TPTT The Life of Henry the Fifth: ACT III
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
PROLOGUE.
SCENE I. France. Before Harfleur.
SCENE II. The same.
SCENE III. The same. Before the gates.
SCENE IV. The FRENCH KING's palace.
SCENE V. The same.
SCENE VI. The English camp in Picardy.
SCENE VII. The French camp, near Agincourt:
ACT IV
ACT V
About the Play
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SCENE VI. The English camp in Picardy.
Enter GOWER and FLUELLEN, meeting
GOWER
      How now, Captain Fluellen! come you from the bridge?
FLUELLEN
      I assure you, there is very excellent services
      committed at the bridge.
GOWER
      Is the Duke of Exeter safe?
FLUELLEN
5     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 living, and
      my uttermost power: he is not-God be praised and
      blessed!--any hurt in the world; but keeps the
10    bridge most valiantly, with excellent discipline.
      There is an aunchient lieutenant there at the
      pridge, I think in my very conscience he is as
      valiant a man as Mark Antony; and he is a man of no
      estimation in the world; but did see him do as
15    gallant service.
GOWER
      What do you call him?
FLUELLEN
      He is called Aunchient Pistol.
GOWER
      I know him not.
Enter PISTOL
FLUELLEN
      Here is the man.
PISTOL
20    Captain, I thee beseech to do me favours:
      The Duke of Exeter doth love thee well.
FLUELLEN
      Ay, I praise God; and I have merited some love at
      his hands.
PISTOL
      Bardolph, a soldier, firm and sound of heart,
25    And of buxom valour, hath, by cruel fate,
      And giddy Fortune's furious fickle wheel,
      That goddess blind,
      That stands upon the rolling restless stone--
FLUELLEN
      By your patience, Aunchient Pistol. Fortune is
30    painted blind, with a muffler afore her eyes, to
      signify to you that Fortune is blind; and she is
      painted also with a wheel, to signify to you, which
      is the moral of it, that she is turning, and
      inconstant, and mutability, and variation: and her
35    foot, look you, is fixed upon a spherical stone,
      which rolls, and rolls, and rolls: in good truth,
      the poet makes a most excellent description of it:
      Fortune is an excellent moral.
PISTOL
      Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him;
40    For he hath stolen a pax, 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 hath given the doom of death
45    For pax of little price.
      Therefore, go speak: the duke will hear thy voice:
      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.
FLUELLEN
50    Aunchient Pistol, I do partly understand your meaning.
PISTOL
      Why then, rejoice therefore.
FLUELLEN
      Certainly, aunchient, it is not a thing to rejoice
      at: for if, look you, he were my brother, I would
      desire the duke to use his good pleasure, and put
55    him to execution; for discipline ought to be used.
PISTOL
      Die and be damn'd! and figo for thy friendship!
FLUELLEN
      It is well.
PISTOL
      The fig of Spain!
Exit
FLUELLEN
      Very good.
GOWER
60    Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal; I
      remember him now; a bawd, a cutpurse.
FLUELLEN
      I'll assure you, a' uttered as brave words at the
      bridge as you shall see in a summer's day. But it
      is very well; what he has spoke to me, that is well,
65    I warrant you, when time is serve.
GOWER
      Why, 'tis a gull, a fool, a rogue, that now and then
      goes to the wars, to grace himself at his return
      into London under the form of a soldier. And such
      fellows are perfect in the great commanders' names:
70    and they will learn you by rote where services were
      done; at such and such a sconce, at such a breach,
      at such a convoy; who came off bravely, who was
      shot, who disgraced, what terms the enemy stood on;
      and this they con perfectly in the phrase of war,
75    which they trick up with new-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
80    else you may be marvellously mistook.
FLUELLEN
      I tell you what, Captain Gower; I do perceive he is
      not the man that he would gladly make show to the
      world he is: if I find a hole in his coat, I will
      tell him my mind.

Drum heard

85    Hark you, the king is coming, and I must speak with
      him from the pridge.

Drum and colours. Enter KING HENRY, GLOUCESTER, and Soldiers

      God pless your majesty!
KING HENRY V
      How now, Fluellen! camest thou from the bridge?
FLUELLEN
      Ay, so please your majesty. The Duke of Exeter has
90    very gallantly maintained the pridge: the French is
      gone off, look you; and there is gallant and most
      prave passages; marry, th' athversary was have
      possession of the pridge; but he is enforced to
      retire, and the Duke of Exeter is master of the
95    pridge: I can tell your majesty, the duke is a
      prave man.
KING HENRY V
      What men have you lost, Fluellen?
FLUELLEN
      The perdition of th' athversary hath been very
      great, reasonable great: marry, for my part, I
100   think the duke hath lost never a man, but one that
      is like to be executed for robbing a church, one
      Bardolph, if your majesty know the man: his face is
      all bubukles, and whelks, and knobs, and flames o'
      fire: and his lips blows at his nose, and it is like
105   a coal of fire, sometimes plue and sometimes red;
      but his nose is executed and his fire's out.
KING HENRY V
      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
110   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
      gentler gamester is the soonest winner.
Tucket. Enter MONTJOY
MONTJOY
      You know me by my habit.
KING HENRY V
115   Well then I know thee: what shall I know of thee?
MONTJOY
      My master's mind.
KING HENRY V
      Unfold it.
MONTJOY
      Thus says my king: Say thou to Harry of England:
      Though we seemed dead, we did but sleep: advantage
120   is a better soldier than rashness. Tell him we
      could have rebuked 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 imperial: England shall repent his folly, see
125   his weakness, and admire our sufferance. Bid him
      therefore consider of his ransom; which must
      proportion the losses we have borne, the subjects we
      have lost, the disgrace we have digested; which in
      weight to re-answer, his pettiness would bow under.
130   For our losses, his exchequer 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
135   tell him, for conclusion, he hath betrayed his
      followers, whose condemnation is pronounced. So far
      my king and master; so much my office.
KING HENRY V
      What is thy name? I know thy quality.
MONTJOY
      Montjoy.
KING HENRY V
140   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
145   Unto an enemy of craft and vantage,
      My people are with sickness much enfeebled,
      My numbers lessened, and those few I have
      Almost no better than so many French;
      Who when they were in health, I tell thee, herald,
150   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;
155   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 neighbour
      Stand in our way. There's for thy labour, Montjoy.
160   Go bid thy master well advise himself:
      If we may pass, we will; if we be hinder'd,
      We shall your tawny ground with your red blood
      Discolour: and so Montjoy, fare you well.
      The sum of all our answer is but this:
165   We would not seek a battle, as we are;
      Nor, as we are, we say we will not shun it:
      So tell your master.
MONTJOY
      I shall deliver so. Thanks to your highness.
Exit
GLOUCESTER
      I hope they will not come upon us now.
KING HENRY V
170   We are in God's hand, brother, not in theirs.
      March to the bridge; it now draws toward night:
      Beyond the river we'll encamp ourselves,
      And on to-morrow, bid them march away.
Exeunt
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