The Life Of King Henry The Fifth

1 Alarum. Enter King Henry, Exeter, Bedford, Gloucester and Soldiers,
2 with scaling-ladders.
3 KING HENRY.
4 Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,
5 Or close the wall up with our English dead.
6 In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man
7 As modest stillness and humility;
8 But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
9 Then imitate the action of the tiger;
10 Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
11 Disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage;
12 Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
13 Let it pry through the portage of the head
14 Like the brass cannon; let the brow o’erwhelm it
15 As fearfully as does a galled rock
16 O’erhang and jutty his confounded base,
17 Swill’d with the wild and wasteful ocean.
18 Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
19 Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit
20 To his full height. On, on, you noblest English,
21 Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
22 Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
23 Have in these parts from morn till even fought,
24 And sheath’d their swords for lack of argument.
25 Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
26 That those whom you call’d fathers did beget you.
27 Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
28 And teach them how to war. And you, good yeomen,
29 Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
30 The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
31 That you are worth your breeding, which I doubt not;
32 For there is none of you so mean and base,
33 That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
34 I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
35 Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot!
36 Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
37 Cry, “God for Harry! England and Saint George!”
38 [_Exeunt. Alarum, and chambers go off._]