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- $Unique_ID{SSP00760}
- $Title{King Henry V: Act III, Scene I}
- $Author{Shakespeare, William}
- $Subject{}
- $Log{Dramatis Personae*00750.txt}
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- Portions copyright (c) CMC ReSearch, Inc., 1989
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- The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
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- KING HENRY V
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- ACT III
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- SCENE I: France. Before Harfleur.
- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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- {Alarum. Enter KING HENRY, EXETER, BEDFORD,
- GLOUCESTER, and Soldiers, with scaling-ladders.}
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- KING HENRY V: 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,
- Then imitate the action of the tiger;
- Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
- Disguise fair nature with hard-favor'd rage;
- Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
- Let 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,
- Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
- Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
- Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
- To his full height. On, on, you 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:
- Dishonor not your mothers; now attest
- That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.
- Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
- And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,
- 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!'
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- [Exeunt. Alarum, and chambers go off.]
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