| ACT IV SCENE VII | Another part of the field. | |
| | Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER | |
| FLUELLEN | Kill the poys and the luggage! 'tis expressly | |
| | against the law of arms: 'tis as arrant a piece of | |
| | knavery, mark you now, as can be offer't; in your | |
| | conscience, now, is it not? | 5 |
| GOWER | 'Tis certain there's not a boy left alive; and the | |
| | cowardly rascals that ran from the battle ha' done | |
| | this slaughter: besides, they have burned and | |
| | carried away all that was in the king's tent; | |
| | wherefore the king, most worthily, hath caused every | 10 |
| | soldier to cut his prisoner's throat. O, 'tis a | |
| | gallant king! | |
| FLUELLEN | Ay, he was porn at Monmouth, Captain Gower. What | |
| | call you the town's name where Alexander the Pig was born! | |
| GOWER | Alexander the Great. | 15 |
| FLUELLEN | Why, I pray you, is not pig great? the pig, or the | |
| | great, or the mighty, or the huge, or the | |
| | magnanimous, are all one reckonings, save the phrase | |
| | is a little variations. | |
| GOWER | I think Alexander the Great was born in Macedon; his | 20 |
| | father was called Philip of Macedon, as I take it. | |
| FLUELLEN | I think it is in Macedon where Alexander is porn. I | |
| | tell you, captain, if you look in the maps of the | |
| | 'orld, I warrant you sall find, in the comparisons | |
| | between Macedon and Monmouth, that the situations, | 25 |
| | look you, is both alike. There is a river in | |
| | Macedon; and there is also moreover a river at | |
| | Monmouth: it is called Wye at Monmouth; but it is | |
| | out of my prains what is the name of the other | |
| | river; but 'tis all one, 'tis alike as my fingers is | 30 |
| | to my fingers, and there is salmons in both. If you | |
| | mark Alexander's life well, Harry of Monmouth's life | |
| | is come after it indifferent well; for there is | |
| | figures in all things. Alexander, God knows, and | |
| | you know, in his rages, and his furies, and his | 35 |
| | wraths, and his cholers, and his moods, and his | |
| | displeasures, and his indignations, and also being a | |
| | little intoxicates in his prains, did, in his ales and | |
| | his angers, look you, kill his best friend, Cleitus. | |
| GOWER | Our king is not like him in that: he never killed | 40 |
| | any of his friends. | |
| FLUELLEN | It is not well done, mark you now take the tales out | |
| | of my mouth, ere it is made and finished. I speak | |
| | but in the figures and comparisons of it: as | |
| | Alexander killed his friend Cleitus, being in his | 45 |
| | ales and his cups; so also Harry Monmouth, being in | |
| | his right wits and his good judgments, turned away | |
| | the fat knight with the great belly-doublet: he | |
| | was full of jests, and gipes, and knaveries, and | |
| | mocks; I have forgot his name. | 50 |
| GOWER | Sir John Falstaff. | |
| FLUELLEN | That is he: I'll tell you there is good men porn at Monmouth. | |
| GOWER | Here comes his majesty. | |
| | Alarum. Enter KING HENRY, and forces; WARWICK, GLOUCESTER, EXETER, and others. | |
| KING HENRY V | I was not angry since I came to France | |
| | Until this instant. Take a trumpet, herald; | 55 |
| | Ride thou unto the horsemen on yon hill: | |
| | If they will fight with us, bid them come down, | |
| | Or void the field; they do offend our sight: | |
| | If they'll do neither, we will come to them, | |
| | And make them skirr away, as swift as stones | 60 |
| | Enforced from the old Assyrian slings: | |
| | Besides, we'll cut the throats of those we have, | |
| | And not a man of them that we shall take | |
| | Shall taste our mercy. Go and tell them so. | |
| | Enter MONTJOY | |
| EXETER | Here comes the herald of the French, my liege. | 65 |
| GLOUCESTER | His eyes are humbler than they used to be. | |
| KING HENRY V | How now! what means this, herald? know'st thou not | |
| | That I have fined these bones of mine for ransom? | |
| | Comest thou again for ransom? | |
| MONTJOY | No, great king: | 70 |
| | I come to thee for charitable licence, | |
| | That we may wander o'er this bloody field | |
| | To look our dead, and then to bury them; | |
| | To sort our nobles from our common men. | |
| | For many of our princes--woe the while!-- | 75 |
| | Lie drown'd and soak'd in mercenary blood; | |
| | So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs | |
| | In blood of princes; and their wounded steeds | |
| | Fret fetlock deep in gore and with wild rage | |
| | Yerk out their armed heels at their dead masters, | 80 |
| | Killing them twice. O, give us leave, great king, | |
| | To view the field in safety and dispose | |
| |
Of their dead bodies! | |
| KING HENRY V | I tell thee truly, herald, | |
| | I know not if the day be ours or no; | 85 |
| | For yet a many of your horsemen peer | |
| | And gallop o'er the field. | |
| MONTJOY | The day is yours. | |
| KING HENRY V | Praised be God, and not our strength, for it! | |
| | What is this castle call'd that stands hard by? | 90 |
| MONTJOY | They call it Agincourt. | |
| KING HENRY V | Then call we this the field of Agincourt, | |
| | Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus. | |
| FLUELLEN | Your grandfather of famous memory, an't please your | |
| | majesty, and your great-uncle Edward the Plack | 95 |
| | Prince of Wales, as I have read in the chronicles, | |
| | fought a most prave pattle here in France. | |
| KING HENRY V | They did, Fluellen. | |
| FLUELLEN | Your majesty says very true: if your majesties is | |
| | remembered of it, the Welshmen did good service in a | 100 |
| | garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their | |
| | Monmouth caps; which, your majesty know, to this | |
| | hour is an honourable badge of the service; and I do | |
| | believe your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek | |
| | upon Saint Tavy's day. | 105 |
| KING HENRY V | I wear it for a memorable honour; | |
| | For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman. | |
| FLUELLEN | All the water in Wye cannot wash your majesty's | |
| | Welsh plood out of your pody, I can tell you that: | |
| | God pless it and preserve it, as long as it pleases | 110 |
| | his grace, and his majesty too! | |
| KING HENRY V | Thanks, good my countryman. | |
| FLUELLEN | By Jeshu, I am your majesty's countryman, I care not | |
| | who know it; I will confess it to all the 'orld: I | |
| | need not to be ashamed of your majesty, praised be | 115 |
| | God, so long as your majesty is an honest man. | |
| KING HENRY V | God keep me so! Our heralds go with him: | |
| | Bring me just notice of the numbers dead | |
| | On both our parts. Call yonder fellow hither. | |
| | Points to WILLIAMS. Exeunt Heralds with Montjoy. | |
| EXETER | Soldier, you must come to the king. | 120 |
| KING HENRY V | Soldier, why wearest thou that glove in thy cap? | |
| WILLIAMS | An't please your majesty, 'tis the gage of one that | |
| | I should fight withal, if he be alive. | |
| KING HENRY V | An Englishman? | |
| WILLIAMS | An't please your majesty, a rascal that swaggered | 125 |
| | with me last night; who, if alive and ever dare to | |
| | challenge this glove, I have sworn to take him a box | |
| | o' th' ear: or if I can see my glove in his cap, | |
| | which he swore, as he was a soldier, he would wear | |
| | if alive, I will strike it out soundly. | 130 |
| KING HENRY V | What think you, Captain Fluellen? is it fit this | |
| | soldier keep his oath? | |
| FLUELLEN | He is a craven and a villain else, an't please your | |
| | majesty, in my conscience. | |
| KING HENRY V | It may be his enemy is a gentleman of great sort, | 135 |
| | quite from the answer of his degree. | |
| FLUELLEN | Though he be as good a gentleman as the devil is, as | |
| | Lucifer and Belzebub himself, it is necessary, look | |
| | your grace, that he keep his vow and his oath: if | |
| | he be perjured, see you now, his reputation is as | 140 |
| | arrant a villain and a Jacksauce, as ever his black | |
| | shoe trod upon God's ground and his earth, in my | |
| | conscience, la! | |
| KING HENRY V | Then keep thy vow, sirrah, when thou meetest the fellow. | |
| WILLIAMS | So I will, my liege, as I live. | 145 |
| KING HENRY V | Who servest thou under? | |
| WILLIAMS | Under Captain Gower, my liege. | |
| FLUELLEN | Gower is a good captain, and is good knowledge and | |
| | literatured in the wars. | |
| KING HENRY V | Call him hither to me, soldier. | 150 |
| WILLIAMS | I will, my liege. | |
| | Exit | |
| KING HENRY V | Here, Fluellen; wear thou this favour for me and | |
| | stick it in thy cap: when Alencon and myself were | |
| | down together, I plucked this glove from his helm: | |
| | if any man challenge this, he is a friend to | 155 |
| | Alencon, and an enemy to our person; if thou | |
| | encounter any such, apprehend him, an thou dost me love. | |
| FLUELLEN | Your grace doo's me as great honours as can be | |
| | desired in the hearts of his subjects: I would fain | |
| | see the man, that has but two legs, that shall find | 160 |
| | himself aggrieved at this glove; that is all; but I | |
| | would fain see it once, an please God of his grace | |
| | that I might see. | |
| KING HENRY V | Knowest thou Gower? | |
| FLUELLEN | He is my dear friend, an please you. | 165 |
| KING HENRY V | Pray thee, go seek him, and bring him to my tent. | |
| FLUELLEN | I will fetch him. | |
| | Exit. | |
| KING HENRY V | My Lord of Warwick, and my brother Gloucester, | |
| | Follow Fluellen closely at the heels: | |
| | The glove which I have given him for a favour | 170 |
| | May haply purchase him a box o' th' ear; | |
| | It is the soldier's; I by bargain should | |
| | Wear it myself. Follow, good cousin Warwick: | |
| | If that the soldier strike him, as I judge | |
| | By his blunt bearing he will keep his word, | 175 |
| | Some sudden mischief may arise of it; | |
| | For I do know Fluellen valiant | |
| | And, touched with choler, hot as gunpowder, | |
| | And quickly will return an injury: | |
| | Follow and see there be no harm between them. | 180 |
| | Go you with me, uncle of Exeter. | |
| | Exeunt | |
