Shakespeare's Henry V 4.1

Henry V

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ACT IV	PROLOGUE.
	Enter Chorus
Chorus	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	5
	The hum of either army stilly sounds,
	That the fixed 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;	10
	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:	15
	The country cocks do crow, 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;	20
	And chide the cripple tardy-gaited night
	Who, like a foul and ugly witch, doth limp
	So tediously away. The poor condemned English,
	Like sacrifices, by their watchful fires
	Sit patiently and inly ruminate	25
	The morning's danger, and their gesture sad
	Investing lank-lean; cheeks and war-worn coats
	Presenteth them unto the gazing moon
	So many horrid ghosts. O now, who will behold
	The royal captain of this ruin'd band	30
	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 countrymen.	35
	Upon his royal face there is no note
	How dread an army hath enrounded him;
	Nor doth he dedicate one jot of colour
	Unto the weary and all-watched night,
	But freshly looks and over-bears attaint	40
	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,	45
	Thawing cold fear, that 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	50
	With four or five most vile and ragged foils,
	Right ill-disposed in brawl ridiculous,
	The name of Agincourt. Yet sit and see,
	Minding true things by what their mockeries be.
	Exit
ACT IV SCENE I	The English camp at Agincourt.	55
	Enter KING HENRY, BEDFORD, and GLOUCESTER
KING HENRY V	Gloucester, 'tis true that we are in great danger;
	The greater therefore should our courage be.
	Good morrow, brother Bedford. God Almighty!
	There is some soul of goodness in things evil,
	Would men observingly distil it out.	60
	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.	65
	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.	70
ERPINGHAM	Not so, my liege: this lodging likes me better,
	Since I may say 'Now lie I like a king.'
KING HENRY V	'Tis good for men to love their present pains
	Upon example; so the spirit is eased:
	And when the mind is quicken'd, out of doubt,	75
	The organs, though defunct and dead before,
	Break up their drowsy grave and newly move,
	With casted slough and fresh legerity.
	Lend me thy cloak, Sir Thomas. Brothers both,
	Commend me to the princes in our camp;	80
	Do my good morrow to them, and anon
	Desire them an to my pavilion.
GLOUCESTER	We shall, my liege.
ERPINGHAM	Shall I attend your grace?
KING HENRY V	No, my good knight;	85
	Go with my brothers to my lords of England:
	I and my bosom must debate awhile,
	And then I would no other company.
ERPINGHAM	The Lord in heaven bless thee, noble Harry!
	Exeunt all but KING HENRY.
KING HENRY V	God-a-mercy, old heart! thou speak'st cheerfully.	90
	Enter PISTOL
PISTOL	Qui va la?
KING HENRY V	A friend.
PISTOL	Discuss unto me; art thou officer?
	Or art thou base, common and popular?
KING HENRY V	I am a gentleman of a company.	95
PISTOL	Trail'st thou the puissant pike?
KING HENRY V	Even so. What are you?
PISTOL	As good a gentleman as the emperor.
KING HENRY V	Then you are a better than the king.
PISTOL	The king's a bawcock, and a heart of gold,	100
	A lad of life, an imp of fame;
	Of parents good, of fist most valiant.
	I kiss his dirty shoe, and from heart-string
	I love the lovely bully. What is thy name?
KING HENRY V	Harry le Roy.	105
PISTOL	Le Roy! a Cornish name: art thou of Cornish crew?
KING HENRY V	No, I am a Welshman.
PISTOL	Know'st thou Fluellen?
KING HENRY V	Yes.
PISTOL	Tell him, I'll knock his leek about his pate	110
	Upon Saint Davy's day.
KING HENRY V	Do not you wear your dagger in your cap that day,
	lest he knock that about yours.
PISTOL	Art thou his friend?
KING HENRY V	And his kinsman too.	115
PISTOL	The figo for thee, then!
KING HENRY V	I thank you: God be with you!
PISTOL	My name is Pistol call'd.
	Exit
KING HENRY V	It sorts well with your fierceness.
	Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER
GOWER	Captain Fluellen!	120
FLUELLEN	So! in the name of Jesu Christ, speak lower. It is
	the greatest admiration of the universal world, when
	the true and aunchient 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	125
	find, I warrant you, that there is no tiddle toddle
	nor pibble pabble in Pompey's camp; I warrant you,
	you shall find the ceremonies of the wars, and the
	cares of it, and the forms of it, and the sobriety
	of it, and the modesty of it, to be otherwise.	130
GOWER	Why, the enemy is loud; you hear him all night.
FLUELLEN	If the enemy is an ass and a fool and a 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?	135
GOWER	I will speak lower.
FLUELLEN	I pray you and beseech you that you will.
	Exeunt GOWER and FLUELLEN.
KING HENRY V	Though it appear a little out of fashion,
	There is much care and valour in this Welshman.
	Enter three soldiers, JOHN BATES, ALEXANDER COURT, and MICHAEL WILLIAMS
COURT	Brother John Bates, is not that the morning which	140
	breaks yonder?
BATES	I think it be: but we have no great cause to desire
	the approach of day.
WILLIAMS	We see yonder the beginning of the day, but I think
	we shall never see the end of it. Who goes there?	145
KING HENRY V	A friend.
WILLIAMS	Under what captain serve you?
KING HENRY V	Under Sir Thomas Erpingham.
WILLIAMS	A good old commander and a most kind gentleman: I
	pray you, what thinks he of our estate?	150
KING HENRY V	Even as men wrecked upon a sand, that look to be
	washed off the next tide.
BATES	He hath not told his thought to the king?
KING HENRY V	No; nor it is not meet he should. For, though I
	speak it to you, I think the king is but a man, as I	155
	am: the violet smells to him as it doth to me: the
	element shows to him as it doth to me; all his
	senses have but human conditions: his ceremonies
	laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man; and
	though his affections are higher mounted than ours,	160
	yet, when they stoop, they stoop with the like
	wing. Therefore when he sees reason of fears, as we
	do, his fears, out of doubt, be of the same relish
	as ours are: yet, in reason, no man should possess
	him with any appearance of fear, lest he, by showing	165
	it, should dishearten his army.
BATES	He may show what outward courage he will; but I
	believe, as cold a night as 'tis, he could wish
	himself in Thames up to the neck; and so I would he
	were, and I by him, at all adventures, so we were quit here.	170
KING HENRY V	By my troth, I will speak my conscience of the king:
	I think he would not wish himself any where but
	where he is.
BATES	Then I would he were here alone; so should he be
	sure to be ransomed, and a many poor men's lives saved.	175
KING HENRY V	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.	180
WILLIAMS	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 kings subjects: if
	his cause be wrong, our obedience to the king wipes
	the crime of it out of us.	185
WILLIAMS	But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath
	a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs and
	arms and heads, chopped off in battle, shall join
	together at the latter day and cry all 'We died at
	such a place;' some swearing, some crying for a	190
	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 a battle; for how can they
	charitably dispose of any thing, when blood is their	195
	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.
KING HENRY V	So, if a son that is by his father sent about	200
	merchandise do sinfully miscarry upon the sea, the
	imputation of his wickedness by your rule, should be
	imposed upon his father that sent him: or if a
	servant, under his master's command transporting a
	sum of money, be assailed by robbers and die in	205
	many irreconciled iniquities, you may call the
	business of the master the author of the servant's
	damnation: but this is not so: the king is not
	bound to answer the particular endings of his
	soldiers, the father of his son, nor the master of	210
	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	215
	the guilt of premeditated and contrived murder;
	some, of beguiling virgins with the broken seals of
	perjury; some, making the wars their bulwark, that
	have before gored the gentle bosom of peace with
	pillage and robbery. Now, if these men have	220
	defeated the law and outrun native punishment,
	though they can outstrip men, they have no wings to
	fly from God: war is his beadle, war is vengeance;
	so that here men are punished for before-breach of
	the king's laws in now the king's quarrel: where	225
	they feared the death, they have borne life away;
	and where they would be safe, they perish: then if
	they die unprovided, no more is the king guilty of
	their damnation than he was before guilty of those
	impieties for the which they are now visited. Every	230
	subject's duty is the king's; but every subject's
	soul is his own. Therefore should every soldier in
	the wars do as every sick man in his bed, wash every
	mote out of his conscience: and dying so, death
	is to him advantage; or not dying, the time was	235
	blessedly lost wherein such preparation was gained:
	and in him that escapes, it were not sin to think
	that, making God so free an offer, He let him
	outlive that day to see His greatness and to teach
	others how they should prepare.	240
WILLIAMS	'Tis certain, every man that dies ill, the ill upon
	his own head, the king is not to answer it.
BATES	But I do not desire he should answer for me; and
	yet I determine to fight lustily for him.
KING HENRY V	I myself heard the king say he would not be ransomed.	245
WILLIAMS	Ay, he said so, to make us fight cheerfully: but
	when our throats are cut, he may be ransomed, and we
	ne'er the wiser.
KING HENRY V	If I live to see it, I will never trust his word after.
WILLIAMS	You pay him then. That's a perilous shot out of an	250
	elder-gun, that a poor and private displeasure can
	do against a monarch! you may as well go about to
	turn the sun to ice with fanning in his face with a
	peacock's feather. You'll never trust his word
	after! come, 'tis a foolish saying.	255
KING HENRY V	Your reproof is something too round: I should be
	angry with you, if the time were convenient.
WILLIAMS	Let it be a quarrel between us, if you live.
KING HENRY V	I embrace it.
WILLIAMS	How shall I know thee again?	260
KING HENRY V	Give me any gage of thine, and I will wear it in my
	bonnet: then, if ever thou darest acknowledge it, I
	will make it my quarrel.
WILLIAMS	Here's my glove: give me another of thine.
KING HENRY V	There.	265
WILLIAMS	This will I also wear in my cap: if ever thou come
	to me and say, after to-morrow, 'This is my glove,'
	by this hand, I will take thee a box on the ear.
KING HENRY V	If ever I live to see it, I will challenge it.
WILLIAMS	Thou darest as well be hanged.	270
KING HENRY V	Well. I will do it, though I take thee in the
	king's company.
WILLIAMS	Keep thy word: fare thee well.
BATES	Be friends, you English fools, be friends: we have
	French quarrels enow, if you could tell how to reckon.	275
KING HENRY V	Indeed, the French may lay twenty French crowns to
	one, they will beat us; for they bear them on their
	shoulders: but it is no English treason to cut
	French crowns, and to-morrow the king himself will
	be a clipper.	280
	Exeunt soldiers.
	Upon the king! let us our lives, our souls,
	Our debts, our careful wives,
	Our children and our sins lay on the king!
	We must bear all. O hard condition,
	Twin-born with greatness, subject to the breath	285
	Of every fool, whose sense no more can feel
	But his own wringing! What infinite heart's-ease
	Must kings neglect, that private men enjoy!
	And what have kings, that privates have not too,
	Save ceremony, save general ceremony?	290
	And what art thou, thou idle ceremony?
	What kind of god art thou, that suffer'st more
	Of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers?
	What are thy rents? what are thy comings in?
	O ceremony, show me but thy worth!	295
	What is thy soul of adoration?
	Art thou aught else but place, degree and form,
	Creating awe and fear in other men?
	Wherein thou art less happy being fear'd
	Than they in fearing.	300
	What drink'st thou oft, instead of homage sweet,
	But poison'd flattery? O, be sick, great greatness,
	And bid thy ceremony give thee cure!
	Think'st thou the fiery fever will go out
	With titles blown from adulation?	305
	Will it give place to flexure and low bending?
	Canst thou, when thou command'st the beggar's knee,
	Command the health of it? No, thou proud dream,
	That play'st so subtly with a king's repose;
	I am a king that find thee, and I know	310
	'Tis not the balm, the sceptre and the ball,
	The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,
	The intertissued robe of gold and pearl,
	The farced title running 'fore the king,
	The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp	315
	That beats upon the high shore of this world,
	No, not all these, thrice-gorgeous ceremony,
	Not all these, laid in bed majestical,
	Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave,
	Who with a body fill'd and vacant mind	320
	Gets him to rest, cramm'd with distressful bread;
	Never sees horrid night, the child of hell,
	But, like a lackey, from the rise to set
	Sweats in the eye of Phoebus and all night
	Sleeps in Elysium; next day after dawn,	325
	Doth rise and help Hyperion to his horse,
	And follows so the ever-running year,
	With profitable labour, to his grave:
	And, but for ceremony, such a wretch,
	Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep,	330
	Had the fore-hand and vantage of a king.
	The slave, a member of the country's peace,
	Enjoys it; but in gross brain little wots
	What watch the king keeps to maintain the peace,
	Whose hours the peasant best advantages.	335
	Enter ERPINGHAM.
ERPINGHAM	My lord, your nobles, jealous of your absence,
	Seek through your camp to find you.
KING HENRY V	Good old knight,
	Collect them all together at my tent:
	I'll be before thee.	340
ERPINGHAM	I shall do't, my lord.
	Exit.
KING HENRY V	O God of battles! steel my soldiers' hearts;
	Possess them not with fear; take from them now
	The sense of reckoning, if the opposed numbers
	Pluck their hearts from them. Not to-day, O Lord,	345
	O, not to-day, think not upon the fault
	My father made in compassing the crown!
	I Richard's body have interred anew;
	And on it have bestow'd more contrite tears
	Than from it issued forced drops of blood:	350
	Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay,
	Who twice a-day their wither'd hands hold up
	Toward heaven, to pardon blood; and I have built
	Two chantries, where the sad and solemn priests
	Sing still for Richard's soul. More will I do;	355
	Though all that I can do is nothing worth,
	Since that my penitence comes after all,
	Imploring pardon.
	Enter GLOUCESTER.
GLOUCESTER	My liege!
KING HENRY V	My brother Gloucester's voice? Ay;	360
	I know thy errand, I will go with thee:
	The day, my friends and all things stay for me.
	Exeunt

Henry V, Act 4, Scene 2

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