KING HENRY V.

He wills you, in the name of God Almighty,
That you divest yourself, and lay apart
The borrow'd glories, that, by gift of heaven,
By law of nature, and of nations, 'long
To him, and to his heirs; namely, the crown,
And all wide-stretched honours that pertain,
By custom and the ordinance of times,
Unto the crown of France. That you may know,
Tis no sinister, nor no awkward claim,
Pick'd from the worm-holes of long varnish'd days,
Nor from the dust of old oblivion rak'd,
He sends you this most memorable line,'
[Gives a Paper.

In every branch truly demonstrative;
Willing you, overlook this pedigree;
And, when you find him evenly deriv'd
From his most fam'd of famous ancestors,
Edward the Third, he bids you then resign
Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held
From him the native and true challenger.

Fr. King. Or else what follows?
Exe. Bloody constraint; for if you hide the

crown

Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it;
And therefore in fierce tempest is he coming,
In thunder, and in earthquake, like a Jove :
(That, if requiring fail, he will compel ;)
And bids you, in the bowels 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 head
Turns he the widows' tears, the orphans' cries,
The dead men's blood, the pining maidens' groans,
For husbands, fathers, and betrothed lovers,
That shall be swallow'd in this controversy.
This is his claim, his threat'ning, and my message:
Unless the Dauphin be in presence here,
To whom expressly I bring greeting too.

501

Chor. Thus with imagin'd wing our swift scene

flies,

In motion of no less celerity

Than that of thought. Suppose, that you have seen
The well-appointed king at Hampton pier3
Embark his royalty; and his brave fleet
With silken streamers the

Play with your fancies; and in them behold,
young Phoebus fanning.
Upon the hempen tackle, ship-boys climbing:
Hear the shrill whistle, which doth order give
To sounds confus'd: behold the threaden sails,
Borne with the invisible and creeping wind,
Draw the huge bottoms through the furrow'd sea,
Breasting the lofty surge: O, do but think,
You stand upon the rivage, and behold
A city on the inconstant billows dancing;
For so appears this fleet majestical,
Holding due course to Harfleur. Follow, follow!
And leave your England, as dead midnight, still,
Grapple your minds to sternage of this navy;5
Guarded with grandsires, babies, and old women,
For who is he, whose chin is but enrich'd
Either past, or not arrived to, pith and puissance :
With one appearing hair, that will not follow
These cull'd and choice-drawn cavaliers to France?

Fr. King. For us, we will consider of this fur- Work, work, your thoughts, and therein see a

ther:

To-morrow shall you bear our full intent
Back to our brother England.

Dau.

For the Dauphin, I stand here for him; What to him from England? Exe. Scorn, and defiance; slight regard, con

tempt,

And any thing that may not misbecome
The mighty sender, doth he prize you at
Thus says my king: and, if your father's highness
Do not, in grant of all demands at large,
Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his majesty,
He'll call you to so hot an answer for it,
That caves and womby vaultages of France
Shall chide your trespass, and return your mock

In second accent of his ordnance.

Dau. Say, if my father render fair reply,

It is against my will: for I desire

Nothing but odds with England; to that end,

As matching to his youth and vanity,

I did present him with those Paris balls.

siege:

back;

Behold the ordnance on their carriages,
With fatal mouths gaping on girded Harfleur.
Suppose, the ambassador from the French come
Tells Harry-that the king doth offer him
Katharine his daughter; and with her, to dowry,
Some petty and unprofitable dukedoms.
With linstock now the devilish cannon touches,
The offer likes not: and the nimble gunner
[Alarum; and Chambers go of.
And down goes all before them. Still be kind,
And eke out our performance with your mind."

SCENE I.

rums.

[Exit.

The same. Before Harfleur. Ala-
Enter KING HENRY, EXETER, BED-
FORD, GLOSTER, and Soldiers, with Scaling
Ladders.

K. Hen. Once more unto the breach, dear friends,

once more;

Exe. He'll make your Paris Louvre shake for it, Or close the wall up with our English dead!

Were it the mistress court of mighty Europe:

And, be assur'd, you'll find a difference
(As we, his subjects, have in wonder found,)
Between the promise of his greener days,
And these he masters now; now he weighs time,
Even to the utmost grain; which
In your own losses, if he stay in France.
shall read
you

In peace, there's nothing so becomes a man,
As modest stillness and humility:

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage:
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;

Fr. King. To-morrow shall you know our mind Let it pry through the portage of the head,

at full.

1 Memorable line;' this genealogy; this deduction of his lineage.

2'Shall chide your trespass.' To chide is to resound, to echo.

Like the brass cannon: let the brow o'erwhelm it,
As fearfully, as doth a galled rock

4 Rivage, the bank, or shore; rivage, Fr.

'The

5 To sternage of this navy. The stern, or stern3 The well-appointed king at Hampton pier.' of this passage is, 'Let your minds follow this navy. age, being the hinder part of the ship. The meaning Well-appointed, that is, well furnished with all ne. The stern was anciently synonymous to rudder. cessaries of war. The old copies read 'Dover pier:sterne of a ship, gubernaculum.'-Baret. but the poet himself, and all accounts, and even the Chronicles which he followed, say that the king embarked at Southampton. A minute account still exists among the records of the town; and it is remarkable that a low level plain where the army encamped is now covered by the sea, and called Westport.

strictly speaking, the staff to which the match for firing
6 Linstock' is here put for a match; but it was,
ordnance was fixed.

7 Chambers,' small pieces of ordnance.
8 The portage of the head.' Shakspeare uses port-
gge for loop-holes or port-holes.

1

Boy. 'Would I were in an alehouse in London! I would give all my fame for a pot of ale, and safety,

Flu. Got's plood!--Up to the preaches, you rascals! will you not up to the preaches? [Driving them forward. Pist. Be merciful, great duke, to men of mould! Abate thy rage, abate thy manly rage! Abate thy rage, great duke! Good bawcock, bate thy rage! use lenity, sweet

Nym. These be good humours!-your honour wins bad humours.

[Exeunt NYM, PISTOL, and BARDOLPH, followed by FLUELLEN. Boy. As young as I am, I have observed these

'O'erhang and jutty his confounded base, Still'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.' To jutty is to project; jutties, or jetties, are projecting moles to break the force of the waves. Confounded is neither worn, or wasted, as Johnson tells us; nor destroyed, as Malone infers; but vered, or troubled. Still'd anciently was used for washed much, or long, drowned, surrounded by water: Prolutus.'

2 You noble English.' The folio reads noblish, by mistake; the compositor having taken twice the final syllable ish. Steevens reads noblest. This speech is not in the quartos.

3 Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof." 10 The best men; that is, bravest. So, in the next Mr. Pope took the liberty of altering this word to fetch'd. line, good deeds are brave actions. The sacred writings afford us many instances of its use. 11 Purchase, which anciently signified gain, profit, Ascita et accepta a Græcis, Fet and taken out of was the cant term used for any thing obtained by cheatGreece. It is often coupled with far, as in the expres-ing; as appears by Green's Art of Coneycatching. sions far-fet and dear bought,' 'affectated and far-fet.' 4 Argument is matter, subject. 12 Carry coals. See note on the first scene of Romeo and Juliet.

Ships are contrivances of leather to start two dogs at the same time.

Gow. How now, Captain Macmorris? have you quit the mines? have the pioneers given o'er? Mac. By Chrish la, tish ill done: the work ish give over, the trumpet sound the retreat. By my hand, I swear, and by my father's soul, the work ish ill done; it ish give over: I would have blowed up the town, so Chrish save me, la, in an hour. O, tish ill done, tish ill done; by my hand, tish ill done!

Flu. Captain Macmorris, I peseech you now, will you vouchsafe 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 discipline; that is the point. Jamy. It sall be very 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, so Chrish save me, 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, by Chrish, do nothing; 'tis shame for us all: so God sa' me, '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, so Chrish sa' me, la. Jamy. By the mess, ere theise 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: Mary, I wad full fain heard some question 'tween you tway.

Flu. Captain Macmorris, I think, look you, under your correction, there is not many of your nation

Mac. Of my nation? What ish my nation? ish 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 that 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.

best,)

Defy us to our worst; for, as I am a soldier
(A name, that, in my thoughts, becomes me
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 ;2
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 infants.
What is it then to me, if impious war,
Array'd in flames, like to the prince of fiends,-
Do, with his smirch'd complexion, all fell feats
Enlink'd to waste and desolation?
What is't to me, when you yourselves are cause,
If your pure maidens fall into the hand
Of hot and forcing violation?
What rein 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 deadly murder, 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 dash'd 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 say you? will you yield, and this avoid?
Or, guilty in defence, be thus destroy'd?

Gov. Our expectation hath this day an end:
The Dauphin, whom of succour we entreated,*
Returns us-that his powers are not yet ready
To raise so great a siege. Therefore, dread 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.

K. Henry. Open your gates.-Come, uncle Ex-
eter,

Mac. I do not know you so good a man as my-Go you and enter Harfleur; there remain, self: so Chrish save me, I will cut off your head. Gow. Gentlemen both, you will mistake each

other.

Jamy. Au! that's a foul fault. [A Parley sounded. Gow. 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.

SCENE III. The same.

Before the Gates of Harfleur. The Governor and some Citizens on the Walls; the English Forces below. Enter KING HENRY and his Train.

K. Hen. 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,

1 I shall quit you; that is, I shall, with your permission, requite you; that is, answer you, or interpose with my arguments, as I shall find opportunity.

2 The gates of mercy shall be all shut up. Gray has borrowed this thought in his Elegy:

And shut the gates of mercy on mankind.' 3 Whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace O'erblows the filthy and contagions clouds." To overblow is to drive away, to keep off. Johnson observes that this is a very harsh metaphor.

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'll retire to Calais.
To-night in Harfleur will we be your guest;
To-morrow for the march are we addrest."

[Flourish. The King, &c. enter the Town. SCENE IV.S houen. A Room in the Palace. Enter KATHARINE and ALICE.

Kath. Alice, tu as esté en Angleterre, et tu parles bien le langage.

Alice. Un peu, madame.

Kath. Je te prie, m'enseignez; il faut que j'apprenne à parler. Comment appellez vous la main, en Anglois? Alice. La main? elle est appellée, de hand. Kath. De hand. Et les doigts?

Alice. Les doigts? ma foy, j'oublie les doigts ;

6 Every one must wish with Warburton and Farmer to believe that this scene is an interpolation. Yet as Johnson remarks, the grimaces of the two Frenchwomen, and the odd accent with which they uttered the English, might divert an audience more refined than could be found in the poet's time. There is in it not only the French language, but the French spirit. Alice compliments the princess upon the knowledge of four words, and tells her that she pronounces like the English themselves. The princess suspects no defi

4 Whom of succour we entreated. See A Midsumciency in her instructress, nor the instructress in herself. mer Night's Dream, Act iii. Sc. 1, in a note on the pas-The extraordinary circumstance of introducing a charsage :-'I shall desire you of more acquaintance.' acter speaking French in an English drama was no novelty to our early stage.

3 i. e. prepared.

mais je me souviendray. Les doigts? je pense, qu'ils | sont appellé de fingres; ouy, de fingres.

Kath. La main, de hand; les doigts, de fingres. Je pense, que je suis le bon escolier. J'ay gagné deux mots d'Anglois vistement. Comment appellez vous les ongles?

Alice. Les ongles? les appellons, de nails. Kath. De nails. Escoutez; dites moy, si je parle bien de hand, de fingres, de nails.

Alice. C'est bien dit, madame; il est fort bon
Anglois.

Kath. Dites moy en Anglois, le bras.
Alice. De arm, madame.

Kath. Et le coude.

Alice. De elbow.

Kath. De elbow. Je m'en faitz la répétition de tous les mots, que vous m'avez appris dès à present. Alice. Il est trop difficile, madame, comme je

pense.

Kath. Excusez moy, Alice; escoutez: De hand, de fingre, de nails, de arm, de bilbow.

Alice. De elbow, madame.

Kath. O Seigneur Dieu! je m'en oublie; De elbow. Comment appellez vous le col ?

sin.

Alice. De neck, madame.

Kath. De neck: Et le menton?
Alice. De chin.

Kath. De sin. Le col, de neck: le menton, de

Alice. Ouy. Sauf vostre honneur; en vérité, vous prononcez les mots aussi droict que les natifs d'Angleterre.

Kath. Je ne doute point d'apprendre par la grace de Dieu; et en peu de temps.

Alice. N'avez vous pas déjà oublié ce que je vous ay enseigné ?

Kath. Non, je réciteray à vous promptement. De hand, de fingre, de mails,

Alice. De nails, madame.

Kath. De nails, de arme, de ilbow.
Alice. Sauf vostre honneur, de elbow.

Dau. O Dieu vivant! shall a few sprays of us,—
The emptying of our fathers' luxury,"
Our scions, put in wild and savage stock,
Spirt up so suddenly into the clouds,
And overlook their grafters ?

Bour. Normans, but bastard Normans, Norman
bastards!

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.

Con. Dieu de battailes! where have they this
mettle?

Is not their climate foggy, raw, and dull?
On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale,
Killing their fruit with frowns? Can sodden water,
A drench for sur-rein'd3 jades, their barley broth,
Decoct their cold blood to such valiant heat?
And shall our quick blood, spirited with wine,
Seem frosty? O, for honour of our land,
Let us not hang like roping icicles

Upon our houses' thatch, whiles a more frosty
people

Sweat drops of gallant youth in our rich fields;
Poor-we may call them, in their native lords.
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 youth,
To new-store France with bastard warriors.
Bour. They bid us-to the English dancing-
schools,

And teach lavoltas high, and swift corantos;
Saying, our grace is only in our heels,
And that we are most lofty runaways.

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 edg'd,
More sharper than your swords, hie to the field:
Charles De-la-bret, high constable of France;

Kath. Ainsi dis je; de elbow, de neck, et de sin; You dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and of Berry, Comment appellez vous le pieds et la robe? Alice. De foot, madame; et de con. Kath. De foot et de con? O Seigneur Dieu! ces sont mots de son mauvais, corruptible, grosse, et impudique, et non pour les dames d'honneur d'user; Je ne voudrois prononcer ces mots devant les Seigneurs de France, pour tout le monde. Il faut de foot, et de con, neant-moins. Je reciterai une autre fois ma leçon ensemble: De hand, de fingre, de nails, de arm, de elbow, de neck, de sin, de foot, de con. Alice. Excellent, madame !

Alençon, Brabant, Bar, and Burgundy:
Jaques Chatillion, Rambures, Vaudemont,
Beaumont, Grandpre, Roussi, and Fauconberg,
Foix, Lestrale, Bouciqualt, and Charolois;
High dukes, great princes, barons, lords, and
knights,

Kath. C'est assez pour une fois; allons nous à
disner.
[Exeunt.
SCENE V. The same. Another Room in the
same. Enter the French King, the Dauphin,
Duke of Bourbon, the Constable of France, and

others.

1 Luxury for lust.

To't, Luxury, pellmell, for I lack soldiers.'-Lear. 2 Nook-shotten isle. Shotten signifies any thing projected: so nook-sholten isle is an isle that shoots out into capes, promontories, and necks of land, the very figure of Great Britain. Randle Holme, in his Accedence of Armory, p. 358, has Querke, a nook-shotten pane' [of glass.]

3A drench for sur-rein'd jades,' Sur-rein'd is probably over-ridden or over-strained. Steevens observes that it is common to give horses, over-ridden or feverish, ground malt and hot water mixed, which is called a mash. To this the Constable alludes.

4 Lavoltas high. The lavolta, or volta, a kind of turning French dance,' says Florio; in which the man turns the woman round several times, and then assists her in making a high spring or cabriole. The reader will find a very curious and amusing article on

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.

Con.

This becomes the great.
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."
Fr. King. Therefore, lord constable, haste on
Montjoy :

And let him say to England, that we send

the subject in Mr. Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 489.

5 This should be Charles D'Albret; but the metre would not admit of the change. Shakspeare followed Holinshed, who calls him Delabreth. The other French names have been corrected.

6 Pennons were flags or streamers, upon which the arms, device, and motto of a knight were painted. A penon must be tow yardes and a halfe long, made round att the end, and conteyneth the armes of the owner, and serveth for the conduct of fifty men.'-MSS. Hart, No. 2413. A banneret was created by cutting off the point of the pennon, and making it a banner, which was peculiar to the nobility.

7 And for achievement offer us his ransom. That is, instead of achieving a victory over us, make a proposal to pay us a sum as ransom

Therefore, go speak, the duke will hear thy voice; And let not Bardolph's vital thread be cut Gow. How now, Captain Fluellen, come you With edge of penny cord, and vile reproach: from the bridge?

3 Burom valour.' It is true that, in the Saxon and 8 Such and such a sconce, Steevens has erroneour elder English, buxom meant pliant, yielding, obe-ously explained this, a hasty, rude, inconsiderable dient; and in this sense Spenser uses it: but as we knew it was also used for lusty, rampant, however mis. takenly, it was surely very absurd to give the older meaning to it here, as Steevens did. Pistol would be much more likely to take the popular sense, than one founded on etymology. Blount, after giving the old legitimate meaning of buxomeness, says, 'It is now mistaken for lustiness or rampancy.'

5A pir. The folio reads par: but Holinshed, whom Shakspeare followed, says, A foolish soldier stole a pire out of a church, for which cause he was appropriated to the soldier. prehended, and the king would not once more reinove ull the bor was restored, and the offender strangled.' It was the box in which the consecrated wafers were kept, originally so named from being made of bor; but in later times it was made of gold, silver, and other costly materiais.

6 And figo for thy friendship. See note on King Henry IV. Part 2. The Spanish fig probably alludes