Henry V

Prologue

Enter Chorus.

CHORUSO for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention,
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
Assume the port of Mars, and at his heels,
Leash’d in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire
Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all,
The flat unraised spirits that hath dar’d
On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth
So great an object. Can this cockpit hold
The vasty fields of France? Or may we cram
Within this wooden O the very casques
That did affright the air at Agincourt?
O pardon! since a crooked figure may
Attest in little place a million,
And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,
On your imaginary forces work.
Suppose within the girdle of these walls
Are now confin’d two mighty monarchies,
Whose high upreared and abutting fronts
The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder;
Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts.
Into a thousand parts divide one man,
And make imaginary puissance.
Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them
Printing their proud hoofs i’ th’ receiving earth.
For ’tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
Carry them here and there, jumping o’er times,
Turning the accomplishment of many years
Into an hour-glass: for the which supply,
Admit me Chorus to this history;
Who prologue-like your humble patience pray,
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.

Exit.

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Act I

Scene I

Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely.

CANTERBURYMy lord, I’ll tell you, that self bill is urg’d
Which in the eleventh year of the last king’s reign
Was like, and had indeed against us passed
But that the scambling and unquiet time
Did push it out of farther question.

ELYBut how, my lord, shall we resist it now?

CANTERBURYIt must be thought on. If it pass against us,
We lose the better half of our possession:
For all the temporal lands, which men devout
By testament have given to the Church,
Would they strip from us; being valu’d thus:
As much as would maintain, to the King’s honour,
Full fifteen earls and fifteen hundred knights,
Six thousand and two hundred good esquires;
And, to relief of lazars and weak age,
Of indigent faint souls past corporal toil,
A hundred almshouses right well supplied;
And to the coffers of the King beside,
A thousand pounds by th’ year. Thus runs the bill.

ELYThis would drink deep.

CANTERBURY’Twould drink the cup and all.

ELYBut what prevention?

CANTERBURYThe King is full of grace and fair regard.

ELYAnd a true lover of the holy Church.

CANTERBURYThe courses of his youth promis’d it not.
The breath no sooner left his father’s body
But that his wildness, mortified in him,
Seemed to die too; yea, at that very moment
Consideration like an angel came
And whipped th’ offending Adam out of him,
Leaving his body as a paradise
T’ envelope and contain celestial spirits.
Never was such a sudden scholar made,
Never came reformation in a flood
With such a heady currance scouring faults,
Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulness
So soon did lose his seat, and all at once,
As in this king.

ELYWe are blessed in the change.

CANTERBURYHear him but reason in divinity
And, all-admiring, with an inward wish
You would desire the King were made a prelate;
Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,
You would say it hath been all in all his study;
List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
A fearful battle rendered you in music;
Turn him to any cause of policy,
The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,
Familiar as his garter; that, when he speaks,
The air, a chartered libertine, is still,
And the mute wonder lurketh in men’s ears
To steal his sweet and honeyed sentences;
So that the art and practic part of life
Must be the mistress to this theoric:
Which is a wonder how his Grace should glean it,
Since his addiction was to courses vain,
His companies unlettered, rude, and shallow,
His hours filled up with riots, banquets, sports,
And never noted in him any study,
Any retirement, any sequestration
From open haunts and popularity.

ELYThe strawberry grows underneath the nettle,
And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best
Neighboured by fruit of baser quality;
And so the Prince obscured his contemplation
Under the veil of wildness, which, no doubt,
Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night,
Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.

CANTERBURYIt must be so, for miracles are ceased,
And therefore we must needs admit the means
How things are perfected.

ELYBut, my good lord,
How now for mitigation of this bill
Urged by the Commons? Doth his Majesty
Incline to it, or no?

CANTERBURYHe seems indifferent,
Or rather swaying more upon our part
Than cherishing th’ exhibitors against us;
For I have made an offer to his Majesty,
Upon our spiritual convocation
And in regard of causes now in hand,
Which I have opened to his Grace at large,
As touching France, to give a greater sum
Than ever at one time the clergy yet
Did to his predecessors part withal.

ELYHow did this offer seem received, my lord?

CANTERBURYWith good acceptance of his Majesty;
Save that there was not time enough to hear,
As I perceived his Grace would fain have done,
The severals and unhidden passages
Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms,
And generally to the crown and seat of France,
Derived from Edward, his great-grandfather.

ELYWhat was th’ impediment that broke this off?

CANTERBURYThe French ambassador upon that instant
Craved audience; and the hour, I think, is come
To give him hearing. Is it four o’clock?

ELYIt is.

CANTERBURYThen go we in, to know his embassy,
Which I could with a ready guess declare
Before the Frenchman speak a word of it.

ELYI’ll wait upon you, and I long to hear it.

Exeunt.

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Scene II

Enter King Henry, Gloucester, Bedford, Clarence, Warwick, Westmorland,

KING HENRYWhere is my gracious Lord of Canterbury?

EXETERNot here in presence.

KING HENRYSend for him, good uncle.

WESTMORLANDShall we call in th’ ambassador, my liege?

KING HENRYNot yet, my cousin. We would be resolved,
Before we hear him, of some things of weight
That task our thoughts concerning us and France.

Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely.

CANTERBURYGod and his angels guard your sacred throne
And make you long become it!

KING HENRYSure, we thank you.
My learned lord, we pray you to proceed
And justly and religiously unfold
Why the law Salic that they have in France
Or should or should not bar us in our claim.
And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,
That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading,
Or nicely charge your understanding soul
With opening titles miscreate, whose right
Suits not in native colours with the truth;
For God doth know how many now in health
Shall drop their blood in approbation
Of what your reverence shall incite us to.
Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,
How you awake our sleeping sword of war.
We charge you in the name of God, take heed;
For never two such kingdoms did contend
Without much fall of blood, whose guiltless drops
Are every one a woe, a sore complaint
’Gainst him whose wrongs gives edge unto the swords
That makes such waste in brief mortality.
Under this conjuration speak, my lord,
For we will hear, note, and believe in heart
That what you speak is in your conscience washed
As pure as sin with baptism.

CANTERBURYThen hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers,
That owe yourselves, your lives, and services
To this imperial throne. There is no bar
To make against your Highness’ claim to France
But this, which they produce from Pharamond:
_In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant_,
“No woman shall succeed in Salic land;”
Which Salic land the French unjustly gloze
To be the realm of France, and Pharamond
The founder of this law and female bar.
Yet their own authors faithfully affirm
That the land Salic is in Germany,
Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe;
Where Charles the Great, having subdu’d the Saxons,
There left behind and settled certain French;
Who, holding in disdain the German women
For some dishonest manners of their life,
Establish’d then this law, to wit, no female
Should be inheritrix in Salic land;
Which Salic, as I said, ’twixt Elbe and Sala,
Is at this day in Germany call’d Meissen.
Then doth it well appear the Salic law
Was not devised for the realm of France;
Nor did the French possess the Salic land
Until four hundred one and twenty years
After defunction of King Pharamond,
Idly suppos’d the founder of this law,
Who died within the year of our redemption
Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the Great
Subdu’d the Saxons, and did seat the French
Beyond the river Sala, in the year
Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say,
King Pepin, which deposed Childeric,
Did, as heir general, being descended
Of Blithild, which was daughter to King Clothair,
Make claim and title to the crown of France.
Hugh Capet also, who usurp’d the crown
Of Charles the Duke of Lorraine, sole heir male
Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great,
To find his title with some shows of truth,
Though, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught,
Convey’d himself as the heir to the Lady Lingare,
Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son
To Lewis the Emperor, and Lewis the son
Of Charles the Great. Also, King Lewis the Tenth,
Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet,
Could not keep quiet in his conscience,
Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied
That fair Queen Isabel, his grandmother,
Was lineal of the Lady Ermengare,
Daughter to Charles, the foresaid Duke of Lorraine;
By the which marriage the line of Charles the Great
Was re-united to the crown of France.
So that, as clear as is the summer’s sun,
King Pepin’s title and Hugh Capet’s claim,
King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear
To hold in right and title of the female.
So do the kings of France unto this day,
Howbeit they would hold up this Salic law
To bar your Highness claiming from the female,
And rather choose to hide them in a net
Than amply to imbar their crooked titles
Usurp’d from you and your progenitors.

KING HENRYMay I with right and conscience make this claim?

CANTERBURYThe sin upon my head, dread sovereign!
For in the Book of Numbers is it writ,
“When the man dies, let the inheritance
Descend unto the daughter.” Gracious lord,
Stand for your own! Unwind your bloody flag!
Look back into your mighty ancestors!
Go, my dread lord, to your great-grandsire’s tomb,
From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit,
And your great-uncle’s, Edward the Black Prince,
Who on the French ground play’d a tragedy,
Making defeat on the full power of France,
Whiles his most mighty father on a hill
Stood smiling to behold his lion’s whelp
Forage in blood of French nobility.
O noble English, that could entertain
With half their forces the full pride of France
And let another half stand laughing by,
All out of work and cold for action!

ELYAwake remembrance of these valiant dead,
And with your puissant arm renew their feats.
You are their heir; you sit upon their throne;
The blood and courage that renowned them
Runs in your veins; and my thrice-puissant liege
Is in the very May-morn of his youth,
Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises.

EXETERYour brother kings and monarchs of the earth
Do all expect that you should rouse yourself,
As did the former lions of your blood.

WESTMORLANDThey know your Grace hath cause and means and might;
So hath your Highness. Never King of England
Had nobles richer, and more loyal subjects,
Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England
And lie pavilion’d in the fields of France.

CANTERBURYO, let their bodies follow, my dear liege,
With blood and sword and fire to win your right;
In aid whereof we of the spiritualty
Will raise your Highness such a mighty sum
As never did the clergy at one time
Bring in to any of your ancestors.

KING HENRYWe must not only arm to invade the French,
But lay down our proportions to defend
Against the Scot, who will make road upon us
With all advantages.

CANTERBURYThey of those marches, gracious sovereign,
Shall be a wall sufficient to defend
Our inland from the pilfering borderers.

KING HENRYWe do not mean the coursing snatchers only,
But fear the main intendment of the Scot,
Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us;
For you shall read that my great-grandfather
Never went with his forces into France
But that the Scot on his unfurnish’d kingdom
Came pouring, like the tide into a breach,
With ample and brim fullness of his force,
Galling the gleaned land with hot assays,
Girdling with grievous siege castles and towns;
That England, being empty of defence,
Hath shook and trembled at the ill neighbourhood.

CANTERBURYShe hath been then more fear’d than harm’d, my liege;
For hear her but exampl’d by herself:
When all her chivalry hath been in France,
And she a mourning widow of her nobles,
She hath herself not only well defended
But taken and impounded as a stray
The King of Scots; whom she did send to France
To fill King Edward’s fame with prisoner kings,
And make her chronicle as rich with praise
As is the ooze and bottom of the sea
With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries.

WESTMORLANDBut there’s a saying very old and true,
“If that you will France win,
Then with Scotland first begin.”
For once the eagle England being in prey,
To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot
Comes sneaking and so sucks her princely eggs,
Playing the mouse in absence of the cat,
To tear and havoc more than she can eat.

EXETERIt follows then the cat must stay at home;
Yet that is but a crush’d necessity,
Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries,
And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves.
While that the armed hand doth fight abroad,
The advised head defends itself at home;
For government, though high and low and lower,
Put into parts, doth keep in one consent,
Congreeing in a full and natural close,
Like music.

CANTERBURYTherefore doth heaven divide
The state of man in divers functions,
Setting endeavour in continual motion,
To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,
Obedience; for so work the honey-bees,
Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
They have a king and officers of sorts,
Where some, like magistrates, correct at home,
Others like merchants, venture trade abroad,
Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,
Make boot upon the summer’s velvet buds,
Which pillage they with merry march bring home
To the tent-royal of their emperor;
Who, busied in his majesty, surveys
The singing masons building roofs of gold,
The civil citizens kneading up the honey,
The poor mechanic porters crowding in
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate,
The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum,
Delivering o’er to executors pale
The lazy yawning drone. I this infer,
That many things, having full reference
To one consent, may work contrariously.
As many arrows, loosed several ways,
Come to one mark; as many ways meet in one town;
As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea;
As many lines close in the dial’s centre;
So many a thousand actions, once afoot,
End in one purpose, and be all well borne
Without defeat. Therefore to France, my liege!
Divide your happy England into four,
Whereof take you one quarter into France,
And you withal shall make all Gallia shake.
If we, with thrice such powers left at home,
Cannot defend our own doors from the dog,
Let us be worried and our nation lose
The name of hardiness and policy.

KING HENRYCall in the messengers sent from the Dauphin.

Exeunt some Attendants.

Enter Ambassadors of France.

FIRST AMBASSADORMay’t please your Majesty to give us leave
Freely to render what we have in charge,
Or shall we sparingly show you far off
The Dauphin’s meaning and our embassy?

KING HENRYWe are no tyrant, but a Christian king,
Unto whose grace our passion is as subject
As is our wretches fett’red in our prisons;
Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness
Tell us the Dauphin’s mind.

AMBASSADORThus, then, in few.
Your Highness, lately sending into France,
Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right
Of your great predecessor, King Edward the Third.
In answer of which claim, the prince our master
Says that you savour too much of your youth,
And bids you be advis’d there’s nought in France
That can be with a nimble galliard won.
You cannot revel into dukedoms there.
He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit,
This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this,
Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim
Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.

KING HENRYWhat treasure, uncle?

EXETERTennis-balls, my liege.

KING HENRYWe are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us.
His present and your pains we thank you for.
When we have match’d our rackets to these balls,
We will, in France, by God’s grace, play a set
Shall strike his father’s crown into the hazard.
Tell him he hath made a match with such a wrangler
That all the courts of France will be disturb’d
With chaces. And we understand him well,
How he comes o’er us with our wilder days,
Not measuring what use we made of them.
We never valu’d this poor seat of England;
And therefore, living hence, did give ourself
To barbarous licence; as ’tis ever common
That men are merriest when they are from home.
But tell the Dauphin I will keep my state,
Be like a king, and show my sail of greatness
When I do rouse me in my throne of France.
For that I have laid by my majesty
And plodded like a man for working days,
But I will rise there with so full a glory
That I will dazzle all the eyes of France,
Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us.
And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his
Hath turn’d his balls to gun-stones, and his soul
Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance
That shall fly with them; for many a thousand widows
Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands,
Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down;
And some are yet ungotten and unborn
That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin’s scorn.
But this lies all within the will of God,
To whom I do appeal; and in whose name
Tell you the Dauphin I am coming on
To venge me as I may, and to put forth
My rightful hand in a well-hallow’d cause.
So get you hence in peace; and tell the Dauphin
His jest will savour but of shallow wit,
When thousands weep more than did laugh at it.—
Convey them with safe conduct.—Fare you well.

Exeunt Ambassadors.

EXETERThis was a merry message.

KING HENRYWe hope to make the sender blush at it.
Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour
That may give furtherance to our expedition;
For we have now no thought in us but France,
Save those to God, that run before our business.
Therefore, let our proportions for these wars
Be soon collected, and all things thought upon
That may with reasonable swiftness add
More feathers to our wings; for, God before,
We’ll chide this Dauphin at his father’s door.
Therefore let every man now task his thought,
That this fair action may on foot be brought.

Exeunt.

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Act II

Chorus

CHORUSNow all the youth of England are on fire,
And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies.
Now thrive the armourers, and honour’s thought
Reigns solely in the breast of every man.
They sell the pasture now to buy the horse,
Following the mirror of all Christian kings,
With winged heels, as English Mercuries.
For now sits Expectation in the air,
And hides a sword from hilts unto the point
With crowns imperial, crowns, and coronets,
Promis’d to Harry and his followers.
The French, advis’d by good intelligence
Of this most dreadful preparation,
Shake in their fear, and with pale policy
Seek to divert the English purposes.
O England! model to thy inward greatness,
Like little body with a mighty heart,
What mightst thou do, that honour would thee do,
Were all thy children kind and natural!
But see thy fault! France hath in thee found out
A nest of hollow bosoms, which he fills
With treacherous crowns; and three corrupted men,
One, Richard Earl of Cambridge, and the second,
Henry Lord Scroop of Masham, and the third,
Sir Thomas Grey, knight of Northumberland,
Have, for the gilt of France,—O guilt indeed!—
Confirm’d conspiracy with fearful France;
And by their hands this grace of kings must die,
If hell and treason hold their promises,
Ere he take ship for France, and in Southampton.
Linger your patience on, and we’ll digest
The abuse of distance, force a play.
The sum is paid; the traitors are agreed;
The King is set from London; and the scene
Is now transported, gentles, to Southampton.
There is the playhouse now, there must you sit;
And thence to France shall we convey you safe,
And bring you back, charming the narrow seas
To give you gentle pass; for, if we may,
We’ll not offend one stomach with our play.
But, till the King come forth, and not till then,
Unto Southampton do we shift our scene.

Exit.

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Scene I

Enter Corporal Nym and Lieutenant Bardolph.

BARDOLPHWell met, Corporal Nym.

NYMGood morrow, Lieutenant Bardolph.

BARDOLPHWhat, are Ancient Pistol and you friends yet?

NYMFor 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.

BARDOLPHI 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.

NYMFaith, 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.

BARDOLPHIt is certain, corporal, that he is married to Nell Quickly; and
certainly she did you wrong, for you were troth-plight to her.

NYMI 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.

BARDOLPHHere comes Ancient Pistol and his wife. Good Corporal, be patient here.
How now, mine host Pistol!

PISTOLBase tike, call’st thou me host?
Now, by this hand, I swear I scorn the term;
Nor shall my Nell keep lodgers.

HOSTESSNo, 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.

BARDOLPHGood Lieutenant! good corporal! offer nothing here.

NYMPish!

PISTOLPish for thee, Iceland dog! thou prick-ear’d cur of Iceland!

HOSTESSGood Corporal Nym, show thy valour, and put up your sword.

NYMWill 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!
I do retort the _solus_ in thy bowels;
For I can take, and Pistol’s cock is up,
And flashing fire will follow.

NYMI 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.

PISTOLO braggart vile and damned furious wight!
The grave doth gape, and doting death is near,
Therefore exhale.

BARDOLPHHear 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.

PISTOLAn oath of mickle might; and fury shall abate.
Give me thy fist, thy fore-foot to me give.
Thy spirits are most tall.

NYMI 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.

BOYMine 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.

BARDOLPHAway, you rogue!

HOSTESSBy my troth, he’ll yield the crow a pudding one of these days.
The King has kill’d his heart.
Good husband, come home presently.

Exeunt Hostess and Boy.

BARDOLPHCome, shall I make you two friends? We must to France together; why the
devil should we keep knives to cut one another’s throats?

PISTOLLet floods o’erswell, and fiends for food howl on!

NYMYou’ll pay me the eight shillings I won of you at betting?

PISTOLBase is the slave that pays.

NYMThat now I will have: that’s the humour of it.

PISTOLAs manhood shall compound. Push home.

BARDOLPHBy this sword, he that makes the first thrust, I’ll kill him; by this
sword, I will.

PISTOLSword is an oath, and oaths must have their course.

BARDOLPHCorporal Nym, and thou wilt be friends, be friends; an thou wilt not,
why, then, be enemies with me too. Prithee, put up.

NYMI shall have my eight shillings I won from you at betting?

PISTOLA 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.

NYMI shall have my noble?

PISTOLIn cash most justly paid.

NYMWell, then, that’s the humour of’t.

Enter Hostess.

HOSTESSAs ever you come of women, come in quickly to Sir John.
Ah, poor heart! he is so shak’d of a burning quotidian tertian,
that it is most lamentable to behold. Sweet men, come to him.

NYMThe King hath run bad humours on the knight; that’s the even of it.

PISTOLNym, thou hast spoke the right.
His heart is fracted and corroborate.

NYMThe King is a good king; but it must be as it may; he passes some
humours and careers.

PISTOLLet us condole the knight; for, lambkins, we will live.

Exeunt.

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Scene II

Enter Exeter, Bedford and Westmorland.

BEDFORD’Fore God, his Grace is bold, to trust these traitors.

EXETERThey shall be apprehended by and by.

WESTMORLANDHow smooth and even they do bear themselves!
As if allegiance in their bosoms sat
Crowned with faith and constant loyalty.

BEDFORDThe King hath note of all that they intend,
By interception which they dream not of.

EXETERNay, but the man that was his bed-fellow,
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, Scroop, Cambridge and Grey.

KING HENRYNow 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?

SCROOPNo doubt, my liege, if each man do his best.

KING HENRYI 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.

CAMBRIDGENever was monarch better fear’d and lov’d
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.

GREYTrue; 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 HENRYWe 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.

SCROOPSo service shall with steeled sinews toil,
And labour shall refresh itself with hope,
To do your Grace incessant services.

KING HENRYWe 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.

SCROOPThat’s mercy, but too much security.
Let him be punish’d, sovereign, lest example
Breed, by his sufferance, more of such a kind.

KING HENRYO, let us yet be merciful.

CAMBRIDGESo may your Highness, and yet punish too.

GREYSir,
You show great mercy if you give him life
After the taste of much correction.

KING HENRYAlas, 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 punish’d. And now to our French causes.
Who are the late commissioners?

CAMBRIDGEI one, my lord.
Your Highness bade me ask for it today.

SCROOPSo did you me, my liege.

GREYAnd I, my royal sovereign.

KING HENRYThen, 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 Westmorland, and uncle Exeter,
We will aboard tonight.—Why, how now, gentlemen!
What see you in those papers that you lose
So much complexion?—Look ye, how they change!
Their cheeks are paper.—Why, what read you there,
That have so cowarded and chas’d your blood
Out of appearance?

CAMBRIDGEI do confess my fault,
And do submit me to your Highness’ mercy.

GREY, SCROOPTo which we all appeal.

KING HENRYThe 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 an appertinents
Belonging to his honour; and this man
Hath, for a few light crowns, lightly conspir’d
And sworn unto the practices of France
To kill us here in Hampton; to the which
This knight, no less for bounty bound to us
Than Cambridge is, hath likewise sworn. But, O
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 practis’d 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;
And other devils that suggest by treasons
Do botch and bungle up damnation
With patches, colours, and with forms being fetch’d
From glist’ring 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 judgement 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 practices!

EXETERI 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.

SCROOPOur 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.

CAMBRIDGEFor 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.

GREYNever 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 HENRYGod quit you in his mercy! Hear your sentence.
You have conspir’d 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. Get you therefore hence,
Poor miserable wretches, to your death,
The taste whereof God of his mercy give
You patience to endure, and true repentance
Of all your dear offences! Bear them hence.

Exeunt Cambridge, Scroop and Grey, guarded.

Flourish. Exeunt.

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Scene III

Enter Pistol, Nym, Bardolph, Boy and Hostess.

HOSTESSPrithee, honey, sweet husband, let me bring thee to Staines.

PISTOLNo; for my manly heart doth yearn.
Bardolph, be blithe; Nym, rouse thy vaunting veins;
Boy, bristle thy courage up; for Falstaff he is dead,
And we must yearn therefore.

BARDOLPHWould I were with him, wheresome’er he is, either in heaven or in hell!

HOSTESSNay, 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 hop’d 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 so
upward and upward, and all was as cold as any stone.

NYMThey say he cried out of sack.

HOSTESSAy, that ’a did.

BARDOLPHAnd of women.

HOSTESSNay, that ’a did not.

BOYYes, 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 talk’d of the whore of Babylon.

BOYDo you not remember, ’a saw a flea stick upon Bardolph’s nose, and ’a
said it was a black soul burning in hell-fire?

BARDOLPHWell, the fuel is gone that maintain’d that fire. That’s all the riches
I got in his service.

NYMShall we shog? The King will be gone from Southampton.

PISTOLCome, 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. Yoke-fellows in arms,
Let us to France; like horse-leeches, my boys,
To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck!

BOYAnd that’s but unwholesome food, they say.

PISTOLTouch her soft mouth, and march.

BARDOLPHFarewell, hostess.

NYMI cannot kiss; that is the humour of it; but, adieu.

PISTOLLet housewifery appear. Keep close, I thee command.

HOSTESSFarewell; adieu.

Exeunt.

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Scene IV

FRENCH KINGThus 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 Berry and of Brittany,
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 fears may teach us out of late examples
Left by the fatal and neglected English
Upon our fields.

DAUPHINMy 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.

CONSTABLEO 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.

DAUPHINWell, ’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 and niggardly projection,
Doth, like a miser, spoil his coat with scanting
A little cloth.

FRENCH KINGThink 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 smil’d 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.

MESSENGERAmbassadors from Harry King of England
Do crave admittance to your Majesty.

FRENCH KINGWe’ll give them present audience. Go, and bring them.

Exeunt Messenger and certain Lords.

DAUPHINTurn 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.

Enter Exeter.

FRENCH KINGFrom our brother of England?

EXETERFrom him; and thus he greets your Majesty:
He wills you, in the name of God Almighty,
That you divest yourself, and lay apart
The borrowed glories that by gift of heaven,
By law of nature and of nations, ’longs
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 rak’d,
He sends you this most memorable line,
In every branch truly demonstrative;
Willing you overlook this pedigree;
And when you find him evenly deriv’d
From his most fam’d of famous ancestors,
Edward the Third, he bids you then resign
Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held
From him, the native and true challenger.

FRENCH KINGOr else what follows?

EXETERBloody 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 swallowed in this controversy.
This is his claim, his threat’ning, and my message;
Unless the Dauphin be in presence here,
To whom expressly I bring greeting too.

FRENCH KINGFor us, we will consider of this further.
Tomorrow shall you bear our full intent
Back to our brother of England.

DAUPHINFor the Dauphin,
I stand here for him. What to him from England?

EXETERScorn and defiance. Slight regard, contempt,
And anything that may not misbecome
The mighty sender, doth he prize you at.
Thus says my king: an if your father’s Highness
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 ordinance.

DAUPHINSay, 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.

EXETERHe’ll make your Paris Louvre shake for it,
Were it the mistress-court of mighty Europe;
And, be assur’d, 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.

FRENCH KINGTomorrow shall you know our mind at full.

EXETERDispatch us with all speed, lest that our king
Come here himself to question our delay;
For he is footed in this land already.

FRENCH KINGYou shall be soon dispatch’d with fair conditions.
A night is but small breath and little pause
To answer matters of this consequence.

Exeunt.

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Act III

Chorus

CHORUSThus with imagin’d wing our swift scene flies,
In motion of no less celerity
Than that of thought. Suppose that you have seen
The well-appointed king at Hampton pier
Embark his royalty, and his brave fleet
With silken streamers the young Phoebus fanning.
Play with your fancies; and in them behold
Upon the hempen tackle ship-boys climbing;
Hear the shrill whistle which doth order give
To sounds confus’d; behold the threaden sails,
Borne with the invisible and creeping wind,
Draw the huge bottoms through the furrow’d sea,
Breasting the lofty surge. O, do but think
You stand upon the rivage and behold
A city on the inconstant billows dancing;
For so appears this fleet majestical,
Holding due course to Harfleur. Follow, follow!
Grapple your minds to sternage of this navy,
And leave your England, as dead midnight still,
Guarded with grandsires, babies, and old women,
Either past or not arriv’d to pith and puissance.
For who is he, whose chin is but enrich’d
With one appearing hair, that will not follow
These cull’d and choice-drawn cavaliers to France?
Work, work your thoughts, and therein see a siege;
Behold the ordnance on their carriages,
With fatal mouths gaping on girded Harfleur.
Suppose the ambassador from the French comes back,
Tells Harry that the King doth offer him
Katharine his daughter, and with her, to dowry,
Some petty and unprofitable dukedoms.
The offer likes not; and the nimble gunner
With linstock now the devilish cannon touches,


And down goes all before them. Still be kind,
And eke out our performance with your mind.

Exit.

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Scene I

KING HENRYOnce 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 it pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o’erwhelm it
As fearfully as does 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 sheath’d 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 yeomen,
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.

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Scene II

Enter Nym, Bardolph, Pistol and Boy.

BARDOLPHOn, on, on, on, on! To the breach, to the breach!

NYMPray 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.

PISTOLThe 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.

BOYWould I were in an alehouse in London! I would give all my fame for a
pot of ale and safety.

PISTOLAnd I.
If wishes would prevail with me,
My purpose should not fail with me,
But thither would I hie.

BOYAs duly,
But not as truly,
As bird doth sing on bough.

Enter Fluellen.

FLUELLENUp to the breach, you dogs! Avaunt, you cullions!

PISTOLBe 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!

NYMThese be good humours! Your honour wins bad humours.

Exeunt all but Boy.

BOYAs young as I am, I have observ’d 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-liver’d and red-fac’d; 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 match’d 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 anything, 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 villainy goes against my weak
stomach, and therefore I must cast it up.

Exit.

Enter Gower and Fluellen.

GOWERCaptain Fluellen, you must come presently to the mines.
The Duke of Gloucester would speak with you.

FLUELLENTo 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 plow up
all, if there is not better directions.

GOWERThe Duke of Gloucester, to whom the order of the siege is given, is
altogether directed by an Irishman, a very valiant gentleman, i’ faith.

FLUELLENIt is Captain Macmorris, is it not?

GOWERI think it be.

FLUELLENBy Cheshu, he is an ass, as in the world. I will verify as much in his
beard. He has no more directions in the true disciplines of the wars,
look you, of the Roman disciplines, than is a puppy-dog.

Enter Macmorris and Captain Jamy.

GOWERHere ’a comes; and the Scots captain, Captain Jamy, with him.

FLUELLENCaptain Jamy is a marvellous falorous gentleman, that is certain; and
of great expedition and knowledge in the anchient 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.

JAMYI say gud-day, Captain Fluellen.

FLUELLENGod-den to your worship, good Captain James.

GOWERHow now, Captain Macmorris! have you quit the mines?
Have the pioneers given o’er?

MACMORRISBy 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!

FLUELLENCaptain 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.

JAMYIt 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.

MACMORRISIt 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 beseech’d, 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!

JAMYBy the mess, ere theise eyes of mine take themselves to slomber, I’ll
de gud service, or I’ll lig i’ the grund for it; ay, or go to death;
and I’ll pay’t as valorously as I may, that sall I suerly do, that is
the breff and the long. Marry, I wad full fain heard some question
’tween you tway.

FLUELLENCaptain Macmorris, I think, look you, under your correction, there is
not many of your nation—

MACMORRISOf my nation! What ish my nation? Ish a villain, and a bastard, and a
knave, and a rascal? What ish my nation? Who talks of my nation?

FLUELLENLook 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.

MACMORRISI do not know you so good a man as myself. So Chrish save me,
I will cut off your head.

GOWERGentlemen both, you will mistake each other.

JAMYAh! that’s a foul fault.

GOWERThe town sounds a parley.

FLUELLENCaptain 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.

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Scene III

Enter King Henry and his train.

KING HENRYHow 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.
The gates of mercy shall be all shut up,
And the flesh’d soldier, rough and hard of heart,
In liberty of bloody hand shall range
With conscience wide as hell, mowing like grass
Your fresh fair virgins and your flow’ring infants.
What is it then to me, if impious War,
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 villainy.
If not, why, in a moment look to see
The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand
Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters;
Your fathers taken by the silver beards,
And their most reverend heads dash’d to the walls;
Your naked infants spitted upon pikes,
Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confus’d
Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry
At Herod’s bloody-hunting slaughtermen.
What say you? Will you yield, and this avoid,
Or, guilty in defence, be thus destroy’d?

GOVERNOROur expectation hath this day an end.
The Dauphin, whom of succours we entreated,
Returns us that his powers are yet not ready
To raise so great a siege. Therefore, great King,
We yield our town and lives to thy soft mercy.

Enter our gates; dispose of us and ours;

KING HENRYOpen your gates. Come, uncle Exeter,
Go you and enter Harfleur; there remain,
And fortify it strongly ’gainst the French.
Use mercy to them all. For us, dear uncle,
The winter coming on, and sickness growing
Upon our soldiers, we will retire to Calais.
Tonight in Harfleur will we be your guest;
Tomorrow for the march are we addrest.

Flourish. The King and his train enter the town.

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Scene IV

Enter Katharine and Alice, an old Gentlewoman.

KATHARINE_Alice, tu as été en Angleterre, et tu parles bien le langage._

ALICE_Un peu, madame._

KATHARINE_Je te prie, m’enseignez; il faut que j’apprenne à parler.
Comment appelez-vous la main en anglais?_

ALICE_La main? Elle est appelée_ de hand.

KATHARINEDe hand. _Et les doigts?_

ALICE_Les doigts? Ma foi, j’oublie les doigts; mais je me souviendrai. Les
doigts? Je pense qu’ils sont appelés_ de fingres; _oui_, de fingres.

KATHARINE_La main_, de hand; _les doigts_, de fingres. _Je pense que je suis le
bon écolier; j’ai gagné deux mots d’anglais vitement. Comment
appelez-vous les ongles?_

ALICE_Les ongles? Nous les appelons_ de nails.

KATHARINEDe nails. _Écoutez; dites-moi, si je parle bien:_ de hand, de fingres,
_et_ de nails.

ALICE_C’est bien dit, madame; il est fort bon anglais._

KATHARINE_Dites-moi l’anglais pour le bras._

ALICEDe arm, _madame._

KATHARINE_Et le coude?_

ALICED’elbow.

KATHARINED’elbow. _Je m’en fais la répétition de tous les mots que vous m’avez
appris dès à présent._

ALICE_Il est trop difficile, madame, comme je pense._

KATHARINE_Excusez-moi, Alice. Écoutez:_ d’hand, de fingres, de nails, d’arm, de
bilbow.

ALICED’elbow, _madame._

KATHARINE_O Seigneur Dieu, je m’en oublie!_ D’elbow.
_Comment appelez-vous le col?_

ALICEDe nick, _madame._

KATHARINEDe nick. _Et le menton?_

ALICEDe chin.

KATHARINEDe sin. _Le col_, de nick; _le menton_, de sin.

ALICE_Oui. Sauf votre honneur, en vérité, vous prononcez les mots aussi
droit que les natifs d’Angleterre._

KATHARINE_Je ne doute point d’apprendre, par la grâce de Dieu, et en peu de
temps._

ALICE_N’avez-vous pas déjà oublié ce que je vous ai enseigné?_

KATHARINE_Non, je réciterai à vous promptement:_ d’hand, de fingres, de mails,—

ALICEDe nails, _madame._

KATHARINEDe nails, de arm, de ilbow.

ALICE_Sauf votre honneur_, de elbow.

KATHARINE_Ainsi dis-je_, d’elbow, de nick, _et_ de sin. _Comment appelez-vous le
pied et la robe?_

ALICEDe foot, _madame; et_ de coun.

KATHARINEDe foot _et_ de coun! _O Seigneur Dieu! ils sont les 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!
_Néanmoins, je réciterai une autre fois ma leçon ensemble:_ d’hand, de
fingres, de nails, d’arm, d’elbow, de nick, de sin, de foot, de coun.

ALICE_Excellent, madame!_

KATHARINE_C’est assez pour une fois. Allons-nous à dîner._

Exeunt.

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Scene V

Enter the King of France, the Dauphin, the Duke of Bourbon, the

FRENCH KING’Tis certain he hath pass’d the river Somme.

CONSTABLEAnd 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?

BOURBONNormans, but bastard Normans, Norman bastards!
_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.

DAUPHINBy 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.

BOURBONThey 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.

FRENCH KINGWhere 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 Berry,
Alençon, Brabant, Bar, and Burgundy;
Jacques Chatillon, Rambures, Vaudemont,
Beaumont, Grandpré, Roussi, and Fauconbridge,
Foix, Lestrale, Boucicault, 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.

CONSTABLEThis 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.

FRENCH KINGTherefore, 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.

DAUPHINNot so, I do beseech your Majesty.

FRENCH KINGBe patient, for you shall remain with us.
Now forth, Lord Constable and princes all,
And quickly bring us word of England’s fall.

Exeunt.

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Scene VI

Enter Gower and Fluellen, meeting.

GOWERHow now, Captain Fluellen! come you from the bridge?

FLUELLENI assure you, there is very excellent services committed at the bridge.

GOWERIs the Duke of Exeter safe?

FLUELLENThe 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 anchient lieutenant there at the
pridge, I think in my very conscience he is as valiant a man as Mark
Antony; and he is a man of no estimation in the world, but I did see
him do as gallant service.

GOWERWhat do you call him?

FLUELLENHe is call’d Anchient Pistol.

GOWERI know him not.

Enter Pistol.

FLUELLENHere is the man.

PISTOLCaptain, I thee beseech to do me favours.
The Duke of Exeter doth love thee well.

FLUELLENAy, I praise God; and I have merited some love at his hands.

PISTOLBardolph, 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—

FLUELLENBy your patience, Anchient Pistol. Fortune is painted blind, with a
muffler afore his 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.

PISTOLFortune 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 windpipe suffocate.
But Exeter hath given the doom of death
For pax of little price.
Therefore, go speak; the Duke will hear thy voice;
And let not Bardolph’s vital thread be cut
With edge of penny cord and vile reproach.
Speak, captain, for his life, and I will thee requite.

FLUELLENAnchient Pistol, I do partly understand your meaning.

PISTOLWhy then, rejoice therefore.

FLUELLENCertainly, anchient, 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.

PISTOLDie and be damn’d! and _fico_ for thy friendship!

FLUELLENIt is well.

PISTOLThe fig of Spain.

Exit.

FLUELLENVery good.

GOWERWhy, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal. I remember him now; a bawd,
a cutpurse.

FLUELLENI’ll assure you, ’a uttered as prave words at the pridge 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.

GOWERWhy, ’t is 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 disgrac’d, 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-wash’d 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.

FLUELLENI 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 his poor soldiers.

God bless your Majesty!

KING HENRYHow now, Fluellen! cam’st thou from the bridge?

FLUELLENAy, so please your Majesty. The Duke of Exeter has very gallantly
maintain’d 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 HENRYWhat men have you lost, Fluellen?

FLUELLENThe perdition of the 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 HENRYWe would have all such offenders so cut off; and we give express
charge, that in our marches through the country, there be nothing
compell’d 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.

MONTJOYYou know me by my habit.

KING HENRYWell then I know thee. What shall I know of thee?

MONTJOYMy master’s mind.

KING HENRYUnfold it.

MONTJOYThus says my King: Say thou to Harry of England: Though we seem’d dead,
we did but sleep; advantage is a better soldier than rashness. Tell him
we could have rebuk’d 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 pettishness 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 pronounc’d. So far my King and master; so much my
office.

KING HENRYWhat is thy name? I know thy quality.

MONTJOYMontjoy.

KING HENRYThou 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 lessen’d, 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 hind’red,
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.

MONTJOYI shall deliver so. Thanks to your Highness.

Exit.

GLOUCESTERI hope they will not come upon us now.

KING HENRYWe are in God’s hands, brother, not in theirs.
March to the bridge; it now draws toward night.
Beyond the river we’ll encamp ourselves,
And on tomorrow bid them march away.

Exeunt.

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Scene VII

Enter the Constable of France, the Lord Rambures, Orleans, Dauphin

CONSTABLETut! I have the best armour of the world.
Would it were day!

ORLEANSYou have an excellent armour; but let my horse have his due.

CONSTABLEIt is the best horse of Europe.

ORLEANSWill it never be morning?

DAUPHINMy Lord of Orleans, and my Lord High Constable, you talk of horse and
armour?

ORLEANSYou are as well provided of both as any prince in the world.

DAUPHINWhat a long night is this! I will not change my horse with any that
treads but on four pasterns. Ch’ha! He bounds from the earth, as if his
entrails were hairs; _le cheval volant_, the Pegasus, _qui a 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.

ORLEANSHe’s of the colour of the nutmeg.

DAUPHINAnd 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.

CONSTABLEIndeed, my lord, it is a most absolute and excellent horse.

DAUPHINIt is the prince of palfreys; his neigh is like the bidding of a
monarch, and his countenance enforces homage.

ORLEANSNo more, cousin.

DAUPHINNay, 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,”—

ORLEANSI have heard a sonnet begin so to one’s mistress.

DAUPHINThen did they imitate that which I compos’d to my courser, for my horse
is my mistress.

ORLEANSYour mistress bears well.

DAUPHINMe well; which is the prescript praise and perfection of a good and
particular mistress.

CONSTABLENay, for methought yesterday your mistress shrewdly shook your back.

DAUPHINSo perhaps did yours.

CONSTABLEMine was not bridled.

DAUPHINO then belike she was old and gentle; and you rode, like a kern of
Ireland, your French hose off, and in your strait strossers.

CONSTABLEYou have good judgment in horsemanship.

DAUPHINBe warn’d by me, then; they that ride so and ride not warily, fall into
foul bogs. I had rather have my horse to my mistress.

CONSTABLEI had as lief have my mistress a jade.

DAUPHINI tell thee, Constable, my mistress wears his own hair.

CONSTABLEI could make as true a boast as that, if I had a sow to my mistress.

DAUPHIN“_Le chien est retourné à son propre vomissement, et la truie lavée au
bourbier_.” Thou mak’st use of anything.

CONSTABLEYet do I not use my horse for my mistress, or any such proverb so
little kin to the purpose.

RAMBURESMy Lord Constable, the armour that I saw in your tent tonight, are
those stars or suns upon it?

CONSTABLEStars, my lord.

DAUPHINSome of them will fall tomorrow, I hope.

CONSTABLEAnd yet my sky shall not want.

DAUPHINThat may be, for you bear a many superfluously, and ’twere more honour
some were away.

CONSTABLEEven as your horse bears your praises; who would trot as well, were
some of your brags dismounted.

DAUPHINWould I were able to load him with his desert! Will it never be day? I
will trot tomorrow a mile, and my way shall be paved with English
faces.

CONSTABLEI will not say so, for fear I should be fac’d out of my way. But I
would it were morning; for I would fain be about the ears of the
English.

RAMBURESWho will go to hazard with me for twenty prisoners?

CONSTABLEYou must first go yourself to hazard, ere you have them.

DAUPHIN’Tis midnight; I’ll go arm myself.

Exit.

ORLEANSThe Dauphin longs for morning.

RAMBURESHe longs to eat the English.

CONSTABLEI think he will eat all he kills.

ORLEANSBy the white hand of my lady, he’s a gallant prince.

CONSTABLESwear by her foot that she may tread out the oath.

ORLEANSHe is simply the most active gentleman of France.

CONSTABLEDoing is activity; and he will still be doing.

ORLEANSHe never did harm, that I heard of.

CONSTABLENor will do none tomorrow. He will keep that good name still.

ORLEANSI know him to be valiant.

CONSTABLEI was told that by one that knows him better than you.

ORLEANSWhat’s he?

CONSTABLEMarry, he told me so himself; and he said he car’d not who knew it.

ORLEANSHe needs not; it is no hidden virtue in him.

CONSTABLEBy my faith, sir, but it is; never anybody saw it but his lackey. ’Tis
a hooded valour; and when it appears, it will bate.

ORLEANS“Ill will never said well.”

CONSTABLEI will cap that proverb with “There is flattery in friendship.”

ORLEANSAnd I will take up that with “Give the devil his due.”

CONSTABLEWell plac’d. There stands your friend for the devil; have at the very
eye of that proverb with “A pox of the devil.”

ORLEANSYou are the better at proverbs, by how much “A fool’s bolt is soon
shot.”

CONSTABLEYou have shot over.

ORLEANS’Tis not the first time you were overshot.

Enter a Messenger.

MESSENGERMy Lord High Constable, the English lie within fifteen hundred paces of
your tents.

CONSTABLEWho hath measur’d the ground?

MESSENGERThe Lord Grandpré.

CONSTABLEA valiant and most expert gentleman. Would it were day! Alas, poor
Harry of England, he longs not for the dawning as we do.

ORLEANSWhat a wretched and peevish fellow is this King of England, to mope
with his fat-brain’d followers so far out of his knowledge!

CONSTABLEIf the English had any apprehension, they would run away.

ORLEANSThat they lack; for if their heads had any intellectual armour, they
could never wear such heavy head-pieces.

RAMBURESThat island of England breeds very valiant creatures. Their mastiffs
are of unmatchable courage.

ORLEANSFoolish curs, that run winking into the mouth of a Russian bear and
have their heads crush’d like rotten apples! You may as well say,
that’s a valiant flea that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion.

CONSTABLEJust, 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.

ORLEANSAy, but these English are shrewdly out of beef.

CONSTABLEThen shall we find tomorrow they have only stomachs to eat and none to
fight. Now is it time to arm. Come, shall we about it?

ORLEANSIt is now two o’clock; but, let me see, by ten
We shall have each a hundred Englishmen.

Exeunt.

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Act IV

Chorus

Enter Chorus.

CHORUSNow entertain conjecture of a time
When creeping murmur and the poring dark
Fills the wide vessel of the universe.
From camp to camp through the foul womb of night
The hum of either army stilly sounds,
That the fix’d sentinels almost receive
The secret whispers of each other’s watch;
Fire answers fire, and through their paly flames
Each battle sees the other’s umber’d face;
Steed threatens steed, in high and boastful neighs
Piercing the night’s dull ear; and from the tents
The armourers, accomplishing the knights,
With busy hammers closing rivets up,
Give dreadful note of preparation.
The country cocks do crow, the clocks do toll,
And the third hour of drowsy morning name.
Proud of their numbers and secure in soul,
The confident and over-lusty French
Do the low-rated English play at dice;
And chide the cripple tardy-gaited Night
Who, like a foul and ugly witch, doth limp
So tediously away. The poor condemned English,
Like sacrifices, by their watchful fires
Sit patiently and inly ruminate
The morning’s danger; and their gesture sad,
Investing lank-lean cheeks and war-worn coats,
Presented them unto the gazing moon
So many horrid ghosts. O now, who will behold
The royal captain of this ruin’d band
Walking from watch to watch, from tent to tent,
Let him cry, “Praise and glory on his head!”
For forth he goes and visits all his host,
Bids them good morrow with a modest smile,
And calls them brothers, friends, and countrymen.
Upon his royal face there is no note
How dread an army hath enrounded him;
Nor doth he dedicate one jot of colour
Unto the weary and all-watched night,
But freshly looks, and over-bears attaint
With cheerful semblance and sweet majesty;
That every wretch, pining and pale before,
Beholding him, plucks comfort from his looks.
A largess universal like the sun
His liberal eye doth give to everyone,
Thawing cold fear, that mean and gentle all
Behold, as may unworthiness define,
A little touch of Harry in the night.
And so our scene must to the battle fly,
Where—O for pity!—we shall much disgrace
With four or five most vile and ragged foils,
Right ill-dispos’d in brawl ridiculous,
The name of Agincourt. Yet sit and see,
Minding true things by what their mock’ries be.

Exit.

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Scene I

Enter King Henry, Bedford and Gloucester.

KING HENRYGloucester, ’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.

ERPINGHAMNot so, my liege; this lodging likes me better,
Since I may say, “Now lie I like a king.”

KING HENRY’Tis good for men to love their present pains
Upon example; so the spirit is eased;
And when the mind is quick’ned, 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 all to my pavilion.

GLOUCESTERWe shall, my liege.

ERPINGHAMShall I attend your Grace?

KING HENRYNo, my good knight;
Go with my brothers to my lords of England.
I and my bosom must debate a while,
And then I would no other company.

ERPINGHAMThe Lord in heaven bless thee, noble Harry!

Exeunt all but King.

KING HENRYGod-a-mercy, old heart! thou speak’st cheerfully.

Enter Pistol.

PISTOL_Qui vous là?_

KING HENRYA friend.

PISTOLDiscuss unto me; art thou officer?
Or art thou base, common, and popular?

KING HENRYI am a gentleman of a company.

PISTOLTrail’st thou the puissant pike?

KING HENRYEven so. What are you?

PISTOLAs good a gentleman as the Emperor.

KING HENRYThen you are a better than the King.

PISTOLThe King’s a bawcock, and a heart of gold,
A lad of life, an imp of fame;
Of parents good, of fist most valiant.
I kiss his dirty shoe, and from heart-string
I love the lovely bully. What is thy name?

KING HENRYHarry le Roy.

PISTOLLe Roy! a Cornish name. Art thou of Cornish crew?

KING HENRYNo, I am a Welshman.

PISTOLKnow’st thou Fluellen?

KING HENRYYes.

PISTOLTell him I’ll knock his leek about his pate
Upon Saint Davy’s day.

KING HENRYDo not you wear your dagger in your cap that day, lest he knock that
about yours.

PISTOLArt thou his friend?

KING HENRYAnd his kinsman too.

PISTOLThe _fico_ for thee, then!

KING HENRYI thank you. God be with you!

PISTOLMy name is Pistol call’d.

Exit.

KING HENRYIt sorts well with your fierceness.

Enter Fluellen and Gower.

GOWERCaptain Fluellen!

FLUELLENSo! in the name of Jesu Christ, speak lower. It is the greatest
admiration in the universal world, when the true and anchient
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 taddle 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.

GOWERWhy, the enemy is loud; you hear him all night.

FLUELLENIf the enemy is an ass and a fool and a prating coxcomb, is it meet,
think you, that we should also, look you, be an ass and a fool and a
prating coxcomb? In your own conscience, now?

GOWERI will speak lower.

FLUELLENI pray you and beseech you that you will.

Exeunt Gower and Fluellen.

KING HENRYThough 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

COURTBrother John Bates, is not that the morning which breaks yonder?

BATESI think it be; but we have no great cause to desire the approach of
day.

WILLIAMSWe see yonder the beginning of the day, but I think we shall never see
the end of it. Who goes there?

KING HENRYA friend.

WILLIAMSUnder what captain serve you?

KING HENRYUnder Sir Thomas Erpingham.

WILLIAMSA good old commander and a most kind gentleman. I pray you, what thinks
he of our estate?

KING HENRYEven as men wreck’d upon a sand, that look to be wash’d off the next
tide.

BATESHe hath not told his thought to the King?

KING HENRYNo; 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.

BATESHe 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 HENRYBy my troth, I will speak my conscience of the King: I think he would
not wish himself anywhere but where he is.

BATESThen I would he were here alone; so should he be sure to be ransomed,
and a many poor men’s lives saved.

KING HENRYI dare say you love him not so ill, to wish him here alone, howsoever
you speak this to feel other men’s minds. Methinks I could not die
anywhere so contented as in the King’s company, his cause being just
and his quarrel honourable.

WILLIAMSThat’s more than we know.

BATESAy, or more than we should seek after; for we know enough, if we know
we are the King’s subjects. If his cause be wrong, our obedience to the
King wipes the crime of it out of us.

WILLIAMSBut if the cause be not good, the King himself hath a heavy reckoning
to make, when all those legs and arms and heads, chopp’d off in a
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 anything, when
blood is their argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it will be
a black matter for the King that led them to it; who to disobey were
against all proportion of subjection.

KING HENRYSo, 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 irreconcil’d 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 his vengeance; so that here men are punish’d 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 for it.

BATESI do not desire he should answer for me; and yet I determine to fight
lustily for him.

KING HENRYI myself heard the King say he would not be ransom’d.

WILLIAMSAy, he said so, to make us fight cheerfully; but when our throats are
cut, he may be ransom’d, and we ne’er the wiser.

KING HENRYIf I live to see it, I will never trust his word after.

WILLIAMSYou pay him then. That’s a perilous shot out of an elder-gun, that a
poor and a private displeasure can do against a monarch! You may as
well go about to turn the sun to ice with fanning in his face with a
peacock’s feather. You’ll never trust his word after! Come, ’tis a
foolish saying.

KING HENRYYour reproof is something too round. I should be angry with you, if the
time were convenient.

WILLIAMSLet it be a quarrel between us if you live.

KING HENRYI embrace it.

WILLIAMSHow shall I know thee again?

KING HENRYGive me any gage of thine, and I will wear it in my bonnet; then, if
ever thou dar’st acknowledge it, I will make it my quarrel.

WILLIAMSHere’s my glove; give me another of thine.

KING HENRYThere.

WILLIAMSThis will I also wear in my cap. If ever thou come to me and say, after
tomorrow, “This is my glove,” by this hand I will take thee a box on
the ear.

KING HENRYIf ever I live to see it, I will challenge it.

WILLIAMSThou dar’st as well be hang’d.

KING HENRYWell, I will do it, though I take thee in the King’s company.

WILLIAMSKeep thy word; fare thee well.

BATESBe friends, you English fools, be friends. We have French quarrels
enough, if you could tell how to reckon.

KING HENRYIndeed, the French may lay twenty French crowns to one they will beat
us, for they bear them on their shoulders; but it is no English treason
to cut French crowns, and tomorrow the King himself will be a clipper.

Exeunt soldiers.

Enter Erpingham.

ERPINGHAMMy lord, your nobles, jealous of your absence,
Seek through your camp to find you.

KING HENRYGood old knight,
Collect them all together at my tent.
I’ll be before thee.

ERPINGHAMI shall do’t, my lord.

Exit.

KING HENRYO 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 today, O Lord,
O, not today, think not upon the fault
My father made in compassing the crown!
I Richard’s body have interred new,
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.

GLOUCESTERMy liege!

KING HENRYMy 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.

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Scene II

Enter the Dauphin, Orleans, Rambures and others.

ORLEANSThe sun doth gild our armour; up, my lords!

DAUPHIN_Monte à cheval!_ My horse, _varlet! laquais_, ha!

ORLEANSO brave spirit!

DAUPHIN_Via, les eaux et terre!_

ORLEANS_Rien puis? L’air et feu?_

DAUPHIN_Cieux_, cousin Orleans.

Enter Constable.

CONSTABLEHark, how our steeds for present service neigh!

DAUPHINMount them, and make incision in their hides,
That their hot blood may spin in English eyes,
And dout them with superfluous courage, ha!

RAMBURESWhat, will you have them weep our horses’ blood?
How shall we, then, behold their natural tears?

Enter a Messenger.

MESSENGERThe English are embattl’d, you French peers.

CONSTABLETo horse, you gallant princes! straight to horse!
Do but behold yon poor and starved band,
And your fair show shall suck away their souls,
Leaving them but the shales and husks of men.
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 today draw out,
And sheathe for lack of sport. Let us but blow on them,
The vapour of our valour will o’erturn them.
’Tis positive ’gainst all exceptions, lords,
That our superfluous lackeys and our peasants,
Who in unnecessary action swarm
About our squares of battle, were enough
To purge this field of such a hilding foe,
Though we upon this mountain’s basis by
Took stand for idle speculation,
But that our honours must not. What’s to say?
A very little little let us do,
And all is done. Then let the trumpets sound
The tucket sonance and the note to mount;
For our approach shall so much dare the field
That England shall crouch down in fear and yield.

Enter Grandpré.

CONSTABLEThey have said their prayers, and they stay for death.

DAUPHINShall we go send them dinners and fresh suits
And give their fasting horses provender,
And after fight with them?

CONSTABLEI stay but for my guard; on 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.

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Scene III

Enter Gloucester, Bedford, Exeter, Erpingham, with all his host:

GLOUCESTERWhere is the King?

BEDFORDThe King himself is rode to view their battle.

WESTMORLANDOf fighting men they have full three-score thousand.

EXETERThere’s five to one; besides, they all are fresh.

SALISBURYGod’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!

BEDFORDFarewell, good Salisbury, and good luck go with thee!

EXETERFarewell, kind lord; fight valiantly today!
And yet I do thee wrong to mind thee of it,
For thou art fram’d of the firm truth of valour.

Exit Salisbury.

BEDFORDHe is as full of valour as of kindness,
Princely in both.

Enter the King.

WESTMORLANDO that we now had here
But one ten thousand of those men in England
That do no work today!

KINGWhat’s he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmorland? No, my fair cousin.
If we are mark’d to die, we are enough
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!
Rather proclaim it, Westmorland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart. His passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse.
We would not die in that man’s company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call’d the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this 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, “Tomorrow is Saint Crispian.”
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say, “These wounds I had on Crispian’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 remembered.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered,
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now abed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

Enter Salisbury.

SALISBURYMy sovereign lord, bestow yourself with speed.
The French are bravely in their battles set,
And will with all expedience charge on us.

KING HENRYAll things are ready, if our minds be so.

WESTMORLANDPerish the man whose mind is backward now!

KING HENRYThou dost not wish more help from England, coz?

WESTMORLANDGod’s will! my liege, would you and I alone,
Without more help, could fight this royal battle!

KING HENRYWhy, now thou hast unwish’d five thousand men,
Which likes me better than to wish us one.
You know your places. God be with you all!

Tucket. Enter Montjoy.

MONTJOYOnce 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 HENRYWho hath sent thee now?

MONTJOYThe Constable of France.

KING HENRYI 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 liv’d, was kill’d with hunting him.
A many of our bodies shall no doubt
Find native graves, upon the which, I trust,
Shall witness live in brass of this day’s work;
And those that leave their valiant bones in France,
Dying like men, though buried in your dunghills,
They shall be fam’d; for there the sun shall greet them,
And draw their honours reeking up to heaven;
Leaving their earthly parts to choke your clime,
The smell whereof shall breed a plague in France.
Mark then abounding valour in our English,
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.

MONTJOYI shall, King Harry. And so fare thee well;
Thou never shalt hear herald any more.

Exit.

KING HENRYI fear thou’lt once more come again for ransom.

Enter York.

YORKMy lord, most humbly on my knee I beg
The leading of the vaward.

KING HENRYTake it, brave York. Now, soldiers, march away;
And how thou pleasest, God, dispose the day!

Exeunt.

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Scene IV

PISTOLYield, cur!

FRENCH SOLDIER_Je pense que vous êtes le gentilhomme de bonne qualité._

PISTOL_Qualité? Caleno custore me!_
Art thou a gentleman?
What is thy name? Discuss.

FRENCH SOLDIER_O Seigneur Dieu!_

PISTOLO, 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 miséricorde! Ayez pitié de moi!_

PISTOLMoy 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’échapper la force de ton bras?_

PISTOLBrass, cur!
Thou damned and luxurious mountain goat,
Offer’st me brass?

FRENCH SOLDIER_O pardonnez-moi!_

PISTOLSay’st thou me so? Is that a ton of moys?
Come hither, boy; ask me this slave in French
What is his name.

BOY_Écoutez. Comment êtes-vous appelé?_

FRENCH SOLDIER_Monsieur le Fer._

BOYHe says his name is Master Fer.

PISTOLMaster Fer! I’ll fer him, and firk him, and ferret him.
Discuss the same in French unto him.

BOYI do not know the French for fer, and ferret, and firk.

PISTOLBid him prepare; for I will cut his throat.

FRENCH SOLDIER_Que dit-il, monsieur?_

BOY_Il me commande à vous dire que vous faites vous prêt, car ce soldat
ici est disposé tout à cette heure de couper votre gorge._

PISTOLOwy, 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 le
gentilhomme de bonne maison; gardez ma vie, et je vous donnerai deux
cents écus._

PISTOLWhat are his words?

BOYHe 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.

PISTOLTell 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;
néanmoins, pour les écus que vous lui avez promis, il est content à
vous donner la liberté, le franchisement._

FRENCH SOLDIER_Sur mes genoux je vous donne mille remerciements; et je m’estime
heureux que je suis tombé entre les mains d’un chevalier, je pense, le
plus brave, vaillant, et très distingué seigneur d’Angleterre._

PISTOLExpound unto me, boy.

BOYHe gives you upon his knees, a thousand thanks; and he esteems himself
happy that he hath fallen into the hands of one, as he thinks, the most
brave, valorous, and thrice-worthy _seigneur_ of England.

PISTOLAs I suck blood, I will some mercy show.
Follow me!

BOY_Suivez-vous le grand capitaine._

Exeunt Pistol and French Soldier.

Exit.

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Scene V

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 méchante Fortune!_ Do not run away.

CONSTABLEWhy, all our ranks are broke.

DAUPHINO perdurable shame! Let’s stab ourselves,
Be these the wretches that we play’d at dice for?

ORLEANSIs this the king we sent to for his ransom?

BOURBONShame and eternal shame, nothing but shame!
Let’s 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 pandar, hold the chamber door
Whilst by a slave, no gentler than my dog,
His fairest daughter is contaminated.

CONSTABLEDisorder, that hath spoil’d us, friend us now!
Let us on heaps go offer up our lives.

ORLEANSWe are enough yet living in the field
To smother up the English in our throngs,
If any order might be thought upon.

BOURBONThe devil take order now! I’ll to the throng.
Let life be short, else shame will be too long.

Exeunt.

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Scene VI

KING HENRYWell have we done, thrice valiant countrymen.
But all’s not done; yet keep the French the field.

EXETERThe Duke of York commends him to your Majesty.

KING HENRYLives 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.

EXETERIn 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 insteeped,
And takes him by the beard; kisses the gashes
That bloodily did yawn upon his face.
He cries aloud, “Tarry, my 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 smil’d me in the face, raught me his hand,
And, with a feeble gripe, says, “Dear my lord,
Commend my service to my sovereign.”
So did he turn and over Suffolk’s neck
He threw his wounded arm and kiss’d his lips;
And so espous’d to death, with blood he seal’d
A testament of noble-ending love.
The pretty and sweet manner of it forc’d
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 HENRYI blame you not;
For, hearing this, I must perforce compound
With mistful eyes, or they will issue too.


But hark! what new alarum is this same?
The French have reinforc’d their scatter’d men.
Then every soldier kill his prisoners;
Give the word through.

Exeunt.

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Scene VII

Enter Fluellen and Gower.

FLUELLENKill 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 caus’d every soldier to cut his prisoner’s
throat. O, ’tis a gallant king!

FLUELLENAy, he was porn at Monmouth, Captain Gower. What call you the town’s
name where Alexander the Pig was born?

GOWERAlexander the Great.

FLUELLENWhy, 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.

GOWERI think Alexander the Great was born in Macedon. His father was called
Philip of Macedon, as I take it.

FLUELLENI 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 call’d 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.
Alexander, God knows, and you know, in his rages, and his furies, and
his wraths, and his cholers, and his moods, and his displeasures, and
his indignations, and also being a little intoxicates in his prains,
did, in his ales and his angers, look you, kill his best friend,
Cleitus.

GOWEROur King is not like him in that. He never kill’d any of his friends.

FLUELLENIt is not well done, mark you now, to 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 kill’d his friend Cleitus, being in his ales and
his cups; so also Harry Monmouth, being in his right wits and his good
judgements, turn’d 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.

GOWERSir John Falstaff.

FLUELLENThat is he. I’ll tell you there is good men porn at Monmouth.

GOWERHere comes his Majesty.

Alarum. Enter King Henry and forces; Warwick, Gloucester, Exeter with
prisoners. Flourish.

KING HENRYI was not angry since I came to France
Until this instant. Take a trumpet, herald;
Ride thou unto the horsemen on yond 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.

EXETERHere comes the herald of the French, my liege.

GLOUCESTERHis eyes are humbler than they us’d to be.

KING HENRYHow now! what means this, herald? Know’st thou not
That I have fin’d these bones of mine for ransom?
Com’st thou again for ransom?

MONTJOYNo, great King;
I come to thee for charitable license,
That we may wander o’er this bloody field
To book our dead, and then to bury them;
To sort our nobles from our common men.
For many of our princes—woe the while!—
Lie 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 HENRYI 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.

MONTJOYThe day is yours.

KING HENRYPraised be God, and not our strength, for it!
What is this castle call’d that stands hard by?

MONTJOYThey call it Agincourt.

KING HENRYThen call we this the field of Agincourt,
Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus.

FLUELLENYour 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 HENRYThey did, Fluellen.

FLUELLENYour Majesty says very true. If your Majesties is rememb’red of it, the
Welshmen did good service in 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 HENRYI wear it for a memorable honour;
For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman.

FLUELLENAll the water in Wye cannot wash your Majesty’s Welsh plood out of your
pody, I can tell you that. Got pless it and preserve it, as long as it
pleases His grace, and His majesty too!

KING HENRYThanks, good my countryman.

FLUELLENBy Jeshu, I am your Majesty’s countryman, I care not who know it. I
will confess it to all the ’orld. I need not be asham’d of your
Majesty, praised be God, so long as your Majesty is an honest man.

KING HENRYGod keep me so!

Enter Williams.

Exeunt Heralds with Montjoy.

EXETERSoldier, you must come to the King.

KING HENRYSoldier, why wear’st thou that glove in thy cap?

WILLIAMSAn’t please your Majesty, ’tis the gage of one that I should fight
withal, if he be alive.

KING HENRYAn Englishman?

WILLIAMSAn’t please your Majesty, a rascal that swagger’d with me last night;
who, if alive and ever dare to challenge this glove, I have sworn to
take him a box o’ the 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 HENRYWhat think you, Captain Fluellen, is it fit this soldier keep his oath?

FLUELLENHe is a craven and a villain else, an’t please your Majesty, in my
conscience.

KING HENRYIt may be his enemy is a gentlemen of great sort, quite from the answer
of his degree.

FLUELLENThough he be as good a gentleman as the devil is, as Lucifier and
Belzebub himself, it is necessary, look your Grace, that he keep his
vow and his oath. If he be perjur’d, 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 HENRYThen keep thy vow, sirrah, when thou meet’st the fellow.

WILLIAMSSo I will, my liege, as I live.

KING HENRYWho serv’st thou under?

WILLIAMSUnder Captain Gower, my liege.

FLUELLENGower is a good captain, and is good knowledge and literatured in the
wars.

KING HENRYCall him hither to me, soldier.

WILLIAMSI will, my liege.

Exit.

KING HENRYHere, Fluellen; wear thou this favour for me and stick it in thy cap.
When Alençon and myself were down together, I pluck’d this glove from
his helm. If any man challenge this, he is a friend to Alençon, and an
enemy to our person. If thou encounter any such, apprehend him, an thou
dost me love.

FLUELLENYour Grace does me as great honours as can be desir’d in the hearts of
his subjects. I would fain see the man, that has but two legs, that
shall find himself aggrief’d at this glove; that is all. But I would
fain see it once, an please God of His grace that I might see.

KING HENRYKnow’st thou Gower?

FLUELLENHe is my dear friend, an please you.

KING HENRYPray thee, go seek him, and bring him to my tent.

FLUELLENI will fetch him.

Exit.

KING HENRYMy 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’ the 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, touch’d 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.

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Scene VIII

Enter Gower and Williams.

WILLIAMSI warrant it is to knight you, Captain.

Enter Fluellen.

FLUELLENGod’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.

WILLIAMSSir, know you this glove?

FLUELLENKnow the glove! I know the glove is a glove.

WILLIAMSI know this; and thus I challenge it.

FLUELLEN’Sblood! an arrant traitor as any is in the universal world, or in
France, or in England!

GOWERHow now, sir! you villain!

WILLIAMSDo you think I’ll be forsworn?

FLUELLENStand away, Captain Gower. I will give treason his payment into plows,
I warrant you.

WILLIAMSI am no traitor.

FLUELLENThat’s a lie in thy throat. I charge you in his Majesty’s name,
apprehend him; he’s a friend of the Duke Alençon’s.

Enter Warwick and Gloucester.

WARWICKHow now, how now! what’s the matter?

FLUELLENMy 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 HENRYHow now! what’s the matter?

FLUELLENMy 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
Alençon.

WILLIAMSMy liege, this was my glove; here is the fellow of it; and he that I
gave it to in change promis’d to wear it in his cap. I promis’d 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.

FLUELLENYour 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
Alençon that your Majesty is give me; in your conscience, now?

KING HENRYGive me thy glove, soldier. Look, here is the fellow of it.
’Twas I, indeed, thou promisedst to strike;
And thou hast given me most bitter terms.

FLUELLENAn it please your Majesty, let his neck answer for it, if there is any
martial law in the world.

KING HENRYHow canst thou make me satisfaction?

WILLIAMSAll offences, my lord, come from the heart. Never came any from mine
that might offend your Majesty.

KING HENRYIt was ourself thou didst abuse.

WILLIAMSYour Majesty came not like yourself. You appear’d to me but as a common
man; witness the night, your garments, your lowliness; and what your
Highness suffer’d 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 HENRYHere, 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 his crowns;
And, captain, you must needs be friends with him.

FLUELLENBy this day and this light, the fellow has mettle enough in his belly.
Hold, there is twelve pence for you; and I pray you to serve God, and
keep you out of prawls, and prabbles, and quarrels, and dissensions,
and, I warrant you, it is the better for you.

WILLIAMSI will none of your money.

FLUELLENIt 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 HENRYNow, herald, are the dead numb’red?

HERALDHere is the number of the slaught’red French.

KING HENRYWhat prisoners of good sort are taken, uncle?

EXETERCharles Duke of Orleans, nephew to the King;
John Duke of Bourbon, and Lord Boucicault:
Of other lords and barons, knights and squires,
Full fifteen hundred, besides common men.

KING HENRYThis 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;
Jacques of Chatillon, Admiral of France;
The master of the Crossbows, Lord Rambures;
Great Master of France, the brave Sir Guichard Dauphin,
John, Duke of Alençon, Anthony, Duke of Brabant,
The brother to the Duke of Burgundy,
And Edward, Duke of Bar; of lusty earls,
Grandpré and Roussi, Fauconbridge and Foix,
Beaumont and Marle, Vaudemont and Lestrale.
Here was a royal fellowship of death!
Where is the number of our English dead?


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 HENRYCome, go we in procession to the village;
And be it death proclaimed through our host
To boast of this or take that praise from God
Which is His only.

FLUELLENIs it not lawful, an please your Majesty, to tell how many is kill’d?

KING HENRYYes, Captain; but with this acknowledgment,
That God fought for us.

FLUELLENYes, my conscience, He did us great good.

KING HENRYDo we all holy rites.
Let there be sung _Non nobis_ and _Te Deum_,
The dead with charity enclos’d in clay,
And then to Calais; and to England then,
Where ne’er from France arriv’d more happy men.

Exeunt.

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Act V

Chorus

Enter Chorus.

CHORUSVouchsafe to those that have not read the story,
That I may prompt them; and of such as have,
I humbly pray them to admit the excuse
Of time, of numbers, and due course of things,
Which cannot in their huge and proper life
Be here presented. Now we bear the King
Toward Calais; grant him there; there seen,
Heave him away upon your winged thoughts
Athwart the sea. Behold, the English beach
Pales in the flood with men, with wives and boys,
Whose shouts and claps out-voice the deep-mouth’d sea,
Which like a mighty whiffler ’fore the King
Seems to prepare his way. So let him land,
And solemnly see him set on to London.
So swift a pace hath thought that even now
You may imagine him upon Blackheath,
Where that his lords desire him to have borne
His bruised helmet and his bended sword
Before him through the city. He forbids it,
Being free from vainness and self-glorious pride;
Giving full trophy, signal, and ostent
Quite from himself to God. But now behold,
In the quick forge and working-house of thought,
How London doth pour out her citizens!
The mayor and all his brethren in best sort,
Like to the senators of th’ antique Rome,
With the plebeians swarming at their heels,
Go forth and fetch their conquering Caesar in;
As, by a lower but loving likelihood,
Were now the general of our gracious empress,
As in good time he may, from Ireland coming,
Bringing rebellion broached on his sword,
How many would the peaceful city quit,
To welcome him! Much more, and much more cause,
Did they this Harry. Now in London place him;
As yet the lamentation of the French
Invites the King of England’s stay at home,
The Emperor’s coming in behalf of France,
To order peace between them;—and omit
All the occurrences, whatever chanc’d,
Till Harry’s back-return again to France.
There must we bring him; and myself have play’d
The interim, by rememb’ring you ’tis past.
Then brook abridgement, and your eyes advance
After your thoughts, straight back again to France.

Exit.

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Scene I

Enter Fluellen and Gower.

GOWERNay, that’s right; but why wear you your leek today?
Saint Davy’s day is past.

FLUELLENThere is occasions and causes why and wherefore in all things. I will
tell you ass 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 a 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.

GOWERWhy, here he comes, swelling like a turkey-cock.

FLUELLEN’Tis no matter for his swellings nor his turkey-cocks. God pless you,
Anchient Pistol! you scurvy, lousy knave, God pless you!

PISTOLHa! 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.

FLUELLENI peseech you heartily, scurfy, lousy knave, at my desires, and my
requests, and my petitions, to eat, look you, this leek. Because, look
you, you do not love it, nor your affections and your appetites and
your digestions does not agree with it, I would desire you to eat it.

PISTOLNot for Cadwallader and all his goats.

FLUELLENThere is one goat for you. [_Strikes him._] Will you be so good, scald
knave, as eat it?

PISTOLBase Trojan, thou shalt die.

FLUELLENYou say very true, scald knave, when God’s will is. I will desire you
to live in the mean time, and eat your victuals. Come, there is sauce
for it. [_Strikes him._] You call’d me yesterday mountain-squire; but I
will make you today a squire of low degree. I pray you, fall to; if you
can mock a leek, you can eat a leek.

GOWEREnough, captain; you have astonish’d him.

FLUELLENI 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.

PISTOLMust I bite?

FLUELLENYes, certainly, and out of doubt and out of question too, and
ambiguities.

PISTOLBy this leek, I will most horribly revenge. I eat and eat, I swear—

FLUELLENEat, I pray you. Will you have some more sauce to your leek? There is
not enough leek to swear by.

PISTOLQuiet thy cudgel; thou dost see I eat.

FLUELLENMuch good do you, scald 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.

PISTOLGood.

FLUELLENAy, leeks is good. Hold you, there is a groat to heal your pate.

PISTOLMe a groat!

FLUELLENYes, verily and in truth you shall take it; or I have another leek in
my pocket, which you shall eat.

PISTOLI take thy groat in earnest of revenge.

FLUELLENIf I owe you anything I will pay you in cudgels. You shall be a
woodmonger, and buy nothing of me but cudgels. God be wi’ you, and keep
you, and heal your pate.

Exit.

PISTOLAll hell shall stir for this.

GOWERGo, go; you are a couterfeit cowardly knave. Will you mock at an
ancient tradition, begun upon an honourable respect, and worn as a
memorable trophy of predeceased valour, and dare not avouch in your
deeds any of your words? I have seen you gleeking and 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.

PISTOLDoth Fortune play the huswife with me now?
News have I, that my Doll is dead i’ the spital
Of malady of France;
And there my rendezvous is quite cut off.
Old I do wax; and from my weary limbs
Honour is cudgell’d. 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.

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Scene II

Enter at one door, King Henry, Exeter, Bedford, Warwick, Gloucester,

KING HENRYPeace 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 contriv’d,
We do salute you, Duke of Burgundy;
And, princes French, and peers, health to you all!

FRENCH KINGRight joyous are we to behold your face,
Most worthy brother England; fairly met!
So are you, princes English, every one.

QUEEN ISABELSo 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 HENRYTo cry amen to that, thus we appear.

QUEEN ISABELYou English princes all, I do salute you.

BURGUNDYMy 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, plenties, 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 chas’d,
And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps,
Corrupting in it 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, diffus’d attire,
And everything that seems unnatural.
Which to reduce into our former favour
You are assembled; and my speech entreats
That I may know the let, why gentle Peace
Should not expel these inconveniences
And bless us with her former qualities.

KING HENRYIf, 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 tenours and particular effects
You have enschedul’d briefly in your hands.

BURGUNDYThe King hath heard them; to the which as yet
There is no answer made.

KING HENRYWell, then, the peace,
Which you before so urg’d, lies in his answer.

FRENCH KINGI have but with a cursorary eye
O’erglanc’d 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 HENRYBrother, we shall. Go, uncle Exeter,
And brother Clarence, and you, brother Gloucester,
Warwick, and Huntington, 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,
Anything 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 ISABELOur gracious brother, I will go with them.
Haply a woman’s voice may do some good,
When articles too nicely urg’d be stood on.

KING HENRYYet leave our cousin Katharine here with us:
She is our capital demand, compris’d
Within the fore-rank of our articles.

QUEEN ISABELShe hath good leave.

Exeunt all except Henry, Katharine and Alice.

KING HENRYFair 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?

KATHARINEYour Majesty shall mock me; I cannot speak your England.

KING HENRYO 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 wat is “like me.”

KING HENRYAn angel is like you, Kate, and you are like an angel.

KATHARINE_Que dit-il? Que je suis semblable à les anges?_

ALICE_Oui, vraiment, sauf votre Grâce, ainsi dit-il._

KING HENRYI 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 HENRYWhat 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 HENRYThe 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 well.

KING HENRYMarry, 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 urg’d,
nor never break for urging. If thou canst love a fellow of this temper,
Kate, whose face is not worth sunburning, that never looks in his glass
for love of anything he sees there, let thine eye be thy cook. I speak
to thee plain soldier. If thou canst love 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 liv’st, 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 curl’d 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 say’st thou then to my
love? Speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee.

KATHARINEIs it possible dat I should love de enemy of France?

KING HENRYNo; 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.

KATHARINEI cannot tell wat is dat.

KING HENRYNo, 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 êtes 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 français que vous parlez, il est meilleur que
l’anglais lequel je parle._

KING HENRYNo, 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?

KATHARINEI cannot tell.

KING HENRYCan 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 say’st thou, my fair flower-de-luce?

KATHARINEI do not know dat.

KING HENRYNo; ’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 Katherine du monde, mon très cher et divin déesse?_

KATHARINEYour Majestee ’ave _fausse_ French enough to deceive de most _sage
demoiselle_ dat is _en France_.

KING HENRYNow, 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 Henry Plantagenet is thine; who, though I speak it before
his face, if he be not fellow with the best king, thou shalt find the
best king of good fellows. 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?

KATHARINEDat is as it shall please _le roi mon père_.

KING HENRYNay, it will please him well, Kate; it shall please him, Kate.

KATHARINEDen it sall also content me.

KING HENRYUpon that I kiss your hand, and call you my queen.

KATHARINE_Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez! Ma foi, je ne veux point que
vous abaissiez votre grandeur en baisant la main d’une—Notre
Seigneur!—indigne serviteur. Excusez-moi, je vous supplie, mon
très-puissant seigneur._

KING HENRYThen I will kiss your lips, Kate.

KATHARINE_Les dames et demoiselles pour être baisées devant leurs noces, il
n’est pas la coutume de France._

KING HENRYMadame my interpreter, what says she?

ALICEDat it is not be de fashion _pour les_ ladies of France,—I cannot tell
wat is _baiser en_ Anglish.

KING HENRYTo kiss.

ALICEYour Majestee _entend_ bettre _que moi_.

KING HENRYIt is not a fashion for the maids in France to kiss before they are
married, would she say?

ALICE_Oui, vraiment._

KING HENRYO 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.

Enter the French Power and the English Lords.

BURGUNDYGod save your Majesty! My royal cousin, teach you our princess English?

KING HENRYI would have her learn, my fair cousin, how perfectly I love her; and
that is good English.

BURGUNDYIs she not apt?

KING HENRYOur 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.

BURGUNDYPardon 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 ros’d 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 HENRYYet they do wink and yield, as love is blind and enforces.

BURGUNDYThey are then excus’d, my lord, when they see not what they do.

KING HENRYThen, good my lord, teach your cousin to consent winking.

BURGUNDYI will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you will teach her to know
my meaning; for maids, well summer’d 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 HENRYThis 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.

BURGUNDYAs love is, my lord, before it loves.

KING HENRYIt 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 KINGYes, my lord, you see them perspectively, the cities turn’d into a
maid; for they are all girdled with maiden walls that no war hath
entered.

KING HENRYShall Kate be my wife?

FRENCH KINGSo please you.

KING HENRYI 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 KINGWe have consented to all terms of reason.

KING HENRYIs’t so, my lords of England?

WESTMORLANDThe king hath granted every article;
His daughter first, and then in sequel all,
According to their firm proposed natures.

EXETEROnly 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 très-cher fils Henri, Roi d’Angleterre, Héritier de
France_; and thus in Latin, _Praeclarissimus filius noster Henricus,
rex Angliae et haeres Franciae._

FRENCH KINGNor this I have not, brother, so denied
But our request shall make me let it pass.

KING HENRYI pray you then, in love and dear alliance,
Let that one article rank with the rest;
And thereupon give me your daughter.

FRENCH KINGTake 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.

LORDSAmen!

KING HENRYNow, welcome, Kate; and bear me witness all,
That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen.

QUEEN ISABELGod, 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!

ALLAmen!

KING HENRYPrepare 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.

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Epilogue

Enter Chorus.

CHORUSThus far, with rough and all-unable pen,
Our bending author hath pursu’d the story,
In little room confining mighty men,
Mangling by starts the full course of their glory.
Small time, but in that small most greatly lived
This star of England. Fortune made his sword,
By which the world’s best garden he achieved,
And of it left his son imperial lord.
Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crown’d King
Of France and England, did this king succeed;
Whose state so many had the managing,
That they lost France and made his England bleed:
Which oft our stage hath shown; and, for their sake,
In your fair minds let this acceptance take.

Exit.

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