TPTT The Life of Henry the Fifth: ACT IV
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
PROLOGUE.
SCENE I. The English camp at Agincourt.
SCENE II. The French camp.
SCENE III. The English camp.
SCENE IV. The field of battle.
SCENE V. Another part of the field.
SCENE VI. Another part of the field.
SCENE VII. Another part of the field.
SCENE VIII. Before KING HENRY'S pavilion.
ACT V
About the Play
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SCENE I. The English camp at Agincourt.
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,
5     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
10    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
15    Were better than a churlish turf of France.
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:
20    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,
25    Commend me to the princes in our camp;
      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
30    No, my good knight;
      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
35    God-a-mercy, old heart! thou speak'st cheerfully.
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
40    I am a gentleman of a company.
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
45    The king's a bawcock, and a heart of gold,
      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
50    Harry le Roy.
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
55    Tell him, I'll knock his leek about his pate
      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
60    And his kinsman too.
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
65    Captain Fluellen!
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
70    examine the wars of Pompey the Great, you shall
      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
75    of it, and the modesty of it, to be otherwise.
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
80    coxcomb? in your own conscience, now?
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
85    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.
WILLIAMS
      We see yonder the beginning of the day, but I think
90    we shall never see the end of it. Who goes there?
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
95    pray you, what thinks he of our estate?
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
100   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 nakedness he appears but a man; and
105   though his affections are higher mounted than ours,
      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
110   him with any appearance of fear, lest he, by showing
      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
115   were, and I by him, at all adventures, so we were quit here.
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
120   sure to be ransomed, and a many poor men's lives saved.
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
125   just and his quarrel honourable.
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
130   the crime of it out of us.
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
135   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 upon their
      children rawly left. I am afeard there are few die
      well that die in a battle; for how can they
140   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.
KING HENRY V
145   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 master's command transporting a
150   sum of money, be assailed by robbers and die in
      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
155   soldiers, the father of his son, 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
160   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
165   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 beadle, war is vengeance;
      so that here men are punished for before-breach of
170   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
175   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
180   is to him advantage; or not dying, the time was
      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
185   others how they should prepare.
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
190   I myself heard the king say he would not be ransomed.
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
195   You pay him then. That's a perilous shot out of an
      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
200   after! come, 'tis a foolish saying.
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
205   How shall I know thee again?
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
210   There.
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
215   Thou darest as well be hanged.
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
220   French quarrels enow, if you could tell how to reckon.
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
225   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,
230   Twin-born with greatness, subject to the breath
      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,
235   Save ceremony, save general ceremony?
      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?
240   O ceremony, show me but thy worth!
      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
245   Than they in fearing.
      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
250   With titles blown from adulation?
      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;
255   I am a king that find thee, and I know
      '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,
260   The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp
      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,
265   Who with a body fill'd and vacant mind
      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
270   Sleeps in Elysium; next day after dawn,
      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,
275   Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep,
      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,
280   Whose hours the peasant best advantages.
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:
285   I'll be before thee.
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
290   Pluck their hearts from them. Not to-day, O Lord,
      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
295   Than from it issued forced drops of blood:
      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
300   Sing still for Richard's soul. More will I do;
      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
305   My brother Gloucester's voice? Ay;
      I know thy errand, I will go with thee:
      The day, my friends and all things stay for me.
Exeunt
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