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- $Unique_ID{SSP02774}
- $Title{King Henry V: Act IV, Scene VII}
- $Author{Shakespeare, William}
- $Subject{}
- $Log{Dramatis Personae*02750.txt}
-
- Portions copyright (c) CMC ReSearch, Inc., 1989
-
- The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
-
- KING HENRY V
-
-
- ACT IV
- ................................................................................
-
-
- SCENE VII: Another part of the field.
- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
-
- {Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER.}
-
- FLUELLEN: Kill the poys and the luggage! 'tis expressly
- against the law of arms: 'tis as arrant a piece of
- knavery, mark you now, as can be offer't; in your
- conscience, now, is it not?
-
- GOWER: 'Tis certain there's not a boy left alive; and the
- cowardly rascals that ran from the battle ha' done
- this slaughter: besides, they have burned and
- carried away all that was in the king's tent;
- wherefore the king, most worthily, hath caused every
- soldier to cut his prisoner's throat. O, 'tis a 10
- gallant king!
-
- FLUELLEN: Ay, he was porn at Monmouth, Captain Gower. What
- call you the town's name where Alexander the Pig was
- born!
-
- GOWER: Alexander the Great.
-
- FLUELLEN: Why, I pray you, is not pig great? the pig, or the
- great, or the mighty, or the huge, or the
- magnanimous, are all one reckonings, save the phrase
- is a little variations.
-
- GOWER: I think Alexander the Great was born in Macedon; his 20
- father was called Philip of Macedon, as I take it.
-
- FLUELLEN: I think it is in Macedon where Alexander is porn. I
- tell you, captain, if you look in the maps of the
- 'orld, I warrant you sall find, in the comparisons
- between Macedon and Monmouth, that the situations,
- look you, is both alike. There is a river in
- Macedon; and there is also moreover a river at
- Monmouth: it is called Wye at Monmouth; but it is
- out of my prains what is the name of the other
- river; but 'tis all one, 'tis alike as my fingers is 30
- to my fingers, and there is salmons in both. If you
- mark Alexander's life well, Harry of Monmouth's life
- is come after it indifferent well; for there is
- figures in all things. Alexander, God knows, and
- you know, in his rages, and his furies, and his
- wraths, and his cholers, and his moods, and his
- displeasures, and his indignations, and also being a
- little intoxicates in his prains, did, in his ales and
- his angers, look you, kill his best friend, Cleitus.
-
- GOWER: Our king is not like him in that: he never killed 40
- any of his friends.
-
- FLUELLEN: It is not well done, mark you now take the tales out
- of my mouth, ere it is made and finished. I speak
- but in the figures and comparisons of it: as
- Alexander killed his friend Cleitus, being in his
- ales and his cups; so also Harry Monmouth, being in
- his right wits and his good judgments, turned away
- the fat knight with the great belly-doublet: he
- was full of jests, and gipes, and knaveries, and
- mocks; I have forgot his name. 50
-
- GOWER: Sir John Falstaff.
-
- FLUELLEN: That is he: I'll tell you there is good men porn at
- Monmouth.
-
- GOWER: Here comes his majesty.
-
- {Alarum. Enter KING HENRY, and forces; WARWICK,
- GLOUCESTER, EXETER, and others.}
-
- KING HENRY V: I was not angry since I came to France
- Until this instant. Take a trumpet, herald;
- Ride thou unto the horsemen on yon hill:
- If they will fight with us, bid them come down,
- Or void the field; they do offend our sight:
- If they'll do neither, we will come to them, 60
- And make them skirr away, as swift as stones
- Enforced from the old Assyrian slings:
- 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.
-
- KING HENRY V: How now! what means this, herald? know'st thou not
- That I have fined these bones of mine for ransom?
- Comest thou again for ransom?
-
- MONTJOY: No, great king: 70
- I come to thee for charitable licence,
- That we may wander o'er this bloody field
- To look our dead, and then to bury them;
- To sort our nobles from our common men.
- For many of our princes--woe the while!--
- Lie drown'd and soak'd in mercenary blood;
- So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs
- In blood of princes; and their wounded steeds
- Fret fetlock deep in gore and with wild rage
- Yerk out their armed heels at their dead masters, 80
- Killing them twice. O, give us leave, great king,
- To view the field in safety and dispose
- Of their dead bodies!
-
- KING HENRY V: 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 V: Praised be God, and not our strength, for it!
- What is this castle call'd that stands hard by?
-
- MONTJOY: They call it Agincourt.
-
- KING HENRY V: Then call we this the field of Agincourt, 90
- Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus.
-
- FLUELLEN: Your grandfather of famous memory, an't please your
- majesty, and your great-uncle Edward the Plack
- Prince of Wales, as I have read in the chronicles,
- fought a most prave pattle here in France.
-
- KING HENRY V: They did, Fluellen.
-
- FLUELLEN: Your majesty says very true: if your majesties is
- remembered of it, the Welshmen did good service in a
- garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their
- Monmouth caps; which, your majesty know, to this 100
- hour is an honourable badge of the service; and I do
- believe your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek
- upon Saint Tavy's day.
-
- KING HENRY V: 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 that:
- God pless it and preserve it, as long as it pleases
- his grace, and his majesty too!
-
- KING HENRY V: Thanks, good my countryman. 110
-
- FLUELLEN: By Jeshu, I am your majesty's countryman, I care not
- who know it; I will confess it to all the 'orld: I
- need not to be ashamed of your majesty, praised be
- God, so long as your majesty is an honest man.
-
- KING HENRY V: God keep me so! Our heralds go with him:
- Bring me just notice of the numbers dead
- On both our parts. Call yonder fellow hither.
-
- [Points to WILLIAMS. Exeunt Heralds with Montjoy.]
-
- EXETER: Soldier, you must come to the king.
-
- KING HENRY V: Soldier, why wearest thou that glove in thy cap?
-
- WILLIAMS: An't please your majesty, 'tis the gage of one that 120
- I should fight withal, if he be alive.
-
- KING HENRY V: An Englishman?
-
- WILLIAMS: An't please your majesty, a rascal that swaggered
- with me last night; who, if alive and ever dare to
- challenge this glove, I have sworn to take him a box
- o' th' ear: or if I can see my glove in his cap,
- which he swore, as he was a soldier, he would wear
- if alive, I will strike it out soundly.
-
- KING HENRY V: What think you, Captain Fluellen? is it fit this
- soldier keep his oath? 130
-
- FLUELLEN: He is a craven and a villain else, an't please your
- majesty, in my conscience.
-
- KING HENRY V: It may be his enemy is a gentleman of great sort,
- quite from the answer of his degree.
-
- FLUELLEN: Though he be as good a gentleman as the devil is, as
- Lucifer and Belzebub himself, it is necessary, look
- your grace, that he keep his vow and his oath: if
- he be perjured, see you now, his reputation is as
- arrant a villain and a Jacksauce, as ever his black
- shoe trod upon God's ground and his earth, in my 140
- conscience, la!
-
- KING HENRY V: Then keep thy vow, sirrah, when thou meetest the
- fellow.
-
- WILLIAMS: So I will, my liege, as I live.
-
- KING HENRY V: Who servest thou under?
-
- WILLIAMS: Under Captain Gower, my liege.
-
- FLUELLEN: Gower is a good captain, and is good knowledge and
- literatured in the wars.
-
- KING HENRY V: Call him hither to me, soldier.
-
- WILLIAMS: I will, my liege. 150
-
- [Exit.]
-
- KING HENRY V: Here, 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, an thou dost me
- love.
-
- FLUELLEN: Your grace doo's 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 160
- himself aggriefed at this glove; that is all; but I
- would fain see it once, an please God of his grace
- that I might see.
-
- KING HENRY V: Knowest thou Gower?
-
- FLUELLEN: He is my dear friend, an please you.
-
- KING HENRY V: Pray thee, go seek him, and bring him to my tent.
-
- FLUELLEN: I will fetch him.
-
- [Exit.]
-
- KING HENRY V: My Lord of Warwick, and my brother Gloucester,
- Follow Fluellen closely at the heels:
- The glove which I have given him for a favour 170
- May haply purchase him a box o' th' ear;
- It is the soldier's; I by bargain should
- Wear it myself. Follow, good cousin Warwick:
- If that the soldier strike him, as I judge
- By his blunt bearing he will keep his word,
- Some sudden mischief may arise of it;
- For I do know Fluellen valiant
- And, touched with choler, hot as gunpowder,
- And quickly will return an injury:
- Follow and see there be no harm between them. 180
- Go you with me, uncle of Exeter.
-
- [Exeunt.]
-