Bour. Normans, but bastard Normans, Nor-
man bastards!

Mort de ma vie! if they march along
Unfought withal, but I will sell my dukedom,
To buy a slobbery and a dirty farm
In that nookshotten* isle of Albion.

Con. Dieu de battailes! where have they this
mettle?

Is not their climate foggy, raw, and dull?
On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale,
Killing their fruit with frowns! Can sodden
[broth,
A drench for sur-rein'df jades, their barley

water,

Decoct their cold blood to such valiant beat?

SCENE VI.-The English Camp in Picardy.
Enter GoWER and FLUEllen.

Gow. How now, captain Fluellen? come you from the bridge?

Flu. I assure you, there is very excellent service committed at the pridge.

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 livings, and my uttermost powers: he is not, (God be praised, and plessed!) any hurt in the 'orld; but keeps the pridge most valiantly, with excellent disAnd shall our quick blood, spirited with wine,cipline. There is an ensign there at the pridge, Seem frosty? O, for honour of our land, Let us not hang like roping icicles [people Upou our houses' thatch, whiles a more frosty 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,
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,

And teach lavoltast 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;

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 De-la-bret, high constable of France;
You dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and of Berry,
Alençon. Brabant, Bar, and Burgundy,
Jaques Chatillion, Rambures, Vaudemont.
Beaumont, Grandpré, Roussi, and Fauconberg,
Foix, Lestrale, Bouciqualt, and Charolois;
High dukes, great princes, barons, lords, and
knights,

shames.

For your great seats, now quit you of great
[land
Bar Harry England, that sweeps through our
With pennons painted in the blood of Harfleur:
Rush on his host, as doth the melted snow
Upon the vallies; whose low vassal seat
The Alps doth spit and void his rheum upon :
Go down upon him,-you have power enough,-
And in a captive chariot, into Roüen
Bring him our prisoner.

Con. This becomes the great.
Sorry am I, his numbers are so few,

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.
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
Rouen.

-I think, in my very conscience, he is as va-
liant as Mark Antony; and he is a man of no
estimation in the 'orld; but I did see him do
gallant service.

Gow. What do you call him?
Flu. He is called-ancient Pistol.
Gow. I know him not.

Enter PISTOL.

Flu. Do you not know him? Here comes the man,
Pist. Captain, I thee beseech to do me fa-

vours:

The duke of Exeter doth love thee well.

Flu. Ay, I praise Got; and I have merited some love at his hands.

Pist. Bardolph, a soldier, firm and sound of
heart,

Of buxom valour, hath,-by cruel fate,
And giddy fortune's furious fickle wheel.
That gooddess blind,

That stands upon the rolling restless stone,➡

Flu. By your patience, ancient Pistol, Fortune is painted plind, with a mufflert before her eyes, to signify to you that fortune is plind: And she is painted also with a wheel; to sigaify to you, which is the moral of it, that she is turning, and inconstant, and variations, and mutabilities: and her foot, look you, is fixed upon a spherical stone, which rolls, and rolls, and rolls;-In good truth, the poet is make a most excellent description of fortune: fortune, look you, is an excellent moral.

Pist. Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns

on him ;

For he hath stol'n a pix,‡ and hanged must 'a be.
A damned death!

Let gallows gape for dog, let man go free,
And let not hemp his wind-pipe suffocate:
But Exeter bath given the doom of death,
For pix of little price.
[voice
Therefore, go speak, the duke will hear thy
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. Ancient Pistol, I do partly understand
your meaning.

Pist. Why then rejoice therefore.

Flu. Certainly, ancient, it is not a thing to injoice at: for if, look you, he were my brother, would desire the duke to use his goot pleasare, and put him to executions; for disciplines ought to be used.

Dau. Not so, I do beseech your majesty.
Fr. King. Be patient, for you shall remain

with us.

Pist. Die and be damn'd; and figo) for thy friendship!

Valour under good command.

A fold of linen which partially covered the face.

A small box in which were kept the consecrated wafers. An allusion to the custom in Spain and Italy of giv ing poisoned figs.

Flu. It is well.

Pist. The fig of Spain!

Flu. Very good.

we did but sleep; Advantage is a better soldier, [Exit PISTOL. than rashness. Tell him, we could have rebuked him at Harfleur; but that we thought

Gow. Why, this is an arrant counterfeit ras-not good to bruise an injury, till it were full cal; I remember him now; a bawd; a cutpurse. ripe:-now we speak upon our cue, and our Flu. I'll assure you, 'a utter'd as prave 'ords voice is imperial: England shall repent his folly, at the pridge, as you shall see in a summer's see his weakness, and admire our sufferance. day: But it is very well; what he has spoke to Bid him, therefore, consider of his ransom; me, that is well, I warrant you, when time is serve. which must proportion the losses we have borne, Gow. Why, 'tis a gull, a fool, a rogue; that the subjects we have lost, the disgrace we have now and then goes to the wars, to grace him- digested; which, in weight to re-answer, his self, at his return into London, under the form pettiness would bow under. For our losses, his of a soldier. And such fellows are perfect in exchequer is too poor; for the effusion of our great commanders' names: and they will learn blood, the muster of his kingdom too faint a numyou by rote, where services were done ;-at ber; and for our disgrace, his own person kneelsuch and such a sconce, at such a breach, ating at our feet, but a weak and worthless satisfacsuch a convoy; who came off bravely, who was tion. To this add-defiance: and tell him, for shot, who disgraced, what terms the enemy conclusion, he hath betrayed his followers, whose stood on; and this they con perfectly in the condemnation is pronounced. So far my king phrase of war, which they trick up with new-and master; so much my office. tuned oaths: And what a beard of the general's cut, and a horrid suit of the camp, will do among foaming bottles, 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 marvellous mistook.

Flu. I tell you what, captain Gower;-I do perceive, he is not the man that he would gladly make show to the 'orld 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. Enter King HENRY, GLOSTER, and Soldiers. Flu. Got pless your majesty!

K. Hen. How now, Fluellen? camest thou from the bridge?

I

K. Hen. What is thy name? I know thy quality.
Mont. Montjoy.

K. Hen. Thou dost thy office fairly. Turn
thee back,

And tell thy king,-I do not seek him now;
But could be willing to march on to Calais
Without impeachment:† for, to say the sooth,
(Though 'tis no wisdom to confess so much
Unto an enemy of craft and vantage,)
My people are with sickness much enfeebled;
My numbers lessen'd; and those few I have,
Almost no better than so many French;
Who when they were in health, I tell thee,
herald,

thought, upon one pair of English legs
Did march three Frenchmen.-Yet, forgive
me, God,

Flu. Ay, so please your majesty. The duke of Exeter has very gallantly maintained the That I do brag thus !-this your air of France pridge: the French is gone off, look you; and Hath blown that vice in me; I must repent. there is gallant and most prave passages: Marry, Go, therefore, tell thy master, here I am; th'athversary was have possession of the pridge; My ransom, is this frail and worthless trunk; but he is enforced to retire, and the duke of My army, but a weak and sickly guard; Exeter is master of the pridge: I can tell your Yet, God before, tell him we will come on, majesty, the duke is a prave man. Though France himself, and such another neigh

hour,

K. Hen. What men have you lost, Fluellen? [joy. Flu. The perdition of th'athversary hath been Stand in our way. There's for thy labour, Montvery great very reasonable great: marry, for Go, bid thy master well advise himself: my part, I think the duke hath lost never a If we may pass we will; if we be hinder'd, man, but one that is like to be executed for We will your tawny ground with your red blood robbing a church, one Bardolph, if your ma-Discolour: and so, Montjoy, fare you well. jesty know the man: his face is all bubukles, and whelks, and knobs, and flames of fire; and his lips plows at his nose, and it is like a coal of fire, sometimes plue, and sometimes red; but his nose is executed, and his fire's out.

K. Hen. We would have all such offenders so cut off and we give express charge, that in our marches through the country, there be nothing compelled from the villages, nothing taken but paid for; none of the French upbraided, or abused in disdainful language; For when lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentlest gamester is the soonest winner.

Tucket sounds. Enter MONTJOY.
Mont. You know me by my habit.t
K. Hen. Well then, I know thee; What
shall I know of thee?

Mont. My master's mind.

K. Hen. Unfold it.

Mont. Thus says my king :--Say thou to Harry of England, Though we seemed dead, * An intrenchment hastily thrown up.

ti.. By his herald's coat.

The sum of all our answer is but this:
We would not seek a battle, as we are;
Nor, as we are, we say, we will not shun it;
So tell your master.

Mont. I shall deliver so.
highness.

Thanks to your
[Exit MONTJOY.
Glo. I hope, they will not come upon us now.
K. Hen. We are in God's hand, brother, not
[night:-
March to the bridge: it now draws toward
Beyond the river we'll encamp ourselves:
And on to-morrow bid them march away.

in theirs.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VII.-The French camp, near Agin

court.

Enter the CONSTABLE of France, the Lord RAMBURES, the Duke of ORLEANS, Dauphin, and others.

Con. Tut! I have the best armour of the world.-'Would, it were day!

In our turn.
† Hinderance.
Then used for God being my guide.

Orl. What a wretched and peevish* fellow is How dread an army hath enrounded him; this king of England, to mope with his fat-brained followers so far out of his knowledge! Con. If the English had any apprehension, they would run away.

Orl. That they lack; for if their heads had any intellectual armour, they could never wear such heavy head-pieces.

Ram. That island of England breeds very valiant creatures; their mastiffs are of unmatchable courage.

Orl. Foolish curs! that run winking into the mouth of a Russian bear, and have their heads crushed like rotten apples: You may as well say, that's a valiant flea, that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion.

Con. Just, just; and the men do sympathize with the mastiffs, in robustious and rough coming on, leaving their wits with their wives: and then give them great meals of beef, and iron, and steel, they will eat like wolves, and fight like devils.

Orl. Ay, but these English are shrewdly out of beef.

Con. Then we shall find to-morrow-they have only stomachs to eat, and none to fight. Now is it time to arm: Come, shall we about it? Orl. It is now two o'clock: but, let me see,by ten,

We shall have each a hundred Englishmen.

ACT IV.

Enter CHORUS.

[Exeunt.

Chor. Now entertain conjecture of a time,
When creeping murmur, and the poring dark,
Fills the wide vessel of the universe.
From camp to camp, through the foul womb of
night,

The hum of either army stillyt sounds,
That the fix'd sentinels almost receive
The secret whispers of each other's watch:
Fire answers fire; and through their paly flames
Each battle sees the other's umber'd‡ face:
Steed threatens steed, in high and boastful neighs
Piercing the night's dull ear: and from the tents,
The armourers, accomplishing the knights,
With busy hammers closing rivets up,
Give dreadful note of preparation.

The country cocks do grow, the clocks do toll,
And the third hour of drowsy morning name.
Proud of their numbers, and secure in soul,
The confident and over-lusty French
Do the low-rated English play at dice;
And chide the cripple tardy-gaited night,
Who, like a foul and ugly witch, doth limp
So tediously away. The poor condemned Eng-
Like sacrifices, by their watchful fires [lish,
Sit patiently, and inly ruminate

[hold

Nor doth he dedicate one jot of colour
Unto the weary and all-watched night;
But freshly looks, and over-bears attaint,
With cheerful semblance, and sweet majesty;
That every wretch, pining and pale before,
Beholding him, plucks comfort from his looks:
A largess universal, like the sun,
His liberal eye doth give to every one,
Thawing cold fear. Then, mean and gentle all,
Behold, as may unworthiness define,
A little touch of Harry in the night:
And so our scene must to the battle fly:
Where, (O for pity!) we shall much disgrace-
With four or five most vile and ragged foils,
Right ill dispos'd in brawl ridiculous,—
The name of Agincourt: Yet, sit and see;
Minding* true things, by what their mockeries
be.
[Exit.

The morning's danger; and their gesture sad,
Investing lank-lean cheeks, and war-worn coats,I
Presenteth them unto the gazing moon
So many horrid ghosts. O, now, who will be-
The royal captain of this ruin'd band,
Walking from watch to watch, from tent to tent,
Let him cry-Praise and glory on his head!
For forth he goes, and visits all his host;
Bids them good-morrow, with a modest smile;
And calls them-brothers, friends and coun.

SCENE I.-The English Camp at Agincourt.
Enter King HENRY, BEDFORD and GLOSTER.
K. Hen. Gloster, 'tis true that we are in great

danger;

The greater therefore should our courage be.-
Good morrow, brother Bedford.-God Al-
mighty!

There is some soul of goodness in things evil,
Would men observingly distil it out;
For our bad neighbour makes us early stirrers,
Which is both healthful, and good husbandry :
Besides, they are our outward consciences,
And preachers to us all; admonishing,
That we should dress us fairly for our end.
Thus may we gather honey from the weed,
And make a moral of the devil himself.
Enter ERPINGHAM.
Good morrow, old Sir Thomas Erpingham:
A good soft pillow for that good white head
Were better than a churlish turf of France.
Erp. Not so, my liege; this lodging likes me

better,

Since I may say-now lie I like a king.

K. Hen. 'Tis good for men to love their pre-
sent pains,

Upon example; so the spirit is eased:
And when the mind is quicken'd out of doubt,
The organs, though defunct and dead before,
Break up their drowsy grave, and newly move
With casted slought and fresh legerity.‡
Lend me thy cloak, Sir Thomas.-Brothers both,
Commend me to the princes in our camp;
Do my good-morrow to them; and, anon,
Desire them all to my pavillion.
Glo. We shall, my liege.

[Exeunt GLOSTER and BEDFORD.
Erp. Shall I attend your grace?
K. Hen. No, my good knight;
Go with my brothers to my lords of England:
and my bosom must debate a while,
And then I would no other company.
Erp. The Lord in heaven bless thee, noble
Harry!
[Exit ERPINGHAM.
K. Hen. God-a-mercy, old heart! thou speak-
est cheerfully

Enter PISTOL.

Pist. Qui vo lá?

K. Hen. A friend.

K. Hen. I am a gentleman of a company. K. Hen, No: nor it is not meet he should. Pist. Trailest thou the puissant pike? For, though I speak it to you, I think the king K. Hen. Even so: What are you? is but a man, as I am; the violet smells to him, Pist. As good a gentleman as the emperor. as it doth to me: the element shows to him, as K. Hen. Then you are a better than the king.it doth to me; all his senses have but human Pist. The king's a bawcock, and a heart of conditions:* his ceremonies laid by, in his naA lad of life, an imp* of fame; [gold, kedness he appears but a man; and though his Of parents good, of fist most valiant: [strings affections are higher mounted than ours, yet, I kiss his dirty shoe, and from my heart-when they stoop, they stoop with the like wing; I love the lovely bully. What's thy name? therefore when he sees reason of fears, as we do, his fears, out of doubt, be of the same re

K. Hen. Harry le Roy.

Pist. Le Roy! a Cornish name; art thou of lish as ours are: Yet, in reason, no man should

Cornish crew?

K. Hen. No, I am a Welshman.

Pist. Knowest thou Fluellen.

K. Hen. Yes.

Upon Saint Davy's day.

possess him with any appearance of fear, lest he, by showing it, should dishearten his army. Butes. He may show what outward courage he will but, I believe, as cold a night as 'tis,

Pist. Tell him, I'll knock his leek about his he could wish himself in the Thames up to the [pate, neck; and so I would he were, and I by him, K. Hen. Do not you wear your dagger in at all adventures, so we were quit here. your cap that day, lest he knock that about yours.

Pist. Art thou his friend?

K. Hen. And his kinsman too.
Pist. The figo for thee then!

K. Hen. I thank you: God be with you!
Pist. My name is Pistol called.

[Exit.

K. Hen. It sortst well with your fierceness.

Enter FLUELLEN and GoWER, severally.

Gow. Captain Fluellen!

and the cares of it, and the forms of it, and the sobriety of it, and the modesty of it, to be otherwise.

:

K. Hen. By my troth, I will speak my con science of the king; I think, he would not wish himself any where but where he is.

Bates. Then, 'would he were here alone; so should he be sure to be ransomed, and as many poor men's lives saved.

K. Hen. I dare say, you love him not so ill, to wish him here alone: howsoever you speak this, to feel other men's minds: Methinks, I could not die any where so contented, as in the king's company; his cause being just, and his quarrel honourable.

Will. That's more than we know.

Bates. Ay, or more than we should seek after; for we know enough, if we know we are the king's subjects; if his cause be wrong, our obedience to the king wipes the crime of it out

of us.

Flu. So! in the name of Cheshu Christ, speak lower. It is the greatest admiration in the universal 'orld, when the true and auncient prerogatifes and laws of the wars is not kept if you would take the pains but to examine the wars of Pompey the Great, you shall find, I warrant you, that there is no tiddle taddle, or Will But, if the cause be not good, the king pibble pabble, in Pompey's camp: 1 warrant himself hath a heavy reckoning to make: when you, you shall find the ceremonies of the wars, all those legs, and arms, and heads, chopped off in a battle, shall join together at the latter day,t and cry all-We died at such a place; some, swearing; some, crying for a surgeon; some, upon their wives left poor behind them; some, upon the debts they owe; some, upon their children rawly left. I am afeard there are few die well, that die in battle for how can they charitably dispose of any thing, when blood is their argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for the king that led them to it: whom to disobey, were against all proportion of subjection.

Gow. Why, the enemy is loud; you heard

him all night.

a

Flu. If the enemy is an ass and a fool, and prating coxcomb, is it meet, think you, that we should also, look you, be an ass, and a fool, and a prating coxcomb: in your own conscience now?

will.

Glow. I will speak lower. Flu. I pray you, and beseech you, that you [Exeunt GoWER and FLUELLEN. K. Hen. So, if a son, that is by his father K. Hen. Though it appear a little out of sent about merchandise, do sinfully miscarry fashion, [man. There is much care and valour in this Welsh-upon the sea, the imputation of his wicked

Enter BATES, COURT, and WILLIAMS. Court. Brother John Bates, is not that the morning which breaks yonder?

Bates. I think it be: but we have no cause to desire the approach of day.

ness, by your rule, should be imposed upon his father that sent him: or if a servant, under his master's command, transporting a sum of money, be assailed by robbers, and die in many greatness of the master the author of the servant's irreconciled iniquities, you may call the busi

damnation :-But this is not so: the king is not

Will. We see yonder the beginning of the bound to answer the particular endings of his day, but I think, we shall never see the end of it.-Who goes there?

K. Hen. A friend.

soldiers, the father of his son, nor the master of his servant; for they purpose not their death, when they purpose their services. Besides, there is no king, be his cause never so spotless if it come to the arbitrement of swords, can try it out with all unspotted soldiers. Some, peradventure, have on them the guilt of premeditated and contrived murder, some, of beguiling virgins with the broken seals of perjury: some, making the wars their bulwark, that Bates. He hath not told his thought to the have before gored the gentle bosom of peace The last day, the day of judgement. Suddenly. 3 M

Will. Under what captain serve you?

K. Hen. Under Sir Thomas Erpingham. Will. A good old commander, and a most kind gentleman: I pray you, what thinks he of