GOWER. I think it be.

FLU. By Saint Tavy, 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.

GOWER. 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 Saint Tavy, he will mantain his argument as well as any military man in the 'orld in the disciplines of the pristine wars of the Romans.

Enter MACMORRIS and JAMY, L. 1 E.

JAMY. I say, gud-day, Captain Fluellen.

FLU. God-den to your worship, goot Captain Jamy.

GOWER. How now, Captain Macmorris? have you quit the mines? have the pioneers given o'er?

the

MAC. By Saint Patrick, tish ill done: the work ish give over, trumpet sound the retreat. By my hand I swear, and my father's soul, the work ish ill done; it ish give over; I would have blowed up the town. 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 disciplines? that is the point.

JAMY. It sall be vary 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; the day is hot, and the weather, and the wars, and the king, and the dukes: it is no time to discourse. The town is beseeched, and the trumpet calls us to the breach; and we talk, and, s'death, do nothing; 'tis shame for us all: by Saint Patrick, 'tis shame 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.

JAMY. By the mess, ere these eyes of mine take themselves to slumber, aile do gude service, or aile ligge i' the grund for it; ay, or go to death; and aile pay it as valorously as I may, that sall 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, under your corrections, there is not many of your nation

MAC. Of my nation? What ish my nation? ish it a villain, and a bastard, and a knave, and a rascal? What ish my nation? Who talks of my nation?

FLU. Look you, if you take the matter otherwise than is meant, Captain Macmorris, peradventure I shall think you do not use me with affability as in discretion you ought to use me, look you; being as goot a man as yourself, both in the disciplines 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: s'blood, I will cut off your head

GOWER. Gentlemen, both, you will mistake each other. (a parley sounded) The town sounds a parley.

FLU. Captain Macmorris, when there is more better opportunity to be required, look you, I will be so bold as to tell you, I know the disciplines of war; and there is an end. [Exeunt, L. 1 E.

SCENE V.-Before the walls of Harfleur. ENGLISH SOLDIERS L.

KING

HENRY C. GOVERNOR OF TOWN appears before gate with a flag of truce.*

KING. How yet resolves the governor of the town?
This is the latest parle we will admit:
Therefore to our best mercy give yourselves;

Or, like to men proud of destruction,

Defy us to the 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 infante.
What reign 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 headly murther, spoil and villany.

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 dashed to the walls;
Your naked infants spitted upon pikes;

Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confus'd
Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry
At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen.
What says you? will you yield, and this avoid?
Gov. Our expectation hath this day an end:

The dauphin, whom of succors we entreated,
Returns us-that his powers are yet not ready
To raise so great a siege. Therefore, great 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.

KING. 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 will retire to Calais-

*Whiles at last thei bette the towne toures their,
And what the Kyng with faggottes that there were,
And his connyng werching under the wall,
With is Gunes castyng thei made ye toure to fall.

The Chronicle of Hardyng, ccxiii. Chapiter.

To-night in Harfleur we will be your guest-
To-morrow for the march are we address'd.

31

KING HENRY and EXETER ascend run, followed by the English army. They pass through the city gates. Music.

SCENE VI.-Interior of the French Palace at Rouen.

Enter KING CHARLES,* the DAUPHIN, the DUKE OF BOURBON, the CONSTABLE OF FRANCE, the DUKE OF ORLEANS, and others, R.

CHARLES. 'Tis certain he hath passed the river Somme.
CONST. 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.
BOUR. 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.

CONST. Dieu de battailles ! Where they this mettle ?
CHARLES. Where is Montjoy, the herald? Speed him hence;
Let him greet England with our sharp defiance.
Up, princes! and with spirit of honor edged,
More sharper than your swords-hie to the field!
Charles De-la-bret, high constable of France,
You, Dukes of Orleans, Bourbon and Berry,
Alençon, Brabant, Bar, and Burgundy-

CONST.

High dukes, great princes, barons, lords and knights,
For your great seats, now quit you of great shames,
Bar Harry England, that sweeps through our land
With pennons painted in the blood of Harfleur;
Rush on his host as doth the melted snow
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

Bring him our prisoner.

This becomes the great.
Sorry am I his numbers are so few,

His soldiers sick and famished 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.
CHARLES. 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.

DAUPH. Not so; I do beseech your majesty-
CHARLES. 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 KING and DAUPHIN, R., and others L.

*The French King being at Roan, and hearing that the King of England had * * ** And so Mountpassed the water of Some was not a little discontente. joy, King at Armes, was sent to the King of England, to defye him as the enemie of France.-Stowe,

SCENE VII.-The English camp in Picardy.*

Enter GOWER, L. 3 E., and FLUELLEN, R. 2 E., meeting, c.

GOWER. How now, Captain Fluellen? Come you from the bridge? FLU. I assure you there is very excellent services committed at the pridge.

GOWER. Is the Duke of Exeter safe?

FLU. 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 (Heaven be praised and plessed!) any hurt in the 'orld; but keeps the pridge most valiantly, with excellent disciplines. There is an ensign 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 'orld; but I did see him do gallant service.

GOWER. What do you call him?

FLU. He is called Ancient Pistol.
GOWER. I know him not.

Enter PISTOL, R. 2 E.

FLU. Do you not know him? Here is the man.
PISTOL. Captain, I thee beseech to do me favors;

The Duke of Exeter doth love thee well.

FLU. Ay, I praise Got; 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

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 inconstant, and variations, and mutibilities; 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 fortune: Fortune, look you, is an excellent moral. PISTOL. Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him;

For he hath stol'n a pax, and hanged must 'a be.†

A damned death?

Let gallows gape for dog, let man go free,
And let not hemp his windpipe 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 breath be cut

* brake the brydge, to

Then the dolphin and other lordes of Fraunce * lette ye kyng of his passage over ye water of Sum Wherefore he was constrayned to drawe towarde Picardy, and so pass by the ryver of Peron, whereof the Frenshimen beynge ware assembled and lodged them at certayne townes named Agyncourt, Rolandcourt, and Blanzy, with all the power of Fraunce.-Fabyan's Chronicles.

After his landing at Caur, Henry issued a proclamation, prohibiting his soldiers -on pain of death-from taking anything out of any church, or lying violent_hands upon priests, women, or any such as should be without weapons or armor and unable to make resistance.-Holinshed.

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.

PISTOL. 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.

PISTOL. Die and be damned, and figo for thy friendship.

FLU. It is well.

PISTOL. The fig of Spain!

FLU. Very good.

[Exit PISTOL, L. 2 E.

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

FLU. I'll assure you, 'a uttered 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.

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 great commanders' names, and they will teach you by rote, where service was 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 can 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, BEDFORD, WESTMORELAND, LORDS and SOLDIERS, L. 4 E.

FLU. Got pless your majesty.

KING. HOW now, Fluellen ? cam'st thou from the bridge?

FLU. Ay, 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! 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.

KING. 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 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 bubuckles, 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.*

KING. We would have all such offenders so cut off; "and we give ex

* Yet in this great necessitie the poor people of the countrie were not spoiled, nor anie thing taken of them without payment, nor any outrage or offence doone by the Englishmen except one, which was that of a souldiour took a mix out of a church, for which he was apprehended, and the king not once remooved till the box was restored, and the offender strangled -Holinshed.