Each battle sees the other's umber'd' face: The country cocks do crow; the clocks do toll, Besides, they are our outward consciences, And preachers to us all; admonishing, That we should dress us fairly for our end. Thus may we gather honey from the weed, 5And make a moral of the devil himself. Enter Erpingham. Good morrow, old Sir Thomas Erpinghani: 20 Glo. We shall, my liege. Erping. Shall I attend your grace? K. Henry. No, my good knight; 25 Go with my brothers to my lords of England: 30 The morning's danger; and their gesture sad, Pist. Qui va la? Enter Pistol. K. Henry. A friend. · Pist. Discuss unto me: Art thou officer? K. Hen. Even so: What are you? Of parents good, of fist most valiant : · I kiss his dirty shoe, and from my heart-strings [Cornish crew? Pist. Le Roy a Cornish name: art thou of Umber is a brown colour: the distant visages of the soldiers would certainly appear of this hue when beheld through the light of midnight fires. Mr. Tollet observes that another interpretation of this phrase occurs, expressive of the preparation of both armies for an engagement, in Hamlet, Act III. Mr. Steevens gives the following quotation from Stowe's Chronicle: “Ile brast up his umber three times;" where umber means the vizor of the helmet, as umbriere doth in Spenser, from the French ombre, ombriere, or ombraire, a shadow, an umbrella, or any thing that hides or covers the face. Hence umber'd face may denote a face arm'd with a helmet. i. e. do play them away at dice. To mind is the same as to call to remembrance. 4 Slough is the skin which the serpent annually throws off, and by the change of which he is supposed to regain new vigour and fresh youth. Legerity is lightness, nimbleness. See Note2, p. 500, K. Henry. * [Exit. K. Henry. I thank you: God be with you! Bates. He may shew what outward courage he will: but, I believe, as cold a night as 'tis, be could wish himself in the Thames up to the neck; and so I would he were, and I by him, at all ad5 ventures, so we were quit here. Flu. So in the name Cheshu Christ, speak fewer. It is the greatest admiration in the universal 'orld, when the true and auncient preroga tifes and laws of the wars is not kept: if you would take the pains but to examine the wars of 10 Pompey the great, you shall find, I warrant you, that there is no tittle tattle, nor pibble pabble, in Pompey's camp: I warrant you, you shall find the ceremonies of the wars, and the cares of it, and the forms of it, and the sobriety of it, and the modesty of it, to be otherwise. Gow. Why, the enemy is loud; you heard him all night. K. Henry. By my troth, I will speak my conscience of the king; I think, he would not wish himself any where but where he is. Bates. Then, 'would he were here alone; so should he be sure to be ransom'd, and a many poor men's lives sav'd. K. Henry. I dare say, you love him not so ill, to wish him here alone; howsoever you speak this, to feel other men's minds: Methinks, I 15 could not die any where so contented, as in the king's company; his cause being just, and his quarrel honourable. Flu. If the enemy is an ass and a fool, and a prating coxcomb, is it meet, think you, that we 20 should also, look you, be an ass and a fool, and a prating coxcomb; in your own conscience now? Gow. I will speak lower. Flu. I pray you, and beseech you, that you Enter three Soldiers; John Bates, Alexander Court. Brother John Bates, is not that the morn- Bates. I think it be: but we have no great cause to desire the approach of day. Will. That's more than we know. Bates. Ay, or more than we should seek after; for we know enough, if we know we are the king's subjects: If his cause be wrong, our obedience to the king wipes the crime of it out of us. Will. But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make; when all those legs, and arms, and heads, chopp'd off in a battle, shall join together at the latter day, and cry all,-We dy'd in such a place; some, swearing; some, crying for a surgeon; some, upon their wives left poor behind them; some, upon the 30 debts they owe; some, upon their children rawly' left. I am afeard there are few die well, that die in a battle; for how can they charitably dispose of any thing, when blood is their argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for the king that led them to it; whom to disobey, were against all proportion of subjec tion. Will. We see yonder the beginning of the day, 35 but, I think, we shall never see the end of it.Who goes there? K. Henry. A friend. Will. Under what captain serve you? K. Henry. Under Sir Thomas Erpingham. Will. A good old commander, and a most kind gentleman: I pray you, what thinks he of our estate? K. Henry. Even as men wreck'd upon the sand, that look to be wash'd off the next tide. Bates. He hath not told his thought to the king? 40 K. Henry. So, if a son, that is by his father sent about merchandize, do sinfully miscarry upon the sea, the imputation of his wickedness, by your rule, should be imposed upon his father that sent him; or, if a servant, under his master's conimand, transporting a sum of money, be assail'd by robbers, and die in many irreconcil'd iniquities, you may 45 call the business of the master the author of the servant's damnation:-But this is not so: the king is not bound to answer the particular endings of his soldiers, the father of his son, nor the master of his servant; for they purpose not their death, when they purpose their services. Besides, there is no king, be his cause never so spotless, if it come to the arbitrement of swords, can try it out with all unspotted soldiers. Some, peradventure, have on them the guilt of permeditated and contrived murder; some, of beguiling virgins with the broken seals of perjury; some, making the wars their bulwark, that have before gored the gentle bosom of peace with pillage and robbery. Now if these man have defeated the law and outrun native punishment, though they can out-strip men, they have no wings to fly from God: war K. Henry. No; nor it is not meet he should.. For, though I speak it to you, I think, the king is but a man, as I am; the violet smells to him, 50 as it doth to me; the element shews to him, as it doth to me; all his senses have but human conditions': his ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man; and though his affections are higher mounted than ours, yet, when they stoop, 55 they stoop with the like wing; therefore, when he sees reason of fears, as we do, his fears, out of doubt, be of the same relish as ours are: Yet, in reason, no man should possess him with any appearance of fear, lest he, by shewing it, should dishearten his 60 army. i. e. it agrees. Conditions means qualities. 'i. e. hastily, suddenly. in their native country: or, such as they are born to if they offend. That is, punishment is his beadle, war is his vengeance; so that here men are punished, for before-breach of the king's laws, in now the king's quarrel: where they feared the death, they have borne life away; and where they would be safe, they perish: Then if 5 they die unprovided, no more is the king guilty of their damnation, than he was before guilty of those impieties for the which they are now visited.-Every subject's duty is the king's; but every subject's soul is his own. Therefore should every soldier in the wars do as every sick man in his bed, wash every moth out of his conscience: and dying so, death is to him advantage; or not dying, the time was blessedly lost, wherein such preparation was gained; and, in him that escapes, it 15 were not sin to think, that, making God so free an offer, he let him out-live that day to see his greatness, and to teach others how they should pre pare. K. Henry. Indeed, the French may lay twenty French crowns to one, they will beat us; for they bear them on their shoulders: But it is no English treason to cut French crowns; and, to morrow, the king himself will be a clipper. [Exeun soldiers. Will. 'Tis certain, that every man that dies ill, 20 the ill is upon his own head, the king is not to answer for it. Bates. I do not desire he should answer for me: and yet I determine to fight lustily for him. K.Henry. I myself heard the king say, he would 25 not be ransom'd. Will. Ay, he said so, to make us fight chearfully: but, when our throats are cut, he may be ransom'd, and we ne'er the wiser. K. Henry. If I live to see it, I will never trust 30 his word after. Will. You pay him then! that's a perilous shot qut of an elder gun', that a poor and private displeasure can do against a monarch! you may as well go about to turn the sun to ice, with fanning 35 in his face with a peacock's feather. You'll never trust his word after! come, 'tis a foolish saying. K. Henry. Your reproof is something too round: I should be angry with you, if the time were con venient. Will. Let it be a quarrel between us if you live. Will. How shall I know thee again? And what art thou, thou idol ceremony? Art thou aught else but place, degree, and form, What drink'st thou oft, instead of homage sweet, Will it give place to flexure and low bending? K. Henry. Give me any gage of thine, and I will wear it in my bonnet: then, if ever thou45 dar'st acknowledge if, I will make it my quarrel. Will. Here's my glove; give me another of thine. K. Henry. There. The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp Will. This will I also wear in my cap: if ever 50 thou come to me and say, after to-morrow, This is my glove, by this hand, I will take thee a box on the ear. K. Henry. If ever I live to see it, I will challenge it. Will. Thou dar'st as well be hang'd. K. Henry. Well, I will do it, though I take thee in the king's company. Will. Keep thy word: fare thee well. Bates. Be friends, you English fools, be friends; 60 we have French quarrels enough, if you could could] tell how to reckon. 1 And, but for ceremony, such a wretch, Meaning, it is a great displeasure that an elder gun can do against a cannon. meaning, the tumid puffy titles with which a king's name is always introduced. M m - 2 Farsed is stuffed; 5 Con. Tohorse, yougallantprinces! straight to horse! That our French gallants shall to-day draw out, The vapour of our valour will o'erturn them. 15 About our squares of battle,-were enough Possess them not with fear; take from them now Glo. My liege! Enter Gloster. K. Henry. My brother Gloster's voice!-Ay; [Excunt. Enter the Dauphin, Orleans, Rambures, and Orl. The sun doth gild our armour; up, my Dau. Montez à cheval:-My horse! valet! lacquey! ha! Orl. O brave spirit! Dau. Via!-les eaux & la terre. Orl. Rien plus l'air & le feu. Duu. Ciel! cousin Orleans! Enter Constable. Now, my lord Constable! Con. Hark, how our steeds for present service neigh! Dau. Mount them, and make incision in their hides; That their hot blood may spin in English eyes, How shall we then behold their natural tears? Mes. The English are embattled, you French 5 25 But that our honours must not.-What's to say? And all is done. Then let the trumpets sonnd Enter Grandpré. France? 1501 Con. They have said their prayers, and they stay for death. Dau. Shall we go send them dinners, and fresh suits, And give their fasting horses provender, And after fight with them? Con. I stay but for my guard'; On, to the field: I will the banner from a trumpet take, 55 And use it for my haste. Come, come away! The sun is high, and we out-wear the day. [Exeunt. Via! is an old hortatory exclamation, as allons! 2 The tucket-sonuance was probably the name of an introductory flourish on the trumpet. 3 Grandpré alludes to the form of the ancient candlesticks, which frequently represented human figures holding the sockets for the lights in their extended hands. * Gimmal is, in the western counties, a ring; a gimmal bit is therefore a bit of which the parts played one within another. It seems, by what follows, that guard in this place means rather something of ornament or of distinction than a body of attendants. The following quotation from Holinshed will best elucidate this passage-"The duke of Brabant, when his standard was not come, caused a banner to be taken from a trumpet and fastened upon a spear, the which he commanded to be borne before him instead of a standard.” SCENE Enter Gloster, Bedford, Exeter, Erpingham, with all the EnglishHost; Salisbury,andiVestmoreland. 5 Glo. Where is the king? Bed. The king himself is rode to view their battle. West. Of fighting men they have full threescore thousand. [fresh. 10 Exe. There's five to one; besides, they all are Sal. God's arm strike with us! 'tis a fearful odds. God be wi' you, princes all; I'll to my charge: If we no more meet, 'till we meet in heaven, Then joyfully, my noble lord of Bedford,Mydear lordGloster-and my good lord Exeter,And my kind kinsman,-warriors all, adieu! Bed. Farewel, good Salisbury; and good luck go with thee! Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, names, Familiar in their mouth as houshold words,— We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; Exe. to Sal. Farewell, kind lord! fight valiantly|20| to-day: And yet I do thee wrong, to mind thee of it, Princely in both. Enter King Henry. West. O, that we now had here But one ten thousand of those men in England, That do no work to-day! Sal. My sovereign lord, bestow yourself with speed: 4 The French are 'bravely in their battles set, 25 And will with all expedience charge on us. K. Henry. All things are ready, if our minds 30 35 140 K. Henry. What's he, that wishes so? My cousin Westmoreland?-No, my fair cousin : If we are mark'd to die, we are enough To do our country loss; and if to live, The fewer men, the greater share of honour. God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more. By Jove, I am not covetous for gold; Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost; It yearns me not, if men my garments wear; Such outward things dwell not in my desires: But, if it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive. No, 'faith, my coz, wish not a man from England: God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour, As one man more, methinks, would share from me, 45 For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more: Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my That he which hath no stomach to this fight, [host,] Let him depart; his passport shall be made, And crowns for convoy put into his purse: We would not die in that man's company, That fears his fellowship to die with us. 50 This day is called-the feast of Crispian:1 He, that out-lives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a-tip-toe when this day is nam'd, 55 And rouse him at the name of Crispian. He, that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his friends, And say-To-morrow is saint Crispian: be so. West. Perish the man, whose mind is backward now! K. Henry. Thou dost not wish more help from England, cousin! West. God's will, my liege, would you and I alone, Without more help, might fight this battle out! K. Henry. Why, now thou hast unwish'd five thousand men; Which likes me better, than to wish us one. Mont. Once more I come to know of thee, king Harry, If for thy ransom thou wilt now compound, From off these fields, where (wretches) their poor K. Henry. Who hath sent thee now? K. Henry. I pray thee, bear my former answer Then will he strip his sleeve, and shew his scars. 60 While the beast liv'd, was kill'd with hunting him, The battle of Agincourt was fought upon the 25th of October, St. Crispin's day. day shall advance him to the rank of a gentleman. |