Home
This site uses cookies
log out

Henry V: Act IV, Scene 3

Sign in with Google to add your annotations.

Henry V
Act IV, Scene 3

Agincourt. The English camp.

Miniature from Vigiles du roi Charles VII. The battle of Azincourt

Miniature from Vigiles du roi Charles VII. The battle of Azincourt

Unknown artist, 1515

  1. Enter Gloucester, Bedford, Exeter, Erpingham with all his
  2. host; Salisbury and Westmorland.

Duke of Gloucester

1
  1. Where is the King?

Duke of Bedford

2
  1. The King himself is rode to view their battle.

Earl of Westmorland

3
  1. Of fighting men they have full threescore thousand.

Duke of Exeter

4
  1. There’s five to one; besides, they all are fresh.

Earl of Salisbury

5 - 10
  1. God’s arm strike with us! ’Tis a fearful odds.
  2. God buy you, princes all; I’ll to my charge.
  3. If we no more meet till we meet in heaven,
  4. Then joyfully, my noble Lord of Bedford,
  5. My dear Lord Gloucester, and my good Lord Exeter,
  6. And my kind kinsman, warriors all, adieu!

Duke of Bedford

11
  1. Farewell, good Salisbury, and good luck go with thee!

Duke of Exeter

12 - 14
  1. Farewell, kind lord; fight valiantly today!
  2. And yet I do thee wrong to mind thee of it,
  3. For thou art fram’d of the firm truth of valor.
  1. Exit Salisbury.

Duke of Bedford

15 - 16
  1. He is as full of valor as of kindness,
  2. Princely in both.
  1. Enter the King.

Earl of Westmorland

17 - 19
  1.                   O that we now had here
  2. But one ten thousand of those men in England
  3. That do no work today!

King Henry the Fifth

20 - 69
  1.                        What’s he that wishes so?
  2. My cousin Westmorland? No, my fair cousin.
  3. If we are mark’d to die, we are enow
  4. To do our country loss; and if to live,
  5. The fewer men, the greater share of honor.
  6. God’s will, I pray thee wish not one man more.
  7. By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
  8. Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
  9. It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
  10. Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
  11. But if it be a sin to covet honor,
  12. I am the most offending soul alive.
  13. No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
  14. God’s peace, I would not lose so great an honor
  15. As one man more methinks would share from me,
  16. For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
  17. Rather proclaim it, Westmorland, through my host,
  18. That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
  19. Let him depart, his passport shall be made,
  20. And crowns for convoy put into his purse.
  21. We would not die in that man’s company
  22. That fears his fellowship to die with us.
  23. This day is call’d the feast of Crispian:
  24. He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
  25. Will stand a’ tiptoe when this day is named,
  26. And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
  27. He that shall see this day, and live old age,
  28. Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors,
  29. And say, “Tomorrow is Saint Crispian .”
  30. Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
  31. And say, “These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.”
  32. Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
  33. But he’ll remember with advantages
  34. What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
  35. Familiar in his mouth as household words,
  36. Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
  37. Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
  38. Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb’red.
  39. This story shall the good man teach his son;
  40. And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
  41. From this day to the ending of the world,
  42. But we in it shall be remembered—
  43. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
  44. For he today that sheds his blood with me
  45. Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
  46. This day shall gentle his condition;
  47. And gentlemen in England, now a-bed,
  48. Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here;
  49. And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
  50. That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.
  1. Enter Salisbury.

Earl of Salisbury

70 - 72
  1. My sovereign lord, bestow yourself with speed.
  2. The French are bravely in their battles set,
  3. And will with all expedience charge on us.
Costume designs for the king's pages

Costume designs for the king's pages

19th century

King Henry the Fifth

73
  1. All things are ready, if our minds be so.

Earl of Westmorland

74
  1. Perish the man whose mind is backward now!

King Henry the Fifth

75
  1. Thou dost not wish more help from England, coz?

Earl of Westmorland

76 - 77
  1. God’s will, my liege, would you and I alone,
  2. Without more help, could fight this royal battle!

King Henry the Fifth

78 - 80
  1. Why, now thou hast unwish’d five thousand men;
  2. Which likes me better than to wish us one.
  3. You know your places. God be with you all!
  1. Tucket. Enter Montjoy.

Montjoy

81 - 90
  1. Once more I come to know of thee, King Harry,
  2. If for thy ransom thou wilt now compound,
  3. Before thy most assured overthrow;
  4. For certainly thou art so near the gulf,
  5. Thou needs must be englutted. Besides, in mercy,
  6. The Constable desires thee thou wilt mind
  7. Thy followers of repentance; that their souls
  8. May make a peaceful and a sweet retire
  9. From off these fields, where (wretches!) their poor bodies
  10. Must lie and fester.

King Henry the Fifth

91
  1.                      Who hath sent thee now?

Montjoy

92
  1. The Constable of France.

King Henry the Fifth

93 - 128
  1. I pray thee bear my former answer back:
  2. Bid them achieve me, and then sell my bones.
  3. Good God, why should they mock poor fellows thus?
  4. The man that once did sell the lion’s skin
  5. While the beast liv’d, was kill’d with hunting him.
  6. A many of our bodies shall no doubt
  7. Find native graves; upon the which, I trust,
  8. Shall witness live in brass of this day’s work.
  9. And those that leave their valiant bones in France,
  10. Dying like men, though buried in your dunghills,
  11. They shall be fam’d; for there the sun shall greet them,
  12. And draw their honors reeking up to heaven,
  13. Leaving their earthly parts to choke your clime,
  14. The smell whereof shall breed a plague in France.
  15. Mark then abounding valor in our English:
  16. That being dead, like to the bullet’s crasing,
  17. Break out into a second course of mischief,
  18. Killing in relapse of mortality.
  19. Let me speak proudly: tell the Constable
  20. We are but warriors for the working-day;
  21. Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirch’d
  22. With rainy marching in the painful field;
  23. There’s not a piece of feather in our host—
  24. Good argument (I hope) we will not fly—
  25. And time hath worn us into slovenry.
  26. But, by the mass, our hearts are in the trim;
  27. And my poor soldiers tell me, yet ere night,
  28. They’ll be in fresher robes, or they will pluck
  29. The gay new coats o’er the French soldiers’ heads
  30. And turn them out of service. If they do this—
  31. As, if God please, they shall—my ransom then
  32. Will soon be levied. Herald, save thou thy labor.
  33. Come thou no more for ransom, gentle herald,
  34. They shall have none, I swear, but these my joints;
  35. Which if they have as I will leave ’um them,
  36. Shall yield them little, tell the Constable.

Montjoy

129 - 130
  1. I shall, King Harry. And so fare thee well;
  2. Thou never shalt hear herald any more.
  1. Exit.

King Henry the Fifth

131
  1. I fear thou wilt once more come again for a ransom.
  1. Enter York.

Duke of York

132 - 133
  1. My lord, most humbly on my knee I beg
  2. The leading of the vaward.

King Henry the Fifth

134 - 135
  1. Take it, brave York. Now, soldiers, march away,
  2. And how thou pleasest, God, dispose the day!
  1. Exeunt.

Bid them achieve me, and then sell my bones

Edwin Austin Abbey, 1908

© 2021 Unotate.com • contact • privacy policy • Creative Commons text from PlayShakespeare.com • All illustrations are public domain or Creative Commons