The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare, to which are Added His Miscellaneous Poems. (Life of William Shakspeare, by Mr. N. Rowe.).

men

Boy. Do you not remember, 'a saw a flea stick upon Bardolph's nose; and 'a said it was a black soul burning in hell-fire ?

but then he was rheumatic • ; and talk'd of | And, princes, look, you strongly arm to meet him, the whore of Babylon. The kindred of him hath been flesh'd upon us : And he is bred out of that bloody strain*, That haunted us in our familiar paths: Witness our too much memorable shame, When Cressy battle fatally was struck, And all our princes captived, by the hand Of that black name, Edward black prince of Wales;

Bard. Well, the fuel is gone, that maintain'd that fire: that's all the riches I got in his service. Nym. Shall we shog off? The king will be gone from Southampton.

Pist. Come, let's away.-My love, give me thy lips.

Look to my chattels, and my moveables:
Let senses rule; the word is, Pitch and pay,
Trust none;

For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes,
And hold-fast is the only dog, my duck;
Therefore, caveto be thy counsellor.
Go, clear thy chrystals-Yoke-fellows in arms,
Let us to France I like horse-leeches, my boys;
To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck!
Boy. And that is but unwholesome food, they say.
Pist. Touch her soft mouth, and march.
Bard. Farewell, hostess.
[Kissing her.
Nym. I cannot kiss, that is the humour of it; but
adieu.

Pisl. Let housewifery appear: keep close, I thee

command.

And more than carefully it as concerns,
To answer royally in our defences,
Therefore the dukes of Berry, and of Bretagne,
Of Brabant, and of Orleans, shall make forth,-
And you, prince Dauphin,-with all swift despatch,
To line, and new repair, our towns of war,
With men of courage, and with means defendant:
For England his approaches makes as fierce,
As waters to the sucking of a gulph.

It fits us then, to be as provident

As fear may teach us, out of late examples
Left by the fatal and neglected English
Upon our fields.

Dau. My most redoubted father,

It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe:
For peace itself should not so dull‡ a kingdom,
(Though war, nor no known quarrel, were in ques-
tion,)

But that defences, musters, preparations,
Should be maintain'd, assembled, and collected,
As were a war in expectation.

Therefore, I say, 'tis meet we all go forth,
To view the sick and feeble parts of France:
And let us do it with no show of fear;

No, with no more, than if we heard that England
Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance:
For, my good liege, she is so idly king'd,
Her sceptre so fantastically borne

By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth,
That fear attends her not.

Con. O peace, prince Dauphin!
You are too much mistaken in this king:
Question your grace the late ambassadors,-
With what great state he heard their embassy,
How well supplied with noble counsellors,
How modest in exceptions, and, withal,
How terrible in constant resolution,-
And you shall find, his vanities fore-spent ||
Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus,
Covering discretion with a coat of folly;
As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots
That shall first spring, and be most delicate.
Dau. Well, 'tis not so, my lord high constable,
But though we think it so, it is no matter:
In cases of defence, 'tis best to weigh
The enemy more mighty than he seems,
So the proportions of defence are fill'd;
Which, of a weak and niggardly projection,
Doth, like a miser, spoil his coat, with scanting
A little cloth.

Fr. King. Think we king Harry strong;

Whiles that his mountain sire,—on mountain standing,

Up in the air, crown'd with the golden sun,-
Saw his heroical seed, and smiled to see him
Mangle the work of nature, and deface

The patterns that by God and by French fathers
Had twenty years been made. This is a stem
Of that victorious stock; and let us fear
The native mightiness and fate of him.
Enter a MESSENGER.

Mess. Ambassadors from Henry king of England Do crave admittance to your majesty.

Fr. King. We'll give them present audience.Go, and bring them. [Exeunt Mess. and certain Lords. You see, this chase is hotly follow'd, friends. Dau. Turn head, and stop pursuit: for coward dogs Most spend their mouths, when what they seem

to threaten,

Runs far before them. Good my sovereign,
Of what a monarchy you are the head:
Take up the English short; and let them know
Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin
As self-neglecting.

Re-enter LORDS, with EXETER and Train.
Fr. King. From our brother Engiand?
Ere. From him; and thus he greets your ma-

jesty.

He wills you, in the name of God Almighty,
That you divest yourself, and lay apart
The borrow'd glories, that, by gift of heaven,
By law of nature, and of nations, 'long
To him, and to his heirs; namely, the crown,
And all wide-stretched honours that pertain,
By custom and the ordinance of times,
Unto the crown of France. That you may know,
'Tis no sinister, nor no aukward claim,
Pick'd from the worm-holes of long-vanish'd days,
Nor from the dust of old eblivion raked,
He sends you this most memorable line,
[Gives a Paper.

In every branch truly demonstrative;
Willing you, overlook this pedigree:
And, when you find him evenly derived
From his most famed of famous ancestors,
Edward the Third, he bids you then resign
Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held
From him the native and true challenger.
Fr. King. Or else what follows?

Exe. Bloody constraint; for if you hide the

crown

Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it:
And therefore in fierce tempest is he coming,
In thunder, and in earthquake, like a Jove;
(That, if requiring fail, he will compel ;)
And bids you, in the bowels of the Lord,
Deliver up the crown; and to take mercy
On the poor souls, for whom this hungry war
Opens his vasty jaws: and on your head
Turns he the widows' tears, the orphans' cries,
The dead men's blood, the pining maidens' groans,
For husbands, fathers, and betrothed lovers,
That shall be swallow'd in this controversy.
This is his claim, his threat'ning, and my message;
Unless the Dauphin be in presence here,
To whom expressly I bring greeting too.

Fr. King. For us, we will consider of this farther:

To-morrow shall you bear our full intent
Back to our brother England.

Dau. For the Dauphin,

I stand here for him; what to him from England! Exe. Scorn, and defiance; slight regard, con

tempt,

And any thing that may not misbecome
The mighty sender, doth he prize you at
Thus says my king: and, if your father's high-

ness

• Lineage.

Do not, in grant of all demands at large,
Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his majesty,
He'll call you to so hot an answer for it,
That caves and womby vaultages of France

Shall chide your trespass, and return your mock
In second accent of his ordnance.

Dau. Say, if my father render fair reply,
It is against my will: for I desire

Nothing but odds with England; to that end,
As matching to his youth and vanity,

I did present him with those Paris balls.

Stiffen the sinews, sunmon 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
To his full height !-On, on, you noblest English,

Exe. He'll make your Paris Louvre shake for it, Whose blood is set from fathers of war-proof!

Were it the mistress court of mighty Europe:

And, be assured, you'll find a difference,

(As we, his subjects, have in wonder found,)
Between the promise of his greener days,

And these he masters now; now he weighs time,
Even to the utmost grain; which you shall read
In your own losses, if he stay in France.

Fr. King. To-morrow shall you know our mind
at full.

Ere. despatch us with all speed, lest that our
king

Come here himself to question our delay;
For he is footed in this land already.

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

For there is none of you so mean and base,

Fr. King. You shall be soon despatch'd, with fair That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.

conditions:

A night is but small breath, and little pause,
To answer matters of this consequence.

ACT III.

Enter CHORUS.

[Exeunt.

Chor. Thus with imagined wing our swift scene
flies,

In motion of no less celerity
Than that of thought. Suppose that you

seen

have

The well-appointed king at Hampton pier
Embark his royalty; and his brave fleet
With silken streamers the young Phabus fanning
Play with your fancies; and in them behold,
Upon the hempen tackle, ship-boys climbing:
Hear the shrill whistle, which doth order give
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: 0, 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, fol'ow!
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

France?

cavaliers to

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

SCENE I-The same.- -Before Harfleur.
Alarums.-Enter King HENRY, Exeter, BedfORD,
GLOSTER, 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;

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.

SCENE II.-The same.

Forces pass over; then enter NYM, BARDOLPH,
PISTOL and Boy.

Bard. On, on, on, on, on! To the breach! To the
breach!

Nym. 'Pray thee, corporal, stay; the knocks are too hot; and, for mine own part, I have not a the very plain-song of it. case of lives: the humour of it is too hot, that is

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 ale-house in London! I would give all my fame for a pot of ale and safety.

Pist. And I:

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

Boy. As duly, but not as truly, as bird doth sing on bough.

Enter FLUELLEN.

Flu. Got's plood!-Up to the preaches, you rascals! Will you not up to the preaches?

[Driving them forward.
Pist. Be merciful, great duke, to men of mould !
Abate thy rage, abate thy manly rage!
Abate thy rage, great duke!

Good bawcock, bate thy rage! use lenity, sweet
chuck!

Nym. These be good humours!-Your honour wins bad humours.

[Exeunt Nym, Pistol, and Bardolph, followed by Fluellen.

Boy. As young as I am, I have observed these three swashers. I 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 For Bardolph,-he is do not amount to a man. white-liver'd 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 match'd with as few good deeds; for 'a never broke any man's head but his

Mac. Of my nation? What ish my nation? Ish a villain, and a bastard, and a knave, and a rascal? What is my nation? Who talks of my nation?

own; and that was against a post, when he was | der your correction, there is not many of your na drunk. They will steal any thing, and call it,- tion-purchase. Bardolph stole a lute-case; bore it twelve leagues, and sold it for three halfpence. Nym, and Bardolph, are sworn brothers in filching; and in Calais they stole a fire-shovel: I knew, by that piece of service, the men would carry coals. They would have me as familiar with men's pockets, as their gloves or their handkerchiefs: which makes much against my manhood, if I should take from another's pocket, to put into mine; for it is plain pocketing up of wrongs. I must leave them, and seek some better service: their villainy goes against my weak stomach, and therefore I must cast it up. [Exit Boy.

Re-enter FLUELLEN, GOWER following. Gow. Captain Fluellen, you must come presently to the mines; the duke of Gloster would speak with

you. Flu. To the mines! Tell you the duke, it is not so good to come to the mines: for, look you, the mines is not according to the disciplines of the war; the concavities of it is not sufficient; for, look you, th' athversary (you may discuss unto the duke, look you,) is dight himself four yards under the counternines: by Cheshu, I think, a' will plow up all, if

there is not better directions.

Gow. The Duke of Gloster, to whom the order of the siege is given, is altogether directed by an Irishman; a very valiant gentleman, i' faith. Flu. It is captain Macmorris, is it not? Gow. I think it be.

Flu. By Cheshu, he is an ass, as in the 'orld: I will verify as much in his peard: he has no more directions in the true disciplines of the wars, look you, of the Roman disciplines, than is a puppy-dog. Enter MACMORRIS and JAMY, at a distance. Gow. Here 'a comes; and the Scots captain, captain Jamy, with him.

Flu. Captain Jamy is a marvellous falorous gentleman, that is certain; and of great expedition, and knowledge, in the ancient wars, upon my particular knowledge of his directions: by Cheshu, he will maintain his argument as well as any military man in the 'orld, in the disciplines of the pristine wars of the Romans.

Jamy. I say, gud-day, Captain Fluellen. Flu. God-den to your worship, goot captain Jamy. Gow. How, now, captain Macmorris? Have you quit the mines? Have the pioneers given o'er t' Mac. By Chrish la, tish ill done: the work ish give over, the trumpet sound the retreat. By my hand, I swear, and by my father's soul, the work ish ill done; it ish give over: I would have blowed up the town, so Chrish save me, la, in an hour. O, tish ill done, tish ill done; by my hand, tish ill

done!

Flu. Captain Macmorris, I peseech you now, will you voutsafe me, look you, a few disputations with you, as partly touching or concerning the disciplines of the war, the Roman wars, in the way of argument, look you, and friendly communication; partly, to satisfy my opinion, and partly, for the satisfaction, look you, of my mind, as touching the direction of the military discipline; that is the point.

Jamy. It sall be very gud, gud feith, gud captains bath; and I sall quit you with gud leve, as I may pick occasion; that sall I, marry.

Mac. It is no time to discourse, so Chrish save me: the day is hot, and the weathe:, and the wars, and the king, and the dukes; it is no time to discourse. The town is beseech'd, and the trumpet calls us to the breach; and we talk, and, by Chrish, do nothing; 'tis shame for us all: so God sa' me, 'tis slame to stand still: it is shame, by my hand and there is throats to be cut, and works to be done; and there ish nothing done, so Christ sa' me, la.

Jamy. By the mess, ere theise eyes of mine take themselves to slumber, aile to gude service, or aile ligge 'the grund for it; ay, or go to death; and aile pay it as valorously as I may, that sal I surely do, that is the breff and the long marry, I wad full fain heard some question 'tween you tway. Flu. Captain Macmorris, I think, look you, un

Flu. Look you, if you take the matter otherwise than is meant, captain Macmorris, peradventure, I shall think you do not use me with that affability as in discretion you ought to use me, look you; being as goot a man as yourself, both in the disci plines of wars, and in the derivation of my birth, and in other particularities.

Mac. I do not know you so good a man as myself: so Chrish save me, I will cut off your head. Gow. Gentlemen both, you will mistake each other.

Jamy. Au! that's a fonl fault. [▲ Parley sounded. Gow. The town sounds a parley.

Flu. Captain Macmorris, when there is more bet ter opportunity to be required, look you, I will be so bold as to tell you, I know the disciplines of war; and there's an end. [Exeunt

SCENE III.-The same.-Before the Gates of

Harfleur.

The GOVERNOR and some Citizens on the Walls; the English Forces below.-Enter King HENRY, and his Train.

K. Hen. How yet resolves the governor of the
This is the latest parle we will admit: [town!
Therefore, to our best mercy give yourselves;
Or, like to men proud of destruction,
Defy us to our worst: for as I am a soldier,
(A name, that, in my thoughts, becomes me best,)
If I begin the battery once again,

I will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur,
Till in her ashes she lie buried.
The gates of mercy shall be all shut up;
And the flesh'd soldier,-rough and hard of heart,-
In liberty of bloody hand, shall range
With conscience wide as hell; mowing like grass
Your fresh-fair virgins, and your flowering infants.
What is it then to me, if impious war,-
Array'd in flames, like to the prince of fiends,-
Do, with his smirch'd complexion, all fell feats
Enlink'd to waste and desolation?
What is't to me, when you yourselves are cause,
If your pure maidens fall into the hand
Of hot and forcing violation!
What rein can hold licentious wickedness,
When down the hill he holds his fierce career?
We may as bootless spend our vain command
Upon the enraged soldiers in their spoil,
As send precepts to the Leviathan
To come ashore. Therefore, you men of Harfleur,
Take pity of your town, and of your people,
Whiles yet my soldiers are in my command;
Whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace
O'erblows the filthy and contagious clouds
Of deadly murder, spoil, and villainy.
If not, why, in a moment, look to see
The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand
Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters;
Your fathers taken by the silver beards,
And their most reverend heads dash'd to the walls;
Your naked infants spitted upon pikes;
Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confused
Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry
At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen.
What say you? Will you yield, and this avoid?
Or, guilty in defence, be thus destroy'd?

Gov. Our expectation hath this day an end:
The Dauphin, whom of succour we entreated,
Returns us-that his powers are not yet ready
To raise so great a siege. Therefore, dread king,
We yield our town, and lives, to thy soft mercy :
Enter our gates; dispose of us, and ours;
For we no longer are defensible.

K. Hen. Open your gates.-Come, uncle Exeter,
Go you and enter Harfleur; there remain,
And fortify it strongly 'gainst the French:
Use mercy to them all. For us, dear uncle,—
The winter coming on, and sickness growing
Upon our soldiers,-we'll retire to Calais.
To-night in Harfleur will we be your guest;
To-morrow for the march are we addrest §.
[Flourish.--The King, &c. enter the Town.

SCENE IV.-Rouen.-A Room in the Palace.

Enter KATHARINE and ALICE.

Is not their climate foggy, raw, and dull?
On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale,
Killing their fruit with frowns? Can sodden
water,

Kath. Alice, tu as esté en Angleterre, et tu parles A drench for sur-rein'd jades, their barley broth,

bien le language.

Alice. Un peu madame.

Kath. Je te prie, m'enseigneuz; il faut que j'apprenne à parler. Comment uppellez vous la main, en Anglois? Alice. La main? Elle est appellée, de hand Kath. De hand. Et les doigts?

Alice. Les doigts? May joy, je oublie les doigts; mais je me souviendray. Les doigts? Je pense, qu'ils sont appellé de fingres; ouy, de fingres.

Kath. La main, de hand; les doigts, de fingres. Je pense, que je suis le bon escolier. J'ay gagné deux mots d'Anglois vistement. Comment appellez vous les ongles?

Alice. Les ongles? Les appellons, de nails. Kath. De nails. Escoutez; dites moy, si je parle bien de hand, de fingres, de nails.

Alice. C'est bien dit, madame; il est fort bon
Anglois.

Kath. Dites moy en Anglois, le bras.
Alice. De arm, madame.
Kath. Et le coude.

Alice. De elbow.

Kath. De elbow. Je m'en faitz la repetition de tous les mots, que vous m'avez appris dès a present. Alice. Il est trop difficile, madame, comme je pense. Kath. Excusez moy, Alice; escoutez: de hand, de fingre, de nails, de arm, de bilbow.

Decoct their cold blood to such valiant heat?
And shall our quick blood, spirited with wine,
Seem frosty? O, for honour of our land,
Let us not hang like roping icicles

Upon our houses thatch, whiles a more frosty
people

Sweat drops of gallant youth in our rich fields;
Poor-we may call them, in their native lords.
Dau. By faith and honour,

Our madains mock at us; and plainly say,
Our mettle is bred out; and they will give
Their bodies to the lust of English youth,
To new-store France with bastard warriors.
Bour. They bid us to the English dancing-
schools,
And teach lavoltas + high, and swift corantos;
Saying, our grace is only in our heels,
And that we are most lofty runaways.

Fr. King. Where is Montjoy, the herald? Speed

him hence;

Let him greet England with our sharp defiance.Up, princes; and, with spirit of honour edged, More sharper than your swords, hie to the field: Charles De-la-bret, high constable of France; You dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and of Berry, Alençon, Brabant, Bar, and Burgundy; Jaques Chatillion, Rambures, Vaudemont, Beaumont, Grandpré, Roussi, and Fauconberg, Foix, Lestrale, Bouciqualt, and Charolois; Kath. O Seigneur Dieu! Je m'en oublie; de el-High dukes, great princes, barons, lords, and bow. Comment appellez vous le col ?

Alice. De elbow, madame.

Alice. De neck, madame.

Kath. De neck: Et le menton?

Alice. De chin.

Kath. De sin. Le col, de neck; le menton, de sin. Alice. Ouy. Sauf vostre honneur; en verité, vous prononces les mots aussi droict que les nat:fs d'Angleterre.

Kath. Je ne doute point d'apprendre par la grace de Dieu; et en peu de temps.

Alice. N'avez vous pas deja oublié ce que je vous ay enseignée?

Kath. Non, je reciteray à vous promptement. De hand, de fingre, de mails,

Alice. De nails, madame.

Kath. De nails, de arme, de ilbow.
Alice. Sauf vostre honneur, de elbow.

Kath. Ainsi dis je; de elbow, de neck, et de sin:
Comment appellez vous le pieds et la robe?
Alice. De foot, madame; et de con.

Kath. De foot, et de con? O Seigneur Dieu! Ces sont mots de son mauvais, corruptible, grosse, et impudique, et non pour les dames d'honneur d'user: Je ne voudrois prononcer ces mots devant les Seigneurs de France, pour tout le monde. Il faut defoot, & de con, neunt-moins. Je reciterai une autre fois ma leçon ensemble. De hand, de fingre, de nails, de arm, de elbow, de neck, de sin, de foot, de con.

Alice. Excellent, madame!

Kath. C'est assez pour une fois; allons nous a
[Exeunt.

disner.

SCENE V.-The same.-Another Room in the same.
Enter the FRENCH KING, the DAUPHIN, Duke of
BOURBON, the CONSTABLE of FRANCE, and others.
Fr. King. 'Tis certain, he hath pass'd the river
Some.

Con. And if he be not fought withal, my lord,
Let us not live in France; let us quit all,
And give our vineyards to a barbarous people.
Dau. O Dien vivunt! Shall a few sprays of us,-
The emptying of our fathers' luxury ⚫,
Our scions, put in wild and savage stock,
Spirt up so suddenly into the clouds,
And overlook their grafters ?

Bour. Normans, but bastard Norinans, Norman

bastards!

Mort de ma vie! If they march along

Unfought withal, but I will sell my dukedom,

To buy a slobbery and a dirty farm.

In that nook-shotten+ isle of Albion.

Con. Dieu de battailes! Where have they this
mettle?

knights,

For your great seats, now quit you of great shames.
Bar Harry England, that sweeps through our land
With pennons I painted in the blood of Harfleur:
Rush on his host, as doth the melted snow
Upon the vallies; whose low vassal seat
The Alps doth spit and void his rheum upon :
Go down upon him,-you have power enough,—
And in a captive chariot, into Rouen
Bring him our prisoner.

Con. This becomes the great.
Sorry am I, his numbers are so few,
His soldiers sick, and famish'd in their marchi ;
For, I am sure, when he shall see our army,
He'll drop his heart into the sink of fear,
And, for achievement, offer us his ransome.

Fr. King. Therefore, lord constable, haste on
Montjoy ;

And let him say to England, that we send
To know what willing ransome he will give.-
Prince Dauphin, you shall stay with us in Rouen.
Dau. Not so, I do beseech your majesty.
Fr. King. Be patient, for you shall remain with
Now, forth, lord constable, and princes all;
And quickly bring us word of England's fall.

us.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI.-The English Camp in Picardy.

Enter GOWER and FLUELlen.

Gow. How now, captain Fluellen? Come you from the bridge.

Flu. I assure you, there is very excellent service committed at the pridge.

Gow. Is the duke of Exeter safe?

Flu. The duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as Agamemnon; and a man that I love and honour with my soul, and my heart, and my duty, and my life, and my livings, and my uttermost powers: he is not, (God be praised, and plessed !) any hurt in the 'orld; but keeps the pridge most valiantly, with excellent discipline. There is an ensign there at the pridge, I think, in my very conscience, he is as valiant as Mark Antony; and he is a man of no estimation in the 'orld: but I did see him do gallant service.

Gow. What do you call him?
Flu. He is call'd-ancient Pistol.

Gow. I know him not.

Pist. Captain, I thee beseech to do me favours: The duke of Exeter doth love thee well.

Flu. Ay, I praise Got; and I have merited some love at his hands.

Pist. Bardolph, a soldier, firm and sound of heart,

Of buxom valour, hath,-by cruel fate,
And giddy fortune's furious tickle wheel,
That goddess blind,

That stands upon the rolling restless stone,—
Flu. By your patience, ancient Pistol. Fortune
is painted plind, with a muffler before her eyes,
to signify to you that fortune is plind: and she is
painted also with a wheel; to signify to you, which
is the moral of it, that she is turning, and incon-
stant, and variations, and mutabilities: and her
foot, look you, is fix'd upon a spherical stone,
which rolls, and rolls, and rolls;-In good truth,
the poet is make a most excellent description of
fortune: fortune, look you, is an excellent moral.
Pist. Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on
him;

For he hath stolen a pix ‡, and hang'd must 'a be.
A damned death!

Let gallows gape for dog, let man go free.
And let not hemp his wind-pipe suffocate:
But Exeter hath given the doom of death,
For pix of little price.

Therefore, go speak, the duke will hear thy voice;
And let not Bardolph's vital thread be cut
With edge of penny cord, and vile reproach:
Speak, captain, for his life, and I will thee requite.
Flu. Ancient Pistol, I do partly understand
your meaning.

Pist. Why then rejoice therefore.

Flu. Certainly, ancient, it is not a thing to rejoice at: for if, look you, he were my brother, I would desire the duke to use his goot pleasure, and put him to executions; for disciplines ought to be used.

Pist. Die and be damn'd; and figos for thy friendship!

Flu. It is well.

Pist. The fig of Spain! Flu. Very good.

[Exit Pistol.

Gow. Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal; I remember him now; a bawd; a cutpurse.

Flu. I'll assure you, 'a utter'd as prave 'ords at the pridge, as you shall see in a summer's day: but it is very well; what he has spoke to me, that is well, I warrant you, when time is serve.

Gow. Why, 'tis a gull, a fool, a rogue; that now and then goes to the wars, to grace himself, at his return into London, under the form of a soldier. And such fellows are perfect in great commanders' names: and they will learn you by rote, where services were done;-at such and such a sconce, at such a breach, at such a convoy ; who came off bravely, who was shot, who disgraced, what terms the enemy stood on; and this they con perfectly in the phrase of war, which they trick up with new-tuned oaths: and what a beard of the general's cut, and a horrid suit of the camp, will do among foaming bottles, and ale-wash'd wits, is wonderful to be thought on! But you must learn to know such slanders of the age, or else you may be marvellous mistook.

Flu. I tell you what, captain Gower;-I do perceive, he is not the man that he would gladly make show to the 'orld he is; if I find a hole in his coat, I will tell him my mind. [Drum heard.] Hark you, the king is coming; and I must speak with him from the pridge.

Enter King HENRY, GLOSTER, and Soldiers. Flu. Got pless your majesty!

K. Hen. How now, Flucllen? Camest thou from the bridge?

enforced to retire, and the duke of Exeter is mas ter of the pridge: I can tell your majesty the duke is a prave man.

K. Hen. What men have you lost, Fluellen? Flu. The perdition of th' athversary hath been very great, very reasonable great: marry, for my part, I think the duke hath lost never a man, but one that is 1.ke to be executed for robbing a church, one Bardolph, if your majesty know the man: his face is all bubukles, and whelks, and knobs, and flames of fire; and his lips plows at his nose, and it is like a coal of fire, sometimes plue, and sometimes red; but his nose is executed, and his fire's

out.

K. Hen. We would have all such offenders so cut off :-And we give express charge, that, in our marches through the country, there be nothing compell'd from the villages, nothing taken but paid for; none of the French upbraided, or abused in disdainful language; for when lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentler gamester is the soonest winner.

Tucket sounds.-Enter MONTJOY. Mont. You know me by my habit.

K. Hen. Well then, I know thee; What shall I know of thee?

Mont. My master's mind.
K. Hen. Unfold it.

Mont. Thus says my king:-Say thou to Harry of England, Though we seemed dead, we did but sleep; Advantage is a better soldier, than rashness. Tell him, we could have rebuked him at Harfleur; but that we thought not good to bruise an injury, till it were full ripe:-Now we speak upon our cue, and our voice is imperial: England shall repent his folly, see his weakness, and admire our sufferance. Bid him, therefore, consider of his ransome; which must proportion the losses we have borne, the subjects we have lost, the dis grace we have digested; which, in weight to reanswer, his pettiness would bow under. For our losses, his exchequer is too poor; for the effusion of our blood, the muster of his kingdom too faint a number; and for our disgrace, his own person, kneeling at our feet, but a weak and worthless satisfaction. To this add-defiance and tell him, for conclusion, he hath betray'd his followers, whose condemnation is pronounced. So far my king and master; so much my office.

K. Hen. What is thy name? I know thy quality. Mont. Montjoy.

K. Hen. Thou dost thy office fairly. Turn thee back,

And tell thy king,-I do not seek him now;
But could be willing to march on to Calais
Without impeachment: for, to say the sooth,
(Though 'tis no wisdom to confess so much
Unto an enemy of craft and 'vantage,)
My people are with sickness much enfeebled;
My numbers lessen'd; and hose few I have,
Almost no better than so many French;
Who when they were in health, I tell thee herald,
I thought, upon one pair of English legs
Did march three Frenchmen.-Yet, forgive me,

God,

That I do brag thus!-This your air of France
Hath blown that vice in me; I must repent.
Go, therefore, tell thy master, here I am;
My ransome is this frail and worthless trunk;
My army, but a weak and sickly guard;
Yet, God before ý, tell him we will come on,
Though France himself, and such another neigh
bour,

Stand in our way. There's for thy labour, Mont-
joy.

Go, bid thy master well advise himself:
If we may pass, we will; if we be hinder'd,
We shall your tawny ground with your red blood
Discolour and so, Montjoy, fare you well.

Flu. Ay, so please your majesty. The duke of
Exeter has very gallantly maintain'd the pridge:
the French is gone off, look you; and there is gal-
lant and most prave passages: Marry, th' athver-The sum of all our answer is but this:
sary was have possession of the pridge; but he is

• Valour under good command.

+ A fold of linen which partially covered the face.

A small box, in which were kept the consecrated wafers.

An allusion to the custom in Spain and Italy, of giving poisoned figs.

An entrenchment hastily thrown up.

We would not seek a battle, as we are;
Nor, as we are, we say, we will not shun it;
So tell your master.

Mont. I shall deliver so. Thanks to your high[Exit Montjoy.

ness.

Glo. I hope they will not come upon us now.

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The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare, to which are Added His ..., 第 1 卷