Henry V Read online

  Seem frosty? O, for honour of our land,

  Let us not hang like roping23 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.26

  DAUPHIN By faith and honour,

  Our madams28 mock at us, and plainly say

  Our mettle is bred out29 and they will give

  Their bodies to the lust of English youth

  To new-store31 France with bastard warriors.

  BOURBON They bid us to the English dancing-schools,

  And teach lavoltas high and swift corantos33,

  Saying our grace is only in our heels34

  And that we are most lofty35 runaways.

  FRENCH KING Where is Montjoy the herald?36 Speed him hence.

  Let him greet England37 with our sharp defiance.

  Up, princes, and with spirit of honour edged

  More sharper than your swords, hie39 to the field:

  Charles Delabret, High Constable of France,

  You Dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and of Berri,

  Alencon, Brabant, Bar, and Burgundy;

  Jaques Chatillion, Rambures, Vaudemont,

  Beaumont, Grandpre, Roussi, and Fauconbridge,

  Foix, Lestrale, Boucicault, and Charolais,

  High dukes, great princes, barons, lords and knights,

  For your great seats47 now quit you of great shames.

  Bar48 Harry England, that sweeps through our land

  With pennons49 painted in the blood of Harfleur.

  Rush on his host50, as doth the melted snow

  Upon the valleys, whose low vassal seat

  The Alps doth spit and void52 his rheum upon.

  Go down upon him, you have power enough,

  And in a captive chariot into Rouen54

  Bring him our prisoner.

  CONSTABLE This becomes the great.56

  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,

  He'll drop his heart60 into the sink of fear

  And for achievement61 offer us his ransom.

  FRENCH KING Therefore, lord constable, haste on62 Montjoy,

  And let him say to England that we send

  To know what willing ransom he will give.--

  Prince Dauphin, you shall stay with us in Rouen.

  DAUPHIN Not so, I do beseech your majesty.

  FRENCH KING Be patient, for you shall remain with us.--

  Now forth, lord constable and princes all,

  And quickly bring us word of England's fall.

  Exeunt

  [Act 3 Scene 6]

  running scene 8

  Enter Captains, English and Welsh: Gower and Fluellen

  GOWER How now, Captain Fluellen? Come you from the

  bridge?2

  FLUELLEN I assure you, there is very excellent services3

  committed at the bridge.

  GOWER Is the Duke of Exeter safe?

  FLUELLEN The Duke of Exeter is as magnanimous6 as

  Agamemnon7, and a man that I love and honour with my

  soul and my heart and my duty and my life and my living

  and my uttermost power. He is not -- God be praised and

  blessed! -- any hurt in the world, but keeps the bridge most

  valiantly, with excellent discipline. There is an aunchient

  lieutenant there at the pridge12, I think in my very conscience

  he is as valiant a man as Mark Antony13, and he is a man of no

  estimation in the world, but I did see him do as gallant

  service.

  GOWER What do you call him?

  FLUELLEN He is called Aunchient17 Pistol.

  GOWER I know him not.

  Enter Pistol

  FLUELLEN Here is the man.

  PISTOL Captain, I thee beseech to do me favours:

  The Duke of Exeter doth love thee well.

  FLUELLEN Ay, I praise God, and I have merited some love at his

  hands.

  PISTOL Bardolph, a soldier, firm and sound of heart,

  And of buxom25 valour, hath, by cruel fate,

  And giddy26 Fortune's furious fickle wheel,

  That goddess blind,

  That stands upon the rolling restless stone28--

  FLUELLEN By your patience29, Aunchient Pistol. Fortune is

  painted blind, with a muffler30 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.36

  PISTOL Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him,

  For he hath stol'n a pax38,

  And hanged must a be -- a damned death!

  Let gallows gape for dog, let man go free

  And let not hemp41 his wind-pipe suffocate.

  But Exeter hath given the doom42 of death

  For pax of little price.

  Therefore, go speak -- the duke will hear thy voice --

  And let not Bardolph's vital thread45 be cut

  With edge of penny cord46 and vile reproach.

  Speak, captain, for his life, and I will thee requite.47

  FLUELLEN Aunchient Pistol, I do partly48 understand your

  meaning.

  PISTOL Why then, rejoice therefore.

  FLUELLEN Certainly, aunchient, it is not a thing to rejoice at,

  for if52, look you, he were my brother, I would desire the duke

  to use his good pleasure and put him to execution; for

  discipline ought to be used.

  PISTOL Die and be damned! And figo55 for thy friendship!

  FLUELLEN It is well.

  PISTOL The fig of Spain!

  Exit

  FLUELLEN Very good.

  GOWER Why, this is an arrant59 counterfeit rascal. I

  remember him now: a bawd60, a cutpurse.

  FLUELLEN I'll assure you, a uttered as prave words at the

  pridge as you shall see in a summer's day.62 But it is very well.

  What he has spoke to me, that is well, I warrant63 you, when

  time is serve.64

  GOWER Why, 'tis a gull65, a fool, a rogue, that now and then

  goes to the wars to grace himself at his return into London

  under the form of a soldier; and such fellows are perfect67 in

  the great commanders' names, and they will learn you68 by

  rote where services were done; at such and such a sconce69, at

  such a breach, at such a convoy70, who came off bravely, who

  was shot, who disgraced, what terms the enemy stood on71 --

  and this they con72 perfectly in the phrase of war, which they

  trick up73 with new-tuned oaths. And what a beard of the

  general's cut74 and a horrid suit of the camp will do among

  foaming bottles and ale-washed75 wits is wonderful to be

  thought on. But you must learn to know such slanders of76

  the age, or else you may be marvellously mistook.77

  FLUELLEN I tell you what, Captain Gower, I do perceive he is

  not the man that he would gladly make show to the world he

  is: if I find a hole in his coat80, I will tell him my mind. Hark

  you, the king is coming and I must speak with

  him from82 the pridge.

  Drum heard

  Drum and colours. Enter the King and his poor Soldiers [and Gloucester]

  God pless your majesty!

  KING HENRY V How now, Fluellen? Cam'st thou from the bridge?

&nb
sp; FLUELLEN Ay, so please your majesty. The Duke of Exeter has

  very gallantly maintained the pridge; the French is gone off,

  look you, and there is gallant and most prave passages.87

  Marry, th'athversary was have88 possession of the pridge, but

  he is enforced89 to retire, and the Duke of Exeter is master of

  the pridge. I can tell your majesty, the duke is a prave man.

  KING HENRY V What men have you lost, Fluellen?

  FLUELLEN The perdition92 of th'athversary hath been very

  great, reasonable great. Marry, for my part, I think the duke

  hath lost never a man94, but one that is like to be executed for

  robbing a church, one Bardolph, if your majesty know the

  man: his face is all bubukles96 and whelks and knobs and

  flames o' fire97, and his lips blows at his nose and it is like a coal

  of fire, sometimes plue and sometimes red. But his nose is

  executed and his fire's out.

  KING HENRY V We would have all such offenders so cut off100: and

  we give express charge101, that in our marches through the

  country, there be nothing compelled102 from the villages,

  nothing taken but paid for, none of the French upbraided or

  abused in disdainful language; for when lenity104 and cruelty

  play for a kingdom, the gentler gamester105 is the soonest

  winner.

  Tucket. Enter Montjoy

  MONTJOY You know me by my habit.107

  KING HENRY V Well then, I know thee: what shall I know of108 thee?

  MONTJOY My master's mind.

  KING HENRY V Unfold110 it.

  MONTJOY Thus says my king: 'Say thou to Harry of England,

  though we seemed dead, we did but sleep. Advantage112 is a

  better soldier than rashness. Tell him we could have rebuked113

  him at Harfleur, but that we thought not good to bruise an114

  injury till it were full ripe. Now we speak upon our cue115, and

  our voice is imperial: England shall repent his folly, see his

  weakness, and admire our sufferance.117 Bid him therefore

  consider of his ransom, which must proportion118 the losses we

  have borne, the subjects we have lost, the disgrace we have

  digested120; which in weight to re-answer, his pettiness would

  bow under. For our losses, his exchequer is too poor; for

  th'effusion of our blood, the muster122 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 far126 my

  king and master; so much my office.

  KING HENRY V What is thy name? I know thy quality.128

  MONTJOY Montjoy.

  KING HENRY v Thou dost thy office fairly. Turn thee back,

  And tell thy king I do not seek him now,

  But could be willing to march on to Calais

  Without impeachment.133 For, to say the sooth,

  Though 'tis no wisdom to confess so much

  Unto an enemy of craft and vantage135,

  My people are with sickness much enfeebled,

  My numbers lessened, and those few I have,

  Almost no better than so many French;

  Who when they were in health, I tell thee, herald,

  I thought upon one pair of English legs

  Did march three Frenchmen.-- Yet, forgive me, God,

  That I do brag thus. This your air of France

  Hath blown that vice in me: I must repent.--

  Go therefore, tell thy master here I am;

  My ransom is this frail and worthless trunk145;

  My army but a weak and sickly guard:

  Yet, God before147, tell him we will come on,

  Though France himself and such another neighbour

  Stand in our way. There's for thy labour, Montjoy.

  Gives money

  Go bid thy master well advise himself.

  If we may pass, we will. If we be hindered,

  We shall your tawny152 ground with your red blood

  Discolour. And so Montjoy, fare you well.

  The sum of all our answer is but this:

  We would not seek a battle, as we are,

  Nor, as we are, we say we will not shun it.

  So tell your master.

  MONTJOY I shall deliver so. Thanks to your highness.

  [Exit]

  GLOUCESTER I hope they will not come upon us now.

  KING HENRY V We are in God's hand, brother, not in theirs.

  March to the bridge, it now draws toward night.

  Beyond the river we'll encamp ourselves,

  And on tomorrow, bid them163 march away.

  Exeunt

  [Act 3 Scene 7]

  running scene 9

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

  CONSTABLE Tut, I have the best armour of the world. Would it

  were day!

  ORLEANS You have an excellent armour, but let my horse

  have his due.

  CONSTABLE It is the best horse of Europe.

  ORLEANS Will it never be morning?

  DAUPHIN My lord of Orleans, and my lord high constable, you

  talk of horse and armour?

  ORLEANS You are as well provided of both as any prince in the

  world.

  DAUPHIN What a long night is this? I will not change my

  horse with any that treads but on four pasterns.12 Ch'ha! He

  bounds from the earth, as if his entrails13 were hairs: le cheval

  volant, the Pegasus14, chez les narines de feu! When I bestride

  him, I soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air, the earth sings

  when he touches it, the basest horn16 of his hoof is more

  musical than the pipe17 of Hermes.

  ORLEANS He's of the colour of the nutmeg.

  DAUPHIN And of the heat of the ginger. It is a beast for

  Perseus20: 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 jades23 you may call beasts.

  CONSTABLE Indeed, my lord, it is a most absolute24 and excellent

  horse.

  DAUPHIN It is the prince of palfreys.26 His neigh is like the

  bidding27 of a monarch and his countenance enforces

  homage.

  ORLEANS No more, cousin.

  DAUPHIN Nay, the man hath no wit that cannot, from the

  rising of the lark to the31 lodging of the lamb, vary deserved

  praise on my palfrey. It is a theme as fluent as the sea: turn

  the sands33 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 particular36

  functions and wonder at him. I once writ a sonnet in his

  praise and began thus: 'Wonder of nature'--

  ORLEANS I have heard a sonnet begin so to one's mistress.

  DAUPHIN Then did they imitate that which I composed to my

  courser41, for my horse is my mistress.

  ORLEANS Your mistress bears42 well.

  DAUPHIN Me43 well, which is the prescript praise and perfection

  of a good and particular44 mistress.

  CONSTABLE Nay, for methought yesterday your mistress

  shrewdly46 shook your back.

  DAUPHIN So perhaps did yours.

  CONSTABLE Mine was not bridled.48

  DAUPHIN O, then belike49 sh
e was old and gentle, and you rode

  like a kern of Ireland50, your French hose off, and in your

  straight strossers.51

  CONSTABLE You have good judgement in horsemanship.52

  DAUPHIN Be warned by me, then: they that ride so and ride

  not warily, fall into foul bogs.54 I had rather have my horse to

  my mistress.

  CONSTABLE I had as lief56 have my mistress a jade.

  DAUPHIN I tell thee, constable, my mistress wears his own57

  hair.

  CONSTABLE I could make as true a boast as that, if I had a sow

  to60 my mistress.

  DAUPHIN 'Le chien est retourne a son propre vomissement, et la61

  truie lavee au bourbier.' Thou makest use of anything.

  CONSTABLE Yet do I not use63 my horse for my mistress, or any

  such proverb so little kin to the purpose.64

  RAMBURES My lord constable, the armour that I saw in your

  tent tonight, are those stars or suns upon it?

  CONSTABLE Stars, my lord.

  DAUPHIN Some of them will fall68 tomorrow, I hope.

  CONSTABLE And yet my sky shall not want.69

  DAUPHIN That may be, for you bear a many70 superfluously and

  'twere more honour71 some were away.

  CONSTABLE Ev'n72 as your horse bears your praises, who would

  trot as well, were some of your brags dismounted.

  DAUPHIN Would I were able to load him with his desert!74 Will it

  never be day? I will trot tomorrow a mile, and my way shall

  be paved with English faces.

  CONSTABLE I will not say so, for fear I should be faced out of my77

  way. But I would it were morning, for I would fain be about78

  the ears of the English.

  RAMBURES Who will go to hazard80 with me for twenty

  prisoners?

  CONSTABLE You must first go yourself to hazard82, ere you have

  them.

  DAUPHIN 'Tis midnight, I'll go arm myself.

  Exit

  ORLEANS The dauphin longs for morning.

  RAMBURES He longs to eat the English.

  CONSTABLE I think he will eat all he kills.87

  ORLEANS By the white hand of my lady, he's a gallant prince.

  CONSTABLE Swear by her foot89, that she may tread out the oath.

  ORLEANS He is simply the most active90 gentleman of France.

  CONSTABLE Doing91 is activity, and he will still be doing.

  ORLEANS He never did harm92, that I heard of.

  CONSTABLE Nor will do none tomorrow: he will keep that good

  name still.

  ORLEANS I know him to be valiant.

  CONSTABLE I was told that by one that knows him better than

  you.

  ORLEANS What's98 he?

  CONSTABLE Marry, he99 told me so himself, and he said he cared

  not who knew it.

  ORLEANS He needs not, it is no hidden virtue101 in him.

  CONSTABLE By my faith, sir, but it is: never anybody saw it but

  his lackey.103 'Tis a hooded valour, and when it appears, it will

  bate.104

  ORLEANS Ill will never said well.

  CONSTABLE I will cap that proverb with 'There is flattery in

  friendship.'