heart, Of buxom valour, hath,-by cruel fate, That stands upon the rolling restless stone, Flu. By your patience, ancient Pistol. Fortune is painted plind, with a muffler before her eyes, to signify to you that fortune is plind: 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 variations, and mutabilities: and her foot, look you, is fixed upon a spherical stone, which rolls, and rolls, and rolls;-In good truth, the poet is make a most excellent description of fortune: fortune, look you, is an excellent moral. Pist. Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him; For he hath stolen a pix, and hanged must 'a be, Let gallows gape for dog, let man go free, Therefore, go speak, the duke will hear thy voice; Pist. Why then rejoice therefore. Flu. Certainly, ancient, it is not a thing to rejoice at: for if, look you, he were my brother, I would desire the duke to use his goot pleasure, and put him to executions; for disciplines ought to be used. Pist. Die and be damn'd; and figo4 for thy friendship! Flu. It is well. Pist. The fig of Spain! Flu. Very good. [Exit Pistol Gow. Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal; I remember him now; a bawd, a cut-purse. Flu. I'll assure you, 'a utter'd as prave 'ords at the pridge, as you shall see in a summer's day But it is very well; what he has spoke to me, that is well, I warrant you, when time is serve. Enter King Henry, Gloster, and soldiers. K. Hen. How now, Fluellen? camest thou from the bridge? Flu. 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: 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. K. Hen. What men have you lost, Fluellen? Flu. The perdition of th'athversary hath been very great, very reasonable great: marry, for my part, I think the duke bath 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 of fire; and his lips plows at his nose, and it is like a coal of fire, sometimes plue, and some times red; but his nose is executed, and his fire's out. K. Hen. We would have all such offenders so cut off:-and we give express charge, that in our marches through the country, there be nothing compelled from the villages, nothing taken but paid for: none of the French upbraided, or abused in disdainful language; For when lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentler gamester is the soonest winner. Tucket sounds. Enter Montjoy. Mont. You know me by my habit.6 I know of thee? Mont. My master's mind. K. Hen. Unfold it. Mont. Thus says my king:-Say thou to Harry of 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 Gow. Why, 'tis a gull, a fool, a rogue; that now admire our sufferance. Bid him, therefore, conand then goes to the wars, to grace himself, at his sider of his ransom; which must proportion the return to London, under the form of a soldier. And losses we have borne, the subjects we have lost, such fellows are perfect in great commanders' the disgrace we have digested; which in weight names: and they will learn you by rote, where ser to re-answer, his pettiness would bow under. For vices were done;-at such and such a sconce, at such a breach, at such a convoy; who came off (1) Valour under good command. (2) A fold of linen which partially covered the face. (3) A small box in which were kept the consecrated wafers. our losses, his exchequer is too poor; for the effusion of our blood, the muster of his kingdom too faint a number; and for our disgrace, his own per (4) An allusion to the custom in Spain and Italy, of giving poisoned figs. (5) An entrenchment hastily thrown up. (6) i. e. By his herald's coat. (7) In our turn. i. son, kneeling at our feet, but a weak and worth-dull elements of earth and water never appear in less satisfaction. To this add-defiance: and tell K. Hen. What is thy name? I know thy quality. K. Hen. Thou dost thy office fairly. Turn thee back, And tell thy king, I do not seek him now; But could be willing to march on to Calais, Without impeachment for, to say the sooth (Though 'tis no wisdom to confess so much Unto an enemy of craft and vantage,) My people are with sickness much enfeebled; My numbers lessen'd; and those few I have, Almost no better than so many French; Who when they were in health, I tell thee, herald, I thought, upon one pair of English legs Did march three Frenchmen.-Yet, forgive me, God, That I do brag thus!-this your air of France Hath blown that vice in me; I must repent. Go, therefore, tell thy master, here I am; My ransom, is this frail and worthless trunk; My army, but a weak and sickly guard; Yet, God before,2 tell him we will come on, Though France himself, and such another neigh bour, Stand in our way. There's for thy labour, Montjoy. Go, bid thy master well advise himself: If we may pass, we will; if we be hinder'd, We shall your tawny ground with your red blood Discolour: and so, Montjoy, fare you well. The sum of all our answer is but this: We would not seek a battle, as we are; Nor, as we are, we say, we will not shun it; So tell your master. ness. Mont. I shall deliver so. Thanks to your high[Exit Montjoy. Glo. I hope they will not come upon us now. K. Hen. We are in God's hand, brother, not in theirs. March to the bridge; it now draws toward night :Beyond the river we'll encamp ourselves; And on to-morrow bid them march away. [Exe. SCENE VII-The French camp, near Agincourt. Enter the Constable of France, the Lord Rambures, the Duke of Orleans, Dauphin, and others. Con. Tut! I have the best armour of the world. 'Would, it were day! Orl. You have an excellent armour; but let my horse have his due. Con. It is the best horse of Europe. Dau. My lord of Orleans, and my lord high constable, you talk of horse and armour, Orl. You are as well provided of both, as any prince in the world. Dau. What a long night is this!-I will not change my horse with any that treads but on four pasterns. Ca, ha! He bounds from the earth, as if his entrails were hairs:3 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. Orl. He's of the colour of the nutmeg. Dau. And of the heat of the ginger. It is a beast for Perseus: he is pure air and fire; and the him, but only in patient stillness, while his rider mounts him: he is, indeed, a horse; and all other jades you may call-beasts. Con. Indeed, my lord, it is a most absolute and excellent horse. Dau. It is the prince of palfreys; his neigh is like the bidding of a monarch, and his countenance enforces homage. Orl. No more, cousin. Dau. Nay, the man hath no wit, that cannot, from the rising of the lark to the lodging of the lamb, vary deserved praise on my palfrey: it is a theme as fluent as the sea; turn the sands into eloquent tongues, and my horse is argument for them all: 'tis a subject for a sovereign to reason on, and for a sovereign's sovereign to ride on; and for the world (familiar to us, and unknown,) to lay apart their particular functions, and wonder at him. I once writ a sonnet in his praise, and began thus: Wonder of nature, mistress. Orl. I have heard a sonnet begin so to one's Dau. Then did they imitate that which I composed to my courser; for my horse is my mistress. Orl. Your mistress bears well. Dau. Me well; which is the prescript praise and perfection of a good and particular mistress. Con. Ma foy! the other day, methought, your mistress shrewdly shook your back. Dau. So, perhaps, did yours. Con. Mine was not bridled. Dau. O! then, belike, she was old and gentle; and you rode, like a kerne of Ireland, your French hose off, and in your strait trossers.5 Con. You have good judgment in horsemanship. Dau. Be warned by me then they that ride so, and ride not warily, fall into foul bogs; I had rather have my horse to my mistress. Con. I had as lief have my mistress a jade. Dau. I tell thee, constable, my mistress wears her own hair. Con. I could make as true a boast as that, if I had a sow to my mistress. Dau. Le chien est retourné à son propre vomissement, et la truie lavée au bourbier: thou makest use of any thing. Con. Yet do I not use my horse for my mistress, or any such proverb, so little kin to the purpose. Ram. My lord constable, the armour, that I saw in your tent to-night, are those stars, or suns, upon it? Con. Stars, my lord. Dau. Some of them will fall to-morrow, I hope. Con. And yet my sky shall not want. Dau. That may be, for you bear a many superfluously; and 'twere more honour, some were away. Con. Even as your horse bears your praises; who would trot as well, were some of your brags dismounted. Dau. 'Would I were able to load him with his desert! Will it never be day? I will trot to-morrow a mile, and my way shall be paved with English faces. Con. I will not say so, for fear I should be faced out of my way: But I would it were moraing, for I would fain be about the ears of the English. Ram. Who will go to hazard with me for twenty English prisoners? (3) Alluding to the bounding of tennis-balls, which were stuffed with hair. (4) Soldier. (5) Trowsers. Con. Swear by her foot, that she may tread out the oath. Orl. He is, simply, the most active gentleman of France. Con. Doing is activity: and he will still be doing. Orl. He never did harm, that I heard of. Con. Nor will do none to-morrow; he will keep that good name still. Orl. I know him to be valiant. only stomachs to eat, and none to fight. Now is it time to arm: Come, shall we about it? Orl. It is now two o'clock: but, let me see,-by ten, We shall have each a hundred Englishmen. [Exe. ACT IV. Enter Chorus. Chor. Now entertain conjecture of a time, From camp to camp, through the foul womb of night, Con. I was told that, by one that knows him The secret whispers of each other's watch: better than you. Orl. What's he? Fire answers fire; and through their paly flames Steed threatens steed, in high and boastful neighs The country cocks do crow, the clocks do toll, 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 ruin'd band, Mess. My lord high constable, the English lie Walking from watch to watch, from tent to tent, within fifteen hundred paces of your tent. Con. Who hath measured the ground? Mess. The lord Grandpré. Con. A valiant and most expert gentleman.Would it were day!-Alas, poor Harry of England! -he longs not for the dawning, as we do. Orl. What a wretched and peevish fellow is this king of England, to mope with his fat-brained followers so far out of his knowledge! Con. If the English had any apprehension, they would run away. Orl. That they lack; for if their heads had any intellectual armour, they could never wear such heavy head-pieces. Ram. That island of England breeds very valiant creatures; their mastiff's are of unmatchable courage. Orl. Foolish curs! that run winking into the mouth of a Russian bear, and have their heads crushed like rotten apples: You may as well say, that's a valiant flea, that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion. Con. Just, just; and the men do sympathize with the mastiffs, in robustious and rough coming on. leaving their wits with their wives: and then give them great meals of beef, and iron, and steel, they will eat like wolves, and fight like devils. Orl. Ay, but these English are shrewdly out of beef. Con. Then we shall find to-morrow-they have (1) An equivoque in terms in falconry: he means, nis valour is hid from every body but his lackey, and when it appears it will fall off. Let him cry-Praise and glory on his head! K. Hen. Gloster, 'tis true, that we are in great danger; (2) Foolish. (3) Gently, lowly. (4) Discoloured by the gleam of the fires. (5) Over-saucy. (6) Calling to remembrance, KING HENRY V. The greater therefore should our courage be.- Enter Erpingham. Act IW. K. Hen. It sorts well with your fierceness. Gow. Captain Fluellen! Flu. So! in the name of Cheshu Christ, speak lower. It is the greatest admiration in the universal 'orld, when the true and auncient 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, or pibble pabble, in Pompey's camp; I warrant you, you shall find the ceremonies of the wars, and the cares of it, and the forms of it, and the sobriety of it, and the modesty of it, to be otherwise. Good-morrow, old sir Thomas Erpingham: Gow. Why, the enemy is loud; you heard him Flu. If the enemy is an ass and a fool, and a prating coxcomb, is it meet, think you, that we K. Hen. 'Tis good for men to love their present should also, look you, be an ass, and a fool, and a Since I may say-now lie I like a king. pains, Upon example; so the spirit is eased: Glo. We shall, my liege. [Exe. Glo. and Bed. K. Hen. No, my good knight; Go with my brothers to my lords of England: Erp. The Lord in heaven bless thee, noble Harry! [Exit Erpingham. K. Hen. God-a-mercy, old heart! thou speakest cheerfully. Enter Pistol. Pist. Qui va là? Pist. Discuss unto me; Art thou officer; I kiss his dirty shoe, and from my heart-strings K. Hen. Harry le Roy. Pist. Le Roy! a Cornish name: art thou of Cornish crew? prating coxcomb; in your own conscience now? Enter Bates, Court, and Williams. Court. Brother John Bates, is not that the morning which breaks yonder? Bates. I think it be: but we have no great cause to desire the approach of day. Will. We see yonder the beginning of the day, but, I think, we shall never see the end of it.Who goes there? K. Hen. A friend. Will. Under what captain serve you? K. Hen. Under sir Thomas Erpingham. Will. A good old commander, and a most kind gentleman: I pray you, what thinks he of our estate? K. Hen. Even as men wrecked upon a sand, that look to be washed off the next tide. Bates. He hath not told his thought to the king? K. Hen. No; nor it is not meet he should. For, though I speak it to you, I think the king is but a man, as I am the violet smells to him, as it doth to me; the element shows to him, as it doth to me; all his senses have but human conditions: his ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man; and though his affections are higher mounted than ours, yet, when they stoop, they stoop with the like wing; therefore, when he sees reason of fears, as we do, his fears, out of doubt, be of the same relish as ours are: Yet, in reason, no man should possess him with any appearance of fear, lest he, by showing it, should dishearten his army. Bates. He may show what outward courage he will: but, I believe, as cold a night as 'tis, he could wish himself in the Thames up to the neck; and so I would he were, and I by him, at all adventures, so we were quit here. K. Hen. By my troth, I will speak my conscience of the king; I think, he would not wish himself any where but where he is. Bates. Then 'would he were here alone; 10 should he be sure to be ransomed, and a many poor men's lives saved. K. Hen. I dare say, you love him not so ill, to wish him here alone; howsoever you speak this, to feel other men's minds: Methinks, I could not die K. Hen. And his kinsman too. Pist. The figo for thee then! Pist. My name is Pistol called. [Exit. (1) Slough is the skin which serpents annually throw off. (2) Lightness, nimbleness. (4) Agrees. (5) Qualities. any where so contented, as in the king's company; his cause being just, and his quarrel honourable. Will. That's more than we know. Bates. Ay, or more than we should seek after; for we know enough, if we know we are the king's subjects; if his cause be wrong, our obedience to the king wipes the crime of it out of us. Will. But, if the cause be not good, the king 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 rawly2 left. I am afeard there are few die well, that die in battle; for how can they charitably dispose of any thing, 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; whom to disobey, were against all proportion of subjection. K. Hen. So, if a son, that is by his father sent about merchandise, do sinfully miscarry upon the sea, the imputation of his wickedness, by your rule, should be imposed upon his father that sent him: or if a servant, under his master's command, transporting a sum of money, be assailed by robbers, and die in many 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 arbitrement of swords, can try it out with all unspotted soldiers. Some, peradventure, have on them the guilt of premeditated and contrived murder; some, of beguiling virgins with the broken seals of perjury, some, making the wars their bulwark, that have before gored the gentle bosom of peace with pillage and robbery. Now, if these men have defeated the law, and out-run 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 see his greatness, and to teach others how they should prepare. Will. 'Tis certain, every man that dies ill, the ill is upon his own head, the king is not to answer for it. Bates. I do not desire he should answer for me; and yet I determine to fight lustily for him. (1) The last day, the day of judgment. (2) Suddenly. (3) i. e. Punishment in their native country. (4) To pay here signifies to bring to account, to punish. K. Hen. I myself heard the king say, he would not be ransomed. Will. Ay, he said so, to make us fight cheerfully: but, when our throats are cut, he may be ransomed, and we ne'er the wiser. K. Hen. If I live to see it, I will never trust his word after. Will. 'Mass, you'll pay him then! That's a perilous shot out of an elder gun, that a poor and 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! K Hen. Your reproof is something too round ;5 I should be angry with you, if the time were convenient. Will. Let it be a quarrel between us, if you live. Will. How shall I know thee again? K. Hen. Give me any gage of thine, and I will wear it in my bonnet: then, if ever thou darest acknowledge it, I will make it my quarrel. Will. Here's my glove; give me another of thine. K. Hen. There. Will. This will I also wear in my cap: if ever thou come to me and say, after to-morrow, This is my glove, by this hand, I I will take thee a box on the ear. K Hen. If ever I live to see it, I will challenge it. Will Thou darest as well be hanged. K. Hen. Well, I will do it, though I take thee in the king's company. W'ill. Keep thy word: fare thee well. Bates. Be friends, you English fools, be friends; we have French quarrels enough, if you could tell how to reckon. K. Hen. Indeed, the French may lay twenty And what have kings, that privates have not too, What drink'st thou oft, instead of homage sweet, 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, Hof adoration?" |