Scene VII.

KING HENRY V.

Dau. My lord of Orleans, and my lord hign Orl. You are as well provided of both, as any constable, you talk of horse and armour,prince in the world.

Harry of England, Though we seemed dead, we did but sleep; Advantage is a better soldier, than rashness. Tell him, we could have rebuked Dau. What a long night is this !---I will him at Harfleur; but that we thought not good to bruise an injury, till it were full ripe :-now we speak upon our cue, and our voice is impe- not change my horse with any that treads but on rial: England shall repent his folly, see his weak-four pasterns, Ca ha! He bounds from the earth, Bid him, as if his entrails were hairs; le cheval volant, ness, and admire our sufferance. therefore, consider of his ransom; which must the Pegasus, qui a les narines de feu! When I proportion the losses we have borne, the sub-bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk: he trots the jects we have lost, the disgrace we have di- air; the earth sings when he touches it; the gested; which, in weight to re-answer, his pet-basest horn of his hoof is more musical than the tiness would bow under. For our losses, his ex-pipe of Hermes. chequer is too poor; for the effusion of our blood, the muster of his kingdom too faint a number; and for our disgrace, his own person kneeling at our feet, but a weak and worthless satisfaction. To this add-defiance: and tell him, for conclusion, he hath betrayed his followers, whose condemnation is pronounced. So far my king and master; so much my office.

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

Mont. Montjoy, many ye

Orl. He's of the colour of the nutmeg...
Dau. And of the heat of the ginger. It is a
beast for Perseus: he is pure air and fire; and
the dull elements of earth and water never ap-
pear in him, but only in patient stillness, while
his rider mounts him: he is, indeed, a horse;
aud all other jades you may call--beasts.

Con. Indeed, my lord, it is a most absolute and
excellent horse.

Dau. It is the prince of palfreys; his neigh
is like the bidding of a monarch, and his coun-

K. Hen. Thou dost thy office fairly. Turn tenauce enforces homage.
T 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
herald,

thee,

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

That I do brag thus !-this your air of France
Hath blown that vice in me; I must repent.
Go, therefore, tell thy master, here I am;
My ransom, is this frail and worthless trunk;
My army, but a weak and sickly guard;
Yet, God before, tell him we will come on,
Though France himself, and such another neigh-
bour,

Stand in our way. There's for thy labour,
Montjoy.

Co, bid thy master well advise himself:
If we may pass, we will; if we be hiuder'd,
We will your tawny ground with your red

blood

Discolour: and so, Montjoy, fare you well.
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.

ness.

Glo. I hope, they will

now.

Thanks to your high-
[Exit MONTJOY.
not come upon us

K. Hen. We are in God's hand, brother, not
in their's.

March to the bridge; it now draws toward

night :

Beyond the river we'll encamp ourselves;
And en to-morrow bid them march away.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VII.-The French Camp, near
Agincourt.

Enter the CONSTABLE of France, the Lord
RAM BURES, the Duke of ORLEANS, DAUPHIN,
and others.

Com. Tut! I have the best armour of the world,
Would, it were day!

Ori. You have an excellent armour; but let my horse have his due.

Con.

it is the best horse of Europe.
Ort. Will it never be morning!

+ Hinderance.
Is our turn.
Then used for God being my guide.

Orl. No more, cousin.

Dau. Nay, the man hath no wit, that cannot, from the rising of the lark to the lodging of the lamb, vary deserved praise on my palfrey it is a theme as fluent as the sea: turn the sands into eloquent tongues, and my horse is argument for them all: 'tis a subject for a sovereign to reason on, and for a sovereign's sovereign to ride on; and for the world (familiar to us, and unand wonder at him. I once writ a sonnet in known,) to lay apart their particular functions, his praise, and began thus: Wonder of nature,

Ort. I have heard a sonnet begin so to one's mistress.

Dau. Then did they imitate that which I composed to my courser; for my horse is my mistress.

Orl. Your mistress bears wel!.

Dau. Me well; which is the prescript praise and perfection of a good and particular mis

tress.

Con. Ma foy! the other day, methought, your mistress shrewdly shook your back. Dau. So, perhaps did your's.

Con. Mine was not bridled.

Dau. Oh! then, belike, she was old and gentle and you rode like a kerne of Ireland, your French hose off, and in your strait trossers.

Con. You have good judgment in horsemanship.

Dau. Be warned by me then they that ride. so, and ride not warily, fall into foul bogs; I had rather have my horse to my mistress.

Con. I had as lief have my mistress a jade. Dau. I tell thee, constable, my mistress wears her own hair.

Con. I could make as true a boast as that, if I had a sow to my mistress.

Dau. Le chien est retournè à son propre vomissement, et la truie lavce au bourbier; thou makest use of any thing.

Con. Yet do I not use my horse for my mistress; or any such proverb, so little kin to the purpose.

Ram. My lord constable, the armour, that I saw in your tent to-night, are those stars, or suns, upon it?

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.

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 stilly sounds,
That the fix'd sentinels almost receive
The secret whispers of each other's watch :
Fire answers fire; and through their pay flames

Con. I was told that, by one that knows him Each battle sees the other's umber'd + face : better than you.

Orl. 'Tis not the first time you were over- So many horrid ghosts. Oh! now, who will beshot.

SCENE L-The English Camp at Agincourt.
Eater King HENRY, BEDFORD, and GL.OSTER.
K. HER. 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 1 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 slough⚫ 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. Heu. No, my good knight;

Go with my brothers to my lords of England:
I and my bosom must debate a while,
And then I would uo other company.
Erp. The Lord in heaven bless thee, noble
Harry!
K. Hen. God-a-mercy, old heart! thou speak-
[Exit ERPINGHAM.
est cheerfully.

Enter PISTOL.

Pist. Qui va lú!

K. Hen. A friend.
Pist. Discuss unto me; Art thou officer;
Or art thou base, common, and popular?
K. Hen. I am a gentleman of a company.
Pist. Trailest thou the pnissant pike?
K. Hen. Even so: What are you?
Pist. As good a gentleman as the emperor.
K. Hen. Then you are a better than the
king.

453

(Exit.

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

K. Hen. It sorts well with your fierceness.
Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER, severally.
Gow. Captain Fluellen !

Fla. So in the name of Cheshu Christ,
speak lower. It is the greatest admiration in
the universal 'orld, when the true and ancient
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, 1
warrant you, that there is no tittle taddle, or
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 other.
wise.

Gow. Why the enemy is lond; you heard him all night.

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

Gow. I will speak lower.

Fin. I pray you, and beseech you, that you will. [Exeunt GOWER and FLUELLEN. K. Hen. Though it appear a little out of fashion,

There is much care and valour in this Welshтан.

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 great cause to desire the approach of day.

Will. We see yonder the beginning of the day, but, I think, we shall never see the end of it.-Who goes there?

K. Hen. A friend.

Will. Under what captain serve you? K. Hen. Under Sir Thomas Erpingham. our estate? kind gentleman: I pray you, what thinks he of Will. A good old commander, and a nost

K. Hen. Even as men wrecked upon a saud, that look to be washed off the next tide.

Bates. He hath not told his thought to the king?

K. Hen. 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 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 naaffections are higher mounted than our's, yet, kedness he appears but a man; and though his therefore when he sees reason of fears, as we when they stoop, they stoop with the like wing; do, his fears, out of doubt, be of the same relish as our's are: Yet, in reason, no man should heart-he, by showing it, should dishearten his army. possess him with any appearance of fear, lest

Pist. The king's a bawcock, and a heart of
gold,

A lad of life, an impt of fame;
Of parents good, of fist most valiant:

I kiss bis dirty shoe, and from my
strings

I love the lovely bully. What's thy name?
K, Hen. Harry le Roy.

Bates. He may show what outward courage he will: but, I believe, as cold a night as 'is, he could wish himself in the Thames up to the

Pist. Le Roy a Cornish name: art thou of neck; and so I would he were, and 1 by him, at

Cornish crew?

K. Hen. No, I am a Welshman.

Pict. Knowest thou Fluelien.

K. Hen. Yes.

Pist. Tell him, I'll knock his leek about his pate,

Upen Saint Davy's day.

your cap that day, lest he knock that about yours. K. Hen. Do not you wear your dagger in Pist. Art thou his friend?

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

• Slough is the skin which serpents annually throw
↑ Lightness nublencas
1 Son

all adventures, so we were quit here.

K. Hen. By any 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 a many
poor men's lives saved.

wish him here alone; howsoever you speak this,
K. Hen. I dare say you love him not so ill, to
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
honom able.

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.

Will. 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 a battle, shall join together at the latter day,* 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 upou 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.

Will. 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.

K. Hen. If ever I live to see it, I will challenge it.

Will. Thou darest as well be hanged. K. Hen. Well, I will do it, though I take thee in the king's company.

could tell how to reckon.

K. Hen. 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
[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,
Subjected to the breath of every fool,
Whose sense no more can feel but his own
wringing!

K. Hen. So, if a son, that is by his father sent about 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 inaster's coininaud, transporting a sum of money, be assailed by robbers, and die in many irre- Will. Keep thy word: fare thee well. conciled iniquities, you may call the business of Bates. Be friends, you English fools, be the master the author of the servant's damna-friends; we have French quarrels enough, if yʊa tion:-But this is not so: the king is not bound to answer the particular endings of his soldiers, the father of his sou, 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 have before gored the gentle bosom of peace with pillage and robbery. Now, if these men have defeated the law, and outrun native punishment, though they can outstrip men, they have no wings to fly from God: war is his vengeance; so that here men are punished, for before-breach of the king's laws, in now the king's quarrel where 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 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 advan-Creating awe and fear in other inen? tage; or not dying, the time was blessedly lost, Wherein thou art less happy being fear'd wherein such preparation was gained and, in Than they in fearing. 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.

Will. 'Tis certain, that every man that dies ill, the ill is upon his own head, the king is to answer for it.

not

Bates. I do not desire he should answer for me; and yet I determine to fight lustily for bim.

K. Hen. I myself heard the king say, he would not be ransomed.

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 1--
And what art thon, thou idol ceremony ?
What kind of god art thos, 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!
What is the soul of adoration? +
Art thou aught else but place, degree, and
form,

What drink'st thou oft, instead of homage
sweet,

But poison'd flattery? O be sick, great great-
And bid thy ceremony give thee cure!
Think'st thou, the fiery fever will go out
With titles blown from adulation?
Will it give place to flexure and low bending?
Caust thou, when thou command'st the beggar's
knee,

Command the health of it? No, thon proud
dream;

That play'st so subtly with a king's repose'; Will. Ay, he said so, to make us fight cheer-I am a king, that find thee; and I know, fully but, when our throats are cut, he may be ransomed, and we ne'er the wiser.

K. Hen. If I live to see it, I will never trust his word after.

Will. 'Mass, you'll pay him then! That's a perous shot out of an elder gum, that a poor and private displeasure can do against a mon

The last day, the day of judgment.
1. e. Punishment in their na-
To pay here siguities to bring

+ Suddenly. tive country. to account, to punish.

'Tis not the balm, the sceptre, and the ball,
The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,
The enter-tissued robe of gold and pearl,
The farced title running 'fore the king,
The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp
That beats upou the high shore of this world,

Too rough. +"What is the real worth rud intrinsic value of adoration." : Farced sa stuffed. The tumid pully titles with which a king's name is introduced.