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Henry V: Act IV, Scene 7

Henry V
Act IV, Scene 7

Another part of the battlefield.

  1. Enter Fluellen and Gower.

Fluellen

1 - 3
  1. Kill the poys and the luggage! ’Tis expressly against the
  2. law of arms. ’Tis as arrant a piece of knavery, mark you
  3. now, as can be offert; in your conscience, now, is it not?

Gower

4 - 9
  1. ’Tis certain there’s not a boy left alive, and the cowardly
  2. rascals that ran from the battle ha’ done this slaughter.
  3. Besides, they have burn’d and carried away all that was in
  4. the King’s tent; wherefore the King, most worthily, hath
  5. caus’d every soldier to cut his prisoner’s throat. O, ’tis a
  6. gallant king!

Fluellen

10 - 11
  1. Ay, he was porn at Monmouth, Captain Gower. What call you
  2. the town’s name where Alexander the Pig was born?

Gower

12
  1. Alexander the Great.

Fluellen

13 - 15
  1. Why, I pray you, is not pig great? The pig, or the great,
  2. or the mighty, or the huge, or the magnanimous, are all one
  3. reckonings, save the phrase is a little variations.

Gower

16 - 17
  1. I think Alexander the Great was born in Macedon. His father
  2. was called Philip of Macedon, as I take it.

Fluellen

18 - 33
  1. I think it is in Macedon where Alexander is porn. I tell
  2. you, captain, if you look in the maps of the orld, I warrant
  3. you sall find, in the comparisons between Macedon and
  4. Monmouth, that the situations, look you, is both alike.
  5. There is a river in Macedon, and there is also moreover a
  6. river at Monmouth. It is call’d Wye at Monmouth; but it is
  7. out of my prains what is the name of the other river; but
  8. ’tis all one, ’tis alike as my fingers is to my fingers, and
  9. there is salmons in both. If you mark Alexander’s life well,
  10. Harry of Monmouth’s life is come after it indifferent well,
  11. for there is figures in all things. Alexander, God knows,
  12. and you know, in his rages, and his furies, and his wraths,
  13. and his cholers, and his moods, and his displeasures, and
  14. his indignations, and also being a little intoxicates in his
  15. prains, did, in his ales and his angers, look you, kill his
  16. best friend, Clytus.

Gower

34 - 35
  1. Our King is not like him in that; he never kill’d any of his
  2. friends.

Fluellen

36 - 43
  1. It is not well done, mark you now, to take the tales out of
  2. my mouth, ere it is made and finished. I speak but in the
  3. figures and comparisons of it: as Alexander kill’d his
  4. friend Clytus, being in his ales and his cups; so also Harry
  5. Monmouth, being in his right wits and his good judgments,
  6. turn’d away the fat knight with the great belly doublet. He
  7. was full of jests, and gipes, and knaveries, and mocksI
  8. have forgot his name.

Gower

44
  1. Sir John Falstaff.

Fluellen

45 - 46
  1. That is he. I’ll tell you there is good men porn at
  2. Monmouth.

Gower

47
  1. Here comes his Majesty.
  1. Exit.
  1. Alarum. Enter King Harry and Bourbon with other prisoners;
  2. Warwick, Gloucester, Exeter, Heralds, and others. Flourish.

King Henry the Fifth

48 - 58
  1. I was not angry since I came to France
  2. Until this instant. Take a trumpet, herald,
  3. Ride thou unto the horsemen on yond hill.
  4. If they will fight with us, bid them come down,
  5. Or void the field; they do offend our sight.
  6. If they’ll do neither, we will come to them,
  7. And make them skirr away, as swift as stones
  8. Enforced from the old Assyrian slings;
  9. Besides, we’ll cut the throats of those we have,
  10. And not a man of them that we shall take
  11. Shall taste our mercy. Go and tell them so.
  1. Exit a Herald.
  1. Enter Montjoy.

Duke of Exeter

59
  1. Here comes the herald of the French, my liege.

Duke of Gloucester

60
  1. His eyes are humbler than they us’d to be.

King Henry the Fifth

61 - 63
  1. How now, what means this, herald? Know’st thou not
  2. That I have fin’d these bones of mine for ransom?
  3. Com’st thou again for ransom?

Montjoy

64 - 77
  1.                               No, great King;
  2. I come to thee for charitable license,
  3. That we may wander o’er this bloody field
  4. To book our dead, and then to bury them;
  5. To sort our nobles from our common men.
  6. For many of our princes (woe the while!)
  7. Lie drown’d and soak’d in mercenary blood;
  8. So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs
  9. In blood of princes, and their wounded steeds
  10. Fret fetlock deep in gore, and with wild rage
  11. Yerk out their armed heels at their dead masters,
  12. Killing them twice. O, give us leave, great King,
  13. To view the field in safety, and dispose
  14. Of their dead bodies!

King Henry the Fifth

78 - 81
  1.                       I tell thee truly, herald,
  2. I know not if the day be ours or no,
  3. For yet a many of your horsemen peer
  4. And gallop o’er the field.

Montjoy

82
  1.                            The day is yours.

King Henry the Fifth

83 - 84
  1. Praised be God, and not our strength, for it!
  2. What is this castle call’d that stands hard by?

Montjoy

85
  1. They call it Agincourt.

King Henry the Fifth

86 - 87
  1. Then call we this the field of Agincourt,
  2. Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus.

Fluellen

88 - 91
  1. Your grandfather of famous memory, an’t please your Majesty,
  2. and your great-uncle Edward the Plack Prince of Wales, as I
  3. have read in the chronicles, fought a most prave pattle here
  4. in France.

King Henry the Fifth

92
  1. They did, Fluellen.

Fluellen

93 - 98
  1. Your Majesty says very true. If your Majesties is rememb’red
  2. of it, the Welshmen did good service in a garden where leeks
  3. did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps, which, your
  4. Majesty know, to this hour is an honorable badge of the
  5. service; and I do believe your Majesty takes no scorn to
  6. wear the leek upon Saint Tavy’s day.

King Henry the Fifth

99 - 100
  1. I wear it for a memorable honor;
  2. For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman.

Fluellen

101 - 104
  1. All the water in Wye cannot wash your Majesty’s Welsh plood
  2. out of your pody, I can tell you that. God pless it, and
  3. preserve it, as long as it pleases his Grace, and his
  4. Majesty too!

King Henry the Fifth

105
  1. Thanks, good my countryman.

Fluellen

106 - 109
  1. By Jeshu, I am your Majesty’s countryman, I care not who
  2. know it. I will confess it to all the orld. I need not to be
  3. ashamed of your Majesty, praised be God, so long as your
  4. Majesty is an honest man.

King Henry the Fifth

110 - 113
  1. God keep me so!
  2. Enter Williams.
  3.                 Our heralds go with him;
  4. Bring me just notice of the numbers dead
  5. On both our parts. Call yonder fellow hither.
  1. Exeunt Heralds with Montjoy.

Duke of Exeter

114
  1. Soldier, you must come to the King.

King Henry the Fifth

115
  1. Soldier, why wear’st thou that glove in thy cap?

Williams

116 - 117
  1. And’t please your Majesty, ’tis the gage of one that I
  2. should fight withal, if he be alive.

King Henry the Fifth

118
  1. An Englishman?

Williams

119 - 124
  1. And’t please your Majesty, a rascal that swagger’d with me
  2. last night; who if alive and ever dare to challenge this
  3. glove, I have sworn to take him a box a’ th’ ear; or if I
  4. can see my glove in his cap, which he swore, as he was a
  5. soldier, he would wear if alive, I will strike it out
  6. soundly.

King Henry the Fifth

125 - 126
  1. What think you, Captain Fluellen? Is it fit this soldier
  2. keep his oath?

Fluellen

127 - 128
  1. He is a craven and a villain else, and’t please your
  2. Majesty, in my conscience.

King Henry the Fifth

129 - 130
  1. It may be his enemy is a gentleman of great sort, quite from
  2. the answer of his degree.

Fluellen

131 - 136
  1. Though he be as good a gentleman as the devil is, as Lucifer
  2. and Beelzebub himself, it is necessary, look your Grace,
  3. that he keep his vow and his oath. If he be perjur’d, see
  4. you now, his reputation is as arrant a villain and a Jack
  5. sauce, as ever his black shoe trod upon God’s ground and His
  6. earth, in my conscience law!

King Henry the Fifth

137
  1. Then keep thy vow, sirrah, when thou meet’st the fellow.

Williams

138
  1. So I will, my liege, as I live.

King Henry the Fifth

139
  1. Who serv’st thou under?

Williams

140
  1. Under Captain Gower, my liege.

Fluellen

141 - 142
  1. Gower is a good captain, and is good knowledge and
  2. literatured in the wars.

King Henry the Fifth

143
  1. Call him hither to me, soldier.

Williams

144
  1. I will, my liege.
  1. Exit.

King Henry the Fifth

145 - 150
  1. Here, Fluellen, wear thou this favor for me and stick it in
  2. thy cap. When Alanson and myself were down together, I
  3. pluck’d this glove from his helm. If any man challenge this,
  4. he is a friend to Alanson, and an enemy to our person. If
  5. thou encounter any such, apprehend him, and thou dost me
  6. love.

Fluellen

151 - 155
  1. Your Grace doo’s me as great honors as can be desir’d in the
  2. hearts of his subjects. I would fain see the man, that has
  3. but two legs, that shall find himself aggrief’d at this
  4. glove; that is all. But I would fain see it once, and please
  5. God of his grace that I might see.

King Henry the Fifth

156
  1. Know’st thou Gower?

Fluellen

157
  1. He is my dear friend, and please you.

King Henry the Fifth

158
  1. Pray thee go seek him, and bring him to my tent.

Fluellen

159
  1. I will fetch him.
  1. Exit.

King Henry the Fifth

160 - 173
  1. My Lord of Warwick, and my brother Gloucester,
  2. Follow Fluellen closely at the heels.
  3. The glove which I have given him for a favor
  4. May haply purchase him a box a’ th’ ear.
  5. It is the soldier’s; I by bargain should
  6. Wear it myself. Follow, good cousin Warwick.
  7. If that the soldier strike him, as I judge
  8. By his blunt bearing he will keep his word,
  9. Some sudden mischief may arise of it;
  10. For I do know Fluellen valiant
  11. And touch’d with choler, hot as gunpowder,
  12. And quickly will return an injury.
  13. Follow, and see there be no harm between them.
  14. Go you with me, uncle of Exeter.
  1. Exeunt.
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