Henry V by William Shakespeare
Act 4 - Scene 7
Another part of the field.
Fluellen : Kill the poys and the luggage! 'tis expressly
[p]against the law of
arms: 'tis as arrant a piece of
[p]knavery, mark you now, as can be
offer't; in your
[p]conscience, now, is it not?
Fluellen : Ay, he was porn at Monmouth, Captain Gower. What
[p]call you the
town's name where Alexander the Pig was born!
Fluellen : Why, I pray you, is not pig great? the pig, or the
[p]great, or the
mighty, or the huge, or the
[p]magnanimous, are all one reckonings,
save the phrase
[p]is a little variations.
Fluellen : I think it is in Macedon where Alexander is porn. I
[p]tell you,
captain, if you look in the maps of the
[p]'orld, I warrant you sall
find, in the comparisons
[p]between Macedon and Monmouth, that the
situations,
[p]look you, is both alike. There is a river
in
[p]Macedon; and there is also moreover a river at
[p]Monmouth: it
is called Wye at Monmouth; but it is
[p]out of my prains what is the
name of the other
[p]river; but 'tis all one, 'tis alike as my fingers
is
[p]to my fingers, and there is salmons in both. If you
[p]mark
Alexander's life well, Harry of Monmouth's life
[p]is come after it
indifferent well; for there is
[p]figures in all things. Alexander,
God knows, and
[p]you know, in his rages, and his furies, and
his
[p]wraths, and his cholers, and his moods, and
his
[p]displeasures, and his indignations, and also being a
[p]little
intoxicates in his prains, did, in his ales and
[p]his angers, look
you, kill his best friend, Cleitus.
Fluellen : It is not well done, mark you now take the tales out
[p]of my mouth,
ere it is made and finished. I speak
[p]but in the figures and
comparisons of it: as
[p]Alexander killed his friend Cleitus, being in
his
[p]ales and his cups; so also Harry Monmouth, being in
[p]his
right wits and his good judgments, turned away
[p]the fat knight with
the great belly-doublet: he
[p]was full of jests, and gipes, and
knaveries, and
[p]mocks; I have forgot his name.
Fluellen : That is he: I'll tell you there is good men porn at Monmouth.
Montjoy : No, great king:
[p]I come to thee for charitable licence,
[p]That we
may wander o'er this bloody field
[p]To look our dead, and then to
bury them;
[p]To sort our nobles from our common men.
[p]For many of
our princes--woe the while!--
[p]Lie drown'd and soak'd in mercenary
blood;
[p]So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs
[p]In blood of
princes; and their wounded steeds
[p]Fret fetlock deep in gore and
with wild rage
[p]Yerk out their armed heels at their dead
masters,
[p]Killing them twice. O, give us leave, great king,
[p]To
view the field in safety and dispose
[p]Of their dead bodies!
Montjoy : The day is yours.
Montjoy : They call it Agincourt.
Fluellen : Your grandfather of famous memory, an't please your
[p]majesty, and
your great-uncle Edward the Plack
[p]Prince of Wales, as I have read
in the chronicles,
[p]fought a most prave pattle here in France.
Fluellen : Your majesty says very true: if your majesties is
[p]remembered of it,
the Welshmen did good service in a
[p]garden where leeks did grow,
wearing leeks in their
[p]Monmouth caps; which, your majesty know, to
this
[p]hour is an honourable badge of the service; and I
do
[p]believe your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek
[p]upon
Saint Tavy's day.
Fluellen : All the water in Wye cannot wash your majesty's
[p]Welsh plood out of
your pody, I can tell you that:
[p]God pless it and preserve it, as
long as it pleases
[p]his grace, and his majesty too!
Fluellen : By Jeshu, I am your majesty's countryman, I care not
[p]who know it; I
will confess it to all the 'orld: I
[p]need not to be ashamed of your
majesty, praised be
[p]God, so long as your majesty is an honest man.
Williams : An't please your majesty, 'tis the gage of one that
[p]I should fight
withal, if he be alive.
Williams : An't please your majesty, a rascal that swaggered
[p]with me last
night; who, if alive and ever dare to
[p]challenge this glove, I have
sworn to take him a box
[p]o' th' ear: or if I can see my glove in his
cap,
[p]which he swore, as he was a soldier, he would wear
[p]if
alive, I will strike it out soundly.
Fluellen : He is a craven and a villain else, an't please your
[p]majesty, in my
conscience.
Fluellen : Though he be as good a gentleman as the devil is, as
[p]Lucifer and
Belzebub himself, it is necessary, look
[p]your grace, that he keep
his vow and his oath: if
[p]he be perjured, see you now, his
reputation is as
[p]arrant a villain and a Jacksauce, as ever his
black
[p]shoe trod upon God's ground and his earth, in
my
[p]conscience, la!
Williams : So I will, my liege, as I live.
Williams : Under Captain Gower, my liege.
Fluellen : Gower is a good captain, and is good knowledge and
[p]literatured in
the wars.
Williams : I will, my liege.
Fluellen : Your grace doo's me as great honours as can be
[p]desired in the
hearts of his subjects: I would fain
[p]see the man, that has but two
legs, that shall find
[p]himself aggrieved at this glove; that is all;
but I
[p]would fain see it once, an please God of his grace
[p]that I
might see.
Fluellen : He is my dear friend, an please you.
Fluellen : I will fetch him.
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Next: Act 4 - Scene 8
