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Director, Folger Shakespeare Library
Until now, with the release of the Folger Digital Texts, readers in search of a free online text of Shakespeare’s plays had to be content primarily with using the Moby™ Text, which reproduces a late-nineteenth century version of the plays. What is the difference? Many ordinary readers assume that there is a single text for the plays: what Shakespeare wrote. But Shakespeare’s plays were not published the way modern novels or plays are published today: as a single, authoritative text. In some cases, the plays have come down to us in multiple published versions, represented by various Quartos (Qq) and by the great collection put together by his colleagues in 1623, called the First Folio (F). There are, for example, three very different versions of Hamlet, two of King Lear, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, and others. Editors choose which version to use as their base text, and then amend that text with words, lines or speech prefixes from the other versions that, in their judgment, make for a better or more accurate text.
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”), half-square brackets (for example, from Henry V: “With
blood
and sword and fire to win your right,”), or angle brackets (for example, from Hamlet: “O farewell, honest
soldier.
Who hath relieved/you?”). At any point in the text, you can hover your cursor over a bracket for more information.
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Henry V begins at the English court, where the young king is persuaded that he has a claim to the throne of France. When the French dauphin, or heir apparent, insults him by sending him tennis balls, Henry launches his military expedition to France.
Before departing, Henry learns that three of his nobles have betrayed him, and he orders their execution. Meanwhile, his old tavern companions grieve over Sir John Falstaff’s death, and then leave for France.
Henry and his army lay siege to the French town of Harfleur, which surrenders. The Princess of France, Katherine, starts to learn English, but the French nobles are sure of success against Henry. Instead, Henry’s forces win a great victory at Agincourt.
After a brief return to England, Henry comes back to France to claim his rights and to set up his marriage to Princess Katherine. The play’s epilogue points out that Henry will die young and that England will as a result lose most of his French territories.
PROLOGUE
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 ,
Leashed in like hounds , should famine , sword , and
fire
Crouch for employment . But pardon , gentles all ,
The flat unraisèd spirits that hath dared
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 crookèd figure may
Attest in little place a million ,
And let us , ciphers to this great account ,
On your imaginary forces work .
Suppose within the girdle of these walls
Are now confined two mighty monarchies ,
Whose high uprearèd and abutting fronts
[9] PROLOGUE 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 th’ accomplishment of many years
Into an hourglass ; 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 .
ACT 1
Scene 1
Which in th’ 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 .
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 valued thus :
‘As much as would maintain , to the King’s honor ,
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 besides ,
A thousand pounds by th’ year .’ Thus runs the bill .
[13]ACT 1. SC. 1
all .
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’ envelop 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 willfulness
So soon did lose his seat , and all at once ,
As in this king .
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 ,
[15] ACT 1. SC. 1 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 .
And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best
Neighbored 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 .
And therefore we must needs admit the means
How things are perfected .
How now for mitigation of this bill
Urged by the Commons ? Doth his Majesty
Incline to it or no ?
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
[17] ACT 1. SC. 2 Than ever at one time the clergy yet
Did to his predecessors part withal .
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 .
Craved audience . And the hour , I think , is come
To give him hearing . Is it four o’clock ?
Which I could with a ready guess declare
Before the Frenchman speak a word of it .
Scene 2
Gloucester , Bedford , Clarence , Warwick , Westmoreland ,
and Exeter , with other Attendants .
[19]ACT 1. SC. 2
Before we hear him , of some things of weight
That task our thoughts concerning us and France .
And make you long become it .
My learnèd 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 colors 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
[21] ACT 1. SC. 2 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 .
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 subdued the
Saxons ,
There left behind and settled certain French ,
Who , holding in disdain the German women
For some dishonest manners of their life ,
Established 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 called Meissen .
Then doth it well appear the Salic law
Was not devisèd 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 supposed the founder of this law ,
Who died within the year of our redemption
Four hundred twenty-six ; and Charles the Great
[23] ACT 1. SC. 2 Subdued the Saxons and did seat the French
Beyond the river Sala in the year
Eight hundred five . Besides , their writers say ,
King Pepin , which deposèd 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 usurped 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 ,
Conveyed himself as th’ heir to th’ Lady Lingare ,
Daughter to Charlemagne , 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 reunited 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
Usurped from you and your progenitors .
[25]ACT 1. SC. 2
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 played 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 !
And with your puissant arm renew their feats .
You are their heir , you sit upon their throne ,
The blood and courage that renownèd 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 .
Do all expect that you should rouse yourself
As did the former lions of your blood .
might ;
So hath your Highness . Never king of England
Had nobles richer , and more loyal subjects ,
[27] ACT 1. SC. 2 Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England
And lie pavilioned in the fields of France .
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 .
But lay down our proportions to defend
Against the Scot , who will make road upon us
With all advantages .
Shall be a wall sufficient to defend
Our inland from the pilfering borderers .
But fear the main intendment of the Scot ,
Who hath been still a giddy neighbor to us .
For you shall read that my great-grandfather
Never went with his forces into France
But that the Scot on his unfurnished kingdom
Came pouring like the tide into a breach
With ample and brim fullness of his force ,
Galling the gleanèd land with hot assays ,
Girding with grievous siege castles and towns ,
That England , being empty of defense ,
Hath shook and trembled at th’ ill neighborhood .
liege ,
For hear her but exampled by herself :
When all her chivalry hath been in France
[29] ACT 1. SC. 2 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 wrack and sumless treasuries .
‘ 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 ’tame and havoc more than she can eat .
Yet that is but a crushed necessity ,
Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries
And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves .
While that the armèd hand doth fight abroad ,
Th’ advisèd 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 .
The state of man in divers functions ,
Setting endeavor in continual motion ,
To which is fixèd as an aim or butt
Obedience ; for so work the honeybees ,
Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom .
[31] ACT 1. SC. 2 They have a king and officers of sorts ,
Where some like magistrates correct at home ,
Others like merchants venture trade abroad ,
Others like soldiers armèd 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 loosèd 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 center ,
So may 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 .
Now are we well resolved , and by God’s help
And yours , the noble sinews of our power ,
[33] ACT 1. SC. 2 France being ours , we’ll bend it to our awe
Or break it all to pieces . Or there we’ll sit ,
Ruling in large and ample empery
O’er France and all her almost kingly dukedoms ,
Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn ,
Tombless , with no remembrance over them .
Either our history shall with full mouth
Speak freely of our acts , or else our grave ,
Like Turkish mute , shall have a tongueless mouth ,
Not worshiped with a waxen epitaph .
Now are we well prepared to know the pleasure
Of our fair cousin Dauphin , for we hear
Your greeting is from him , not from the King .
Freely to render what we have in charge ,
Or shall we sparingly show you far off
The Dauphin’s meaning and our embassy ?
Unto whose grace our passion is as subject
As is our wretches fettered in our prisons .
Therefore with frank and with uncurbèd plainness
Tell us the Dauphin’s mind .
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 savor too much of your youth
And bids you be advised there’s naught in France
That can be with a nimble galliard won ;
You cannot revel into dukedoms there .
He therefore sends you , meeter for your spirit ,
[35] ACT 1. SC. 2 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 .
my liege .
His present and your pains we thank you for .
When we have matched 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 disturbed
With chases . 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 valued this poor seat of England ,
And therefore , living hence , did give ourself
To barbarous license , 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 turned his balls to gun-stones , and his soul
Shall stand sore chargèd for the wasteful vengeance
That shall fly with them ; for many a thousand
widows
Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands ,
[37] ACT 1. SC. 2 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-hallowed cause .
So get you hence in peace . And tell the Dauphin
His jest will savor but of shallow wit
When thousands weep more than did laugh at it . —
Convey them with safe conduct . — Fare you well .
Therefore , my lords , omit no happy hour
That may give furth’rance 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 .
[41]
ACT 2
Enter Chorus . C …
And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies ;
Now thrive the armorers , and honor’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 wingèd heels , as English Mercurys .
For now sits Expectation in the air
And hides a sword , from hilts unto the point ,
With crowns imperial , crowns , and coronets
Promised to Harry and his followers .
The French , advised 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 might’st thou do , that honor 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 ,
[43] ACT 2. SC. 1 Henry , Lord Scroop of Masham , and the third ,
Sir Thomas Grey , knight , of Northumberland —
Have , for the gilt of France ( O guilt indeed ! ) ,
Confirmed 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
Th’ 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 .
Scene 1
yet ?
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 .
[45] ACT 2. SC. 1 friends , and we’ll be all three sworn brothers to
France . Let ’t be so , good Corporal Nym .
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 .
Nell Quickly , and certainly she did you wrong , for
you were troth-plight to her .
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 .
Good corporal , be patient here . — How now , mine
host Pistol ?
hand , I swear I scorn the term , nor shall my Nell
keep lodgers .
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 .
O well-a-day , Lady ! If he be not hewn now , we shall
see willful adultery and murder committed .
here .
cur of Iceland !
[47]ACT 2. SC. 1
up your sword .
solus .
in thy most marvelous 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 .
have an humor 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 humor of it .
The grave doth gape , and doting death is near .
Therefore exhale .
the first stroke , I’ll run him up to the hilts , as I am a
soldier .
sheathe their swords .
Give me thy fist , thy forefoot to me give . Thy spirits
are most tall .
in fair terms , that is the humor of it .
again . O hound of Crete , think’st thou my spouse to
get ? No , to the spital go , and from the powd’ring tub
of infamy fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid’s kind ,
Doll Tearsheet she by name , and her espouse . I
[49] ACT 2. SC. 1 have , and I will hold , the quondam Quickly for the
only she : and pauca , there’s enough too ! Go to .
and your 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 .
one of these days . The King has killed his heart .
Good husband , come home presently .
must to France together . Why the devil should we
keep knives to cut one another’s throats ?
betting ?
makes the first thrust , I’ll kill him . By this sword , I
will .
oaths must have their course .
friends ; an thou wilt not , why then be enemies with
me too . Prithee , put up .
pay , and liquor likewise will I give to thee , and
[51] ACT 2. SC. 2 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 .
to Sir John . Ah , poor heart , he is so shaked of a
burning quotidian-tertian that it is most lamentable
to behold . Sweet men , come to him .
that’s the even of it .
fracted and corroborate .
he passes some humors and careers .
will live .
Scene 2
As if allegiance in their bosoms sat
Crownèd with faith and constant loyalty .
[53]ACT 2. SC. 2
By interception which they dream not of .
Whom he hath dulled and cloyed with gracious
favors —
That he should , for a foreign purse , so sell
His sovereign’s life to death and treachery !
Scroop , Cambridge , and Grey , with Attendants .
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 ?
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 .
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 .
[55] ACT 2. SC. 2 Have steeped their galls in honey , and do serve you
With hearts create of duty and of zeal .
And shall forget the office of our hand
Sooner than quittance of desert and merit
According to the weight and worthiness .
And labor shall refresh itself with hope
To do your Grace incessant services .
Enlarge the man committed yesterday
That railed against our person . We consider
It was excess of wine that set him on ,
And on his more advice we pardon him .
Let him be punished , sovereign , lest example
Breed , by his sufferance , more of such a kind .
After the taste of much correction .
Are heavy orisons ’gainst this poor wretch .
If little faults proceeding on distemper
Shall not be winked at , how shall we stretch our eye
When capital crimes , chewed , swallowed , and
digested ,
Appear before us ? We’ll yet enlarge that man ,
[57] ACT 2. SC. 2 Though Cambridge , Scroop , and Grey , in their dear
care
And tender preservation of our person ,
Would have him punished . And now to our French
causes .
Who are the late commissioners ?
Your Highness bade me ask for it today .
There yours , Lord Scroop of Masham . — And , sir
knight ,
Grey of Northumberland , this same is yours . —
Read them , and know I know your worthiness . —
My Lord of Westmoreland and uncle Exeter ,
We will aboard tonight . — Why how now , gentlemen ?
What see you in those papers , that you lose
So much complexion ? — Look you , how they change .
Their cheeks are paper . — Why , what read you there
That have so cowarded and chased your blood
Out of appearance ?
And do submit me to your Highness’ mercy .
By your own counsel is suppressed and killed .
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
[59] ACT 2. SC. 2 To furnish him with all appurtenants
Belonging to his honor , and this man
Hath , for a few light crowns , lightly conspired
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 coined me into gold ,
Wouldst thou have practiced on me for thy use —
May it be possible that foreign hire
Could out of thee extract one spark of evil
That might annoy my finger ? ’Tis so strange
That , though the truth of it stands off as gross
As black and white , my eye will scarcely see it .
Treason and murder ever kept together ,
As two yoke-devils sworn to either’s purpose ,
Working so grossly in a natural cause
That admiration did not whoop at them .
But thou , ’gainst all proportion , didst bring in
Wonder to wait on treason and on murder ,
And whatsoever cunning fiend it was
That wrought upon thee so preposterously
Hath got the voice in hell for excellence .
All other devils that suggest by treasons
Do botch and bungle up damnation
With patches , colors , and with forms being fetched
From glist’ring semblances of piety ;
But he that tempered 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 gulled thee thus
Should with his lion gait walk the whole world ,
[61] ACT 2. SC. 2 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 learnèd ?
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 ,
Garnished and decked in modest complement ,
Not working with the eye without the ear ,
And but in purgèd judgment trusting neither ?
Such and so finely bolted didst thou seem .
And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot
To mark the full-fraught man and best endued
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 .
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 .
And I repent my fault more than my death ,
Which I beseech your Highness to forgive ,
Although my body pay the price of it .
Although I did admit it as a motive
The sooner to effect what I intended ;
[63] ACT 2. SC. 2 But God be thankèd for prevention ,
Which I in sufferance heartily will rejoice ,
Beseeching God and you to pardon me .
At the discovery of most dangerous treason
Than I do at this hour joy o’er myself ,
Prevented from a damnèd enterprise .
My fault , but not my body , pardon , sovereign .
You have conspired against our royal person ,
Joined with an enemy proclaimed , 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 offenses . — Bear them hence .
Now , lords , for France , the enterprise whereof
Shall be to you as us , like glorious .
We doubt not of a fair and lucky war ,
Since God so graciously hath brought to light
This dangerous treason lurking in our way
To hinder our beginnings . We doubt not now
[65] ACT 2. SC. 3 But every rub is smoothèd on our way .
Then forth , dear countrymen . Let us deliver
Our puissance into the hand of God ,
Putting it straight in expedition .
Cheerly to sea . The signs of war advance .
No king of England if not king of France .
Scene 3
thee to Staines .
be blithe . — Nym , rouse thy vaunting veins . — Boy ,
bristle thy courage up . For Falstaff , he is dead , and
we must earn therefore .
is , either in heaven or in hell .
bosom , if ever man went to Arthur’s bosom . He
made a finer end , and went away an it had been any
christom child . He parted ev’n just between twelve
and one , ev’n at the turning o’ th’ tide ; for after I saw
him fumble with the sheets and play with flowers
and smile upon his finger’s end , I knew there was
but one way , for his nose was as sharp as a pen and
he talked of green fields . ‘How now , Sir John ?’
quoth I . ‘What , man , be o’ good cheer !’ So he cried
out ‘God , God , God !’ three or four times . Now I , to
comfort him , bid him he should not think of God ; I
hoped there was no need to trouble himself with
any such thoughts yet . So he 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
[67] ACT 2. SC. 3 felt to his knees , and so upward and upward , and
all was as cold as any stone .
incarnate .
color he never liked .
women .
but then he was rheumatic and talked of the Whore
of Babylon .
Bardolph’s nose , and he said it was a black soul
burning in hell ?
fire . That’s all the riches I got in his service .
Southampton .
They kiss . 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 Holdfast is the only dog , my duck .
Therefore , Caveto be thy counselor . 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 .
[69]ACT 2. SC. 4
close , I thee command .
Scene 4
of Berri and Brittany , the Constable , and others .
And more than carefully it us concerns
To answer royally in our defenses .
Therefore the Dukes of Berri and of Brittany ,
Of Brabant and of Orléans , shall make forth ,
And you , Prince Dauphin , with all swift dispatch ,
To line and new-repair our towns of war
With men of courage and with means defendant .
For England his approaches makes as fierce
As waters to the sucking of a gulf .
It fits us then to be as provident
As fear may teach us out of late examples
Left by the fatal and neglected English
Upon our fields .
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 defenses , musters , preparations
Should be maintained , 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
[71] ACT 2. SC. 4 Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance .
For , my good liege , she is so idly kinged ,
Her scepter so fantastically borne
By a vain , giddy , shallow , humorous youth ,
That fear attends her not .
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 councillors ,
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 .
But though we think it so , it is no matter .
In cases of defense , ’tis best to weigh
The enemy more mighty than he seems .
So the proportions of defense are filled ,
Which of a weak and niggardly projection
Doth , like a miser , spoil his coat with scanting
A little cloth .
And , princes , look you strongly arm to meet him .
The kindred of him hath been fleshed 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 captived by the hand
Of that black name , Edward , Black Prince of
Wales ,
[73] ACT 2. SC. 4 Whiles that his mountain sire , on mountain standing
Up in the air , crowned with the golden sun ,
Saw his heroical seed and smiled to see him
Mangle the work of nature and deface
The patterns that by God and by French fathers
Had twenty years been made . This is a stem
Of that victorious stock , and let us fear
The native mightiness and fate of him .
Do crave admittance to your Majesty .
them .
You see this chase is hotly followed , friends .
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 .
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
[75] ACT 2. SC. 4 And all wide-stretchèd honors 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
Picked from the wormholes of long-vanished days
Nor from the dust of old oblivion raked ,
He sends you this most memorable line ,
In every branch truly demonstrative ,
Willing you overlook this pedigree ,
And when you find him evenly derived
From his most famed of famous ancestors ,
Edward the Third , he bids you then resign
Your crown and kingdom , indirectly held
From him , the native and true challenger .
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 privèd maidens’
groans ,
For husbands , fathers , and betrothèd 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 .
[77] ACT 2. SC. 4 Tomorrow shall you bear our full intent
Back to our brother of England .
I stand here for him . What to him from England ?
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 .
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 .
Were it the mistress court of mighty Europe .
And be assured you’ll find a difference ,
As we his subjects have in wonder found ,
Between the promise of his greener days
And these he masters now . Now he weighs time
Even to the utmost grain . That you shall read
In your own losses , if he stay in France .
[79] ACT 2. SC. 4 Come here himself to question our delay ,
For he is footed in this land already .
A night is but small breath and little pause
To answer matters of this consequence .
[83]
ACT 3
Enter Chorus . C …
In motion of no less celerity
Than that of thought . Suppose that you have seen
The well-appointed king at Dover 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 , shipboys climbing .
Hear the shrill whistle , which doth order give
To sounds confused . Behold the threaden sails ,
Borne with th’ invisible and creeping wind ,
Draw the huge bottoms through the furrowed sea ,
Breasting the lofty surge . O , do but think
You stand upon the rivage and behold
A city on th’ 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 arrived to pith and puissance ,
For who is he whose chin is but enriched
With one appearing hair that will not follow
[85] ACT 3. SC. 1 These culled 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 th’ Ambassador from the French comes
back ,
Tells Harry that the King doth offer him
Katherine 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 .
Scene 1
Gloucester . Alarum . Enter Soldiers with scaling
ladders at Harfleur .
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-favored 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 doth a gallèd rock
[87] ACT 3. SC. 2 O’erhang and jutty his confounded base
Swilled with the wild and wasteful ocean .
Now set the teeth , and stretch the nostril wide ,
Hold hard the breath , and bend up every spirit
To his full height . On , on , you noblest English ,
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof ,
Fathers that , like so many Alexanders ,
Have in these parts from morn till even fought ,
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument .
Dishonor not your mothers . Now attest
That those whom you called 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 luster 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 !’
Scene 2
breach !
and , for mine own part , I have not a case of lives .
The humor of it is too hot ; that is the very plainsong
of it .
[89]ACT 3. SC. 2
abound .
Knocks go and come . God’s vassals drop and die ,
In bloody field ,
Doth win immortal fame .
give all my fame for a pot of ale , and safety .
My purpose should not fail with me ,
But thither would I hie .
But not as truly ,
As bird doth sing on bough .
thy rage , abate thy manly rage , abate thy rage , great
duke . Good bawcock , ’bate thy rage . Use lenity ,
sweet chuck .
wins bad humors .
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 he faces it out
but fights not ; for Pistol , he hath a killing tongue
and a quiet sword , by the means whereof he breaks
words and keeps whole weapons ; for Nym , he hath
heard that men of few words are the best men , and
[91] ACT 3. SC. 2 therefore he scorns to say his prayers , lest he should
be thought a coward , but his few bad words are
matched with as few good deeds , for he 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 halfpence .
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 .
the mines ; the Duke of Gloucester would speak
with you .
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 , th’
athversary , you may discuss unto the Duke , look
you , is digt himself four yard under the countermines .
By Cheshu , I think he will plow up all if
there is not better directions .
the siege is given , is altogether directed by an
Irishman , a very valiant gentleman , i’ faith .
[93]ACT 3. SC. 2
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 .
Jamy , with him .
that is certain , and of great expedition and
knowledge in th’ aunchient wars , upon my particular
knowledge of his directions . By Cheshu , he will
maintain his argument as well as any military man
in the world in the disciplines of the pristine wars
of the Romans .
James .
the mines ? Have the pioners given o’er ?
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 .
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 .
[95] ACT 3. SC. 2 and I sall quit you with gud leve , as I may pick
occasion , that sall I , marry .
me . The day is hot , and the weather , and the wars ,
and the King , and the dukes . It is no time to
discourse . The town is beseeched . An 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 Christ sa’ me , la .
to slomber , ay’ll de gud service , or I’ll lig i’
th’ 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 .
your correction , there is not many of your
nation —
villain and a basterd and a knave and a rascal . What
ish my nation ? Who talks of my nation ?
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 .
myself . So Chrish save me , I will cut off your head .
[97]ACT 3. SC. 3
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 .
Scene 3
before the gates .
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 batt’ry once again ,
I will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur
Till in her ashes she lie burièd .
The gates of mercy shall be all shut up ,
And the fleshed 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 ,
Arrayed in flames like to the prince of fiends ,
Do with his smirched complexion all fell feats
Enlinked 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
[99] ACT 3. SC. 3 Upon th’ enragèd 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
Desire the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters ,
Your fathers taken by the silver beards
And their most reverend heads dashed to the walls ,
Your naked infants spitted upon pikes
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 defense , be thus destroyed ?
The Dauphin , whom of succors we entreated ,
Returns us that his powers are yet not ready
To raise so great a siege . Therefore , great king ,
We yield our town and lives to thy soft mercy .
Enter our gates , dispose of us and ours ,
For we no longer are defensible .
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 .
[101] ACT 3. SC. 4 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 addressed .
Scene 4
bien le langage .
à parler . Comment appelez-vous ‘la main’ en
anglais ?
me souviendrai . Les doigts ? Je pense qu’ils sont
appelés ‘de fingres’ ; oui , de fingres .
Je pense que je suis le bon écolier . J’ai gagné deux
mots d’anglais vitement . Comment appelez-vous ‘les
ongles’ ?
bien : de hand , de fingres , et de nailes .
les mots que vous m’avez appris dès à présent .
[103]ACT 3. SC. 4
fingre , de nailes , d’ arma , de bilbow .
Comment appelez-vous ‘le col’ ?
les mots aussi droit que les natifs d’Angleterre .
de Dieu , et en peu de temps .
enseigné ?
hand , de fingre , de mailes —
Comment appelez-vous ‘le pied’ et ‘la robe’ ?
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
count ! Néanmoins , je réciterai une autre fois ma
leçon ensemble : d’ hand , de fingre , de nailes , d’
arme , d’ elbow , de nick , de sin , de foot , le count .
dîner .
[105]ACT 3. SC. 5
Scene 5
Brittany , the Constable of France , and others .
Let us not live in France . Let us quit all ,
And give our vineyards to a barbarous people .
The emptying of our fathers’ luxury ,
Our scions , put in wild and savage stock ,
Spurt up so suddenly into the clouds
And overlook their grafters ?
Mort de ma vie , if they march along
Unfought withal , but I will sell my dukedom
To buy a slobb’ry and a dirty farm
In that nook-shotten isle of Albion .
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-reined jades , their barley broth ,
Decoct their cold blood to such valiant heat ?
And shall our quick blood , spirited with wine ,
Seem frosty ? O , for honor 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 .
[107]ACT 3. SC. 5
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 .
And teach lavoltas high , and swift corantos ,
Saying our grace is only in our heels
And that we are most lofty runaways .
Let him greet England with our sharp defiance .
Up , princes , and , with spirit of honor edged
More sharper than your swords , hie to the field :
Charles Delabreth , High Constable of France ;
You Dukes of Orléans , Bourbon , and of Berri ,
Alençon , Brabant , Bar , and Burgundy ;
Jacques Chatillon , Rambures , Vaudemont ,
Beaumont , Grandpré , Roussi , and Faulconbridge ,
Foix , Lestrale , Bouciquault , 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 .
Sorry am I his numbers are so few ,
His soldiers sick and famished in their march ,
For , I am sure , when he shall see our army ,
[109] ACT 3. SC. 6 He’ll drop his heart into the sink of fear
And for achievement offer us his ransom .
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 .
Now forth , Lord Constable and princes all ,
And quickly bring us word of England’s fall .
Scene 6
the bridge ?
committed at the bridge .
Agamemnon , and a man that I love and honor with
my soul and my heart and my duty and my life and
my living and my uttermost power . He is not , God
be praised and blessed , any hurt in the world , but
keeps the bridge most valiantly , with excellent
discipline . There is an aunchient lieutenant there at
the pridge ; I think in my very conscience he is as
valiant a man as Mark Antony , and he is a man of no
estimation in the world , but I did see him do as
gallant service .
[111]ACT 3. SC. 6
Duke of Exeter doth love thee well .
love at his hands .
of buxom valor , hath , by cruel Fate and giddy
Fortune’s furious fickle wheel , that goddess blind ,
that stands upon the rolling restless stone —
is painted blind , with a muffler afore her eyes , to
signify to you that Fortune is blind ; and she is
painted also with a wheel to signify to you , which is
the moral of it , that she is turning and inconstant ,
and mutability and variation ; and her foot , look you ,
is fixed upon a spherical stone , which rolls and rolls
and rolls . In good truth , the poet makes a most
excellent description of it . Fortune is an excellent
moral .
for he hath stolen a pax and hangèd must he be . A
damnèd 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 .
your meaning .
[113] ACT 3. SC. 6 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 .
remember him now , a bawd , a cutpurse .
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 .
then goes to the wars to grace himself at his return
into London under the form of a soldier ; and such
fellows are perfect in the great commanders’
names , and they will learn you by rote where
services were done — at such and such a sconce , at
such a breach , at such a convoy ; who came off
bravely , who was shot , who disgraced , what terms
the enemy stood on ; and this they con perfectly in
the phrase of war , which they trick up with new-tuned
oaths ; and what a beard of the general’s cut
and a horrid suit of the camp will do among
foaming bottles and ale-washed wits is wonderful to
be thought on . But you must learn to know such
slanders of the age , or else you may be marvelously
mistook .
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 .
[115] ACT 3. SC. 6
poor Soldiers , and Gloucester .
Hark you , the King is coming , and I must speak
with him from the pridge . — God pless your
Majesty .
bridge ?
Exeter has very gallantly maintained the pridge .
The French is gone off , look you , and there is gallant
and most prave passages . Marry , th’ athversary was
have possession of the pridge , but he is enforced
to retire , and the Duke of Exeter is master of the
pridge . I can tell your Majesty , the Duke is a prave
man .
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 .
off ; and we give express charge that in our marches
through the country there be nothing compelled
from the villages , nothing taken but paid for ,
none of the French upbraided or abused in disdainful
language ; for when lenity and cruelty play
for a kingdom , the gentler gamester is the soonest
winner .
[117]ACT 3. SC. 6
of thee ?
England , though we seemed dead , we did but sleep .
Advantage is a better soldier than rashness . Tell him
we could have rebuked him at Harfleur , but that we
thought not good to bruise an injury till it were full
ripe . Now we speak upon our cue , and our voice is
imperial . England shall repent his folly , see his
weakness , and admire our sufferance . Bid him
therefore consider of his ransom , which must proportion
the losses we have borne , the subjects we
have lost , the disgrace we have digested , which , in
weight to reanswer , his pettiness would bow under .
For our losses , his exchequer is too poor ; for th’
effusion of our blood , the muster of his kingdom
too faint a number ; and for our disgrace , his own
person kneeling at our feet but a weak and worthless
satisfaction . To this , add defiance , and tell him ,
for conclusion , he hath betrayed his followers ,
whose condemnation is pronounced .’ So far my
king and master ; so much my office .
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 ,
[119] ACT 3. SC. 6 My numbers lessened , and those few I have
Almost no better than so many French ,
Who when they were in health , I tell thee , herald ,
I thought upon one pair of English legs
Did march three Frenchmen . Yet forgive me , God ,
That I do brag thus . This your air of France
Hath blown that vice in me . I must repent .
Go therefore , tell thy master : here I am .
My ransom is this frail and worthless trunk ,
My army but a weak and sickly guard ,
Yet , God before , tell him we will come on
Though France himself and such another neighbor
Stand in our way . There’s for thy labor , Montjoy .
Go bid thy master well advise himself :
If we may pass , we will ; if we be hindered ,
We shall your tawny ground with your red blood
Discolor . 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 .
March to the bridge . It now draws toward night .
Beyond the river we’ll encamp ourselves ,
And on tomorrow bid them march away .
[121]ACT 3. SC. 7
Scene 7
Orléans , Dauphin , with others .
Would it were day !
horse have his due .
you talk of horse and armor ?
prince in the world .
my horse with any that treads but on four pasterns .
Çà , 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 .
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 .
excellent horse .
the bidding of a monarch , and his countenance
enforces homage .
[123] ACT 3. SC. 7 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 —’
mistress .
to my courser , for my horse is my mistress .
perfection of a good and particular mistress .
shrewdly shook your back .
you rode like a kern of Ireland , your French hose
off , and in your strait strossers .
ride not warily , fall into foul bogs . I had rather have
my horse to my mistress .
own hair .
a sow to my mistress .
et la truie lavée au bourbier .’ Thou mak’st use
of anything .
[125]ACT 3. SC. 7
or any such proverb so little kin to the purpose .
your tent tonight , are those stars or suns upon it ?
and ’twere more honor some were away .
who would trot as well were some of your brags
dismounted .
desert ! Will it never be day ? I will trot tomorrow a
mile , and my way shall be paved with English faces .
out of my way . But I would it were morning , for I
would fain be about the ears of the English .
prisoners ?
have them .
prince .
the oath .
France .
that good name still .
[127]ACT 3. SC. 7
better than you .
he cared not who knew it .
saw it but his lackey . ’Tis a hooded valor , and when
it appears , it will bate .
flattery in friendship .’
his due .’
the devil . Have at the very eye of that proverb with
‘A pox of the devil .’
‘A fool’s bolt is soon shot .’
within fifteen hundred paces of your tents .
Would it were day ! Alas , poor Harry of England ! He
longs not for the dawning as we do .
King of England to mope with his fat-brained
followers so far out of his knowledge .
would run away .
[129]ACT 3. SC. 7
intellectual armor , they could never wear such
heavy headpieces .
creatures . Their mastiffs are of unmatchable
courage .
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 .
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 .
beef .
only stomachs to eat and none to fight . Now is it
time to arm . Come , shall we about it ?
We shall have each a hundred Englishmen .
[133]
ACT 4
Enter Chorus . C …
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 fixed 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 umbered face ;
Steed threatens steed in high and boastful neighs
Piercing the night’s dull ear ; and from the tents
The armorers , 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 named ,
Proud of their numbers and secure in soul ,
The confident and overlusty 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 condemnèd English ,
[135] ACT 4. CHORUS 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 ,
Presenteth them unto the gazing moon
So many horrid ghosts . O now , who will behold
The royal captain of this ruined 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 color
Unto the weary and all-watchèd night ,
But freshly looks and overbears attaint
With cheerful semblance and sweet majesty ,
That every wretch , pining and pale before ,
Beholding him , plucks comfort from his looks .
A largesse 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-disposed in brawl ridiculous ,
The name of Agincourt . Yet sit and see ,
Minding true things by what their mock’ries be .
[137]ACT 4. SC. 1
Scene 1
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 distill it out .
For our bad neighbor 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 .
Good morrow , old Sir Thomas Erpingham .
A good soft pillow for that good white head
Were better than a churlish turf of France .
Since I may say ‘Now lie I like a king .’
Upon example . So the spirit is eased ;
And when the mind is quickened , 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 ,
[139] ACT 4. SC. 1 Do my good morrow to them , and anon
Desire them all to my pavilion .
Go with my brothers to my lords of England .
I and my bosom must debate awhile ,
And then I would no other company .
base , common , and popular ?
of life , an imp of fame , of parents good , of fist most
valiant . I kiss his dirty shoe , and from heartstring I
love the lovely bully . What is thy name ?
crew ?
Saint Davy’s day .
[141]ACT 4. SC. 1
that day , lest he knock that about yours .
It is the greatest admiration in the universal world
when the true and aunchient prerogatifes and
laws of the wars is not kept . If you would take the
pains but to examine the wars of Pompey the
Great , you shall find , I warrant you , that there is
no tiddle taddle nor pibble babble 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 .
night .
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 ?
There is much care and valor in this Welshman .
[143]ACT 4. SC. 1
Michael Williams .
which breaks yonder ?
the approach of day .
I think we shall never see the end of it . — Who goes
there ?
gentleman . I pray you , what thinks he of our
estate ?
look to be washed off the next tide .
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 .
but I believe , as cold a night as ’tis , he could wish
himself in Thames up to the neck ; and so I would
[145] ACT 4. SC. 1 he were , and I by him , at all adventures , so we were
quit here .
of the King . I think he would not wish himself
anywhere but where he is .
be sure to be ransomed , and a many poor men’s
lives saved .
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 honorable .
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 .
himself hath a heavy reckoning to make , when all
those legs and arms and heads , chopped 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 .
merchandise do sinfully miscarry upon the sea ,
the imputation of his wickedness , by your rule ,
should be imposed upon his father that sent him .
[147] ACT 4. SC. 1 Or if a servant , under his master’s command transporting
a sum of money , be assailed by robbers and
die in many irreconciled iniquities , you may call the
business of the master the author of the servant’s
damnation . But this is not so . The King is not bound
to answer the particular endings of his soldiers , the
father of his son , nor the master of his servant , for
they purpose not their death when they purpose
their services . Besides , there is no king , be his cause
never so spotless , if it come to the arbitrament 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 punished for before-breach of the King’s
laws in now the King’s quarrel . Where they feared
the death , they have borne life away ; and where they
would be safe , they perish . Then , if they die unprovided ,
no more is the King guilty of their damnation
than he was before guilty of those impieties for the
which they are now visited . Every subject’s duty is
the King’s , but every subject’s soul is his own .
Therefore should every soldier in the wars do as
every sick man in his bed : wash every mote out of
his conscience . And , dying so , death is to him
advantage ; or not dying , the time was blessedly lost
wherein such preparation was gained . And in him
that escapes , it were not sin to think that , making
God so free an offer , He let him outlive that day to
[149] ACT 4. SC. 1 see His greatness and to teach others how they
should prepare .
upon his own head ; the King is not to answer it .
I determine to fight lustily for him .
be ransomed .
but when our throats are cut , he may be ransomed
and we ne’er the wiser .
word after .
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 .
should be angry with you if the time were
convenient .
it in my bonnet . Then , if ever thou dar’st acknowledge
it , I will make it my quarrel .
come to me and say , after tomorrow , ‘This is my
glove ,’ by this hand I will take thee a box on the
ear .
[151]ACT 4. SC. 1
King’s company .
have French quarrels enough , if you could tell how
to reckon .
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 .
Upon the King ! Let us our lives , our souls , our
debts , our careful wives , our children , and our sins ,
lay on the King !
We must bear all . O hard condition ,
Twin-born with greatness , subject to the breath
Of every fool whose sense no more can feel
But his own wringing . What infinite heart’s ease
Must kings neglect that private men enjoy ?
And what have kings that privates have not too ,
Save ceremony , save general ceremony ?
And what art thou , thou idol ceremony ?
What kind of god art thou that suffer’st more
Of mortal griefs than do thy worshipers ?
What are thy rents ? What are thy comings-in ?
O ceremony , show me but thy worth !
What is thy soul of adoration ?
Art thou aught else but place , degree , and form ,
Creating awe and fear in other men ,
Wherein thou art less happy , being feared ,
Than they in fearing ?
What drink’st thou oft , instead of homage sweet ,
But poisoned flattery ? O , be sick , great greatness ,
And bid thy ceremony give thee cure !
Think’st thou the fiery fever will go out
[153] ACT 4. SC. 1 With titles blown from adulation ?
Will it give place to flexure and low bending ?
Canst thou , when thou command’st the beggar’s
knee ,
Command the health of it ? No , thou proud dream ,
That play’st so subtly with a king’s repose .
I am a king that find thee , and I know
’Tis not the balm , the scepter , and the ball ,
The sword , the mace , the crown imperial ,
The intertissued robe of gold and pearl ,
The farcèd title running ’fore the King ,
The throne he sits on , nor the tide of pomp
That beats upon the high shore of this world ;
No , not all these , thrice-gorgeous ceremony ,
Not all these , laid in bed majestical ,
Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave
Who , with a body filled and vacant mind ,
Gets him to rest , crammed with distressful bread ;
Never sees horrid night , the child of hell ,
But , like a lackey , from the rise to set
Sweats in the eye of Phoebus , and all night
Sleeps in Elysium ; next day after dawn
Doth rise and help Hyperion to his horse ,
And follows so the ever-running year
With profitable labor to his grave .
And , but for ceremony , such a wretch ,
Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep ,
Had the forehand and vantage of a king .
The slave , a member of the country’s peace ,
Enjoys it , but in gross brain little wots
What watch the King keeps to maintain the peace ,
Whose hours the peasant best advantages .
[155] ACT 4. SC. 1 Seek through your camp to find you .
Collect them all together at my tent .
I’ll be before thee .
Possess them not with fear . Take from them now
The sense of reck’ning or th’ opposèd 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 interrèd new
And on it have bestowed more contrite tears
Than from it issued forcèd drops of blood .
Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay
Who twice a day their withered 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 .
I know thy errand . I will go with thee .
The day , my friends , and all things stay for me .
[157]ACT 4. SC. 2
Scene 2
Now , my Lord Constable ?
That their hot blood may spin in English eyes
And dout them with superfluous courage . Ha !
How shall we then behold their natural tears ?
Do but behold yond poor and starvèd 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 curtal ax a stain ,
That our French gallants shall today draw out
[159] ACT 4. SC. 2 And sheathe for lack of sport . Let us but blow on
them ,
The vapor of our valor will o’erturn them .
’Tis positive against 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 honors 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 couch down in fear and yield .
Yond island carrions , desperate of their bones ,
Ill-favoredly become the morning field .
Their ragged curtains poorly are let loose ,
And our air shakes them passing scornfully .
Big Mars seems bankrupt in their beggared host
And faintly through a rusty beaver peeps .
The horsemen sit like fixèd candlesticks
With torch staves in their hand , and their poor jades
Lob down their heads , drooping the hides and hips ,
The gum down-roping from their pale dead eyes ,
And in their pale dull mouths the gemeled bit
Lies foul with chawed grass , still and motionless .
And their executors , the knavish crows ,
Fly o’er them all , impatient for their hour .
Description cannot suit itself in words
To demonstrate the life of such a battle
In life so lifeless , as it shows itself .
[161]ACT 4. SC. 3
And give their fasting horses provender ,
And after fight with them ?
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 .
Scene 3
his host , Salisbury , and Westmoreland .
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 .
thee .
[163] ACT 4. SC. 3 And yet I do thee wrong to mind thee of it ,
For thou art framed of the firm truth of valor .
Princely in both .
But one ten thousand of those men in England
That do no work today .
My cousin Westmoreland ? No , my fair cousin .
If we are marked to die , we are enough
To do our country loss ; and if to live ,
The fewer men , the greater share of honor .
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 honor ,
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 honor
As one man more , methinks , would share from me ,
For the best hope I have . O , do not wish one more !
Rather proclaim it , Westmoreland , 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 called the feast of Crispian .
[165] ACT 4. SC. 3 He that outlives this day and comes safe home
Will stand o’ tiptoe when this day is named
And rouse him at the name of Crispian .
He that shall see this day , and live old age ,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors
And say ‘Tomorrow is Saint Crispian .’
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars .
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 rememberèd —
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 accursed they were not here ,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day .
The French are bravely in their battles set ,
And will with all expedience charge on us .
[167]ACT 4. SC. 3
Without more help , could fight this royal battle !
Which likes me better than to wish us one . —
You know your places . God be with you all .
If for thy ransom thou wilt now compound ,
Before thy most assurèd 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 .
Bid them achieve me and then sell my bones .
Good God , why should they mock poor fellows
thus ?
The man that once did sell the lion’s skin
While the beast lived was killed with hunting him .
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 .
[169] ACT 4. SC. 3 And those that leave their valiant bones in France ,
Dying like men , though buried in your dunghills ,
They shall be famed ; for there the sun shall greet
them
And draw their honors reeking up to heaven ,
Leaving their earthly parts to choke your clime ,
The smell whereof shall breed a plague in France .
Mark , then , abounding valor in our English ,
That being dead , like to the bullet’s crazing ,
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 besmirched
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 labor .
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 .
Thou never shalt hear herald anymore .
for a ransom .
[171]ACT 4. SC. 4
The leading of the vaward .
Now , soldiers , march away ,
And how Thou pleasest , God , dispose the day .
Scene 4
and Boy .
de bonne qualité .
What is thy name ? Discuss .
my words , O Seigneur Dew , and mark : O
Seigneur Dew , thou diest on point of fox , except , O
Seigneur , thou do give to me egregious ransom .
moi !
I will fetch thy rim out at thy throat in drops of
crimson blood .
de ton bras ?
mountain goat , offer’st me brass ?
[173] ACT 4. SC. 4 Come hither , boy . Ask me this slave in French what
is his name .
him . Discuss the same in French unto him .
and ‘firk .’
prêt , car ce soldat ici est disposé tout à cette heure de
couper votre gorge .
thou give me crowns , brave crowns , or mangled
shalt thou be by this my sword .
Dieu , me pardonner . Je suis le gentilhomme de bonne
maison . Gardez ma vie , et je vous donnerai deux
cents écus .
good house , and for his ransom he will give you two
hundred crowns .
will take .
aucun prisonnier ; néanmoins , pour les écus que vous
lui avez promis , il est content à vous donner la liberté ,
le franchisement .
remercîments , et je m’estime heureux que j’ai tombé
[175] ACT 4. SC. 5 entre les mains d’un chevalier , je pense , le plus brave ,
vaillant , et très distingué seigneur d’Angleterre .
and he esteems himself happy that he hath fall’n
into the hands of one , as he thinks , the most
brave , valorous , and thrice-worthy seigneur of
England .
Follow me .
I did never know so full a voice issue from so empty
a heart . But the saying is true : ‘The empty vessel
makes the greatest sound .’ Bardolph and Nym had
ten times more valor than this roaring devil i’ th’ old
play , that everyone may pare his nails with a wooden
dagger , and they are both hanged , and so would
this be if he durst steal anything adventurously . I
must stay with the lackeys with the luggage of our
camp . The French might have a good prey of us if he
knew of it , for there is none to guard it but boys .
Scene 5
Rambures .
Reproach and everlasting shame
Sits mocking in our plumes .
[177] ACT 4. SC. 6 Ô méchante Fortune !
Do not run away .
Be these the wretches that we played at dice for ?
Let us die . In once more ! Back again !
And he that will not follow Bourbon now ,
Let him go hence , and with his cap in hand
Like a base pander hold the chamber door ,
Whilst by a slave , no gentler than my dog ,
His fairest daughter is contaminate .
Let us on heaps go offer up our lives .
To smother up the English in our throngs ,
If any order might be thought upon .
Let life be short , else shame will be too long .
Scene 6
with prisoners .
But all’s not done . Yet keep the French the field .
[179]ACT 4. SC. 6
I saw him down , thrice up again and fighting .
From helmet to the spur , all blood he was .
Larding the plain , and by his bloody side ,
Yoke-fellow to his honor-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 cheered him up .
He smiled me in the face , raught me his hand ,
And with a feeble grip , 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 kissed his lips ,
And so , espoused to death , with blood he sealed
A testament of noble-ending love .
The pretty and sweet manner of it forced
Those waters from me which I would have stopped ,
But I had not so much of man in me ,
And all my mother came into mine eyes
And gave me up to tears .
[181] ACT 4. SC. 7 For , hearing this , I must perforce compound
With my full eyes , or they will issue too .
But hark , what new alarum is this same ?
The French have reinforced their scattered men .
Then every soldier kill his prisoners .
Give the word through .
Scene 7
against the law of arms . ’Tis as arrant a piece of
knavery , mark you now , as can be offert , in your
conscience now , is it not ?
the cowardly rascals that ran from the battle ha’
done this slaughter . Besides , they have burned
and carried away all that was in the King’s tent ,
wherefore the King , most worthily , hath caused
every soldier to cut his prisoner’s throat . O , ’tis a
gallant king !
Gower . What call you the town’s name where
Alexander the Pig was born ?
or the great , or the mighty , or the huge , or the
magnanimous , are all one reckonings , save the
phrase is a little variations .
His father was called Philip of Macedon , as I
take it .
porn . I tell you , captain , if you look in the maps of
[183] ACT 4. SC. 7 the ’orld , I warrant you sall find , in the comparisons
between Macedon and Monmouth , that the
situations , look you , is both alike . There is a river in
Macedon , and there is also , moreover , a river at
Monmouth . It is called Wye at Monmouth , but it is
out of my prains what is the name of the other river .
But ’tis all one ; ’tis alike as my fingers is to my
fingers , and there is salmons in both . If you mark
Alexander’s life well , Harry of Monmouth’s life is
come after it indifferent well , for there is figures in
all things . 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 .
killed any of his friends .
the tales out of my mouth ere it is made and
finished . I speak but in the figures and comparisons
of it . As Alexander killed his friend Cleitus , being in
his ales and his cups , so also Harry Monmouth ,
being in his right wits and his good judgments ,
turned away the fat knight with the great-belly
doublet ; he was full of jests and gipes and knaveries
and mocks — I have forgot his name .
porn at Monmouth .
Heralds and Bourbon with other prisoners . Flourish .
[185] ACT 4. SC. 7 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
Enforcèd 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 .
not
That I have fined these bones of mine for ransom ?
Com’st thou again for ransom ?
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 drowned and soaked in mercenary blood .
So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs
In blood of princes , and the wounded steeds
Fret fetlock deep in gore , and with wild rage
Yerk out their armèd 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 .
[187] ACT 4. SC. 7 I know not if the day be ours or no ,
For yet a many of your horsemen peer
And gallop o’er the field .
What is this castle called that stands hard by ?
Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus .
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 .
is remembered of it , the Welshmen did good
service in a garden where leeks did grow , wearing
leeks in their Monmouth caps , which , your Majesty
know , to this hour is an honorable badge of the
service . And I do believe your Majesty takes no
scorn to wear the leek upon Saint Tavy’s day .
For I am Welsh , you know , good countryman .
Majesty’s Welsh plood out of your pody , I can tell
you that . God pless it and preserve it as long as it
pleases his Grace and his Majesty too .
I care not who know it . I will confess it to all the
’orld . I need not to be ashamed of your Majesty ,
[189] ACT 4. SC. 7 praised be God , so long as your Majesty is an
honest man .
Bring me just notice of the numbers dead
On both our parts .
Call yonder fellow hither .
cap ?
one that I should fight withal , if he be alive .
swaggered with me last night , who , if alive and ever
dare to challenge this glove , I have sworn to take
him a box o’ th’ ear , or if I can see my glove in his
cap , which he swore , as he was a soldier , he would
wear if alive , I will strike it out soundly .
this soldier keep his oath ?
please your Majesty , in my conscience .
great sort , quite from the answer of his degree .
devil is , as Lucifer and Beelzebub himself , it is
necessary , look your Grace , that he keep his vow
and his oath . If he be perjured , see you now , his
reputation is as arrant a villain and a Jack Sauce as
ever his black shoe trod upon God’s ground and His
earth , in my conscience , la .
[191]ACT 4. SC. 7
meet’st the fellow .
and literatured in the wars .
Fluellen , wear thou this favor for me , and stick it in
thy cap . When Alençon and myself were down
together , I plucked 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 .
does me as great honors as can be desired in the
hearts of his subjects . I would fain see the man that
has but two legs that shall find himself aggriefed at
this glove , that is all ; but I would fain see it once , an
please God of His grace that I might see .
my tent .
Follow Fluellen closely at the heels .
The glove which I have given him for a favor
May haply purchase him a box o’ th’ ear .
It is the soldier’s . I by bargain should
Wear it myself . Follow , good cousin Warwick .
If that the soldier strike him , as I judge
By his blunt bearing he will keep his word ,
[193] ACT 4. SC. 8 Some sudden mischief may arise of it ,
For I do know Fluellen valiant
And , touched with choler , hot as gunpowder ,
And quickly will return an injury .
Follow , and see there be no harm between them . —
Go you with me , uncle of Exeter .
Scene 8
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 .
hat
universal world , or in France , or in England !
his payment into plows , I warrant you .
his Majesty’s name , apprehend him . He’s a friend
of the Duke Alençon’s .
[195]ACT 4. SC. 8
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 .
look your Grace , has struck the glove which your
Majesty is take out of the helmet of Alençon .
of it . And he that I gave it to in change promised to
wear it in his cap . I promised to strike him if he did .
I met this man with my glove in his cap , and I have
been as good as my word .
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 .
Look , here is the fellow of it .
’Twas I indeed thou promised’st to strike ,
And thou hast given me most bitter terms .
for it , if there is any martial law in the world .
satisfaction ?
Never came any from mine that might offend your
Majesty .
[197] ACT 4. SC. 8 appeared to me but as a common man ; witness the
night , your garments , your lowliness . And what
your Highness suffered under that shape , I beseech
you take it for your own fault and not mine , for , had
you been as I took you for , I made no offense .
Therefore , I beseech your Highness pardon me .
And give it to this fellow . — Keep it , fellow ,
And wear it for an honor in thy cap
Till I do challenge it . — Give him the crowns . —
And , captain , you must needs be friends with him .
mettle enough in his belly . — Hold , there is twelvepence
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 .
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 .
John , Duke of Bourbon , and Lord Bouciqualt .
Of other lords and barons , knights and squires ,
Full fifteen hundred , besides common men .
[199]ACT 4. SC. 8
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 dubbed 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 , Faulconbridge 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 th’ other ? Take it , God ,
For it is none but thine .
[201]ACT 4. SC. 8
And be it death proclaimèd through our host
To boast of this or take that praise from God
Which is His only .
tell how many is killed ?
That God fought for us .
Let there be sung Non nobis , and Te Deum ,
The dead with charity enclosed in clay ,
And then to Calais , and to England then ,
Where ne’er from France arrived more happy men .
[205]
ACT 5
Enter Chorus . C …
That I may prompt them ; and of such as have ,
I humbly pray them to admit th’ 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 wingèd thoughts
Athwart the sea . Behold , the English beach
Pales in the flood with men , wives , and boys ,
Whose shouts and claps outvoice the deep-mouthed
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 bruisèd 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 ,
[207] ACT 5. SC. 1 In the quick forge and workinghouse 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 conqu’ring Caesar in —
As , by a lower but by loving likelihood
Were now the general of our gracious empress ,
As in good time he may , from Ireland coming ,
Bringing rebellion broachèd 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 chanced ,
Till Harry’s back return again to France .
There must we bring him , and myself have played
The interim , by remembering you ’tis past .
Then brook abridgment , and your eyes advance
After your thoughts , straight back again to France .
Scene 1
today ? Saint Davy’s day is past .
wherefore in all things . I will tell you ass my
friend , Captain Gower . The rascally , scald , beggarly ,
lousy , pragging knave Pistol , which you and
[209] ACT 5. SC. 1 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 .
turkey-cock .
turkey-cocks . — God pless you , Aunchient Pistol ,
you scurvy , lousy knave , God pless you .
Trojan , to have me fold up Parca’s fatal web ? Hence .
I am qualmish at the smell of leek .
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 disgestions does not agree with it , I would
desire you to eat it .
with a cudgel . ) Will you be so good , scald knave ,
as eat it ?
will is . I will desire you to live in the meantime and
eat your victuals . Come , there is sauce for it . Strikes
him . You called 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 .
[211]ACT 5. SC. 1
leek , or I will peat his pate four days . — Bite , I pray
you . It is good for your green wound and your
ploody coxcomb .
question , too , and ambiguities .
Fluellen threatens him . I eat and eat , I swear —
sauce to your leek ? There is not enough leek to
swear by .
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 .
to heal your pate .
have another leek in my pocket , which you shall
eat .
cudgels . You shall be a woodmonger and buy
nothing of me but cudgels . God be wi’ you and
keep you and heal your pate .
Will you mock at an ancient tradition begun upon
an honorable respect and worn as a memorable
trophy of predeceased valor , and dare not avouch in
[213] ACT 5. SC. 2 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 you well .
News have I that my Doll is dead i’ th’ spital of a
malady of France , and there my rendezvous is quite
cut off . Old I do wax , and from my weary limbs
honor is cudgeled . 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 cudgeled scars ,
And swear I got them in the Gallia wars .
Scene 2
Warwick , Westmoreland , and other Lords . At another ,
Queen Isabel of France , the King of France , the
Princess Katherine and Alice , the Duke of Burgundy ,
and other French .
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 Katherine . —
And , as a branch and member of this royalty ,
By whom this great assembly is contrived ,
We do salute you , Duke of Burgundy . —
And princes French , and peers , health to you all .
[215]ACT 5. SC. 2
Most worthy brother England . Fairly met . —
So are you , princes English , every one .
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 .
Great kings of France and England . That I have
labored
With all my wits , my pains , and strong endeavors
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 prevailed
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 chased ,
[217] ACT 5. SC. 2 And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps ,
Corrupting in its own fertility .
Her vine , the merry cheerer of the heart ,
Unprunèd , dies . Her hedges , even-pleached ,
Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair ,
Put forth disordered 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 , withal uncorrected , rank ,
Conceives by idleness , and nothing teems
But hateful docks , rough thistles , kecksies , burrs ,
Losing both beauty and utility .
And all our vineyards , fallows , meads , and hedges ,
Defective in their natures , grow to wildness .
Even so our houses and ourselves and children
Have lost , or do not learn for want of time ,
The sciences that should become our country ,
But grow like savages , as soldiers will
That nothing do but meditate on blood ,
To swearing and stern looks , diffused attire ,
And everything that seems unnatural .
Which to reduce into our former favor
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 .
Whose want gives growth to th’ imperfections
Which you have cited , you must buy that peace
With full accord to all our just demands ,
Whose tenors and particular effects
You have , enscheduled briefly , in your hands .
[219]ACT 5. SC. 2
There is no answer made .
Lies in his answer .
O’erglanced the articles . Pleaseth your Grace
To appoint some of your council presently
To sit with us once more with better heed
To resurvey them , we will suddenly
Pass our accept and peremptory answer .
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 ?
Haply a woman’s voice may do some good
When articles too nicely urged be stood on .
She is our capital demand , comprised
Within the forerank of our articles .
and Alice exit .
[221] ACT 5. SC. 2 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 ?
speak your England .
soundly with your French heart , I will be glad to
hear you confess it brokenly with your English
tongue . Do you like me , Kate ?
me .’
like an angel .
les anges ?
blush to affirm it .
pleines de tromperies .
tongues of men are full of deceits ?
deceits ; dat is de Princess .
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 ?
[223]ACT 5. SC. 2
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 leapfrog or by vaulting into my saddle with
my armor 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 favors , I could lay on like a butcher
and sit like a jackanapes , never off . But , before God ,
Kate , I cannot look greenly nor gasp out my eloquence ,
nor I have no cunning in protestation , only
downright oaths , which I never use till urged , nor
never break for urging . If thou canst love a fellow of
this temper , Kate , whose face is not worth sun-burning ,
that never looks in his glass for love of
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’ favors , they
do always reason themselves out again . What ? A
speaker is but a prater , a rhyme is but a ballad , a
good leg will fall , a straight back will stoop , a black
beard will turn white , a curled pate will grow bald ,
a fair face will wither , a full eye will wax hollow , but
a good heart , Kate , is the sun and the moon , or
rather the sun and not the moon , for it shines bright
and never changes but keeps his course truly . If
thou would have such a one , take me . And take me ,
take a soldier . Take a soldier , take a king . And what
[225] ACT 5. SC. 2 say’st thou then to my love ? Speak , my fair , and
fairly , I pray thee .
France ?
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 .
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
vôtre 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 .
parlez , il est meilleur que l’anglais lequel je parle .
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 ?
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
[227] ACT 5. SC. 2 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 ?
promise . Do but now promise , Kate , you will
endeavor 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 ?
deceive de most sage demoiselle dat is en France .
honor , in true English , I love thee , Kate . By which
honor 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 Katherine , will you have
me ? Put off your maiden blushes , avouch the
thoughts of your heart with the looks of an empress ,
[229] ACT 5. SC. 2 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 , Katherine ,
break thy mind to me in broken English . Wilt
thou have me ?
please him , Kate .
my queen .
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 .
devant leurs noces , il n’est pas la coutume de France .
France — I cannot tell wat is baiser en Anglish .
to kiss before they are married , would she say ?
kings . Dear Kate , you and I cannot be confined
within the weak list of a country’s fashion . We are
[231] ACT 5. SC. 2 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 . He kisses 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 .
and Burgundy , and the English Lords Westmoreland
and Exeter .
Here comes your father .
teach you our princess English ?
how perfectly I love her , and that is good English .
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 .
answer you for that . If you would conjure in her ,
you must make a circle ; if conjure up Love in her in
his true likeness , he must appear naked and blind .
Can you blame her , then , being a maid yet rosed
over with the virgin crimson of modesty , if she deny
the appearance of a naked blind boy in her naked
seeing self ? It were , my lord , a hard condition for a
maid to consign to .
blind and enforces .
[233]ACT 5. SC. 2
see not what they do .
consent winking .
you will teach her to know my meaning , for maids
well summered and warm kept are like flies at
Bartholomew-tide : blind , though they have their
eyes ; and then they will endure handling , which
before would not abide looking on .
summer . And so I shall catch the fly , your cousin ,
in the latter end , and she must be blind too .
love for my blindness , who cannot see many a fair
French city for one fair French maid that stands in
my way .
the cities turned into a maid , for they are all
girdled with maiden walls that war hath never
entered .
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 .
His daughter first , and , in sequel , all ,
According to their firm proposèd natures .
[235]ACT 5. SC. 2
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 hœres Franciae .
But your request shall make me let it pass .
Let that one article rank with the rest ,
And thereupon give me your daughter .
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 neighborhood and Christian-like accord
In their sweet bosoms , that never war advance
His bleeding sword ’twixt England and fair France .
That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen .
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 ,
[237] ACT 5. EPILOGUE Which troubles oft the bed of blessèd 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 !
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 prosp’rous be .
Enter Chorus as …
Our bending author hath pursued 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 crowned 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 .
Appendix A
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Link to license
- Citation Suggestion for this Edition
- TextGrid Repository (2025). Shakespeare, William. Henry V. The Folger Digital Texts in TextGrid. https://hdl.handle.net/21.11113/0000-0016-84A1-C