Henry V - William Shakespeare (booksvooks txt) 📗

some soul of goodness in things evil,
Would men observingly distil it out.
For our bad neighbour makes us early stirrers,
Which is both healthful and good husbandry:
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,
And make a moral of the devil himself. Enter Erpingham.

Good morrow, old Sir Thomas Erpingham:
A good soft pillow for that good white head
Were better than a churlish turf of France.

Erpingham

Not so, my liege: this lodging likes me better,
Since I may say “Now lie I like a king.”

King Henry

’Tis good for men to love their present pains
Upon example; so the spirit is eased:
And when the mind is quicken’d, out of doubt,
The organs, though defunct and dead before,
Break up their drowsy grave and newly move,
With casted slough and fresh legerity.
Lend me thy cloak, Sir Thomas. Brothers both,
Commend me to the princes in our camp;
Do my good morrow to them, and anon
Desire them all to my pavilion.

Gloucester We shall, my liege. Erpingham Shall I attend your grace? King Henry

No, my good knight;
Go with my brothers to my lords of England:
I and my bosom must debate a while,
And then I would no other company.

Erpingham The Lord in heaven bless thee, noble Harry! Exeunt all but King. King Henry God-a-mercy, old heart! thou speak’st cheerfully. Enter Pistol. Pistol Qui vas là? King Henry A friend. Pistol

Discuss unto me; art thou officer?
Or art thou base, common and popular?

King Henry I am a gentleman of a company. Pistol Trail’st thou the puissant pike? King Henry Even so. What are you? Pistol As good a gentleman as the emperor. King Henry Then you are a better than the king. Pistol

The king’s a bawcock, and a heart of gold,
A lad of life, an imp of fame;
Of parents good, of fist most valiant:
I kiss his dirty shoe, and from heart-string
I love the lovely bully. What is thy name?

King Henry Harry le Roy. Pistol Le Roy! a Cornish name: art thou of Cornish crew? King Henry No, I am a Welshman. Pistol Know’st thou Fluellen? King Henry Yes. Pistol

Tell him I’ll knock his leek about his pate
Upon Saint Davy’s day.

King Henry Do not you wear your dagger in your cap that day, lest he knock that about yours. Pistol Art thou his friend? King Henry And his kinsman too. Pistol The figo for thee, then! King Henry I thank you: God be with you! Pistol My name is Pistol call’d. Exit. King Henry It sorts well with your fierceness. Enter Fluellen and Gower. Gower Captain Fluellen! Fluellen So! in the name of Jesu Christ, speak lower. It is the greatest admiration in the universal world, when the true and aunchient prerogatifes and laws of the wars is not kept: if you would take the pains but to examine the wars of Pompey the Great, you shall find, I warrant you, that there is no tiddle taddle 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. Gower Why, the enemy is loud; you hear him all night. Fluellen If the enemy is an ass and a fool and a prating coxcomb, is it meet, think you, that we should also, look you, be an ass and a fool and a prating coxcomb? in your own conscience, now? Gower I will speak lower. Fluellen I pray you and beseech you that you will. Exeunt Gower and Fluellen. King Henry

Though it appear a little out of fashion,
There is much care and valour in this Welshman.

Enter three soldiers, John Bates, Alexander Court, and Michael Williams. Court Brother John Bates, is not that the morning which breaks yonder? Bates I think it be: but we have no great cause to desire the approach of day. Williams We see yonder the beginning of the day, but I think we shall never see the end of it. Who goes there? King Henry A friend. Williams Under what captain serve you? King Henry Under Sir Thomas Erpingham. Williams A good old commander and a most kind gentleman: I pray you, what thinks he of our estate? King Henry Even as men wrecked upon a sand, that look to be washed off the next tide. Bates He hath not told his thought to the king? King 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 as it doth to me; the element shows 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, 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 showing it, should dishearten his army. Bates He may show what outward courage he will; but I believe, as cold a night as ’tis, he could wish himself in Thames up to the neck; and so I would he were, and I by him, at all adventures, so we were quit here. King Henry By my troth, I will speak my conscience of the King: I think he would not wish himself anywhere but where he is. Bates Then I would he were here alone; so should he be sure to be ransomed, and a many poor men’s lives saved. King 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 could not die anywhere so contented as in the king’s company; his cause being just and his quarrel honourable. Williams That’s more than we know. Bates Ay,