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The Life of Henry the Fifth

by William Shakespeare

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1-1

Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, and the BISHOP OF ELY

CANTERBURY

My lord, I'll tell you; that self bill is urged,

Which in the eleventh year of the last king's reign

Was like, and had indeed against us pass'd,

But that the scambling and unquiet time

5Did push it out of farther question.

ELY

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

CANTERBURY

It must be thought on. If it pass against us,

We lose the better half of our possession:

For all the temporal lands which men devout

10By testament have given to the church

Would they strip from us; being valued thus:

As much as would maintain, to the king's honour,

Full fifteen earls and fifteen hundred knights,

Six thousand and two hundred good esquires;

15And, to relief of lazars and weak age,

Of indigent faint souls past corporal toil.

A hundred almshouses right well supplied;

And to the coffers of the king beside,

A thousand pounds by the year: thus runs the bill.

ELY

20This would drink deep.

CANTERBURY

'Twould drink the cup and all.

ELY

But what prevention?

CANTERBURY

The king is full of grace and fair regard.

ELY

And a true lover of the holy church.

CANTERBURY

25The courses of his youth promised it not.

The breath no sooner left his father's body,

But that his wildness, mortified in him,

Seem'd to die too; yea, at that very moment

Consideration, like an angel, came

30And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him,

Leaving his body as a paradise,

To envelop and contain celestial spirits.

Never was such a sudden scholar made;

Never came reformation in a flood,

35With such a heady currance, scouring faults

Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulness

So soon did lose his seat and all at once

As in this king.

ELY

We are blessed in the change.

CANTERBURY

40Hear him but reason in divinity,

And all-admiring with an inward wish

You would desire the king were made a prelate:

Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,

You would say it hath been all in all his study:

45List his discourse of war, and you shall hear

A fearful battle render'd you in music:

Turn him to any cause of policy,

The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,

Familiar as his garter: that, when he speaks,

50The air, a charter'd libertine, is still,

And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,

To steal his sweet and honey'd sentences;

So that the art and practic part of life

Must be the mistress to this theoric:

55Which is a wonder how his grace should glean it,

Since his addiction was to courses vain,

His companies unletter'd, rude and shallow,

His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports,

And never noted in him any study,

60Any retirement, any sequestration

From open haunts and popularity.

ELY

The strawberry grows underneath the nettle

And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best

Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality:

65And so the prince obscured his contemplation

Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt,

Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night,

Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.

CANTERBURY

It must be so; for miracles are ceased;

70And therefore we must needs admit the means

How things are perfected.

ELY

But, my good lord,

How now for mitigation of this bill

Urged by the commons? Doth his majesty

75Incline to it, or no?

CANTERBURY

He seems indifferent,

Or rather swaying more upon our part

Than cherishing the exhibiters against us;

For I have made an offer to his majesty,

80Upon our spiritual convocation

And in regard of causes now in hand,

Which I have open'd to his grace at large,

As touching France, to give a greater sum

Than ever at one time the clergy yet

85Did to his predecessors part withal.

ELY

How did this offer seem received, my lord?

CANTERBURY

With good acceptance of his majesty;

Save that there was not time enough to hear,

As I perceived his grace would fain have done,

90The severals and unhidden passages

Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms

And generally to the crown and seat of France

Derived from Edward, his great-grandfather.

ELY

What was the impediment that broke this off?

CANTERBURY

95The French ambassador upon that instant

Craved audience; and the hour, I think, is come

To give him hearing: is it four o'clock?

ELY

It is.

CANTERBURY

Then go we in, to know his embassy;

100Which I could with a ready guess declare,

Before the Frenchman speak a word of it.

ELY

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

Exeunt

1-2

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

KING HENRY V

Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury?

EXETER

Not here in presence.

KING HENRY V

Send for him, good uncle.

WESTMORELAND

Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege?

KING HENRY V

5Not yet, my cousin: we would be resolved,

Before we hear him, of some things of weight

That task our thoughts, concerning us and France.

Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, and the BISHOP of ELY

CANTERBURY

God and his angels guard your sacred throne

And make you long become it!

KING HENRY V

10Sure, we thank you.

My learned lord, we pray you to proceed

And justly and religiously unfold

Why the law Salique that they have in France

Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim:

15And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,

That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading,

Or nicely charge your understanding soul

With opening titles miscreate, whose right

Suits not in native colours with the truth;

20For God doth know how many now in health

Shall drop their blood in approbation

Of what your reverence shall incite us to.

Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,

How you awake our sleeping sword of war:

25We charge you, in the name of God, take heed;

For never two such kingdoms did contend

Without much fall of blood; whose guiltless drops

Are every one a woe, a sore complaint

'Gainst him whose wrong gives edge unto the swords

30That make such waste in brief mortality.

Under this conjuration, speak, my lord;

For we will hear, note and believe in heart

That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd

As pure as sin with baptism.

CANTERBURY

35Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers,

That owe yourselves, your lives and services

To this imperial throne. There is no bar

To make against your highness' claim to France

But this, which they produce from Pharamond,

40'In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant:'

'No woman shall succeed in Salique land:'

Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze

To be the realm of France, and Pharamond

The founder of this law and female bar.

45Yet their own authors faithfully affirm

That the land Salique is in Germany,

Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe;

Where Charles the Great, having subdued the Saxons,

There left behind and settled certain French;

50Who, holding in disdain the German women

For some dishonest manners of their life,

Establish'd then this law; to wit, no female

Should be inheritrix in Salique land:

Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala,

55Is at this day in Germany call'd Meisen.

Then doth it well appear that Salique law

Was not devised for the realm of France:

Nor did the French possess the Salique land

Until four hundred one and twenty years

60After defunction of King Pharamond,

Idly supposed the founder of this law;

Who died within the year of our redemption

Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the Great

Subdued the Saxons, and did seat the French

65Beyond the river Sala, in the year

Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say,

King Pepin, which deposed Childeric,

Did, as heir general, being descended

Of Blithild, which was daughter to King Clothair,

70Make claim and title to the crown of France.

Hugh Capet also, who usurped the crown

Of Charles the duke of Lorraine, sole heir male

Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great,

To find his title with some shows of truth,

75'Through, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught,

Convey'd himself as heir to the Lady Lingare,

Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son

To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son

Of Charles the Great. Also King Lewis the Tenth,

80Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet,

Could not keep quiet in his conscience,

Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied

That fair Queen Isabel, his grandmother,

Was lineal of the Lady Ermengare,

85Daughter to Charles the foresaid duke of Lorraine:

By the which marriage the line of Charles the Great

Was re-united to the crown of France.

So that, as clear as is the summer's sun.

King Pepin's title and Hugh Capet's claim,

90King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear

To hold in right and title of the female:

So do the kings of France unto this day;

Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law

To bar your highness claiming from the female,

95And rather choose to hide them in a net

Than amply to imbar their crooked titles

Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.

KING HENRY V

May I with right and conscience make this claim?

CANTERBURY

The sin upon my head, dread sovereign!

100For in the book of Numbers is it writ,

When the man dies, let the inheritance

Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord,

Stand for your own; unwind your bloody flag;

Look back into your mighty ancestors:

105Go, my dread lord, to your great-grandsire's tomb,

From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit,

And your great-uncle's, Edward the Black Prince,

Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy,

Making defeat on the full power of France,

110Whiles his most mighty father on a hill

Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp

Forage in blood of French nobility.

O noble English. that could entertain

With half their forces the full Pride of France

115And let another half stand laughing by,

All out of work and cold for action!

ELY

Awake remembrance of these valiant dead

And with your puissant arm renew their feats:

You are their heir; you sit upon their throne;

120The blood and courage that renowned them

Runs in your veins; and my thrice-puissant liege

Is in the very May-morn of his youth,

Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises.

EXETER

Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth

125Do all expect that you should rouse yourself,

As did the former lions of your blood.

WESTMORELAND

They know your grace hath cause and means and might;

So hath your highness; never king of England

Had nobles richer and more loyal subjects,

130Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England

And lie pavilion'd in the fields of France.

CANTERBURY

O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege,

With blood and sword and fire to win your right;

In aid whereof we of the spiritualty

135Will raise your highness such a mighty sum

As never did the clergy at one time

Bring in to any of your ancestors.

KING HENRY V

We must not only arm to invade the French,

But lay down our proportions to defend

140Against the Scot, who will make road upon us

With all advantages.

CANTERBURY

They of those marches, gracious sovereign,

Shall be a wall sufficient to defend

Our inland from the pilfering borderers.

KING HENRY V

145We do not mean the coursing snatchers only,

But fear the main intendment of the Scot,

Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us;

For you shall read that my great-grandfather

Never went with his forces into France

150But that the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdom

Came pouring, like the tide into a breach,

With ample and brim fulness of his force,

Galling the gleaned land with hot assays,

Girding with grievous siege castles and towns;

155That England, being empty of defence,

Hath shook and trembled at the ill neighbourhood.

CANTERBURY

She hath been then more fear'd than harm'd, my liege;

For hear her but exampled by herself:

When all her chivalry hath been in France

160And she a mourning widow of her nobles,

She hath herself not only well defended

But taken and impounded as a stray

The King of Scots; whom she did send to France,

To fill King Edward's fame with prisoner kings

165And make her chronicle as rich with praise

As is the ooze and bottom of the sea

With sunken wreck and sunless treasuries.

WESTMORELAND

But there's a saying very old and true,

'If that you will France win,

170Then with Scotland first begin:'

For once the eagle England being in prey,

To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot

Comes sneaking and so sucks her princely eggs,

Playing the mouse in absence of the cat,

175To tear and havoc more than she can eat.

EXETER

It follows then the cat must stay at home:

Yet that is but a crush'd necessity,

Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries,

And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves.

180While that the armed hand doth fight abroad,

The advised head defends itself at home;

For government, though high and low and lower,

Put into parts, doth keep in one consent,

Congreeing in a full and natural close,

185Like music.

CANTERBURY

Therefore doth heaven divide

The state of man in divers functions,

Setting endeavour in continual motion;

To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,

190Obedience: for so work the honey-bees,

Creatures that by a rule in nature teach

The act of order to a peopled kingdom.

They have a king and officers of sorts;

Where some, like magistrates, correct at home,

195Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad,

Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,

Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds,

Which pillage they with merry march bring home

To the tent-royal of their emperor;

200Who, busied in his majesty, surveys

The singing masons building roofs of gold,

The civil citizens kneading up the honey,

The poor mechanic porters crowding in

Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate,

205The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum,

Delivering o'er to executors pale

The lazy yawning drone. I this infer,

That many things, having full reference

To one consent, may work contrariously:

210As many arrows, loosed several ways,

Come to one mark; as many ways meet in one town;

As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea;

As many lines close in the dial's centre;

So may a thousand actions, once afoot.

215End in one purpose, and be all well borne

Without defeat. Therefore to France, my liege.

Divide your happy England into four;

Whereof take you one quarter into France,

And you withal shall make all Gallia shake.

220If we, with thrice such powers left at home,

Cannot defend our own doors from the dog,

Let us be worried and our nation lose

The name of hardiness and policy.

KING HENRY V

Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin.

225Now are we well resolved; and, by God's help,

And yours, the noble sinews of our power,

France being ours, we'll bend it to our awe,

Or break it all to pieces: or there we'll sit,

Ruling in large and ample empery

230O'er France and all her almost kingly dukedoms,

Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn,

Tombless, with no remembrance over them:

Either our history shall with full mouth

Speak freely of our acts, or else our grave,

235Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth,

Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph.

Now are we well prepared to know the pleasure

Of our fair cousin Dauphin; for we hear

Your greeting is from him, not from the king.

FIRST AMBASSADOR

240May't please your majesty to give us leave

Freely to render what we have in charge;

Or shall we sparingly show you far off

The Dauphin's meaning and our embassy?

KING HENRY V

We are no tyrant, but a Christian king;

245Unto whose grace our passion is as subject

As are our wretches fetter'd in our prisons:

Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness

Tell us the Dauphin's mind.

FIRST AMBASSADOR

Thus, then, in few.

250Your highness, lately sending into France,

Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right

Of your great predecessor, King Edward the Third.

In answer of which claim, the prince our master

Says that you savour too much of your youth,

255And bids you be advised there's nought in France

That can be with a nimble galliard won;

You cannot revel into dukedoms there.

He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit,

This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this,

260Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim

Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.

KING HENRY V

What treasure, uncle?

EXETER

Tennis-balls, my liege.

KING HENRY V

We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us;

265His present and your pains we thank you for:

When we have march'd our rackets to these balls,

We will, in France, by God's grace, play a set

Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard.

Tell him he hath made a match with such a wrangler

270That all the courts of France will be disturb'd

With chaces. And we understand him well,

How he comes o'er us with our wilder days,

Not measuring what use we made of them.

We never valued this poor seat of England;

275And therefore, living hence, did give ourself

To barbarous licence; as 'tis ever common

That men are merriest when they are from home.

But tell the Dauphin I will keep my state,

Be like a king and show my sail of greatness

280When I do rouse me in my throne of France:

For that I have laid by my majesty

And plodded like a man for working-days,

But I will rise there with so full a glory

That I will dazzle all the eyes of France,

285Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us.

And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his

Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones; and his soul

Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance

That shall fly with them: for many a thousand widows

290Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands;

Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down;

And some are yet ungotten and unborn

That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's scorn.

But this lies all within the will of God,

295To whom I do appeal; and in whose name

Tell you the Dauphin I am coming on,

To venge me as I may and to put forth

My rightful hand in a well-hallow'd cause.

So get you hence in peace; and tell the Dauphin

300His jest will savour but of shallow wit,

When thousands weep more than did laugh at it.

Convey them with safe conduct. Fare you well.

Exeunt Ambassadors

EXETER

This was a merry message.

KING HENRY V

We hope to make the sender blush at it.

305Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour

That may give furtherance to our expedition;

For we have now no thought in us but France,

Save those to God, that run before our business.

Therefore let our proportions for these wars

310Be soon collected and all things thought upon

That may with reasonable swiftness add

More feathers to our wings; for, God before,

We'll chide this Dauphin at his father's door.

Therefore let every man now task his thought,

315That this fair action may on foot be brought.

Exeunt. Flourish

2-1

Enter Corporal NYM and Lieutenant BARDOLPH

BARDOLPH

Well met, Corporal Nym.

NYM

Good morrow, Lieutenant Bardolph.

BARDOLPH

What, are Ancient Pistol and you friends yet?

NYM

For my part, I care not: I say little; but when

5time shall serve, there shall be smiles; but that

shall be as it may. I dare not fight; but I will

wink and hold out mine iron: it is a simple one; but

what though? it will toast cheese, and it will

endure cold as another man's sword will: and

10there's an end.

BARDOLPH

I will bestow a breakfast to make you friends; and

we'll be all three sworn brothers to France: let it

be so, good Corporal Nym.

NYM

Faith, I will live so long as I may, that's the

15certain of it; and when I cannot live any longer, I

will do as I may: that is my rest, that is the

rendezvous of it.

BARDOLPH

It is certain, corporal, that he is married to Nell

Quickly: and certainly she did you wrong; for you

20were troth-plight to her.

NYM

I cannot tell: things must be as they may: men may

sleep, and they may have their throats about them at

that time; and some say knives have edges. It must

be as it may: though patience be a tired mare, yet

25she will plod. There must be conclusions. Well, I

cannot tell.

Enter PISTOL and Hostess

BARDOLPH

Here comes Ancient Pistol and his wife: good

corporal, be patient here.

NYM

How now, mine host Pistol!

PISTOL

30Base tike, call'st thou me host? Now, by this hand,

I swear, I scorn the term; Nor shall my Nell keep lodgers.

HOSTESS

No, by my troth, not long; for we cannot lodge and

board a dozen or fourteen gentlewomen that live

honestly by the prick of their needles, but it will

35be thought we keep a bawdy house straight.

O well a day, Lady, if he be not drawn now! we

shall see wilful adultery and murder committed.

BARDOLPH

Good lieutenant! good corporal! offer nothing here.

NYM

Pish!

PISTOL

40Pish for thee, Iceland dog! thou prick-ear'd cur of Iceland!

HOSTESS

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

NYM

Will you shog off? I would have you solus.

PISTOL

'Solus,' egregious dog? O viper vile!

The 'solus' in thy most mervailous face;

45The 'solus' in thy teeth, and in thy throat,

And in thy hateful lungs, yea, in thy maw, perdy,

And, which is worse, within thy nasty mouth!

I do retort the 'solus' in thy bowels;

For I can take, and Pistol's cock is up,

50And flashing fire will follow.

NYM

I am not Barbason; you cannot conjure me. I have an

humour to knock you indifferently well. If you grow

foul with me, Pistol, I will scour you with my

rapier, as I may, in fair terms: if you would walk

55off, I would prick your guts a little, in good

terms, as I may: and that's the humour of it.

PISTOL

O braggart vile and damned furious wight!

The grave doth gape, and doting death is near;

Therefore exhale.

BARDOLPH

60Hear me, hear me what I say: he that strikes the

first stroke, I'll run him up to the hilts, as I am a soldier.

Draws

PISTOL

An oath of mickle might; and fury shall abate.

Give me thy fist, thy fore-foot to me give:

Thy spirits are most tall.

NYM

65I will cut thy throat, one time or other, in fair

terms: that is the humour of it.

PISTOL

'Couple a gorge!'

That is the word. I thee defy again.

O hound of Crete, think'st thou my spouse to get?

70No; to the spital go,

And from the powdering tub of infamy

Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind,

Doll Tearsheet she by name, and her espouse:

I have, and I will hold, the quondam Quickly

75For the only she; and--pauca, there's enough. Go to.

Enter the Boy

BOY

Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master, and

you, hostess: he is very sick, and would to bed.

Good Bardolph, put thy face between his sheets, and

do the office of a warming-pan. Faith, he's very ill.

BARDOLPH

80Away, you rogue!

HOSTESS

By my troth, he'll yield the crow a pudding one of

these days. The king has killed his heart. Good

husband, come home presently.

Exeunt Hostess and Boy

BARDOLPH

Come, shall I make you two friends? We must to

85France together: why the devil should we keep

knives to cut one another's throats?

PISTOL

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

NYM

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

PISTOL

Base is the slave that pays.

NYM

90That now I will have: that's the humour of it.

PISTOL

As manhood shall compound: push home.

They draw

BARDOLPH

By this sword, he that makes the first thrust, I'll

kill him; by this sword, I will.

PISTOL

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

BARDOLPH

95Corporal Nym, an thou wilt be friends, be friends:

an thou wilt not, why, then, be enemies with me too.

Prithee, put up.

NYM

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

PISTOL

A noble shalt thou have, and present pay;

100And liquor likewise will I give to thee,

And friendship shall combine, and brotherhood:

I'll live by Nym, and Nym shall live by me;

Is not this just? for I shall sutler be

Unto the camp, and profits will accrue.

105Give me thy hand.

NYM

I shall have my noble?

PISTOL

In cash most justly paid.

NYM

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

Re-enter Hostess

HOSTESS

As ever you came of women, come in quickly to Sir

110John. Ah, poor heart! he is so shaked of a burning

quotidian tertian, that it is most lamentable to

behold. Sweet men, come to him.

NYM

The king hath run bad humours on the knight; that's

the even of it.

PISTOL

115Nym, thou hast spoke the right;

His heart is fracted and corroborate.

NYM

The king is a good king: but it must be as it may;

he passes some humours and careers.

PISTOL

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

2-2

Enter EXETER, BEDFORD, and WESTMORELAND

BEDFORD

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

EXETER

They shall be apprehended by and by.

WESTMORELAND

How smooth and even they do bear themselves!

As if allegiance in their bosoms sat,

5Crowned with faith and constant loyalty.

BEDFORD

The king hath note of all that they intend,

By interception which they dream not of.

EXETER

Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow,

Whom he hath dull'd and cloy'd with gracious favours,

10That he should, for a foreign purse, so sell

His sovereign's life to death and treachery.

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

KING HENRY V

Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard.

My Lord of Cambridge, and my kind Lord of Masham,

And you, my gentle knight, give me your thoughts:

15Think you not that the powers we bear with us

Will cut their passage through the force of France,

Doing the execution and the act

For which we have in head assembled them?

SCROOP

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

KING HENRY V

20I doubt not that; since we are well persuaded

We carry not a heart with us from hence

That grows not in a fair consent with ours,

Nor leave not one behind that doth not wish

Success and conquest to attend on us.

CAMBRIDGE

25Never was monarch better fear'd and loved

Than is your majesty: there's not, I think, a subject

That sits in heart-grief and uneasiness

Under the sweet shade of your government.

GREY

True: those that were your father's enemies

30Have steep'd their galls in honey and do serve you

With hearts create of duty and of zeal.

KING HENRY V

We therefore have great cause of thankfulness;

And shall forget the office of our hand,

Sooner than quittance of desert and merit

35According to the weight and worthiness.

SCROOP

So service shall with steeled sinews toil,

And labour shall refresh itself with hope,

To do your grace incessant services.

KING HENRY V

We judge no less. Uncle of Exeter,

40Enlarge the man committed yesterday,

That rail'd against our person: we consider

it was excess of wine that set him on;

And on his more advice we pardon him.

SCROOP

That's mercy, but too much security:

45Let him be punish'd, sovereign, lest example

Breed, by his sufferance, more of such a kind.

KING HENRY V

O, let us yet be merciful.

CAMBRIDGE

So may your highness, and yet punish too.

GREY

Sir,

50You show great mercy, if you give him life,

After the taste of much correction.

KING HENRY V

Alas, your too much love and care of me

Are heavy orisons 'gainst this poor wretch!

If little faults, proceeding on distemper,

55Shall not be wink'd at, how shall we stretch our eye

When capital crimes, chew'd, swallow'd and digested,

Appear before us? We'll yet enlarge that man,

Though Cambridge, Scroop and Grey, in their dear care

And tender preservation of our person,

60Would have him punished. And now to our French causes:

Who are the late commissioners?

CAMBRIDGE

I one, my lord:

Your highness bade me ask for it to-day.

SCROOP

So did you me, my liege.

GREY

65And I, my royal sovereign.

KING HENRY V

Then, Richard Earl of Cambridge, there is yours;

There yours, Lord Scroop of Masham; and, sir knight,

Grey of Northumberland, this same is yours:

Read them; and know, I know your worthiness.

70My Lord of Westmoreland, and uncle Exeter,

We will aboard to night. Why, how now, gentlemen!

What see you in those papers that you lose

So much complexion? Look ye, how they change!

Their cheeks are paper. Why, what read you there

75That hath so cowarded and chased your blood

Out of appearance?

CAMBRIDGE

I do confess my fault;

And do submit me to your highness' mercy.

GREY, SCROOP

To which we all appeal.

KING HENRY V

80The mercy that was quick in us but late,

By your own counsel is suppress'd and kill'd:

You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy;

For your own reasons turn into your bosoms,

As dogs upon their masters, worrying you.

85See you, my princes, and my noble peers,

These English monsters! My Lord of Cambridge here,

You know how apt our love was to accord

To furnish him with all appertinents

Belonging to his honour; and this man

90Hath, for a few light crowns, lightly conspired,

And sworn unto the practises of France,

To kill us here in Hampton: to the which

This knight, no less for bounty bound to us

Than Cambridge is, hath likewise sworn. But, O,

95What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop? thou cruel,

Ingrateful, savage and inhuman creature!

Thou that didst bear the key of all my counsels,

That knew'st the very bottom of my soul,

That almost mightst have coin'd me into gold,

100Wouldst thou have practised on me for thy use,

May it be possible, that foreign hire

Could out of thee extract one spark of evil

That might annoy my finger? 'tis so strange,

That, though the truth of it stands off as gross

105As black and white, my eye will scarcely see it.

Treason and murder ever kept together,

As two yoke-devils sworn to either's purpose,

Working so grossly in a natural cause,

That admiration did not whoop at them:

110But thou, 'gainst all proportion, didst bring in

Wonder to wait on treason and on murder:

And whatsoever cunning fiend it was

That wrought upon thee so preposterously

Hath got the voice in hell for excellence:

115All other devils that suggest by treasons

Do botch and bungle up damnation

With patches, colours, and with forms being fetch'd

From glistering semblances of piety;

But he that temper'd thee bade thee stand up,

120Gave thee no instance why thou shouldst do treason,

Unless to dub thee with the name of traitor.

If that same demon that hath gull'd thee thus

Should with his lion gait walk the whole world,

He might return to vasty Tartar back,

125And tell the legions 'I can never win

A soul so easy as that Englishman's.'

O, how hast thou with 'jealousy infected

The sweetness of affiance! Show men dutiful?

Why, so didst thou: seem they grave and learned?

130Why, so didst thou: come they of noble family?

Why, so didst thou: seem they religious?

Why, so didst thou: or are they spare in diet,

Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger,

Constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood,

135Garnish'd and deck'd in modest complement,

Not working with the eye without the ear,

And but in purged judgment trusting neither?

Such and so finely bolted didst thou seem:

And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot,

140To mark the full-fraught man and best indued

With some suspicion. I will weep for thee;

For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like

Another fall of man. Their faults are open:

Arrest them to the answer of the law;

145And God acquit them of their practises!

EXETER

I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of

Richard Earl of Cambridge.

I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of

Henry Lord Scroop of Masham.

150I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of

Thomas Grey, knight, of Northumberland.

SCROOP

Our purposes God justly hath discover'd;

And I repent my fault more than my death;

Which I beseech your highness to forgive,

155Although my body pay the price of it.

CAMBRIDGE

For me, the gold of France did not seduce;

Although I did admit it as a motive

The sooner to effect what I intended:

But God be thanked for prevention;

160Which I in sufferance heartily will rejoice,

Beseeching God and you to pardon me.

GREY

Never did faithful subject more rejoice

At the discovery of most dangerous treason

Than I do at this hour joy o'er myself.

165Prevented from a damned enterprise:

My fault, but not my body, pardon, sovereign.

KING HENRY V

God quit you in his mercy! Hear your sentence.

You have conspired against our royal person,

Join'd with an enemy proclaim'd and from his coffers

170Received the golden earnest of our death;

Wherein you would have sold your king to slaughter,

His princes and his peers to servitude,

His subjects to oppression and contempt

And his whole kingdom into desolation.

175Touching our person seek we no revenge;

But we our kingdom's safety must so tender,

Whose ruin you have sought, that to her laws

We do deliver you. Get you therefore hence,

Poor miserable wretches, to your death:

180The taste whereof, God of his mercy give

You patience to endure, and true repentance

Of all your dear offences! Bear them hence.

Now, lords, for France; the enterprise whereof

Shall be to you, as us, like glorious.

185We doubt not of a fair and lucky war,

Since God so graciously hath brought to light

This dangerous treason lurking in our way

To hinder our beginnings. We doubt not now

But every rub is smoothed on our way.

190Then forth, dear countrymen: let us deliver

Our puissance into the hand of God,

Putting it straight in expedition.

Cheerly to sea; the signs of war advance:

No king of England, if not king of France.

Exuent

2-3

Enter PISTOL, Hostess, NYM, BARDOLPH, and Boy

HOSTESS

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

PISTOL

No; for my manly heart doth yearn.

Bardolph, be blithe: Nym, rouse thy vaunting veins:

Boy, bristle thy courage up; for Falstaff he is dead,

5And we must yearn therefore.

BARDOLPH

Would I were with him, wheresome'er he is, either in

heaven or in hell!

HOSTESS

Nay, sure, he's not in hell: he's in Arthur's

bosom, if ever man went to Arthur's bosom. A' made

10a finer end and went away an it had been any

christom child; a' parted even just between twelve

and one, even at the turning o' the tide: for after

I saw him fumble with the sheets and play with

flowers and smile upon his fingers' ends, I knew

15there was but one way; for his nose was as sharp as

a pen, and a' babbled of green fields. 'How now,

sir John!' quoth I 'what, man! be o' good

cheer.' So a' cried out 'God, God, God!' three or

four times. Now I, to comfort him, bid him a'

20should not think of God; I hoped there was no need

to trouble himself with any such thoughts yet. So

a' bade me lay more clothes on his feet: I put my

hand into the bed and felt them, and they were as

cold as any stone; then I felt to his knees, and

25they were as cold as any stone, and so upward and

upward, and all was as cold as any stone.

NYM

They say he cried out of sack.

HOSTESS

Ay, that a' did.

BARDOLPH

And of women.

HOSTESS

30Nay, that a' did not.

BOY

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

incarnate.

HOSTESS

A' could never abide carnation; 'twas a colour he

never liked.

BOY

35A' said once, the devil would have him about women.

HOSTESS

A' did in some sort, indeed, handle women; but then

he was rheumatic, and talked of the whore of Babylon.

BOY

Do you not remember, a' saw a flea stick upon

Bardolph's nose, and a' said it was a black soul

40burning in hell-fire?

BARDOLPH

Well, the fuel is gone that maintained that fire:

that's all the riches I got in his service.

NYM

Shall we shog? the king will be gone from

Southampton.

PISTOL

45Come, let's away. My love, give me thy lips.

Look to my chattels and my movables:

Let senses rule; the word is 'Pitch and Pay:'

Trust none;

For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes,

50And hold-fast is the only dog, my duck:

Therefore, Caveto be thy counsellor.

Go, clear thy crystals. Yoke-fellows in arms,

Let us to France; like horse-leeches, my boys,

To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck!

BOY

55And that's but unwholesome food they say.

PISTOL

Touch her soft mouth, and march.

BARDOLPH

Farewell, hostess.

Kissing her

NYM

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

PISTOL

Let housewifery appear: keep close, I thee command.

HOSTESS

60Farewell; adieu.

Exeunt

2-4

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

FRENCH KING

Thus comes the English with full power upon us;

And more than carefully it us concerns

To answer royally in our defences.

Therefore the Dukes of Berri and of Bretagne,

5Of Brabant and of Orleans, shall make forth,

And you, Prince Dauphin, with all swift dispatch,

To line and new repair our towns of war

With men of courage and with means defendant;

For England his approaches makes as fierce

10As waters to the sucking of a gulf.

It fits us then to be as provident

As fear may teach us out of late examples

Left by the fatal and neglected English

Upon our fields.

DAUPHIN

15My most redoubted father,

It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe;

For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom,

Though war nor no known quarrel were in question,

But that defences, musters, preparations,

20Should be maintain'd, assembled and collected,

As were a war in expectation.

Therefore, I say 'tis meet we all go forth

To view the sick and feeble parts of France:

And let us do it with no show of fear;

25No, with no more than if we heard that England

Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance:

For, my good liege, she is so idly king'd,

Her sceptre so fantastically borne

By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth,

30That fear attends her not.

CONSTABLE

O peace, Prince Dauphin!

You are too much mistaken in this king:

Question your grace the late ambassadors,

With what great state he heard their embassy,

35How well supplied with noble counsellors,

How modest in exception, and withal

How terrible in constant resolution,

And you shall find his vanities forespent

Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus,

40Covering discretion with a coat of folly;

As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots

That shall first spring and be most delicate.

DAUPHIN

Well, 'tis not so, my lord high constable;

But though we think it so, it is no matter:

45In cases of defence 'tis best to weigh

The enemy more mighty than he seems:

So the proportions of defence are fill'd;

Which of a weak or niggardly projection

Doth, like a miser, spoil his coat with scanting

50A little cloth.

FRENCH KING

Think we King Harry strong;

And, princes, look you strongly arm to meet him.

The kindred of him hath been flesh'd upon us;

And he is bred out of that bloody strain

55That haunted us in our familiar paths:

Witness our too much memorable shame

When Cressy battle fatally was struck,

And all our princes captiv'd by the hand

Of that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales;

60Whiles that his mountain sire, on mountain standing,

Up in the air, crown'd with the golden sun,

Saw his heroical seed, and smiled to see him,

Mangle the work of nature and deface

The patterns that by God and by French fathers

65Had twenty years been made. This is a stem

Of that victorious stock; and let us fear

The native mightiness and fate of him.

Enter a Messenger

MESSENGER

Ambassadors from Harry King of England

Do crave admittance to your majesty.

FRENCH KING

70We'll give them present audience. Go, and bring them.

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

DAUPHIN

Turn head, and stop pursuit; for coward dogs

Most spend their mouths when what they seem to threaten

Runs far before them. Good my sovereign,

75Take up the English short, and let them know

Of what a monarchy you are the head:

Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin

As self-neglecting.

Re-enter Lords, with EXETER and train

FRENCH KING

From our brother England?

EXETER

80From him; and thus he greets your majesty.

He wills you, in the name of God Almighty,

That you divest yourself, and lay apart

The borrow'd glories that by gift of heaven,

By law of nature and of nations, 'long

85To him and to his heirs; namely, the crown

And all wide-stretched honours that pertain

By custom and the ordinance of times

Unto the crown of France. That you may know

'Tis no sinister nor no awkward claim,

90Pick'd from the worm-holes of long-vanish'd days,

Nor from the dust of old oblivion raked,

He sends you this most memorable line,

In every branch truly demonstrative;

Willing to overlook this pedigree:

95And when you find him evenly derived

From his most famed of famous ancestors,

Edward the Third, he bids you then resign

Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held

From him the native and true challenger.

FRENCH KING

100Or else what follows?

EXETER

Bloody constraint; for if you hide the crown

Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it:

Therefore in fierce tempest is he coming,

In thunder and in earthquake, like a Jove,

105That, if requiring fail, he will compel;

And bids you, in the bowels of the Lord,

Deliver up the crown, and to take mercy

On the poor souls for whom this hungry war

Opens his vasty jaws; and on your head

110Turning the widows' tears, the orphans' cries

The dead men's blood, the pining maidens groans,

For husbands, fathers and betrothed lovers,

That shall be swallow'd in this controversy.

This is his claim, his threatening and my message;

115Unless the Dauphin be in presence here,

To whom expressly I bring greeting too.

FRENCH KING

For us, we will consider of this further:

To-morrow shall you bear our full intent

Back to our brother England.

DAUPHIN

120For the Dauphin,

I stand here for him: what to him from England?

EXETER

Scorn and defiance; slight regard, contempt,

And any thing that may not misbecome

The mighty sender, doth he prize you at.

125Thus says my king; an' if your father's highness

Do not, in grant of all demands at large,

Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his majesty,

He'll call you to so hot an answer of it,

That caves and womby vaultages of France

130Shall chide your trespass and return your mock

In second accent of his ordnance.

DAUPHIN

Say, if my father render fair return,

It is against my will; for I desire

Nothing but odds with England: to that end,

135As matching to his youth and vanity,

I did present him with the Paris balls.

EXETER

He'll make your Paris Louvre shake for it,

Were it the mistress-court of mighty Europe:

And, be assured, you'll find a difference,

140As we his subjects have in wonder found,

Between the promise of his greener days

And these he masters now: now he weighs time

Even to the utmost grain: that you shall read

In your own losses, if he stay in France.

FRENCH KING

145To-morrow shall you know our mind at full.

EXETER

Dispatch us with all speed, lest that our king

Come here himself to question our delay;

For he is footed in this land already.

FRENCH KING

You shall be soon dispatch's with fair conditions:

150A night is but small breath and little pause

To answer matters of this consequence.

Flourish. Exeunt

3-1

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

KING HENRY V

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;

Or close the wall up with our English dead.

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man

As modest stillness and humility:

5But when the blast of war blows in our ears,

Then imitate the action of the tiger;

Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,

Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;

Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;

10Let pry through the portage of the head

Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it

As fearfully as doth a galled rock

O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,

Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.

15Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,

Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit

To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.

Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!

Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,

20Have in these parts from morn till even fought

And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:

Dishonour not your mothers; now attest

That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.

Be copy now to men of grosser blood,

25And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,

Whose limbs were made in England, show us here

The mettle of your pasture; let us swear

That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;

For there is none of you so mean and base,

30That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,

Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:

Follow your spirit, and upon this charge

Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'

Exeunt. Alarum, and chambers go off

3-2

Enter NYM, BARDOLPH, PISTOL, and Boy

BARDOLPH

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

NYM

Pray thee, corporal, stay: the knocks are too hot;

and, for mine own part, I have not a case of lives:

the humour of it is too hot, that is the very

5plain-song of it.

PISTOL

The plain-song is most just: for humours do abound:

Knocks go and come; God's vassals drop and die;

And sword and shield,

In bloody field,

10Doth win immortal fame.

BOY

Would I were in an alehouse in London! I would give

all my fame for a pot of ale and safety.

PISTOL

And I:

If wishes would prevail with me,

15My purpose should not fail with me,

But thither would I hie.

BOY

As duly, but not as truly,

As bird doth sing on bough.

Enter FLUELLEN

FLUELLEN

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

Driving them forward

PISTOL

20Be merciful, great duke, to men of mould.

Abate thy rage, abate thy manly rage,

Abate thy rage, great duke!

Good bawcock, bate thy rage; use lenity, sweet chuck!

NYM

These be good humours! your honour wins bad humours.

Exeunt all but Boy

BOY

25As young as I am, I have observed these three

swashers. I am boy to them all three: but all they

three, though they would serve me, could not be man

to me; for indeed three such antics do not amount to

a man. For Bardolph, he is white-livered and

30red-faced; by the means whereof a' faces it out, but

fights not. For Pistol, he hath a killing tongue

and a quiet sword; by the means whereof a' breaks

words, and keeps whole weapons. For Nym, he hath

heard that men of few words are the best men; and

35therefore he scorns to say his prayers, lest a'

should be thought a coward: but his few bad words

are matched with as few good deeds; for a' never

broke any man's head but his own, and that was

against a post when he was drunk. They will steal

40any thing, and call it purchase. Bardolph stole a

lute-case, bore it twelve leagues, and sold it for

three half pence. Nym and Bardolph are sworn

brothers in filching, and in Calais they stole a

fire-shovel: I knew by that piece of service the

45men would carry coals. They would have me as

familiar with men's pockets as their gloves or their

handkerchers: which makes much against my manhood,

if I should take from another's pocket to put into

mine; for it is plain pocketing up of wrongs. I

50must leave them, and seek some better service:

their villany goes against my weak stomach, and

therefore I must cast it up.

Exit

Re-enter FLUELLEN, GOWER following

GOWER

Captain Fluellen, you must come presently to the

mines; the Duke of Gloucester would speak with you.

FLUELLEN

55To the mines! tell you the duke, it is not so good

to come to the mines; for, look you, the mines is

not according to the disciplines of the war: the

concavities of it is not sufficient; for, look you,

the athversary, you may discuss unto the duke, look

60you, is digt himself four yard under the

countermines: by Cheshu, I think a' will plough up

all, if there is not better directions.

GOWER

The Duke of Gloucester, to whom the order of the

siege is given, is altogether directed by an

65Irishman, a very valiant gentleman, i' faith.

FLUELLEN

It is Captain Macmorris, is it not?

GOWER

I think it be.

FLUELLEN

By Cheshu, he is an ass, as in the world: I will

verify as much in his beard: he has no more

70directions in the true disciplines of the wars, look

you, of the Roman disciplines, than is a puppy-dog.

Enter MACMORRIS and Captain JAMY

GOWER

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

FLUELLEN

Captain Jamy is a marvellous falourous gentleman,

that is certain; and of great expedition and

75knowledge in th' aunchient wars, upon my particular

knowledge of his directions: by Cheshu, he will

maintain his argument as well as any military man in

the world, in the disciplines of the pristine wars

of the Romans.

JAMY

80I say gud-day, Captain Fluellen.

FLUELLEN

God-den to your worship, good Captain James.

GOWER

How now, Captain Macmorris! have you quit the

mines? have the pioneers given o'er?

MACMORRIS

By Chrish, la! tish ill done: the work ish give

85over, the trompet sound the retreat. By my hand, I

swear, and my father's soul, the work ish ill done;

it ish give over: I would have blowed up the town, so

Chrish save me, la! in an hour: O, tish ill done,

tish ill done; by my hand, tish ill done!

FLUELLEN

90Captain Macmorris, I beseech you now, will you

voutsafe me, look you, a few disputations with you,

as partly touching or concerning the disciplines of

the war, the Roman wars, in the way of argument,

look you, and friendly communication; partly to

95satisfy my opinion, and partly for the satisfaction,

look you, of my mind, as touching the direction of

the military discipline; that is the point.

JAMY

It sall be vary gud, gud feith, gud captains bath:

and I sall quit you with gud leve, as I may pick

100occasion; that sall I, marry.

MACMORRIS

It is no time to discourse, so Chrish save me: the

day is hot, and the weather, and the wars, and the

king, and the dukes: it is no time to discourse. The

town is beseeched, and the trumpet call us to the

105breach; and we talk, and, be Chrish, do nothing:

'tis shame for us all: so God sa' me, 'tis shame to

stand still; it is shame, by my hand: and there is

throats to be cut, and works to be done; and there

ish nothing done, so Chrish sa' me, la!

JAMY

110By the mess, ere theise eyes of mine take themselves

to slomber, ay'll de gud service, or ay'll lig i'

the grund for it; ay, or go to death; and ay'll pay

't as valourously as I may, that sall I suerly do,

that is the breff and the long. Marry, I wad full

115fain hear some question 'tween you tway.

FLUELLEN

Captain Macmorris, I think, look you, under your

correction, there is not many of your nation--

MACMORRIS

Of my nation! What ish my nation? Ish a villain,

and a bastard, and a knave, and a rascal. What ish

120my nation? Who talks of my nation?

FLUELLEN

Look you, if you take the matter otherwise than is

meant, Captain Macmorris, peradventure I shall think

you do not use me with that affability as in

discretion you ought to use me, look you: being as

125good a man as yourself, both in the disciplines of

war, and in the derivation of my birth, and in

other particularities.

MACMORRIS

I do not know you so good a man as myself: so

Chrish save me, I will cut off your head.

GOWER

130Gentlemen both, you will mistake each other.

JAMY

A! that's a foul fault.

A parley sounded

GOWER

The town sounds a parley.

FLUELLEN

Captain Macmorris, when there is more better

opportunity to be required, look you, I will be so

135bold as to tell you I know the disciplines of war;

and there is an end.

Exeunt

3-3

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

KING HENRY V

How yet resolves the governor of the town?

This is the latest parle we will admit;

Therefore to our best mercy give yourselves;

Or like to men proud of destruction

5Defy us to our worst: for, as I am a soldier,

A name that