Henry V by William Shakespeare
Act 4 - Scene 1
The English camp at Agincourt.
Sir Thomas Erpingham : Not so, my liege: this lodging likes me better,
[p]Since I may say
'Now lie I like a king.'
Sir Thomas Erpingham : Shall I attend your grace?
Sir Thomas Erpingham : The Lord in heaven bless thee, noble Harry!
Fluellen : So! in the name of Jesu Christ, speak lower. It is
[p]the greatest
admiration of the universal world, when
[p]the true and aunchient
prerogatifes and laws of the
[p]wars is not kept: if you would take
the pains but to
[p]examine the wars of Pompey the Great, you
shall
[p]find, I warrant you, that there is no tiddle toddle
[p]nor
pibble pabble in Pompey's camp; I warrant you,
[p]you shall find the
ceremonies of the wars, and the
[p]cares of it, and the forms of it,
and the sobriety
[p]of it, and the modesty of it, to be otherwise.
Fluellen : If the enemy is an ass and a fool and a prating
[p]coxcomb, is it
meet, think you, that we should also,
[p]look you, be an ass and a
fool and a prating
[p]coxcomb? in your own conscience, now?
Fluellen : I pray you and beseech you that you will.
Court : Brother John Bates, is not that the morning which
[p]breaks yonder?
Bates : I think it be: but we have no great cause to desire
[p]the approach of
day.
Williams : We see yonder the beginning of the day, but I think
[p]we shall never
see the end of it. Who goes there?
Williams : Under what captain serve you?
Williams : A good old commander and a most kind gentleman: I
[p]pray you, what
thinks he of our estate?
Bates : He hath not told his thought to the king?
Bates : He may show what outward courage he will; but I
[p]believe, as cold a
night as 'tis, he could wish
[p]himself in Thames up to the neck; and
so I would he
[p]were, and I by him, at all adventures, so we were
quit here.
Bates : Then I would he were here alone; so should he be
[p]sure to be
ransomed, and a many poor men's lives saved.
Williams : That's more than we know.
Bates : Ay, or more than we should seek after; for we know
[p]enough, if we
know we are the kings subjects: if
[p]his cause be wrong, our
obedience to the king wipes
[p]the crime of it out of us.
Williams : But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath
[p]a heavy
reckoning to make, when all those legs and
[p]arms and heads, chopped
off in battle, shall join
[p]together at the latter day and cry all
'We died at
[p]such a place;' some swearing, some crying for
a
[p]surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind
[p]them, some
upon the debts they owe, some upon their
[p]children rawly left. I am
afeard there are few die
[p]well that die in a battle; for how can
they
[p]charitably dispose of any thing, when blood is
their
[p]argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it
[p]will be a
black matter for the king that led them to
[p]it; whom to disobey were
against all proportion of
[p]subjection.
Williams : 'Tis certain, every man that dies ill, the ill upon
[p]his own head,
the king is not to answer it.
Bates : But I do not desire he should answer for me; and
[p]yet I determine to
fight lustily for him.
Williams : Ay, he said so, to make us fight cheerfully: but
[p]when our throats
are cut, he may be ransomed, and we
[p]ne'er the wiser.
Williams : You pay him then. That's a perilous shot out of an
[p]elder-gun, that
a poor and private displeasure can
[p]do against a monarch! you may as
well go about to
[p]turn the sun to ice with fanning in his face with
a
[p]peacock's feather. You'll never trust his word
[p]after! come,
'tis a foolish saying.
Williams : Let it be a quarrel between us, if you live.
Williams : How shall I know thee again?
Williams : Here's my glove: give me another of thine.
Williams : This will I also wear in my cap: if ever thou come
[p]to me and say,
after to-morrow, 'This is my glove,'
[p]by this hand, I will take thee
a box on the ear.
Williams : Thou darest as well be hanged.
Williams : Keep thy word: fare thee well.
Bates : Be friends, you English fools, be friends: we have
[p]French quarrels
enow, if you could tell how to reckon.
Sir Thomas Erpingham : My lord, your nobles, jealous of your absence,
[p]Seek through your
camp to find you.
Sir Thomas Erpingham : I shall do't, my lord.
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Next: Act 4 - Scene 2
