart?
CATHERINE
Your majesty shall mock at me. I cannot speak
your England.
KING HENRY
O fair Catherine, if you will love me soundly
with your French heart, I will be glad to hear you 105
confess it brokenly with your English tongue. Do you
like me, Kate?
CATHERINE
Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell vat is `like me'.
KING HENRY
An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like an angel 110
CATHERINE (to Alice)
Que dit-il? - que je suis semblable a les anges?
ALICE
Oui, vraiment - sauf votre grace - ainsi dit-il.
KING HENRY
I said so, dear Catherine, and I must not
blush to affirm it 115
CATHERINE
O bon Dieu! Les langues des hommes sont pleines
de tromperies.
KING HENRY
What says she, fair one? That the tongues
of men are full of deceits?
ALICE
Oui, dat de tongeus of de mans is be full of deceits 120
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 125
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 130
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 135
other I have no strength in measure - yet a reasonable
measure in strength. If I could win a lady at leap-frog,
or by vaulting into my saddle with my armour on my
back, under the correction of bragging be it spoken, I
should quickly leap into a wife. Or if I might buffet 140
for my love, or bound my horse for her favours, 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 145
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 150
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 livest, 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 155
in other places. For these fellows of infinite tongue,
that can rhyme themselves into ladies' favours, 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 160
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 165
such a one, take me, and take me, take a soldier, take
a soldier, take a king. And what sayst thou then to my
love? Speak, my fair - and fairly, I pray thee.
CATHERINE
Is it possible dat I sould love de ennemi of France 170
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 175
then yours is France, and you are mine.
CATHERINE
I cannot tell vat 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 180
Je quand suis le possesseur de France, et quand vous avez
le possession de moi - let me see, what then? Saint Denis
be my speed! - donc voCtre est France, et vous etes mienne.
It is as easy for me, Kate, to conquer the kingdom as
to speak so much more French. I shall never move 185
thee in French, unless it be to laugh at me.
CATHERINE
Sauf votre honneur, le francais 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 190
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 neighbours tell, Kate? I'll
ask them. Come, I know thou lovest me, and at night 195
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 200
thou be'st mine, Kate - as I have a saving faith within me
tells me thou shalt - I get thee with scrambling, 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, 205
that shall go to Constantinople and take the Turk by the
beard? Shall we not? What sayst thou, my fair flower-de-luce?
CATHERINE
I do not know dat.
KING HENRY
No, 'tis hereafter to know, but now to 210
promise. Do but now promise, Kate, you will endeavour
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 tres
chere et divine deesse 215
CATHERINE
Your majeste 'ave faux French enough to
deceive de most sage demoiselle dat is en France.
KING HENRY
Now fie upon my false French! By mine
honour, in true English, I love thee, Kate. By which
honour I dare not swear thou lovest me, yet my blood 220
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 225
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 230
me, better and better, and therefore tell me, most fair
Catherine, 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 235
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 240
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 pere 245
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 250
CATHERINE
Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez! Ma foi, je
ne veux point que vous abbaissez votre grandeur en baisant
la main d'une de votre seigneurie indigne serviteur.
Excusez-moi, je vous supplie, mon treis-puissant seigneur.
KING HENRY
Then I will kiss your lips, Kate 255
CATHERINE
Les dames et demoiselles pour etre baisees 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 facon pour les ladies of France 260
I cannot tell vat is baiser en Anglish.
KING HENRY
To kiss.
ALICE
Your majeste 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 265
ALICE
Oui, vraiment.
KING HENRY
O 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 270
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.
(He kisses her) You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate.
There is more eloquence in a sugar touch of them than 275
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 King Charles, Queen Isabel, the Duke of
Burgundy, and the French and English lords
BURGUNDY
God save your majesty. My royal cousin, teach
you our princess English 280
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 285
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 290
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 295
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 300
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 305
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, 310
in the latter end, and she must be blind too.
BURGUNDY
As love is, my lord, before that 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 315
my way.
KING CHARLES
Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively,
the cities turned into a maid - for they are all girdled
with maiden walls that war hath never entered.
KING HENRY
Shall Kate be my wife 320
KING CHARLES
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.
KING CHARLES
We have consented to all terms of reason 325
KING HENRY
Is't so, my lords of England?
WARWICK
The King hath granted every article:
His daughter first, and so in sequel all,
According to their firm proposed natures.
EXETER
Only he hath not yet subscribed this 330
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:
[reads] in French, Notre tres cher fils Henri, Roi
d'Angleterre, Heritier de France, and thus in Latin 335
Praeclarissimus filius noster Henricus, Rex Angliae et
Haeres Franciae.
KING CHARLES
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 340
Let that one article rank with the rest,
And thereupon give me your daughter.
KING CHARLES
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 345
With envy of each other's happiness,
May cease their hatred, and this dear conjunction
Plant neighbourhood and Christian-like accord
In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance
His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair France 350
ALL
Amen.
KING HENRY
Now welcome, Kate, and bear me witness all
That here I kiss her as my sovereign Queen.
Flourish
QUEEN ISABEL
God, the best maker of all marriages,
Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one 355
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 blessed marriage,
Thrust in between the paction of these kingdoms 360
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 365
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
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 5
This star of England. Fortune made his sword,
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 10
Whose state so many had the managing
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