The Life Of King Henry The Fifth

1 Enter Gower and Williams.
2 WILLIAMS.
3 I warrant it is to knight you, Captain.
4 Enter Fluellen.
5 FLUELLEN.
6 God’s will and his pleasure, captain, I beseech you now, come apace to
7 the King. There is more good toward you peradventure than is in your
8 knowledge to dream of.
9 WILLIAMS.
10 Sir, know you this glove?
11 FLUELLEN.
12 Know the glove! I know the glove is a glove.
13 WILLIAMS.
14 I know this; and thus I challenge it.
15 [_Strikes him._]
16 FLUELLEN.
17 ’Sblood! an arrant traitor as any is in the universal world, or in
18 France, or in England!
19 GOWER.
20 How now, sir! you villain!
21 WILLIAMS.
22 Do you think I’ll be forsworn?
23 FLUELLEN.
24 Stand away, Captain Gower. I will give treason his payment into plows,
25 I warrant you.
26 WILLIAMS.
27 I am no traitor.
28 FLUELLEN.
29 That’s a lie in thy throat. I charge you in his Majesty’s name,
30 apprehend him; he’s a friend of the Duke Alençon’s.
31 Enter Warwick and Gloucester.
32 WARWICK.
33 How now, how now! what’s the matter?
34 FLUELLEN.
35 My lord of Warwick, here is—praised be God for it!—a most contagious
36 treason come to light, look you, as you shall desire in a summer’s day.
37 Here is his Majesty.
38 Enter King Henry and Exeter.
39 KING HENRY.
40 How now! what’s the matter?
41 FLUELLEN.
42 My liege, here is a villain and a traitor, that, look your Grace, has
43 struck the glove which your Majesty is take out of the helmet of
44 Alençon.
45 WILLIAMS.
46 My liege, this was my glove; here is the fellow of it; and he that I
47 gave it to in change promis’d to wear it in his cap. I promis’d to
48 strike him, if he did. I met this man with my glove in his cap, and I
49 have been as good as my word.
50 FLUELLEN.
51 Your Majesty hear now, saving your Majesty’s manhood, what an arrant,
52 rascally, beggarly, lousy knave it is. I hope your Majesty is pear me
53 testimony and witness, and will avouchment, that this is the glove of
54 Alençon that your Majesty is give me; in your conscience, now?
55 KING HENRY.
56 Give me thy glove, soldier. Look, here is the fellow of it.
57 ’Twas I, indeed, thou promisedst to strike;
58 And thou hast given me most bitter terms.
59 FLUELLEN.
60 An it please your Majesty, let his neck answer for it, if there is any
61 martial law in the world.
62 KING HENRY.
63 How canst thou make me satisfaction?
64 WILLIAMS.
65 All offences, my lord, come from the heart. Never came any from mine
66 that might offend your Majesty.
67 KING HENRY.
68 It was ourself thou didst abuse.
69 WILLIAMS.
70 Your Majesty came not like yourself. You appear’d to me but as a common
71 man; witness the night, your garments, your lowliness; and what your
72 Highness suffer’d under that shape, I beseech you take it for your own
73 fault and not mine; for had you been as I took you for, I made no
74 offence; therefore, I beseech your Highness, pardon me.
75 KING HENRY.
76 Here, uncle Exeter, fill this glove with crowns,
77 And give it to this fellow. Keep it, fellow;
78 And wear it for an honour in thy cap
79 Till I do challenge it. Give him his crowns;
80 And, captain, you must needs be friends with him.
81 FLUELLEN.
82 By this day and this light, the fellow has mettle enough in his belly.
83 Hold, there is twelve pence for you; and I pray you to serve God, and
84 keep you out of prawls, and prabbles, and quarrels, and dissensions,
85 and, I warrant you, it is the better for you.
86 WILLIAMS.
87 I will none of your money.
88 FLUELLEN.
89 It is with a good will; I can tell you, it will serve you to mend your
90 shoes. Come, wherefore should you be so pashful? Your shoes is not so
91 good. ’Tis a good silling, I warrant you, or I will change it.
92 Enter an English Herald.
93 KING HENRY.
94 Now, herald, are the dead numb’red?
95 HERALD.
96 Here is the number of the slaught’red French.
97 KING HENRY.
98 What prisoners of good sort are taken, uncle?
99 EXETER.
100 Charles Duke of Orleans, nephew to the King;
101 John Duke of Bourbon, and Lord Boucicault:
102 Of other lords and barons, knights and squires,
103 Full fifteen hundred, besides common men.
104 KING HENRY.
105 This note doth tell me of ten thousand French
106 That in the field lie slain; of princes, in this number,
107 And nobles bearing banners, there lie dead
108 One hundred twenty-six; added to these,
109 Of knights, esquires, and gallant gentlemen,
110 Eight thousand and four hundred; of the which,
111 Five hundred were but yesterday dubb’d knights;
112 So that, in these ten thousand they have lost,
113 There are but sixteen hundred mercenaries;
114 The rest are princes, barons, lords, knights, squires,
115 And gentlemen of blood and quality.
116 The names of those their nobles that lie dead:
117 Charles Delabreth, High Constable of France;
118 Jacques of Chatillon, Admiral of France;
119 The master of the Crossbows, Lord Rambures;
120 Great Master of France, the brave Sir Guichard Dauphin,
121 John, Duke of Alençon, Anthony, Duke of Brabant,
122 The brother to the Duke of Burgundy,
123 And Edward, Duke of Bar; of lusty earls,
124 Grandpré and Roussi, Fauconbridge and Foix,
125 Beaumont and Marle, Vaudemont and Lestrale.
126 Here was a royal fellowship of death!
127 Where is the number of our English dead?
128 [_Herald gives him another paper._]
129 Edward the Duke of York, the Earl of Suffolk,
130 Sir Richard Ketly, Davy Gam, esquire;
131 None else of name; and of all other men
132 But five and twenty.—O God, thy arm was here;
133 And not to us, but to thy arm alone,
134 Ascribe we all! When, without stratagem,
135 But in plain shock and even play of battle,
136 Was ever known so great and little loss
137 On one part and on the other? Take it, God,
138 For it is none but thine!
139 EXETER.
140 ’Tis wonderful!
141 KING HENRY.
142 Come, go we in procession to the village;
143 And be it death proclaimed through our host
144 To boast of this or take that praise from God
145 Which is His only.
146 FLUELLEN.
147 Is it not lawful, an please your Majesty, to tell how many is kill’d?
148 KING HENRY.
149 Yes, Captain; but with this acknowledgment,
150 That God fought for us.
151 FLUELLEN.
152 Yes, my conscience, He did us great good.
153 KING HENRY.
154 Do we all holy rites.
155 Let there be sung _Non nobis_ and _Te Deum_,
156 The dead with charity enclos’d in clay,
157 And then to Calais; and to England then,
158 Where ne’er from France arriv’d more happy men.
159 [_Exeunt._]