SCENE VII
Another part of the field.Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER.
Flu.
Kill the poys and the luggage! 'tis expressly
against the law of arms: 'tis as arrant
a piece of knavery, mark you now, as can be
offer't; in your conscience, now, is it not?
Gow.
'Tis certain there's not a boy left
alive; and the cowardly rascals that ran from
the battle ha' done this slaughter: besides, they
have burned and carried away all that was in
the king's tent; wherefore the king, most
worthily, hath caused every soldier to cut his (11)
prisoner's throat. O, 'tis a gallant king!
Flu.
Ay, he was porn at Monmouth, Captain
Gower. What call you the town's name
where Alexander the Pig was born!
Gow.
Alexander the Great.
Flu.
Why, I pray you, is not pig great? the
pig, or the great, or the mighty, or the huge, or
the magnanimous, are all one reckonings, save (19)
the phrase is a little variations.
Gow.
I think Alexander the Great was
born in Macedon: his father was called Philip
of Macedon, as I take it.
Flu.
I think it is in Macedon where Alexander
is porn. I tell you, captain, if you look in
the maps of the 'orld, I warrant you sall find,
in the comparisons between Macedon and
Monmouth, that the situations, look you, is
both alike. There is a river in Macedon; and
there is also moreover a river at Monmouth:
it is called Wye at Monmouth; but it is out of
my prains what is the name of the other river;
but 'tis all one, 'tis alike as my fingers is to my
fingers, and there is salmons in both. If you
mark Alexander's life well, Harry of Monmouth's
life is come after it indifferent well;
for there is figures in all things. Alexander,
God knows, and you know, in his rages, and
his furies, and his wraths, and his cholers, and
his moods, and his displeasures, and his indignations,
and also being a little intoxicates in
his prains, did, in his ales and his angers, look (41)
you, kill his best friend, Cleitus.
Gow.
Our king is not like him in that: he
never killed any of his friends.
Flu.
It is not well done, mark you now, to
take the tales out of my mouth, ere it is made
and finished. I speak but in the figures and
comparisons of it: as Alexander killed his
friend Cleitus, being in his ales and his cups;
so also Harry Monmouth, being in his right
wits and his good judgements, turned away the
fat knight with the great belly-doublet: he was
full of jests, and gipes, and knaveries, and
mocks; I have forgot his name.
Gow.
Sir John Falstaff.
Flu.
That is he: I'll tell you there is good
men porn at Monmouth.
Gow.
Here comes his majesty. [Alarum. Enter KING HENRY, and forces; WARWICK, GLOUCESTER, EXETER,and others.
K. Hen.
I was not angry since I came to France
Until this instant. Take a trumpet, herald; (60)
Ride thou unto the horsemen on yon hill:
If they will fight with us, bid them come down,
Or void the field; they do offend our sight:
If they'll do neither, we will come to them,
And make them skirr away, as swift as stones
Enforced from the old Assyrian slings:
Besides, we'll cut the throats of those we have,
And not a man of them that we shall take
Shall taste our mercy. Go and tell them so. Enter MONTJOY.
Exe.
Here comes the herald of the French, my liege. (70)
Glou.
His eyes are humbler than they used to be.
K. Hen.
How now! what means this, herald? know'st thou not
That I have fined these bones of mine for ransom?
Comest thou again for ransom?
Mont.
No, great king:
I come to thee for charitable license,
That we may wander o'er this bloody field
To look our dead, and then to bury them;
To sort our nobles from our common men.
For many of our princes--woe the while!--
Lie drown'd and soak'd in mercenary blood; (80)
So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs
In blood of princes; and their wounded steeds
Fret fetlock deep in gore and with wild rage
Yerk out their armed heels at their dead masters,
Killing them twice. O, give us leave, great king,
To view the field in safety and dispose
Of their dead bodies!
K. Hen.
I tell thee truly, herald,
I know not if the day be ours or no;
For yet a many of your horsemen peer
And gallop o'er the field.
Mont.
The day is yours. (90)
K. Hen.
Praised be God, and not our strength, for it!
What is this castle call'd that stands hard by?
Mont.
They call it Agincourt.
K. Hen.
Then call we this the field of Agincourt,
Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus.
Flu.
Your grandfather of famous memory,
an't please your majesty, and your great-uncle
Edward the Plack Prince of Wales, as I have
read in the chronicles, fought a most prave
pattle here in France. (100)
K. Hen.
They did, Fluellen.
Flu.
Your majesty says very true: if your
majesties is remembered of it, the Welshmen
did good service in a garden where leeks did
grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps;
which, your majesty know, to this hour is an
honorable badge of the service; and I do believe
your majesty takes no scorn to wear the
leek upon Saint Tavy's day.
K. Hen.
I wear it for a memorable honor;
For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman.
Flu.
All the water in Wye cannot wash
your majesty's Welsh plood out of your pody,
I can tell you that: God pless it and preserve
it, as long as it pleases his grace, and his majesty
too!
K. Hen.
Thanks, good my countryman.
Flu.
By Jeshu, I am your majesty's countryman,
I care not who know it; I will confess
it to all the 'orld: I need not to be
ashamed of your majesty, praised be God, so (120)
long as your majesty is an honest man.
K. Hen.
God keep me so! Our heralds go with him:
Bring me just notice of the numbers dead
On both our parts. Call yonder fellow hither. [Points to Williams. Exeunt Heralds with Montjoy.
Exe.
Soldier, you must come to the king.
K. Hen.
Soldier, why wearest thou that
glove in thy cap?
Will.
An't please your majesty, 'tis the
gage of one that I should fight withal, if he be alive. (129)
K. Hen.
An Englishman?
Will.
An't please your majesty, a rascal
that swaggered with me last night; who, if
alive and ever dare to challenge this glove, I
have sworn to take him a box o' th' ear: or if
I can see my glove in his cap, which he swore,
as he was a soldier, he would wear if alive, I
will strike it out soundly.
K. Hen.
What think you, Captain Fluellen?
is it fit this soldier keep his oath?
Flu.
He is a craven and a villain else,an't (140)
please your majesty, in my conscience.
K. Hen.
It may be his enemy is a gentleman
of great sort, quite from the answer of his degree.
Flu.
Though he be as good a gentleman as
the devil is, as Lucifer and Belzebub himself,
it is necessary, look your grace, that he keep
his vow and his oath: if he be perjured, see
you now, his reputation is as arrant a villain
and a Jacksauce, as ever his black shoe trod
upon God's ground and his earth, in my conscience,(150)
la!
K. Hen.
Then keep thy vow, sirrah, when
thou meetest the fellow.
Will.
So I will, my liege, as I live.
K. Hen.
Who servest thou under?
Will.
Under Captain Gower, my liege.
Flu.
Gower is a good captain, and is good
knowledge and literatured in the wars.
K. Hen.
Call him hither to me, soldier.
Will.
I will, my liege. [Exit.
K. Hen.
Here, Fluellen; wear thou this
favor for me and stick it in thy cap: when
Alencon and myself were down together, I
plucked this glove from his helm: if any man
challenge this, he is a friend of Alencon, and
an enemy to our person; if thou encounter
any such, apprehend him, and thou dost me
love.
Flu.
Your grace doo's me as great honors
as can be desired in the hearts of his subjects:
I would fain see the man, that has but two
legs, that shall find himself aggriefed at this
glove; that is all; but I would fain see it
once, an please God of his grace that I might
see.
K. Hen.
Knowest thou Gower?
Flu.
He is my dear friend, an please you.
K. Hen.
Pray thee, go seek him, and bring
him to my tent.
Flu.
I will fetch him. [Exit.
K. Hen.
My lord of Warwick, and my brother Gloucester,
Follow Fluellen closely at the heels:
The glove which I have given him for a favor (181)
May haply purchase him a box o' th' ear;
It is the soldier's; I by bargain should
Wear it myself. Follow, good cousin Warwick:
If that the soldier strike him, as I judge
By his blunt bearing he will keep his word,
Some sudden mischief may arise of it;
For I do know Fluellen valiant
And, touch'd with choler, hot as gunpowder, (189)
And quickly will return an injury:
Follow, and see there be no harm between them.
Go you with me, uncle of Exeter. [Exeunt.
