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O jest unseen, inscrutable, invisible,
As a nose on a man's face,

      — The Two Gentleman of Verona, Act II Scene 1

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History of Henry V

Act III

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Prologue

Scene 1. France. Before Harfleur.

Scene 2. The same.

Scene 3. The same. Before the gates.

Scene 4. The FRENCH KING’s palace.

Scene 5. The same.

Scene 6. The English camp in Picardy.

Scene 7. The French camp, near Agincourt:

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Prologue

      next scene .
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[Enter Chorus]

  • Chorus. Thus with imagined wing our swift scene flies
    In motion of no less celerity
    Than that of thought. Suppose that you have seen 1055
    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; 1060
    Hear the shrill whistle which doth order give
    To sounds confused; 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 1065
    You stand upon the ravage 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, 1070
    And leave your England, as dead midnight still,
    Guarded with grandsires, babies and old women,
    Either past or not arrived to pith and puissance;
    For who is he, whose chin is but enrich'd
    With one appearing hair, that will not follow 1075
    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; 1080
    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, 1085
    [Alarum, and chambers go off]
    And down goes all before them. Still be kind,
    And eke out our performance with your mind.

[Exit]

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Act III, Scene 1

France. Before Harfleur.

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[Alarum. Enter KING HENRY, EXETER, BEDFORD,] [p]GLOUCESTER, and Soldiers, with scaling-ladders]

  • Henry V. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
    Or close the wall up with our English dead.
    In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
    As modest stillness and humility: 1095
    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; 1100
    Let pry through the portage of the head
    Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
    As fearfully as doth a galled rock
    O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
    Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean. 1105
    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, 1110
    Have in these parts from morn till even fought
    And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
    Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
    That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.
    Be copy now to men of grosser blood, 1115
    And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,
    Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
    The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
    That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
    For there is none of you so mean and base, 1120
    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!' 1125

[Exeunt. Alarum, and chambers go off]

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Act III, Scene 2

The same.

      next scene .
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[Enter NYM, BARDOLPH, PISTOL, and Boy]

  • Bardolph. On, on, on, on, on! to the breach, to the breach!
  • Nym. Pray thee, corporal, stay: the knocks are too hot;
    and, for mine own part, I have not a case of lives: 1130
    the humour of it is too hot, that is the very
    plain-song of it.
  • Pistol. The plain-song is most just: for humours do abound:
    Knocks go and come; God's vassals drop and die;
    And sword and shield, 1135
    In bloody field,
    Doth win immortal fame.
  • Boy. Would I were in an alehouse in London! I would give
    all my fame for a pot of ale and safety.
  • Pistol. And I: 1140
    If wishes would prevail with me,
    My purpose should not fail with me,
    But thither would I hie.
  • Boy. As duly, but not as truly,
    As bird doth sing on bough. 1145

[Enter FLUELLEN]

  • Fluellen. Up to the breach, you dogs! avaunt, you cullions!

[Driving them forward]

  • Pistol. Be merciful, great duke, to men of mould.
    Abate thy rage, abate thy manly rage, 1150
    Abate thy rage, great duke!
    Good bawcock, bate thy rage; use lenity, sweet chuck!
  • Nym. These be good humours! your honour wins bad humours.

[Exeunt all but Boy]

  • Boy. As young as I am, I have observed these three 1155
    swashers. I am boy to them all three: but all they
    three, though they would serve me, could not be man
    to me; for indeed three such antics do not amount to
    a man. For Bardolph, he is white-livered and
    red-faced; by the means whereof a' faces it out, but 1160
    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' 1165
    should be thought a coward: but his few bad words
    are matched with as few good deeds; for a' never
    broke any man's head but his own, and that was
    against a post when he was drunk. They will steal
    any thing, and call it purchase. Bardolph stole a 1170
    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 1175
    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: 1180
    their villany goes against my weak stomach, and
    therefore I must cast it up.

[Exit]

[Re-enter FLUELLEN, GOWER following]

  • Gower. Captain Fluellen, you must come presently to the 1185
    mines; the Duke of Gloucester would speak with you.
  • Fluellen. To the mines! tell you the duke, it is not so good
    to come to the mines; for, look you, the mines is
    not according to the disciplines of the war: the
    concavities of it is not sufficient; for, look you, 1190
    the athversary, you may discuss unto the duke, look
    you, is digt himself four yard under the
    countermines: by Cheshu, I think a' will plough up
    all, if there is not better directions.
  • Gower. The Duke of Gloucester, to whom the order of the 1195
    siege is given, is altogether directed by an
    Irishman, a very valiant gentleman, i' faith.
  • Fluellen. It is Captain Macmorris, is it not?
  • Fluellen. By Cheshu, he is an ass, as in the world: I will 1200
    verify as much in his beard: be 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]

  • Gower. Here a' comes; and the Scots captain, Captain Jamy, with him. 1205
  • Fluellen. Captain Jamy is a marvellous falourous gentleman,
    that is certain; and of great expedition and
    knowledge in th' aunchient wars, upon my particular
    knowledge of his directions: by Cheshu, he will
    maintain his argument as well as any military man in 1210
    the world, in the disciplines of the pristine wars
    of the Romans.
  • Jamy. I say gud-day, Captain Fluellen.
  • Fluellen. God-den to your worship, good Captain James.
  • Gower. How now, Captain Macmorris! have you quit the 1215
    mines? have the pioneers given o'er?
  • Macmorris. By Chrish, la! tish ill done: the work ish give
    over, the trompet sound the retreat. By my hand, I
    swear, and my father's soul, the work ish ill done;
    it ish give over: I would have blowed up the town, so 1220
    Chrish save me, la! in an hour: O, tish ill done,
    tish ill done; by my hand, tish ill done!
  • Fluellen. Captain Macmorris, I beseech you now, will you
    voutsafe me, look you, a few disputations with you,
    as partly touching or concerning the disciplines of 1225
    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. 1230
  • Jamy. It sall be vary gud, gud feith, gud captains bath:
    and I sall quit you with gud leve, as I may pick
    occasion; that sall I, marry.
  • Macmorris. It is no time to discourse, so Chrish save me: the
    day is hot, and the weather, and the wars, and the 1235
    king, and the dukes: it is no time to discourse. The
    town is beseeched, and the trumpet call us to the
    breach; and we talk, and, be Chrish, do nothing:
    'tis shame for us all: so God sa' me, 'tis shame to
    stand still; it is shame, by my hand: and there is 1240
    throats to be cut, and works to be done; and there
    ish nothing done, so Chrish sa' me, la!
  • Jamy. By the mess, ere theise eyes of mine take themselves
    to slomber, ay'll de gud service, or ay'll lig i'
    the grund for it; ay, or go to death; and ay'll pay 1245
    't as valourously as I may, that sall I suerly do,
    that is the breff and the long. Marry, I wad full
    fain hear some question 'tween you tway.
  • Fluellen. Captain Macmorris, I think, look you, under your
    correction, there is not many of your nation— 1250
  • Macmorris. Of my nation! What ish my nation? Ish a villain,
    and a bastard, and a knave, and a rascal. What ish
    my nation? Who talks of my nation?
  • Fluellen. Look you, if you take the matter otherwise than is
    meant, Captain Macmorris, peradventure I shall think 1255
    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. 1260
  • Macmorris. I do not know you so good a man as myself: so
    Chrish save me, I will cut off your head.
  • Gower. Gentlemen both, you will mistake each other.
  • Jamy. A! that's a foul fault.

[A parley sounded]

  • Gower. The town sounds a parley.
  • Fluellen. Captain Macmorris, when there is more better
    opportunity to be required, look you, I will be so
    bold as to tell you I know the disciplines of war;
    and there is an end. 1270

[Exeunt]

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Act III, Scene 3

The same. Before the gates.

      next scene .
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[The Governor and some Citizens on the walls; the English forces below. Enter KING HENRY and his train]

  • Henry V. How yet resolves the governor of the town?
    This is the latest parle we will admit;
    Therefore to our best mercy give yourselves; 1275
    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 1280
    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 1285
    Your fresh-fair virgins and your flowering 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? 1290
    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? 1295
    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, 1300
    Whiles yet my soldiers are in my command;
    Whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace
    O'erblows the filthy and contagious clouds
    Of heady murder, spoil and villany.
    If not, why, in a moment look to see 1305
    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, 1310
    Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confused
    Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry
    At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen.
    What say you? will you yield, and this avoid,
    Or, guilty in defence, be thus destroy'd? 1315
  • Governor of Harfleur. Our expectation hath this day an end:
    The Dauphin, whom of succors we entreated,
    Returns us that his powers are yet not ready
    To raise so great a siege. Therefore, great king,
    We yield our town and lives to thy soft mercy. 1320
    Enter our gates; dispose of us and ours;
    For we no longer are defensible.
  • Henry V. Open your gates. Come, uncle Exeter,
    Go you and enter Harfleur; there remain,
    And fortify it strongly 'gainst the French: 1325
    Use mercy to them all. For us, dear uncle,
    The winter coming on and sickness growing
    Upon our soldiers, we will retire to Calais.
    To-night in Harfleur we will be your guest;
    To-morrow for the march are we addrest. 1330

[Flourish. The King and his train enter the town]

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Act III, Scene 4

The FRENCH KING’s palace.

      next scene .
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[Enter KATHARINE and ALICE]

  • Katharine. Alice, tu as ete en Angleterre, et tu parles bien le langage.
  • Katharine. Je te prie, m'enseignez: il faut que j'apprenne a 1335
    parler. Comment appelez-vous la main en Anglois?
  • Alice. La main? elle est appelee de hand.
  • Alice. Les doigts? ma foi, j'oublie les doigts; mais je me
    souviendrai. Les doigts? je pense qu'ils sont 1340
    appeles de fingres; oui, de fingres.
  • Katharine. La main, de hand; les doigts, de fingres. Je pense
    que je suis le bon ecolier; j'ai gagne deux mots
    d'Anglois vitement. Comment appelez-vous les ongles?
  • Alice. Les ongles? nous les appelons de nails. 1345
  • Katharine. De nails. Ecoutez; dites-moi, si je parle bien: de
    hand, de fingres, et de nails.
  • Alice. C'est bien dit, madame; il est fort bon Anglois.
  • Katharine. Dites-moi l'Anglois pour le bras.
  • Alice. De arm, madame. 1350
  • Katharine. De elbow. Je m'en fais la repetition de tous les
    mots que vous m'avez appris des a present.
  • Alice. Il est trop difficile, madame, comme je pense. 1355
  • Katharine. Excusez-moi, Alice; ecoutez: de hand, de fingres,
    de nails, de arma, de bilbow.
  • Alice. De elbow, madame.
  • Katharine. O Seigneur Dieu, je m'en oublie! de elbow. Comment
    appelez-vous le col? 1360
  • Katharine. De sin. Le col, de nick; de menton, de sin.
  • Alice. Oui. Sauf votre honneur, en verite, vous prononcez 1365
    les mots aussi droit que les natifs d'Angleterre.
  • Katharine. Je ne doute point d'apprendre, par la grace de Dieu,
    et en peu de temps.
  • Alice. N'avez vous pas deja oublie ce que je vous ai enseigne?
  • Katharine. Non, je reciterai a vous promptement: de hand, de 1370
    fingres, de mails—
  • Alice. De nails, madame.
  • Alice. Sauf votre honneur, de elbow.
  • Katharine. Ainsi dis-je; de elbow, de nick, et de sin. Comment 1375
    appelez-vous le pied et la robe?
  • Alice. De foot, madame; et de coun.
  • Katharine. De foot et de coun! O Seigneur Dieu! ce sont mots
    de son mauvais, corruptible, gros, et impudique, et
    non pour les dames d'honneur d'user: je ne voudrais 1380
    prononcer ces mots devant les seigneurs de France
    pour tout le monde. Foh! le foot et le coun!
    Neanmoins, je reciterai une autre fois ma lecon
    ensemble: de hand, de fingres, de nails, de arm, de
    elbow, de nick, de sin, de foot, de coun. 1385
  • Alice. Excellent, madame!
  • Katharine. C'est assez pour une fois: allons-nous a diner.

[Exeunt]

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Act III, Scene 5

The same.

      next scene .
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[Enter the KING OF FRANCE, the DAUPHIN, the DUKE oF] [p]BOURBON, the Constable Of France, and others]

  • Constable of France. And if he be not fought withal, my lord,
    Let us not live in France; let us quit all
    And give our vineyards to a barbarous people.
  • Lewis the Dauphin. O Dieu vivant! shall a few sprays of us, 1395
    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?
  • Duke of Bourbon. Normans, but bastard Normans, Norman bastards! 1400
    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 of France. Dieu de batailles! where have they this mettle? 1405
    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? 1410
    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! 1415
    Poor we may call them in their native lords.
  • Lewis the Dauphin. By faith and honour,
    Our madams mock at us, and plainly say
    Our mettle is bred out and they will give
    Their bodies to the lust of English youth 1420
    To new-store France with bastard warriors.
  • Duke of Bourbon. They bid us to the English dancing-schools,
    And teach lavoltas high and swift corantos;
    Saying our grace is only in our heels,
    And that we are most lofty runaways. 1425
  • King of France. Where is Montjoy the herald? speed him hence:
    Let him greet England with our sharp defiance.
    Up, princes! and, with spirit of honour edged
    More sharper than your swords, hie to the field:
    Charles Delabreth, high constable of France; 1430
    You Dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and of Berri,
    Alencon, Brabant, Bar, and Burgundy;
    Jaques Chatillon, Rambures, Vaudemont,
    Beaumont, Grandpre, Roussi, and Fauconberg,
    Foix, Lestrale, Bouciqualt, and Charolois; 1435
    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 1440
    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. 1445
  • Constable of France. This becomes the great.
    Sorry am I his numbers are so few,
    His soldiers sick and famish'd in their march,
    For I am sure, when he shall see our army,
    He'll drop his heart into the sink of fear 1450
    And for achievement offer us his ransom.
  • King of France. Therefore, lord constable, haste on Montjoy.
    And let him say to England that we send
    To know what willing ransom he will give.
    Prince Dauphin, you shall stay with us in Rouen. 1455
  • King of France. Be patient, for you shall remain with us.
    Now forth, lord constable and princes all,
    And quickly bring us word of England's fall.

[Exeunt]

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Act III, Scene 6

The English camp in Picardy.

      next scene .
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[Enter GOWER and FLUELLEN, meeting]

  • Gower. How now, Captain Fluellen! come you from the bridge?
  • Fluellen. I assure you, there is very excellent services
    committed at the bridge.
  • Gower. Is the Duke of Exeter safe? 1465
  • Fluellen. The Duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as Agamemnon;
    and a man that I love and honour with my soul, and my
    heart, and my duty, and my life, and my living, and
    my uttermost power: he is not-God be praised and
    blessed!—any hurt in the world; but keeps the 1470
    bridge most valiantly, with excellent discipline.
    There is an aunchient lieutenant there at the
    pridge, I think in my very conscience he is as
    valiant a man as Mark Antony; and he is a man of no
    estimation in the world; but did see him do as 1475
    gallant service.
  • Gower. What do you call him?
  • Fluellen. He is called Aunchient Pistol.

[Enter PISTOL]

  • Pistol. Captain, I thee beseech to do me favours:
    The Duke of Exeter doth love thee well.
  • Fluellen. Ay, I praise God; and I have merited some love at
    his hands. 1485
  • Pistol. Bardolph, a soldier, firm and sound of heart,
    And of buxom valour, hath, by cruel fate,
    And giddy Fortune's furious fickle wheel,
    That goddess blind,
    That stands upon the rolling restless stone— 1490
  • Fluellen. By your patience, Aunchient Pistol. Fortune is
    painted blind, with a muffler afore her eyes, to
    signify to you that Fortune is blind; and she is
    painted also with a wheel, to signify to you, which
    is the moral of it, that she is turning, and 1495
    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. 1500
  • Pistol. Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him;
    For he hath stolen a pax, and hanged must a' be:
    A damned death!
    Let gallows gape for dog; let man go free
    And let not hemp his wind-pipe suffocate: 1505
    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: 1510
    Speak, captain, for his life, and I will thee requite.
  • Fluellen. Aunchient Pistol, I do partly understand your meaning.
  • Pistol. Why then, rejoice therefore.
  • Fluellen. Certainly, aunchient, it is not a thing to rejoice
    at: for if, look you, he were my brother, I would 1515
    desire the duke to use his good pleasure, and put
    him to execution; for discipline ought to be used.
  • Pistol. Die and be damn'd! and figo for thy friendship!
  • Pistol. The fig of Spain! 1520

[Exit]

  • Gower. Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal; I
    remember him now; a bawd, a cutpurse.
  • Fluellen. I'll assure you, a' uttered as brave words at the 1525
    bridge as you shall see in a summer's day. But it
    is very well; what he has spoke to me, that is well,
    I warrant you, when time is serve.
  • Gower. Why, 'tis a gull, a fool, a rogue, that now and then
    goes to the wars, to grace himself at his return 1530
    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 1535
    shot, who disgraced, what terms the enemy stood on;
    and this they con perfectly in the phrase of war,
    which they trick up with new-tuned oaths: and what
    a beard of the general's cut and a horrid suit of
    the camp will do among foaming bottles and 1540
    ale-washed wits, is wonderful to be thought on. But
    you must learn to know such slanders of the age, or
    else you may be marvellously mistook.
  • Fluellen. I tell you what, Captain Gower; I do perceive he is
    not the man that he would gladly make show to the 1545
    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. 1550
    [Drum and colours. Enter KING HENRY, GLOUCESTER, and Soldiers]
    God pless your majesty!
  • Henry V. How now, Fluellen! camest thou from the bridge?
  • Fluellen. Ay, so please your majesty. The Duke of Exeter has
    very gallantly maintained the pridge: the French is 1555
    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 1560
    prave man.
  • Henry V. What men have you lost, Fluellen?
  • Fluellen. The perdition of th' athversary hath been very
    great, reasonable great: marry, for my part, I
    think the duke hath lost never a man, but one that 1565
    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; 1570
    but his nose is executed and his fire's out.
  • Henry V. We would have all such offenders so cut off: and we
    give express charge, that in our marches through the
    country, there be nothing compelled from the
    villages, nothing taken but paid for, none of the 1575
    French upbraided or abused in disdainful language;
    for when lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the
    gentler gamester is the soonest winner.

[Tucket. Enter MONTJOY]

  • Montjoy. You know me by my habit. 1580
  • Henry V. Well then I know thee: what shall I know of thee?
  • Montjoy. Thus says my king: Say thou to Harry of England:
    Though we seemed dead, we did but sleep: advantage 1585
    is a better soldier than rashness. Tell him we
    could have rebuked him at Harfleur, but that we
    thought not good to bruise an injury till it were
    full ripe: now we speak upon our cue, and our voice
    is imperial: England shall repent his folly, see 1590
    his weakness, and admire our sufferance. Bid him
    therefore consider of his ransom; which must
    proportion the losses we have borne, the subjects we
    have lost, the disgrace we have digested; which in
    weight to re-answer, his pettiness would bow under. 1595
    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 1600
    tell him, for conclusion, he hath betrayed his
    followers, whose condemnation is pronounced. So far
    my king and master; so much my office.
  • Henry V. What is thy name? I know thy quality.
  • Henry V. Thou dost thy office fairly. Turn thee back.
    And tell thy king I do not seek him now;
    But could be willing to march on to Calais
    Without impeachment: for, to say the sooth,
    Though 'tis no wisdom to confess so much 1610
    Unto an enemy of craft and vantage,
    My people are with sickness much enfeebled,
    My numbers lessened, and those few I have
    Almost no better than so many French;
    Who when they were in health, I tell thee, herald, 1615
    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; 1620
    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. 1625
    Go bid thy master well advise himself:
    If we may pass, we will; if we be hinder'd,
    We shall your tawny ground with your red blood
    Discolour: and so Montjoy, fare you well.
    The sum of all our answer is but this: 1630
    We would not seek a battle, as we are;
    Nor, as we are, we say we will not shun it:
    So tell your master.
  • Montjoy. I shall deliver so. Thanks to your highness.

[Exit]

  • Henry V. We are in God's hand, brother, not in theirs.
    March to the bridge; it now draws toward night:
    Beyond the river we'll encamp ourselves,
    And on to-morrow, bid them march away. 1640

[Exeunt]

---
. previous scene      

Act III, Scene 7

The French camp, near Agincourt:

       
---

[Enter the Constable of France, the LORD RAMBURES,] [p]ORLEANS, DAUPHIN, with others]

  • Duke of Orleans. You have an excellent armour; but let my horse have his due. 1645
  • Lewis the Dauphin. My lord of Orleans, and my lord high constable, you
    talk of horse and armour?
  • Duke of Orleans. You are as well provided of both as any prince in the world. 1650
  • Lewis the Dauphin. What a long night is this! I will not change my
    horse with any that treads but on four pasterns.
    Ca, ha! he bounds from the earth, as if his
    entrails were hairs; le cheval volant, the Pegasus,
    chez les narines de feu! When I bestride him, I 1655
    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.
  • Lewis the Dauphin. And of the heat of the ginger. It is a beast for 1660
    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. 1665
  • Lewis the Dauphin. It is the prince of palfreys; his neigh is like the
    bidding of a monarch and his countenance enforces homage.
  • Lewis the Dauphin. Nay, the man hath no wit that cannot, from the 1670
    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 1675
    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,'— 1680
  • Lewis the Dauphin. Then did they imitate that which I composed to my
    courser, for my horse is my mistress.
  • Lewis the Dauphin. Me well; which is the prescript praise and 1685
    perfection of a good and particular mistress.
  • Lewis the Dauphin. O then belike she was old and gentle; and you rode,
    like a kern of Ireland, your French hose off, and in
    your straight strossers.
  • Lewis the Dauphin. Be warned by me, then: they that ride so and ride 1695
    not warily, fall into foul bogs. I had rather have
    my horse to my mistress.
  • Lewis the Dauphin. 'Le chien est retourne a son propre vomissement, et
    la truie lavee au bourbier;' thou makest use of any thing.
  • Constable of France. Yet do I not use my horse for my mistress, or any
    such proverb so little kin to the purpose. 1705
  • Rambures. My lord constable, the armour that I saw in your tent
    to-night, are those stars or suns upon it?
  • Lewis the Dauphin. That may be, for you bear a many superfluously, and
    'twere more honour some were away.
  • Constable of France. Even as your horse bears your praises; who would
    trot as well, were some of your brags dismounted.
  • Lewis the Dauphin. Would I were able to load him with his desert! Will 1715
    it never be day? I will trot to-morrow a mile, and
    my way shall be paved with English faces.
  • Constable of France. I will not say so, for fear I should be faced out of
    my way: but I would it were morning; for I would
    fain be about the ears of the English. 1720
  • Rambures. Who will go to hazard with me for twenty prisoners?

[Exit]

  • Constable of France. By my faith, sir, but it is; never any body saw it
    but his lackey: 'tis a hooded valour; and when it
    appears, it will bate.
  • Constable of France. Well placed: there stands your friend for the
    devil: have at the very eye of that proverb with 'A
    pox of the devil.'
  • Duke of Orleans. You are the better at proverbs, by how much 'A 1750
    fool's bolt is soon shot.'

[Enter a Messenger]

  • Messenger. My lord high constable, the English lie within 1755
    fifteen hundred paces of your tents.
  • Constable of France. A valiant and most expert gentleman. Would it were
    day! Alas, poor Harry of England! he longs not for 1760
    the dawning as we do.
  • Duke of Orleans. What a wretched and peevish fellow is this king of
    England, to mope with his fat-brained followers so
    far out of his knowledge!
  • Duke of Orleans. That they lack; for if their heads had any
    intellectual armour, they could never wear such heavy
    head-pieces.
  • Rambures. That island of England breeds very valiant
    creatures; their mastiffs are of unmatchable courage. 1770
  • Duke of Orleans. Foolish curs, that run winking into the mouth of a
    Russian bear and have their heads crushed like
    rotten apples! You may as well say, that's a
    valiant flea that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion.
  • Constable of France. Just, just; and the men do sympathize with the 1775
    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.
  • Constable of France. Then shall we find to-morrow they have only stomachs
    to eat and none to fight. Now is it time to arm:
    come, shall we about it?
  • Duke of Orleans. It is now two o'clock: but, let me see, by ten
    We shall have each a hundred Englishmen. 1785

[Exeunt]