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The English camp in Picardy.
[Enter GOWER and FLUELLEN, meeting]
GOWER
How now Captain Fluellen, come you from the bridge?
FLUELLEN
I assure you, there is very excellent services committed at the bridge.
GOWER
Is the Duke of Exeter safe?
FLUELLEN
The Duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as Agamemnon, and a man that I love and
honor with my soul, and my heart, and my duty, and my life, and my living,
and my uttermost power. he is not, God be praised and blessed, any hurt in
the world, but keeps the bridge most valiantly, with excellent discipline.
There is an aunchient lieutenant there at the pridge, I think in my very
conscience he is as valiant a man as Mark Antony, and he is a man of no
estimation in the world, but did see him do as gallant service.
GOWER
What do you call him?
FLUELLEN
He is called Aunchient Pistol.
GOWER
I know him not.
[Enter PISTOL]
FLUELLEN
Here is the man.
PISTOL
Captain, I thee beseech to do me favors: The Duke of Exeter doth love thee
well.
FLUELLEN
Aye, I praise God, and I have merited some love at his hands.
PISTOL
Bardolph, a soldier firm and sound of heart, and of buxom valor, hath by
cruel fate, and giddy Fortune's furious fickle wheel, that goddess blind,
that stands upon the rolling restless stone.
FLUELLEN
By your patience, Aunchient Pistol: Fortune is painted blind, with a muffler
afore her eyes, to signify to you, that Fortune is blind; and she is painted
also with a wheel, to signify to you, which is the moral of it, that she is
turning and inconstant, and mutability, and variation: and her foot, look
you, is fixed upon a spherical stone, which rolls, and rolls, and rolls: in
good truth, the poet makes a most excellent description of it: Fortune is an
excellent moral.
PISTOL
Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him: for he hath stolen a pax, and
hanged must he 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 pax 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.
FLUELLEN
Aunchient Pistol, I do partly understand your meaning.
PISTOL
Why then rejoice therefore.
FLUELLEN
Certainly aunchient, it is not a thing to rejoice at: for if, look you, he
were my brother, I would desire the duke to use his good pleasure, and put
him to execution; for discipline ought to be used.
PISTOL
Die, and be damned, and figo for thy friendship.
FLUELLEN
It is well.
PISTOL
The fig of Spain.
[Exit]
FLUELLEN
Very good.
GOWER
Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal, I remember him now: a bawd, a
cutpurse.
FLUELLEN
I'll assure you, he uttered as brave words at the bridge, 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.
GOWER
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 the 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-washed wits, is wonderful to be thought on: But you must learn to
know such slanders of the age, or else you may be marvellously mistook.
FLUELLEN
I tell you what, Captain Gower: I do perceive he is not the man that he
would gladly make show to the world he is: if I find a hole in his coat, I
will tell him my mind: Hark you, the king is coming, and I must speak with
him from the pridge. God pless your majesty.
[Drum and colors. Enter KING HENRY, GLOUCESTER, and Soldiers]
KING HENRY V
How now Fluellen, camest thou from the bridge?
FLUELLEN
Aye, so please your majesty: The Duke of Exeter has very gallantly
maintained the pridge; the French is gone off, look you, and there is
gallant and most prave passages; marry, the athversary was have possession
of the pridge, but he is enforced to retire, and the Duke of Exeter is
master of the pridge: I can tell your majesty, the duke is a prave man.
KING HENRY V
What men have you lost, Fluellen?
FLUELLEN
The perdition of the athversary hath been very great, reasonable great:
marry for my part, I think the duke hath lost never a man, but one that is
like 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 blows 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.
KING HENRY V
We would have all such offenders so cut off: and we give express charge,
that in our marches through the country, there be nothing compelled 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. Enter MONTJOY]
MONTJOY
You know me by my habit.
KING HENRY V
Well then, I know thee: what shall I know of thee?
MONTJOY
My master's mind.
KING HENRY V
Unfold it.
MONTJOY
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 Harflew, 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 ransom, which must proportion
the losses we have borne, the subjects we have lost, the disgrace we have
digested; which in weight to re-answer, 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 betrayed his followers,
whose condemnation is pronounced: So far my king and master; so much my
office.
KING HENRY V
What is thy name? I know thy quality.
MONTJOY
Montjoy.
KING HENRY V
,
, ,
, ,
Thou dost | thy of|fice fair|ly. Turn | thee
back,
,
, ,
, ,
And tell | thy king,| I do | not seek | him now,
, ,
2 , ,
,
But could | be wil|ling to march | on to | Calais,
,
, , ,
,
Without | impeach|ment: for | to say | the sooth,
, ,
, ,
,
Though* 'tis | no wis/dom to | confess | so much
, 2 ,
, ,
,
Unto an | ene|my of | craft and | vantage,
, , 2
, ,
,
My peop/le are with | sickness | much en|feebled,
,
, ,
, ,
My num|bers les|sened: and / those few | I have,
, ,
, , ,
Almost | no bet|ter than / so ma|ny French;
, ,
2 , ,
,
Who when / they were in | health, I | tell thee |
herald,
, . T T
T ,
,
I thought,| upon one pair | of Eng|lish legs
,
, , ,
,
Did march | three French/men. Yet | forgive | me
God,
,
, , ,
,
That I | do brag | thus; This | your air | of
France
,
, ,
, ,
Hath blown | that vice | in me.| I must | repent:
, ,
, , ,
Go there|fore tell | thy mast|er, here | I am;
, , ,
, ,
My rans|om, is | this frail | and worth|less
trunk;
, ,
, , ,
My ar|my, but | a weak | and sick|ly guard:
, ,
, ,
,
Yet God | before,| tell him | we will | come^on,
,
, , ,
, ->
Though France | himself,| and such | anoth|er
neigh||bor
,
2 , ,
2 Tx T T
Stand | in our way.| There's for thy | labor
Montjoy, ??
, ,
, ,
,
Go bid | thy mast|er well | advise | himself.
, 2
, ,
, ,
If we may | pass, we | will: if | we be |
hindered,
, ,
, ,
,
We shall | your taw|ny ground | with your / red
blood
, ,
, T T . T
Discol|or: and / so Mont|joy, fare you well.
, ,
, , ,
The sum | of all | our ans|wer is | but this:
, T T . T ,
,
We would | not seek a bat|tle as | we are,
, ,
, ,
x
Nor as | we are,| we say | we will | not^shun it:
, ,
So tell | your mast|er. \\
MONTJOY
, ,
, , 2 ,
I shall | deliv|er so:| Thanks to your |
highness.
[Exit]
GLOUCESTER
, , ,
, ,
I hope | they will / not come | upon | us now.
KING HENRY V
, 2
T T T
, ,
We are in | God's hand, broth|er, not | in
theirs:
,
, , T
T T
March to | the bridge,| it now | draws toward
night:
, ,
, ,
,
Beyond | the riv|er we'll | encamp | ourselves,
, ,
, , ,
And on | tomor|row bid | them march | away.
[Exeunt]