Fr. King. 'Tis certain he hath pass'd the river Somme.
Con. And if he be not fought withal, my lord,[4932]
 Let us not live in France; let us quit all,
 And give our vineyards to a barbarous people.
Dau. O Dieu vivant! shall a few sprays of us,5
 The emptying of our fathers' luxury,[4933]
 Our scions, put in wild and savage stock,[4934]
 Spirt up so suddenly into the clouds,[4935]
 And overlook their grafters?[4936]
Bour. Normans, but bastard Normans, Norman bastards![4937]10
 Mort de ma vie! if they march along[4938]
 Unfought withal, but I will sell my dukedom,
 To buy a slobbery and a dirty farm[4939]
 In that nook-shotten isle of Albion.[4940]
Con. Dieu de batailles! where have they this mettle?[4941]15
 Is not their climate foggy, raw and dull,
 On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale,[4942]
 Killing their fruit with frowns? Can sodden water,
 A drench for sur-rein'd jades, their barley-broth,
 Decoct their cold blood to such valiant heat?20
 And shall our quick blood, spirited with wine,
 Seem frosty? O, for honour of our land,
 Let us not hang like roping icicles[4943]
 Upon our houses' thatch, whiles a more frosty people[4944]
 Sweat drops of gallant youth in our rich fields!—[4945]25
 Poor we may call them in their native lords.[4946]
Dau. By faith and honour,
 Our madams mock at us, and plainly say
 Our mettle is bred out and they will give
 Their bodies to the lust of English youth30
 To new-store France with bastard warriors.
Bour. They bid us to the English dancing-schools,[4937]
 And teach lavoltas high and swift corantos;[4947]
 Saying our grace is only in our heels,
 And that we are most lofty runaways.35
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:[4948]
 Charles Delabreth, high constable of France;[4949]40
 You Dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and of Berri,
 Alençon, Brabant, Bar, and Burgundy;
 Jaques Chatillon, Rambures, Vaudemont,
 Beaumont, Grandpré, Roussi, and Fauconberg,[4950]
 Foix, Lestrale, Bouciqualt, and Charolois;[4951]45
 High dukes, great princes, barons, lords and knights,[4952]
 For your great seats now quit you of great shames.[4953]
 Bar Harry England, that sweeps through our land
 With pennons painted in the blood of Harfleur:
 Rush on his host, as doth the melted snow50
 Upon the valleys, 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[4954]
 Bring him our prisoner.
Con. This becomes the great.55
 Sorry am I his numbers are so few,
 His soldiers sick and famish'd in their march,
 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 ransom.[4955]60
Fr. King. Therefore, lord constable, haste on Montjoy,
 And let him say to England that we send
 To know what willing ransom he will give.
 Prince Dauphin, you shall stay with us in Rouen.[4954]
Dau. Not so, I do beseech your majesty.65
Fr. King. Be patient, for you shall remain with us.
 Now forth, lord constable and princes all,
 And quickly bring us word of England's fall. [Exeunt.

Scene VI. The English camp in Picardy.

Enter Gower and Fluellen, meeting.[4956]

Gow. How now, Captain Fluellen! come you from the bridge?
Flu. I assure you, there is very excellent services[4957]
 committed at the bridge.
Gow. Is the Duke of Exeter safe?5
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 living,[4958]
 and my uttermost power: he is not—God be praised and[4959]
 blessed!—any hurt in the world; but keeps the bridge most[4960]10
 valiantly, with excellent discipline. There is an aunchient[4961]
 lieutenant there at the pridge, I think in my very conscience[4961]
 he is as valiant a man as Mark Antony; and he is
 a man of no estimation in the world; but I did see him do
 as gallant service.[4962]15
Gow. What do you call him?
Flu. He is called Aunchient Pistol.
Gow. I know him not.

Enter Pistol.

Flu. Here is the man.[4963]
Pist. Captain, I thee beseech to do me favours:[4964]20
 The Duke of Exeter doth love thee well.[4964]
Flu. Ay, I praise God; and I have merited some love
 at his hands.
Pist. Bardolph, a soldier, firm and sound of heart,[4965]
 And of buxom valour, hath, by cruel fate,[4965][4966]25
 And giddy Fortune's furious fickle wheel,[4965]
 That goddess blind,[4965][4967]
 That stands upon the rolling restless stone—[4965][4967][4968]
Flu. By your patience, Aunchient Pistol. Fortune is
 painted blind, with a muffler afore her eyes, to signify to[4969]30
 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[4970]
 her foot, look you, is fixed upon a spherical stone, which rolls,
 and rolls, and rolls: in good truth, the poet makes a most[4971]35
 excellent description of it: Fortune is an excellent moral.[4971][4972]
Pist. Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him;[4973]
 For he hath stolen a pax, and hanged must a' be:[4973][4974]
 A damned death![4973][4975]
 Let gallows gape for dog; let man go free[4973]40
 And let not hemp his wind-pipe suffocate:[4973]
 But Exeter hath given the doom of death[4973]
 For pax of little price.[4973][4974]
 Therefore, go speak; the duke will hear thy voice;[4973]
 And let not Bardolph's vital thread be cut[4973]45
 With edge of penny cord and vile reproach:[4973]
 Speak, captain, for his life, and I will thee requite.[4973]
Flu. Aunchient Pistol, I do partly understand your
 meaning.
Pist. Why then, rejoice therefore.50
Flu. 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;[4976]
 for discipline ought to be used.[4976]
Pist. Die and be damn'd! and figo for thy friendship![4977]55
Flu. It is well.
Pist. The fig of Spain! [Exit.
Flu. Very good.
Gow. Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal; I remember
 him now; a bawd, a cutpurse.60
Flu. I'll assure you, a' uttered as brave words at the[4978]
 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.
Gow. Why, 'tis a gull, a fool, a rogue, that now and65
 then goes to the wars, to grace himself at his return into
 London under the form of a soldier. And such fellows are[4979]
 perfect in the great commanders' names: and they will learn[4980]
 you by rote where services were done; at such and such a
 sconce, at such a breach, at such a convoy; who came off70
 bravely, who was shot, who disgraced, what terms the enemy
 stood on; and this they con perfectly in the phrase of war,[4981]
 which they trick up with new-tuned oaths: and what a[4982]
 beard of the general's cut and a horrid suit of the camp[4983]
 will do among foaming bottles and ale-washed wits, is wonderful75
 to be thought on. But you must learn to know such
 slanders of the age, or else you may be marvellously mistook.
Flu. 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 him80
 my mind. [Drum heard.] Hark you, the king is coming,[4984]
 and I must speak with him from the pridge.[4985]

Drum and Colours. Enter King Henry, Gloucester, and Soldiers.[4986]

God pless your majesty!
K. Hen. How now, Fluellen! camest thou from the[4987]
 bridge?
Flu. Ay, so please your majesty. The Duke of Exeter85
 has very gallantly maintained the pridge: the French is gone
 off, look you; and there is gallant and most prave passages:
 marry, th' 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.90
K. Hen. What men have you lost, Fluellen?
Flu. The perdition of th' athversary hath been very
 great, reasonable great: marry, for my part, I think the[4988]
 duke hath lost never a man, but one that is like to be[4989]
 executed for robbing a church, one Bardolph, if your majesty95
 know the man: his face is all bubukles, and whelks, and[4990]
 knobs, and flames o' fire: and his lips blows at his nose,[4991]
 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:[4992]100
 and we give express charge, that in our marches through[4992]
 the country, there be nothing compelled from the villages,[4992]
 nothing taken but paid for, none of the French upbraided[4992]
 or abused in disdainful language; for when lenity and[4992][4993]
 cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentler gamester is the[4992]105
 soonest winner.[4992]

Tucket. 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.110
Mont. Thus says my king: Say thou to Harry of[4994]
 England: Though we seemed dead, we did but sleep:[4994][4995]
 advantage is a better soldier than rashness. Tell him we could[4994]
 have rebuked him at Harfleur, but that we thought not[4994]
 good to bruise an injury till it were full ripe: now we[4994]115
 speak upon our cue, and our voice is imperial: England[4994][4996]
 shall repent his folly, see his weakness, and admire our[4994]
 sufferance. Bid him therefore consider of his ransom;[4994]
 which must proportion the losses we have borne, the[4994]
 subjects we have lost, the disgrace we have digested; which[4994]120
 in weight to re-answer, his pettiness would bow under.[4994]
 For our losses, his exchequer is too poor; for the effusion[4994]
 of our blood, the muster of his kingdom too faint a[4994]
 number; and for our disgrace, his own person, kneeling at our[4994]
 feet, but a weak and worthless satisfaction. To this add[4994]125
 defiance: and tell him, for conclusion, he hath betrayed his[4994]
 followers, whose condemnation is pronounced. So far my[4994]
 king and master; so much my office.[4994]
K. Hen. What is thy name? I know thy quality.
Mont. Montjoy.130
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 much135
 Unto an enemy of craft and vantage,
 My people are with sickness much enfeebled,
 My numbers lessened, and those few I have
 Almost no better than so many French;
 Who when they were in health, I tell thee, herald,[4997]140
 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;145
 My ransom is this frail and worthless trunk,
 My army but a weak and sickly guard;
 Yet, God before, tell him we will come on,
 Though France himself and such another neighbour
 Stand in our way. There's for thy labour, Montjoy.[4998]150
 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.
 The sum of all our answer is but this:155
 We would not seek a battle, as we are;
 Nor, as we are, we say we will not shun it:[4999]
 So tell your master.
Mont. I shall deliver so. Thanks to your highness.

[Exit.[5000]

Glou. I hope they will not come upon us now.160
K. Hen. We are in God's hand, brother, not in theirs.
 March to the bridge; it now draws toward night:
 Beyond the river we'll encamp ourselves,
 And on to-morrow bid them march away. [Exeunt.

Scene VII. The French camp, near Agincourt.[5001]

Enter the Constable of France, the Lord Rambures, Orleans, Dauphin, with others.

Con. Tut! I have the best armour of the world.
 Would it were day![5002]
Orl. You have an excellent armour; but let my horse
 have his due.
Con. It is the best horse of Europe.5
Orl. Will it never be morning?
Dau. My Lord of Orleans, and my lord high constable,
 you talk of horse and armour?[5003]
Orl. You are as well provided of both as any prince in
 the world.10
Dau. What a long night is this! I will not change my
 horse with any that treads but on four pasterns. Ça, ha![5004]
 he bounds from the earth, as if his entrails were hairs; le[5005][5006]
 cheval volant, the Pegasus, chez les narines de feu! When[5006][5007]
 I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the15
 earth sings when he touches it; the basest horn of his hoof
 is more musical than the pipe of Hermes.
Orl. He's of the colour of the nutmeg.[5008]
Dau. And of the heat of the ginger. It is a beast for
 Perseus: he is pure air and fire; and the dull elements of20
 earth and water never appear in him, but only in patient
 stillness while his rider mounts him: he is indeed a horse;
 and all other jades you may call beasts.[5009]
Con. Indeed, my lord, it is a most absolute and
 excellent horse.25
Dau. It is the prince of palfreys; his neigh is like
 the bidding of a monarch and his countenance enforces
 homage.
Orl. No more, cousin.
Dau. Nay, the man hath no wit that cannot, from the30
 rising of the lark to the lodging of the lamb, vary deserved
 praise on my palfrey: it is a theme as fluent as the sea: turn[5010]
 the sands into eloquent tongues, and my horse is argument
 for them all: 'tis a subject for a sovereign to reason on, and
 for a sovereign's sovereign to ride on; and for the world,35
 familiar to us and unknown to lay apart their particular[5011]
 functions and wonder at him. I once writ a sonnet in his
 praise, and began thus: 'Wonder of nature,'—
Orl. I have heard a sonnet begin so to one's mistress.
Dau. Then did they imitate that which I composed to40
 my courser, for my horse is my mistress.
Orl. Your mistress bears well.
Dau. Me well; which is the prescript praise and[5012]
 perfection of a good and particular mistress.
Con. Nay, for methought yesterday your mistress[5013]45
 shrewdly shook your back.
Dau. So perhaps did yours.
Con. Mine was not bridled.
Dau. O then belike she was old and gentle; and you
 rode, like a kern of Ireland, your French hose off, and in50
 your strait strossers.[5014]
Con. You have good judgement in horsemanship.
Dau. Be warned by me, then: they that ride so and
 ride not warily, fall into foul bogs. I had rather have my
 horse to my mistress.55
Con. I had as lief have my mistress a jade.
Dau. I tell thee, constable, my mistress wears his own[5015]
 hair.
Con. I could make as true a boast as that, if I had a
 sow to my mistress.60
Dau. 'Le chien est retourné à son propre vomissement,
 et la truie lavée au bourbier:' thou makest use of any thing.[5016]
Con. Yet do I not use my horse for my mistress, or
 any such proverb so little kin to the purpose.
Ram. My lord constable, the armour that I saw in65
 your tent to-night, are those stars or suns upon it?
Con. Stars, my lord.
Dau. Some of them will fall to-morrow, I hope.
Con. And yet my sky shall not want.
Dau. That maybe, for you bear a many superfluously,[5017]70
 and 'twere more honour some were away.
Con. Even as your horse bears your praises; who would
 trot as well, were some of your brags dismounted.
Dau. Would I were able to load him with his desert!
 Will it never be day? I will trot to-morrow a mile, and75
 my way shall be paved with English faces.
Con. I will not say so, for fear I should be faced out
 of my way: but I would it were morning; for I would
 fain be about the ears of the English.
Ram. Who will go to hazard with me for twenty[5018]80
 prisoners?[5019]
Con. You must first go yourself to hazard, ere you
 have them.
Dau. 'Tis midnight; I'll go arm myself. [Exit.
Orl. The Dauphin longs for morning.[5020]85
Ram. He longs to eat the English.
Con. I think he will eat all he kills.
Orl. By the white hand of my lady, he's a gallant prince.
Con. Swear by her foot, that she may tread out the oath.
Orl. He is simply the most active gentleman of France.90
Con. Doing is activity; and he will still be doing.
Orl. He never did harm, that I heard of.
Con. Nor will do none to-morrow: he will keep that
 good name still.
Orl. I know him to be valiant.95
Con. I was told that by one that knows him better
 than you.
Orl. What's he?
Con. Marry, he told me so himself; and he said he
 cared not who knew it.100
Orl. He needs not; it is no hidden virtue in him.[5021]
Con. By my faith, sir, but it is; never any body saw it[5021]
 but his lackey: 'tis a hooded valour; and when it appears,[5021]
 it will bate.[5021]
Orl. Ill will never said well.[5021]105
Con. I will cap that proverb with 'There is flattery in[5021]
 friendship.'[5021]
Orl. And I will take up that with, 'Give the devil his due.'[5021]
Con. Well placed: there stands your friend for the devil:[5021]
 have at the very eye of that proverb with 'A pox of[5021]110
 the devil.'[5021]
Orl. You are the better at proverbs, by how much[5021]
 'A fool's bolt is soon shot.'[5021]
Con. You have shot over.[5021]
Orl. 'Tis not the first time you were overshot.[5021]115

Enter a Messenger.