The Life Of King Henry The Fifth

1 Enter Gloucester, Bedford, Exeter, Erpingham, with all his host:
2 Salisbury and Westmorland.
3 GLOUCESTER.
4 Where is the King?
5 BEDFORD.
6 The King himself is rode to view their battle.
7 WESTMORLAND.
8 Of fighting men they have full three-score thousand.
9 EXETER.
10 There’s five to one; besides, they all are fresh.
11 SALISBURY.
12 God’s arm strike with us! ’tis a fearful odds.
13 God be wi’ you, princes all; I’ll to my charge.
14 If we no more meet till we meet in heaven,
15 Then, joyfully, my noble Lord of Bedford,
16 My dear Lord Gloucester, and my good Lord Exeter,
17 And my kind kinsman, warriors all, adieu!
18 BEDFORD.
19 Farewell, good Salisbury, and good luck go with thee!
20 EXETER.
21 Farewell, kind lord; fight valiantly today!
22 And yet I do thee wrong to mind thee of it,
23 For thou art fram’d of the firm truth of valour.
24 [_Exit Salisbury._]
25 BEDFORD.
26 He is as full of valour as of kindness,
27 Princely in both.
28 Enter the King.
29 WESTMORLAND.
30 O that we now had here
31 But one ten thousand of those men in England
32 That do no work today!
33 KING.
34 What’s he that wishes so?
35 My cousin Westmorland? No, my fair cousin.
36 If we are mark’d to die, we are enough
37 To do our country loss; and if to live,
38 The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
39 God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
40 By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
41 Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
42 It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
43 Such outward things dwell not in my desires;
44 But if it be a sin to covet honour,
45 I am the most offending soul alive.
46 No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
47 God’s peace! I would not lose so great an honour
48 As one man more, methinks, would share from me
49 For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
50 Rather proclaim it, Westmorland, through my host,
51 That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
52 Let him depart. His passport shall be made,
53 And crowns for convoy put into his purse.
54 We would not die in that man’s company
55 That fears his fellowship to die with us.
56 This day is call’d the feast of Crispian.
57 He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
58 Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named,
59 And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
60 He that shall live this day, and see old age,
61 Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
62 And say, “Tomorrow is Saint Crispian.”
63 Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
64 And say, “These wounds I had on Crispian’s day.”
65 Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
66 But he’ll remember with advantages
67 What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
68 Familiar in his mouth as household words,
69 Harry the King, Bedford, and Exeter,
70 Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
71 Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered.
72 This story shall the good man teach his son;
73 And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
74 From this day to the ending of the world,
75 But we in it shall be remembered,
76 We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
77 For he today that sheds his blood with me
78 Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
79 This day shall gentle his condition;
80 And gentlemen in England now abed
81 Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
82 And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
83 That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.
84 Enter Salisbury.
85 SALISBURY.
86 My sovereign lord, bestow yourself with speed.
87 The French are bravely in their battles set,
88 And will with all expedience charge on us.
89 KING HENRY.
90 All things are ready, if our minds be so.
91 WESTMORLAND.
92 Perish the man whose mind is backward now!
93 KING HENRY.
94 Thou dost not wish more help from England, coz?
95 WESTMORLAND.
96 God’s will! my liege, would you and I alone,
97 Without more help, could fight this royal battle!
98 KING HENRY.
99 Why, now thou hast unwish’d five thousand men,
100 Which likes me better than to wish us one.
101 You know your places. God be with you all!
102 Tucket. Enter Montjoy.
103 MONTJOY.
104 Once more I come to know of thee, King Harry,
105 If for thy ransom thou wilt now compound,
106 Before thy most assured overthrow;
107 For certainly thou art so near the gulf,
108 Thou needs must be englutted. Besides, in mercy,
109 The Constable desires thee thou wilt mind
110 Thy followers of repentance; that their souls
111 May make a peaceful and a sweet retire
112 From off these fields, where, wretches, their poor bodies
113 Must lie and fester.
114 KING HENRY.
115 Who hath sent thee now?
116 MONTJOY.
117 The Constable of France.
118 KING HENRY.
119 I pray thee, bear my former answer back:
120 Bid them achieve me and then sell my bones.
121 Good God! why should they mock poor fellows thus?
122 The man that once did sell the lion’s skin
123 While the beast liv’d, was kill’d with hunting him.
124 A many of our bodies shall no doubt
125 Find native graves, upon the which, I trust,
126 Shall witness live in brass of this day’s work;
127 And those that leave their valiant bones in France,
128 Dying like men, though buried in your dunghills,
129 They shall be fam’d; for there the sun shall greet them,
130 And draw their honours reeking up to heaven;
131 Leaving their earthly parts to choke your clime,
132 The smell whereof shall breed a plague in France.
133 Mark then abounding valour in our English,
134 That being dead, like to the bullet’s grazing,
135 Break out into a second course of mischief,
136 Killing in relapse of mortality.
137 Let me speak proudly: tell the Constable
138 We are but warriors for the working-day.
139 Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirch’d
140 With rainy marching in the painful field;
141 There’s not a piece of feather in our host—
142 Good argument, I hope, we will not fly—
143 And time hath worn us into slovenry;
144 But, by the mass, our hearts are in the trim;
145 And my poor soldiers tell me, yet ere night
146 They’ll be in fresher robes, or they will pluck
147 The gay new coats o’er the French soldiers’ heads
148 And turn them out of service. If they do this—
149 As, if God please, they shall,—my ransom then
150 Will soon be levied. Herald, save thou thy labour.
151 Come thou no more for ransom, gentle herald.
152 They shall have none, I swear, but these my joints;
153 Which if they have as I will leave ’em them,
154 Shall yield them little, tell the Constable.
155 MONTJOY.
156 I shall, King Harry. And so fare thee well;
157 Thou never shalt hear herald any more.
158 [_Exit._]
159 KING HENRY.
160 I fear thou’lt once more come again for ransom.
161 Enter York.
162 YORK.
163 My lord, most humbly on my knee I beg
164 The leading of the vaward.
165 KING HENRY.
166 Take it, brave York. Now, soldiers, march away;
167 And how thou pleasest, God, dispose the day!
168 [_Exeunt._]