William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition (284 page)

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Authors: William Shakespeare

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BOY He says his name is Master Fer.

PISTOL Master Fer? I’ll fer him, and firk him, and ferret him.

Discuss the same in French unto him.

BOY I do not know the French for fer and ferret and firk.

PISTOL Bid him prepare, for I will cut his throat.

FRENCH SOLDIER Que
dit-il, monsieur?

BOY
Il me commande à vous dire que vous faites vous prêt, car ce soldat ici est dispose tout à cette heure de couper votre gorge
. 35

PISTOL

Oui, couper la gorge, par ma foi,
Peasant, unless thou give me crowns, brave crowns;
Or mangled shalt thou be by this my sword.

FRENCH SOLDIER
O je vous supplie, pour l’amour de Dieu, me pardonner. Je suis le gentilhomme de bonne maison. Gardez ma vie, et je vous donnerai deux cents écus.

PISTOL What are his words?

BOY He prays you to save his life. He is a gentleman of a good house, and for his ransom he will give you two hundred crowns.

PISTOL

Tell him, my fury shall abate, and I the crowns will take.

FRENCH SOLDIER
Petit monsieur, que dit-il?

BOY
Encore qu’il est centre son jurement de pardonner aucun prisonnier; neanmoins, pour les ecus que vous lui ci promettez, il est content à vous donner la liberté, le franchisement.

FRENCH SOLDIER (kneeling to Pistol)
Sur mes genoux je vous donne mille remerciements, et je m‘estime heureux que j’ai tombe entre les mains d‘un chevalier, comme je pense, le plus brave, vaillant, et treis-distingué seigneur d’Angleterre.
PISTOL Expound unto me, boy.

BOY He gives you upon his knees a thousand thanks, and he esteems himself happy that he hath fallen into the hands of one, as he thinks, the most brave, valorous, and thrice-worthy seigneur of England.

PISTOL

As I suck blood, I will some mercy show.
Follow me.

BOY
Suivez-vous le grand capitaine.

Exeunt Pistol and French Soldier

I did never know so full a voice issue from so empty a
heart. But the saying is true: ‘The empty vessel makes
the greatest sound.’ Bardolph and Nim had ten times
more valour than this roaring devil i’th’ old play, that
everyone may pare his nails with a wooden dagger,
and they are both hanged, and so would this be, if he
durst steal anything adventurously. I must stay with
the lackeys with the luggage of our camp. The French
might have a good prey of us, if he knew of it, for there
is none to guard it but boys. Exit

4.5
Enter the Constable, the Dukes of
Orléans and
⌈
Bourbon
⌉
, and Lord Rambures

CONSTABLE
O diable!

ORLÉANS
O Seigneur!
Le
jour
est perdu, tout est
perdu!

⌈BOURBON⌉

Mort de
ma
vie! All is confounded, all.
Reproach and everlasting shame
Sits mocking in our plumes.

A short alarum

O
mechante
fortune!–
(To Rambures) Do not run away.

⌈ORLÉANS⌉

We are enough yet living in the field
To smother up the English in our throngs,
If any order might be thought upon.

BOURBON

The devil take order. Once more back again!
And he that will not follow Bourbon now,
Let him go home, and with his cap in hand
Like a base leno hold the chamber door
Whilst by a slave no gentler than my dog
His fairest daughter is contaminated.

CONSTABLE

Disorder that hath spoiled us friend us now.
Let us on heaps go offer up our lives.

BOURBON I’ll to the throng.

Let life be short, else shame will be too long. Exeunt

4.6
Alarum. Enter King Harry and his train, with prisoners

KING HARRY

Well have we done, thrice-valiant countrymen.
But all’s not done; yet keep the French the field.

[Enter
the Duke of
Exeter]

EXETER

The Duke of York commends him to your majesty.

KING HARRY

Lives he, good uncle? Thrice within this hour
I saw him down, thrice up again and fighting.
From helmet to the spur, all blood he was.

EXETER

In which array, brave soldier, doth he lie,
Larding the plain. And by his bloody side,
Yokefellow to his honour-owing wounds,
The noble Earl of Suffolk also lies.
Suffolk first died, and York, all haggled over,
Comes to him, where in gore he lay insteeped,
And takes him by the beard, kisses the gashes
That bloodily did yawn upon his face,
And cries aloud, ‘Tarry, dear cousin Suffolk.
My soul shall thine keep company to heaven.
Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly abreast,
As in this glorious and well-foughten field
We kept together in our chivalry.’
Upon these words I came and cheered him up.
He smiled me in the face, raught me his hand,
And with a feeble grip says, ‘Dear my lord,
Commend my service to my sovereign.’
So did he turn, and over Suffolk’s neck
He threw his wounded arm, and kissed his lips,
And so espoused to death, with blood he sealed
A testament of noble-ending love.
The pretty and sweet manner of it forced
Those waters from me which I would have stopped.
But I had not so much of man in me,
And all my mother came into mine eyes
And gave me up to tears.

KING HARRY

I blame you not,

For hearing this I must perforce compound
With mistful eyes, or they will issue too.

Alarum

But hark, what new alarum is this same?
The French have reinforced their scattered men.
Then every soldier kill his prisoners.

[The
soldiers kill their
prisoners]

Give the word through.

⌈PISTOL⌉
Coup’ la gorge.

Exeunt

4.7
Enter Captains Fluellen and Gower

FLUELLEN 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 offert. In your conscience now, is it not?

GOWER ‘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 prisoner’s throat. O ’tis a gallant king.

FLUELLEN Ay, he was porn at Monmouth. Captain Gower, what call you the town’s name where Alexander the Pig was born?

GLOWER Alexander the Great.

FLUELLEN 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 the phrase is a little variations.

GOWER I think Alexander the Great was born in Macedon. His father was called Philip of Macedon, as I take it.

FLUELLEN I think it is e‘en Macedon where Alexander is porn. I tell you, captain, if you look in the maps of the world I warrant you sail 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 you, kill his best friend Cleitus—

GOWER Our King is not like him in that. He never killed any of his friends.

FLUELLEN It is not well done, mark you now, to take the tales out of my mouth ere it is made an end 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.

GOWER Sir John Falstaff.

FLUELLEN That is he. I’ll tell you, there is good men porn at Monmouth.

GOWER Here comes his majesty.

Alarum. Enter King Harry
⌈
and the English army
⌉
,
with the Duke of
Bourbon
, ⌈
the Duke of Orléans,
⌉ and other prisoners. Flourish

KING HARRY

I was not angry since I came to France
Until this instant. Take a trumpet, herald;
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

EXETER

Here comes the herald of the French, my liege.

GLOUCESTER

His eyes are humbler than they used to be.

KING HARRY

How now, what means this, herald? Know‘st thou
not
That I have fined these bones of mine for ransom?
Com’st thou again for ransom?

MONTJOY No, great King.

I come to thee for charitable licence,
That we may wander o’er this bloody field
To book our dead and then to bury them,
To sort our nobles from our common men—
For many of our princes, woe the while,
Lie drowned and soaked in mercenary blood.
So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs
In blood of princes, and our wounded steeds
Fret fetlock-deep in gore, and with wild rage
Jerk 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.

KING HARRY 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.

MONTJOY The day is yours.

KING HARRY

Praised be God, and not our strength, for it.
What is this castle called that stands hard by?

MONTJOY They call it Agincourt.

KING HARRY

Then call we this the field of Agincourt,
Fought on the day of Crispin Crispian.

FLUELLEN 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.

KING HARRY They did, Fluellen.

FLUELLEN 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 honourable badge of the service. And I do believe your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek upon Saint Tavy’s day.

KING HARRY

I wear it for a memorable honour,
For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman.

FLUELLEN 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.

KING HARRY Thanks, good my countryman.

FLUELLEN By Jeshu, I am your majesty’s countryman. I care not who know it, I will confess it to all the world. I need not to be ashamed of your majesty, praised be God, so long as your majesty is an honest man.

KING HARRY

God keep me so.