ACT II
SCENE I. London. A street.
Enter Corporal NYM and Lieutenant BARDOLPH
- BARDOLPH
- Well met, Corporal Nym.
- NYM
- Good morrow, Lieutenant Bardolph.
- BARDOLPH
- What, are Ancient Pistol and you friends yet?
- NYM
- For my part, I care not: I say little; but when
- time shall serve, there shall be smiles; but that
- shall be as it may. I dare not fight; but I will
- wink and hold out mine iron: it is a simple one; but
- what though? it will toast cheese, and it will
- endure cold as another man's sword will: and
- there's an end.
- BARDOLPH
- I will bestow a breakfast to make you friends; and
- we'll be all three sworn brothers to France: let it
- be so, good Corporal Nym.
- NYM
- Faith, I will live so long as I may, that's the
- certain of it; and when I cannot live any longer, I
- will do as I may: that is my rest, that is the
- rendezvous of it.
- BARDOLPH
- It is certain, corporal, that he is married to Nell
- Quickly: and certainly she did you wrong; for you
- were troth-plight to her.
- NYM
- I cannot tell: things must be as they may: men may
- sleep, and they may have their throats about them at
- that time; and some say knives have edges. It must
- be as it may: though patience be a tired mare, yet
- she will plod. There must be conclusions. Well, I
- cannot tell.
Enter PISTOL and Hostess
- BARDOLPH
- Here comes Ancient Pistol and his wife: good
- corporal, be patient here. How now, mine host Pistol!
- PISTOL
- Base tike, call'st thou me host? Now, by this hand,
- I swear, I scorn the term; Nor shall my Nell keep lodgers.
- Hostess
- No, by my troth, not long; for we cannot lodge and
- board a dozen or fourteen gentlewomen that live
- honestly by the prick of their needles, but it will
- be thought we keep a bawdy house straight.
- NYM and PISTOL draw
- O well a day, Lady, if he be not drawn now! we
- shall see wilful adultery and murder committed.
- BARDOLPH
- Good lieutenant! good corporal! offer nothing here.
- NYM
- Pish!
- PISTOL
- Pish for thee, Iceland dog! thou prick-ear'd cur of Iceland!
- Hostess
- Good Corporal Nym, show thy valour, and put up your sword.
- NYM
- Will you shog off? I would have you solus.
- PISTOL
- 'Solus,' egregious dog? O viper vile!
- The 'solus' in thy most mervailous face;
- The 'solus' in thy teeth, and in thy throat,
- And in thy hateful lungs, yea, in thy maw, perdy,
- And, which is worse, within thy nasty mouth!

- NYM
- 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 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 exhale.
- BARDOLPH
- Hear me, hear me what I say: he that strikes the
- first stroke, I'll run him up to the hilts, as I am a soldier.
Draws
- PISTOL
- An oath of mickle might; and fury shall abate.
- Give me thy fist, thy fore-foot to me give:
- Thy spirits are most tall.
- NYM
- 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.
- O hound of Crete, think'st thou my spouse to get?
- No; to the spital go,
- And from the powdering tub of infamy
- Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind,
- Doll Tearsheet she by name, and her espouse:
- I have, and I will hold, the quondam Quickly
- For the only she; and — pauca, there's enough. Go to.
Enter the Boy
- Boy
- Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master, and
- you, hostess: he is very sick, and would to bed.
- Good Bardolph, put thy face between his sheets, and
- do the office of a warming-pan. Faith, he's very ill.
- BARDOLPH
- Away, you rogue!
- Hostess
- By my troth, he'll yield the crow a pudding one of
- these days. The king has killed his heart. Good
- husband, come home presently.
Exeunt Hostess and 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!
- NYM
- You'll pay me the eight shillings I won of you at betting?
- PISTOL
- Base is the slave that pays.
- NYM
- That now I will have: that's the humour of it.
- PISTOL
- As manhood shall compound: push home.
They draw
- BARDOLPH
- By this sword, he that makes the first thrust, I'll
- kill him; by this sword, I will.
- PISTOL
- Sword is an oath, and oaths must have their course.
- BARDOLPH
- Corporal Nym, an thou wilt be friends, be friends:
- an thou wilt not, why, then, be enemies with me too.
- Prithee, put up.
- NYM
- I shall have my eight shillings I won of you at betting?
- PISTOL
- A noble shalt thou have, and present pay;
- And liquor likewise will I give to thee,
- And friendship shall combine, and brotherhood:
- I'll live by Nym, and Nym shall live by me;
- Is not this just? for I shall sutler be
- Unto the camp, and profits will accrue.
- Give me thy hand.
- NYM
- I shall have my noble?
- PISTOL
- In cash most justly paid.
- NYM
- Well, then, that's the humour of't.
Re-enter Hostess
- Hostess
- As ever you came 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.
- NYM
- The king hath run bad humours on the knight; that's
- the even of it.
- PISTOL
- Nym, thou hast spoke the right;
- His heart is fracted and corroborate.
- NYM
- The king is a good king: but it must be as it may;
- he passes some humours and careers.
- PISTOL
- Let us condole the knight; for, lambkins we will live.
SCENE II. Southampton. A council-chamber.
Enter EXETER, BEDFORD, and WESTMORELAND
- BEDFORD
- '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.
- BEDFORD
- The king hath note of all that they intend,
- By interception which they dream not of.
- EXETER
- Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow,
- Whom he hath dull'd and cloy'd with gracious favours,
- That he should, for a foreign purse, so sell
- His sovereign's life to death and treachery.
Trumpets sound. Enter KING HENRY V, SCROOP,
CAMBRIDGE, GREY, and Attendants
- KING HENRY V
- 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
- 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 V
- I doubt not that; since we are well persuaded
- We carry not a heart with us from hence
- That grows not in a fair consent with ours,
- Nor leave not one behind that doth not wish
- Success and conquest to attend on us.
- CAMBRIDGE
- Never was monarch better fear'd and loved
- Than is your majesty: there's not, I think, a subject
- That sits in heart-grief and uneasiness
- Under the sweet shade of your government.
- GREY
- True: those that were your father's enemies
- Have steep'd their galls in honey and do serve you
- With hearts create of duty and of zeal.
- KING HENRY V
- We therefore have great cause of thankfulness;
- And shall forget the office of our hand,
- Sooner than quittance of desert and merit
- According to the weight and worthiness.
- SCROOP
- So service shall with steeled sinews toil,
- And labour shall refresh itself with hope,
- To do your grace incessant services.
- KING HENRY V
- We judge no less. Uncle of Exeter,
- Enlarge the man committed yesterday,
- That rail'd 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 punish'd, sovereign, lest example
- Breed, by his sufferance, more of such a kind.
- KING HENRY V
- 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.
- KING HENRY V
- 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 wink'd at, how shall we stretch our eye
- When capital crimes, chew'd, swallow'd and digested,
- 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:
- Your highness bade me ask for it to-day.
- SCROOP
- So did you me, my liege.
- GREY
- And I, my royal sovereign.
- KING HENRY V
- Then, Richard Earl of Cambridge, there is yours;
- There yours, Lord Scroop of Masham; and, sir knight,
- Grey of Northumberland, this same is yours:
- Read them; and know, I know your worthiness.
- My Lord of Westmoreland, and uncle Exeter,
- We will aboard to night. Why, how now, gentlemen!
- What see you in those papers that you lose
- So much complexion? Look ye, how they change!
- Their cheeks are paper. Why, what read you there
- That hath so cowarded and chased your blood
- Out of appearance?
- CAMBRIDGE
- I do confess my fault;
- And do submit me to your highness' mercy.
- GREY
- SCROOP
- To which we all appeal.
- KING HENRY V
- The mercy that was quick in us but late,
- By your own counsel is suppress'd and kill'd:
- You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy;
- For your own reasons turn into your bosoms,
- As dogs upon their masters, worrying you.
- See you, my princes, and my noble peers,
- These English monsters! My Lord of Cambridge here,
- You know how apt our love was to accord
- To furnish him with all appertinents
- Belonging to his honour; and this man
- Hath, for a few light crowns, lightly conspired,
- And sworn unto the practises 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,
- 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 have coin'd me into gold,
- Wouldst thou have 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
- As black and 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:
- 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:
- All other devils that suggest by treasons
- Do botch and bungle up damnation
- With patches, colours, and with forms being fetch'd
- From glistering semblances of piety;
- But he that temper'd thee bade thee stand up,
- Gave thee no instance why thou shouldst do treason,
- Unless to dub thee with the name of traitor.
- If that same demon that hath gull'd thee thus
- Should with his lion gait walk the whole world,
- He might return to vasty Tartar back,
- And tell the legions 'I can never win
- A soul so easy as that Englishman's.'
- O, how hast thou with 'jealousy infected
- The sweetness of affiance! Show men dutiful?
- Why, so didst thou: seem they grave and learned?
- 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,
- Garnish'd and deck'd in modest complement,
- Not working with the eye without the ear,
- And but in purged judgment trusting neither?
- Such and so finely bolted didst thou seem:
- And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot,
- To mark the full-fraught man and best indued
- 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;
- And God acquit them of their practises!
- 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 of
- Thomas Grey, knight, of Northumberland.
- SCROOP
- Our purposes God justly hath discover'd;
- And I repent my fault more than my death;
- Which I beseech your highness to forgive,
- Although my body pay the price of it.
- CAMBRIDGE
- For me, the gold of France did not seduce;
- Although I did admit it as a motive
- The sooner to effect what I intended:
- But God be thanked for prevention;
- Which I in sufferance heartily will rejoice,
- 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:
- My fault, but not my body, pardon, sovereign.
- KING HENRY V
- God quit you in his mercy! Hear your sentence.
- You have conspired against our royal person,
- Join'd with an enemy proclaim'd and from his coffers
- Received the golden earnest of our death;
- Wherein you would have sold your king to slaughter,
- His princes and his peers to servitude,
- His subjects to oppression and contempt
- And his whole kingdom into desolation.
- Touching our person seek we no revenge;
- But we our kingdom's safety must so tender,
- Whose ruin you have sought, that to her laws
- We do deliver you.  Bear them hence.
- Exeunt CAMBRIDGE, SCROOP and GREY, guarded
- Now, lords, for France; the enterprise whereof
- Shall be to you, as us, like glorious.
- We doubt not of a fair and lucky war,
- Since God so graciously hath brought to light
- This dangerous treason lurking in our way
- To hinder our beginnings. We doubt not now
- But every rub is smoothed on our way.
- 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.
Exeunt
SCENE III. London. Before a tavern.
Enter PISTOL, Hostess, NYM, BARDOLPH, and Boy
- Hostess
- Prithee, honey-sweet husband, let me bring thee to Staines.
- PISTOL
- No; for my manly heart doth yearn.

- BARDOLPH
- Would I were with him, wheresome'er he is, either in
- heaven or in hell!
- Hostess
- Nay, sure, he's not in hell: he's in Arthur's
- bosom, if ever man went to Arthur's bosom. A' made
- a finer end and went away an it had been any
- christom child; a' parted even just between twelve
- and one, even at the turning o' the tide: for after
- I saw him fumble with the sheets and play with
- flowers and smile upon his fingers' ends, I knew
- there was but one way; for his nose was as sharp as
- a pen, and a' babbled of green fields. 'How now,
- sir John!' quoth I 'what, man! be o' good
- cheer.' So a' cried out 'God, God, God!' three or
- four times. Now I, to comfort him, bid him a'
- should not think of God; I hoped there was no need
- to trouble himself with any such thoughts yet. So
- a' bade me lay more clothes on his feet: I put my
- hand into the bed and felt them, and they were as
- cold as any stone; then I felt to his knees, and
- they were as cold as any stone, and so upward and
- upward, and all was as cold as any stone.
- NYM
- They say he cried out of sack.
- Hostess
- Ay, that a' did.
- BARDOLPH
- And of women.
- Hostess
- Nay, that a' did not.
- Boy
- Yes, that a' did; and said they were devils
- incarnate.
- Hostess
- A' could never abide carnation; 'twas a 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 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:
- that's all the riches I got in his service.
- NYM
- Shall we shog? the king will be gone from
- Southampton.
- PISTOL
- Come, let's away. My love, give me thy lips.
- Look to my chattels and my movables:
- Let senses rule; the word is 'Pitch and Pay:'
- Trust none;
- For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes,
- And hold-fast is the only dog, my duck:
- Therefore, Caveto be thy counsellor.
- Go, clear thy crystals.
- Boy
- And that's but unwholesome food they say.
- PISTOL
- Touch her soft mouth, and march.
- BARDOLPH
- Farewell, hostess.
Kissing her
- NYM
- I cannot kiss, that is the humour of it; but, adieu.
- PISTOL
- Let housewifery appear: keep close, I thee command.
- Hostess
- Farewell; adieu.
Exeunt
SCENE IV. France. The KING'S palace.
Flourish. Enter the FRENCH KING, the DAUPHIN, the
DUKES of BERRI and BRETAGNE, the Constable, and others
- KING OF FRANCE
- 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 Bretagne,
- Of Brabant and of Orleans, shall make forth,
- And you, Prince Dauphin, with all swift dispatch,
- To line and new repair our towns of war
- With men of courage and with means defendant;
- For England his approaches makes as fierce
- As waters to the sucking of a gulf.
- It fits us then to be as provident
- As fear may teach us out of late examples
- Left by the fatal and neglected English
- Upon our fields.
- DAUPHIN
- My most redoubted father,
- It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe;
- For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom,
- Though war nor no known quarrel were in question,
- But that defences, musters, preparations,
- Should be maintain'd, assembled and collected,
- As were a war in expectation.
- Therefore, I say 'tis meet we all go forth
- To view the sick and feeble parts of France:
- And let us do it with no show of fear;
- No, with no more than if we heard that England
- Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance:
- For, my good liege, she is so idly king'd,
- 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:
- Question your grace the late ambassadors,
- With what great state he heard their embassy,
- How well supplied with noble counsellors,
- How modest in exception, and withal
- How terrible in constant resolution,
- And you shall find his vanities forespent
- Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus,
- Covering discretion with a coat of folly;
- As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots
- That shall first spring and be most delicate.
- DAUPHIN
- Well, 'tis not so, my lord high constable;
- But though we think it so, it is no matter:
- In cases of defence 'tis best to weigh
- The enemy more mighty than he seems:
- So the proportions of defence are fill'd;
- Which of a weak or niggardly projection
- Doth, like a miser, spoil his coat with scanting
- A little cloth.
- KING OF FRANCE
- Think we King Harry strong;
- And, princes, look you strongly arm to meet him.
- The kindred of him hath been flesh'd upon us;
- And he is bred out of that bloody strain
- That haunted us in our familiar paths:
- Witness our too much memorable shame
- When Cressy battle fatally was struck,
- And all our princes captiv'd by the hand
- Of that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales;
- Whiles that his mountain sire, on mountain standing,
- Up in the air, crown'd with the golden sun,
- Saw his heroical seed, and smiled to see him,
- Mangle the work of nature and deface
- The patterns that by God and by French fathers
- Had twenty years been made. This is a stem
- Of that victorious stock; and let us fear
- The native mightiness and fate of him.
Enter a Messenger
- Messenger
- Ambassadors from Harry King of England
- Do crave admittance to your majesty.
- KING OF FRANCE
- We'll give them present audience. Go, and bring them.
- Exeunt Messenger and certain Lords
- You see this chase is hotly follow'd, friends.
- DAUPHIN
- Turn head, and stop pursuit; for coward dogs
- Most spend their mouths when what they seem to threaten
- Runs far before them. Good my sovereign,
- Take up the English short, and let them know
- Of what a monarchy you are the head:
- Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin
- As self-neglecting.
Re-enter Lords, with EXETER and train
- KING OF FRANCE
- From our brother England?
- EXETER
- From him; and thus he greets your majesty.
- He wills you, in the name of God Almighty,
- That you divest yourself, and lay apart
- The borrow'd glories that by gift of heaven,
- By law of nature and of nations, 'long
- 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,
- Pick'd from the worm-holes of long-vanish'd days,
- Nor from the dust of old oblivion raked,
- He sends you this most memorable line,
- In every branch truly demonstrative;
- Willing to overlook this pedigree:
- And when you find him evenly derived
- From his most famed of famous ancestors,
- Edward the Third, he bids you then resign
- Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held
- From him the native and true challenger.
- KING OF FRANCE
- 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,
- 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
- Turning the widows' tears, the orphans' cries
- The dead men's blood, the pining maidens groans,
- For husbands, fathers and betrothed lovers,
- That shall be swallow'd in this controversy.
- This is his claim, his threatening and my message;
- Unless the Dauphin be in presence here,
- To whom expressly I bring greeting too.
- KING OF FRANCE
- For us, we will consider of this further:
- To-morrow shall you bear our full intent
- Back to our brother England.
- DAUPHIN
- For the Dauphin,
- I stand here for him: what to him from England?
- EXETER
- Scorn and defiance; slight regard, contempt,
- And any thing that may not misbecome
- The mighty sender, doth he prize you at.
- Thus says my king; an' if your father's highness
- Do not, in grant of all demands at large,
- Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his majesty,
- He'll call you to so hot an answer of it,
- That caves and womby vaultages of France
- Shall chide your trespass and return your mock
- In second accent of his ordnance.
- 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,
- 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 difference,
- As we his subjects have in wonder found,
- Between the promise of his greener days
- And these he masters now: now he weighs time
- Even to the utmost grain: that you shall read
- In your own losses, if he stay in France.
- KING OF FRANCE
- To-morrow shall you know our mind at full.
- 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 OF FRANCE
- You shall be soon dispatch's with fair conditions:
- A night is but small breath and little pause
- To answer matters of this consequence.
Flourish. Exeunt
ACT III
SCENE I. France. Before Harfleur.
Alarum. Enter KING HENRY, EXETER, BEDFORD,
GLOUCESTER, and Soldiers, with scaling-ladders
- 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-favour'd rage;
- Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
- Let pry through the portage of the head
- 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
- And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
- Dishonour 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.
- 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!'
Exeunt. Alarum, and chambers go off
SCENE II. The same.
Enter NYM, BARDOLPH, PISTOL, and Boy
- BARDOLPH
- On, on, on, on, on! to the breach, to the breach!
- NYM
- Pray thee, corporal, stay: the knocks are too hot;
- and, for mine own part, I have not a case of lives:
- the humour of it is too hot, that is the very
- plain-song of it.
- PISTOL
- The plain-song is most just: for humours do abound:
- Knocks go and come; God's vassals drop and die;
- And sword and shield,
- In bloody field,
- Doth win immortal fame.
- Boy
- Would I were in an alehouse in London! I would give
- all my fame for a pot of ale and safety.
- PISTOL
- And I:
- If wishes would prevail with me,
- My purpose should not fail with me,
- But thither would I hie.
- Boy
- As duly, but not as truly,
- As bird doth sing on bough.
Enter FLUELLEN
- FLUELLEN
- Up to the breach, you dogs! avaunt, you cullions!
Driving them forward
- PISTOL
- Be merciful, great duke, to men of mould.
- Abate thy rage, abate thy manly rage,
- Abate thy rage, great duke!
- Good bawcock, bate thy rage; use lenity, sweet chuck!
- NYM
- These be good humours! your honour wins bad humours.
Exeunt all but Boy
- Boy
- As young as I am, I have observed these three
- swashers. I am boy to them all three: but all they
- three, though they would serve me, could not be man
- to me; for indeed three such antics do not amount to
- a man. For Bardolph, he is white-livered and
- red-faced; by the means whereof a' faces it out, but
- fights not. For Pistol, he hath a killing tongue
- and a quiet sword; by the means whereof a' breaks
- words, and keeps whole weapons. For Nym, he hath
- heard that men of few words are the best men; and
- therefore he scorns to say his prayers, lest a'
- should be thought a coward: but his few bad words
- are matched with as few good deeds; for a' never
- broke any man's head but his own, and that was
- against a post when he was drunk. They will steal
- any thing, and call it purchase. Bardolph stole a
- lute-case, bore it twelve leagues, and sold it for
- three half pence. Nym and Bardolph are sworn
- brothers in filching, and in Calais they stole a
- fire-shovel: I knew by that piece of service the
- men would carry coals. They would have me as
- familiar with men's pockets as their gloves or their
- handkerchers: which makes much against my manhood,
- if I should take from another's pocket to put into
- mine; for it is plain pocketing up of wrongs. I
- must leave them, and seek some better service:
- their villany goes against my weak stomach, and
- therefore I must cast it up.
Exit
Re-enter FLUELLEN, GOWER following
- GOWER
- Captain Fluellen, you must come presently to the
- mines; the Duke of Gloucester would speak with you.
- FLUELLEN
- To the mines! tell you the duke, it is not so good
- to come to the mines; for, look you, the mines is
- not according to the disciplines of the war: the
- concavities of it is not sufficient; for, look you,
- the athversary, you may discuss unto the duke, look
- you, is digt himself four yard under the
- countermines: by Cheshu, I think a' will plough up
- all, if there is not better directions.
- GOWER
- The Duke of Gloucester, to whom the order of the
- siege is given, is altogether directed by an
- Irishman, a very valiant gentleman, i' faith.
- FLUELLEN
- It is Captain Macmorris, is it not?
- GOWER
- I think it be.

Enter MACMORRIS and Captain JAMY
- GOWER
- Here a' comes; and the Scots captain, Captain Jamy, with him.
- FLUELLEN
- Captain Jamy is a marvellous falourous gentleman,
- that is certain; and of great expedition and
- knowledge in th' aunchient wars, upon my particular
- knowledge of his directions: by Cheshu, he will
- maintain his argument as well as any military man in
- the world, in the disciplines of the pristine wars
- of the Romans.
- JAMY
- I say gud-day, Captain Fluellen.
- FLUELLEN
- God-den to your worship, good Captain James.
- GOWER
- How now, Captain Macmorris! have you quit the
- mines? have the pioneers given o'er?
- MACMORRIS
- By Chrish, la! tish ill done: the work ish give
- over, the trompet sound the retreat. By my hand, I
- swear, and my father's soul, the work ish ill done;
- it ish give over: I would have blowed up the town, so
- Chrish save me, la! 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
- voutsafe me, look you, a few disputations with you,
- as partly touching or concerning the disciplines of
- the war, the Roman wars, in the way of argument,
- look you, and friendly communication; partly to
- satisfy my opinion, and partly for the satisfaction,
- look you, of my mind, as touching the direction of
- the military discipline; that is the point.
- JAMY
- It sall be vary gud, gud feith, gud captains bath:
- and I sall quit 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
- king, and the dukes: it is no time to discourse. The
- town is beseeched, and the trumpet call us to the
- breach; and we talk, and, be Chrish, do nothing:
- 'tis shame for us all: so God sa' me, 'tis shame to
- stand still; it is shame, by my hand: and there is
- throats to be cut, and works to be done; and there
- ish nothing done, so Chrish sa' me, la!
- JAMY
- By the mess, ere theise eyes of mine take themselves
- to slomber, ay'll de gud service, or ay'll lig i'
- the grund for it; ay, or go to death; and ay'll pay
- 't as valourously as I may, that sall I suerly do,
- that is the breff and the long. Marry, I wad full
- fain hear some question 'tween you tway.
- FLUELLEN
- Captain Macmorris, I think, look you, under your
- correction, there is not many of your nation —
- MACMORRIS
- Of my nation! What ish my nation?  What ish
- my nation? Who talks of my nation?
- FLUELLEN
- Look you, if you take the matter otherwise than is
- meant, Captain Macmorris, peradventure I shall think
- you do not use me with that affability as in
- discretion you ought to use me, look you: being as
- good a man as yourself, both in the disciplines of
- war, and in the derivation of my birth, and in
- other particularities.

- GOWER
- Gentlemen both, you will mistake each other.
- JAMY
- A! that's a foul fault.
A parley sounded
- GOWER
- The town sounds a parley.
- FLUELLEN
- Captain Macmorris, when there is more better
- opportunity to be required, look you, I will be so
- bold as to tell you I know the disciplines of war;
- and there is an end.
Exeunt
SCENE III. The same. Before the gates.
The Governor and some Citizens on the walls; the
English forces below. Enter KING HENRY and his train
- KING HENRY V
- How yet resolves the governor of the town?
- This is the latest parle we will admit;
- Therefore to our best mercy give yourselves;
- Or like to men proud of destruction
- Defy us to our worst: for, as I am a soldier,
- A name that in my thoughts becomes me best,
- If I begin the battery once again,
- I will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur
- Till in her ashes she lie buried.

- What is it then to me, if impious war,
- Array'd in flames like to the prince of fiends,
- Do, with his smirch'd complexion, all fell feats
- Enlink'd 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
- When down the hill he holds his fierce career?
- We may as bootless spend our vain command
- Upon the enraged soldiers in their spoil
- As send precepts to the leviathan
- To come ashore. Therefore, you men of Harfleur,
- Take pity of your town and of your people,
- Whiles yet my soldiers are in my command;
- Whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace
- O'erblows the filthy and contagious clouds
- Of heady murder, spoil and villany.

- What say you? will you yield, and this avoid,
- Or, guilty in defence, be thus destroy'd?
- GOVERNOR
- Our expectation hath this day an end:
- The Dauphin, whom of succors we entreated,
- Returns us that his powers are yet not ready
- To raise so great a siege. Therefore, great king,
- We yield our town and lives to thy soft mercy.
- Enter our gates; dispose of us and ours;
- For we no longer are defensible.
- KING HENRY V
- Open your gates.  For us, dear uncle,
- The winter coming on and sickness growing
- Upon our soldiers, we will retire to Calais.
- To-night in Harfleur we will be your guest;
- To-morrow for the march are we addrest.
Flourish. The King and his train enter the town
SCENE IV. The FRENCH KING's palace.
Enter KATHARINE and ALICE
- KATHARINE
- Alice, tu as ete en Angleterre, et tu parles bien le langage.
- ALICE
- Un peu, madame.
- KATHARINE
- Je te prie, m'enseignez: il faut que j'apprenne a
- parler. Comment appelez-vous la main en Anglois?
- ALICE
- La main? elle est appelee de hand.
- KATHARINE
- 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.
- KATHARINE
- La main, de hand; les doigts, de fingres. Je pense
- que je suis le bon ecolier; j'ai gagne deux mots
- d'Anglois vitement. Comment appelez-vous les ongles?
- ALICE
- Les ongles? nous les appelons de nails.
- KATHARINE
- De nails. Ecoutez; dites-moi, si je parle bien: de
- hand, de fingres, et de nails.
- ALICE
- C'est bien dit, madame; il est fort bon Anglois.
- KATHARINE
- Dites-moi l'Anglois pour le bras.
- ALICE
- De arm, madame.
- KATHARINE
- Et le coude?
- ALICE
- De elbow.
- KATHARINE
- De elbow. Je m'en fais la repetition de tous les
- mots que vous m'avez appris des a present.
- ALICE
- Il est trop difficile, madame, comme je pense.
- KATHARINE
- Excusez-moi, Alice; ecoutez: de hand, de fingres,
- de nails, de arma, de bilbow.
- ALICE
- De elbow, madame.
- KATHARINE
- O Seigneur Dieu, je m'en oublie! de elbow. Comment
- appelez-vous le col?
- ALICE
- De neck, madame.
- KATHARINE
- De nick. Et le menton?
- ALICE
- De chin.
- KATHARINE
- De sin. Le col, de nick; de menton, de sin.
- ALICE
- Oui. Sauf votre honneur, en verite, vous prononcez
- les mots aussi droit que les natifs d'Angleterre.
- KATHARINE
- Je ne doute point d'apprendre, par la grace de Dieu,
- et en peu de temps.
- ALICE
- N'avez vous pas deja oublie ce que je vous ai enseigne?
- KATHARINE
- Non, je reciterai a vous promptement: de hand, de
- fingres, de mails —
- ALICE
- De nails, madame.
- KATHARINE
- De nails, de arm, de ilbow.
- ALICE
- Sauf votre honneur, de elbow.
- KATHARINE
- Ainsi dis-je; de elbow, de nick, et de sin. Comment
- appelez-vous le pied et la robe?
- ALICE
- De foot, madame; et de coun.
- KATHARINE
- De foot et de coun! O Seigneur Dieu! ce sont mots
- de son mauvais, corruptible, gros, et impudique, et
- non pour les dames d'honneur d'user: je ne voudrais
- prononcer ces mots devant les seigneurs de France
- pour tout le monde. Foh! le foot et le coun!
- Neanmoins, je reciterai une autre fois ma lecon
- ensemble: de hand, de fingres, de nails, de arm, de
- elbow, de nick, de sin, de foot, de coun.
- ALICE
- Excellent, madame!
- KATHARINE
- C'est assez pour une fois: allons-nous a diner.
Exeunt
SCENE V. The same.
Enter the KING OF FRANCE, the DAUPHIN, the DUKE oF
BOURBON, the Constable Of France, and others
- KING OF FRANCE
- 'Tis certain he hath pass'd 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,
- The emptying of our fathers' luxury,
- Our scions, put in wild and savage stock,
- Spirt up so suddenly into the clouds,
- And overlook their grafters?

- Mort de ma vie! if they march along
- Unfought withal, but I will sell my dukedom,
- To buy a slobbery and a dirty farm
- In that nook-shotten isle of Albion.
- Constable
- Dieu de batailles! where have they this mettle?
- 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-rein'd jades, their barley-broth,
- Decoct their cold blood to such valiant heat?
- 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!
- Poor we may 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
- 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.
- KING OF FRANCE
- 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 Delabreth, high constable of France;
- You Dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and of Berri,
- Alencon, Brabant, Bar, and Burgundy;
- Jaques Chatillon, Rambures, Vaudemont,
- Beaumont, Grandpre, Roussi, and Fauconberg,
- Foix, Lestrale, Bouciqualt, and Charolois;
- 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
- 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.
- Sorry am I his numbers are so few,
- His soldiers sick and famish'd in their march,
- For I am sure, when he shall see our army,
- He'll drop his heart into the sink of fear
- And for achievement offer us his ransom.
- KING OF FRANCE
- 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.
- KING OF FRANCE
- 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
SCENE VI. The English camp in Picardy.
Enter GOWER and FLUELLEN, meeting
- GOWER
- How now, Captain Fluellen! come you from the bridge?
- FLUELLEN
- I assure you, there is very excellent services
- committed at the bridge.
- GOWER
- Is the Duke of Exeter safe?
- FLUELLEN
- The Duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as Agamemnon;
- and a man that I love and honour with my soul, and my
- heart, and my duty, and my life, and my living, and
- my uttermost power: he is not-God be praised and
- blessed! — any hurt in the world; but keeps the
- bridge most valiantly, with excellent discipline.
- There is an aunchient lieutenant there at the
- pridge, I think in my very conscience he is as
- valiant a man as Mark Antony; and he is a man of no
- estimation in the world; but did see him do as
- gallant service.
- GOWER
- What do you call him?
- FLUELLEN
- He is called Aunchient Pistol.
- GOWER
- I know him not.
Enter PISTOL
- FLUELLEN
- Here is the man.
- PISTOL
- Captain, I thee beseech to do me favours:
- The Duke of Exeter doth love thee well.
- FLUELLEN
- Ay, I praise God; and I have merited some love at
- his hands.
- PISTOL
- Bardolph, a soldier, firm and sound of heart,
- And of buxom valour, hath, by cruel fate,
- And giddy Fortune's furious fickle wheel,
- That goddess blind,
- That stands upon the rolling restless stone —
- FLUELLEN
- By your patience, Aunchient Pistol. Fortune is
- painted blind, with a muffler afore her eyes, to
- signify to you that Fortune is blind; and she is
- painted also with a wheel, to signify to you, which
- is the moral of it, that she is turning, and
- inconstant, and mutability, and variation: and her
- foot, look you, is fixed upon a spherical stone,
- which rolls, and rolls, and rolls: in good truth,
- the poet makes a most excellent description of it:
- Fortune is an excellent moral.
- PISTOL
- Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him;
- For he hath stolen a pax, and hanged must a' be:
- A damned death!
- Let gallows gape for dog; let man go free
- And let not hemp his wind-pipe suffocate:
- But Exeter hath given the doom of death
- For pax of little price.
- Therefore, go speak: the duke will hear thy voice:
- And let not Bardolph's vital thread be cut
- With edge of penny cord and vile reproach:
- Speak, captain, for his life, and I will thee requite.
- FLUELLEN
- Aunchient Pistol, I do partly understand your meaning.
- PISTOL
- Why then, rejoice therefore.
- FLUELLEN
- Certainly, aunchient, it is not a thing to rejoice
- at: for if, look you, he were my brother, I would
- desire the duke to use his good pleasure, and put
- him to execution; for discipline ought to be used.
- PISTOL
- Die and be damn'd! and figo for thy friendship!
- FLUELLEN
- It is well.
- PISTOL
- The fig of Spain!
Exit
- FLUELLEN
- Very good.
- GOWER
- Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal; I
- remember him now; a bawd, a cutpurse.
- FLUELLEN
- I'll assure you, a' uttered as brave words at the
- bridge as you shall see in a summer's day. But it
- is very well; what he has spoke to me, that is well,
- I warrant you, when time is serve.
- GOWER
- Why, 'tis a gull, a fool, a rogue, that now and then
- goes to the wars, to grace himself at his return
- into London under the form of a soldier. And such
- fellows are perfect in the great commanders' names:
- and they will learn you by rote where services were
- done; at such and such a sconce, at such a breach,
- at such a convoy; who came off bravely, who was
- shot, who disgraced, what terms the enemy stood on;
- and this they con perfectly in the phrase of war,
- which they trick up with new-tuned oaths: and what
- a beard of the general's cut and a horrid suit of
- the camp will do among foaming bottles and
- ale-washed wits, is wonderful to be thought on. But
- you must learn to know such slanders of the age, or
- else you may be 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
- tell him my mind.
- Drum heard
- Hark you, the king is coming, and I must speak with
- him from the pridge.
- Drum and colours. Enter KING HENRY, GLOUCESTER, and Soldiers
- God pless your majesty!
- KING HENRY V
- How now, Fluellen! camest thou from the bridge?
- FLUELLEN
- Ay, so please your majesty. The Duke of Exeter has
- very gallantly maintained the pridge: the French is
- gone off, look you; and there is gallant and most
- prave passages; marry, th' athversary was have
- possession of the pridge; but he is enforced to
- retire, and the Duke of Exeter is master of the
- pridge: I can tell your majesty, the duke is a
- prave man.
- KING HENRY V
- What men have you lost, Fluellen?
- FLUELLEN
- The perdition of th' athversary hath been very
- great, reasonable great: marry, for my part, I
- think the duke hath lost never a man, but one that
- is like to be executed for robbing a church, one
- Bardolph, if your majesty know the man: his face is
- all bubukles, 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 and sometimes red;
- but his nose is executed and his fire's out.
- KING HENRY V
- We would have all such offenders so cut off: and we
- give express charge, that in our marches through the
- country, there be nothing compelled from the
- villages, nothing taken but paid for, none of the
- French upbraided or abused in disdainful language;
- for when lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the
- gentler gamester is the soonest winner.
Tucket. Enter MONTJOY
- MONTJOY
- You know me by my habit.
- KING HENRY V
- Well then I know thee: what shall I know of thee?
- MONTJOY
- My master's mind.
- KING HENRY V
- Unfold it.
- MONTJOY
- Thus says my king: Say thou to Harry of England:
- Though we seemed dead, we did but sleep: advantage
- is a better soldier than rashness. Tell him we
- could have rebuked him at Harfleur, but that we
- thought not good to bruise an injury till it were
- full ripe: now we speak upon our cue, and our voice
- is imperial: England shall repent his folly, see
- his weakness, and admire our sufferance. Bid him
- therefore consider of his ransom; which must
- proportion the losses we have borne, the subjects we
- have lost, the disgrace we have digested; which in
- weight to re-answer, his pettiness would bow under.
- For our losses, his exchequer is too poor; for the
- effusion of our blood, the muster of his kingdom too
- faint a number; and for our disgrace, his own
- person, kneeling at our feet, but a weak and
- worthless satisfaction. To this add defiance: and
- tell him, for conclusion, he hath betrayed his
- followers, whose condemnation is pronounced. So far
- my king and master; so much my office.
- KING HENRY V
- What is thy name? I know thy quality.
- MONTJOY
- Montjoy.
- KING HENRY V
- Thou dost thy office fairly. Turn thee back.
- And tell thy king I do not seek him now;
- But could be willing to march on to Calais
- Without impeachment: for, to say the sooth,
- Though 'tis no wisdom to confess so much
- Unto an enemy of craft and vantage,
- My people are with sickness much enfeebled,
- My numbers lessened, and those few I have
- Almost no better than so many French;
- Who when they were in health, I tell thee, herald,
- I thought upon one pair of English legs
- Did march three Frenchmen. Yet, forgive me, God,
- That I do brag thus! This your air of France
- Hath blown that vice in me: I must repent.
- Go therefore, tell thy master here I am;
- My ransom is this frail and worthless trunk,
- My army but a weak and sickly guard;
- 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 hinder'd,
- 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:
- 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 V
- We are in God's hand, brother, not in theirs.
- March to the bridge; it now draws toward night:
- Beyond the river we'll encamp ourselves,
- And on to-morrow, bid them march away.
Exeunt
SCENE VII. The French camp, near Agincourt:
Enter the Constable of France, the LORD RAMBURES,
ORLEANS, DAUPHIN, 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.
- ORLEANS
- Will it never be morning?
- DAUPHIN
- 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.
- DAUPHIN
- What a long night is this! I will not change my
- horse with any that treads but on four pasterns.
- Ca, ha! he bounds from the earth, as if his
- entrails were hairs; le cheval volant, the Pegasus,
- chez les narines de feu! When I bestride him, I
- soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the earth
- sings when he touches it; the basest horn of his
- hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes.
- ORLEANS
- He's of the colour of the nutmeg.
- DAUPHIN
- And of the heat of the ginger. It is a beast for
- Perseus: he is pure air and fire; and the dull
- elements of earth and water never appear in him, but
- only in Patient stillness while his rider mounts
- him: he is indeed a horse; and all other jades you
- may call beasts.
- Constable
- Indeed, my lord, it is a most absolute and excellent horse.
- DAUPHIN
- It is the prince of palfreys; his neigh is like the
- bidding of a monarch and his countenance enforces homage.
- ORLEANS
- No more, cousin.
- DAUPHIN
- Nay, the man hath no wit that cannot, from the
- rising of the lark to the lodging of the lamb, vary
- deserved praise on my palfrey: it is a theme as
- fluent as the sea: turn the sands into eloquent
- tongues, and my horse is argument for them all:
- 'tis a subject for a sovereign to reason on, and for
- a sovereign's sovereign to ride on; and for the
- world, familiar to us and unknown to lay apart
- their particular functions and wonder at him. I
- once writ a sonnet in his praise and began thus:
- 'Wonder of nature,' —
- ORLEANS
- I have heard a sonnet begin so to one's mistress.
- DAUPHIN
- Then did they imitate that which I composed to my
- courser, for my horse is my mistress.
- ORLEANS
- Your mistress bears well.
- DAUPHIN
- Me well; which is the prescript praise and
- perfection of a good and particular mistress.
- Constable
- Nay, for methought yesterday your mistress shrewdly
- shook your back.
- DAUPHIN
- So perhaps did yours.
- Constable
- Mine was not bridled.
- DAUPHIN
- O then belike she was old and gentle; and you rode,
- like a kern of Ireland, your French hose off, and in
- your straight strossers.
- Constable
- You have good judgment in horsemanship.
- DAUPHIN
- Be warned by me, then: they that ride so and ride
- not warily, fall into foul bogs. I had rather have
- my horse to my mistress.
- Constable
- I had as lief have my mistress a jade.

- Constable
- I could make as true a boast as that, if I had a sow
- to my mistress.
- DAUPHIN
- 'Le chien est retourne a son propre vomissement, et
- la truie lavee au bourbier;' thou makest use of any thing.
- 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
- to-night, are those stars or suns upon it?
- Constable
- Stars, my lord.
- DAUPHIN
- Some of them will fall to-morrow, I hope.
- Constable
- And yet my sky shall not want.
- DAUPHIN
- That may be, for you bear a many superfluously, and
- 'twere more honour some were away.
- Constable
- Even as your horse bears your praises; who would
- trot as well, were some of your brags dismounted.
- DAUPHIN
- Would I were able to load him with his desert! Will
- it never be day? I will trot to-morrow a mile, and
- my way shall be paved with English faces.
- Constable
- I will not say so, for fear I should be faced out of
- my way: but I would it were morning; for I would
- fain be about the ears of the English.
- RAMBURES
- Who will go to hazard with me for twenty prisoners?
- Constable
- You must first go yourself to hazard, ere you have them.
- DAUPHIN
- 'Tis midnight; I'll go arm myself.
Exit
- ORLEANS
- The Dauphin longs for morning.
- RAMBURES
- He longs to eat the English.
- Constable
- I think he will eat all he kills.

- Constable
- Swear by her foot, that she may tread out the oath.
- ORLEANS
- He is simply the most active gentleman of France.
- Constable
- Doing is activity; and he will still be doing.
- ORLEANS
- He never did harm, that I heard of.
- Constable
- Nor will do none to-morrow: he will keep that good name still.
- ORLEANS
- I know him to be valiant.
- 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
- ORLEANS
- He needs not; it is no hidden virtue in him.
- Constable
- By my faith, sir, but it is; never any body saw it
- but his lackey: 'tis a hooded valour; and when it
- appears, it will bate.
- ORLEANS
- Ill will never said well.
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- Constable
- A valiant and most expert gentleman. Would it were
- day! Alas, poor Harry of England! he longs not for
- the dawning as we do.
- ORLEANS
- What a wretched and peevish fellow is this king of
- England, to mope with his fat-brained followers so
- far out of his knowledge!
- Constable
- If the English had any apprehension, they would run away.
- ORLEANS
- That they lack; for if their heads had any
- intellectual armour, they could never wear such heavy
- head-pieces.
- 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
- rotten apples! You may as well say, that's a
- valiant flea that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion.
- Constable
- Just, just; and the men do sympathize with the
- mastiffs in robustious and rough coming on, leaving
- their wits with their wives: and then give them
- great meals of beef and iron and steel, they will
- eat like wolves and fight like devils.
- ORLEANS
- Ay, but these English are shrewdly out of beef.
- Constable
- Then shall we find to-morrow they have only stomachs
- to eat and none to fight. Now is it time 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
SCENE I. The English camp at Agincourt.
Enter KING HENRY, BEDFORD, and GLOUCESTER
- KING HENRY V
- Gloucester, 'tis true that we are in great danger;
- The greater therefore should our courage be.
- Good morrow, brother Bedford. God Almighty!
- There is some soul of goodness in things evil,
- Would men observingly distil it out.
- 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.
- Thus may we gather honey from the weed,
- And make a moral of the devil himself.
- Enter ERPINGHAM
- Good morrow, old Sir Thomas Erpingham:
- A good soft pillow for that good white head
- Were better than a churlish turf of France.
- ERPINGHAM
- Not so, my liege: this lodging likes me better,
- Since I may say 'Now lie I like a king.'
- KING HENRY V
- 'Tis good for men to love their present pains
- Upon example; so the spirit is eased:
- And when the mind is quicken'd, out of doubt,
- 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. Brothers both,
- Commend me to the princes in our camp;
- Do my good morrow to them, and anon
- Desire them an to my pavilion.
- GLOUCESTER
- We shall, my liege.
- ERPINGHAM
- Shall I attend your grace?
- KING HENRY V
- No, my good knight;
- Go with my brothers to my lords of England:
- I and my bosom must debate awhile,
- And then I would no other company.
- ERPINGHAM
- The Lord in heaven bless thee, noble Harry!
Exeunt all but KING HENRY
- KING HENRY V
- God-a-mercy, old heart! thou speak'st cheerfully.
Enter PISTOL
- PISTOL
- Qui va la?
- KING HENRY V
- A friend.
- PISTOL
- Discuss unto me; art thou officer?
- Or art thou base, common and popular?
- KING HENRY V
- I am a gentleman of a company.
- PISTOL
- Trail'st thou the puissant pike?
- KING HENRY V
- Even so. What are you?
- PISTOL
- As good a gentleman as the emperor.
- KING HENRY V
- Then you are a better than the king.
- PISTOL
- The king's a bawcock, and a heart of gold,
- A lad of life, an imp of fame;
- Of parents good, of fist most valiant.
 What is thy name?
- KING HENRY V
- Harry le Roy.
- PISTOL
- Le Roy! a Cornish name: art thou of Cornish crew?
- KING HENRY V
- No, I am a Welshman.
- PISTOL
- Know'st thou Fluellen?
- KING HENRY V
- Yes.
- PISTOL
- Tell him, I'll knock his leek about his pate
- Upon Saint Davy's day.

- PISTOL
- Art thou his friend?
- KING HENRY V
- And his kinsman too.
- PISTOL
- The figo for thee, then!
- KING HENRY V
- I thank you: God be with you!
- PISTOL
- My name is Pistol call'd.
Exit
- KING HENRY V
- It sorts well with your fierceness.
Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER
- GOWER
- Captain Fluellen!
- FLUELLEN
- So! in the name of Jesu Christ, speak lower. It is
- the greatest admiration of the universal world, when
- the true and aunchient prerogatifes and laws of the
- wars is not kept: if you would take the pains but to
- examine the wars of Pompey the Great, you shall
- find, I warrant you, that there is no tiddle toddle
- nor pibble pabble in Pompey's camp; I warrant you,
- you shall find the ceremonies of the wars, and the
- cares of it, and the forms of it, and the sobriety
- of it, and the modesty of it, to be otherwise.
- GOWER
- Why, the enemy is loud; you hear him all night.

- GOWER
- I will speak lower.
- FLUELLEN
- I pray you and beseech you that you will.
Exeunt GOWER and FLUELLEN
- KING HENRY V
- 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
- breaks yonder?
- BATES
- I think it be: but we have no great cause to desire
- the approach of day.
- WILLIAMS
- We see yonder the beginning of the day, but I think
- we shall never see the end of it. Who goes there?
- KING HENRY V
- A friend.
- WILLIAMS
- Under what captain serve you?
- KING HENRY V
- Under Sir Thomas Erpingham.
- WILLIAMS
- A good old commander and a most kind gentleman: I
- pray you, what thinks he of our estate?
- KING HENRY V
- 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 V
- No; nor it is not meet he should. For, though I
- speak it to you, I think the king is but a man, as I
- am: the violet smells to him as it doth to me: the
- element shows to him as it doth to me; all his
- senses have but human conditions: his ceremonies
- laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man; and
- though his affections are higher mounted than ours,
- yet, when they stoop, they stoop with the like
- wing. Therefore when he sees reason of fears, as we
- do, his fears, out of doubt, be of the same relish
- as ours are: yet, in reason, no man should possess
- him with any appearance of fear, lest he, by showing
- it, should dishearten his army.
- BATES
- He may show what outward courage he will; but I
- believe, as cold a night as 'tis, he could wish
- himself in Thames up to the neck; and so I would he
- were, and I by him, at all adventures, so we were quit here.
- KING HENRY V
- By my troth, I will speak my conscience of the king:
- I think he would not wish himself any where but
- where he is.
- BATES
- Then I would he were here alone; so should he be
- sure to be ransomed, and a many poor men's lives saved.
- KING HENRY V
- 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 any where so
- 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 kings subjects: if
- his cause be wrong, our obedience to the king wipes
- the crime of it out of us.
- WILLIAMS
- But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath
- a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs and
- arms and heads, chopped off in battle, shall join
- together at the latter day and cry all 'We died at
- such a place;' some swearing, some crying for a
- surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind
- them, some upon the debts they owe, some upon their
- children rawly left. I am afeard there are few die
- well that die in a battle; for how can they
- charitably dispose of any thing, 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; whom to disobey were against all proportion of
- subjection.
- KING HENRY V
- So, if a son that is by his father sent about
- merchandise do sinfully miscarry upon the sea, the
- imputation of his wickedness by your rule, should be
- imposed upon his father that sent him: or if a
- servant, under his master's command transporting a
- sum of money, be assailed by robbers and die in
- many irreconciled iniquities, you may call the
- business of the master the author of the servant's
- damnation: but this is not so: the king is not
- bound to answer the particular endings of his
- soldiers, the father of his son, nor the master of
- his servant; for they purpose not their death, when
- they purpose their services. Besides, there is no
- king, be his cause never so spotless, if it come to
- the arbitrement of swords, can try it out with all
- unspotted soldiers: some peradventure have on them
- the guilt of premeditated and contrived murder;
- some, of beguiling virgins with the broken seals of
- perjury; some, making the wars their bulwark, that
- have before gored the gentle bosom of peace with
- pillage and robbery. Now, if these men have
- defeated the law and outrun native punishment,
- though they can outstrip men, they have no wings to
- fly from God: war is his beadle, war is vengeance;
- so that here men are punished for before-breach of
- the king's laws in now the king's quarrel: where
- they feared the death, they have borne life away;
- and where they would be safe, they perish: then if
- they die unprovided, no more is the king guilty of
- their damnation than he was before guilty of those
- impieties for the which they are now visited. Every
- subject's duty is the king's; but every subject's
- soul is his own. Therefore should every soldier in
- the wars do as every sick man in his bed, wash every
- mote out of his conscience: and dying so, death
- is to him advantage; or not dying, the time was
- blessedly lost wherein such preparation was gained:
- and in him that escapes, it were not sin to think
- that, making God so free an offer, He let him
- outlive that day to see His greatness and to teach
- others how they should prepare.
- WILLIAMS
- 'Tis certain, every man that dies ill, the ill upon
- his own head, the king is not to answer it.
- BATES
- But I do not desire he should answer for me; and
- yet I determine to fight lustily for him.
- KING HENRY V
- I myself heard the king say he would not be ransomed.
- WILLIAMS
- Ay, he said so, to make us fight cheerfully: but
- when our throats are cut, he may be ransomed, and we
- ne'er the wiser.
- KING HENRY V
- If I live to see it, I will never trust his word after.
- WILLIAMS
- You pay him then. That's a perilous shot out of an
- elder-gun, that a poor and private displeasure can
- do against a monarch! you may as well go about to
- turn the sun to ice with fanning in his face with a
- peacock's feather. You'll never trust his word
- after! come, 'tis a foolish saying.
- KING HENRY V
- 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 V
- I embrace it.
- WILLIAMS
- How shall I know thee again?
- KING HENRY V
- Give me any gage of thine, and I will wear it in my
- bonnet: then, if ever thou darest acknowledge it, I
- will make it my quarrel.
- WILLIAMS
- Here's my glove: give me another of thine.
- KING HENRY V
- There.
- WILLIAMS
- This will I also wear in my cap: if ever thou come
- to me and say, after to-morrow, 'This is my glove,'
- by this hand, I will take thee a box on the ear.
- KING HENRY V
- If ever I live to see it, I will challenge it.
- WILLIAMS
- Thou darest as well be hanged.
- KING HENRY V
- Well. I will do it, though I take thee in the
- king's company.
- WILLIAMS
- Keep thy word: fare thee well.
- BATES
- Be friends, you English fools, be friends: we have
- French quarrels enow, if you could tell how to reckon.
- KING HENRY V
- 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 to-morrow the king himself will
- be a clipper.
- Exeunt soldiers
- Upon the king! let us our lives, our souls,
- Our debts, our careful wives,
- Our children and our sins lay on the king!
- We must bear all. O hard condition,
- Twin-born with greatness, subject to the breath
- Of every fool, whose sense no more can feel
- But his own wringing! What infinite heart's-ease
- Must kings neglect, that private men enjoy!
- And what have kings, that privates have not too,
- Save ceremony, save general ceremony?
- And what art thou, thou idle 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?
- 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 fear'd
- Than they in fearing.
- What drink'st thou oft, instead of homage sweet,
- But poison'd flattery? O, be sick, great greatness,
- And bid thy ceremony give thee cure!
- Think'st thou the fiery fever will go out
- With titles blown from adulation?
- Will it give place to flexure and low bending?
- Canst thou, when thou command'st the beggar's knee,
- Command the health of it? No, thou proud dream,
- That play'st so subtly with a king's repose;
- I am a king that find thee, and I know
- 'Tis not the balm, the 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,
- 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,
- Who with a body fill'd and vacant mind
- Gets him to rest, cramm'd 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
- 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,
- Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep,
- Had the fore-hand 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,
- Whose hours the peasant best advantages.
Enter ERPINGHAM
- ERPINGHAM
- My lord, your nobles, jealous of your absence,
- Seek through your camp to find you.
- KING HENRY V
- Good old knight,
- Collect them all together at my tent:
- I'll be before thee.
- ERPINGHAM
- I shall do't, my lord.
Exit
- KING HENRY V
- O God of battles! steel my soldiers' hearts;
- Possess them not with fear; take from them now
- The sense of reckoning, if the opposed numbers
- Pluck their hearts from them. Not to-day, O Lord,
- O, not to-day, think not upon the fault
- My father made in compassing the crown!
- I Richard's body have interred anew;
- And on it have bestow'd more contrite tears
- Than from it issued forced drops of blood:
- Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay,
- Who twice a-day their wither'd 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,
- Since that my penitence comes after all,
- Imploring pardon.
Enter GLOUCESTER
- GLOUCESTER
- My liege!
- KING HENRY V
- 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.
Exeunt
SCENE II. The French camp.
Enter the DAUPHIN, ORLEANS, RAMBURES, and others
- ORLEANS
- The sun doth gild our armour; up, my lords!
- DAUPHIN
- Montez A cheval! My horse! varlet! laquais! ha!
- ORLEANS
- O brave spirit!
- DAUPHIN
- Via! les eaux et la terre.
- ORLEANS
- Rien puis? L'air et la feu.
- DAUPHIN
- Ciel, cousin Orleans.
- Enter Constable
- Now, my lord constable!
- Constable
- Hark, how our steeds for present service neigh!
- DAUPHIN
- Mount them, and make incision in their hides,
- That their hot blood may spin in English eyes,
- 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 Messenger
- Messenger
- The English are embattled, you French peers.
- Constable
- To horse, you gallant princes! straight to horse!

- There is not work enough for all our hands;
- Scarce blood enough in all their sickly veins
- To give each naked curtle-axe a stain,
- That our French gallants shall to-day 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,
- That our superfluous lackeys and our peasants,
- Who in unnecessary action swarm
- About our squares of battle, were enow
- To purge this field of such a hilding foe,
- Though we upon this mountain's basis by
- Took stand for idle speculation:
- But that our honours must not. What's to say?

- And all is done. Then let the trumpets sound
- The tucket sonance and the note to mount;
- For our approach shall so much dare the field
- That England shall couch down in fear and yield.
Enter GRANDPRE
- GRANDPRE
- Why do you stay so long, my lords of France?

- Description cannot suit itself in words
- To demonstrate the life of such a battle
- In life so lifeless as it shows itself.
- Constable
- They have said their prayers, and they stay for death.

- Constable
- I stay but for my guidon: to the field!
- I will the banner from a trumpet take,
- And use it for my haste. Come, come, away!
- The sun is high, and we outwear the day.
Exeunt
SCENE III. The English camp.
Enter GLOUCESTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, ERPINGHAM, with
all his host: SALISBURY and WESTMORELAND
- GLOUCESTER
- Where is the king?
- BEDFORD
- The king himself is rode to view their battle.
- WESTMORELAND
- Of fighting men they have full three score thousand.
- EXETER
- There's five to one; besides, they all are fresh.
- SALISBURY
- God's arm strike with us! 'tis a fearful odds.
- God be wi' you, princes all; I'll to my charge:
- If we no more meet till we meet in heaven,
- Then, joyfully, my noble Lord of Bedford,
- My dear Lord Gloucester, and my good Lord Exeter,
- And my kind kinsman, warriors all, adieu!
- BEDFORD
- Farewell, good Salisbury; and good luck go with thee!
- EXETER
- Farewell, kind lord; fight valiantly to-day:
- And yet I do thee wrong to mind thee of it,
- For thou art framed of the firm truth of valour.
Exit SALISBURY
- BEDFORD
- He is full of valour as of kindness;
- Princely in both.
Enter the KING
- WESTMORELAND
- O that we now had here
- But one ten thousand of those men in England
- That do no work to-day!
- KING HENRY V
- What's he that wishes so?
- My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin:
- If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
- 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;
- It yearns 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:
- 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!

- This day is called the feast of Crispian:
- He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
- Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
- And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
- He that shall live this day, and see old age,
- Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
- And say 'To-morrow 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
- 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 remember'd.
- 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 remember'd;
- We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
- For he to-day 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 a-bed
- Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
- And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
- That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
Re-enter SALISBURY
- SALISBURY
- My sovereign lord, bestow yourself with speed:
- The French are bravely in their battles set,
- And will with all expedience charge on us.
- KING HENRY V
- All things are ready, if our minds be so.
- WESTMORELAND
- Perish the man whose mind is backward now!
- KING HENRY V
- Thou dost not wish more help from England, coz?
- WESTMORELAND
- God's will! my liege, would you and I alone,
- Without more help, could fight this royal battle!
- KING HENRY V
- Why, now thou hast unwish'd five thousand men;
- Which likes me better than to wish us one.

Tucket. Enter MONTJOY
- MONTJOY
- Once more I come to know of thee, King Harry,
- If for thy ransom thou wilt now compound,
- Before thy most 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
- May make a peaceful and a sweet retire
- From off these fields, where, wretches, their poor bodies
- Must lie and fester.
- KING HENRY V
- Who hath sent thee now?
- MONTJOY
- The Constable of France.
- KING HENRY V
- 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.

- Mark then abounding valour in our English,
- That being dead, like to the bullet's 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;
- Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirch'd
- 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:
- 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, or they will pluck
- The gay new coats o'er the French soldiers' heads
- And turn them out of service. If they do this —
- As, if God please, they shall — my ransom then
- Will soon be levied. Herald, save thou thy 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,
- Shall yield them little, tell the constable.
- MONTJOY
- I shall, King Harry. And so fare thee well:
- Thou never shalt hear herald any more.
Exit
- KING HENRY V
- I fear thou'lt once more come again for ransom.
Enter YORK
- YORK
- My lord, most humbly on my knee I beg
- The leading of the vaward.
- KING HENRY V
- Take it, brave York.
Exeunt
SCENE IV. The field of battle.
Alarum. Excursions. Enter PISTOL, French Soldier, and Boy
- PISTOL
- Yield, cur!
- French Soldier
- Je pense que vous etes gentilhomme de bonne qualite.
- PISTOL
- Qualtitie calmie custure me! Art thou a gentleman?
- what is thy name? discuss.
- French Soldier
- O Seigneur Dieu!
- PISTOL
- O, Signieur Dew should be a gentleman:
- Perpend my words, O Signieur Dew, and mark;
- O Signieur Dew, thou diest on point of fox,
- Except, O signieur, thou do give to me
- Egregious ransom.
- French Soldier
- 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.
- 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 pardonnez moi!
- PISTOL
- Say'st thou me so? is that a ton of moys?
- Come hither, boy: ask me this slave in French
- What is his name.
- Boy
- Ecoutez: comment etes-vous appele?
- French Soldier
- Monsieur le Fer.
- Boy
- He says his name is Master Fer.
- PISTOL
- Master Fer! I'll fer him, and firk him, and ferret
- him: discuss the same in French unto him.
- Boy
- I do not know the French for fer, and ferret, and firk.
- PISTOL
- Bid him prepare; for I will cut his throat.
- French Soldier
- Que dit-il, monsieur?
- Boy
- Il me commande de vous dire que vous faites vous
- pret; car ce soldat ici est dispose tout a cette
- heure de couper votre gorge.
- PISTOL
- Owy, cuppele gorge, permafoy,
- 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 gentilhomme de bonne maison:
- 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.
- 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
- l'avez promis, il est content de vous donner la
- liberte, le franchisement.
- French Soldier
- Sur mes genoux je vous donne mille remercimens; et
- je m'estime heureux que je suis tombe entre les
- mains d'un chevalier, je pense, le plus brave,
- vaillant, et tres distingue seigneur d'Angleterre.
- PISTOL
- Expound unto me, boy.
- Boy
- He gives you, upon his knees, a thousand thanks; and
- he esteems himself happy that he hath fallen into
- the hands of one, as he thinks, the most brave,
- valorous, and thrice-worthy signieur of England.

- Follow me!
- Boy
- Suivez-vous le grand capitaine.
- Exeunt PISTOL, and French Soldier
- I did never know so full a voice issue from so
- empty a heart: but the saying is true 'The empty
- vessel makes the greatest sound.' Bardolph and Nym
- had ten times more valour than this roaring devil i'
- the old play, that every one may pare his nails with
- a wooden dagger; and they are both hanged; and so
- would this be, if he durst steal any thing
- adventurously. I must stay with the lackeys, with
- the luggage of our camp: the French might have a
- good prey of us, if he knew of it; for there is
- none to guard it but boys.
Exit
SCENE V. Another part of the field.
Enter Constable, ORLEANS, BOURBON, DAUPHIN, and RAMBURES
- Constable
- O diable!
- ORLEANS
- O seigneur! le jour est perdu, tout est perdu!
- DAUPHIN
- Mort de ma vie! all is confounded, all!
- Reproach and everlasting shame
- Sits mocking in our plumes. O merchante fortune!
- Do not run away.
A short alarum
- Constable
- Why, all our ranks are broke.
- DAUPHIN
- O perdurable shame! let's stab ourselves.
- Be these the wretches that we play'd at dice for?
- ORLEANS
- Is this the king we sent to for his ransom?

- Let us die in honour: once more back again;
- And he that will not follow Bourbon now,
- Let him go hence, and with his cap in hand,
- Like a base pander, hold the chamber-door
- Whilst by a slave, no gentler than my dog,
- His fairest daughter is contaminated.
- Constable
- Disorder, that hath spoil'd us, friend us now!
- Let us on heaps go offer up our lives.
- ORLEANS
- We are enow 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 now! I'll to the throng:
- Let life be short; else shame will be too long.
Exeunt
SCENE VI. Another part of the field.
Alarums. Enter KING HENRY and forces, EXETER, and others
- KING HENRY V
- Well have we done, thrice valiant countrymen:
- But all's not done; yet keep the French the field.
- EXETER
- The Duke of York commends him to your majesty.
- KING HENRY V
- Lives he, good uncle? thrice within this hour
- I saw him down; thrice up again and fighting;
- From helmet to the spur all blood he was.
- EXETER
- In which array, brave soldier, doth he lie,
- Larding the plain; and by his bloody side,
- Yoke-fellow to his honour-owing wounds,
- The noble Earl of Suffolk also lies.
- Suffolk first died: and York, all haggled over,
- Comes to him, where in gore he lay insteep'd,
- And takes him by the beard; kisses the gashes
- That bloodily did spawn upon his face;
- And cries aloud 'Tarry, dear cousin Suffolk!
- 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 cheer'd him up:
- He smiled me in the face, raught me his hand,
- And, with a feeble gripe, says 'Dear my lord,
- Commend my service to me sovereign.'
- So did he turn and over Suffolk's neck
- He threw his wounded arm and kiss'd his lips;
- And so espoused to death, with blood he seal'd
- A testament of noble-ending love.
- The pretty and sweet manner of it forced
- Those waters from me which I would have stopp'd;
- But I had not so much of man in me,
- And all my mother came into mine eyes
- And gave me up to tears.
- KING HENRY V
- 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?
- The French have reinforced their scatter'd men:
- Then every soldier kill his prisoners:
- Give the word through.
Exeunt
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
- gallant king!
- FLUELLEN
- Ay, he was porn at Monmouth, Captain Gower. What
- call you the town's name where Alexander the Pig was born!
- GOWER
- Alexander the Great.
- FLUELLEN
- Why, I pray you, is not pig great? the pig, or the
- great, or the mighty, or the huge, or the
- magnanimous, are all one reckonings, save the phrase
- is a little variations.
- GOWER
- I think Alexander the Great was born in Macedon; his
- father was called Philip of Macedon, as I take it.
- FLUELLEN
- I think it is in Macedon where Alexander is porn. I
- tell you, captain, if you look in the maps of the
- 'orld, I warrant you sall find, in the comparisons
- between Macedon and Monmouth, that the situations,
- look you, is both alike. There is a river in
- Macedon; and there is also moreover a river at
- Monmouth: it is called Wye at Monmouth; but it is
- out of my prains what is the name of the other
- river; but 'tis all one, 'tis alike as my fingers is
- to my fingers, and there is salmons in both. If you
- mark Alexander's life well, Harry of Monmouth's life
- is come after it indifferent well; for there is
- figures in all things.
- 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 take the tales out
- of my mouth, ere it is made and finished. I speak
- but in the figures and comparisons of it: as
- Alexander killed his friend Cleitus, being in his
- ales and his cups; so also Harry Monmouth, being in
- his right wits and his good judgments, turned away
- the fat knight with the great belly-doublet: he
- was full of jests, and gipes, and knaveries, and
- mocks; I have forgot his name.
- GOWER
- Sir John Falstaff.
- FLUELLEN
- That is he: I'll tell you there is good men porn at Monmouth.
- GOWER
- Here comes his majesty.
Alarum. Enter KING 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,
- 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:
- 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,
- 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,
- 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
- 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.
- 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
- 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?
- 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
- 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.
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
- himself aggrieved 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
- 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.
- Go you with me, uncle of Exeter.
Exeunt
SCENE VIII. Before KING HENRY'S pavilion.
Enter GOWER and WILLIAMS
- WILLIAMS
- I warrant it is to knight you, captain.
Enter FLUELLEN
- FLUELLEN
- God's will and his pleasure, captain, I beseech you
- now, come apace to the king: there is more good
- toward you peradventure than is in your knowledge to dream of.
- WILLIAMS
- Sir, know you this glove?
- FLUELLEN
- Know the glove! I know the glove is glove.
- WILLIAMS
- I know this; and thus I challenge it.
Strikes him
- FLUELLEN
- 'Sblood! an arrant traitor as any is in the
- universal world, or in France, or in England!
- GOWER
- 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 ploughs, I warrant you.
- 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 WARWICK and GLOUCESTER
- WARWICK
- How now, how now! what's the matter?
- FLUELLEN
- My Lord of Warwick, here is — praised be God for it!
- — a most contagious treason come to light, look
- you, as you shall desire in a summer's day. Here is
- his majesty.
Enter KING HENRY and EXETER
- KING HENRY V
- How now! what's the matter?
- FLUELLEN
- My liege, here is a villain and a traitor, that,
- look your grace, has struck the glove which your
- majesty is take out of the helmet of 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
- wear it in his cap: I promised to strike him, if he
- did: I met this man with my glove in his cap, and I
- have been as good as my word.
- FLUELLEN
- Your majesty hear now, saving your majesty's
- manhood, what an arrant, rascally, beggarly, lousy
- knave it is: I hope your majesty is pear me
- testimony and witness, and will avouchment, that
- this is the glove of Alencon, that your majesty is
- give me; in your conscience, now?
- KING HENRY V
- Give me thy glove, soldier: look, here is the
- fellow of it.
- 'Twas I, indeed, thou promised'st to strike;
- And thou hast given me most bitter terms.
- FLUELLEN
- An please your majesty, let his neck answer for it,
- if there is any martial law in the world.
- KING HENRY V
- 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 V
- It was ourself thou didst abuse.
- WILLIAMS
- Your majesty came not like yourself: you appeared to
- me but as a common man; witness the night, your
- garments, your lowliness; and what your highness
- suffered under that shape, I beseech you take it for
- your own fault and not mine: for had you been as I
- took you for, I made no offence; therefore, I
- beseech your highness, pardon me.
- KING HENRY V
- 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
- 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 Got, and keep you
- out of prawls, and prabbles' and quarrels, and
- dissensions, and, I warrant you, it is the better for you.
- WILLIAMS
- I will none of your money.
- FLUELLEN
- It is with a good will; I can tell you, it will
- serve you to mend your shoes: come, wherefore should
- you be so pashful? your shoes is not so good: 'tis
- a good silling, I warrant you, or I will change it.
Enter an English Herald
- KING HENRY V
- Now, herald, are the dead number'd?
- Herald
- Here is the number of the slaughter'd French.
- KING HENRY V
- What prisoners of good sort are taken, uncle?
- EXETER
- Charles Duke of Orleans, nephew to the king;
- John Duke of Bourbon, and Lord Bouciqualt:
- Of other lords and barons, knights and squires,
- Full fifteen hundred, besides common men.
- KING HENRY V
- This note doth tell me of ten thousand French
- That in the field lie slain: of princes, in this number,
- And nobles bearing banners, there lie dead
- One hundred twenty six: added to these,
- Of knights, esquires, and gallant gentlemen,
- Eight thousand and four hundred; of the which,
- Five hundred were but yesterday dubb'd 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.
- The names of those their nobles that lie dead:
- Charles Delabreth, high constable of France;
- Jaques of Chatillon, admiral of France;
- The master of the cross-bows, Lord Rambures;
- Great Master of France, the brave Sir Guichard Dolphin,
- John Duke of Alencon, Anthony Duke of Brabant,
- The brother of the Duke of Burgundy,
- And Edward Duke of Bar: of lusty earls,
- Grandpre and Roussi, Fauconberg and Foix,
- Beaumont and Marle, Vaudemont and Lestrale.
- Here was a royal fellowship of death!
- Where is the number of our English dead?
- Herald shews him another paper
- Edward the Duke of York, the Earl of Suffolk,
- Sir Richard Ketly, Davy Gam, esquire:
- None else of name; and of all other men
- But five and twenty. O God, thy arm was here;
- And not to us, but to thy arm alone,
- Ascribe we all! When, without stratagem,
- But in plain shock and even play of battle,
- Was ever known so great and little loss
- On one part and on the other? Take it, God,
- For it is none but thine!
- EXETER
- 'Tis wonderful!
- KING HENRY V
- Come, go we in procession to the village.
- And be it death proclaimed through our host
- To boast of this or take the praise from God
- Which is his only.
- FLUELLEN
- Is it not lawful, an please your majesty, to tell
- how many is killed?
- KING HENRY V
- Yes, captain; but with this acknowledgement,
- That God fought for us.
- FLUELLEN
- Yes, my conscience, he did us great good.
- KING HENRY V
- Do we all holy rites;
- Let there be sung 'Non nobis' and 'Te Deum;'
- The dead with charity enclosed in clay:
- And then to Calais; and to England then:
- Where ne'er from France arrived more happy men.
Exeunt
ACT V
SCENE I. France. The English camp.
Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER
- GOWER
- Nay, that's right; but why wear you your leek today?
- Saint Davy's day is past.
- FLUELLEN
- There is occasions and causes why and wherefore in
- all things: I will tell you, asse my friend,
- Captain Gower: the rascally, scald, beggarly,
- lousy, pragging knave, Pistol, which you and
- yourself and all the world know to be no petter
- than a fellow, look you now, of no merits, he is
- come to me and prings me pread and salt yesterday,
- look you, and bid me eat my leek: it was in place
- where I could not breed no contention with him; but
- I will be so bold as to wear it in my cap till I see
- him once again, and then I will tell him a little
- piece of my desires.
Enter PISTOL
- GOWER
- Why, here he comes, swelling like a turkey-cock.
- FLUELLEN
- 'Tis no matter for his swellings nor his
- turkey-cocks.
- PISTOL
- Ha! art thou bedlam? dost thou thirst, base Trojan,
- To have me fold up Parca's fatal web?
- Hence! I am qualmish at the smell of leek.
- FLUELLEN
- I peseech you heartily, scurvy, lousy knave, at my
- desires, and my requests, and my petitions, to eat,
- look you, this leek: because, look you, you do not
- love it, nor your affections and your appetites and
- your digestions doo's not agree with it, I would
- desire you to eat it.
- PISTOL
- Not for Cadwallader and all his goats.
- FLUELLEN
- There is one goat for you.
- Strikes him
- Will you be so good, scauld knave, as eat it?
- PISTOL
- Base Trojan, thou shalt die.
- FLUELLEN
- You say very true, scauld 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.
- Strikes him
- You called me yesterday mountain-squire; but I will
- make you to-day a squire of low degree. I pray you,
- fall to: if you can mock a leek, you can eat a leek.
- GOWER
- Enough, captain: you have astonished him.
- FLUELLEN
- I say, I will make him eat some part of my leek, or
- I will peat his pate four days. Bite, I pray you; it
- is good for your green wound and your ploody coxcomb.
- PISTOL
- Must I bite?
- FLUELLEN
- Yes, certainly, and out of doubt and out of question
- too, and ambiguities.
- PISTOL
- By this leek, I will most horribly revenge: 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, scauld knave, heartily. Nay, pray
- you, throw none away; the skin is good for your
- broken coxcomb. When you take occasions to see leeks
- hereafter, I pray you, mock at 'em; that is all.
- PISTOL
- Good.
- FLUELLEN
- Ay, leeks is good: hold you, there is a groat to
- heal your pate.
- PISTOL
- Me a groat!
- FLUELLEN
- Yes, verily and in truth, you shall take it; or I
- have another leek in my pocket, which you shall eat.
- PISTOL
- I take thy groat in earnest of revenge.
- FLUELLEN
- If I owe you any thing, I will pay you in cudgels:
- you shall be a woodmonger, and buy nothing of me but
- cudgels.

 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
- galling at this gentleman twice or thrice. You
- thought, because he could not speak English in the
- native garb, he could not therefore handle an
- English cudgel: you find it otherwise; and
- henceforth let a Welsh correction teach you a good
- English condition. Fare ye well.
Exit
- PISTOL
- Doth Fortune play the huswife with me now?

- Old I do wax; and from my weary limbs
- 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 cudgell'd scars,
- And swear I got them in the Gallia wars.
Exit
SCENE II. France. A royal palace.
Enter, at one door KING HENRY, EXETER, BEDFORD,
GLOUCESTER, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and other Lords;
at another, the FRENCH KING, QUEEN ISABEL, the
PRINCESS KATHARINE, ALICE and other Ladies; the
DUKE of BURGUNDY, and his train
- KING HENRY V
- Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are met!
- Unto our brother France, and to our sister,
- Health and fair time of day; joy and good wishes
- To our most fair and princely cousin Katharine;
- And, as a branch and member of this royalty,
- By whom this great assembly is contrived,
- We do salute you, Duke of Burgundy;
- And, princes French, and peers, health to you all!
- KING OF FRANCE
- Right joyous are we to behold your face,
- Most worthy brother England; fairly met:
- 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
- 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.
- KING HENRY V
- To cry amen to that, thus we appear.

- BURGUNDY
- My duty to you both, on equal love,
- Great Kings of France and England! That I have labour'd,
- With all my wits, my pains and strong endeavours,
- 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 prevail'd
- That, face to face and royal eye to eye,
- You have congreeted, let it not disgrace me,
- If I demand, before this royal view,
- What rub or what impediment there is,
- Why that the naked, poor and mangled Peace,
- Dear nurse of arts and joyful births,
- Should not in this best garden of the world
- Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage?
- Alas, she hath from France too long been chased,
- And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps,
- Corrupting in its own fertility.
- Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart,
- Unpruned dies; her hedges even-pleach'd,
- Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair,
- Put forth disorder'd twigs; her fallow leas
- The darnel, hemlock and rank fumitory
- 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,
- Conceives by idleness and nothing teems
- But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs,
- Losing both beauty and utility.
- And as our vineyards, fallows, meads and hedges,
- Defective in their natures, grow to wildness,
- Even so our houses and ourselves and children
- Have lost, or do not learn for want of time,
- The sciences that should become our country;
- But grow like savages — as soldiers will
- That nothing do but meditate on blood —
- To swearing and stern looks, diffused attire
- And every thing 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
- Should not expel these inconveniences
- And bless us with her former qualities.
- KING HENRY V
- If, Duke of Burgundy, you would the peace,
- Whose want gives growth to the imperfections
- Which you have cited, you must buy that peace
- With full accord to all our just demands;
- Whose tenors and particular effects
- You have enscheduled briefly in your hands.
- BURGUNDY
- The king hath heard them; to the which as yet
- There is no answer made.
- KING HENRY V
- Well then the peace,
- Which you before so urged, lies in his answer.
- KING OF FRANCE
- I have but with a cursorary eye
- O'erglanced the articles: pleaseth your grace
- To appoint some of your council presently
- To sit with us once more, with better heed
- To re-survey them, we will suddenly
- Pass our accept and peremptory answer.
- KING HENRY V
- Brother, we shall. Go, uncle Exeter,
- And brother Clarence, and you, brother Gloucester,
- Warwick and Huntingdon, go with the king;
- And take with you free power to ratify,
- Augment, or alter, as your wisdoms best
- Shall see advantageable for our dignity,
- Any thing in or out of our demands,
- And we'll consign thereto. Will you, fair sister,
- Go with the princes, or stay here with us?
- QUEEN ISABEL
- 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 V
- Yet leave our cousin Katharine here with us:
- She is our capital demand, comprised
- Within the fore-rank of our articles.
- QUEEN ISABEL
- She hath good leave.
Exeunt all except HENRY, KATHARINE, and ALICE
- KING HENRY V
- Fair Katharine, and most fair,
- Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms
- Such as will enter at a lady's ear
- And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart?
- KATHARINE
- Your majesty shall mock at me; I cannot speak your England.
- KING HENRY V
- O fair Katharine, if you will love me soundly with
- your French heart, I will be glad to hear you
- confess it brokenly with your English tongue. Do
- you like me, Kate?
- KATHARINE
- Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell vat is 'like me.'
- KING HENRY V
- An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like an angel.
- KATHARINE
- Que dit-il? que je suis semblable a les anges?
- ALICE
- Oui, vraiment, sauf votre grace, ainsi dit-il.
- KING HENRY V
- I said so, dear Katharine; and I must not blush to
- affirm it.
- KATHARINE
- O bon Dieu! les langues des hommes sont pleines de
- tromperies.
- KING HENRY V
- What says she, fair one? that the tongues of men
- are full of deceits?
- ALICE
- Oui, dat de tongues of de mans is be full of
- deceits: dat is de princess.
- KING HENRY V
- The princess is the better Englishwoman. I' faith,
- Kate, my wooing is fit for thy understanding: I am
- glad thou canst speak no better English; for, if
- thou couldst, thou wouldst find me such a plain king
- that thou wouldst think I had sold my farm to buy my
- crown. I know no ways to mince it in love, but
- directly to say 'I love you:' then if you urge me
- farther than to say 'do you in faith?' I wear out
- my suit. Give me your answer; i' faith, do: and so
- clap hands and a bargain: how say you, lady?
- KATHARINE
- Sauf votre honneur, me understand vell.
- KING HENRY V
- Marry, if you would put me to verses or to dance for
- your sake, Kate, why you undid me: for the one, I
- have neither words nor measure, and for the other, I
- have no strength in measure, yet a reasonable
- measure in strength. If I could win a lady at
- 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 for my love, or bound my horse
- for her favours, I could lay on like a butcher and
- sit like a jack-an-apes, never off. But, before God,
- Kate, I cannot look greenly nor gasp out my
- eloquence, nor I have no cunning in protestation;
- only downright oaths, which I never use till urged,
- nor never break for urging. If thou canst love a
- fellow of this temper, Kate, whose face is not worth
- sun-burning, that never looks in his glass for love
- of any thing he sees there, let thine eye be thy
- cook. I speak to thee plain soldier: If thou canst
- love me for this, take me: if not, to say to thee
- that I shall die, is true; but for thy love, by the
- Lord, no; yet I love thee too. And while thou
- 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 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 will turn white; a curled pate will grow
- bald; a fair face will wither; a full eye will wax
- hollow: but a good heart, Kate, is the sun and the
- moon; or, rather, the sun, and not the moon; for it
- shines bright and never changes, but keeps his
- course truly. If thou would have such a one, take
- me; and take me, take a soldier; take a soldier,
- take a king. And what sayest thou then to my love?
- speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee.
- KATHARINE
- Is it possible dat I sould love de enemy of France?
- KING HENRY V
- No; it is not possible you should love the enemy of
- France, Kate: but, in loving me, you should love
- the friend of France; for I love France so well that
- I will not part with a village of it; I will have it
- all mine: and, Kate, when France is mine and I am
- yours, then yours is France and you are mine.
- KATHARINE
- I cannot tell vat is dat.
- KING HENRY V
- No, Kate? I will tell thee in French; which I am
- sure will hang upon my tongue like a new-married
- wife about her husband's neck, hardly to be shook
- off. Je quand sur le possession de France, et quand
- vous avez le possession de moi — let me see, what
- then? Saint Denis be my speed! — donc votre 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 thee in French,
- unless it be to laugh at me.
- KATHARINE
- Sauf votre honneur, le Francois que vous parlez, il
- est meilleur que l'Anglois lequel je parle.
- KING HENRY V
- No, faith, is't not, Kate: but thy speaking of my
- tongue, and I thine, most truly-falsely, must needs
- be granted to be much at one. But, Kate, dost thou
- understand thus much English, canst thou love me?
- KATHARINE
- I cannot tell.
- KING HENRY V
- Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate? I'll ask
- them. Come, I know thou lovest me: and at night,
- when you come into your closet, you'll question this
- gentlewoman about me; and I know, Kate, you will to
- her dispraise those parts in me that you love with
- your heart: but, good Kate, mock me mercifully; the
- rather, gentle princess, because I love thee
- cruelly. If ever thou beest mine, Kate, as I have a
- saving faith within me tells me thou shalt, I get
- thee with scambling, and thou must therefore needs
- prove a good soldier-breeder: shall not thou and I,
- between Saint Denis and Saint George, compound a
- boy, half French, half English, that shall go to
- Constantinople and take the Turk by the beard?
- shall we not? what sayest thou, my fair
- flower-de-luce?
- KATHARINE
- I do not know dat
- KING HENRY V
- No; 'tis hereafter to know, but now to 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 Katharine du monde, mon tres cher
- et devin deesse?
- KATHARINE
- Your majestee ave fausse French enough to deceive de
- most sage demoiselle dat is en France.
- KING HENRY V
- 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 begins to
- flatter me that thou dost, notwithstanding the poor
- and untempering effect of my visage. Now, beshrew
- my father's ambition! he was thinking of civil wars
- when he got me: therefore was I created with a
- stubborn outside, with an aspect of iron, that, when
- I come to woo ladies, I fright them. But, in faith,
- Kate, the elder I wax, the better I shall appear:
- my comfort is, that old age, that ill layer up of
- beauty, can do no more, spoil upon my face: thou
- hast me, if thou hast me, at the worst; and thou
- shalt wear me, if thou wear me, better and better:
- and therefore tell me, most fair Katharine, will you
- have me? Put off your maiden blushes; avouch the
- thoughts of your heart with the looks of an empress;
- take me by the hand, and say 'Harry of England I am
- thine:' which word thou shalt no sooner bless mine
- ear withal, but I will tell thee aloud 'England is
- thine, Ireland is thine, France is thine, and Harry
- Plantagenet is thine;' who though I speak it before
- his face, if he be not fellow with the best king,
- thou shalt find the best king of good fellows.
- Come, your answer in broken music; for thy voice is
- music and thy English broken; therefore, queen of
- all, Katharine, break thy mind to me in broken
- English; wilt thou have me?
- KATHARINE
- Dat is as it sall please de roi mon pere.
- KING HENRY V
- Nay, it will please him well, Kate it shall please
- him, Kate.
- KATHARINE
- Den it sall also content me.

- KATHARINE
- Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez: ma foi, je
- ne veux point que vous abaissiez votre grandeur en
- baisant la main d'une de votre seigeurie indigne
- serviteur; excusez-moi, je vous supplie, mon
- tres-puissant seigneur.
- KING HENRY V
- Then I will kiss your lips, Kate.
- KATHARINE
- Les dames et demoiselles pour etre baisees devant
- leur noces, il n'est pas la coutume de France.
- KING HENRY V
- Madam my interpreter, what says she?
- ALICE
- Dat it is not be de fashion pour les ladies of
- France — I cannot tell vat is baiser en Anglish.
- KING HENRY V
- To kiss.
- ALICE
- Your majesty entendre bettre que moi.
- KING HENRY V
- It is not a fashion for the maids in France to kiss
- before they are married, would she say?
- ALICE
- Oui, vraiment.
- KING HENRY V
- 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 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.
- Kissing her
- You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate: there is
- more eloquence in a sugar touch of them than in the
- tongues of the French council; and they should
- sooner persuade Harry of England than a general
- petition of monarchs. Here comes your father.

- KING HENRY V
- 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 V
- Our tongue is rough, coz, and my condition is not
- smooth; so that, having neither the voice nor the
- heart of flattery about me, I cannot so conjure up
- the spirit of love in her, that he will appear in
- his true likeness.
- BURGUNDY
- Pardon the frankness of my mirth, if I answer you
- for that. If you would conjure in her, you must
- make a circle; if conjure up love in her in his true
- likeness, he must appear naked and blind. Can you
- blame her then, being a maid yet rosed over with the
- virgin crimson of modesty, if she deny the
- appearance of a naked blind boy in her naked seeing
- self? It were, my lord, a hard condition for a maid
- to consign to.
- KING HENRY V
- Yet they do wink and yield, as love is blind and enforces.
- BURGUNDY
- They are then excused, my lord, when they see not
- what they do.
- KING HENRY V
- Then, good my lord, teach your cousin to consent winking.
- BURGUNDY
- I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you will
- teach her to know my meaning: for maids, well
- summered and warm kept, are like flies at
- Bartholomew-tide, blind, though they have their
- eyes; and then they will endure handling, which
- before would not abide looking on.
- KING HENRY V
- This moral ties me over to time and a hot summer;
- and so I shall catch the fly, your cousin, in the
- latter end and she must be blind too.
- BURGUNDY
- As love is, my lord, before it loves.
- KING HENRY V
- It is so: and you may, some of you, thank love for
- my blindness, who cannot see many a fair French city
- for one fair French maid that stands in my way.
- FRENCH KING
- Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, the cities
- turned into a maid; for they are all girdled with
- maiden walls that war hath never entered.
- KING HENRY V
- Shall Kate be my wife?
- FRENCH KING
- So please you.
- KING HENRY V
- I am content; so the maiden cities you talk of may
- wait on her: so the maid that stood in the way for
- my wish shall show me the way to my will.
- FRENCH KING
- We have consented to all terms of reason.
- KING HENRY V
- Is't so, my lords of England?
- WESTMORELAND
- The king hath granted every article:
- His daughter first, and then in sequel all,
- According to their firm proposed natures.
- EXETER
- Only he hath not yet subscribed this:
- Where your majesty demands, that the King of France,
- having any occasion to write for matter of grant,
- shall name your highness in this form and with this
- addition in French, Notre trescher fils Henri, Roi
- d'Angleterre, Heritier de France; and thus in
- Latin, Praeclarissimus filius noster Henricus, Rex
- Angliae, et Haeres Franciae.
- FRENCH KING
- Nor this I have not, brother, so denied,
- But your request shall make me let it pass.
- KING HENRY V
- I pray you then, in love and dear alliance,
- Let that one article rank with the rest;
- And thereupon give me your daughter.
- FRENCH KING
- Take her, fair son, and from her blood raise up
- Issue to me; that the contending kingdoms
- Of France and England, whose very shores look pale
- 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.
- ALL
- Amen!

Flourish
- QUEEN ISABEL
- God, the best maker of all marriages,
- Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one!
- 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,
- 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 V
- Prepare we for our marriage — on which day,
- 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 prosperous be!
Sennet. Exeunt