Contents
Act 4
Scene 7 | Another part of the field.
|
Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER
4.7.1 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?
4.7.5 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
soldier to cut his prisoner's throat. O, 'tis a
gallant king!
4.7.12 FLUELLEN
Ay, he was porn at Monmouth, Captain Gower. What
call you the town's name where Alexander the Pig was born!
4.7.14 GOWER
Alexander the Great.
4.7.15 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.
4.7.19 GOWER
I think Alexander the Great was born in Macedon; his
father was called Philip of Macedon, as I take it.
4.7.21 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,
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
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
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.
4.7.39 GOWER
Our king is not like him in that: he never killed
any of his friends.
4.7.41 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
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.
4.7.50 GOWER
Sir John Falstaff.
4.7.51 FLUELLEN
That is he: I'll tell you there is good men porn at Monmouth.
4.7.52 GOWER
Here comes his majesty.
Alarum. Enter KING HENRY, and forces; WARWICK, GLOUCESTER, EXETER, and others
4.7.53 KING HENRY V
I was not angry since I came to France
Until this instant. Take a trumpet, herald;
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
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
4.7.64 EXETER
Here comes the herald of the French, my liege.
4.7.65 GLOUCESTER
His eyes are humbler than they used to be.
4.7.66 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?
4.7.69 MONTJOY
No, great king:
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! –
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,
Killing them twice. O, give us leave, great king,
To view the field in safety and dispose
Of their dead bodies!
4.7.83 KING HENRY V
I tell thee truly, herald,
I know not if the day be ours or no;
For yet a many of your horsemen peer
And gallop o'er the field.
4.7.87 MONTJOY
The day is yours.
4.7.88 KING HENRY V
Praised be God, and not our strength, for it!
What is this castle call'd that stands hard by?
4.7.90 MONTJOY
They call it Agincourt.
4.7.91 KING HENRY V
Then call we this the field of Agincourt,
Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus.
4.7.93 FLUELLEN
Your grandfather of famous memory, an't please your
majesty, and your great-uncle Edward the Plack
Prince of Wales, as I have read in the chronicles,
fought a most prave pattle here in France.
4.7.97 KING HENRY V
They did, Fluellen.
4.7.98 FLUELLEN
Your majesty says very true: if your majesties is
remembered of it, the Welshmen did good service in a
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.
4.7.105 KING HENRY V
I wear it for a memorable honour;
For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman.
4.7.107 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
his grace, and his majesty too!
4.7.111 KING HENRY V
Thanks, good my countryman.
4.7.112 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
God, so long as your majesty is an honest man.
4.7.116 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
4.7.119 EXETER
Soldier, you must come to the king.
4.7.120 KING HENRY V
Soldier, why wearest thou that glove in thy cap?
4.7.121 WILLIAMS
An't please your majesty, 'tis the gage of one that
I should fight withal, if he be alive.
4.7.123 KING HENRY V
An Englishman?
4.7.124 WILLIAMS
An't please your majesty, a rascal that swaggered
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.
4.7.130 KING HENRY V
What think you, Captain Fluellen? is it fit this
soldier keep his oath?
4.7.132 FLUELLEN
He is a craven and a villain else, an't please your
majesty, in my conscience.
4.7.134 KING HENRY V
It may be his enemy is a gentleman of great sort,
quite from the answer of his degree.
4.7.136 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
arrant a villain and a Jacksauce, as ever his black
shoe trod upon God's ground and his earth, in my
conscience, la!
4.7.143 KING HENRY V
Then keep thy vow, sirrah, when thou meetest the fellow.
4.7.144 WILLIAMS
So I will, my liege, as I live.
4.7.145 KING HENRY V
Who servest thou under?
4.7.146 WILLIAMS
Under Captain Gower, my liege.
4.7.147 FLUELLEN
Gower is a good captain, and is good knowledge and
literatured in the wars.
4.7.149 KING HENRY V
Call him hither to me, soldier.
4.7.150 WILLIAMS
I will, my liege.
Exit
4.7.151 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
Alencon, and an enemy to our person; if thou
encounter any such, apprehend him, an thou dost me love.
4.7.157 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
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.
4.7.163 KING HENRY V
Knowest thou Gower?
4.7.164 FLUELLEN
He is my dear friend, an please you.
4.7.165 KING HENRY V
Pray thee, go seek him, and bring him to my tent.
4.7.166 FLUELLEN
I will fetch him.
Exit
4.7.167 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
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,
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.
Go you with me, uncle of Exeter.
Exeunt
Contents
Act 4
Scene 8 | Before KING HENRY'S pavilion.
|
Enter GOWER and WILLIAMS
4.8.1 WILLIAMS
I warrant it is to knight you, captain.
Enter FLUELLEN
4.8.2 FLUELLEN
God's will and his pleasure, captain, I beseech you
now, come apace to the king: there is more good
toward you peradventure than is in your knowledge to dream of.
4.8.5 WILLIAMS
Sir, know you this glove?
4.8.6 FLUELLEN
Know the glove! I know the glove is glove.
4.8.7 WILLIAMS
I know this; and thus I challenge it.
Strikes him
4.8.8 FLUELLEN
'Sblood! an arrant traitor as any is in the
universal world, or in France, or in England!
4.8.10 GOWER
How now, sir! you villain!
4.8.11 WILLIAMS
Do you think I'll be forsworn?
4.8.12 FLUELLEN
Stand away, Captain Gower; I will give treason his
payment into blows, I warrant you.
4.8.14 WILLIAMS
I am no traitor.
4.8.15 FLUELLEN
That's a lie in thy throat. I charge you in his
majesty's name, apprehend him: he's a friend of the
Duke Alencon's.
Enter WARWICK and GLOUCESTER
4.8.18 WARWICK
How now, how now! what's the matter?
4.8.19 FLUELLEN
My Lord of Warwick, here is – praised be God for it!
– a most contagious treason come to light, look
you, as you shall desire in a summer's day. Here is
his majesty.
Enter KING HENRY and EXETER
4.8.23 KING HENRY V
How now! what's the matter?
4.8.24 FLUELLEN
My liege, here is a villain and a traitor, that,
look your grace, has struck the glove which your
majesty is take out of the helmet of Alencon.
4.8.27 WILLIAMS
My liege, this was my glove; here is the fellow of
it; and he that I gave it to in change promised to
wear it in his cap: I promised to strike him, if he
did: I met this man with my glove in his cap, and I
have been as good as my word.
4.8.32 FLUELLEN
Your majesty hear now, saving your majesty's
manhood, what an arrant, rascally, beggarly, lousy
knave it is: I hope your majesty is pear me
testimony and witness, and will avouchment, that
this is the glove of Alencon, that your majesty is
give me; in your conscience, now?
4.8.38 KING HENRY V
Give me thy glove, soldier: look, here is the
fellow of it.
'Twas I, indeed, thou promised'st to strike;
And thou hast given me most bitter terms.
4.8.42 FLUELLEN
An please your majesty, let his neck answer for it,
if there is any martial law in the world.
4.8.44 KING HENRY V
How canst thou make me satisfaction?
4.8.45 WILLIAMS
All offences, my lord, come from the heart: never
came any from mine that might offend your majesty.
4.8.47 KING HENRY V
It was ourself thou didst abuse.
4.8.48 WILLIAMS
Your majesty came not like yourself: you appeared to
me but as a common man; witness the night, your
garments, your lowliness; and what your highness
suffered under that shape, I beseech you take it for
your own fault and not mine: for had you been as I
took you for, I made no offence; therefore, I
beseech your highness, pardon me.
4.8.55 KING HENRY V
Here, uncle Exeter, fill this glove with crowns,
And give it to this fellow. Keep it, fellow;
And wear it for an honour in thy cap
Till I do challenge it. Give him the crowns:
And, captain, you must needs be friends with him.
4.8.60 FLUELLEN
By this day and this light, the fellow has mettle
enough in his belly. Hold, there is twelve pence
for you; and I pray you to serve Got, and keep you
out of prawls, and prabbles' and quarrels, and
dissensions, and, I warrant you, it is the better for you.
4.8.65 WILLIAMS
I will none of your money.
4.8.66 FLUELLEN
It is with a good will; I can tell you, it will
serve you to mend your shoes: come, wherefore should
you be so pashful? your shoes is not so good: 'tis
a good silling, I warrant you, or I will change it.
Enter an English Herald
4.8.70 KING HENRY V
Now, herald, are the dead number'd?
4.8.71 Herald
Here is the number of the slaughter'd French.
4.8.72 KING HENRY V
What prisoners of good sort are taken, uncle?
4.8.73 EXETER
Charles Duke of Orleans, nephew to the king;
John Duke of Bourbon, and Lord Bouciqualt:
Of other lords and barons, knights and squires,
Full fifteen hundred, besides common men.
4.8.77 KING HENRY V
This note doth tell me of ten thousand French
That in the field lie slain: of princes, in this number,
And nobles bearing banners, there lie dead
One hundred twenty six: added to these,
Of knights, esquires, and gallant gentlemen,
Eight thousand and four hundred; of the which,
Five hundred were but yesterday dubb'd knights:
So that, in these ten thousand they have lost,
There are but sixteen hundred mercenaries;
The rest are princes, barons, lords, knights, squires,
And gentlemen of blood and quality.
The names of those their nobles that lie dead:
Charles Delabreth, high constable of France;
Jaques of Chatillon, admiral of France;
The master of the cross-bows, Lord Rambures;
Great Master of France, the brave Sir Guichard Dolphin,
John Duke of Alencon, Anthony Duke of Brabant,
The brother of the Duke of Burgundy,
And Edward Duke of Bar: of lusty earls,
Grandpre and Roussi, Fauconberg and Foix,
Beaumont and Marle, Vaudemont and Lestrale.
Here was a royal fellowship of death!
Where is the number of our English dead?
Herald shews him another paper
Edward the Duke of York, the Earl of Suffolk,
Sir Richard Ketly, Davy Gam, esquire:
None else of name; and of all other men
But five and twenty. O God, thy arm was here;
And not to us, but to thy arm alone,
Ascribe we all! When, without stratagem,
But in plain shock and even play of battle,
Was ever known so great and little loss
On one part and on the other? Take it, God,
For it is none but thine!
4.8.110 EXETER
'Tis wonderful!
4.8.111 KING HENRY V
Come, go we in procession to the village.
And be it death proclaimed through our host
To boast of this or take the praise from God
Which is his only.
4.8.115 FLUELLEN
Is it not lawful, an please your majesty, to tell
how many is killed?
4.8.117 KING HENRY V
Yes, captain; but with this acknowledgement,
That God fought for us.
4.8.119 FLUELLEN
Yes, my conscience, he did us great good.
4.8.120 KING HENRY V
Do we all holy rites;
Let there be sung 'Non nobis' and 'Te Deum;'
The dead with charity enclosed in clay:
And then to Calais; and to England then:
Where ne'er from France arrived more happy men.
Exeunt
Contents
Act 5
Scene 1 | France. The English camp.
|
Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER
5.1.1 GOWER
Nay, that's right; but why wear you your leek today?
Saint Davy's day is past.
5.1.3 FLUELLEN
There is occasions and causes why and wherefore in
all things: I will tell you, asse my friend,
Captain Gower: the rascally, scald, beggarly,
lousy, pragging knave, Pistol, which you and
yourself and all the world know to be no petter
than a fellow, look you now, of no merits, he is
come to me and prings me pread and salt yesterday,
look you, and bid me eat my leek: it was in place
where I could not breed no contention with him; but
I will be so bold as to wear it in my cap till I see
him once again, and then I will tell him a little
piece of my desires.
Enter PISTOL
5.1.15 GOWER
Why, here he comes, swelling like a turkey-cock.
5.1.16 FLUELLEN
'Tis no matter for his swellings nor his
turkey-cocks. God pless you, Aunchient Pistol! you
scurvy, lousy knave, God pless you!
5.1.19 PISTOL
Ha! art thou bedlam? dost thou thirst, base Trojan,
To have me fold up Parca's fatal web?
Hence! I am qualmish at the smell of leek.
5.1.22 FLUELLEN
I peseech you heartily, scurvy, lousy knave, at my
desires, and my requests, and my petitions, to eat,
look you, this leek: because, look you, you do not
love it, nor your affections and your appetites and
your digestions doo's not agree with it, I would
desire you to eat it.
5.1.28 PISTOL
Not for Cadwallader and all his goats.
5.1.29 FLUELLEN
There is one goat for you.
Strikes him
Will you be so good, scauld knave, as eat it?
5.1.31 PISTOL
Base Trojan, thou shalt die.
5.1.32 FLUELLEN
You say very true, scauld knave, when God's will is:
I will desire you to live in the mean time, and eat
your victuals: come, there is sauce for it.
Strikes him
You called me yesterday mountain-squire; but I will
make you today a squire of low degree. I pray you,
fall to: if you can mock a leek, you can eat a leek.
5.1.38 GOWER
Enough, captain: you have astonished him.
5.1.39 FLUELLEN
I say, I will make him eat some part of my leek, or
I will peat his pate four days. Bite, I pray you; it
is good for your green wound and your ploody coxcomb.
5.1.42 PISTOL
Must I bite?
5.1.43 FLUELLEN
Yes, certainly, and out of doubt and out of question
too, and ambiguities.
5.1.45 PISTOL
By this leek, I will most horribly revenge: I eat
and eat, I swear –
5.1.47 FLUELLEN
Eat, I pray you: will you have some more sauce to
your leek? there is not enough leek to swear by.
5.1.49 PISTOL
Quiet thy cudgel; thou dost see I eat.
5.1.50 FLUELLEN
Much good do you, scauld knave, heartily. Nay, pray
you, throw none away; the skin is good for your
broken coxcomb. When you take occasions to see leeks
hereafter, I pray you, mock at 'em; that is all.
5.1.55 FLUELLEN
Ay, leeks is good: hold you, there is a groat to
heal your pate.
5.1.57 PISTOL
Me a groat!
5.1.58 FLUELLEN
Yes, verily and in truth, you shall take it; or I
have another leek in my pocket, which you shall eat.
5.1.60 PISTOL
I take thy groat in earnest of revenge.
5.1.61 FLUELLEN
If I owe you any thing, I will pay you in cudgels:
you shall be a woodmonger, and buy nothing of me but
cudgels. God b' wi' you, and keep you, and heal your pate.
Exit
5.1.64 PISTOL
All hell shall stir for this.
5.1.65 GOWER
Go, go; you are a counterfeit cowardly knave. Will
you mock at an ancient tradition, begun upon an
honourable respect, and worn as a memorable trophy of
predeceased valour and dare not avouch in your deeds
any of your words? I have seen you gleeking and
galling at this gentleman twice or thrice. You
thought, because he could not speak English in the
native garb, he could not therefore handle an
English cudgel: you find it otherwise; and
henceforth let a Welsh correction teach you a good
English condition. Fare ye well.
Exit
5.1.76 PISTOL
Doth Fortune play the huswife with me now?
News have I, that my Nell is dead i' the spital
Of malady of France;
And there my rendezvous is quite cut off.
Old I do wax; and from my weary limbs
Honour is cudgelled. Well, bawd I'll turn,
And something lean to cutpurse of quick hand.
To England will I steal, and there I'll steal:
And patches will I get unto these cudgell'd scars,
And swear I got them in the Gallia wars.
Exit
Contents
Act 5
Scene 2 | France. A royal palace.
|
Enter, at one door KING HENRY, EXETER, BEDFORD, GLOUCESTER, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and other Lords; at another, the FRENCH KING, QUEEN ISABEL, the PRINCESS KATHARINE, ALICE and other Ladies; the DUKE of BURGUNDY, and his train
5.2.1 KING HENRY V
Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are met!
Unto our brother France, and to our sister,
Health and fair time of day; joy and good wishes
To our most fair and princely cousin Katharine;
And, as a branch and member of this royalty,
By whom this great assembly is contrived,
We do salute you, Duke of Burgundy;
And, princes French, and peers, health to you all!
5.2.9 KING OF FRANCE
Right joyous are we to behold your face,
Most worthy brother England; fairly met:
So are you, princes English, every one.
5.2.12 QUEEN ISABEL
So happy be the issue, brother England,
Of this good day and of this gracious meeting,
As we are now glad to behold your eyes;
Your eyes, which hitherto have borne in them
Against the French, that met them in their bent,
The fatal balls of murdering basilisks:
The venom of such looks, we fairly hope,
Have lost their quality, and that this day
Shall change all griefs and quarrels into love.
5.2.21 KING HENRY V
To cry amen to that, thus we appear.
5.2.22 QUEEN ISABEL
You English princes all, I do salute you.
5.2.23 BURGUNDY
My duty to you both, on equal love,
Great Kings of France and England! That I have labour'd,
With all my wits, my pains and strong endeavours,
To bring your most imperial majesties
Unto this bar and royal interview,
Your mightiness on both parts best can witness.
Since then my office hath so far prevail'd
That, face to face and royal eye to eye,
You have congreeted, let it not disgrace me,
If I demand, before this royal view,
What rub or what impediment there is,
Why that the naked, poor and mangled Peace,
Dear nurse of arts and joyful births,
Should not in this best garden of the world
Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage?
Alas, she hath from France too long been chased,
And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps,
Corrupting in its own fertility.
Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart,
Unpruned dies; her hedges even-pleach'd,
Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair,
Put forth disorder'd twigs; her fallow leas
The darnel, hemlock and rank fumitory
Doth root upon, while that the coulter rusts
That should deracinate such savagery;
The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth
The freckled cowslip, burnet and green clover,
Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank,
Conceives by idleness and nothing teems
But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs,
Losing both beauty and utility.
And as our vineyards, fallows, meads and hedges,
Defective in their natures, grow to wildness,
Even so our houses and ourselves and children
Have lost, or do not learn for want of time,
The sciences that should become our country;
But grow like savages, – as soldiers will
That nothing do but meditate on blood, –
To swearing and stern looks, diffused attire
And every thing that seems unnatural.
Which to reduce into our former favour
You are assembled: and my speech entreats
That I may know the let, why gentle Peace
Should not expel these inconveniences
And bless us with her former qualities.
5.2.68 KING HENRY V
If, Duke of Burgundy, you would the peace,
Whose want gives growth to the imperfections
Which you have cited, you must buy that peace
With full accord to all our just demands;
Whose tenors and particular effects
You have enscheduled briefly in your hands.
5.2.74 BURGUNDY
The king hath heard them; to the which as yet
There is no answer made.
5.2.76 KING HENRY V
Well then the peace,
Which you before so urged, lies in his answer.
5.2.78 KING OF FRANCE
I have but with a cursorary eye
O'erglanced the articles: pleaseth your grace
To appoint some of your council presently
To sit with us once more, with better heed
To re-survey them, we will suddenly
Pass our accept and peremptory answer.
5.2.84 KING HENRY V
Brother, we shall. Go, uncle Exeter,
And brother Clarence, and you, brother Gloucester,
Warwick and Huntingdon, go with the king;
And take with you free power to ratify,
Augment, or alter, as your wisdoms best
Shall see advantageable for our dignity,
Any thing in or out of our demands,
And we'll consign thereto. Will you, fair sister,
Go with the princes, or stay here with us?
5.2.93 QUEEN ISABEL
Our gracious brother, I will go with them:
Haply a woman's voice may do some good,
When articles too nicely urged be stood on.
5.2.96 KING HENRY V
Yet leave our cousin Katharine here with us:
She is our capital demand, comprised
Within the fore-rank of our articles.
5.2.99 QUEEN ISABEL
She hath good leave.
Exeunt all except HENRY, KATHARINE, and ALICE
5.2.100 KING HENRY V
Fair Katharine, and most fair,
Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms
Such as will enter at a lady's ear
And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart?
5.2.104 KATHARINE
Your majesty shall mock at me; I cannot speak your England.
5.2.105 KING HENRY V
O fair Katharine, if you will love me soundly with
your French heart, I will be glad to hear you
confess it brokenly with your English tongue. Do
you like me, Kate?
5.2.109 KATHARINE
Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell vat is 'like me.'
5.2.110 KING HENRY V
An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like an angel.
5.2.111 KATHARINE
Que dit-il? que je suis semblable à les anges?
5.2.112 ALICE
Oui, vraiment, sauf votre grâce, ainsi dit-il.
5.2.113 KING HENRY V
I said so, dear Katharine; and I must not blush to
affirm it.
5.2.115 KATHARINE
Ô bon Dieu! les langues des hommes sont pleines de
tromperies.
5.2.117 KING HENRY V
What says she, fair one? that the tongues of men
are full of deceits?
5.2.119 ALICE
Oui, dat de tongues of de mans is be full of
deceits: dat is de princess.
5.2.121 KING HENRY V
The princess is the better Englishwoman. I' faith,
Kate, my wooing is fit for thy understanding: I am
glad thou canst speak no better English; for, if
thou couldst, thou wouldst find me such a plain king
that thou wouldst think I had sold my farm to buy my
crown. I know no ways to mince it in love, but
directly to say 'I love you:' then if you urge me
farther than to say 'do you in faith?' I wear out
my suit. Give me your answer; i' faith, do: and so
clap hands and a bargain: how say you, lady?
5.2.131 KATHARINE
Sauf votre honneur, me understand vell.
5.2.132 KING HENRY V
Marry, if you would put me to verses or to dance for
your sake, Kate, why you undid me: for the one, I
have neither words nor measure, and for the other, I
have no strength in measure, yet a reasonable
measure in strength. If I could win a lady at
leap-frog, or by vaulting into my saddle with my
armour on my back, under the correction of bragging
be it spoken. I should quickly leap into a wife.
Or if I might buffet for my love, or bound my horse
for her favours, I could lay on like a butcher and
sit like a jack-an-apes, never off. But, before God,
Kate, I cannot look greenly nor gasp out my
eloquence, nor I have no cunning in protestation;
only downright oaths, which I never use till urged,
nor never break for urging. If thou canst love a
fellow of this temper, Kate, whose face is not worth
sun-burning, that never looks in his glass for love
of any thing he sees there, let thine eye be thy
cook. I speak to thee plain soldier: If thou canst
love me for this, take me: if not, to say to thee
that I shall die, is true; but for thy love, by the
Lord, no; yet I love thee too. And while thou
livest, dear Kate, take a fellow of plain and
uncoined constancy; for he perforce must do thee
right, because he hath not the gift to woo in other
places: for these fellows of infinite tongue, that
can rhyme themselves into ladies' favours, they do
always reason themselves out again. What! a
speaker is but a prater; a rhyme is but a ballad. A
good leg will fall; a straight back will stoop; a
black beard will turn white; a curled pate will grow
bald; a fair face will wither; a full eye will wax
hollow: but a good heart, Kate, is the sun and the
moon; or, rather, the sun, and not the moon; for it
shines bright and never changes, but keeps his
course truly. If thou would have such a one, take
me; and take me, take a soldier; take a soldier,
take a king. And what sayest thou then to my love?
speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee.
5.2.171 KATHARINE
Is it possible dat I sould love de enemy of France?
5.2.172 KING HENRY V
No; it is not possible you should love the enemy of
France, Kate: but, in loving me, you should love
the friend of France; for I love France so well that
I will not part with a village of it; I will have it
all mine: and, Kate, when France is mine and I am
yours, then yours is France and you are mine.
5.2.178 KATHARINE
I cannot tell vat is dat.
5.2.179 KING HENRY V
No, Kate? I will tell thee in French; which I am
sure will hang upon my tongue like a new-married
wife about her husband's neck, hardly to be shook
off. Je quand sur le possession de France, et quand
vous avez le possession de moi, – let me see, what
then? Saint Denis be my speed! – donc vôtre est
France et vous êtes mienne. It is as easy for me,
Kate, to conquer the kingdom as to speak so much
more French: I shall never move thee in French,
unless it be to laugh at me.
5.2.189 KATHARINE
Sauf votre honneur, le François que vous parlez, il
est meilleur que l'Anglois lequel je parle.
5.2.191 KING HENRY V
No, faith, is't not, Kate: but thy speaking of my
tongue, and I thine, most truly-falsely, must needs
be granted to be much at one. But, Kate, dost thou
understand thus much English, canst thou love me?
5.2.195 KATHARINE
I cannot tell.
5.2.196 KING HENRY V
Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate? I'll ask
them. Come, I know thou lovest me: and at night,
when you come into your closet, you'll question this
gentlewoman about me; and I know, Kate, you will to
her dispraise those parts in me that you love with
your heart: but, good Kate, mock me mercifully; the
rather, gentle princess, because I love thee
cruelly. If ever thou beest mine, Kate, as I have a
saving faith within me tells me thou shalt, I get
thee with scambling, and thou must therefore needs
prove a good soldier-breeder: shall not thou and I,
between Saint Denis and Saint George, compound a
boy, half French, half English, that shall go to
Constantinople and take the Turk by the beard?
shall we not? what sayest thou, my fair
flower-de-luce?
5.2.212 KATHARINE
I do not know dat
5.2.213 KING HENRY V
No; 'tis hereafter to know, but now to promise: do
but now promise, Kate, you will endeavour for your
French part of such a boy; and for my English moiety
take the word of a king and a bachelor. How answer
you, la plus belle Katharine du monde, mon tres cher
et devin deesse?
5.2.219 KATHARINE
Your majestee ’ave fausse French enough to deceive de
most sage demoiselle dat is en France.
5.2.221 KING HENRY V
Now, fie upon my false French! By mine honour, in
true English, I love thee, Kate: by which honour I
dare not swear thou lovest me; yet my blood begins to
flatter me that thou dost, notwithstanding the poor
and untempering effect of my visage. Now, beshrew
my father's ambition! he was thinking of civil wars
when he got me: therefore was I created with a
stubborn outside, with an aspect of iron, that, when
I come to woo ladies, I fright them. But, in faith,
Kate, the elder I wax, the better I shall appear:
my comfort is, that old age, that ill layer up of
beauty, can do no more, spoil upon my face: thou
hast me, if thou hast me, at the worst; and thou
shalt wear me, if thou wear me, better and better:
and therefore tell me, most fair Katharine, will you
have me? Put off your maiden blushes; avouch the
thoughts of your heart with the looks of an empress;
take me by the hand, and say 'Harry of England I am
thine:' which word thou shalt no sooner bless mine
ear withal, but I will tell thee aloud 'England is
thine, Ireland is thine, France is thine, and Harry
Plantagenet is thine;' who though I speak it before
his face, if he be not fellow with the best king,
thou shalt find the best king of good fellows.
Come, your answer in broken music; for thy voice is
music and thy English broken; therefore, queen of
all, Katharine, break thy mind to me in broken
English; wilt thou have me?
5.2.249 KATHARINE
Dat is as it sall please de roi mon père.
5.2.250 KING HENRY V
Nay, it will please him well, Kate it shall please
him, Kate.
5.2.252 KATHARINE
Den it sall also content me.
5.2.253 KING HENRY V
Upon that I kiss your hand, and I call you my queen.
5.2.254 KATHARINE
Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez: ma foi, je
ne veux point que vous abaissiez votre grandeur en
baisant la main d'une de votre seigeurie indigne
serviteur; excusez-moi, je vous supplie, mon
très-puissant seigneur.
5.2.259 KING HENRY V
Then I will kiss your lips, Kate.
5.2.260 KATHARINE
Les dames et demoiselles pour être baisées devant
leur noces, il n'est pas la coutume de France.
5.2.262 KING HENRY V
Madam my interpreter, what says she?
5.2.263 ALICE
Dat it is not be de fashion pour les ladies of
France, – I cannot tell vat is baiser en Anglish.
5.2.265 KING HENRY V
To kiss.
5.2.266 ALICE
Your majesty entendre bettre que moi.
5.2.267 KING HENRY V
It is not a fashion for the maids in France to kiss
before they are married, would she say?
5.2.269 ALICE
Oui, vraiment.
5.2.270 KING HENRY V
O Kate, nice customs curtsy to great kings. Dear
Kate, you and I cannot be confined within the weak
list of a country's fashion: we are the makers of
manners, Kate; and the liberty that follows our
places stops the mouth of all find-faults; as I will
do yours, for upholding the nice fashion of your
country in denying me a kiss: therefore, patiently
and yielding.
Kissing her
You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate: there is
more eloquence in a sugar touch of them than in the
tongues of the French council; and they should
sooner persuade Harry of England than a general
petition of monarchs. Here comes your father.
Re-enter the FRENCH KING and his QUEEN, BURGUNDY, and other Lords
5.2.283 BURGUNDY
God save your majesty! my royal cousin, teach you
our princess English?
5.2.285 KING HENRY V
I would have her learn, my fair cousin, how
perfectly I love her; and that is good English.
5.2.287 BURGUNDY
Is she not apt?
5.2.288 KING HENRY V
Our tongue is rough, coz, and my condition is not
smooth; so that, having neither the voice nor the
heart of flattery about me, I cannot so conjure up
the spirit of love in her, that he will appear in
his true likeness.
5.2.293 BURGUNDY
Pardon the frankness of my mirth, if I answer you
for that. If you would conjure in her, you must
make a circle; if conjure up love in her in his true
likeness, he must appear naked and blind. Can you
blame her then, being a maid yet rosed over with the
virgin crimson of modesty, if she deny the
appearance of a naked blind boy in her naked seeing
self? It were, my lord, a hard condition for a maid
to consign to.
5.2.302 KING HENRY V
Yet they do wink and yield, as love is blind and enforces.
5.2.303 BURGUNDY
They are then excused, my lord, when they see not
what they do.
5.2.305 KING HENRY V
Then, good my lord, teach your cousin to consent winking.
5.2.306 BURGUNDY
I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you will
teach her to know my meaning: for maids, well
summered and warm kept, are like flies at
Bartholomew-tide, blind, though they have their
eyes; and then they will endure handling, which
before would not abide looking on.
5.2.312 KING HENRY V
This moral ties me over to time and a hot summer;
and so I shall catch the fly, your cousin, in the
latter end and she must be blind too.
5.2.315 BURGUNDY
As love is, my lord, before it loves.
5.2.316 KING HENRY V
It is so: and you may, some of you, thank love for
my blindness, who cannot see many a fair French city
for one fair French maid that stands in my way.
5.2.319 FRENCH KING
Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, the cities
turned into a maid; for they are all girdled with
maiden walls that war hath never entered.
5.2.322 KING HENRY V
Shall Kate be my wife?
5.2.323 FRENCH KING
So please you.
5.2.324 KING HENRY V
I am content; so the maiden cities you talk of may
wait on her: so the maid that stood in the way for
my wish shall show me the way to my will.
5.2.327 FRENCH KING
We have consented to all terms of reason.
5.2.328 KING HENRY V
Is't so, my lords of England?
5.2.329 WESTMORELAND
The king hath granted every article:
His daughter first, and then in sequel all,
According to their firm proposed natures.
5.2.332 EXETER
Only he hath not yet subscribed this:
Where your majesty demands, that the King of France,
having any occasion to write for matter of grant,
shall name your highness in this form and with this
addition in French, Notre très cher fils Henri, Roi
d'Angleterre, Héritier de France; and thus in
Latin,
Praeclarissimus filius noster Henricus, Rex
Angliae, et Haeres Franciae.
5.2.340 FRENCH KING
Nor this I have not, brother, so denied,
But your request shall make me let it pass.
5.2.342 KING HENRY V
I pray you then, in love and dear alliance,
Let that one article rank with the rest;
And thereupon give me your daughter.
5.2.345 FRENCH KING
Take her, fair son, and from her blood raise up
Issue to me; that the contending kingdoms
Of France and England, whose very shores look pale
With envy of each other's happiness,
May cease their hatred, and this dear conjunction
Plant neighbourhood and Christian-like accord
In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance
His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair France.
5.2.354 KING HENRY V
Now, welcome, Kate: and bear me witness all,
That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen.
Flourish
5.2.356 QUEEN ISABEL
God, the best maker of all marriages,
Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one!
As man and wife, being two, are one in love,
So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal,
That never may ill office, or fell jealousy,
Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage,
Thrust in between the paction of these kingdoms,
To make divorce of their incorporate league;
That English may as French, French Englishmen,
Receive each other. God speak this Amen!
5.2.367 KING HENRY V
Prepare we for our marriage – on which day,
My Lord of Burgundy, we'll take your oath,
And all the peers’, for surety of our leagues.
Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me;
And may our oaths well kept and prosperous be!
Sennet. Exeunt