Henry V by William Shakespeare
Act 3 - Scene 6
The English camp in Picardy.
Fluellen : I assure you, there is very excellent services
[p]committed at the
bridge.
Fluellen : The Duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as Agamemnon;
[p]and a man that I
love and honour with my soul, and my
[p]heart, and my duty, and my
life, and my living, and
[p]my uttermost power: he is not-God be
praised and
[p]blessed!--any hurt in the world; but keeps
the
[p]bridge most valiantly, with excellent discipline.
[p]There is
an aunchient lieutenant there at the
[p]pridge, I think in my very
conscience he is as
[p]valiant a man as Mark Antony; and he is a man
of no
[p]estimation in the world; but did see him do as
[p]gallant
service.
Fluellen : He is called Aunchient Pistol.
Fluellen : Here is the man.
Fluellen : Ay, I praise God; and I have merited some love at
[p]his hands.
Fluellen : By your patience, Aunchient Pistol. Fortune is
[p]painted blind, with
a muffler afore her eyes, to
[p]signify to you that Fortune is blind;
and she is
[p]painted also with a wheel, to signify to you,
which
[p]is the moral of it, that she is turning, and
[p]inconstant,
and mutability, and variation: and her
[p]foot, look you, is fixed
upon a spherical stone,
[p]which rolls, and rolls, and rolls: in good
truth,
[p]the poet makes a most excellent description of
it:
[p]Fortune is an excellent moral.
Fluellen : Aunchient Pistol, I do partly understand your meaning.
Fluellen : Certainly, aunchient, it is not a thing to rejoice
[p]at: for if, look
you, he were my brother, I would
[p]desire the duke to use his good
pleasure, and put
[p]him to execution; for discipline ought to be
used.
Fluellen : It is well.
Fluellen : Very good.
Fluellen : I'll assure you, a' uttered as brave words at the
[p]bridge as you
shall see in a summer's day. But it
[p]is very well; what he has spoke
to me, that is well,
[p]I warrant you, when time is serve.
Fluellen : I tell you what, Captain Gower; I do perceive he is
[p]not the man
that he would gladly make show to the
[p]world he is: if I find a hole
in his coat, I will
[p]tell him my mind.
[p][Drum heard]
[p]Hark you,
the king is coming, and I must speak with
[p]him from the
pridge.
[p][Drum and colours. Enter KING HENRY, GLOUCESTER, and
Soldiers]
[p]God pless your majesty!
Fluellen : Ay, so please your majesty. The Duke of Exeter has
[p]very gallantly
maintained the pridge: the French is
[p]gone off, look you; and there
is gallant and most
[p]prave passages; marry, th' athversary was
have
[p]possession of the pridge; but he is enforced to
[p]retire, and
the Duke of Exeter is master of the
[p]pridge: I can tell your
majesty, the duke is a
[p]prave man.
Fluellen : The perdition of th' athversary hath been very
[p]great, reasonable
great: marry, for my part, I
[p]think the duke hath lost never a man,
but one that
[p]is like to be executed for robbing a church,
one
[p]Bardolph, if your majesty know the man: his face is
[p]all
bubukles, and whelks, and knobs, and flames o'
[p]fire: and his lips
blows at his nose, and it is like
[p]a coal of fire, sometimes plue
and sometimes red;
[p]but his nose is executed and his fire's out.
Montjoy : You know me by my habit.
Montjoy : My master's mind.
Montjoy : Thus says my king: Say thou to Harry of England:
[p]Though we seemed
dead, we did but sleep: advantage
[p]is a better soldier than
rashness. Tell him we
[p]could have rebuked him at Harfleur, but that
we
[p]thought not good to bruise an injury till it were
[p]full ripe:
now we speak upon our cue, and our voice
[p]is imperial: England shall
repent his folly, see
[p]his weakness, and admire our sufferance. Bid
him
[p]therefore consider of his ransom; which must
[p]proportion the
losses we have borne, the subjects we
[p]have lost, the disgrace we
have digested; which in
[p]weight to re-answer, his pettiness would
bow under.
[p]For our losses, his exchequer is too poor; for
the
[p]effusion of our blood, the muster of his kingdom too
[p]faint a
number; and for our disgrace, his own
[p]person, kneeling at our feet,
but a weak and
[p]worthless satisfaction. To this add defiance:
and
[p]tell him, for conclusion, he hath betrayed his
[p]followers,
whose condemnation is pronounced. So far
[p]my king and master; so
much my office.
Montjoy : Montjoy.
Montjoy : I shall deliver so. Thanks to your highness.
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Next: Act 3 - Scene 7
