ARKCODEX
Act IV, Scene 8
1Before King Henry’s pavilion.
2Enter Gower and Williams.
3WilliamsI warrant it is to knight you, captain.
4Enter Fluellen.
5FluellenGod’s will and his pleasure, captain, I beseech you now, come apace to the King. There is more good toward you peradventure than is in your knowledge to dream of.
6WilliamsSir, know you this glove?
7FluellenKnow the glove! I know the glove is a glove.
8WilliamsI know this; and thus I challenge it. Strikes him.
9Fluellen’Sblood! an arrant traitor as any is in the universal world, or in France, or in England!
10GowerHow now, sir! you villain!
11WilliamsDo you think I’ll be forsworn?
12FluellenStand away, Captain Gower; I will give treason his payment into plows, I warrant you.
13WilliamsI am no traitor.
14FluellenThat’s a lie in thy throat. I charge you in his majesty’s name, apprehend him: he’s a friend of the Duke Alençon’s.
15Enter Warwick and Gloucester.
16WarwickHow now, how now! what’s the matter?
17FluellenMy lord of Warwick, here is—praised be God for it!—a most contagious treason come to light, look you, as you shall desire in a summer’s day. Here is his majesty.
18Enter King Henry and Exeter.
19King HenryHow now! what’s the matter?
20FluellenMy liege, here is a villain and a traitor, that, look your grace, has struck the glove which your majesty is take out of the helmet of Alençon.
21WilliamsMy liege, this was my glove; here is the fellow of it; and he that I gave it to in change promised to wear it in his cap: I promised to strike him, if he did: I met this man with my glove in his cap, and I have been as good as my word.
22FluellenYour majesty hear now, saving your majesty’s manhood, what an arrant, rascally, beggarly, lousy knave it is: I hope your majesty is pear me testimony and witness, and will avouchment, that this is the glove of Alençon, that your majesty is give me; in your conscience, now.
23King HenryGive me thy glove, soldier: look, here is the fellow of it.
’Twas I, indeed, thou promised’st to strike;
And thou hast given me most bitter terms.
24FluellenAn it please your majesty, let his neck answer for it, if there is any martial law in the world.
25King HenryHow canst thou make me satisfaction?
26WilliamsAll offences, my lord, come from the heart: never came any from mine that might offend your majesty.
27King HenryIt was ourself thou didst abuse.
28WilliamsYour majesty came not like yourself: you appeared to me but as a common man; witness the night, your garments, your lowliness; and what your highness suffered under that shape, I beseech you take it for your own fault and not mine: for had you been as I took you for, I made no offence; therefore, I beseech your highness, pardon me.
29King HenryHere, uncle Exeter, fill this glove with crowns,
And give it to this fellow. Keep it, fellow;
And wear it for an honour in thy cap
Till I do challenge it. Give him his crowns:
And, captain, you must needs be friends with him.
30FluellenBy this day and this light, the fellow has mettle enough in his belly. Hold, there is twelve pence for you; and I pray you to serve God, and keep you out of prawls, and prabbles, and quarrels, and dissensions, and, I warrant you, it is the better for you.
31WilliamsI will none of your money.
32FluellenIt is with a good will; I can tell you, it will serve you to mend your shoes: come, wherefore should you be so pashful? your shoes is not so good: ’tis a good silling, I warrant you, or I will change it.
33Enter an English Herald.
34King HenryNow, herald, are the dead number’d?
35HeraldHere is the number of the slaughter’d French.
36King HenryWhat prisoners of good sort are taken, uncle?
37ExeterCharles Duke of Orleans, nephew to the king;
John Duke of Bourbon, and Lord Bouciqualt:
Of other lords and barons, knights and squires,
Full fifteen hundred, besides common men.
38King HenryThis note doth tell me of ten thousand French
That in the field lie slain: of princes, in this number,
And nobles bearing banners, there lie dead
One hundred twenty-six: added to these,
Of knights, esquires, and gallant gentlemen,
Eight thousand and four hundred; of the which,
Five hundred were but yesterday dubb’d knights:
So that, in these ten thousand they have lost,
There are but sixteen hundred mercenaries;
The rest are princes, barons, lords, knights, squires,
And gentlemen of blood and quality.
The names of those their nobles that lie dead:
Charles Delabreth, high constable of France;
Jacques of Chatillon, admiral of France;
The master of the crossbows, Lord Rambures;
Great Master of France, the brave Sir Guichard Dolphin,
John, Duke of Alençon, Anthony Duke of Brabant,
The brother to the Duke of Burgundy,
And Edward Duke of Bar: of lusty earls,
Grandpré and Roussi, Fauconberg and Foix,
Beaumont and Marle, Vaudemont and Lestrale.
Here was a royal fellowship of death!
Where is the number of our English dead? Herald shews him another paper.
Edward the Duke of York, the Earl of Suffolk,
Sir Richard Ketly, Davy Gam, esquire:
None else of name; and of all other men
But five and twenty. O God, thy arm was here;
And not to us, but to thy arm alone,
Ascribe we all! When, without stratagem,
But in plain shock and even play of battle,
Was ever known so great and little loss
On one part and on the other? Take it, God,
For it is none but thine!
39Exeter’Tis wonderful!
40King HenryCome, go we in procession to the village:
And be it death proclaimed through our host
To boast of this or take that praise from God
Which is his only.
41FluellenIs it not lawful, an please your majesty, to tell how many is killed?
42King HenryYes, captain; but with this acknowledgment,
That God fought for us.
43FluellenYes, my conscience, he did us great good.
44King HenryDo we all holy rites;
Let there be sung “Non nobis” and “Te Deum;”
The dead with charity enclosed in clay:
And then to Calais; and to England then;
Where ne’er from France arrived more happy men. Exeunt.