Alarum. Enter KING HENRY, with BOURBON and prisoners; WARWICK, GLOUCESTER, EXETER, and others.

K. Hen. I was not angry since I came to
France

Until this instant.

Take a trumpet, herald;

Ride thou unto the horsemen on yon 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.

Enter MONTJOY.

Exe. Here comes the herald of the French, my liege.

Glo. His eyes are humbler than they used to be.

K. Hen. How now! what means this, herald? know'st thou not

That I have fined these bones of mine for ransom?

60

70

Bourbon and others are taken.
Henry has thus a new batch of
prisoners, and it is these whose
slaughter he threatens in v. 66,
as a deterrent to the horsemen

on yon hill.' This, as Mr.
Stone has shown, disposes of
Johnson's sarcasm : 'the King
is of a very bloody disposition.
He has already cut the throats
of his prisoners; and now
threatens to cut them again.'
72. fined, agreed to pay as a

fine.

I

Comest thou again for ransom?

Mont.

No, 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!

K. Hen.

I 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.

Mont.

The day is yours.

K. Hen. Praised be God, and not our strength,

for it!

What is this castle call'd that stands hard by?
Mont. They call it Agincourt.

K. Hen. Then call we this the field of Agincourt,
Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus.

Flu. Your 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.

K. Hen. They did, Fluellen.

Flu. Your majesty says very true: if your

76. book, enter on the list of killed.

83. Yerk, jerk, kick.

94. Crispin Crispianus; properly Crispin and Crispinian ; and so Holinshed.

majesties is remembered of it, the Welshmen did good service in a 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.

K. Hen. I wear it for a memorable honour; For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman.

Flu. All the water in Wye cannot wash your majesty's Welsh plood out of your pody, I can tell you that God pless it and preserve it, as long as it pleases his grace, and his majesty too!

K. Hen. Thanks, good my countryman.

Flu. By Jeshu, I am your majesty's countryman, I care not who know it; I will confess it to all the 'orld: I need not to be ashamed of your majesty, praised be God, so long as your majesty is an honest man.

K. Hen. God keep me so! Our heralds go

with him:

Bring me just notice of the numbers dead

Call yonder fellow hither.

On both our parts.

[Points to Williams.

Exeunt Heralds

with Montjoy.

Exe. Soldier, you must come to the king. K. Hen. Soldier, why wearest thou that glove in thy cap?

Will. An't please your majesty, 'tis the gage of one that I should fight withal, if he be alive. K. Hen. An Englishman?

Will. An't please your majesty, a rascal that 130

104. Monmouth caps. According to Fuller the best caps were made at Monmouth,' and they continued to be called Monmouth caps even when the

manufacture was, shortly before he wrote, moved into Worcestershire. They were specially worn by soldiers.

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.

K. Hen. What think you, Captain Fluellen? is it fit this soldier keep his oath ?

Flu. He is a craven and a villain else, an't please your majesty, in my conscience.

K. Hen. It may be his enemy is a gentleman of great sort, quite from the answer of his degree.

Flu. Though he be as good a gentleman as the devil is, as Lucifer 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 !

K. Hen. Then keep thy vow, sirrah, when thou meetest the fellow.

Will. So I will, my liege, as I live.

K. Hen. Who servest thou under?

Will. Under Captain Gower, my liege.

Flu. Gower is a good captain, and is good knowledge and literatured in the wars.

K. Hen. Call him hither to me, soldier.
Will. I will, my liege.

[Exit.

140

150

K. Hen. Here, Fluellen; wear thou this favour 160 for me and stick it in thy cap: when Alençon and

142. quite from the answer of his degree, removed by his rank from all possibility of answering the challenge of a man of Williams' station.

144. as good a gentleman as

the devil is; this was proverbial; cf. Lear's 'The prince of darkness is a gentleman' (King Lear, iii. 4. 148).

161. when Alençon and myself were down together. The

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.

Flu. Your 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; 170 that is all; but I would fain see it once, an please God of his grace that I might see.

K. Hen. Knowest thou Gower?

Flu. He is my dear friend, an please you.

K. Hen. Pray thee, go seek him, and bring him to my tent.

Flu. I will fetch him.

[Exit.

K. Hen. My 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.

180

190

Alençon; yet with plain strength he slew two of the Duke's company, and felled the Duke himself' (Stone's Holinshed, p. 195).