KING HENRY V


	DRAMATIS PERSONAE


KING HENRY	the Fifth. (KING HENRY V)

DUKE OF GLOUCESTER	(GLOUCESTER:)	|
		|  brothers to the King.
DUKE OF BEDFORD	(BEDFORD:)	|


DUKE OF EXETER	uncle to the King. (EXETER:)

DUKE OF YORK	cousin to the King. (YORK:)

EARL OF SALISBURY	(SALISBURY:)

EARL OF
WESTMORELAND	(WESTMORELAND:)

EARL OF WARWICK	(WARWICK:)

BISHOP OF
CANTERBURY	(CANTERBURY:)

BISHOP OF ELY	(ELY:)

EARL OF CAMBRIDGE	(CAMBRIDGE:)

LORD SCROOP	(SCROOP:)

SIR THOMAS GREY	(GREY:)


SIR
THOMAS ERPINGHAM	(ERPINGHAM:)	|
		|
GOWER		|
		|
FLUELLEN		|  Officers in King Henry's army.
		|
MACMORRIS		|
		|
JAMY		|


BATES	|
	|
COURT	|  soldiers in the same.
	|
WILLIAMS	|


PISTOL:

NYM:

BARDOLPH:

	Boy
	A Herald.

CHARLES the Sixth	King of France. (KING OF FRANCE:) (FRENCH KING:)

LEWIS	the Dauphin. (DAUPHIN:)

DUKE OF BURGUNDY	(BURGUNDY:)

DUKE OF ORLEANS	(ORLEANS:)

DUKE OF BOURBON	(BOURBON:)

	The Constable of France. (Constable:)


RAMBURES	|
	|  French Lords.
GRANDPRE	|


GOVERNOR	of Harfleur.

MONTJOY	a French Herald.

	Ambassadors to the King of England.

ISABEL	Queen of France. (QUEEN ISABEL:)

KATHARINE	daughter to Charles and Isabel.

ALICE	a lady attending on her.

	Hostess of a tavern in Eastcheap formerly
	Mistress Quickly, and now married to Pistol.
	Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Citizens,
	Messengers, and Attendants. Chorus.
	(Hostess:)
	(First Ambassador:)
	(Messenger:)
	(French Soldier:)

SCENE	England; afterwards France.




	KING HENRY V

	PROLOGUE


	[Enter Chorus]

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

	[Exit]




	KING HENRY V


ACT I



SCENE I	London. An ante-chamber in the KING'S palace.


	[Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, and the BISHOP OF ELY]

CANTERBURY	My lord, I'll tell you; that self bill is urged,
	Which in the eleventh year of the last king's reign
	Was like, and had indeed against us pass'd,
	But that the scambling and unquiet time
	Did push it out of farther question.

ELY	But how, my lord, shall we resist it now?

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

ELY	This would drink deep.

CANTERBURY	'Twould drink the cup and all.

ELY	But what prevention?

CANTERBURY	The king is full of grace and fair regard.

ELY	And a true lover of the holy church.

CANTERBURY	The courses of his youth promised it not.
	The breath no sooner left his father's body,
	But that his wildness, mortified in him,
	Seem'd to die too; yea, at that very moment
	Consideration, like an angel, came
	And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him,
	Leaving his body as a paradise,
	To 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 wilfulness
	So soon did lose his seat and all at once
	As in this king.

ELY	                  We are blessed in the change.

CANTERBURY	Hear him but reason in divinity,
	And all-admiring with an inward wish
	You would desire the king were made a prelate:
	Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,
	You would say it hath been all in all his study:
	List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
	A fearful battle render'd you in music:
	Turn him to any cause of policy,
	The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,
	Familiar as his garter: that, when he speaks,
	The air, a charter'd libertine, is still,
	And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,
	To steal his sweet and honey'd 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 unletter'd, rude and shallow,
	His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports,
	And never noted in him any study,
	Any retirement, any sequestration
	From open haunts and popularity.

ELY	The strawberry grows underneath the nettle
	And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best
	Neighbour'd 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.

CANTERBURY	It must be so; for miracles are ceased;
	And therefore we must needs admit the means
	How things are perfected.

ELY	But, my good lord,
	How now for mitigation of this bill
	Urged by the commons? Doth his majesty
	Incline to it, or no?

CANTERBURY	He seems indifferent,
	Or rather swaying more upon our part
	Than cherishing the exhibiters 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 open'd to his grace at large,
	As touching France, to give a greater sum
	Than ever at one time the clergy yet
	Did to his predecessors part withal.

ELY	How did this offer seem received, my lord?

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

ELY	What was the impediment that broke this off?

CANTERBURY	The French ambassador upon that instant
	Craved audience; and the hour, I think, is come
	To give him hearing: is it four o'clock?

ELY	It is.

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

ELY	I'll wait upon you, and I long to hear it.

	[Exeunt]




	KING HENRY V


ACT I



SCENE II	The same. The Presence chamber.


	[Enter KING HENRY V, GLOUCESTER, BEDFORD, EXETER,
	WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and Attendants]

KING HENRY V	Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury?

EXETER	Not here in presence.

KING HENRY V	Send for him, good uncle.

WESTMORELAND	Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege?

KING HENRY V	Not yet, my cousin: we would be resolved,
	Before we hear him, of some things of weight
	That task our thoughts, concerning us and France.

	[Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, and the BISHOP of ELY]

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

KING HENRY V	Sure, we thank you.
	My learned lord, we pray you to proceed
	And justly and religiously unfold
	Why the law Salique that they have in France
	Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim:
	And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,
	That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading,
	Or nicely charge your understanding soul
	With opening titles miscreate, whose right
	Suits not in native colours with the truth;
	For God doth know how many now in health
	Shall drop their blood in approbation
	Of what your reverence shall incite us to.
	Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,
	How you awake our sleeping sword of war:
	We charge you, in the name of God, take heed;
	For never two such kingdoms did contend
	Without much fall of blood; whose guiltless drops
	Are every one a woe, a sore complaint
	'Gainst him whose wrong gives edge unto the swords
	That make 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 wash'd
	As pure as sin with baptism.

CANTERBURY	Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers,
	That owe yourselves, your lives and services
	To this imperial throne. There is no bar
	To make against your highness' claim to France
	But this, which they produce from Pharamond,
	'In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant:'
	'No woman shall succeed in Salique land:'
	Which Salique 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 Salique 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,
	Establish'd then this law; to wit, no female
	Should be inheritrix in Salique land:
	Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala,
	Is at this day in Germany call'd Meisen.
	Then doth it well appear that Salique law
	Was not devised for the realm of France:
	Nor did the French possess the Salique 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
	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 deposed Childeric,
	Did, as heir general, being descended
	Of Blithild, which was daughter to King Clothair,
	Make claim and title to the crown of France.
	Hugh Capet also, who 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,
	'Through, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught,
	Convey'd himself as heir to the Lady Lingare,
	Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son
	To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son
	Of Charles the Great. Also King Lewis the Tenth,
	Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet,
	Could not keep quiet in his conscience,
	Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied
	That fair Queen Isabel, his grandmother,
	Was lineal of the Lady Ermengare,
	Daughter to Charles the foresaid duke of Lorraine:
	By the which marriage the line of Charles the Great
	Was re-united to the crown of France.
	So that, as clear as is the summer's sun.
	King Pepin's title and Hugh Capet's claim,
	King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear
	To hold in right and title of the female:
	So do the kings of France unto this day;
	Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law
	To bar your highness claiming from the female,
	And rather choose to hide them in a net
	Than amply to imbar their crooked titles
	Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.

KING HENRY V	May I with right and conscience make this claim?

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

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

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

WESTMORELAND	They know your grace hath cause and means and might;
	So hath your highness; never king of England
	Had nobles richer and more loyal subjects,
	Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England
	And lie pavilion'd in the fields of France.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CANTERBURY	          Therefore doth heaven divide
	The state of man in divers functions,
	Setting endeavour in continual motion;
	To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,
	Obedience: for so work the honey-bees,
	Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
	The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
	They have a king and officers of sorts;
	Where some, like magistrates, correct at home,
	Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad,
	Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,
	Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds,
	Which pillage they with merry march bring home
	To the tent-royal of their emperor;
	Who, busied in his majesty, surveys
	The singing masons building roofs of gold,
	The civil citizens kneading up the honey,
	The poor mechanic porters crowding in
	Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate,
	The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum,
	Delivering o'er to executors pale
	The lazy yawning drone. I this infer,
	That many things, having full reference
	To one consent, may work contrariously:
	As many arrows, loosed several ways,
	Come to one mark; as many ways meet in one town;
	As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea;
	As many lines close in the dial's centre;
	So 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.

KING HENRY V	Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin.

	[Exeunt some Attendants]

	Now are we well resolved; and, by God's help,
	And yours, the noble sinews of our power,
	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 worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph.

	[Enter Ambassadors of France]

	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.

First Ambassador	May't please your majesty to give us leave
	Freely to render what we have in charge;
	Or shall we sparingly show you far off
	The Dauphin's meaning and our embassy?

KING HENRY V	We are no tyrant, but a Christian king;
	Unto whose grace our passion is as subject
	As are our wretches fetter'd in our prisons:
	Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness
	Tell us the Dauphin's mind.

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

KING HENRY V	What treasure, uncle?

EXETER	Tennis-balls, my liege.

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

	[Exeunt Ambassadors]

EXETER	This was a merry message.

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

	[Exeunt. Flourish]




	KING HENRY V


ACT II


	PROLOGUE


	[Enter Chorus]

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

	[Exit]




	KING HENRY V


ACT II



SCENE I	London. A street.


	[Enter Corporal NYM and Lieutenant BARDOLPH]

BARDOLPH	Well met, Corporal Nym.

NYM	Good morrow, Lieutenant Bardolph.

BARDOLPH	What, are Ancient Pistol and you friends yet?

NYM	For my part, I care not: I say little; but when
	time shall serve, there shall be smiles; but that
	shall be as it may. I dare not fight; but I will
	wink and hold out mine iron: it is a simple one; but
	what though? it will toast cheese, and it will
	endure cold as another man's sword will: and
	there's an end.

BARDOLPH	I will bestow a breakfast to make you friends; and
	we'll be all three sworn brothers to France: let it
	be so, good Corporal Nym.

NYM	Faith, I will live so long as I may, that's the
	certain of it; and when I cannot live any longer, I
	will do as I may: that is my rest, that is the
	rendezvous of it.

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

NYM	I cannot tell: things must be as they may: men may
	sleep, and they may have their throats about them at
	that time; and some say knives have edges. It must
	be as it may: though patience be a tired mare, yet
	she will plod. There must be conclusions. Well, I
	cannot tell.

	[Enter PISTOL and Hostess]

BARDOLPH	Here comes Ancient Pistol and his wife: good
	corporal, be patient here. How now, mine host Pistol!

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

Hostess	No, by my troth, not long; for we cannot lodge and
	board a dozen or fourteen gentlewomen that live
	honestly by the prick of their needles, but it will
	be thought we keep a bawdy house straight.

	[NYM and PISTOL draw]

	O well a day, Lady, if he be not drawn now! we
	shall see wilful adultery and murder committed.

BARDOLPH	Good lieutenant! good corporal! offer nothing here.

NYM	Pish!

PISTOL	Pish for thee, Iceland dog! thou prick-ear'd cur of Iceland!

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

NYM	Will you shog off? I would have you solus.

PISTOL	'Solus,' egregious dog? O viper vile!
	The 'solus' in thy most mervailous face;
	The 'solus' in thy teeth, and in thy throat,
	And in thy hateful lungs, yea, in thy maw, perdy,
	And, which is worse, within thy nasty mouth!
	I do retort the 'solus' in thy bowels;
	For I can take, and Pistol's cock is up,
	And flashing fire will follow.

NYM	I am not Barbason; you cannot conjure me. I have an
	humour to knock you indifferently well. If you grow
	foul with me, Pistol, I will scour you with my
	rapier, as I may, in fair terms: if you would walk
	off, I would prick your guts a little, in good
	terms, as I may: and that's the humour of it.

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

BARDOLPH	Hear me, hear me what I say: he that strikes the
	first stroke, I'll run him up to the hilts, as I am a soldier.

	[Draws]

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

NYM	I will cut thy throat, one time or other, in fair
	terms: that is the humour of it.

PISTOL	'Couple a gorge!'
	That is the word. I thee defy again.
	O hound of Crete, think'st thou my spouse to get?
	No; to the spital go,
	And from the powdering tub of infamy
	Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind,
	Doll Tearsheet she by name, and her espouse:
	I have, and I will hold, the quondam Quickly
	For the only she; and--pauca, there's enough. Go to.

	[Enter the Boy]

Boy	Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master, and
	you, hostess: he is very sick, and would to bed.
	Good Bardolph, put thy face between his sheets, and
	do the office of a warming-pan. Faith, he's very ill.

BARDOLPH	Away, you rogue!

Hostess	By my troth, he'll yield the crow a pudding one of
	these days. The king has killed his heart. Good
	husband, come home presently.

	[Exeunt Hostess and Boy]

BARDOLPH	Come, shall I make you two friends? We must to
	France together: why the devil should we keep
	knives to cut one another's throats?

PISTOL	Let floods o'erswell, and fiends for food howl on!

NYM	You'll pay me the eight shillings I won of you at betting?

PISTOL	Base is the slave that pays.

NYM	That now I will have: that's the humour of it.

PISTOL	As manhood shall compound: push home.

	[They draw]

BARDOLPH	By this sword, he that makes the first thrust, I'll
	kill him; by this sword, I will.

PISTOL	Sword is an oath, and oaths must have their course.

BARDOLPH	Corporal Nym, an thou wilt be friends, be friends:
	an thou wilt not, why, then, be enemies with me too.
	Prithee, put up.

NYM	I shall have my eight shillings I won of you at betting?

PISTOL	A noble shalt thou have, and present pay;
	And liquor likewise will I give to thee,
	And friendship shall combine, and brotherhood:
	I'll live by Nym, and Nym shall live by me;
	Is not this just? for I shall sutler be
	Unto the camp, and profits will accrue.
	Give me thy hand.

NYM	I shall have my noble?

PISTOL	In cash most justly paid.

NYM	Well, then, that's the humour of't.

	[Re-enter Hostess]

Hostess	As ever you came of women, come in quickly to Sir
	John. Ah, poor heart! he is so shaked of a burning
	quotidian tertian, that it is most lamentable to
	behold. Sweet men, come to him.

NYM	The king hath run bad humours on the knight; that's
	the even of it.

PISTOL	Nym, thou hast spoke the right;
	His heart is fracted and corroborate.

NYM	The king is a good king: but it must be as it may;
	he passes some humours and careers.

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




	KING HENRY V


ACT II



SCENE II	Southampton. A council-chamber.


	[Enter EXETER, BEDFORD, and WESTMORELAND]

BEDFORD	'Fore God, his grace is bold, to trust these traitors.

EXETER	They shall be apprehended by and by.

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

BEDFORD	The king hath note of all that they intend,
	By interception which they dream not of.

EXETER	Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow,
	Whom he hath dull'd and cloy'd with gracious favours,
	That he should, for a foreign purse, so sell
	His sovereign's life to death and treachery.

	[Trumpets sound. Enter KING HENRY V, SCROOP,
	CAMBRIDGE, GREY, and Attendants]

KING HENRY V	Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard.
	My Lord of Cambridge, and my kind Lord of Masham,
	And you, my gentle knight, give me your thoughts:
	Think you not that the powers we bear with us
	Will cut their passage through the force of France,
	Doing the execution and the act
	For which we have in head assembled them?

SCROOP	No doubt, my liege, if each man do his best.

KING HENRY V	I doubt not that; since we are well persuaded
	We carry not a heart with us from hence
	That grows not in a fair consent with ours,
	Nor leave not one behind that doth not wish
	Success and conquest to attend on us.

CAMBRIDGE	Never was monarch better fear'd and loved
	Than is your majesty: there's not, I think, a subject
	That sits in heart-grief and uneasiness
	Under the sweet shade of your government.

GREY	True: those that were your father's enemies
	Have steep'd their galls in honey and do serve you
	With hearts create of duty and of zeal.

KING HENRY V	We therefore have great cause of thankfulness;
	And shall forget the office of our hand,
	Sooner than quittance of desert and merit
	According to the weight and worthiness.

SCROOP	So service shall with steeled sinews toil,
	And labour shall refresh itself with hope,
	To do your grace incessant services.

KING HENRY V	We judge no less. Uncle of Exeter,
	Enlarge the man committed yesterday,
	That rail'd against our person: we consider
	it was excess of wine that set him on;
	And on his more advice we pardon him.

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

KING HENRY V	O, let us yet be merciful.

CAMBRIDGE	So may your highness, and yet punish too.

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

KING HENRY V	Alas, your too much love and care of me
	Are heavy orisons 'gainst this poor wretch!
	If little faults, proceeding on distemper,
	Shall not be wink'd at, how shall we stretch our eye
	When capital crimes, chew'd, swallow'd and digested,
	Appear before us? We'll yet enlarge that man,
	Though Cambridge, Scroop and Grey, in their dear care
	And tender preservation of our person,
	Would have him punished. And now to our French causes:
	Who are the late commissioners?

CAMBRIDGE	I one, my lord:
	Your highness bade me ask for it to-day.

SCROOP	So did you me, my liege.

GREY	And I, my royal sovereign.

KING HENRY V	Then, Richard Earl of Cambridge, there is yours;
	There yours, Lord Scroop of Masham; and, sir knight,
	Grey of Northumberland, this same is yours:
	Read them; and know, I know your worthiness.
	My Lord of Westmoreland, and uncle Exeter,
	We will aboard to night. Why, how now, gentlemen!
	What see you in those papers that you lose
	So much complexion? Look ye, how they change!
	Their cheeks are paper. Why, what read you there
	That hath so cowarded and chased your blood
	Out of appearance?

CAMBRIDGE	                  I do confess my fault;
	And do submit me to your highness' mercy.


GREY	|
	|  To which we all appeal.
SCROOP	|


KING HENRY V	The mercy that was quick in us but late,
	By your own counsel is suppress'd and kill'd:
	You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy;
	For your own reasons turn into your bosoms,
	As dogs upon their masters, worrying you.
	See you, my princes, and my noble peers,
	These English monsters! My Lord of Cambridge here,
	You know how apt our love was to accord
	To furnish him with all appertinents
	Belonging to his honour; and this man
	Hath, for a few light crowns, lightly conspired,
	And sworn unto the practises of France,
	To kill us here in Hampton: to the which
	This knight, no less for bounty bound to us
	Than Cambridge is, hath likewise sworn. But, O,
	What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop? thou cruel,
	Ingrateful, savage and inhuman creature!
	Thou that didst bear the key of all my counsels,
	That knew'st the very bottom of my soul,
	That almost mightst have coin'd me into gold,
	Wouldst thou have practised on me for thy use,
	May it be possible, that foreign hire
	Could out of thee extract one spark of evil
	That might annoy my finger? 'tis so strange,
	That, though the truth of it stands off as gross
	As black and white, my eye will scarcely see it.
	Treason and murder ever kept together,
	As two yoke-devils sworn to either's purpose,
	Working so grossly in a natural cause,
	That admiration did not whoop at them:
	But thou, 'gainst all proportion, didst bring in
	Wonder to wait on treason and on murder:
	And whatsoever cunning fiend it was
	That wrought upon thee so preposterously
	Hath got the voice in hell for excellence:
	All other devils that suggest by treasons
	Do botch and bungle up damnation
	With patches, colours, and with forms being fetch'd
	From glistering semblances of piety;
	But he that temper'd thee bade thee stand up,
	Gave thee no instance why thou shouldst do treason,
	Unless to dub thee with the name of traitor.
	If that same demon that hath gull'd thee thus
	Should with his lion gait walk the whole world,
	He might return to vasty Tartar back,
	And tell the legions 'I can never win
	A soul so easy as that Englishman's.'
	O, how hast thou with 'jealousy infected
	The sweetness of affiance! Show men dutiful?
	Why, so didst thou: seem they grave and learned?
	Why, so didst thou: come they of noble family?
	Why, so didst thou: seem they religious?
	Why, so didst thou: or are they spare in diet,
	Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger,
	Constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood,
	Garnish'd and deck'd in modest complement,
	Not working with the eye without the ear,
	And but in purged judgment trusting neither?
	Such and so finely bolted didst thou seem:
	And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot,
	To mark the full-fraught man and best indued
	With some suspicion. I will weep for thee;
	For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like
	Another fall of man. Their faults are open:
	Arrest them to the answer of the law;
	And God acquit them of their practises!

EXETER	   I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of
	Richard Earl of Cambridge.
	I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of
	Henry Lord Scroop of Masham.
	I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of
	Thomas Grey, knight, of Northumberland.

SCROOP	Our purposes God justly hath discover'd;
	And I repent my fault more than my death;
	Which I beseech your highness to forgive,
	Although my body pay the price of it.

CAMBRIDGE	For me, the gold of France did not seduce;
	Although I did admit it as a motive
	The sooner to effect what I intended:
	But God be thanked for prevention;
	Which I in sufferance heartily will rejoice,
	Beseeching God and you to pardon me.

GREY	Never did faithful subject more rejoice
	At the discovery of most dangerous treason
	Than I do at this hour joy o'er myself.
	Prevented from a damned enterprise:
	My fault, but not my body, pardon, sovereign.

KING HENRY V	God quit you in his mercy! Hear your sentence.
	You have conspired against our royal person,
	Join'd with an enemy proclaim'd and from his coffers
	Received the golden earnest of our death;
	Wherein you would have sold your king to slaughter,
	His princes and his peers to servitude,
	His subjects to oppression and contempt
	And his whole kingdom into desolation.
	Touching our person seek we no revenge;
	But we our kingdom's safety must so tender,
	Whose ruin you have sought, that to her laws
	We do deliver you. Get you therefore hence,
	Poor miserable wretches, to your death:
	The taste whereof, God of his mercy give
	You patience to endure, and true repentance
	Of all your dear offences! Bear them hence.

	[Exeunt CAMBRIDGE, SCROOP and GREY, guarded]

	Now, lords, for France; the enterprise whereof
	Shall be to you, as us, like glorious.
	We doubt not of a fair and lucky war,
	Since God so graciously hath brought to light
	This dangerous treason lurking in our way
	To hinder our beginnings. We doubt not now
	But every rub is smoothed on our way.
	Then forth, dear countrymen: let us deliver
	Our puissance into the hand of God,
	Putting it straight in expedition.
	Cheerly to sea; the signs of war advance:
	No king of England, if not king of France.

	[Exeunt]




	KING HENRY V


ACT II



SCENE III	London. Before a tavern.


	[Enter PISTOL, Hostess, NYM, BARDOLPH, and Boy]

Hostess	Prithee, honey-sweet husband, let me bring thee to Staines.

PISTOL	No; for my manly heart doth yearn.
	Bardolph, be blithe: Nym, rouse thy vaunting veins:
	Boy, bristle thy courage up; for Falstaff he is dead,
	And we must yearn therefore.

BARDOLPH	Would I were with him, wheresome'er he is, either in
	heaven or in hell!

Hostess	Nay, sure, he's not in hell: he's in Arthur's
	bosom, if ever man went to Arthur's bosom. A' made
	a finer end and went away an it had been any
	christom child; a' parted even just between twelve
	and one, even at the turning o' the tide: for after
	I saw him fumble with the sheets and play with
	flowers and smile upon his fingers' ends, I knew
	there was but one way; for his nose was as sharp as
	a pen, and a' babbled of green fields. 'How now,
	sir John!' quoth I	'what, man! be o' good
	cheer.' So a' cried out 'God, God, God!' three or
	four times. Now I, to comfort him, bid him a'
	should not think of God; I hoped there was no need
	to trouble himself with any such thoughts yet. So
	a' bade me lay more clothes on his feet: I put my
	hand into the bed and felt them, and they were as
	cold as any stone; then I felt to his knees, and
	they were as cold as any stone, and so upward and
	upward, and all was as cold as any stone.

NYM	They say he cried out of sack.

Hostess	Ay, that a' did.

BARDOLPH	And of women.

Hostess	Nay, that a' did not.

Boy	Yes, that a' did; and said they were devils
	incarnate.

Hostess	A' could never abide carnation; 'twas a colour he
	never liked.

Boy	A' said once, the devil would have him about women.

Hostess	A' did in some sort, indeed, handle women; but then
	he was rheumatic, and talked of the whore of Babylon.

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

BARDOLPH	Well, the fuel is gone that maintained that fire:
	that's all the riches I got in his service.

NYM	Shall we shog? the king will be gone from
	Southampton.

PISTOL	Come, let's away. My love, give me thy lips.
	Look to my chattels and my movables:
	Let senses rule; the word is 'Pitch and Pay:'
	Trust none;
	For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes,
	And hold-fast is the only dog, my duck:
	Therefore, Caveto be thy counsellor.
	Go, clear thy crystals. Yoke-fellows in arms,
	Let us to France; like horse-leeches, my boys,
	To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck!

Boy	And that's but unwholesome food they say.

PISTOL	Touch her soft mouth, and march.

BARDOLPH	Farewell, hostess.

	[Kissing her]

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

PISTOL	Let housewifery appear: keep close, I thee command.

Hostess	Farewell; adieu.

	[Exeunt]




	KING HENRY V


ACT II



SCENE IV	France. The KING'S palace.


	[Flourish. Enter the FRENCH KING, the DAUPHIN, the
	DUKES of BERRI and BRETAGNE, the Constable, and others]

KING OF FRANCE	Thus comes the English with full power upon us;
	And more than carefully it us concerns
	To answer royally in our defences.
	Therefore the Dukes of Berri and of Bretagne,
	Of Brabant and of Orleans, shall make forth,
	And you, Prince Dauphin, with all swift dispatch,
	To line and new repair our towns of war
	With men of courage and with means defendant;
	For England his approaches makes as fierce
	As waters to the sucking of a gulf.
	It fits us then to be as provident
	As fear may teach us out of late examples
	Left by the fatal and neglected English
	Upon our fields.

DAUPHIN	                  My most redoubted father,
	It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe;
	For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom,
	Though war nor no known quarrel were in question,
	But that defences, musters, preparations,
	Should be maintain'd, assembled and collected,
	As were a war in expectation.
	Therefore, I say 'tis meet we all go forth
	To view the sick and feeble parts of France:
	And let us do it with no show of fear;
	No, with no more than if we heard that England
	Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance:
	For, my good liege, she is so idly king'd,
	Her sceptre so fantastically borne
	By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth,
	That fear attends her not.

Constable	O peace, Prince Dauphin!
	You are too much mistaken in this king:
	Question your grace the late ambassadors,
	With what great state he heard their embassy,
	How well supplied with noble counsellors,
	How modest in exception, and withal
	How terrible in constant resolution,
	And you shall find his vanities forespent
	Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus,
	Covering discretion with a coat of folly;
	As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots
	That shall first spring and be most delicate.

DAUPHIN	Well, 'tis not so, my lord high constable;
	But though we think it so, it is no matter:
	In cases of defence 'tis best to weigh
	The enemy more mighty than he seems:
	So the proportions of defence are fill'd;
	Which of a weak or niggardly projection
	Doth, like a miser, spoil his coat with scanting
	A little cloth.

KING OF FRANCE	                  Think we King Harry strong;
	And, princes, look you strongly arm to meet him.
	The kindred of him hath been flesh'd upon us;
	And he is bred out of that bloody strain
	That haunted us in our familiar paths:
	Witness our too much memorable shame
	When Cressy battle fatally was struck,
	And all our princes captiv'd by the hand
	Of that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales;
	Whiles that his mountain sire, on mountain standing,
	Up in the air, crown'd with the golden sun,
	Saw his heroical seed, and smiled to see him,
	Mangle the work of nature and deface
	The patterns that by God and by French fathers
	Had twenty years been made. This is a stem
	Of that victorious stock; and let us fear
	The native mightiness and fate of him.

	[Enter a Messenger]

Messenger	Ambassadors from Harry King of England
	Do crave admittance to your majesty.

KING OF FRANCE	We'll give them present audience. Go, and bring them.

	[Exeunt Messenger and certain Lords]

	You see this chase is hotly follow'd, friends.

DAUPHIN	Turn head, and stop pursuit; for coward dogs
	Most spend their mouths when what they seem to threaten
	Runs far before them. Good my sovereign,
	Take up the English short, and let them know
	Of what a monarchy you are the head:
	Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin
	As self-neglecting.

	[Re-enter Lords, with EXETER and train]

KING OF FRANCE	From our brother England?

EXETER	From him; and thus he greets your majesty.
	He wills you, in the name of God Almighty,
	That you divest yourself, and lay apart
	The borrow'd glories that by gift of heaven,
	By law of nature and of nations, 'long
	To him and to his heirs; namely, the crown
	And all wide-stretched honours that pertain
	By custom and the ordinance of times
	Unto the crown of France. That you may know
	'Tis no sinister nor no awkward claim,
	Pick'd from the worm-holes of long-vanish'd days,
	Nor from the dust of old oblivion raked,
	He sends you this most memorable line,
	In every branch truly demonstrative;
	Willing to overlook this pedigree:
	And when you find him evenly derived
	From his most famed of famous ancestors,
	Edward the Third, he bids you then resign
	Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held
	From him the native and true challenger.

KING OF FRANCE	Or else what follows?

EXETER	Bloody constraint; for if you hide the crown
	Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it:
	Therefore in fierce tempest is he coming,
	In thunder and in earthquake, like a Jove,
	That, if requiring fail, he will compel;
	And bids you, in the bowels of the Lord,
	Deliver up the crown, and to take mercy
	On the poor souls for whom this hungry war
	Opens his vasty jaws; and on your head
	Turning the widows' tears, the orphans' cries
	The dead men's blood, the pining maidens groans,
	For husbands, fathers and betrothed lovers,
	That shall be swallow'd in this controversy.
	This is his claim, his threatening and my message;
	Unless the Dauphin be in presence here,
	To whom expressly I bring greeting too.

KING OF FRANCE	For us, we will consider of this further:
	To-morrow shall you bear our full intent
	Back to our brother England.

DAUPHIN	For the Dauphin,
	I stand here for him: what to him from England?

EXETER	Scorn and defiance; slight regard, contempt,
	And any thing that may not misbecome
	The mighty sender, doth he prize you at.
	Thus says my king; an' if your father's highness
	Do not, in grant of all demands at large,
	Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his majesty,
	He'll call you to so hot an answer of it,
	That caves and womby vaultages of France
	Shall chide your trespass and return your mock
	In second accent of his ordnance.

DAUPHIN	Say, if my father render fair return,
	It is against my will; for I desire
	Nothing but odds with England: to that end,
	As matching to his youth and vanity,
	I did present him with the Paris balls.

EXETER	He'll make your Paris Louvre shake for it,
	Were it the mistress-court of mighty Europe:
	And, be assured, you'll find a difference,
	As we his subjects have in wonder found,
	Between the promise of his greener days
	And these he masters now: now he weighs time
	Even to the utmost grain: that you shall read
	In your own losses, if he stay in France.

KING OF FRANCE	To-morrow shall you know our mind at full.

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

KING OF FRANCE	You shall be soon dispatch's with fair conditions:
	A night is but small breath and little pause
	To answer matters of this consequence.

	[Flourish. Exeunt]




	KING HENRY V


ACT III


	PROLOGUE.


	[Enter Chorus]

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

	[Alarum, and chambers go off]

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

	[Exit]




	KING HENRY V


ACT III



SCENE I	France. Before Harfleur.


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

KING HENRY V	Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
	Or close the wall up with our English dead.
	In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
	As modest stillness and humility:
	But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
	Then imitate the action of the tiger;
	Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
	Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
	Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
	Let pry through the portage of the head
	Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
	As fearfully as doth a galled rock
	O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
	Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
	Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
	Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
	To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.
	Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
	Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
	Have in these parts from morn till even fought
	And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
	Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
	That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.
	Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
	And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,
	Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
	The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
	That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
	For there is none of you so mean and base,
	That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
	I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
	Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
	Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
	Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'

	[Exeunt. Alarum, and chambers go off]




	KING HENRY V


ACT III



SCENE II	The same.


	[Enter NYM, BARDOLPH, PISTOL, and Boy]

BARDOLPH	On, on, on, on, on! to the breach, to the breach!

NYM	Pray thee, corporal, stay: the knocks are too hot;
	and, for mine own part, I have not a case of lives:
	the humour of it is too hot, that is the very
	plain-song of it.

PISTOL	The plain-song is most just: for humours do abound:
	Knocks go and come; God's vassals drop and die;
	And sword and shield,
	In bloody field,
	Doth win immortal fame.

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

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

Boy	          As duly, but not as truly,
	As bird doth sing on bough.

	[Enter FLUELLEN]

FLUELLEN	Up to the breach, you dogs! avaunt, you cullions!

	[Driving them forward]

PISTOL	Be merciful, great duke, to men of mould.
	Abate thy rage, abate thy manly rage,
	Abate thy rage, great duke!
	Good bawcock, bate thy rage; use lenity, sweet chuck!

NYM	These be good humours! your honour wins bad humours.

	[Exeunt all but Boy]

Boy	As young as I am, I have observed these three
	swashers. I am boy to them all three: but all they
	three, though they would serve me, could not be man
	to me; for indeed three such antics do not amount to
	a man. For Bardolph, he is white-livered and
	red-faced; by the means whereof a' faces it out, but
	fights not. For Pistol, he hath a killing tongue
	and a quiet sword; by the means whereof a' breaks
	words, and keeps whole weapons. For Nym, he hath
	heard that men of few words are the best men; and
	therefore he scorns to say his prayers, lest a'
	should be thought a coward: but his few bad words
	are matched with as few good deeds; for a' never
	broke any man's head but his own, and that was
	against a post when he was drunk. They will steal
	any thing, and call it purchase. Bardolph stole a
	lute-case, bore it twelve leagues, and sold it for
	three half pence. Nym and Bardolph are sworn
	brothers in filching, and in Calais they stole a
	fire-shovel: I knew by that piece of service the
	men would carry coals. They would have me as
	familiar with men's pockets as their gloves or their
	handkerchers: which makes much against my manhood,
	if I should take from another's pocket to put into
	mine; for it is plain pocketing up of wrongs. I
	must leave them, and seek some better service:
	their villany goes against my weak stomach, and
	therefore I must cast it up.

	[Exit]

	[Re-enter FLUELLEN, GOWER following]

GOWER	Captain Fluellen, you must come presently to the
	mines; the Duke of Gloucester would speak with you.

FLUELLEN	To the mines! tell you the duke, it is not so good
	to come to the mines; for, look you, the mines is
	not according to the disciplines of the war: the
	concavities of it is not sufficient; for, look you,
	the athversary, you may discuss unto the duke, look
	you, is digt himself four yard under the
	countermines: by Cheshu, I think a' will plough up
	all, if there is not better directions.

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

FLUELLEN	It is Captain Macmorris, is it not?

GOWER	I think it be.

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

	[Enter MACMORRIS and Captain JAMY]

GOWER	Here a' comes; and the Scots captain, Captain Jamy, with him.

FLUELLEN	Captain Jamy is a marvellous falourous gentleman,
	that is certain; and of great expedition and
	knowledge in th' aunchient wars, upon my particular
	knowledge of his directions: by Cheshu, he will
	maintain his argument as well as any military man in
	the world, in the disciplines of the pristine wars
	of the Romans.

JAMY	I say gud-day, Captain Fluellen.

FLUELLEN	God-den to your worship, good Captain James.

GOWER	How now, Captain Macmorris! have you quit the
	mines? have the pioneers given o'er?

MACMORRIS	By Chrish, la! tish ill done: the work ish give
	over, the trompet sound the retreat. By my hand, I
	swear, and my father's soul, the work ish ill done;
	it ish give over: I would have blowed up the town, so
	Chrish save me, la! in an hour: O, tish ill done,
	tish ill done; by my hand, tish ill done!

FLUELLEN	Captain Macmorris, I beseech you now, will you
	voutsafe me, look you, a few disputations with you,
	as partly touching or concerning the disciplines of
	the war, the Roman wars, in the way of argument,
	look you, and friendly communication; partly to
	satisfy my opinion, and partly for the satisfaction,
	look you, of my mind, as touching the direction of
	the military discipline; that is the point.

JAMY	It sall be vary gud, gud feith, gud captains bath:
	and I sall quit you with gud leve, as I may pick
	occasion; that sall I, marry.

MACMORRIS	It is no time to discourse, so Chrish save me: the
	day is hot, and the weather, and the wars, and the
	king, and the dukes: it is no time to discourse. The
	town is beseeched, and the trumpet call us to the
	breach; and we talk, and, be Chrish, do nothing:
	'tis shame for us all: so God sa' me, 'tis shame to
	stand still; it is shame, by my hand: and there is
	throats to be cut, and works to be done; and there
	ish nothing done, so Chrish sa' me, la!

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

FLUELLEN	Captain Macmorris, I think, look you, under your
	correction, there is not many of your nation--

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

FLUELLEN	Look you, if you take the matter otherwise than is
	meant, Captain Macmorris, peradventure I shall think
	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.

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

GOWER	Gentlemen both, you will mistake each other.

JAMY	A! that's a foul fault.

	[A parley sounded]

GOWER	The town sounds a parley.

FLUELLEN	Captain Macmorris, when there is more better
	opportunity to be required, look you, I will be so
	bold as to tell you I know the disciplines of war;
	and there is an end.

	[Exeunt]




	KING HENRY V


ACT III



SCENE III	The same. Before the gates.


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

KING HENRY V	How yet resolves the governor of the town?
	This is the latest parle we will admit;
	Therefore to our best mercy give yourselves;
	Or like to men proud of destruction
	Defy us to our worst: for, as I am a soldier,
	A name that in my thoughts becomes me best,
	If I begin the battery once again,
	I will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur
	Till in her ashes she lie buried.
	The gates of mercy shall be all shut up,
	And the flesh'd soldier, rough and hard of heart,
	In liberty of bloody hand shall range
	With conscience wide as hell, mowing like grass
	Your fresh-fair virgins and your flowering infants.
	What is it then to me, if impious war,
	Array'd in flames like to the prince of fiends,
	Do, with his smirch'd complexion, all fell feats
	Enlink'd to waste and desolation?
	What is't to me, when you yourselves are cause,
	If your pure maidens fall into the hand
	Of hot and forcing violation?
	What rein can hold licentious wickedness
	When down the hill he holds his fierce career?
	We may as bootless spend our vain command
	Upon the enraged soldiers in their spoil
	As send precepts to the leviathan
	To come ashore. Therefore, you men of Harfleur,
	Take pity of your town and of your people,
	Whiles yet my soldiers are in my command;
	Whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace
	O'erblows the filthy and contagious clouds
	Of heady murder, spoil and villany.
	If not, why, in a moment look to see
	The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand
	Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters;
	Your fathers taken by the silver beards,
	And their most reverend heads dash'd to the walls,
	Your naked infants spitted upon pikes,
	Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confused
	Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry
	At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen.
	What say you? will you yield, and this avoid,
	Or, guilty in defence, be thus destroy'd?

GOVERNOR	Our expectation hath this day an end:
	The Dauphin, whom of succors we entreated,
	Returns us that his powers are yet not ready
	To raise so great a siege. Therefore, great king,
	We yield our town and lives to thy soft mercy.
	Enter our gates; dispose of us and ours;
	For we no longer are defensible.

KING HENRY V	Open your gates. Come, uncle Exeter,
	Go you and enter Harfleur; there remain,
	And fortify it strongly 'gainst the French:
	Use mercy to them all. For us, dear uncle,
	The winter coming on and sickness growing
	Upon our soldiers, we will retire to Calais.
	To-night in Harfleur we will be your guest;
	To-morrow for the march are we addrest.

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




	KING HENRY V


ACT III



SCENE IV	The FRENCH KING's palace.


	[Enter KATHARINE and ALICE]

KATHARINE	Alice, tu as ete en Angleterre, et tu parles bien le langage.

ALICE	Un peu, madame.

KATHARINE	Je te prie, m'enseignez: il faut que j'apprenne a
	parler. Comment appelez-vous la main en Anglois?

ALICE	La main? elle est appelee de hand.

KATHARINE	De hand. Et les doigts?

ALICE	Les doigts? ma foi, j'oublie les doigts; mais je me
	souviendrai. Les doigts? je pense qu'ils sont
	appeles de fingres; oui, de fingres.

KATHARINE	La main, de hand; les doigts, de fingres. Je pense
	que je suis le bon ecolier; j'ai gagne deux mots
	d'Anglois vitement. Comment appelez-vous les ongles?

ALICE	Les ongles? nous les appelons de nails.

KATHARINE	De nails. Ecoutez; dites-moi, si je parle bien: de
	hand, de fingres, et de nails.

ALICE	C'est bien dit, madame; il est fort bon Anglois.

KATHARINE	Dites-moi l'Anglois pour le bras.

ALICE	De arm, madame.

KATHARINE	Et le coude?

ALICE	De elbow.

KATHARINE	De elbow. Je m'en fais la repetition de tous les
	mots que vous m'avez appris des a present.

ALICE	Il est trop difficile, madame, comme je pense.

KATHARINE	Excusez-moi, Alice; ecoutez: de hand, de fingres,
	de nails, de arma, de bilbow.

ALICE	De elbow, madame.

KATHARINE	O Seigneur Dieu, je m'en oublie! de elbow. Comment
	appelez-vous le col?

ALICE	De neck, madame.

KATHARINE	De nick. Et le menton?

ALICE	De chin.

KATHARINE	De sin. Le col, de nick; de menton, de sin.

ALICE	Oui. Sauf votre honneur, en verite, vous prononcez
	les mots aussi droit que les natifs d'Angleterre.

KATHARINE	Je ne doute point d'apprendre, par la grace de Dieu,
	et en peu de temps.

ALICE	N'avez vous pas deja oublie ce que je vous ai enseigne?

KATHARINE	Non, je reciterai a vous promptement: de hand, de
	fingres, de mails--

ALICE	De nails, madame.

KATHARINE	De nails, de arm, de ilbow.

ALICE	Sauf votre honneur, de elbow.

KATHARINE	Ainsi dis-je; de elbow, de nick, et de sin. Comment
	appelez-vous le pied et la robe?

ALICE	De foot, madame; et de coun.

KATHARINE	De foot et de coun! O Seigneur Dieu! ce sont mots
	de son mauvais, corruptible, gros, et impudique, et
	non pour les dames d'honneur d'user: je ne voudrais
	prononcer ces mots devant les seigneurs de France
	pour tout le monde. Foh! le foot et le coun!
	Neanmoins, je reciterai une autre fois ma lecon
	ensemble: de hand, de fingres, de nails, de arm, de
	elbow, de nick, de sin, de foot, de coun.

ALICE	Excellent, madame!

KATHARINE	C'est assez pour une fois: allons-nous a diner.

	[Exeunt]




	KING HENRY V


ACT III



SCENE V	The same.


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

KING OF FRANCE	'Tis certain he hath pass'd the river Somme.

Constable	And if he be not fought withal, my lord,
	Let us not live in France; let us quit all
	And give our vineyards to a barbarous people.

DAUPHIN	O Dieu vivant! shall a few sprays of us,
	The emptying of our fathers' luxury,
	Our scions, put in wild and savage stock,
	Spirt up so suddenly into the clouds,
	And overlook their grafters?

BOURBON	Normans, but bastard Normans, Norman bastards!
	Mort de ma vie! if they march along
	Unfought withal, but I will sell my dukedom,
	To buy a slobbery and a dirty farm
	In that nook-shotten isle of Albion.

Constable	Dieu de batailles! where have they this mettle?
	Is not their climate foggy, raw and dull,
	On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale,
	Killing their fruit with frowns? Can sodden water,
	A drench for sur-rein'd jades, their barley-broth,
	Decoct their cold blood to such valiant heat?
	And shall our quick blood, spirited with wine,
	Seem frosty? O, for honour of our land,
	Let us not hang like roping icicles
	Upon our houses' thatch, whiles a more frosty people
	Sweat drops of gallant youth in our rich fields!
	Poor we may call them in their native lords.

DAUPHIN	By faith and honour,
	Our madams mock at us, and plainly say
	Our mettle is bred out and they will give
	Their bodies to the lust of English youth
	To new-store France with bastard warriors.

BOURBON	They bid us to the English dancing-schools,
	And teach lavoltas high and swift corantos;
	Saying our grace is only in our heels,
	And that we are most lofty runaways.

KING OF FRANCE	Where is Montjoy the herald? speed him hence:
	Let him greet England with our sharp defiance.
	Up, princes! and, with spirit of ho