filmskakespeare.org

ACT I, PROLOGUE

Enter Chorus

Chorus
001: O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
002: The brightest heaven of invention,
003: A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
004: And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
005: Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
006: Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,
007: Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire
008: Crouch for employment. But pardon, and gentles all,
009: The flat unraised spirits that have dared
010: On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth
011: So great an object: can this cockpit hold
012: The vasty fields of France? or may we cram
013: Within this wooden O the very casques
014: That did affright the air at Agincourt?
015: O, pardon! since a crooked figure may
016: Attest in little place a million;
017: And let us, ciphers to this great account,
018: On your imaginary forces work.
019: Suppose within the girdle of these walls
020: Are now confined two mighty monarchies,
021: Whose high upreared and abutting fronts
022: The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder:
023: Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;
024: Into a thousand parts divide one man,
025: And make imaginary puissance;
026: Think when we talk of horses, that you see them
027: Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth;
028: For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
029: Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times,
030: Turning the accomplishment of many years
031: Into an hour-glass: for the which supply,
032: Admit me Chorus to this history;
033: Who prologue-like your humble patience pray,
034: Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.

Exit

ACT I, SCENE I.

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

Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, and the BISHOP OF ELY

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

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

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

ELY
020: This would drink deep.

CANTERBURY
021: 'Twould drink the cup and all.

ELY
022: But what prevention?

CANTERBURY
023: The king is full of grace and fair regard.

ELY
024: And a true lover of the holy church.

CANTERBURY
025: The courses of his youth promised it not.
026: The breath no sooner left his father's body,
027: But that his wildness, mortified in him,
028: Seem'd to die too; yea, at that very moment
029: Consideration, like an angel, came
030: And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him,
031: Leaving his body as a paradise,
032: To envelop and contain celestial spirits.
033: Never was such a sudden scholar made;
034: Never came reformation in a flood,
035: With such a heady currance, scouring faults
036: Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulness
037: So soon did lose his seat and all at once
038: As in this king.

ELY
039: We are blessed in the change.

CANTERBURY
040: Hear him but reason in divinity,
041: And all-admiring with an inward wish
042: You would desire the king were made a prelate:
043: Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,
044: You would say it hath been all in all his study:
045: List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
046: A fearful battle render'd you in music:
047: Turn him to any cause of policy,
048: The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,
049: Familiar as his garter: that, when he speaks,
050: The air, a charter'd libertine, is still,
051: And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,
052: To steal his sweet and honey'd sentences;
053: So that the art and practic part of life
054: Must be the mistress to this theoric:
055: Which is a wonder how his grace should glean it,
056: Since his addiction was to courses vain,
057: His companies unletter'd, rude and shallow,
058: His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports,
059: And never noted in him any study,
060: Any retirement, any sequestration
061: From open haunts and popularity.

ELY
062: The strawberry grows underneath the nettle
063: And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best
064: Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality:
065: And so the prince obscured his contemplation
066: Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt,
067: Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night,
068: Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.

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

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

CANTERBURY
076: He seems indifferent,
077: Or rather swaying more upon our part
078: Than cherishing the exhibiters against us;
079: For I have made an offer to his majesty,
080: Upon our spiritual convocation
081: And in regard of causes now in hand,
082: Which I have open'd to his grace at large,
083: As touching France, to give a greater sum
084: Than ever at one time the clergy yet
085: Did to his predecessors part withal.

ELY
086: How did this offer seem received, my lord?

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

ELY
094: What was the impediment that broke this off?

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

ELY
098: It is.

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

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

Exeunt

ACT I, SCENE II.

The same. The Presence chamber.

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

KING HENRY V
001: Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury?

EXETER
002: Not here in presence.

KING HENRY V
003: Send for him, good uncle.

WESTMORELAND
004: Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege?

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

Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, and the BISHOP of ELY

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

KING HENRY V
010: Sure, we thank you.
011: My learned lord, we pray you to proceed
012: And justly and religiously unfold
013: Why the law Salique that they have in France
014: Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim:
015: And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,
016: That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading,
017: Or nicely charge your understanding soul
018: With opening titles miscreate, whose right
019: Suits not in native colours with the truth;
020: For God doth know how many now in health
021: Shall drop their blood in approbation
022: Of what your reverence shall incite us to.
023: Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,
024: How you awake our sleeping sword of war:
025: We charge you, in the name of God, take heed;
026: For never two such kingdoms did contend
027: Without much fall of blood; whose guiltless drops
028: Are every one a woe, a sore complaint
029: 'Gainst him whose wrong gives edge unto the swords
030: That make such waste in brief mortality.
031: Under this conjuration, speak, my lord;
032: For we will hear, note and believe in heart
033: That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd
034: As pure as sin with baptism.

CANTERBURY
035: Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers,
036: That owe yourselves, your lives and services
037: To this imperial throne. There is no bar
038: To make against your highness' claim to France
039: But this, which they produce from Pharamond,
040: 'In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant:'
041: 'No woman shall succeed in Salique land:'
042: Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze
043: To be the realm of France, and Pharamond
044: The founder of this law and female bar.
045: Yet their own authors faithfully affirm
046: That the land Salique is in Germany,
047: Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe;
048: Where Charles the Great, having subdued the Saxons,
049: There left behind and settled certain French;
050: Who, holding in disdain the German women
051: For some dishonest manners of their life,
052: Establish'd then this law; to wit, no female
053: Should be inheritrix in Salique land:
054: Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala,
055: Is at this day in Germany call'd Meisen.
056: Then doth it well appear that Salique law
057: Was not devised for the realm of France:
058: Nor did the French possess the Salique land
059: Until four hundred one and twenty years
060: After defunction of King Pharamond,
061: Idly supposed the founder of this law;
062: Who died within the year of our redemption
063: Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the Great
064: Subdued the Saxons, and did seat the French
065: Beyond the river Sala, in the year
066: Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say,
067: King Pepin, which deposed Childeric,
068: Did, as heir general, being descended
069: Of Blithild, which was daughter to King Clothair,
070: Make claim and title to the crown of France.
071: Hugh Capet also, who usurped the crown
072: Of Charles the duke of Lorraine, sole heir male
073: Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great,
074: To find his title with some shows of truth,
075: 'Through, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught,
076: Convey'd himself as heir to the Lady Lingare,
077: Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son
078: To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son
079: Of Charles the Great. Also King Lewis the Tenth,
080: Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet,
081: Could not keep quiet in his conscience,
082: Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied
083: That fair Queen Isabel, his grandmother,
084: Was lineal of the Lady Ermengare,
085: Daughter to Charles the foresaid duke of Lorraine:
086: By the which marriage the line of Charles the Great
087: Was re-united to the crown of France.
088: So that, as clear as is the summer's sun.
089: King Pepin's title and Hugh Capet's claim,
090: King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear
091: To hold in right and title of the female:
092: So do the kings of France unto this day;
093: Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law
094: To bar your highness claiming from the female,
095: And rather choose to hide them in a net
096: Than amply to imbar their crooked titles
097: Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CANTERBURY
186: Therefore doth heaven divide
187: The state of man in divers functions,
188: Setting endeavour in continual motion;
189: To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,
190: Obedience: for so work the honey-bees,
191: Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
192: The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
193: They have a king and officers of sorts;
194: Where some, like magistrates, correct at home,
195: Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad,
196: Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,
197: Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds,
198: Which pillage they with merry march bring home
199: To the tent-royal of their emperor;
200: Who, busied in his majesty, surveys
201: The singing masons building roofs of gold,
202: The civil citizens kneading up the honey,
203: The poor mechanic porters crowding in
204: Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate,
205: The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum,
206: Delivering o'er to executors pale
207: The lazy yawning drone. I this infer,
208: That many things, having full reference
209: To one consent, may work contrariously:
210: As many arrows, loosed several ways,
211: Come to one mark; as many ways meet in one town;
212: As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea;
213: As many lines close in the dial's centre;
214: So may a thousand actions, once afoot.
215: End in one purpose, and be all well borne
216: Without defeat. Therefore to France, my liege.
217: Divide your happy England into four;
218: Whereof take you one quarter into France,
219: And you withal shall make all Gallia shake.
220: If we, with thrice such powers left at home,
221: Cannot defend our own doors from the dog,
222: Let us be worried and our nation lose
223: The name of hardiness and policy.

KING HENRY V
224: Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin.
[Exeunt some Attendants]
225: Now are we well resolved; and, by God's help,
226: And yours, the noble sinews of our power,
227: France being ours, we'll bend it to our awe,
228: Or break it all to pieces: or there we'll sit,
229: Ruling in large and ample empery
230: O'er France and all her almost kingly dukedoms,
231: Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn,
232: Tombless, with no remembrance over them:
233: Either our history shall with full mouth
234: Speak freely of our acts, or else our grave,
235: Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth,
236: Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph.
[Enter Ambassadors of France]
237: Now are we well prepared to know the pleasure
238: Of our fair cousin Dauphin; for we hear
239: Your greeting is from him, not from the king.

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

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

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

KING HENRY V
262: What treasure, uncle?

EXETER
263: Tennis-balls, my liege.

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

Exeunt Ambassadors

EXETER
303: This was a merry message.

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

Exeunt. Flourish

ACT II, PROLOGUE

Enter Chorus

Chorus
001: Now all the youth of England are on fire,
002: And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies:
003: Now thrive the armourers, and honour's thought
004: Reigns solely in the breast of every man:
005: They sell the pasture now to buy the horse,
006: Following the mirror of all Christian kings,
007: With winged heels, as English Mercuries.
008: For now sits Expectation in the air,
009: And hides a sword from hilts unto the point
010: With crowns imperial, crowns and coronets,
011: Promised to Harry and his followers.
012: The French, advised by good intelligence
013: Of this most dreadful preparation,
014: Shake in their fear and with pale policy
015: Seek to divert the English purposes.
016: O England! model to thy inward greatness,
017: Like little body with a mighty heart,
018: What mightst thou do, that honour would thee do,
019: Were all thy children kind and natural!
020: But see thy fault! France hath in thee found out
021: A nest of hollow bosoms, which he fills
022: With treacherous crowns; and three corrupted men,
023: One, Richard Earl of Cambridge, and the second,
024: Henry Lord Scroop of Masham, and the third,
025: Sir Thomas Grey, knight, of Northumberland,
026: Have, for the gilt of France,--O guilt indeed!
027: Confirm'd conspiracy with fearful France;
028: And by their hands this grace of kings must die,
029: If hell and treason hold their promises,
030: Ere he take ship for France, and in Southampton.
031: Linger your patience on; and we'll digest
032: The abuse of distance; force a play:
033: The sum is paid; the traitors are agreed;
034: The king is set from London; and the scene
035: Is now transported, gentles, to Southampton;
036: There is the playhouse now, there must you sit:
037: And thence to France shall we convey you safe,
038: And bring you back, charming the narrow seas
039: To give you gentle pass; for, if we may,
040: We'll not offend one stomach with our play.
041: But, till the king come forth, and not till then,
042: Unto Southampton do we shift our scene.

Exit

ACT II, SCENE I.... :: No specific directions for getting BARDOLPH, NYM, PISTOL, and Hostess off the stage.

London. A street.

Enter Corporal NYM and Lieutenant BARDOLPH

BARDOLPH
001: Well met, Corporal Nym.

NYM
002: Good morrow, Lieutenant Bardolph.

BARDOLPH
003: What, are Ancient Pistol and you friends yet?

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

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

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

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

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

Enter PISTOL and Hostess

BARDOLPH
027: Here comes Ancient Pistol and his wife: good
028: corporal, be patient here.

NYM
029: How now, mine host Pistol!

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

Hostess
032: No, by my troth, not long; for we cannot lodge and
033: board a dozen or fourteen gentlewomen that live
034: honestly by the prick of their needles, but it will
035: be thought we keep a bawdy house straight.
[NYM and PISTOL draw]
036: O well a day, Lady, if he be not drawn now! we
037: shall see wilful adultery and murder committed.

BARDOLPH
038: Good lieutenant! good corporal! offer nothing here.

NYM
039: Pish!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Draws

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

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

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

Enter the Boy

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

BARDOLPH
080: Away, you rogue!

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

Exeunt Hostess and Boy

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

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

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

PISTOL
089: Base is the slave that pays.

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

PISTOL
091: As manhood shall compound: push home.

They draw

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

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

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

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

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

NYM
106: I shall have my noble?

PISTOL
107: In cash most justly paid.

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

Re-enter Hostess

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

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

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

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

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

ACT II, SCENE II.

Southampton. A council-chamber.

Enter EXETER, BEDFORD, and WESTMORELAND

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

EXETER
002: They shall be apprehended by and by.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

KING HENRY V
047: O, let us yet be merciful.

CAMBRIDGE
048: So may your highness, and yet punish too.

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

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

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

SCROOP
064: So did you me, my liege.

GREY
065: And I, my royal sovereign.

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