Henry V
Page 6
Wouldst thou have practised on100 me for thy use?
May it be possible that foreign hire
Could out of thee extract one spark of evil
That might annoy103 my finger? 'Tis so strange,
That though the truth of it stands off as gross104
As black and white, my eye will scarcely see it.
Treason and murder, ever kept together,
As two yoke-devils107 sworn to either's purpose,
Working so grossly108 in a natural cause,
That admiration did not whoop109 at them.
But thou gainst all proportion110, didst bring in
Wonder to wait on111 treason and on murder,
And whatsoever cunning fiend it was
That wrought113 upon thee so preposterously
Hath got the voice114 in hell for excellence,
All other devils that suggest115 by treasons
Do botch and bungle up116 damnation
With patches117, colours and with forms being fetched
From glist'ring118 semblances of piety.
But he that tempered119 thee, bade thee stand up,
Gave thee no instance120 why thou shouldst do treason,
Unless to dub121 thee with the name of traitor.
If that same demon that hath gulled122 thee thus
Should with his lion gait123 walk the whole world,
He might return to vasty Tartar124 back,
And tell the legions125 'I can never win
A soul so easy126 as that Englishman's.'
O, how hast thou with jealousy127 infected
The sweetness of affiance!128 Show men dutiful?
Why, so didst thou. Seem they grave and learned?
Why, so didst thou. Come they of noble family?
Why, so didst thou. Seem they religious?
Why, so didst thou. Or are they spare132 in diet,
Free from gross passion133 or of mirth or anger,
Constant in spirit134, not swerving with the blood,
Garnished and decked in modest complement135,
Not working with the eye without the ear136,
And but in purged137 judgement trusting neither?
Such and so finely bolted138 didst thou seem:
And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot,
To mark the full-fraught140 man and best indued
With some suspicion. I will weep for thee,
For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like
To Exeter
Another fall of man.143-- Their faults are open.
Arrest them to the answer of144 the law,
And God acquit them of their practices.145
EXETER I arrest thee of high treason,by the name of146
Richard Earl of Cambridge.-- I arrest thee of high treason,
by the name of Henry Lord Scroop of Masham.-- I arrest
thee of high treason, by the name of Thomas Grey, knight, of
Northumberland.
SCROOP Our purposes God justly hath discovered151,
And I repent my fault more than my death,
Which I beseech your highness to forgive,
Although my body pay the price of it.
CAMBRIDGE For me, the gold of France did not seduce,
Although I did admit it as a motive
The sooner to effect what I intended.157
But God be thanked for prevention,
Which I in sufferance159 heartily will rejoice,
Beseeching God and you to pardon me.
GREY Never did faithful subject more rejoice
At the discovery of most dangerous treason
Than I do at this hour joy o'er myself,
Prevented from a damned enterprise.
My fault, but not my body, pardon, sovereign.
KING HENRY V God quit166 you in his mercy! Hear your sentence:
You have conspired against our royal person,
Joined with an enemy proclaimed168 and from his coffers
Received the golden earnest169 of our death,
Wherein you would have sold your king to slaughter,
His princes and his peers to servitude,
His subjects to oppression and contempt
And his whole kingdom into desolation.173
Touching our person174, seek we no revenge,
But we our kingdom's safety must so tender175,
Whose ruin you have sought, that to her laws
We do deliver you. Get you therefore hence,
Poor miserable wretches, to your death:
The taste whereof, God of his mercy give
You patience to endure, and true repentance
Of all your dear181 offences!-- Bear them hence.--
Exeunt [Cambridge, Scroop and Grey, guarded]
Now, lords, for France: the enterprise whereof
Shall be to you, as us, like glorious.183
We doubt not of a fair184 and lucky war,
Since God so graciously hath brought to light
This dangerous treason lurking in our way
To hinder our beginnings. We doubt not now
But every rub188 is smoothed on our way.
Then forth, dear countrymen. Let us deliver
Our puissance190 into the hand of God,
Putting it straight in expedition.191
Cheerly192 to sea, the signs of war advance:
No King of England, if not King of France.
Flourish [Exeunt]
[Act 2 Scene 3]
running scene 4
Enter Pistol, Nym, Bardolph, Boy and Hostess [Quickly]
HOSTESS QUICKLY Prithee, honey-sweet husband, let me bring1
thee to Staines.2
PISTOL No, for my manly heart doth yearn.3
Bardolph, be blithe4: Nym, rouse thy vaunting veins:
Boy, bristle5 thy courage up, for Falstaff he is dead,
And we must earn6 therefore.
BARDOLPH Would I were with him, wheresome'er he is, either
in heaven or in hell.
HOSTESS QUICKLY Nay, sure, he's not in hell: he's in Arthur's9
bosom, if ever man went to Arthur's bosom. A10 made a finer
end and went away an11 it had been any christom child. A
parted e'en12 just between twelve and one, e'en at the turning
o'th'tide. For after I saw him fumble with the sheets and play
with flowers14 and smile upon his fingers' end, I knew there
was but one way, for his nose was as sharp as a pen15 on a table
of green fields. 'How now, Sir John?' quoth I. 'What, man? Be
o'good cheer.' So a cried out, 'God, God, God!' three or four
times. Now I, to comfort him, bid him a should not think of
God; I hoped there was no need to trouble himself with any
such thoughts yet. So a bade me lay more clothes20 on his feet.
I put my hand into the bed and felt them, and they were as
cold as any stone. Then I felt to his knees, and so up-peered
and upward, and all was as cold as any stone.23
NYM They say he cried out of24 sack.
HOSTESS QUICKLY Ay, that a did.
BARDOLPH And of women.
HOSTESS QUICKLY Nay, that a did not.
BOY Yes, that a did, and said they were devils incarnate.28
HOSTESS QUICKLY A could never abide carnation29, 'twas a colour
he never liked.
BOY A said once the devil would have him about31 women.
HOSTESS QUICKLY A did in some sort, indeed, handle32 women, but
then he was rheumatic33, and talked of the whore of Babylon.
BOY Do you not remember, a saw a flea stick upon34
Bardolph's nose, and a said it was a black soul burning35
in hell?
BARDOLPH Well, the fuel37 is gone that maintained that fire:
that's all the riches I got in his service.
NYM Shall we shog?39 The king will be gone from<
br />
Southampton.
PISTOL Come, let's away.-- My love, give me thy lips.
Kisses her
Look to my chattels and my movables.42
Let senses rule.43 The world is 'pitch and pay',
Trust none,
For oaths45 are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes,
And hold-fast is the only dog.46 My duck,
Therefore, Caveto47 be thy counsellor.
Go, clear thy crystals.48 Yoke-fellows in arms,
Let us to France, like horse-leeches49, my boys,
To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck!
BOY And that's but unwholesome food they say.
PISTOL Touch her soft mouth, and march.
Kisses her
BARDOLPH Farewell, hostess.
NYM I cannot kiss, that is the humour of it. But, adieu.
PISTOL Let housewifery55 appear. Keep close, I thee command.
HOSTESS QUICKLY Farewell. Adieu.
Exeunt [separately]
[Act 2 Scene 4]
running scene 5
Flourish. Enter the French King, the Dauphin, the Dukes of Berri and Brittany, [the Constable and others]
FRENCH KING Thus comes the English with full power upon us,
And more than carefully it us concerns2
To answer royally in our defences.
Therefore the Dukes of Berri and of Brittany,
Of Brabant and of Orleans, shall make forth,
And you, Prince Dauphin, with all swift dispatch6
To line7 and new repair our towns of war
With men of courage and with means defendant8,
For England his approaches9 makes as fierce
As waters to the sucking of a gulf.10
It fits us11 then to be as provident
As fear may teach us, out of late examples12
Left by the fatal and neglected13 English
Upon our fields.
DAUPHIN My most redoubted15 father,
It is most meet16 we arm us gainst the foe,
For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom,
Though18 war nor no known quarrel were in question,
But that defences, musters19, preparations,
Should be maintained, 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-dance26,
For, my good liege, she is so idly27 kinged,
Her sceptre28 so fantastically borne
By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous29 youth,
That fear attends30 her not.
CONSTABLE O, peace, Prince Dauphin!
You are too much mistaken in this king.
Question your grace the late33 ambassadors,
With what great state34 he heard their embassy,
How well supplied with noble counsellors,
How modest36 in exception, and withal
How terrible37 in constant resolution,
And you shall find his vanities forespent38
Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus39,
Covering discretion with a coat of folly;
As gardeners do with ordure41 hide those roots
That shall first spring and be most delicate.
DAUPHIN Well, 'tis not so, my lord high constable.
But though44 we think it so, it is no matter.
In cases of defence 'tis best to weigh45
The enemy more mighty than he seems,
So the proportions of defence are filled47,
Which of a weak and niggardly projection48
Doth, like a miser, spoil his coat with scanting49
A little cloth.
FRENCH KING Think we51 King Harry strong,
And, princes, look you52 strongly arm to meet him.
The kindred of him hath been fleshed53 upon us,
And he is bred out of that bloody strain54
That haunted55 us in our familiar paths.
Witness our too much memorable shame
When Crecy battle fatally was struck57,
And all our princes captived by the hand
Of that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales,
Whiles that his mountain60 sire, on mountain standing,
Up in the air, crowned with the golden sun,
Saw his heroical seed62, and smiled to see him
Mangle63 the work of nature and deface
The patterns64 that by God and by French fathers
Had twenty years been made. This65 is a stem
Of that victorious stock, and let us fear
The native67 mightiness and fate of him.
Enter a Messenger
MESSENGER Ambassadors from Harry King of England
Do crave admittance to your majesty.
FRENCH KING We'll give them present70 audience. Go, and bring them.
[Exeunt Messenger and others]
You see this chase is hotly followed71, friends.
DAUPHIN Turn head72, and stop pursuit, for coward dogs
Most spend their mouths73 when what they seem to threaten
Runs far before them. Good my sovereign,
Take up the English short75, and let them know
Of what a monarchy you are the head.
Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin
As self-neglecting.78
Enter Exeter [and others]
FRENCH KING From our brother of England?
EXETER From him, and thus he greets your majesty.
He wills81 you, in the name of God Almighty,
That you divest82 yourself and lay apart
The borrowed glories83 that by gift of heaven,
By law of nature and of nations, longs84
To him and to his heirs, namely, the crown
And all wide-stretched86 honours that pertain
By custom and the ordinance of times87
Unto the crown of France. That you may know
'Tis no sinister89 nor no awkward claim,
Picked from the worm-holes90 of long-vanished days,
Nor from the dust of old oblivion raked,
He sends you this most memorable line92,
Gives a paper
In every branch truly demonstrative;
Willing you overlook this pedigree.
And when you find him evenly derived95
From his most famed of famous ancestors,
Edward the Third, he bids you then resign
Your crown and kingdom, indirectly98 held
From him the native99 and true challenger.
FRENCH KING Or else what follows?
EXETER Bloody constraint.101 For if you hide the crown
Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it:
Therefore in fierce tempest is he coming,
In thunder and in earthquake, like a Jove104,
That, if requiring105 fail, he will compel,
And bids you, in the bowels106 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 head109
Turning the widows' tears, the orphans' cries
The dead men's blood, the pining maidens' groans,
For husbands, fathers and betrothed lovers,
That shall be swallowed in this controversy.
This is his claim, his threatening and my message --
Unless the dauphin be in presence here,
To whom expressly I bring greeting too.
FRENCH KING For us, we will consider of this further:
Tomorrow shall you bear our full intent
Back to our brother of England.
DAUPHIN For the dauphin,
I stand here for him. What to him from England?
EXETER Scorn and defiance, slight122 regard, contempt,
And anything that may not misbecome123
The mighty sender, doth he prize you at.124
Thus says my king: an if125 your father's highness
Do not, in grant of all demands at large126,
Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his majesty,
He'll call you to so hot an answer of it,
That caves and womby129 vaultages of France
Shall chide your trespass and return your mock
In second accent131 of his ordinance.
DAUPHIN Say, if my father render fair return132,
It is against my will, for I desire
Nothing but odds134 with England. To that end,
As matching to his youth and vanity,
I did present him with the Paris balls.
EXETER He'll make your Paris Louvre137 shake for it,
Were it the mistress-court138 of mighty Europe.
And be assured, you'll find a diff'rence,
As we his subjects have in wonder found,
Between the promise of his greener days141
And these he masters142 now. Now he weighs time
Even to the utmost grain: that you shall read143
In your own losses, if he stay in France.
FRENCH KING Tomorrow shall you know our mind at full.
Flourish
EXETER Dispatch us with all speed, lest that our king
Come here himself to question our delay;
For he is footed148 in this land already.
FRENCH KING You shall be soon dispatched with fair conditions:
A night is but small breath150 and little pause
To answer matters of this consequence.
Flourish. Exeunt
[Act 3]
Enter Chorus
CHORUS Thus with imagined wing1 our swift scene flies
In motion of no less celerity2
Than that of thought. Suppose that you have seen
The well-appointed4 king at Dover pier
Embark his royalty5, and his brave fleet
With silken streamers6, the young Phoebus fanning.
Play with7 your fancies, and in them behold
Upon the hempen tackle8 ship-boys climbing;
Hear the shrill whistle9 which doth order give
To sounds confused. Behold the threaden10 sails,
Borne with th'invisible and creeping wind,
Draw12 the huge bottoms through the furrowed sea,
Breasting the lofty surge.13 O, do but think
You stand upon the rivage14 and behold
A city on th'inconstant billows15 dancing;
For so appears this fleet majestical,
Holding due course to Harfleur.17 Follow, follow.
Grapple18 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 pith21 and puissance,
For who is he, whose chin is but enriched22
With one appearing hair, that will not follow
These culled24 and choice-drawn cavaliers to France?
Work25, work your thoughts, and therein see a siege:
Behold the ordnance26 on their carriages,
With fatal mouths gaping on girded27 Harfleur.