GOWER Sir John Falstaff.
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FLUELLEN That is he. I’ll tell you, there is good men
porn at Monmouth.
GOWER Here comes his majesty.
Alarum. Enter KING HARRY with BOURBON as his prisoner, WARWICK, GLOUCESTER, EXETER, a herald and others, with prisoners. Flourish.
KING I was not angry since I came to France
Until this instant. Take a trumpet, herald;
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Ride thou unto the horsemen on yon 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
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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.
Enter MONTJOY.
EXETER
Here comes the herald of the French, my liege.
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GLOUCESTER
His eyes are humbler than they used to be.
KING
How now, what means this, herald? Know’st thou not
That I have fined these bones of mine for ransom?
Com’st thou again for ransom?
MONTJOY No, great King:
I come to thee for charitable licence
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That we may wander o’er this bloody field
To look our dead and then to bury them;
To sort our nobles from our common men.
For many of our princes – woe the while! –
Lie drowned and soaked in mercenary blood;
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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,
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To view the field in safety and dispose
Of their dead bodies.
KING 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 The day is yours.
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KING Praised be God, and not our strength, for it!
What is this castle called that stands hard by?
MONTJOY They call it Agincourt.
KING Then call we this the field of Agincourt,
Fought on the day of Crispin Crispian.
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FLUELLEN 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 They did, Fluellen.
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FLUELLEN Your majesty says very true. If your majesty
is remembered 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 honourable badge of the service; and I do
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believe your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek
upon Saint Tavy’s day.
KING I wear it for a memorable honour,
For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman.
FLUELLEN All the water in Wye cannot wash your
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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 Thanks, good my countryman.
FLUELLEN By Jeshu, I am your majesty’s countryman, I
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care not who know it. I will confess it to all the world:
I need not to be ashamed of your majesty, praised be
God, so long as your majesty is an honest man.
KING God keep me so!
Enter WILLIAMS.
Our herald go with him:
Bring me just notice of the numbers dead
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On both our parts.
Exeunt Montjoy, Gower and the English herald.
Call yonder fellow hither.
EXETER Soldier, you must come to the King.
KING Soldier, why wear’st thou that glove in thy cap?
WILLIAMS An’t please your majesty, ’tis the gage of one
that I should fight withal, if he be alive.
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KING An Englishman?
WILLIAMS An’t please your majesty, a rascal that
swaggered with me last night, who if ’a live and ever
dare to challenge this glove, I have sworn to take him
a box o’th’ ear; or if I can see my glove in his cap,
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which he swore as he was a soldier he would wear if ’a
lived, I will strike it out soundly.
KING What think you, Captain Fluellen, is it fit this
soldier keep his oath?
FLUELLEN He is a craven and a villain else, an’t please
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your majesty, in my conscience.
KING It may be his enemy is a gentleman of great sort,
quite from the answer of his degree.
FLUELLEN Though he be as good a gentleman as the
devil is, as Lucifer and Belzebub himself, it is
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necessary, look your grace, that he keep his vow and
his oath. If he be perjured, 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, la!
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KING Then keep thy vow, sirrah, when thou meet’st the
fellow.
WILLIAMS So I will, my liege, as I live.
KING Who serv’st thou under?
WILLIAMS Under Captain Gower, my liege.
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FLUELLEN Gower is a good captain, and is good
knowledge and literature in the wars.
KING Call him hither to me, soldier.
WILLIAMS I will, my liege. Exit.
KING Here, Fluellen, wear thou this favour for me and
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stick it in thy cap. When Alençon and myself were
down together I plucked this glove from his helm. If
any man challenge this he is a friend to Alençon and
an enemy to our person. If thou encounter any such,
apprehend him, an thou dost me love.
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FLUELLEN Your grace does me as great honours as can
be desired in the hearts of his subjects. I would fain see
the man that has but two legs that shall find himself
aggriefed at this glove, that is all; I would fain but see
it once, an’t please God of his grace that I might.
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KING Know’st thou Gower?
FLUELLEN He is my dear friend, an’t please you.
KING Pray thee go seek him and bring him to my tent.
FLUELLEN I will fetch him. Exit.
KING My lord of Warwick and my brother Gloucester,
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Follow Fluellen closely at the heels.
The glove which I have given him for a favour
May haply purchase him a box o’th’ ear;
It is the soldier’s. I by bargain should
Wear it myself. Follow, good cousin Warwick.
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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,
And, touched with choler, hot as gunpowder,
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And quickly will return an injury.
Follow, and see there be no harm between them. –
Go you with me, uncle of Exeter. Exeunt.
4.8 Enter GOWER and WILLIAMS.
WILLIAMS I warrant it is to knight you, Captain.
Enter FLUELLEN.
FLUELLEN God’s will and his pleasure, Captain, I
beseech you now, come apace to the King: there is
more good toward you, peradventure, than is in your
knowledge to dream of.
5
WILLIAMS Sir, know you this glove?
FLUELLEN Know the glove? I know the glove is a glove.
WILLIAMS I know this, and thus I challenge it.
[Strikes him.]
FLUELLEN ’Sblood, an arrant traitor as any’s in the
universal world, or in France, or in England!
10
GOWER How now, sir, you villain!
WILLIAMS Do you think I’ll be forsworn?
FLUELLEN Stand away, Captain Gower: I will give
treason his payment into plows, I warrant you.
WILLIAMS I am no traitor.
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FLUELLEN That’s a lie in thy throat.
Enter soldiers.
I charge you in his majesty’s name apprehend him,
he’s a friend of the Duke Alençon’s.
Enter WARWICK and GLOUCESTER.
WARWICK How now, how now, what’s the matter?
FLUELLEN My lord of Warwick, here is, praised be God
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for it, a most contagious treason come to light, look
you, as you shall desire in a summer’s day.
Enter the KING and EXETER.
Here is his majesty.
KING How now, what’s the matter?
FLUELLEN My liege, here is a villain and a traitor that,
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look your grace, has struck the glove which your
majesty is take out of the helmet of Alençon.
WILLIAMS My liege, this was my glove, here is the
fellow of it; and he that I gave it to in change promised
to wear it in his cap; I promised to strike him if he did.
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I met this man with my glove in his cap, and I have
been as good as my word.
FLUELLEN Your majesty hear now, saving your
majesty’s manhood, what an arrant, rascally, beggarly,
lousy knave it is. I hope your majesty is pear me
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testimony, and witness, and avouchment that this is
the glove of Alençon that your majesty is give me, in
your conscience now.
KING Give me thy glove, soldier. Look, here is the
fellow of it.
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’Twas I indeed thou promised’st to strike,
And thou hast given me most bitter terms.
FLUELLEN An’t please your majesty, let his neck answer
for it, if there is any martial law in the world.
KING How canst thou make me satisfaction?
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WILLIAMS All offences, my lord, come from the heart:
never came any from mine that might offend your
majesty.
KING It was our self thou didst abuse.
WILLIAMS Your majesty came not like your self: you
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appeared to me but as a common man – witness the
night, your garments, your lowliness; and what your
highness suffered under that shape, I beseech you take
it for your own fault and not mine, for had you been as
I took you for, I made no offence; therefore I beseech
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your highness pardon me. [Kneels.]
KING [Raises him.]
Here, uncle Exeter, fill this glove with crowns
And give it to this fellow. – Keep it, fellow,
And wear it for an honour in thy cap
Till I do challenge it. – Give him the crowns. –
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And Captain, you must needs be friends with him.
FLUELLEN By this day and this light, the fellow has
mettle enough in his belly. – Hold, there is twelve
pence for you, and I pray you to serve God, and keep
you out of prawls and prabbles, and quarrels and
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dissensions, and I warrant you it is the better for you.
WILLIAMS I will none of your money.
FLUELLEN It is with a good will. I can tell you, it will
serve you to mend your shoes. Come, wherefore
should you be so pashful? Your shoes is not so good.
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’Tis a good shilling, I warrant you, or I will change it.
Enter Herald.
KING Now, herald, are the dead numbered?
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 196