# Henry V (1918) Yale/Text/Act III

Layout 2
ACT THIRD
Flourish. Enter Chorus.
Thus with imagin'd 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 4 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; 8 Hear the shrill whistle which doth order give To sounds confus'd; behold the threaden sails, Borne with the invisible and creeping wind, Draw the huge bottoms through the furrow'd sea, 12 Breasting the lofty surge. O! do but think You stand upon the rivage and behold A city on the inconstant billows dancing; For so appears this fleet majestical, 16 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, 20 Either past or not arriv'd to pith and puissance: For who is he, whose chin is but enrich'd With one appearing hair, that will not follow Those cull'd and choice-drawn cavaliers to France? 24 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; 28 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 32 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.
Scene One
[France. Before Harfleur]
Enter the King, Exeter, Bedford, and Gloucester.
Alarum: scaling ladders.
K. Hen. 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: 4 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; 8 Then lend the eye a terrible aspect; Let it pry through the portage of the head Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it As fearfully as doth a galled rock 12 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! 17 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 sheath'd their swords for lack of argument. 21 Dishonour not your mothers; now attest That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you. Be copy now to men of grosser blood, 24 ​And teach them how to war. And you, good yeomen, Whose limbs were made in England, show us here The mettle of your pasture; let us swear That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not; 28 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: 32 Follow your spirit; and, upon this charge Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'
[Exeunt.] Alarum, and chambers go off.
Scene Two
[The Same]
Enter Nym, Bardolph, Pistol, and Boy.
Bard. 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 4 a case of lives: the humour of it is too hot, that is the very plain-song of it.
Pist. The plain-song is most just, for hu- mours do abound: 8 'Knocks go and come: God's vassals drop and die; And sword and shield In bloody field Doth win immortal fame.' 12
Boy. Would I were in an alehouse in London! I would give all my fame for a pot of ale, and safety.
​Pist. And I: 16 'If wishes would prevail with me, My purpose should not fail with me, But thither would I hie.'
Boy.'As duly, 20 But not as truly, As bird doth sing on bough.'
Enter Fluellen and beats them in.
Flu. Up to the breach, you dogs! avaunt, you cullions!
Pist. Be merciful, great duke, to men of mould! 24 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.
Exit [with Pistol and Bardolph].
Boy. [Aside.] As young as I am, I have ob- served 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 34 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; 40 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 44 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 48 sworn brothers in filching, and in Calais they stole a fire-shovel: I knew by that piece of ser- vice the men would carry coals. They would have me as familiar with men's pockets as their 52 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 56 and seek some better service: their villainy goes against my weak stomach, and therefore I must cast it up. Exit.
Enter Gower.
Gow. Captain Fluellen, you must come pre- sently to the mines: the Duke of Gloucester would speak with you. 62
Flu. 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; 66 for, look you, th' athversary—you may discuss unto the duke, look you—is digt himself four yard under the countermines; by Cheshu, I think, a' will plow up all if there is not better directions. 71
Gow. 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.
Flu. It is Captain Macmorris, is it not? 76
Gow. I think it be.
Flu. By Cheshu, he is an ass, as in the world: I will verify as much in his beard: he has no more directions in the true disciplines of the wars, look you, of the Roman disciplines, than is a puppy-dog. 82
Enter Macmorris and Captain Jamy.
Gow. Here a' comes; and the Scots captain, Captain Jamy, with him.
Flu. Captain Jamy is a marvellous falorous gentleman, that is certain; and of great expedi- 86 tion 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 disci- plines of the pristine wars of the Romans. 91
Jamy. I say gud day, Captain Fluellen.
Flu. God-den to your worship, good Captain James.
Gow. How now, Captain Macmorris! have you quit the mines? have the pioners given o'er? 96
Mac. By Chrish, la! tish ill done: the work ish give over, the trumpet 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! 103
​Flu. Captain Macmorris, I beseech you now, will you voutsafe me, look you, a few disputa- tions with you, as partly touching or concern- ing 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. 112
Jamy. It sall be vary gud, gud feith, gud cap- tains bath: and I sail quit you with gud leve, as I may pick occasion; that sail I, marry.
Mac. 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 119 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 no- thing done, so Chrish sa' me, la! 125
Jamy. By the mess, ere theise eyes of mine take themselves to slumber, aile do gud service, or aile lig i' the grund for it; ay, or go to death; and aile pay 't as valorously as I may, that sal I suerly do, that is the breff and the long. Marry, I wad full fain heard some question 'tween you tway. 132
Flu. Captain Macmorris, I think, look you, under your correction, there is not many of your nation—135
​Mac. 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? 139
Flu. Look you, if you take the matter other- wise than is meant, Captain Macmorris, per- adventure 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 deriva- tion of my birth, and in other particularities. 146
Mac. I do not know you so good a man as myself: so Chrish save me, I will cut off your head. 149
Gow. Gentlemen both, you will mistake each other.
Jamy. A! that's a foul fault. A parley.
Gow. The town sounds a parley. 153
Flu. 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 disci- plines of war; and there is an end.
Exit [with Gower and the other captains].
Scene Three
[Before the Gates of Harfleur]
[The Governor and some Citizens on the walls; the English forces below.] Enter the King and all his Train before the gates.
K. Hen. 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 4 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 8 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 12 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, 16 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 20 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 25 As send precepts to the leviathan To come ashore. Therefore, you men of Harfleur, Take pity of your town and of your people, 28 Whiles yet my soldiers are in my command; Whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace O'erblows the filthy and contagious clouds Of heady murder, spoil, and villainy. 32 ​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, 36 And their most reverend heads dash'd to the walls; Your naked infants spitted upon pikes, Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confus'd Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen. 41 What say you? will you yield, and this avoid? Or, guilty in defence, be thus destroy'd?
Gov. Our expectation hath this day an end. The Dauphin, whom of succour we entreated, 45 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; 49 For we no longer are defensible.
K. Hen. Open your gates! Come, uncle Exeter, Go you and enter Harfleur; there remain, 52 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. 56 To-night in Harfleur will we be your guest; To-morrow for the march are we addrest.
Flourish, and enter the town.
Scene Four
[The French King's Palace]
Enter Katharine and [Alice,] an old gentlewoman.
Kath. Alice, tu as été en Angleterre, et tu parles bien le langage.
Alice. Un peu, madame. 3
Kath. Je te prie, m'enseignez; il faut que j'apprenne à parler. Comment appelez-vous la main en anglais?
Alice. La main? elle est appelée, de hand.
Kath. De hand. Et les doigts? 8
Alice. Les doigts? ma foi, j'oublie les doigts; mais je me souviendrai. Les doigts? je pense qu'ils sont appelés de fingres; oui, de fingres. 12
Kath. La main, de hand; les doigts, de fingres. Je pense que je suis le bon écolier; j'ai gagné deux mots d'anglais vitement. Comment appelez-vous les ongles? 16
Alice. Les ongles? nous les appelons, de nails.
Kath. De nails. Écoutez; dites-moi, si je parle bien: de hands, de fingres, et de nails.
Alice. C'est bien dit, madame; il est fort bon anglais. 21
Kath. Dites-moi l'anglais pour le bras.
Alice. De arm, madame.
Kath. Et le coude? 24
Alice. De elbow.
Kath. De elbow. Je m'en fais la répétition de tous les mots que vous m'avez appris des a présent. 28
Alice. Il est trop difficile, madame, comme je pense.
​Kath. Excusez-moi, Alice; écoutez: de hand, de fingres, de nails, de arma, de bilbow. 32
Alice. De elbow, madame.
Kath. O Seigneur Dieu! je m'en oublie; de elbow. Comment appelez-vous le col?
Alice. De nick, madame. 36
Kath. De nick. Et le menton?
Alice. De chin.
Kath. De sin. Le col, de nick: le menton, de sin. 40
Alice. Oui. Sauf votre honneur, en vérité, vous prononcez les mots aussi droit que les natifs d'Angleterre.
Kath. Je ne doute point d'apprendre, par la grace de Dieu, et en peu de temps. 45
Alice. N'avez-vous pas déjà oublié ce que je vous ai enseigné?
Kath. Non, je reciterai à vous promptement: De hand, de fingre, de mails,— 49
Alice. De nails, madame.
Kath. De nails, de arme, de ilbow.
Alice. Sauf votre honneur, de elbow. 52
Kath. 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. 55
Kath. 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. Néan- moins je réciterai une autre fois ma leçon ensemble: de hand, de fingre, de nails, de arm, de elbow, de nick, de sin, de foot, de coun. 64
​Alice. Excellent, madame!
Kath. C'est assez pour une fois: allons-nous à diner. Exit [with Alice].
Scene Five
[Rouen]
Enter the King of France, the Dauphin, [Duke of Bourbon,] the Constable of France, and Others.
Fr. King. 'Tis certain, he hath pass'd the river Somme.
Con. 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. 4
Dau. 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, 8 And overlook their grafters?
Bour. Normans, but bastard Normans, Norman bastards! Mort de ma vie! if they march along Unfought withal, but I will sell my dukedom, 12 To buy a slobbery and a dirty farm In that nook-shotten isle of Albion.
Con. Dieu de batailles! where have they this mettle? Is not their climate foggy, raw, and dull, 16 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? 20 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 24 Sweat drops of gallant youth in our rich fields; Poor we may call them in their native lords.
Dau. By faith and honour, Our madams mock at us, and plainly say 28 Our mettle is bred out; and they will give Their bodies to the lust of English youth To new-store France with bastard warriors.
Bour. They bid us to the English dancing-schools, 32 And teach lavoltas high and swift corantos; Saying our grace is only in our heels, And that we are most lofty runaways.
Fr. King. Where is Montjoy the herald? speed him hence: 36 Let him greet England with our sharp defiance. Up, princes! and, with spirit of honour edg'd More sharper than your swords, hie to the field: Charles Delabreth, High Constable of France; 40 You Dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and of Berri, Alençon, Brabant, Bar, and Burgundy; Jaques Chatillon, Rambures, Vaudemont, Beaumont, Grandpré, Roussi, and Fauconberg, Foix, Lestrale, Bouciqualt, and Charolois; 45 High dukes, great princes, barons, lords, and knights, For your great seats now quit you of great shames. Bar Harry England, that sweeps through our land ​With pennons painted in the blood of Harfleur: Rush on his host, as doth the melted snow Upon the valleys, whose low vassal seat The Alps doth spit and void his rheum upon: 52 Go down upon him, you have power enough, And in a captive chariot into Roan Bring him our prisoner.
Con.This becomes the great. Sorry am I his numbers are so few, 56 His soldiers sick and famish'd in their march, For I am sure when he shall see our army He'll drop his heart into the sink of fear, And for achievement offer us his ransom. 60
Fr. King. Therefore, lord constable, haste on Montjoy, And let him say to England that we send To know what willing ransom he will give. Prince Dauphin, you shall stay with us in Roan.
Dau. Not so, I do beseech your majesty. 65
Fr. 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. 68
Exeunt.
Scene Six
[The English Camp in Picardy]
Enter Captains, English and Welch, Gower and Fluellen.
Gow. How now, Captain Fluellen! come you from the bridge?
Flu. I assure you, there is very excellent services committed at the pridge. 4
​Gow. Is the Duke of Exeter safe?
Flu. The Duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as Agamemnon; and a man that I love and honour with my soul, and my heart, and my duty, and my life, and my living, and my utter- most power: he is not—God be praised and plessed!—any hurt in the world; but keeps then pridge most valiantly, with excellent discipline. There is an aunchient lieutenant there at the pridge, I think, in my very conscience, he is as valiant a man as Mark Antony; and he is a man of no estimation in the world; but I did see him do as gallant service. 17
Gow. What do you call him?
Flu. He is called Aunchient Pistol.
Gow. I know him not. 20
Enter Pistol.
Flu. Here is the man.
Pist. Captain, I thee beseech to do me favours: The Duke of Exeter doth love thee well.
Flu. Ay, I praise God; and I have merited some love at his hands. 25
Pist. Bardolph, a soldier firm and sound of heart, And of buxom valour, hath, by cruel fate And giddy Fortune's furious fickle wheel, 28 That goddess blind, That stands upon the rolling restless stone,—
Flu. By your patience, Aunchient Pistol. For- tune is painted plind, with a muffler afore her eyes, to signify to you that Fortune is plind: and she is painted also with a wheel, to signify to 34 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 descrip- tion of it: Fortune is an excellent moral. 40
Pist. Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him; For he hath stol'n a pax, and hanged must a' be, A damned death! Let gallows gape for dog, let man go free 44 And let not hemp his wind-pipe suffocate. But Exeter hath given the doom of death For pax of little price. Therefore, go speak; the duke will hear thy voice; 48 And let not Bardolph's vital thread be cut With edge of penny cord and vile reproach: Speak, captain, for his life, and I will thee requite.
Flu. Aunchient Pistol, I do partly under- stand your meaning. 53
Pist. Why then, rejoice therefore.
Flu. Certainly, aunchient, it is not a thing to rejoice at; for, if, look you, he were my brother, I would desire the duke to use his good pleasure and put him to execution; for discipline ought to be used.
Pist. Die and be damn'd; and figo for thy friendship! 60
Flu. It is well.
Pist. The fig of Spain! Exit.
Flu. Very good.
Gow. Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal: I remember him now; a bawd, a cut- purse. 66
​Flu. I'll assure you a' uttered as prave words at the pridge as you shall see in a sum- mer's day. But it is very well; what he has spoke to me, that is well, I warrant you, when time is serve. 71
Gow. Why, 'tis a gull, 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 perfect in the 75 great commanders' names, and they will learn you by rote where services were done; at such and such a sconce, at such a breach, at such a convoy; who came off bravely, who was shot, who disgraced, what terms the enemy stood on; 80 and this they con perfectly in the phrase of war, which they trick up with new-tuned oaths: and what a beard of the general's cut and a horrid suit of the camp will do among foaming bottles 84 and ale-washed wits, is wonderful to be thought on. But you must learn to know such slanders of the age, or else you may be marvellously mistook. 88
Flu. 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 coat I will tell him my mind. [Drum heard.] Hark you, the king is coming; and I must speak with him from the pridge.
Drum and Colours. Enter the King, [Gloucester,] and his poor Soldiers.
Flu. God pless your majesty!
K. Hen. How now, Fluellen! cam'st thou from the bridge? 96
Flu. Ay, so please your majesty. The Duke of Exeter hath very gallantly maintained the pridge: the French is gone off, look you, and there is gallant and most prave passages. Marry, th' 100 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. 104
K. Hen. What men have you lost, Fluellen?
Flu. The perdition of th' athversary hath been very great, reasonable great: marry, for my part, I think the duke hath lost never a man but one that is like to be executed for robbing a 109 church; one Bardolph, if your majesty know the man: his face is all bubukles, and whelks, and knobs, and flames o' fire; and his lips blows at his nose, and it is like a coal of fire, sometimes plue and sometimes red; but his nose is exe- cuted, and his fire's out. 115
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. Enter Montjoy.
Mont. You know me by my habit. 124
​K. Hen. Well then I know thee: what shall I know of thee?
Mont. My master's mind.
K. Hen. Unfold it. 127
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 rash- ness. 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 133 upon our cue, and our voice is imperial: England shall repent his folly, see his weakness, and ad- mire our sufferance. Bid him therefore consider of his ransom; which must proportion the losses we have borne, the subjects we have lost, the disgrace we have digested; which, in weight to 139 re-answer, his pettiness would bow under. For our losses, his exchequer is too poor; for the effusion of our blood, the muster of his kingdom too faint a number; and for our disgrace, his own person, kneeling at our feet, but a weak and worthless satisfaction. To this add defiance: and tell him, for conclusion, he hath betrayed his followers, whose condemnation is pronounced. So far my king and master, so much my office.
K. Hen. What is thy name? I know thy quality. 149
Mont. Montjoy.
K. Hen. Thou dost thy office fairly. Turn thee back, And tell thy king I do not seek him now, 152 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,— 156 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, 160 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. 164 Go therefore, tell thy master here I am: My ransom is this frail and worthless trunk, My army but a weak and sickly guard; Yet, God before, tell him we will come on, 168 Though France himself and such another neighbour 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, 172 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; 176 Nor, as we are, we say we will not shun it: So tell your master.
Mont. I shall deliver so. Thanks to your highness.
[Exit]
Glo. I hope they will not come upon us now. 180
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. 184
Exeunt.
Scene Seven
[The French Camp, near Agincourt]
Enter the Constable of France, the Lord Rambures, [the Duke of] Orleans, [the] Dauphin, with 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. 4
Con. It is the best horse of Europe.
Orl. Will it never be morning?
Dau. My Lord of Orleans, and my lord high constable, you talk of horse and armour— 8
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 12 four pasterns. Ça, ha! He bounds from the earth as if his entrails were hairs: le cheval volant, the Pegasus, chez les narines de feu! When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk: he 16 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. 20
Dau. And of the heat of the ginger. It is a beast for Perseus: he is pure air and fire; and the dull elements of earth and water never ​appear in him but only in patient stillness while 24 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. 28
Dau. It is the prince of palfreys; his neigh is like the bidding of a monarch and his counte- nance enforces homage.
Orl. No more, cousin. 32
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 36 eloquent tongues, and my horse is argument for them all. 'Tis a subject for a sovereign to rea- son on, and for a sovereign's sovereign to ride on; and for the world—familiar to us, and 40 unknown—to lay apart their particular func- tions and wonder at him. I once writ a son- net in his praise and began thus: 'Wonder of nature!'— 44
Orl. I have heard a sonnet begin so to one's mistress.
Dau. Then did they imitate that which I composed to my courser; for my horse is my mistress. 49
Orl. Your mistress bears well.
Dau. Me well; which is the prescript praise and perfection of a good and particular mis- tress. 53
Con. Nay, for methought yesterday your mis- tress shrewdly shook your back.
​Dau. So perhaps did yours. 56
Con. Mine was not bridled.
Dau. O! then belike she was old and gentle; and you rode, like a kern of Ireland, your French hose off and in your straight strossers. 60
Con. You have good judgment in horseman- ship.
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. 65
Con. I had as lief have my mistress a jade.
Dau. I tell thee, constable, my mistress wears his own hair. 68
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. 73
Con. Yet do I not use my horse for my mis- tress: or any such proverb so little kin to the purpose. 76
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. 80
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. 86
Con. Even as your horse bears your praises; ​who would trot as well were some of your brags dismounted. 89
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. 93
Con. I will not say so for fear I should be faced out of my way. But I would it were morning, for I would fain be about the ears of the English. 97
Ram. Who will go to hazard with me for twenty prisoners?
Con. You must first go yourself to hazard, ere you have them. 101
Dau. 'Tis midnight: I'll go arm myself. Exit.
Orl. The Dauphin longs for morning.
Ram. He longs to eat the English. 104
Con. I think he will eat all he kills.
Orl. By the white hand of my lady, he's a gallant prince.
Con. Swear by her foot, that she may tread out the oath. 109
Orl. He is simply the most active gentleman of France.
Con. Doing is activity, and he will still be doing. 113
Orl. He never did harm, that I heard of.
Con. Nor will do none to-morrow: he will keep that good name still. 116
Orl. I know him to be valiant.
Con. I was told that by one that knows him better than you.
Orl. What's he? 120
​Con. Marry, he told me so himself; and he said he cared not who knew it.
Orl. He needs not; it is no hidden virtue in him. 124
Con. By my faith, sir, but it is; never any- body saw it but his lackey: 'tis a hooded valour; and when it appears, it will bate.
Orl. 'Ill will never said well.' 128
Con. I will cap that proverb with 'There is flattery in friendship.'
Orl. And I will take up that with 'Give the devil his due.' 132
Con. Well placed: there stands your friend for the devil: have at the very eye of that proverb, with 'A pox of the devil.'
Orl. You are the better at proverbs, by how much 'A fool's bolt is soon shot.' 137
Con. You have shot over.
Orl. 'Tis not the first time you were overshot.
Enter a Messenger.
Mess. My lord high constable, the English lie within fifteen hundred paces of your tents. 141
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 Eng- land, he longs not for the dawning as we do. 146
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. 151
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 mastiffs are of un- matchable courage. 157
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. 162
Con. Just, just; and the men do sympathize with the mastiffs in robustious and rough com- ing 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. 168
Orl. Ay, but these English are shrewdly out of beef.
Con. Then shall we find to-morrow they have only stomachs to eat and none to fight. Now is it time to arm; come, shall we about it? 173
Orl. It is now two o'clock: but, let me see, by ten We shall have each a hundred Englishmen. Exeunt.
Footnotes to Act III
Chorus
​1 imagin'd wing: wings of imagination 5 brave: fine ​14 rivage: shore 18 to sternage: astern 27 girded: besieged 32 likes: pleases 33 linstock: stick to hold the gunner's match S. d. Alarum: call to arms chambers: small cannon
Scene One
​8 hard-favour'd: ugly 10 portage: porthole 11 o'erwhelm: overhang 12 galled: undermined 13 jutty: project beyond confounded: ruined 14 Swill'd with: gulped down by 18 fet: fetched war-proof: valor proven in war 21 argument: subject of contention 24 copy: example ​27 mettle of your pasture: quality of your rearing 31 in the slips: in leash
Scene Two
​3 corporal; cf. n. 5 case: set 6 plain-song: simple truth; cf. n. ​23 cullions: wretches 24 men of mould: men of earth; i.e., mere mortals 27 bawcock, chuck: terms of endearment 31 swashers: braggarts 34 antics: buffoons ​46 purchase: slang term for money gained by cheating 51 carry coals: swallow insults 65 the mines is not; cf. n. 67 discuss: explain 69 Cheshu: Jesu ​78 as: as great as any 93 God-den: good evening 96 pioners: sappers ​115 marry: originally an oath by the Virgin Mary 119 beseeched: i.e., besieged 122 sa': save 126 mess: Mass 128 lig: lie 132 tway: two ​136-139 Of my . . . nation; cf. n.
Scene Three
​ ​ ​40 Jewry: Judea; cf. St. Matthew 2. 16-18. 45 of: for 46 Returns: answers 50 defensible: capable of resisting 58 addrest: prepared
Scene Four
Scene Five
​5 sprays: branches 6 emptying: issue luxury: lust 7 scions; cf. n. 9 overlook: rise above 12 but; cf. n. 14 nook-shotten: running out into promontories 19 drench: bran and water sur-rein'd jades: over-ridden horses barley-broth: beer ​20 Decoct: warm 23 roping: dripping 33 lavoltas, corantos: the names of certain lively dances 36 Montjoy; cf. n. ​
Scene Six
​ ​13 aunchient lieutenant; cf. n. 27 buxom: brisk ​42 pax; cf. n. 60 figo: a fig 62 The fig of Spain; cf. n. ​72 gull: cheat 78 sconce: small fort 80 stood on: insisted on 94 from: with news from ​100 passages: deeds 106 perdition: losses 111 bubukles: carbuncles whelks: boils 123 S. d. Tucket: trumpet signal 124 habit: herald's coat ​125 of: from 134 upon our cue: in proper time 140 re-answer: atone for 149 quality: profession ​154 impeachment: hindrance sooth: truth 156 of vantage: favored by circumstances 164 blown: propagated 179 deliver: report ​
Scene Seven
​14 as if . . . hairs: i.e., as if he were a tennis ball; cf. n. 15 chez: i.e., with 19 pipe of Hermes; cf. n. ​27 absolute: perfect 34 lodging: lying down 37 argument: theme 51 prescript: prescribed 55 shrewdly: viciously ​59 kern: light-armed Irish soldier 59, 60 French hose: wide breeches 60 straight strossers: tight trousers 65 to: as 71, 72 Cf. n. ​95 faced out of my way: outfaced (put to shame) 98 go to hazard: throw at dice; cf. n. ​126 'tis a hooded valour; cf. n. 139 overshot: beaten at shooting (with a pun on 'drunk') 147 peevish: foolish 149 out . . . knowledge: beyond his depth ​150 apprehension: intelligence 163 sympathize with: resemble 164 robustious: sturdy