To sounds confused; behold the threaden sails,
Borne with the invisible and creeping wind,
Draw the huge bottoms through the furrow'd sea,
Breasting the lofty surge: O, do but think
You stand upon the rivage and behold
A city on the inconstant billows dancing;
For so appears this fleet majestical,

Holding due course to Harfleur. Follow, follow:
Grapple your minds to sternage of this navy,
And leave your England, as dead midnight still,
Guarded with grandsires, babies and old women,
Either past or not arrived to pith and puissance;
For who is he, whose chin is but enrich'd
With one appearing hair, that will not follow
These cull'd and choice-drawn cavaliers to France ?
Work, work your thoughts, and therein see a siege;
Behold the ordnance on their carriages,

With fatal mouths gaping on girded Harfleur.

Suppose the ambassador from the French comes back;
Tells Harry that the king doth offer him
Katharine his daughter, and with her, to dowry,
Some petty and unprofitable dukedoms.
The offer likes not: and the nimble gunner

With linstock now the devilish cannon touches,

[Alarum, and chambers go off.

99 66

14 rivage] the French word for "bank," shore"; not uncommon in

Elizabethan poetry.

18 sternage] stern, steerage; the rudder was in the stern.

30 to dowry] for or by way of dowry.

32 likes not] pleases not.

33 linstock] stick to which was attached the match for firing guns. (stage direction) chambers] small pieces of cannon.

10

20

*30

And down goes all before them. Still be kind,
And eke out our performance with your mind.

[Exit.

SCENE I- FRANCE

BEFORE HARFLEUR

Alarum. Enter KING HENRY, EXETER, BEDFORD, GLOUCESTER, and Soldiers, with scaling-ladders

K. HEN. Once more unto the breach, dear friends,

once more;

Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;

Let it pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.

Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit

8 hard-favour'd] grim-faced.

10 portage] portholes, sockets.

13 jutty his confounded base] project over its ruined foundations. 14 Swill'd... ocean] Washed over

16 bend up] extend.

.. by the desolating ocean.

10

To his full height. On, on, you noblest English,
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,

Have in these parts from morn till even fought,
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest

That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,

And teach them how to war. And you, good yeomen,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear

That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge

Cry "God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'
[Exeunt. Alarum, and chambers go off.

20

30

SCENE II — THE SAME

Enter NYM, BARDOLPH, PISTOL, and Boy

BARD. On, on, on, on, on! to the breach, to the breach!

NYм. Pray thee, corporal, stay: the knocks are too

18 fet] fetched, drawn.

21 argument] opposition.

31 slips] leashes, which held the hounds before the game was started.

hot; and, for mine own part, I have not a case of lives: the humour of it is too hot, that is the very plain-song of it. PIST. The plain-song is most just; for humours do abound:

Knocks go and come; God's vassals drop and die;

And sword and shield,

In bloody field,

Doth win immortal fame.

Boy. Would I were in an alehouse in London! I would give all my fame for a pot of ale and safety.

PIST. And I:

Boy.

If wishes would prevail with me,

My purpose should not fail with me,
But thither would I hie.

As duly, but not as truly,

As bird doth sing on bough.

Enter FLUELLEN

10

FLU. Up to the breach, you dogs! avaunt, you cullions! [Driving them forward. 20 PIST. Be merciful, great duke, to men of mould.

3-4 case

plain-song] Nym has in his mind the word "case" as specifically applied to a set of four musical instruments, which were required for the performance of a "consort" or piece of music in four parts. He carries on the musical figure by his play with the word "plain-song," i. e., a simple melody, without variations, in the performance of which a "case" would not be required. 6 humours] whimsicalities, fantasies.

19 cullions] a coarse term of scornful abuse. Cf. T. of Shrew, IV, ii, 20, "And makes a god of such a cullion.”

21 great duke] Pistol thinks to propitiate Captain Fluellen by exaggerating his rank.

Abate thy rage, abate thy manly rage,
Abate thy rage, great duke!

Good bawcock, bate thy rage; use lenity, sweet chuck!
NYм. These be good humours! your honour wins
bad humours.
[Exeunt all but Boy.

Boy. As young as I am, I have observed these three swashers. am boy to them all three: but all they three, though they would serve me, could not be man to me; for indeed three such antics do not amount to a 30 man. For Bardolph, he is white-livered and red-faced; by the means whereof a' faces it out, but fights not. For Pistol, he hath a killing tongue and a quiet sword; by the means whereof a' breaks words, and keeps whole weapons. For Nym, he hath heard that men of few words are the best men; and therefore he scorns to say his prayers, lest a' should be thought a coward: but his few bad words are matched with as few good deeds; for a' never broke any man's head but his own, and that was against a post when he was drunk. They will steal any 40 thing, and call it purchase. Bardolph stole a lute-case, bore it twelve leagues, and sold it for three half-pence. 24 Good bawcock . . . sweet chuck] terms of playful endearment equivalent to "my fine fellow," "dear old boy," "dear lad." "Chuck" is a form of chicken.

25-26 These be good. . . bad humours] Nym commends Pistol's blandishments. Pistol conciliates bad tempers. "Your honour" means "your worship."

28 swashers] swashbucklers, blusterers.

30 antics] buffoons.

32 a' faces it out] he has the show of valour in his countenance.

41 purchase] a colloquial euphemism for theft.

Cf. 2 Hen. IV, IV, v,

200.