Henry V
Act IV, Scene 7
Another part of the battlefield.
Charles Kean as Henry V
19th century
- Enter Fluellen and Gower.
Fluellen
1 - 3- 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 offert; in your conscience, now, is it not?
Gower
4 - 9- ’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 burn’d and carried away all that was in
- the King’s tent; wherefore the King, most worthily, hath
- caus’d every soldier to cut his prisoner’s throat. O, ’tis a
- gallant king!
Fluellen
10 - 11- Ay, he was porn at Monmouth, Captain Gower. What call you
- the town’s name where Alexander the Pig was born?
Gower
12- Alexander the Great.
Fluellen
13 - 15- 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.
Gower
16 - 17- I think Alexander the Great was born in Macedon. His father
- was called Philip of Macedon, as I take it.
Fluellen
18 - 33- 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 call’d 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, Clytus.
Gower
34 - 35- Our King is not like him in that; he never kill’d any of his
- friends.
Fluellen
36 - 43- It is not well done, mark you now, to 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 kill’d his
- friend Clytus, being in his ales and his cups; so also Harry
- Monmouth, being in his right wits and his good judgments,
- turn’d 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.
Gower
44- Sir John Falstaff.
Fluellen
45 - 46- That is he. I’ll tell you there is good men porn at
- Monmouth.
Gower
47- Here comes his Majesty.
- Exit.
- Alarum. Enter King Harry and Bourbon with other prisoners;
- Warwick, Gloucester, Exeter, Heralds, and others. Flourish.
King Henry the Fifth
48 - 58- I was not angry since I came to France
- Until this instant. Take a trumpet, herald,
- Ride thou unto the horsemen on yond 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.
- Exit a Herald.
- Enter Montjoy.
Duke of Exeter
59- Here comes the herald of the French, my liege.
Duke of Gloucester
60- His eyes are humbler than they us’d to be.
King Henry the Fifth
61 - 63- How now, what means this, herald? Know’st thou not
- That I have fin’d these bones of mine for ransom?
- Com’st thou again for ransom?
The Battle of Agincourt
Enguerrand de Monstrelet, circa 1495
Montjoy
64 - 77- No, great King;
- I come to thee for charitable license,
- That we may wander o’er this bloody field
- To book 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!
King Henry the Fifth
78 - 81- 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.
Montjoy
82- The day is yours.
King Henry the Fifth
83 - 84- Praised be God, and not our strength, for it!
- What is this castle call’d that stands hard by?
Montjoy
85- They call it Agincourt.
King Henry the Fifth
86 - 87- Then call we this the field of Agincourt,
- Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus.
Fluellen
88 - 91- 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.
King Henry the Fifth
92- They did, Fluellen.
Fluellen
93 - 98- Your Majesty says very true. If your Majesties is rememb’red
- 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 honorable badge of the
- service; and I do believe your Majesty takes no scorn to
- wear the leek upon Saint Tavy’s day.
King Henry the Fifth
99 - 100- I wear it for a memorable honor;
- For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman.
Fluellen
101 - 104- 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!
King Henry the Fifth
105- Thanks, good my countryman.
Fluellen
106 - 109- 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.
King Henry the Fifth
110 - 113- God keep me so!
- Enter Williams.
- Our heralds go with him;
- Bring me just notice of the numbers dead
- On both our parts. Call yonder fellow hither.
- Exeunt Heralds with Montjoy.
Duke of Exeter
114- Soldier, you must come to the King.
King Henry the Fifth
115- Soldier, why wear’st thou that glove in thy cap?
Williams
116 - 117- And’t please your Majesty, ’tis the gage of one that I
- should fight withal, if he be alive.
King Henry the Fifth
118- An Englishman?
Williams
119 - 124- And’t please your Majesty, a rascal that swagger’d with me
- last night; who if alive and ever dare to challenge this
- glove, I have sworn to take him a box a’ 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.
They call it Agincourt
Felix Octavius Carr Darley, 1885
King Henry the Fifth
125 - 126- What think you, Captain Fluellen? Is it fit this soldier
- keep his oath?
Fluellen
127 - 128- He is a craven and a villain else, and’t please your
- Majesty, in my conscience.
King Henry the Fifth
129 - 130- It may be his enemy is a gentleman of great sort, quite from
- the answer of his degree.
Fluellen
131 - 136- Though he be as good a gentleman as the devil is, as Lucifer
- and Beelzebub himself, it is necessary, look your Grace,
- that he keep his vow and his oath. If he be perjur’d, see
- you now, his reputation is as arrant a villain and a Jack
- sauce, as ever his black shoe trod upon God’s ground and His
- earth, in my conscience law!
King Henry the Fifth
137- Then keep thy vow, sirrah, when thou meet’st the fellow.
Williams
138- So I will, my liege, as I live.
King Henry the Fifth
139- Who serv’st thou under?
Williams
140- Under Captain Gower, my liege.
Fluellen
141 - 142- Gower is a good captain, and is good knowledge and
- literatured in the wars.
King Henry the Fifth
143- Call him hither to me, soldier.
Williams
144- I will, my liege.
- Exit.
King Henry the Fifth
145 - 150- Here, Fluellen, wear thou this favor for me and stick it in
- thy cap. When Alanson and myself were down together, I
- pluck’d this glove from his helm. If any man challenge this,
- he is a friend to Alanson, and an enemy to our person. If
- thou encounter any such, apprehend him, and thou dost me
- love.
Fluellen
151 - 155- Your Grace doo’s me as great honors as can be desir’d in the
- hearts of his subjects. I would fain see the man, that has
- but two legs, that shall find himself aggrief’d at this
- glove; that is all. But I would fain see it once, and please
- God of his grace that I might see.
King Henry the Fifth
156- Know’st thou Gower?
Fluellen
157- He is my dear friend, and please you.
King Henry the Fifth
158- Pray thee go seek him, and bring him to my tent.
Fluellen
159- I will fetch him.
- Exit.
King Henry the Fifth
160 - 173- My Lord of Warwick, and my brother Gloucester,
- Follow Fluellen closely at the heels.
- The glove which I have given him for a favor
- May haply purchase him a box a’ 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 touch’d 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.