ARKCODEX
Act IV, Scene 7
1Another part of the field.
2Enter Fluellen and Gower.
3FluellenKill 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?
4Gower’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!
5FluellenAy, he was porn at Monmouth, Captain Gower. What call you the town’s name where Alexander the Pig was born!
6GowerAlexander the Great.
7FluellenWhy, 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.
8GowerI think Alexander the Great was born in Macedon: his father was called Philip of Macedon, as I take it.
9FluellenI 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 you, kill his best friend, Cleitus.
10GowerOur king is not like him in that: he never killed any of his friends.
11FluellenIt 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.
12GowerSir John Falstaff.
13FluellenThat is he: I’ll tell you there is good men porn at Monmouth.
14GowerHere comes his majesty.
15Alarum. Enter King Henry and forces; Warwick, Gloucester, Exeter, and others.
16King HenryI was not angry since I came to France
Until this instant. Take a trumpet, herald;
Ride thou unto the horsemen on yond 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.
17Enter Montjoy.
18ExeterHere comes the herald of the French, my liege.
19GloucesterHis eyes are humbler than they used to be.
20King HenryHow now! what means this, herald? know’st thou not
That I have fined these bones of mine for ransom?
Comest thou again for ransom?
21MontjoyNo, great king:
I come to thee for charitable license,
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 drown’d and soak’d in mercenary blood;
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!
22King HenryI 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.
23MontjoyThe day is yours.
24King HenryPraised be God, and not our strength, for it!
What is this castle call’d that stands hard by?
25MontjoyThey call it Agincourt.
26King HenryThen call we this the field of Agincourt.
Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus.
27FluellenYour 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.
28King HenryThey did, Fluellen.
29FluellenYour majesty says very true: if your majesties is remembered of it, the Welshmen did good service in 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.
30King HenryI wear it for a memorable honour;
For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman.
31FluellenAll the water in Wye cannot wash your majesty’s Welsh plood out of your pody, I can tell you that: Got pless it and preserve it, as long as it pleases his grace, and his majesty too!
32King HenryThanks, good my countryman.
33FluellenBy Jeshu, I am your majesty’s countryman, I care not who know it; I will confess it to all the ’orld: I need not be ashamed of your majesty, praised be God, so long as your majesty is an honest man.
34King HenryGod 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.
35ExeterSoldier, you must come to the king.
36King HenrySoldier, why wearest thou that glove in thy cap?
37WilliamsAn’t please your majesty, ’tis the gage of one that I should fight withal, if he be alive.
38King HenryAn Englishman?
39WilliamsAn’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.
40King HenryWhat think you, Captain Fluellen? is it fit this soldier keep his oath?
41FluellenHe is a craven and a villain else, an’t please your majesty, in my conscience.
42King HenryIt may be his enemy is a gentlemen of great sort, quite from the answer of his degree.
43FluellenThough he be as good a gentleman as the devil is, as Lucifier 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, la!
44King HenryThen keep thy vow, sirrah, when thou meetest the fellow.
45WilliamsSo I will, my liege, as I live.
46King HenryWho servest thou under?
47WilliamsUnder Captain Gower, my liege.
48FluellenGower is a good captain, and is good knowledge and literatured in the wars.
49King HenryCall him hither to me, soldier.
50WilliamsI will, my liege. Exit.
51King HenryHere, Fluellen; wear thou this favour for me and stick it in thy cap: when Alençon and myself were down together, I plucked this glove from his helm: if any man challenge this, he is a friend to Alençon, and an enemy to our person; if thou encounter any such, apprehend him, an thou dost me love.
52FluellenYour grace doo’s me as great honours 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.
53King HenryKnowest thou Gower?
54FluellenHe is my dear friend, an please you.
55King HenryPray thee, go seek him, and bring him to my tent.
56FluellenI will fetch him. Exit.
57King HenryMy Lord of Warwick, and my brother Gloucester,
Follow Fluellen closely at the heels:
The glove which I have given him for a favour
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,
And quickly will return an injury:
Follow, and see there be no harm between them.
Go you with me, uncle of Exeter. Exeunt.